These are the notes taken live during services as captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing. This is not a word for word transcript. For the exact wording, please consult the audio recording.

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Does it ever seem like you are making no progress on your sins? Or only minimal progress? There is a concept called a sin list. Before baptism, we see a list of wrong attitudes and sins. After baptism, sometimes we expect that list to shrink or go away. What we don’t realize is that the list doesn’t shrink, but gets longer. As we pray and study, that list gets longer. Over time, it seems some sins fall off the list. But others are still there. Year after year, we are battling the same things. Some are large, unbeatable sins. Every day or every week we battle these. God absolutely wants us to overcome our sins. Overcoming can be called growth. Maybe you struggle to figure out something to talk about on the Sabbath that honors Christ. Maybe military service and war. Perhaps the thought that we no longer need to preach the gospel. Maybe you are addicted to alcohol, or pornography. Maybe you struggle with emotions like anger, pride, vengeful, overall carnality that flares up. Do we find ourselves struggling to get rid of our sins? What about those that we acknowledge every year at Passover. Yes, God. It is Passover. Yes, I’m still fighting this. Sometimes, we think about the big sins – just chuck the whole thing on God’s plate; it is too big for me! But that is not what God wants.

1 Timothy 2:4 God will not let us down, but we have a responsibility in this. There is the breaking free website. There is professional counseling. God does not want us to just chuck the whole think on His plate. When we were baptized, there was no promise that we could wink and the sins would be removed. The promise was there was that the penalty could be removed. There is a process of repentance. That involves us. Joshua 1:8-9 God is talking to Joshua before the crossed the river Jordan. Joshua was about to do something gigantic. Many times we look at our sins as some monumental thing hovering over us. God wants us in His kingdom. Never forget the goal; eternal life waits for us. I love vs. 9. We need to constantly think of these words. It is so easy with the trials we have to forget about this. We think it is a one man battle. Us and this trial. Us and this persecution. Remember this verse. God is with us. He wants the best for us. He wants us in His kingdom. We know most likely the story of the spies. Joshua sends spies. The king’s men run off trying to find the spies.

Joshua 2:9-11 It interesting to read this dialogue between Rahab and these spies. When we think about those stubborn sins, do we ever think about the positive things God has done for us? Here Rahab reminds the spies of the good. It is important for us to remember the good. It is easy to get so down that we just focus on the trials and the things that fall apart around us. Don’t forget about the blessings. Sometimes you don’t see it until years later. How many have had that happen? Oh, yeah, five years ago, I see God’s hand in that change of job or that move. Don’t forget who your God is. Joshua 5:13-15 Jesus Christ is the Command of the Lord’s Army. God is with us! In the battles that we fight and the persecutions we receive, Jesus Christ is with us. No trial can take us, unless we let it by becoming selfish and turning inward. Who is the command of our army? Is it us? Or is it God? Do we truly submit to God, or do we let our stubbornness to get in the way. The events here are set with Christ in front. Let’s keep focused in our trials that Jesus Christ is the Commander of the Lord’s Army, and the Commander of our lives. The priority must always be God. It is so easy to fall apart and think, “How am I going to handle this?” Regardless of what happens, God is still there; He wants to guide us.

Joshua 6:1-2, 10, 20 God has given us victory over our trials and sins. Even before it is over. Again it is perspective. Is our perspective from the Kingdom of God, or where we stand now? Before this physical life is over, as long as we don’t give up and put the Lord first, we have won. That is perspective that a lot of times we forget: the perspective from the kingdom looking back. God already has a crown for us. He already has a position for us. We will lose focus? Some of our trials may seem like the walls of Jericho? How am I ever going to get past this sin? Mario Siegle wrote in the March/April 1997 Good News magazine: “… archaeological evidence of the excavated Jericho shows that …[they] had a double wall. The first part of the wall was a towering structure of huge stones 15 feet high topped by a brick wall eight feet high. Excavators found that, even if this first wall were breached, the attackers would find themselves trapped inside a pit and looking up at a higher second wall from which defenders could hurl deadly spears, rocks and arrows.” The walls of Jericho were two in number. There were two walls. Do our sins sometimes seem like the walls of Jericho? Absolutely. Two walls. Even if we did make some success, there is this second wall. It is easy to get discouraged. Our lives maybe filled with the walls of Jericho. Seemingly unbeatable trials. But God has given Jericho into your hands.

