Jericho 1986

What I believe is on the hearts of lots of people in this plot. She said, You keep talking about shaking the city, shaking the city. Tuesday night at the annual meeting on the bulletin of reports on the cover was a picture of the city, more or less.

And over the top of it was stirring the city. Well, I spend most of my time taking care of my children. Two days a week, I clean houses, scrub other people's toilets to help pay the bills.

So what does that have to do with shaking the city? You know, it's all very well, this powerful spiritual language, these high promises. But we got children to raise, jobs to go to, bills to pay, houses and cars to maintain. So how are we going to shake the city? What kind of strength are we going to have left when we've done all that? What kind of impact are we going to have on a world that defies God, denies Him, often despises Him, really doesn't want to hear anything about His kingdom? When we burn up much of our energy just trying to take care of the ordinary routine of life.

And it's true. All of us, without any exception, spend large amounts of time on mundane things. What we think of as earthly things, chores.

Lord, I've got so many chores. And the Lord says, do them. Take care of your children.

Fix your car. Clean your house. Go to your job.

Pay your bills. But remember that in the middle of all that, and through all that, the ultimate purpose for you is to shake the city of Babylon until it falls and a new Jerusalem rises in its place. What else does the prayer mean? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, if not that.

Now it's true there's all kinds of frustration and struggle and trial and error as we try to take the vision and translate it into reality in the midst of ordinary daily life. And certainly it doesn't mean that we get somebody else to raise our kids and somebody else to clean our toilets while we drift off and fight some kind of ethereal spiritual battle somewhere else. Not at all.

The battle is right in the middle of taking care of ordinary business, paying our bills, looking after our cars, raising our children, going to our jobs, and doing all this, if while we do it we keep our eyes on the fact that beneath the surface the hand of God is at work, establishing his kingdom, and that we fit into that. At the Harvest Dinner, Bill Lugar put the thing in very clear focus when he said to us, in effect, the wilderness is now behind you, and he was speaking to the congregation, and I think, I feel quite certain that it was a word right from God. The wilderness wanderings are behind you, you've come to the Jordan River, now go in there and take the land.

And it's interesting, Rick and Kathy Ludlow were out of town when all that was going on, but the sermon that Rick brought to us last Sunday had the same basic thrust, very clearly, put it into focus, with great power, that we've gone through a period of transition, and the pillar of fire is gone, Moses is gone, the manna is gone, and now it's warfare. And the first thing we do is we go and we take off our shoes and worship the living God before the angel of the captain of the Lord's host, and then we follow Joshua into battle. The gateway to the promised land that we are to take is the city of Jericho.

We're going to take the land, we're going to take Jericho first. And we have to take Jericho in God's way. Reading from Joshua chapter 6, verse 1, Now Jericho was shut up within and from without because of the people of Israel.

None went out and none came in. Jericho is Detroit. Jericho is the world.

Jericho wants to sleep. Leave me alone. I don't want to be wakened to the reality of God.

I don't want to be told that I'm under authority, I am answerable to a God or to any man. I want to do what I want to do. And behind the people are the souls of Jericho that are slumbering are the powers and principalities of evil, which keep them down and say, these belong to me, I'm not going to let go of them, I'm going to keep them drunk.

To take Jericho is simply to wake it up. To force Jericho, to force the city, whether it likes it or not, face the reality of the fact that it is under the judgment of the living God. To pull down those walls behind which it hides from the truth.

And make it see that. And we do this, we pull down the walls, not with our bare hands. But in the power of God, by being awake and alert and alive to God ourselves.

And so we clean our houses and we fix our cars and we raise our children and we go to our jobs and we bake our cakes and we wash our clothes and we change the diapers. And while we do these things, the power of the living God touches Jericho and shakes it and awakens it as long as we ourselves are alive to God. The kingdom of God comes, the will of God is done, the walls come down when we are alive to God ourselves, right in the middle of Jacob.

Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel. None went out, none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hand Jericho with its king and mighty men a ballot.

You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.

And on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horns, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.

So Joshua, the son of none, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said to the people, Go forward, march around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord. So we don't pull down the walls of Jericho.

God does. See, all we do is surround the city of Jericho with worship and penetrate the city of Jericho with the sound of the trumpet. That's all we do.

God does everything else. And as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came up after the ark while the trumpets blew continually.

But Joshua commanded the people, You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day I bid you to shout. Then you shall shout. So he caused the ark of the Lord to encompass the city, going about at once.

They came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. This thing went on for six days, just like that. Went around the city, inside.

Imagine what it was like to be inside Jericho looking out over the walls, to see hundreds of thousands of people marching around with not a word coming out of their mouths. The only thing you hear is the sound of the ram's horn. That's all you hear.

It's enough to scare the daylights out of you. On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day they marched around seven times.

And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. So the people shouted and the trumpets were blown. And as soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout and the wall fell down flat.

So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. We take the city of Jericho in three stages. First is the long, patient march around the walls, with our eyes open and our mouths closed.

Second is the shout of worship and praise to God. And third is the conquest. We begin with a long, patient march around the walls, with our eyes open.

We don't talk. We just listen to the trumpets blowing away. These ram's horn trumpets are blasting away, but nobody speaks a word.

And we look at this city we're going to take. We look at the people. We take it in.

Reading in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 9, verse 36. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And if we are careful as we look at the New Testament accounts of Jesus, we see him all the time looking. He looked down over the city and wept over it.

