Three Lessons From the Battle of Jericho

And so they went around and they did all of the things. And then verse 15, On the seventh day they rose early around the dawning of the day, marched around the city seven times, same way they'd done every day before. And on that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. And only Rahab the harlot shall live. She was the one, if we remember the story, who had helped the spies that came into Jericho to spy it out. And we'll talk a little more about that later. But she and her family were saved. And they were told then in verse 18 and 19, To stay away from the accursed things, but to take the silver and gold, the bronze and iron, and everything and consecrate it to the Lord. And in verse 20, When the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted, and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell flat. And as the rest of the account will tell, they went in, and they did as they were told. They took the items of silver and gold, and Rahab and her family were saved. So it's a pretty amazing story. I've actually had the opportunity to visit Jericho, and they found mud brick walls there, flattened down, and much of what's there actually backs up the biblical narrative. It's a very interesting thing to be there and to actually see the site where this happened. What is it that we should learn from this?

What is it that we should learn from this? I'd like to highlight just three short points from this story today as we think about taking strongholds, what God has called us to do as we've crossed our Jordan. I find it interesting that God, right before coming into the Promised Land, again brought them through water, a baptism of sorts. And what is it that we should learn as we're now moving forward in that new life to conquer? The first point I'd like to cover is that the children of Israel recognize that they were in a war, and we likewise have to recognize that we are in a spiritual war. Do we realize that? Now sometimes that sounds intense. We're in a very, a society that tries to be very much a pacifist society, although we know right below the surface there are many things going on, whether it's physical battles that we fight as a nation, other violence that countries and people are trying to do to us. But we tend to shy away these days from terms of violence and battle and conflict because we think that that's bad. But in a spiritual sense, we need to know that we are at war and we need to be at war.

Do we think about it that way? Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Timothy 1. Sermonette, we spent some time in Timothy. We're going to do that again. 1 Timothy 1, verses 18 and 19. I'm just going to underscore a few passages here where Paul, in this case, writing, talks about the fact that we are absolutely at war and we need to think about it in that way. 1 Timothy 1, verses 18 and 19. Paul, writing, Timothy says, This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience which some having rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck. Now, we know, of course, that he wasn't saying, Timothy, go out by yourself a Kalashnikov and get to the front lines. Of course, we know he wasn't saying that. He was referring in a spiritual context, and we'll see that in some of the other passages that are written, that he had to be fighting every day, fighting for the truth, fighting for the Word of God that was delivered to him to follow it faithfully, and fighting in his own life to make sure that he was following God's way. And Paul was admonishing him here to wage warfare in his life, not to think of it casually, not to think of it as something he'll get to when he doesn't have other things to do, but as a focus with intensity and purpose. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, we'll read verses 3 and 4, which sound a similar theme. Here, talking about some of the difficulties that come on to us as Christians. We all endure trials. I know many people right now are enduring some very difficult trials, struggles for life and death in some cases. And in 2 Timothy 2, in verse 3, Paul, again writing to Timothy, says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

He goes on then to say that no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So here he's likening the calling that we have, the spirit that we've been given, the new life that we're leading, to the duty that's given to a soldier. Of course, we know that soldiers are under the command of their officers. And we don't want to take this analogy too far because God treats us as a family. He treats us as sons. He doesn't treat us as privates in an army in that sense where he tells us what to do and we just do it blindly without thinking. But he's using an analogy here to talk about the focus that Timothy has to have and the fact that a soldier who's fighting a battle or is in an army is acting in a certain way, is conducting himself in a certain way because that's what's expected and that's the direction that he's been called to do. That's what he's enlisted to do, what he's been drafted to do, or however else it worked at that time, perhaps, in the Roman army. So the focus again and the intensity that's there in our spiritual calling. Let's turn lastly on this point to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 is a fairly well-known verse by many who've read the scriptures talking about the armor of God. Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 18. Again, using the analogy of warfare and battle when it talks about the lives that we live and the struggles that we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 18.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

So this doesn't say just to pick everything up, but once you've done everything, once you've prepared everything, stand. Stand firm, stand fast is what the scripture says here. Stand therefore in verse 14, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

So for those who are looking for something to reflect on over the course of the week, I'd suggest looking back at this scripture. We're not going to dwell on all the details of it in this sermon. Many of you have probably heard a sermon or sermonette given on the armor of God, and there are great articles out there about it. Something worth contemplating about all of these different spiritual disciplines and how they're likened to different parts of armor in both offensive and defensive weaponry.

