Prepared for Battle — Joshua 5 and the Call to Obedience

In this message, Chaplain Marc walks through the surprising and uncomfortable preparation God required: circumcision at Gilgal, renewed covenant identity, renewed dependence on God, and a renewed understanding of holiness. He explains why God changes your diet when He changes your destiny, why yesterday’s miracles aren’t enough for today’s battles, and why you can’t conquer Jericho if Egypt still has your heart.

In Joshua 5, God teaches His people a truth we still need today: He gives victory around us, but He demands obedience within us. After crossing the Jordan and watching God hold back a raging river, Israel stands on the edge of the Promised Land — ready to fight, ready to conquer, ready to move forward. But before the battle begins, God stops them and says, “Prepare yourselves.”

Joshua 5 reminds us that every battle begins with obedience, every victory begins with preparation, and every believer must learn to stand ready — holy, consecrated, and dependent on God.

Key truth:
You can’t fight the enemy if you haven’t dealt with the flesh.

"This is Chaplain Marc.

Stand firm, stay faithful, and keep moving forward.

God restores what failure tries to destroy.

Until next time - one more day, one percent better."

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:06

Oh you can just a little bit long. You're my all. Yes. I should take it back. I've heard it once, but this never knows the time. I was on my spa, which is like a music thing that I listen to. And it was on one-mount Christian playlist, and I was like, that's really good. So I'm gonna try to do it justice, but if you know it, please hang along with me.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