He sees these crowds as sheep without a shepherd. Or in John chapter 4, verse 35, he says to his disciples, do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and see the fields already white for harvest. He's not talking about fields of grain, he's talking about people.

Here comes a whole village of siphon toward him as a result of the work of the woman at the well. People. Always looking at the people.

Looking. To march around the walls, or us, means that we go right in among the multitudes of this world. Right in the places where we work, where we live, where we travel, where we have any dealings with people at all, and open our eyes and see the sheep without a shepherd.

The sheep that are slumbering, that are sick, that are wounded, that are lost, that don't know what's going on. We know that the powers and principalities which keep them blind and bound have been given to us. We're going to take them.

But first we have to do what our Lord did and what he teaches us to do. Open our eyes and see. Not be so quick to have an answer.

As they were saying yesterday in that seminar, listen to what's on people's hearts. You will see into their soul when you let them talk to you and tell you what's there. So you take and you spend some time with that publican cousin that you have, or that person at work who just is really wounded.

Drink some coffee. Spend some time. See.

Look. Spend time. We march around the walls looking at Jericho.

Having God open our eyes so that we can see what we're dealing with. See these people as he sees them while the trumpets blow. Then comes the shouting.

And at the seventh time when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. So the people shouted and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout and the wall fell down.

These mouths that for years had done very little more than gripe and complain and murmur and whine and criticize and everything. Nobody does it right. Nobody knows how to do it.

Everybody lets me down. What's the matter? Suddenly, shut up. And for six days, not one word of complaint.

No griping. No criticizing. Nothing.

Silence. For six days. And then, on the seventh day, one unified, glorious, terrifying, earth-shaking, heaven-moving shout of praise to God.

No wonder the walls come down. Same thing happened at Pentecost. You know, we pick up Pentecost, the story of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2. But it really begins before that.

It begins in Acts chapter 1. When Jesus leaves the disciples, he ascends into heaven. And he tells them to stay in Jerusalem. Tarry in Jerusalem until you receive powerful on high.

Same thing with these disciples. They spent so much of their lives. We can see it in the gospel accounts.

Complaining and griping and murmuring and mumbling. But when they're waiting in Jerusalem, while there no doubt were some prayers and some hymns of praise, basically, it was a period of waiting. And basically, it was a period of silence.

After ten days, on the day of Pentecost, suddenly the Spirit comes. Visits these people, and these mouths, which before had done so much complaining, are now open with one glorious word of praise. Many tongues, many languages, but one word of praise.

And the walls of Jericho came down in Jerusalem, and 3,000 came into the kingdom that day. God alone knows how much complaining and criticizing and murmuring and mumbling and grumbling has gone out in us. But we know our own hearts.

Perhaps we would be shocked if the Lord would play back a tape of any one day of this week, this past week, and we would hear ourselves, all the things that we've said to ourselves and to people. We're driving in our car, and nobody's in the car. Those of you who shave, you're shaving.

Sometimes when we look at ourselves, we think we're talking to somebody else. And then, of course, we love to find somebody who we can talk to about it. But now, the Lord is saying, let's bring this to an end.

And let's turn all this complaining, all of it, for which we're all guilty, no exceptions. There are none righteous among us, believe me, when it comes to this. We know that.

Let's turn it into praise. You know, it's impossible, really, to have any kind of valid praise, friends, when half the time we're also griping. If you want to praise God, don't just be praising God in church and griping at home.

Praise God at home and in church. Otherwise, the praise in God is going to be canceled out by the griping at home. We've got to put it all together and make it all praise.

All the time, everywhere, all the time. We will shake this city, even while we scrub the floors and change the diapers and tune the engines and bake the cakes, if we will turn away from our complaining and begin to be consistent. And so, with the church on earth and the host of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.

That's what they did on the day that the wall fell down around Jericho. They were joining the hymn that was already going on in the heavenlies. That's what happened on Pentecost.

They were joining the hymn of praise that was already going on in the heavenlies. And when we join that hymn and live that way all the time, we're going to see those walls come down to our own amazement. And finally, the conquest.

The wall comes down. The bars of iron break. The gates of brass yield.

And now we go in and we strike the principalities and powers of this world and set the captives free. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every infirmity. These twelve he sent out, charging them, go nowhere among the Gentiles, enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep.

That's your priority, the lost sheep, the mixed up ones of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, clean the lepers, cast out demons.

You receive without pay, give without pay. The New Testament, the New Covenant version of the conquest of Jericho is the conquest of evil and the setting free of the captives. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim deliverance of the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, the set at liberty of those who are oppressed, to preach the year of the Lord's favor. Now, when Jesus said to the disciples, go out there, preach the kingdom and heal the sick, you can be sure that the first thing that came into their minds was, yeah, but we fished all night and took nothing. What about all the failures of the past? What about all the disappointments of the past? Am I going to fail again? And the answer was, no.

Just go forward, speak that word, touch those lives, serve those people, and you will see fruit. You will see fruit. And so they marched around Jericho with a wonderful unity, together, held together by one Lord, fulfilling a simple and a single and a clear purpose.

They lifted one shout together as one voice of praise to God. Together as one body. And so will we.

Our wilderness wanderings are behind us. Jericho is in front of us. See, I have given Jericho into your hand, the Lord says.

So let's start marching around the city with our eyes open. And let's turn our complaining into worship and praise, day and night, all the time. And then, let's go in those walls where you will fall down and free the hand.

We will. And others with us, in the name of Jesus, will shake the city.