Vs. 2 – See, I have given Jericho into your hands. They were given specific instructions to march around the city. Vs. 10 – The Israelites had a part to play in this too. It wasn’t just Joshua or just the priests. The entire people had a part. Some two to three million had a part in this. They had to be quiet. For six days, they had to do this. Think of the ridicule they received. On day one or two, the people were aware of what God would do. On days four, five and six, they had their pride back. Oh, it looks like God has left them. They were having great times in the pubs, talking about the silly Israelites were walking. The Israelites had no weapons. No siege towers. What are they going to do, kick down our walls? On the seventh day, they were to repeat the march seven times. Vs. 20 – Jericho was beaten. The walls were down. The walls fell down flat. Imagine a 23 foot tall structure falling down. Imagine the heap of rubble. Imagine the challenge of climbing over the rubble. There would be some broken legs and sprained ankles. God caused two miracles that day; one was that the walls fell down; the other is that they fell flat. It was easy to get over them. When our trials seem overwhelming, remember Joshua. God wants each of you to succeed. He wants everyone here to be in His kingdom. The sins we have will not always have us captive. God can and will lay the walls of Jericho flat. God works with us in stages. Jericho didn’t fall immediately. It took seven days. It took time. It took patience. You say, yeah, I’ve had this sin for years. Remember Jericho. It took time. There was a specific routine they had to follow. These things take time. But don’t lose heart. God is there. God is with you. God wants you to succeed. Even the process of repentance and baptism is in stages. Learning and growth comes in stages. God watches us. God wants to see that time elapse. He wants to know over the long haul, will we stick with it. If a trial pops up today and is resolved on Monday, what character is built? But if it lasts for some years, it shows God a lot more. It shows that we are willing to persevere and put Him first.

Mark 8:22-26 Christ is about to heal a blind man. Vs. 24 – His sight was improved, but still blurry. Vs. 26 – This is a miracle where Christ healed in two different stages. Do you think it was because Christ didn’t have the ability to heal in one stage? Or because His hands slipped? No, it was to show us that some things can only be resolved in stages. That process can be frustrating. But if we endure to the end, it is worth it. What is at stake? Eternal life. There was a movie a few years ago, “What About Bob?” with Bill Murray. They had the concept of baby steps. You could get from here to there in little steps. We look back at life and see little steps. Each of those steps is growth. It is one more cog in our spiritual character. God wants to see that growth pattern. When things come at us, do we get back up? If it weren’t for the carnal mind, we could open the Bible and say that is what we need to do. But that is not the way it works. God wants to see the stages. If you don’t remember anything else about the sermon, remember that God has already given you victory as long as you remain faithful. There are two types of sin: The sin that we battle, and the sin that we ignore. We must be careful that we don’t have any of the second type. We must attack all sin head on with Jesus Christ as the Commander. Don’t push it off. Don’t say, “I’ll get to it next Passover, or next Feast.” Tackle it head on.

Romans 6:12, 19, 22 Don’t backburner a sin. Don’t say, I’ll study that next month or next Passover. Don’t backburner your sins. What it doesn’t say is that God won’t let sin reign. We have a part to play in bringing down the double wall of Jericho. Skip down. Vs. 19 – This is something we have to do. We have to present ourselves to God. He won’t force the Bible to open and our head to implant in it. We have to make the right decision to pray; to study; to fast; to meditate. Vs. 22 – Working with God leads to fruit to righteousness to eternal life. In all the thoughts and wanderings we have daily, nothing less is at stake than eternal life. The concept of a safety net is this: Do we sometimes allow ourselves to sin, knowing we can repent? Do we sin thinking we will just go home and say I slipped up? We shouldn’t go through life expecting to use that net. Christ’s sacrifice is there, but we must not go through life expecting to use it. We can’t have that “oh well” kind of mentality. We can’t go do whatever we want, because when I get baptize, God will wash that away. At baptism, we join with God in a lifelong struggle to do what He says. To practice agape love. What is that promise where God will help us? Joshua 1:5 God will never leave or forsake you. Matthew 21:22 Ask and you will receive. We think of this in physical context. It would be nice to have a new drill to help the widows. God wants us to ask for more of his spirit and the strength to progress.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - Contemporary English translation: (5) With all your heart you must trust the LORD and not your own judgment. (6) Always let Him lead you, and He will clear the road for you to follow. I like that phrase: “He will clear the road.” Think of a dense forest versus a wide open highway. Despite the sins and trials, God can make the way open for us. That does not mean He will just take the sins and trials away and we will have a peachy keen road. The dense forest approach will not work. Hebrews 12:1-2 Vs. 1 – “Therefore” – because of what we said before. Let us run the race. The goal of the kingdom of God. That is the race we are running. Your sins can be overcome. You will look back at your life and see the growth. You will see God’s hand. But remember you have a part to play in this. You won’t just sit sipping cocktails. Be involved in your conversion. Be involved in finding and overcoming sin. With God’s help and your active participation, your sins will come tumbling down.