How Faith Overcomes

Faith Forward is the name of our fall series in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Good evening everybody, welcome to church. Wasn't the choir amazing? Wow, I loved it and they'll be back. My name's René, one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. I wanna invite you to grab your message notes that look like this if you're joining us online. You can download these at TLC.org/notes.

So I was thinking the other day, you know, we have an elementary school, a preschool, a junior high school here at the church that is a part of the church. And we once had a teacher, true story, here at Twin Lakes Christian School, who had a brother who had an idea for a movie. And you know, you hear about these things, somebody's brother has an idea for a movie and so on. While she had a brother who lived in the Bay Area, had an idea for a movie and he tried for years to get it made. He used to keep ideas for it on these long legal pads, handwritten ideas for it. He pitched it, pitched it, pitched it. He's actually got into the final pitch meeting with three studios in Hollywood all rejected it before one finally picked it up.

But they slashed his budget and then his cinematographer, his director of photography quit on him. And then a storm destroyed all the sets they'd spent whatever little money they had on. And then his star, his handsome leading man, was in a vehicle accident that scarred his face actually. And then the editor of the movie had to be fired. And then they absolutely ran out of money. They got down to zero dollars and the director, the brother of our teacher had to start financing it himself. And then he, as you can imagine, was hospitalized for extreme stress and exhaustion. They barely limped to the finish. Everybody thought it would flop. And you know that movie as Star Wars. Because that young filmmaker whose sister taught here at TLCS, you know, was George Lucas. And to me, that is just a parable of the idea that every great achievement faced great obstacles. And this is especially true into your life of faith.

So if you want to do something great, and we want to do something great as believers in Jesus, how do we keep moving past all of those obstacles? Well, let's talk about it. As I said, Faith Forward is the name of our fall series in a part of the Bible called Hebrews chapter 11. And we created all kinds of extra content for this series that you can get into at tlc.org/faithlike. Small group videos that expand on this content. And there's a whole book, a Faith Forward book. You can pick it up here in the lobby if you're with us, or you can grab it online here at tlc.org/faith that we wrote specifically for this series, going through Hebrews, all kinds of extra content.

So just a quick wrap up to get you up to speed if you're just joining us this week for the first time. We've been doing this for about four weeks now. Hebrews 11 was written to some of the very first Christians who started strong, but they were losing hope. They were tired of waiting for things to get better, for Jesus to return. And they're thinking of quitting because it's all gotten worse for them. Since they placed their trust in Jesus as the Messiah, who was gonna save them from sin, who was gonna come back and restore the new heaven and the new earth and thinking, we're on the right side, right? We're on God's side. We're believing in God's guy. And then everything goes south. The wheels fall off, the path runs off a cliff. The Romans persecute them. They're ostracized by society. No wonder they wanted to quit, right?

And so in this famous, poetic, epic, beautiful chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11, the author gives them examples of Bible heroes who felt the exact same way. Heroes of the Bible who all started strong, started losing hope, started getting tired of waiting for God to work, started thinking of quitting. And yet, right on the edge of the cliff, they hung on sometimes barely, always in the dark, never getting all their questions answered, usually stumbling and bumbling and failing along the way. Yet, they got somewhere eventually. And today's story is one of the classics. This is about what to do when you hit the wall. Can you say that out loud with me? When you hit the wall.

We're just gonna really highlight one verse from Hebrews 11. It's Hebrews 11:30. "By faith," the author of Hebrews says, "the walls of Jericho fell after the army had marched around them for seven days." Now, the original readers of Hebrews were like, "Oh yeah, good point, great story." Because they were Jewish Christians, as were most early Christians. And so they were like, "Oh yeah, that, oh, know that story, known it since I was a little kid." 2,000 years later here in secular American culture, probably a lot of us are a little bit rusty. So let me give you a review tonight.

