Key points
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1God does not take a side — He is a side; worship begins when we stop trying to recruit God to our plans and surrender to His.
“god doesn't take a side. He is a side”
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2Our strategy is surrender — just as Joshua knelt before the Commander before any battle, victory in the Christian life always follows, never precedes, surrender.
“Our strategy is our surrender”
“what they were called to do wasn't an act of war, it's an act of worship”
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3Our focus must be on the walk, not the win — God called Israel to a worship processional around Jericho, not a military assault, because faithfulness matters more than the outcome we imagine.
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4Worship is an act of obedience — marching silently around the wall for six days was not a military tactic but a corporate act of worship and trust in God's completeness (symbolized by the recurring number seven).
“When we worry about our win more than our walk, we lose both”
“The only way across is the cross”
A story from life
Pastor Bill describes Rock Point's experience of completing its building just before COVID hit and having to trust God through the delay
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5The only way across to God's side is the cross — just as the bronze snake lifted on a pole foreshadowed Christ, healing comes only by looking in faith to what Jesus did for us.
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6Jesus explicitly connected the bronze-snake episode to His own crucifixion, confirming that trusting in His atoning work is the sole path from the death of our own way to the life of God's side.
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7Worship as a weapon means a battle cry going in and a victory shout coming out — singing is not mere feeling but a declaration of surrender, faithfulness, and trust that the walls that need to fall will fall.
“Worship isn't about feeling. It's about fighting”
Application
Pastor Bill calls everyone to stop treating worship as a transaction designed to earn God's favor or recruit Him to personal agendas, and instead to surrender — fully and first — to His side. Practically, this means singing even when you do not feel like it (a battle cry of surrender), walking in daily obedience even when God's instructions seem strange or slow (faithfulness over success), and regularly returning to the cross through communion and reflection to remember that the only way from our side of death to God's side of life is through Jesus. When facing walls that show no sign of coming down, the call is to keep walking, keep worshiping, and trust that God will bring down what needs to come down — in His time and in His way.