We sang that one with our kids for a long time, and it is it is a good one. It was gonna come. I don't know any harmony though, or else I would have come up and sang with you. Turn to Joshua, if you will, and I have I have planned out, if any of you are interested, I can I can lay it out. But Joshua chapter 5, I think I've got most of the rest of the the year planned out. And Joshua kind of teaches us to trust and obey God. I know I picked out some parts from Joshua, so I kind of wanted to finish it up, or at least finish up most of what I could. So we'll we'll go through Joshua on till October, the weeks that I am here. And but but trusting and obeying God is what this is. And today I want to talk about being prepared for battle. A lot of times we end up having a battle. I mean, we've watched our prayer requests this morning, and there are so many that are battling different things. They might be battling cancer or something from the doctor, or or they might be battling, there may be some that are battling financial hardship or emotional hardship. But we all have a battle going on, each and every one of us. Some of us it's it's our own health, some of it's it's our own mind and our own emotions. And we always have a battle, but we need to be prepared. God does give victory around us. Us as Christians, God gives us the victory. But what he wants is obedience within us. Does that sound right? God will give victory around us, but he wants obedience within us. And this is the point in Joshua where we have gone from the uh Joshua and and the children of Israel as they have been through the Exodus from Egypt. God has killed off uh many people who were just unbelievers. They could have been in the promised land 40 years earlier, but the people just decided it was too much, and God wasn't strong enough to get them through. And so the people did not believe, and they weren't ready, and they couldn't do it. And there's so much that had happened in this time where God gave manna, and God opened up the Red Sea, and God closed the Red Sea on the Egyptian army, and then they walked for 40 years, and there was the time that they were out there in the wilderness, and God was letting them all be bitten by serpents, and and Moses put a uh a golden serpent up on a on a cross, on a on a T. It was, it was, it was what they call the Tao cross. It was a it was a T with a serpent on it. All you had to do was look up at it, and you would be free from the poison of the serpents. But the people couldn't do that, they just couldn't do it. And and there were so many things that happened over those 40 years, and then finally at the end of that, when most of those naysayers had died off, God said, Now you're ready to enter into the promised land. And young Joshua, who is taking over leadership for Moses, he's not Moses, but he's taking over leadership for Moses, is is taking over. And now they have seen that God is with them because the raging rivers of the flooded Jordan held up in a heap, held up while the priests were there and walked across. And if you'll remember, then they went in and they got stones, and I discussed that, and they took the stones out and made a memorial. And so they have seen the provision of God. But imagine this for a minute. For 40 years, they've been wandering in the desert. They hadn't actually lived, they've survived for the past 40 years. Now God has given them provision, but they haven't been in a land where they have just been allowed to live. And so many of the previous generations said, Oh, I wish we could go back to Egypt because at least we weren't wandering around the desert there. They forgot that they were slaves. I see this nation and so many young people who, you know, we discussed it last night that I grew up, I grew up in the shadow of communism. I grew up in the Cold War. I joined the military to stop communism. In fact, I I I won't say it from the pulpit, but there's a t-shirt that I cannot imagine them being allowed to print now that was the mission of the field artillery, and it was to rid the world of as many communists as possible. If you want to ask me later, I might tell you outside the doors of the church. But nonetheless, they had this printed on shirts at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. That was our mission. And now I'm hearing cries from the young people. We want communism in this country. The biggest city in the world, New York City, the biggest city in the United States, elected a communist mayor who follows Islam. They're the same city that had the bombings of 9-11 that rocked our entire world. We've never been attacked on this soil, not by anybody other than our own, until 9-11, 2001. Things are changing. I'm seeing that in Britain they're fighting, trying to ward off. They allowed so many, so many Muslims in that they're pushing for Sharia law in that country, and I'm seeing Christians fight back. I'm seeing Christian pastors being arrested over there. So I say these things, not to say I'm on any political platform. I'm saying these things because things can happen, things can change. I never would have suspected. In fact, I'd said for years, I said for years when I watched my science fiction shows, I said, people would never allow the government or other things in the world to tell them what to do. You know, if ever if they said you're gonna stay inside this cell, I said, that would never happen. We want to get out. We we we have so much fire and intensity, we want to break out. And then I saw COVID in 2020, and the government and everybody said, Stay inside, lock your doors. And a lot of the world did it. Here in the South, we didn't that much. But there's a lot of places in the world where they did. And you know what? Somebody Jordan Peterson just said yesterday, he said, said, you know what? He said, where he lives in Canada, he said 30% of people were more than happy to tattle on their neighbors of what was going on. I saw pastors being being arrested in Canada during during 9-11. Uh, not 9-11, excuse me, during COVID. And and people, I think people, some people would be glad to wear the mask just so they could tell on other people and get them taken away by the police. What I'm saying is human beings are the same through and through. It doesn't matter if it's the time of Joshua, the time of Moses, the time of Jesus, right now, four years ago, 50 years ago, it doesn't make a difference. People