It's worth looking at, but what I want to draw out of this again is another passage where Paul is laying out very clearly right down to laying out the different elements of our spiritual life and how it helps to defend us and also helps us on the offensive and underscoring the fact that we need to take this as seriously as someone fighting a battle. Now, if we think back to some of the points in time where we, for example, as a nation, didn't recognize that we were in a war, what is it that happened? Probably the most notorious time that we can think of is Pearl Harbor, the attack that happened on Pearl Harbor.

And if our Navy had known that day, back in December of 1941, that an attack was going to come, would they have reacted in the same way? When you read the accounts of the attack, you read about the fact that Japanese airplanes were flying in. It was a Sunday morning there, and a lot of the soldiers, the members of the Navy were sitting there on the deck. They were leaning back enjoying the sun. Weapons were not ready to go because they were important. They were not expecting battle.

And when that surprise attack came, many ships were sunk. And at first, it was very difficult to react because people were in church, people were ashore, people were relaxing on the deck, people were sleeping because they didn't know there was an attack coming. There wasn't a war as far as we were concerned, and so no one was acting as though they were in a war.

Now, if you fast forward a year or two after that, and you think of different places where ships were kept, harbors, you could bet that they were fully armed, they were at battle station, because we were in a declared war, and the people on those ships knew that there could be an attack happening at any time. Do we recognize in the same way that we're in a war, or are we, spiritually speaking, sitting out in the sun on the deck, taking it easy, because we think at this point in time there's no struggle going on, there's nothing going on that can harm us, so we can relax and take it easy?

Those are the points that are being made in the Bible as it talks about the fact that we need to be ready for battle, we need to realize we're in battle. Our spiritual lives, our spiritual calling that we have, is that important that we need to treat it that way. Think about it with the Israelites as well, when they were facing Jericho. You can imagine how they might have felt. Again, 40 years and younger, almost to the man, woman and child, because the generation that had refused to enter the Promised Land had died away, but I'm sure that they had heard the stories of what the spies had seen in the Promised Land the first time around, and they were afraid, and they were not willing to enter in the battle.

They were not willing to trust God to go into the Promised Land, and for that reason they circled around for 40 years until another generation was there and ready to do it. So you can bet that they were ready at that point in time. They had their weapons ready and they were ready to go. When we're at war, we're prepared. Weapons are sharp, they're right at hand.

You hear stories often of people who've been on deployment, when they come back, they're so used to sleeping with a weapon right next to them, that if they get woken up in the middle of the night, it's a real shock to wake up and sometimes not to have a weapon right at their hands, because they're so used to being battle ready at every moment in time. When they come back, it's such a big change from that mode that they've been in. Spiritually, we can never come home in that sense. We have to be battle ready at all times. Have we put on our armor?

Are we cleaning it every day? Are we sharpening it? Do we have it at the ready? Or do we have it sitting back in the closet over on the side, where things get rough and we see that there's a battle coming the distance? At that point, we'll take a day off. We'll go back and sharpen up the armor and polish it up and make sure it's ready to go and then step into battle. God makes clear the mindset that we have to have is we know that we're in a spiritual fight and we have to be at the ready all the time, keeping ourselves prepared and remaining vigilant. Let's go to the second point.

Again, think about the Israelites coming in to take Jericho. And the second point I'd like to draw out is the fact that they identified the stronghold that they were fighting and they took time to understand it. Now, nobody attacks a fortress without understanding what it is that they're attacking, unless they're just completely foolhardy. If you have any idea of victory, you need to know what's there, where the defenses are, and what's happening. Joshua 2, let's read just a few verses in Joshua 2 to talk about how the Israelites understood what was there at Jericho.

