Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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…the people marched around the walls of Jericho
*“We trust you’ll take the walls down.”*
If I’m not mistaken, I do believe there’s a big football game later today, and since the Super Bowl pregame show is only like 10 hours long let me add to the football festivities.
*Let’s talk stats using the records of the Elias Sports Bureau.
* Do you know who played the most seasons in the NFL?
The obvious choice would seem to be Brett Favre, but the correct answer is George Blanda.
Blanda played 26 seasons.
Jackie Slater played 20 seasons for the Rams and Darrell Green played 20 seasons for the Redskins.
Do you know who has scored the most points ever in the NFL - Morten Andersen who scored 2,544 points?
Who has scored the most touchdowns in his career?
Jerry Rice – 208 touchdowns.
Do you know who holds the record for most pass attempts without an interception?
Bernie Kosar of the Cleveland Browns with 308 attempts!
*NOW NOT EVERY RECORD IS GOOD!* Who was the most sacked quarterback?
John Elway was sacked 516 times in his career.
Who holds the all time “fumble” record – Warren Moon? Moon fumbled the ball 161 times in his career.
But – Len Dawson holds this dubious record.
He fumbled the ball 7 times in one game.**[i]**
*Let’s shift gears from football to baseball*.
Only four players in baseball history have made four errors in a single inning.
Bob Brenly of the San Francisco Giants was one of them.
Usually a catcher, he was playing third base when he missed four easy stops in the fourth inning.
*Now what did he feel?*
Fear, despair, humiliation?
Brenly replied, /"All of those...After the fourth one, I never wanted to see the ball again.
I tried to hide behind the third base umpire a couple of times, but he kept moving.”*[ii]*/
*Have you ever heard of the Wallenda Factor?* Karl Wallenda spent practically his entire life on a high wire, thrilling crowds with his daring high-altitude act.
That all ended in 1978 when Wallenda plunged 75 feet to his death before an audience of thousands in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
When Wallenda's widow began to sort out what might have happened, she noted how that recently her husband had become more and more concerned with little details of safety.
*His precautions became a preoccupation.
*Instead of all his energies being channeled into performing his act, his purpose had now become how to keep from falling.
His tragedy created a new label - the "Wallenda factor."
It cautions us to beware of being so afraid of failure that we dwell only on the negatives.
While we should be careful, we cannot allow ourselves to become paralyzed by the fear of failure.[iii]
*John Elway was sacked 516 times but he scored 300 touchdowns.*[iv]**
*Are you afraid to fail?* Do you remember the Fear Poll we did last fall?
We asked, “What is your greatest fear?”
Here are three more answers.
/“Being assessed and dismissed as worthless, irritating, irrelevant, or needing too much and not worth the time beyond the purpose I can serve in someone else's agenda.”
Others wrote “Failure” or “Inadequacy.”
/ I can’t help but wonder if the Israelites felt the fear of failure.
*Turn in your Bible to Hebrews 11:30.*
Last week Pastor Reggie had the Israelites asking in faith – /God, will you hold these walls of water up! / Today they are asking, /“God, will you knock the walls of Jericho down!/ Who needs a Bible today?
Just raise your hand and a Bible will be brought to you.
*Let’s read one verse.
Hebrews 11:30! (Read)*
Allot can happen from one verse to the next.
In one verse we move from Moses to Joshua and from the Book of Exodus to the Book of Joshua.
Once the Israelites make their way on dry land what should have taken less than a year takes 40 years.[v]
I find it interesting that the Hebrew writer leaves out 40 years of history.
But the reason is legit.
They didn’t exhibit allot of faith – which is the purpose of this chapter.
*Look at this map.*
Moses takes the Israelites across the Red Sea.
Michael Armour writes, /“...about fifteen months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites struck camp and moved north from Sinai, setting their course toward Canaan.”*[vi]*/
Getting to Canaan should have taken months instead it took 38 years.
Why?
Because 12 men spied on Canaan and 10 were bad and two were good.
God wanted them to trust him.
Put your faith in me and they collectively said no.
According to Joshua 5:4 men of military age[vii] had to die out in the desert before a whole new generation of Israelites could enter the Promise Land.
*Can I show you a picture*?
Do you recognize anyone?
That was me 31 years ago.
Time flies, doesn’t it?
And time goes by for the Israelites.
The men die out.
The end of Numbers means 38 years have passed since they left Sinai – Moses has died and a new leader emerges.
His name is Joshua.
*Go to the Book of Joshua.
*My son Sam tapped on my arm one day.
I was talking to his Mom, my wife.
Sam is asking /“Do you know where Jeanna is? Do you know where Jeanna is?”/ He’s not getting a response, so he says, “Let me dumb this down for you.
DO – YOU – KNOW – WHERE – JEANNA – IS?
I just looked at him and had to laugh.
*The Book of Joshua* – I don’t want to dumb it down – but simply speaking Joshua is all about entering Canaan – conquering Canaan and dividing of Canaan.[viii]
*This one verse in Hebrews is explained in Joshua chapters 5 through 7. Find Joshua 6:1a.*
*Why is Jericho such a big deal?*
Conquer Jericho and you’ll conquer all of Canaan.
Jericho was an intimidating city and its walls made it seem impossible to overcome.
John MacArthur said, /“Some city walls of this period were wide enough at the top to drive two chariots on side-by-side.”/
Jericho was allot like cities today.
Overconfident and doing just fine without God – thank you! Hosea 4:1 says, /"There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.”/
Hosea was speaking of the Israelites, but it was also true of Jericho!
No matter where you live – big city, small town – it’s easy to conclude – in our minds we’re big and tough and can take care of ourselves.
*I bet God just laughs – because a ½ inch of ice brings a city to a halt.
* We’re not as mighty as we think we are.
*The people of Jericho will find this out the hard way.
Back again to Joshua 6:1.
*(Why not?
Because these people do freaky things.
Their God seems to be with them!) Here’s what God did.*
Go back 3 chapters to Joshua 3:14.
(vs.
14-16) *Now do you understand why things are tightly shut up? Let’s keep reading.
Joshua gets a message from God. *Find Joshua 6:2. vs. 2-10!*
*Do you know what I’d be tempted to shout?*
This is so stupid!
We have an army of 40,000 foot soldiers,[ix] but you don’t want us to use our weapons.
You just want us to march and shout?
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