overall are the same. And what people are lacking in this world is Jesus. What people are lacking in preparing for battle is realizing that we need to be prepared and we need to be holy. We need to realize there is a battle going on at all times. We don't need to let our guard down. We need to be ready for the battle. Now they are on the cusp of seeing the Jordan River stand up in a heap. And they are on, they are about to go to the promised land. So I can imagine at this point they're ready to fight. They're ready to go. But God says, Hold on. Chapter 5 is about be prepared to go to battle. So I'm gonna read from Joshua chapter 5. Uh, because I'm gonna read the whole chapter, I'll break it up in sections and highlight some of the things that are happening. So let me start at Joshua chapter 5, starting at verse 1. It says, So it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. The people saw the rivers, not just the folks in the city of Jericho. We're talking about the Amorites, we're talking about the Canaanites. Word got out that the river stopped for the Israelites. What does it say? People's hearts melted because of the children of Israel. And there was no spirit in them any longer. Verse 2 says, At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make Flint knives for yourselves and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt, for all people who had come out, uh for all people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way, as they came out of Jesus, excuse me, out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were were consumed because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord swore that he would not show them the land which he had sworn to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Then Joshua circumcised their sons, whom he raised up in their place. For they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp until they were all healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore the name of this place is called Gilgal to this day. Let me stop and break that down for just a minute. So imagine this for just a minute. You're going to the promised land. Man, some of y'all served in the military. You understand, we're going to go fight. And God says, You're going to be circumcised first. Oh my. I mean, think about that for just a moment. That's big. I'm going to take you to victory. You need to be circumcised first. Sure it wasn't what they were expecting. But that was a promise made from Abram. Abram, not even Abraham. Abram, before he became Abraham, the promise was that that was a sin unto death to not be circumcised. Now, why were they all not? And I'll talk more about that in just a little bit, but why were they not all circumcised? Not sure. But apparently during that 40 years, nobody circumcised their kids. So now here they are, grown men. And God says, if you want to be ready for this battle, we need to cut away the flesh from your life. So let's go on from there. It says, Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight in the plains of Jericho, and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. This is incredibly important, and I'll discuss it more in just a minute. What have they eaten for forty years? Mana. Now, manna sounds amazing to me whenever I see it. I don't know what it was like. I would like to think it's like a crispy cream donut. I'm not really sure. Right off the hot, when the hot signs up. I don't know if you ever had those. They melt in your mouth. Oh my lord, do I avoid I avoid them now like the plague if I can, because my body says that's not good. But it was sweet bread. You could mill it, you could mill it, you could eat it raw, you could mill it, you could save it up, you could make a cake with it, you could have, I don't know, you could have manna wraps one day and manna sandwiches the next day if you milled it and made bread with it. You could do all kinds of things with it. But God had provided the manna. But they had only eaten manna and the quail that God provided for 40 years. This food they just ate was the promised, promised land food. God promised that to them 40 years before, and they'd had to wander for years. And now, once they ate it, God said, the manna ceases. So that's why this is an important day and a celebration. Once they ate of the fruit of the land, God said, No more manna. I'm not providing anymore. I have provided the promised land to you now. So in verse 13, it says, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us? Are you for our adversaries? So he said, No. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and eternal God, Lord, I pray that we would be able to digest this and understand what a preparation for battle is. Lord, may we understand that each and every day is a battle. Lord, I was telling somebody recently that what they needed to do was focus on what you would have them do. When people are so afraid and dismayed and not certain of what the future holds and what is going to happen. What I have done, and as I was just praying to you this morning, that I don't have regrets, because for the past 30-something years, what I have said every time I have a decision is, Lord, which way would you have me go? And if I was unclear, I would say, Lord, shut the door of the ways that I am not supposed to go. So God, may we each remember for one that each and every decision is a decision made unto you, but also, Lord, that we would also remember, Lord, that uh that you are the one who leads and guides and directs us. May we continue in our lives to please you, to try to please you, to remain obedient and to know that it may not be today and it may not be tomorrow, but we have a battle approaching. And every day we have a battle. There is a roaring lion who seeks to steal, kill, and devour us every day. May we be ready to fight that battle. May be be prepared as Joshua was. In your name Jesus, we pray these things. Amen. Amen. And amen. So I wanted you to know where we are, and I hope you realize where we are and why some of this is so very, very important. God gives victory around us. God will give a victory around us, but He demands obedience within us. So let me start at the first the first verse is that it says that everybody was afraid. You have to understand, as they approached, you would think this huge city with these huge walls would say, Why are these these farmers, these nomads, wanderers? Why