Similar to the first episode, when they didn't end up entering the promised land, there were scouts sent in to see what was going on. And in Joshua 2, verse 1, talks about the fact that Joshua sent out two men from the Acacia Grove where they were to spy secretly, and he told them, go and view the land, and especially Jericho. And so they went and they came to the house of a harlot or a prostitute named Rahab, and they lodged there.

This would have been a place where people were used to seeing men come and go. It would have been one place where they could have been undercover and probably have the least likelihood of someone discovering them. And then, finally, I won't read all the verses in between, but as they were there, they were able to understand what was going on in the city. And they probably observed things like what kind of a watch is there on the walls? How's the city constructed? And where are the weak points of the defenses?

At that point in time, one of the strategic things for any fortress was going to be a water supply. Where did they get their water from? Did they have to go outside the walls and go down to a spring, where if we could secure that spring, we could dry them out? They'd basically have a lack of water to where they would have to give up? Or did they have stores of water inside the walls? How many people are there? What kind of armaments are there? I'm sure they were spying all of these different things out so they could understand exactly what it was that they were facing when they were going to go against Jericho.

And then finally, near the end of this account, when they were done staying there, they made a promise to her because she recognized the fact that God was giving the land to Israel, and she said that she would help them. They promised that she and her family would be saved as a result of that. And then in verse 21, she sent them away, and they departed, and she took a scarlet cord, or a red cord that they'd given her, that she said if that was hung outside of her window, she would be protected when they came to attack, and she did that.

And in verse 22, they departed, they went to the mountain, and they stayed there for three days until the pursuers returned. So apparently, people saw her, saw them escaping from the city. They were probably on watch because they knew that Israel was nearby, and so they were pursued for several days, hid in the mountains until they lost their pursuers, and then they could go back to the main body of the camp of Israel without tipping people off to where they were.

So the two men in verse 23 returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua and told them all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us. I find this an interesting statement, too, because when you compare this to the statement 40 years earlier, it was Joshua and Caleb who came back and said, yeah, the people are big, everyone's strong, the fortresses have monstrous walls.

Joshua and Caleb, where the two came back and said, we can take that with the power of God. But the others were all afraid and said, I don't think we can do it. That's what sentenced them to these 40 years. This time the spies came back and they said, you know what, we can do this. We know that we have the power of God, and we know that we can take down this fortress.

How is it in our lives? What have we done to understand the fortresses that are set up in our own lives? Now, we take time as we come into the Passover and we examine ourselves, we think through our lives. Do we think of it in terms of those fortresses? We've heard a number of sermons and Mr. Thomas talks often about the fact that as families there are weaknesses that come through our families, and we tend to repeat that sort of scripting that happens, the things that we grew up with.

And we see it very often when there are different types of dysfunctions that happen within a larger family group. It's not unusual for those things to repeat themselves generation after generation. Sometimes there are outliers in those families and they tend to be people who have had an experience of one sort or another that's made them think about their upbringing. It's made them think about the things that they experience and make a determination and develop tools, whether by themselves or with someone else's help, to not repeat those things. And those can be all kinds of cycles, whether it's stealing, whether it's lying, whether it's adultery, whether it's substance abuse, there are all kinds of things like this that can get laid down as we go through a family life and through generations and repeat the things that we've seen modeled as behavior for us.

There are other things where we ourselves go astray, where we're led aside by different things that we want or things that we give into in our lives, and we start to set up these cycles that begin to repeat, and they set up walls around them and strongholds. We just keep repeating that same behavior over and over again. To what extent have we really looked at our lives to identify those things? What is it about the critical path in our lives and what are the fortresses that are set up?

And when we look at those fortresses, what are the walls? What are they made of? How are they fortified? And how can they be taken down through the power of God?

Just as the people of Israel, just as any invading army, has to scout out a fortress, we should take that same time and care and thought and especially prayer and looking at our own lives and considering what those things are in our lives that derail us consistently spiritually. If you're like me and I think all of us as humans are the same way, there are ongoing, repetitive things that happen in our lives where we don't react the right way. And when we don't think, we don't examine it, a certain thing happens, we react to it, and the same outcome happens over and over again. Unless we break that cycle prayerfully using God's Spirit and really understanding sometimes with outside help what it is that's happening in our lives and inside of our heads, we continue to repeat those things and that fortress does not come down inside of our minds.

