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Hebrews 11:1-2, 30
Joshua 1:1-9
A life of faith requires you to obey many principles of God’s Word.
Many of which we have seen in this study on Living by Faith.
Faith will Lead you to give offerings to God.
Faith will Lead you to fulfill God’s purpose in your life.
Faith will provide you protection
Faith will lead you to obedience
Faith will build your strength
Faith will lead you on your journey
Faith will help you through a trial
Faith will give you a healthy vision
Faith will fill your life with stability.
Just look at all the rewards of a life lived by faith!
By faith we are victorious!
Here in verse 30 we are told that ...
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.”
When the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River and made their way into the Promised Land, God commanded them to inhabit the land and destroy their enemies.
Their first battle came at Jericho
Jericho was surrounded by an impenetrable wall.
God helped the children of Israel by bringing down those walls.
The Israelites destroyed the city, only sparing Rahab and her family.
According to historians and archaeologists, the city was not rebuilt for more than five hundred years.
As the people neared the city, God commanded them to do something very unusual.
The Israelites were to march around the city once every day for six days in silence.
On the seventh day, they were to march seven times around, and then they were to blow the trumpets and shout with a great shout.
God said the walls would fall and they would be able to go up in to the city.
Archeological finds have supported this very account, with the walls falling down a retaining wall creating a ramp up into the city.
God is more powerful than any wall we may face in this life!
There are some spiritual walls in your life that God wants to bring down!
Many of these walls hinder your spiritual growth!
Maybe a relationship
Maybe a decision that you are afraid to make
Maybe a financial burden
maybe a sinful stronghold in your life.
What empowered the children of Israel to see this miracle come to pass in their life?
It was their Strategy of Faith!
They could have fought Jericho in many ways.
But there is archeological evidence that the people of Jericho could have withstood the battle for possibly even a few years.
They had food and water in abundance.
But because the Israelites obeyed the Strategy that God laid out them, they were given the victory.
God has a strategy of faith that will enable you to have victory and bring down those strongholds in your life!
But we must determine to follow God’s Strategy!
I. Determine to Trust God
We can see this in the life of Joshua, even early on before entering the Promised Land.
They began their campaign on God’s promise of victory.
But in order to see this victory, Joshua had to make a decision.
He had to determine to trust what God said.
Living by Faith begins with a determination to trust what God has said!
Joshua obeyed God’s command to walk around the city because he had already determined to trust God.
Even if he didn’t understand, even if it didn’t make sense.
Just cling to what you know about God, and move forward into what God has planned for you.
I heard the story of an old Christian woman whose advance age began to do a work on her memory.
She had once known much of the Bible by heart.
Eventually only one precious bit stayed with her: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Through time part of that slipped its hold, and she would quietly repeat, “That which I have committed unto Him.”
Finally, as she hovered on the borderland between time and eternity, her loved ones noticed her lips moving.
They bent down to see whether she needed anything.
She was repeating over and over again to herself the one word of the text: “Him-Him-Him.”
She had lost the whole Bible except one word.
But she had the whole Bible in that one word.
Take the world but give me Jesus, all its joys are but a name,
But His love abideth ever eternal years the same,
Oh the height and depth of mercy!
Oh the length and breadth of love!
Oh the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above!
“You may trust the Lord too little, but you can never trust Him to much.”
II.
Determine to Obey God
God had promised the victory for Joshua and the Israelites.
But this meant they had to obey God’s Command.
Trusting God is not enough, you have to follow through with that trust!
The truth is when we live by faith, it becomes a part of us, a part of our moral fiber, it integrates into our everyday living.
And this comes through faithful reading, studying and obeying God’s Word!
Dwight L. Moody once testified, “I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightning.
But faith did not come.
One day I read, ‘Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’
I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith.
I now began to study my Bible and faith has been growing ever since.”
Faith is not like gasoline that runs out as you use it, but is like a muscle which grows stronger as you exercise it.
Joshua was able to have courage because he made the decision to trust and obey God!
The two go hand in hand!
Trust and Obey
for there's no other way
to be happy in Jesus
but to trust and obey!
If you want to live by faith, you need to integrate faith in your life by obeying even what may seem insignificant parts of God’s Word!
Cast aside anything that does not agree with Scripture!
We need to Determine to Trust God
And we need to Determine to Obey God
Then thirdly, We need to
III.
Determine to Finish
God revealed his power to His people!
The walls fell and the victory was theirs!
Faith however is not just for the moment.
Faith is intended to extend through our life.
Notice Joshua’s determination to finish his life by faith even when everyone else did not.
The victories were over, and the land was theirs!
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