in the world would they make any kind of a difference to us? And then they saw the Jordan River stand up in a heap. And then heard for 40 years the stories of the Red Sea parting, of the great Egyptian army riding across that that dry land and the Red Sea closing on them. You think that didn't get around? News gets around in small towns. Y'all know that. Y'all know one of the one of the good things, uh, one other one of the good things about being in a small town, small town area is everybody knows everybody's business. If I end up going to the hospital, everybody knows about it. Because everybody's gonna hear about it. Bad thing about living in a small town, everybody knows everybody's business. Sometimes it's business you don't want people to know, but they're gonna know it. So they had heard these stories, and then they could see the folks who were within eyesight could see the Jordan River. Standing up in a heap. Their hearts were melted. It said their spirit was gone. Suddenly, this fight's going to get a lot easier because the confidence is gone. I mean, the people inside, the armies inside the city of Jericho stayed walled up for seven days after this. So, but then there's the circumcision at Gilgal. The circumcision. And I know that's something that we're grown here. I know Cameron's back here somewhere, but we're grown, but I'm going to talk about that. Why is circumcision so important? Why is that an important part of this story? Why is it important to the Jews? And I have had people ask in this day and age, why is it important to us? It is symbolic. Now, if you don't think, if you don't think that that symbols are important to God, why do we have this? This is a baptism, right? Baptismal? Why, if symbols aren't important to God, if we don't need to do something just because it's a symbol to God, why do we do that? The scripture says it's not for the washing away of sins. It's a symbol of the washing of sins that has already happened in your heart, of the cleansing, of the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. It's a symbol that you have been washed clean, the symbol that you're making publicly to everybody. That's our symbol now. Back then, the symbol was circumcision. And I always wondered in studying this week, I always wondered why they used a rock, why they always sharpened a rock. Do you know there's a reason for that? God's way smarter than most of us. There's no bacteria inside of a rock. A rock would have been sterile. When they sharpened a flint rock, that rock was going to be sterile. Now I also can't imagine being a grown man, and they're ready to fight. They're ready to get swords. And God says, make knives. Oh my. Why am I getting a knife or a dagger if I'm going to battle? Because God said you've got to get prepared. But the circumcision is a symbol of something that we all need to do. It's a symbol of the cutting away of the flesh of your life. And it says in in Corinthians, I believe it's 1 Corinthians, that it's it's a symbol of the cutting away of the flesh of your heart. You need to cut the world away and put it away to be able to move forward with the God the way you should. So every one of these men had to go through this painful experience if they wanted to win. Preparation with God, preparation from God, you can't fight the enemy if you haven't dealt with the flesh. Does that make sense? You can't fight the enemy and expect to win a battle if you haven't dealt with the flesh. So God first said, Stop, circumcise the men, because this was a promise made from way before Moses, back when Abraham was Abram. And Moses almost didn't take the people out of the promised land. If you look in Exodus, I believe it's two, that uh God was going to kill Moses, because that was a sin unto death to not be circumcised, and he had not circumcised his son. So his wife Zipporah, again, used a flint rock, made a knife, circumcised their grown son, and then Moses was ready to go rescue folks from the promised land. Listen, circumcision was the sign of the covenant. As much as baptism is for us today, it's an outward sign, a symbol that God is the most important priority, number one thing in your life. Circumcision at that time, way more painful, but it was a symbol that God was the most important thing in your life. The wilderness generation never received it. And if your next question is, why is that? I don't have an answer for that. I really don't. I have several reasons I think it might have, but I don't know. That whole generation, they didn't circumcise one person all the time they were walking through the desert. God refused to let an uncovenanted people fight his Bible. See, that circumcision was a sign of the covenant with Abraham, a sign that God had made with Abraham for his people for so many years. No, that didn't mean that they had a relationship or didn't have a relationship with God. However, it was a sign of the covenant. God said, I need you to show me that you're in covenant with me before you go into the promised land. There was a soldier. There was a soldier who who during Napoleon's battles, everybody else would be would be sharpening their bayonets and sharpening, and he would sit there. He would sit there. He wasn't doing what all the other soldiers were doing, preparing for battle. And one of his leaders once said, Son, you're not going to prepare for battle. He said, I need to prepare my heart first before I prepare my equipment. He knew that him being steady heart, steady mind was far more important to the battle than him having a sharp bayonet. He was aware of that. God said, Today I have rolled away the reproach from Egypt from you. When they cut that flesh away, see, some people had said our lives were better when we were in slavery to Egypt. Some people who get saved see nothing but a bunch of rules and say, you know what, my life was better when I was in slavery to the world. So he said, that's the symbol of Egypt is that symbol of the world. And God said, There's a reason you did this. Now I have cut, I have cut away the sin of Egypt away from you, the sin of the world. Now that's been cut away. And now you're ready to go to battle. Before they fought Jericho, God fought the Egypt that was in them. If you remember, there was a whole generation who was whining, complaining, saying, At least in Egypt we got to do this, but they were slaves. What they didn't realize is now they were free