With careful planning, even the most difficult fortress can be overcome. And with God's Spirit, it's the same way. Again, think about how these spies came back after they saw Jericho. They said, we can, through the power of God, take this city. And they knew that God, with his support and with his power, after the things that they'd seen in the wilderness, could do anything for them. And like we heard in the sermon at the power that we have in the Holy Spirit, can help us to accomplish any and all of these things in our lives as we seek to overcome sin and get past some of these things that plague us. Think back to one of the famous fortresses many of you might have heard of. It's a fortress called Masada, and it's in Israel. It sits out in the desert, and it's a place that was originally built by Herod as sort of both a palace and a place that he could get away if he was ever attacked by enemies. Masada was set up on the top of a huge sort of flat mountain area. If you think of, if you know what Devil's Tower in Wyoming is, it's not quite that stark, but a large plateau which has pretty steep sides all around it. So it's really out there by itself. There's no way to walk up to the top without taking a winding path that goes all the way around where you're exposed the whole time. And the planes around it are all completely flat, so you could see any army that's approaching. And so what Herod did is he took that natural rock outcropping, and he built a monstrous palace there. Huge water supply, huge food supplies, and he had this whole place ready to go. Well, as Jerusalem was under attack and the Roman armies were sacking it, a lot of Jewish zealots at that time went and they fled to Masada. And they went to that fortress, and they basically just holed up there. But no fortress is impregnable. And the Romans took their time. You can go there to this day and you can see it. And I don't know how many feet tall. It's got to be several hundred feet. They built a siege ramp that went up several hundred feet and probably goes out a half mile to a mile where they could roll their siege works up to the top of it, even while they were under fire from people inside the castle. And after several years of preparation, they were able to breach the walls and get in. So even castles that are built extremely strong with enough time, with enough ingenuity, physically they can be taken down. With God's Holy Spirit, it's the same way in our lives. There is nothing happening in our lives that cannot be overcome with God's help, sometimes with outside help as well, to help us to understand clearly everything that's going on. And God wants us to know that, that if we can take that time, we can use His Spirit, and we continue to go after it, that He, through His Spirit and His power, can help us to overcome these things in our lives. Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 139.

Back to this idea of really understanding what it is that's going on inside of our own minds and inside of our lives. In Psalm 139, we'll start in verse 23. This is something that David spent a lot of time with, and this is not the only place in the Psalms that you'll see this sort of concept talked about. In Psalm 139, verse 23, though, he says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxieties. See if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

So this is exactly the prayer that David was praying in this situation, was saying, God, help me to really understand myself. The mind is a deceptive thing. We deceive ourselves so many times, and David was asking God to help him see through those things, through the situations he encountered in his life, through revelation that he would give him through his Holy Spirit, that he could understand his true self, his true nature, and through God's power could work through those things and overcome them. So again, we need to do the same thing. And as we think about it, it's like going around a castle and seeing what the defenses are, understanding what it's made of, and what tools need to be brought to bear in order to tear that thing down. And those are a multitude of different tools for things like addictions or problems within a family. There is all kinds of help that can be found out outside there that is right along the line with God's way, and is very consistent with his way. And when that, together with God's Holy Spirit, is brought to bear with a problem, there's nothing that can't be done through a Spirit to overcome.

I'd like to take a moment, too, to think about Rahab, because I think this is a very comforting thing that is brought into the same story about Jericho. And it's really interesting that it was through somebody who was unquestionably a sinner that God brought the downfall of Jericho as a fortress. And it was a very early depiction of God's grace and his forgiveness in terms of the way that he treated Rahab. So Rahab, putting no varnish on it, was a prostitute. She lived in a brothel, and that's where she put up the spies. It says that very clearly in the Bible. But yet, after all of that, what else do we learn about Rahab in the Bible? Where else can you think of that she's mentioned? Because she's mentioned a few times in the New Testament. It's in Matthew. What's in Matthew 1? It's the lineage of Jesus Christ. We won't turn there today, but if you look in Matthew 1 verse 5, you're going to see the name of Rahab in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

A prostitute who had faith in God, who exercised that faith, risked her life because of her faith in God, helps in the downfall of Jericho, who then ends up in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

If you turn to Hebrews 11 and you read about the heroes of faith, whose name are you going to see in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes of faith? You're going to see a prostitute named Rahab, who had faith, who gave up her old ways because of that faith, and followed God, and is counted as one of the heroes of faith in the Bible who awaits her promise, just as we hope for that same promise.