I wanna go back to the book of Joshua for this message, because we need this. Everyone is hitting a wall these days. I saw an article in the newspaper this week headline, "Americans quit their jobs at a record pace in August." And by record pace, that means like, never before in the history of this country have so many Americans just been saying, "I quit." Another headline, "The great resignation is here, and it's real." Another website called it, "The Big Quit," because it's not just about people quitting their jobs. Sadly, it's about people quitting marriages, quitting their faith, quitting life.

And so I know the chances are, right now, I'm talking to somebody, somebody joining us on the live stream, somebody here in the house who is ready to quit. Maybe even ready to quit like the original readers of the book of Hebrews on the whole Jesus project. Like, "It's not working for me." Well, the people going through this story we're gonna talk about could relate. Last weekend, we saw how Moses goes to Pharaoh, let my people go. And God really delivers them, but 40 years wandering in the desert follow. And many of those 40 years, it's because of their own fault, right? Until finally they travel again through the desert to the border of Canaan, the promised land, right?

Problem, to get into the promised land, they first have to get past Jericho, which is a walled fortress city right at the entrance to the land of Canaan, sort of like a castle guarding the passage into the land. And in what happens next is where we learn three keys to faith when facing a wall. Now, one quick observation I wanna make right off the bat before we dig into this. In the entire narrative of military conquest in the book of Joshua, filled as it is uncomfortably with war and violence and bloodshed, there is only one story in that whole long narrative that the author of Hebrews chooses as an example for us to follow. And it's that one time when the walls fell by faith and not a sword was lifted.

Because the point for these early Christians who first heard this was not take up arms like these people in this story later did. The point for us and for them was have faith like they did in this specific instance. So, you know, if you have your Bibles with you or you've got a Bible app on your phone or on your computer, open them up to Joshua 6. We're gonna start in verses one through 16 and then go on in the chapter. And if you feel like you're hitting a wall right now, I want you to jot these things down. Three truths that I see here in the story.

Number one, trust that God's victory is certain even when it seems like evil is winning. Trust that God's victory is certain even when it seems like evil is winning. I want you to look at the tension between verse one and verse two of Joshua 6. Have you ever noticed this before? Verse one is this. Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Now I want you to really picture this because I don't know, I grew up in Sunday school and I picture some lame flannel, you know, Jericho. So I want you to see what Jericho really was.

In 1930, archaeologists discovered the lost city of Jericho and I have had the wonderful opportunity to actually go there and look at the excavations and have them explained to me by another archaeologist. And here's what they discovered. It turns out that Jericho had a super thick double wall. Let me show you a graphic so you can picture the story. An outer wall that was 23 feet high, an inner wall that was about 30 feet high, and then there was this earth-filled ramp between these two walls that sloped up from the outer wall to the inner wall like a pit so that if enemies got over the first wall, they'd be sitting ducks for any archers that wanted to fire on them when they were stuck in between the first and second wall, kind of like a moat.

So when verse one talks about the gates of Jericho, this is what it's talking about. It's not like a garden gate. There's a reason that these walls were over 1,000 years old when Joshua arrived. The city of Jericho was much older, but the walls themselves were 1,000 years old because that system I just showed you was absolutely unassailable by the technology of the time. There's no way an army could conquer it. Now watch this, verse two. Then, right then, the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered," say, "I have delivered." "I have delivered Jericho into your hands along with its king and its fighting men." Now wait a minute. The Lord says, "See to Joshua." And Joshua looks up and what does he see? Yeah, go back one verse. "Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred." Little bit of tension, see that?

Let's go back verse two. The Lord says, "See, I have delivered, but nothing has happened yet." Don't miss this. God is speaking in past tense about a battle that Joshua has not even fought yet. And you know what? There is a huge gospel parallel for you and for me as believers. This is all through the Bible, but let me just give you a couple of examples. The apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1, he says, "Christ Jesus has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Now that's a beautiful verse, but it says he has destroyed death. Not like the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and Jesus Christ one day will destroy. It says past tense, he has destroyed death. Now, some of my loved ones have died. How much yours? I did a memorial service today. It was a double memorial for a father and a son who both died during the pandemic.