people. But God wanted them to ensure that they had a symbol of the covenant. So you can't conquer, you can't conquer Jericho if Egypt has your heart. There's no way you can conquer the world. There's no way you can grow your church. There's no way you can lead people to the Lord. I mean, I suppose you could say the words, but if you haven't, if God hasn't conquered the world in you, there's no way you can succeed in the battle that God gives you. I hope that makes sense. You can't conquer Jericho if Egypt still has your heart. Before God gives you a platform, whatever that is you're needing, God needs consecration first. It's an outward sign of an inward commitment. The same way baptism is an outward sign of an inward commitment. It's not that that washes away the sin, it's a symbol of God, you are the most important thing in my life. There have been no covenant since Egypt. The second thing, so we'll jump off of that. Some might consider it uncomfortable. I kind of do myself, so I don't talk about it real descriptively. It it kind of I don't know why there's a hill of circumcision in the Bible, why there has to be a hill of circumcision, but there is, because it was important to God to cut away that flesh. So they renewed their identity. They'd cut away Egypt, and now they're ready to take Jericho. And so now here's the other thing is then they had to, for 40 years, they had manna, and as I talked about, it fell every morning. Every single thing that they had did, they they they now they had to have renewed dependence on God. I think sometimes we forget in this day and age that we're in, that we have so much. We have internet at our house. You know, we've got phones. I said, for one, we had maps, and two, we got lost a lot, you know, but you learned where stuff was. I mean, that's what happened. You know, there was the day. Yes, there was a time, Chase, when there weren't maps on our phones. And I remember every year before we would go on family vacation in Nebraska, we would go to Walmart and buy a Rand McNally book of maps, and we'd follow it as we got there, and then there were discounts at hotels in the back. And so, and uh they stopped doing that now. I think you can still order one or something, but but you know, we used to use maps. We have so many conveniences now, I think we've forgotten what it's like to be dependent on God. And I can imagine if they had that that that uh that manna given to them every day, they might have forgotten how to be de who they were dependent on. It just rained manna every day, and they probably took it for granted, I would guess. Yes. Actually, I used to hear preachers at seminary talking about that because you had your one phone in the house, and if you were out, you couldn't let it ring. But I remember uh Dan, I can't remember his last name, the pastor of Stone Mountain Baptist, and he was one of my seminary professors, said, When it was Sunday night and church is done, morning church, evening church, and he's sitting there eating with his family, and the phone rang, he would say, Oh Lord, because he knew what that was. He knew it was a call for somebody in the hospital, or he knew it was a call to go to somebody's house. He knew it was some kind of call. And there wasn't, you couldn't just call somebody back, you know, with there was Star 69 before there was caller ID and all that stuff. But he knew that somebody had to answer the phone, get a message, find out what he had to do. And so he knew if that was a night, and he was just sitting down to enjoy his family, that that was about to be wrecked. Because you wanted to get away from the phones. That's what you did when you were on vacation. But uh, but at that point, you know, there, so they had to realize they they didn't need to be dependent. They needed to be dependent on God now every day for their provisions. It's for 40 years manna fell every morning. But the moment Israel stepped into that promised land, the promised territory, and they ate of the fruit that God had promised them for 40 years, the manna ceased. Why? Because God changes your diet when he changes your destiny. Hold on, I'm gonna say that again. God changes your diet when he changes your destiny. I'll say when I first got into ministry, I would see all kinds of miracles. I would see God being fulfilled in all kinds of things. And I'm not saying they don't happen now, but I'm saying God would give me just miraculous things. When I thought about joining the military again, it came up in my reading, in my prayer life, and in what the preacher said, and other times where I could write it down, I said, there is no doubt proof positive. God absolutely wants me to go back in the military. And there's been a couple things. My trip to uh to Iraq and Kuwait a couple years ago, God made it very clear exactly what I was supposed to do and that I was supposed to go on it. But some but when you're on the right track, and and the same way that when, as we'll go into Judges, that uh Gideon asked for a sign. He asked for a golden fleece because he was asked to deliver the children of Israel. It was a big task, and he was kind of afraid of cat. And so he asked for his, if you remember from Sunday school, he asked for the golden fleece to be filled with dew if there was no dew on the ground, or for it to be dry when the rest of the ground was filled with dew. But as you get more mature in Christ, God already knows that you know what you're supposed to do. He changes your diet when he changes your destiny. The wilderness provision was miraculous, but it was minimal. They didn't get to enjoy fruit. Last night I bought, uh we I went to England's and I saw some watermelon. I said, I'm gonna get some watermelon because I enjoy it. Not because I needed it, not because it was part of my diet, but because it tastes good and I wanted it. And so, but imagine for 40 years, you don't got any watermelon, you don't have any pineapple, you don't have anything. You have manna, this wonderful sweet taste in bread, but that's all you've got. That would be, that would get on your probably just get on your nerves a little bit after about a month, but imagine 40 years. So now they have eaten from the promised land, and God said, No more manna. Not because he was cursing them, because he was saying, now you're going to live on your own. The Promised Land provision required maturity and labor and trust. God wanted them to know