Turn with me to this passage, which also mentions Rahab.

We'll read James 2, and we'll read here verses 23 through 26. We think a lot about Abraham as being the father of the faithful, and he absolutely is. What I find incredible is who's mentioned right alongside Abraham in James 2. James 2 verse 23 says, the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise in verse 25, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by her works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

So it's clearly talking about her having faith that manifested itself in the things that she did, exactly parallel to Abraham, who had faith and manifested that faith through the things that she did. And what I love about this tie-in of having her in the middle of this story about Jericho and thinking about the strongholds that we have to pull down in our lives, strongholds, fortresses, castles do not come down overnight. Not surprising at all in a battle back in those times, it takes years to undergo a siege and to take down a fortress. And if we look at our own lives, we know that it takes years as we battle different things. And some things, as hard as we try, we might not fully overcome or get past in our physical lives because of our own weaknesses. But God puts this story of Rahab right smack in the middle of this account of Jericho to make it clear that God has grace, God has forgiveness, and He's looking for faith and action according to that faith. And it doesn't matter what we've done, it doesn't matter how bad it is the thing that we've done, there is forgiveness if we're walking according to His way, if we're trying every day, we're calling on Him, we're repenting, and we're continuing to turn back to His way. And that's an incredible story of hope to me that's put right in the middle of this whole thing. Let's wind up this point in Romans 7. Paul bringing out exactly these same sorts of thoughts as he was looking at his own life, as he considered the strongholds and the fortresses that were in his life. And even Paul, who we look at as somebody who's written a huge wealth of Scripture in the New Testament, a big part of the Bible is written by him, and he talks about the fact that there are things that he just couldn't get past in his life. But he relied on this power and grace of God, he understood himself, and he got up every day, and he fought just as he was admonishing Timothy to fight. Romans 7, let's start in verse 14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, Paul says, sold under sin. For what I'm doing, I don't understand. And what I will to do, that I don't practice. But what I hate, that's what I end up doing. If then I do what I will not do, I agree with the law that it is good. But it's no longer I who does it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I don't find. For the good that I will to do, I don't do, but the evil that I will not to do, I end up practicing it. Now if I do what I will not to do, it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God that it will happen through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So Paul was struggling with these same things, but also relied on the fact and knew that he had forgiveness through Jesus Christ. He had to get up every day and continue fighting that battle in his life.

So as we wrap up this section, we need to take time to fully understand the strongholds that are in our lives, and we need to have confidence in the grace that God gives us to continue to go into battle every day in the spiritual warfare that we've been called into. Third point I'd like to draw out of this example of Jericho is that God's way doesn't look the same as ours, but it does lead to certain victory. God's way doesn't look the same as ours, but it does lead us to certain victory. Now if you were going to take a city like Jericho and build a battle plan for it, the one thing I can bet is it would not involve marching around the city every day for seven days and blowing a trumpet at the end to watch the walls fall down. No battle planner in his logical mind or her logical mind would do that, but that's how God chose to give victory. And he brought it about, total victory, and he did it in his way. And in the end, all they had to do was go in and finish the battle once God had taken down all of the defenses. The other thing that's tied in here is that God didn't want half-measures. He took the walls down, but once the walls were down, the Israelites were expected to go in there, and they were expected to wipe everything out.

And they were only to take certain things captive. They were to burn everything else, right, as we read in the beginning part of the passage. So God wanted total victory. He didn't want anything done halfway. In our spiritual lives, it's the same thing. God wants total victory. He doesn't want us to leave little bits and pieces that we kind of like or this little shiny thing that we see over here that looks attractive. I'm just going to take that and stick it in my pocket and take it with me. God wants total victory. We don't have time to turn to the story of Korah and how things were taken actually from Jericho that weren't supposed to be and what happened, but he wants complete victory, and he wants us to wipe everything out that doesn't have to do with his way. Let's turn to Matthew 18, which lays out this exact parallel for our spiritual lives.