And so because of the lockdown, they couldn't have a funeral, so the memorial waited until today. And so we had the memorial, but you know what? Both of those people had in their lives trusted Jesus. And you see, to God, their future resurrection, my mom and dad's future resurrection, your loved one's future resurrection, your future resurrection is as certain as present tense reality. From God's perspective, because he exists outside of time, Jesus Christ has destroyed death in your life, even though you haven't died yet and you haven't been resurrected yet. Amen.

Here's another one, Romans 8:30. And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. I've always been a little puzzled by this first because I know that I was called by God. I know I was justified, but I have not been glorified yet. Here, it's in the past tense. Because from God's heavenly perspective, he speaks in the past tense about battles you are currently fighting. Somebody said, "God speaks in past tense about our present tensions. God speaks in past tense about my present tensions." To him, it's all a done deal. Please listen to me. If you're going through a hard time and you're thinking of quitting and you're hitting a wall, this means he has seen your future.

And he not only knows all the trials you're facing now and all the trials you have faced, he knows all the trials you will face. And he knows that his grace will be sufficient for you. He knows you will be perfected into Christ-likeness. He knows you will be glorified. Let me hear an amen from the congregation. Now, does that mean you won't go through tough times? Of course not. What it means is you're going to be okay. Because you have a destiny that is assured.

All right, second important truth here. Trust that God's instruction is wise even when it seems ridiculous. God's instruction is wise even when it seems ridiculous. God tells you in his word how to live a serene and a joyful and a peaceful and a Christ-like life. And some of those instructions in our culture can seem absolutely ridiculous. So the question is, do you trust him? Look at the text again. This is the funniest part of the story to me. I want you to notice another point of tension here. God tells Joshua in verse three, "March around the city once with all the armed men for," how many days? How many? Six days. "Have seven priests carry trumpets," what? "Of ram's horns in front of the ark," which was the box that they kept the Ten Commandments in.

Okay. "On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets. And when you hear the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout. And then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everybody straight in." Okay, got that? That is what God says to Joshua. Now I want you to watch, this is so funny to me, watch what Joshua tells the people. First he calls the priests. It says, "So Joshua, son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, take of the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." Anybody notice what he's leaving out of this one? What's he not saying? Yeah, you're gonna do this for a week, right?

Okay, next verse. "Then he ordered the army." Now that was the priest, here's the army. "Advance, march around the city with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord." To the army, there's nothing in there even about the trumpets because Joshua knew, he was a soldier, and Joshua knew, soldiers don't look at a tough military objective and go, let's get the band, you know? Do you guys know Seven Nation Army? Can you play tusk like the USA Trojans? That would be so cool right now. No, no, a soldier would say that. So here's the question. Why did God even choose to do it this way?

Here is why this story is in the book of Hebrews. And I want you to think, we get this story all wrong. When I was a kid, I remember in Sunday school, this shows you how old I am, because this was like back in the, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But they used to sing a song, do you remember this? "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho." Sing it with me. "Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down." That song is a lie. And here's why, it makes it sound like the wall came down because Joshua what? Fought the battle. That's not true. God dropped the wall before Joshua lifted a sword. The wall did not fall because they walked. It fell because God worked. You see?

Marching around Jericho and blowing trumpets and shouting. That actually had zero to do with why the wall came down. God did it all 100%. So, why the march? That's weird. Well, that's the point. I think it was done to bring God glory, precisely because it was so different. Precisely because that tactic had no chance of succeeding. Precisely because it was so off beat. I mean, what do you think the Canaanites thought when they peered over the wall and they saw the Disneyland marching band going around their fort for a week? Do you think they were intimidated? Like, what is happening? These people are not the same as every other army.

Listen, and God is calling us, you and me, to fight our battles in a way so off beat. So weird. So different. So unexpected that the people watching us up on the walls don't even know what to do with us. You know, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, interestingly responding to critics who were criticizing him because he wasn't tough enough. And in that context, he says this. He says, "Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with, they're not the weapons of this world." Christian, don't be tempted to fight God's war with the world's weapons. The world's weapons are violence, yes, but also contempt. And slander. And manipulation. And power plays. And intimidation.