what it was like to go back to work. And again, that this generation that seems to think communism is the best way, they should be able to not work. I know it's not you, Chase. But but it's they don't understand that work should be something good. Work should be something we appreciate and enjoy. Yes, it can be laborous, but work is something that we can appreciate and enjoy. And God said, now you're going to work the land rather than me providing manna. And God was teaching them, don't depend on yesterday's miracles for today's battles. Ooh, and I'm going to say that one one more time. Don't depend on yesterday's miracles for today's battles. I'm going to say it, and I haven't seen it here, but I've seen it in so many churches, small churches that I have been to, that talk about the times of yesterday when their pews were packed and things happened great. And all these times, back then, and I would find out that this was back 20, 30, 40, usually about 40 years ago, people would talk about how fantastic things were in the late 60s and early 70s, and how their pews were packed, and how this and that happened. But what they wanted was the same exact thing. So as I would bring things up to do, they would shut me down, say, we don't want to do that. That didn't work. But 40 years ago, that was 40 years ago. That means you're coasting on what that was. God said, There's no more mana for the folks. Don't depend on yesterday's miracles for today's battles. Got an illustration with that. One of the churches had a big trophy case as you came into the sanctuary. If you look to your right, no, first it was to the left. This huge trophy case with softball trophies, and I heard about the softball games. There were times, y'all ever had a church softball league, or y'all ever known folks who had a church softball league? Don't know if you did, but sometimes I would hear, for instance, maybe the city of Greensboro, there was a fight that broke out, which turned into a church softball game. I've literally heard about a lot of church fights at church softball games. I remember one time we went out on visitation. We were knocking on doors to tell people about the Lord. And there were three, there were three houses we went to. We went to about five or six houses, and we couldn't find the people. They weren't home. We hadn't seen them in church in about a month. So uh so then we stopped by, we were in the area, and me and Kenneth Epperson, we went to the ball, the ball field. Guess where they were? They were playing for the church softball, and we hadn't seen them in church in a month. We were visiting them to help tell, to find out what was wrong and invite them back to church. They didn't miss a softball practice, but they didn't show up in the doors of the church. But the church that I was talking about had this big trophy case right on the left side as you came in and you saw the trophies for softball and for the money they raised for relay for life and all these other things, big trophy case. Didn't really like that right before you go into the sanctuary. Didn't really like that they would put the big trophy on top of the table that said, Do this in remembrance of me. And I remember one time I took it out and put it back in in the other room because I didn't want that up there, this things that they'd done human. And one of the parishioners called and told me, Mark, he said, I gotta tell you something. I said, What's that? He said, That big trophy case? I said, Yeah, of course I remember it. He said, When they were remodeling the church, they tried to move it, it fell over. The trophy case broke, every trophy broke, but three in that case. So I said, Well, you know, God apparently had a message for them with that. So, but but some people want, some believers want a Jericho level victory. They're going into Jericho, they want a Jericho level victory when they got manna-level faith. Is that right? I mean, do we know what I'm saying there? They don't want to go out and get the fruit of the promised land that God said, I provided this for you. They want their manna and they want the Jericho victory. But God's calling them to grow up, to step up, and to trust him in a new way. See, that's what growth is, spiritual as well as others. There's a World War II pilot who liked who uh he would insist on praying before he would ever go out on mission. He would get out and get near the equipment, and the other pilots and other aviation members of the unit learned to join in with him because they joined it. And there was a new guy that came to the unit, he's like, Why does he do that every time? And they they learned, they said, they said that they have learned they want him to pray before they go out to battle, because they knew whether or nothing else had softened their hearts and prepared them for the battle that they were about to face. And before so we're sorry, get us out of here in a decent time. I'm sorry. Then there was renewed allegiance. And I'd spoken about this a few a few weeks ago. Joshua, down there at verse 13, he sees a soldier, a man opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up to him and said, Are you with us or are you for our adversaries? He saw what looked like a general with a sword in his hand, and he walked up to him and said, Are you with us? Are you for our adversaries? Which one? And he said, Here's the thing, he said, Neither one I came as the commander of the Lord's army. Now, why'd he say neither one? Why is there a turning point there? Why did he say neither one? Why did he not say, I'm here for you, Joshua? He said, Neither one. But he learned in that moment, as he before he bowed down to worship, because this was, understand why he bowed to worship. If if you haven't caught it yet, this is the angel of the Lord. This is a theophany, what they call a theophany. It's seeing God in the flesh. Actually, a better way to call it, it's a Christophany, a Christophany, that he is seeing Jesus Christ manifested in the flesh. And he walked right up to him and asked, Are you for us or are you against us? And he said, I'm not here for either one. I'm the commander of the Lord's army. And Joshua's response was to bow down and worship him. God's not here to take sides. God's here to take over. God wasn't there just to get the children of Israel and be on their side and help them. God was here to take over. God was here to show his power and his