Matthew 18, and we'll read verses 1 through 9. Matthew 18 verses 1 through 9.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, I say to you, unless you are converted and become his little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. So as we were hearing about in the sermonette, Jesus Christ was laying out something that's completely counter intuitive from a human point of view.

Right? And if you think about going all through history and you think about the great emperors and the great leaders and everything else, how many of them, whether you think about Hannibal or Alexander the Great or Napoleon, how many of them would have come along and said, you know what the secret is to me being a great leader? I'm humble and I'm a servant to those around me.

Of course they wouldn't do that, right? So this is this is so counter intuitive. This is counter intuitive, like marching around the city for seven days and blowing a trumpet. But it's what God says is what he's looking for in the heart, in the mind of the people that he's calling to be leaders, as for those who are going to be in his kingdom.

What I find very interesting then is just like in Jericho, they did those unconventional things and then they were to have total victory and wipe everything out. This passage goes directly into verse eight and then says, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's better to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet and be cast into everlasting fire. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you.

It's better for you to enter in life with one eye rather than having two eyes and being cast into hellfire. Now please, I think we all understand this is not literal. Nowhere in the Bible does it advocate us maiming ourselves for any reason. It is talking very powerfully, figuratively, that if there's something going on in our lives that as we evaluate that stronghold, that's a trigger to bring the wrong thoughts and the wrong actions into our lives.

We are told to cut that thing off. Whatever that action is, whatever that stimulus is that comes in, we're told to cut that thing off. That's what we see as the trigger to leading us into a sinful lifestyle. Whatever that might be, whether it's listening to the radio, whether it's watching TV, whether it's looking at the wrong things on the Internet, whatever it is that's triggering those wrong actions, we have to cut off. And we have to take whatever action we need to in our lives to separate those things from us so we don't repeat those sins that might be plaguing us.

Let's go down to 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7, because the other part that I want to just touch on briefly before we end this last point is the power that God gives us. Again, as we think towards the day of Pentecost, we look back at the battle of Jericho. Victory was certain. When we look forward into the things that God has given to us, He also says, without any question, that He wants us to triumph in this spiritual life and to be part of His family. 2 Timothy 1, verses 6 and 7, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God that's in you through the laying on of my hands or fanning those embers as we heard.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind. God has given us power, He's given us love, He's given us a sound mind so that we can have victory through Him. So as we wrap up, the battle of Jericho, which happened somewhere right around this time of year, after Passover, certainly, and more than likely before Pentecost, gives us a blueprint for how we can use God's Holy Spirit in our lives to conquer strongholds. First of all, we have to know that we're at war.

We have to recognize the fact that we are in spiritual warfare. Our weapons have to be kept sharp and close at hand, and we have to be vigilant of the strongholds that are out there, realizing that we can be under attack at any time. Secondly, we have to understand the strongholds that are there in our lives. Just as the children of Israel scouted out Jericho, just as any battle planner knows the enemy, figures out where the weaknesses are, figures out how to attack or defend, we have to know those things.

It takes time, it takes reflection, it takes prayer, and often it takes outside help in order to do those things. We have to have confidence at the same time in God's grace, in His forgiveness, and know that He grants that to us every day as we ask for it and as we turn our lives back towards Him.

And then thirdly, even though the method doesn't often make sense, we have to know and have confidence and faith in the fact that God will give us victory. Through His power, we can cut off the things that feed sin in our lives, and we can move forward with courage rather than fear, knowing that He's going to give us victory. I'd like to wrap up the sermon by reading passage out of Romans 8.

This happens to be my favorite passage in the Bible. If you'll turn with me to Romans 8, and let's read verses 31 through 39 as we look forward to the day of Pentecost tomorrow. Romans 8 verses 31 through 39. What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.

How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who is it who condemns? It's Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who's even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.