I am, I am stunned. I've been stunned into tears, if I'm really honest with you, with what I've seen over the last year, year and a half, coming from Christians and pastors at Christian churches, large Christian churches that are trying to stoke up their congregation into fighting God's war with the world's weapons. With slander and power plays and, oh, it's awful. The weapons of our warfare are love and kindness and humble service. You know why? Because that's as weird as bringing a trumpet to a knife fight. But it's when we serve in love with no strings attached, that's when God breaks down walls.

What makes the walls fall in Santa Cruz, in people's hearts in Santa Cruz? It's not when we use the same exact weapons everybody else uses. Same words, same tactics, same anger. It's when we fight the way no other army fights. By washing feet. And by feeding people. And by housing people who've been evacuated from fires or are homeless. By bringing showers to homeless camps so that these people, everybody else just despises can get cleaned up and maybe feel some hope. No other army fights with those weapons. And that's one reason that part of this Faith Forward series is what we call acts of kindness. As Mark said, you can get all the details at tlc.org/aok, but this is so important.

By the way, it all wraps up with our big food drive next month. Jesus said, here's the weapon of our warfare. You know, you got enemies, you got people who hate you, you got people who curse you, you know what you do? You love your enemies. You bless those who curse you and you do good to those who hate you. What? Jesus, that's too much. That's weird. That won't get us anywhere. Trust God's instruction is wise, even when it seems ridiculous. Don't fight, don't let them lure you into fighting with the weapons of their world. The media and the politicians, we fight with different weapons here. We fight with love and with prayer and with blessing because that's how the walls fall.

So trust that God's victory is certain, even when it seems evil is winning. Trust that God's instruction is wise, even when it seems ridiculous. And finally, trust that God's timing is perfect, even when it seems to take forever. Just think about this. They did this for six days. How many days? Six. Imagine you're a soldier. You go out, march around the city once, you go back home to your tent. How was your day today? Well, you know, I think Joshua wanted us to do some reconnaissance. He's clever, he's clever. We're gonna go out, we're gonna take the city tomorrow. Day two, how was your day today? You know, it was weird, it was weird. But it was just rehearsal. We're ready tomorrow.

Day three, how was your day today? I think Joshua is crazy. I mean, what are you gonna say? And you might feel like right now you're on lap two, lap three, lap four, and you're starting to thinking, what is happening? How long is this gonna take? You know, I am walking and it is not working. But just because progress isn't obvious doesn't mean God isn't working. Just because progress isn't obvious doesn't mean God forgot you. Keep going. Because watch this, skip to verse 15. On the seventh day, what day? Day seven. They got up at daybreak and they marched around the city seven times in the same manner. As far as they knew, it was just gonna be the same thing again.

But the seventh time around, when the priest sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And when the trumpets sounded and the army shouted and the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed. And so everyone charged straight in and they took the city. Not one brick moved and then the whole wall fell. As I heard another preacher from the East Coast say, don't stop on six. You wanna quit? What if this is day six? And the wall is doomed on day seven. Six and a half days, not one brick, day seven, boom. And you know, that is exactly what happens in life, right?

I mean, let me give you a couple examples. That's why getting fit is hard. Every single person would work out and be in great shape if there were instant results, right? Like do one push up, instant little bicep, you know? But that never happens. For months, it seems like I am walking and it is not working. Nothing is changing. And then suddenly you look like Adrian Moreno, right? That's what happens. Or raising kids. Sometimes you feel like, oh man, I'm gonna have a two year old forever. Or I'm gonna be helping with homework forever. And then suddenly you're walking her down the aisle of this church.

We've seen it here at church this year. I was over at Loft, the new college building. I have waited for that building to be built for 28 years. It's been on the master plan of this church for 50 years. That's a lot longer than six days. And there were so many false starts and there were so many disappointments. And now it's there with, get this, no debt. Listen, during a pandemic, during which the church also helped feed and house and clothe more people than ever before in our history. That building right out there, that is a miracle only of walls going up instead of coming down. Can you give glory to God?