might. So Joshua fell on his face. And what was the last thing he said there? He said, Take your sandal off your foot. The place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Now, who was the last one that happened to? Moses? God said to Moses, Take your sandals off your feet. You think Joshua hadn't heard that story? He knew at that point he was in the presence of the Lord, bowed down and worshiped him. Before you fight your battle, you've got to settle your allegiance. He knew it was the same God of Moses. He knew he had to settle his allegiance. Victory doesn't come because God is on your side. Victory comes when you get on God's side. I'm gonna say that again. Victory doesn't come because God is on your side. Victory comes when you get aligned and on the side of God. The 20th Regiment of Maine used to, they would get together and again, sharpening bayonets, preparing their muskets, everything that you do before battle, they did that on a regular basis. But the night before battle, 20th Maine Regiment would sing hymns the night before battle. They wanted their hearts to be prepared. They wanted to be on the side of God. They wanted a right mentality. And I know for me, I've said several things, say this, and sometimes people don't understand it. People sometimes will say, How are you doing today, Mark? And I'll say, Today is a good day to die. And people look at me like I'm crazy. I'm looking at some of y'all, some of y'all are. But the reason why is if today is a good day to die, it means my relationships are straight. My relationship with my God is good. And today, among any other day, as good a day for me to die as any. Not saying it has to be today or it should be, but I'm saying I don't have anything on my plate that I feel like I need to take care of before I die. Today is a good day to die. To me, when I say that, it means I'm having a great day. It means it's a good day for me. And that may sound crazy to some people, but victory comes when you get on God's side and renewed worship. He needed to be on holy ground before he had a holy war. Joshua wanted a battle plan. God gave him worship posture. The first step in spiritual warfare isn't strategy, it's surrender, worship before warfare, consecration before conquest. Jericho doesn't fall because didn't fall because they shouted in the next chapter. Jericho fell because they bowed first. Let me say real quick, and then we'll close this up. But um, oh what's her name? Mary Queen of Scots. Mary Queen of Scots, one thing she was terrified of was John Knox. She said, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. Now, it wasn't John Knox because he was an amazing soldier. It wasn't because of it was because she knew that he was taking the nation by storm, telling people about Jesus, and they were converting over quickly. She feared his prayer life. She feared his personal life. He lived in such a way that she was afraid of his prayer. John Knox was ready for battle. Before the fight, God renews your identity. Before the fight, God renews your dependence. Before the fight, God renews your allegiance. And before the fight, God renews your wants to worship. That's what changes the battle. Before he asked God to bring down the wall, which again will be the next chapter. God asked you to bow down first. He wants to know that you're alive and allied with him before he gives you the battle. And I want to say that that I think God actually, what he does is he provides first. Let me say that. Because if you notice, he provided for 40 years. After he said, when he provided these things, then God said, Now I want you to go win the battle. Now I want you to be circumcised. Now I want you to do that. God doesn't just let you go all by yourself. But if God has a victory that he wants you to win, I promise you he'll be with you. Make sure you're allied with him. Make sure you've checked that your identity is him, and make sure that you're worshiping him. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty and eternal God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you so much for the conquest of Joshua, the fact that he took over what we know as Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and so much of that area. And there were just nomads who'd been wandering the desert for 40 years. God, you provided the promised land to them exactly as you had promised back in Abraham's day. And Lord, that they got to enjoy the fruits of the promised land. Lord, we are enjoying the fruits of a promised land of a nation founded on you. May we not forget our posture. May we not forget to be dependent on you. May we not forget that we need to worship you in the midst of these things. We love you, Lord. We thank you. We praise you. I praise you for the blessings given to us. But Lord, may we realize that it is only through commitment to you that we can keep these things. I pray all these things in the name of your beloved son Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen and amen. And as we close out, what uh what are we singing this afternoon, brother?

SPEAKER_04 46:28

Page 316.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Page 316. Is that just as I am? Close. I just looked at it and I forgot all that. I was I was trying to remember. Jesus is tenderly called. Jesus is tenderly calling. So let's stand and sing. Hymn number 316. I'll be here. And if now I'll pray for each and every one of the ones you could.

SPEAKER_04 46:52

Let's all stand and sing. Page 316, the first sucker and last verse. Jesus is tenderly calling. Let's sing it like we mean it's single.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

Oh, we do thank you for the case to be here this morning. Thank you for the many blessed image you've sending our every day. We have to Jesus continue to look at look after country. Our leaders have no trade for us. Just keep everyone straight off. Oh we have to do look at that church. Bring them back and forth. Now imagine this morning that George straight up to the middle. Straight up to the thing. George is past away. No, he didn't think about that. Bring out his wife passed away. Just look after that thing. Contend is a galaxy in the record. That's the same galaxy. Just look at us. Bring us back to four. Yes. Another lesson in learning about you. We do access in your name, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Oh yeah. Prepare for battle today, yeah.