So don't give up, don't give up, don't give up. You know, each week in this series to make it real, I'm sharing a faith story from somebody in our church. And this week it comes via email. And with this woman's permission and her granddaughter's permission, I wanna share it. She writes, "My granddaughter Camille had been battling drug addiction for years. At one point I feared she wouldn't live much longer and I would lose her forever. Many years ago, you handed out a card with a mustard seed on it." And this is a photo of the card, I don't know if you remember but it was another series on faith. Faith as small as a mustard seed. "Jesus said can move mountains as the choir just sang. And on each card there was a little mustard seed taped. She said, 'You told us to write something or someone that we would believe God for with faith.' As small as a mustard seed." And so I put Camille's name on the card, can you see it? She wrote Camille.

And she says, "I wrote this on the back, 'Lord, I pray for mercy on Camille. Please give her strength to overcome her addiction and to seek your salvation and forgiveness.'" She says, "I've continued to pray for her year after year after year, never losing faith that God would intervene and that He had a plan for her. But she kept spiraling downward a few years ago. Camille wound up in jail." Can you imagine how this faithful, praying grandmother must have felt? I bet she started to lose hope when that happened. But that was day six. She says, "During that time she attended the Bible study at Blaine Street Women's Facility. It had a tremendous impact on her and she began to turn her life around and is now drug free. And she now attends TLC on Saturday nights with me. She has surrendered her life to Christ and she was baptized last Sunday." And there she is, that's Camille.

Listen to how this grandma ends her email. "Today Camille told me she feels like her old soul has died and a new soul has taken its place." And Camille and her grandma are right there. Camille, stand up. Don't stop on six. Parents don't stop on six. Pastors don't stop on six. Now listen, I don't know why God doesn't work the same way in every case, in every case of a wayward child. Or say in every case of cancer. He didn't work the same way in every conquest of every city in the Old Testament, either. God has diverse ways of deliverance.

In fact, maybe you've even experienced your worst fear and the person you were praying for, for whatever reason, seems to have lost their battle. You know what I know? God will still redeem their story. Battles will still be won because that is a promise. The Bible says this in Galatians 6:9, and let's read this out loud because you know why? Because someone needs to hear this right now. Let's read this together. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." So don't give up. Here's a truth from this story. Obedience is my responsibility. Outcome is God's responsibility. And God is always faithful to his promises.

So let's wrap this up. Look at what all these lines have in common. What's the first word in every sentence? Trust. That is what it all comes down to. Do I trust God? And let me tell you something specific that you should trust. Tim Keller has a great quote. He says, "Often we try to solve our fears of the future at the wrong end of the equation. We figure if I can only eliminate all threat, then I'd feel secure. But by that logic, the best way to live is in a plastic bubble somewhere and you'll still have troubles even there because you're human. The way to real security is different. The degree to which I trust God determines my courage as I face the future. The degree to which I trust God determines my courage as I face the future. So do you trust him?"

You know, there was another person in the Bible named Joshua. Did you know that? Very famous person. Lived about 1,400 years later. The Hebrew word Joshua means the Lord saves and in Greek, in the Greek New Testament, the same exact name, Joshua, is Jesus. That's the same name. Ones in Hebrew, ones in Greek. And Jesus became the ultimate avenue of how the Lord saves. So trust him and keep trusting him even when you hit the wall. That is living faith forward. Let's pray together. Would you bow your head with me?

Heavenly Father, I know many walked in tonight or joined us on the live stream ready to quit. In fact, if you're here in person just with every head bowed, every eye closed, I'm gonna be looking though. I want you to raise your hand if you have felt like quitting recently because I wanna pray for you. Just leave those hands up. You can put your hands down. God, grant those people whose hands shot up perseverance even though maybe not one brick has moved yet. Help them trust you. And especially I pray that you would help us realize you speak in past tense of that current battle. That you have won the victory, that you have accomplished it for us in full on the cross. And we praise you for that and that all our blessings stem from that. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.