True North | Week 8 | Bill Bush

but anyways, it's good to be here. Good to be here. Hey, you know what's funny I was thinking about this is, I kind of talk about how social media can cause a lot of the problems we have, but there are some good side to it. And one of the only reasons I even keep social media

is for people that are funny on social media. I like to laugh. But one of the things that it's not so much funny, just caught me as, wow, it's hysterical how clueless I am on so many things, is these

like memes that people would have, like, how many years old were you when you realize and it'll show an item, like something every day, and you and you realize it's has more of a use than you knew, or you're using it incorrectly. Have you seen any of those? The one that got me was I just saw this one a couple days ago.

How many years old were you when you realized that screwdrivers have this kind of shape so you can put a wrench on them if you have a really tight bolt bolt screw, and you need to to get that out? How many did not know that you're you're this minute years old? See, I thought I'd be the only one, and it realized most of us are just as dumb as me,

which then made me think, that's why you listen to me preach, I suppose. But

but it's, like, weird. I had no idea that it had more of a use than than I even thought. Or or here's another one. You ever rent a car or borrow a car and you have to get gas in it and you don't know which side the gas tank is on? Did you know that this little symbol you see the little gas sign symbol? See the arrow?

That arrow is telling you which side the tank is on. How many didn't know that till right now? How many wish you knew that this morning when you went to get gas? Right, no more car stuff. Let's go into the kitchen. How many keep your cookie pans and stuff in there? How many know that that's for keeping food warm?

How many Thanksgiving dinner's gonna get a lot easier now? Yeah. Had no idea. So so let's just recap so far. I don't know anything about tools, cars, or cooking.

Alright. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm luckily, I can preach, I suppose. Couple more. Let's go into the bathroom here. See these types of plungers? You know, this type, the one on left, the type with the cup on it? How many have that extra cup plunger? How many use it on your toilet? How many you know it's designed for a sink?

That that's a sink plunger, people. I had no idea. No idea myself. So last one's the worst. Apparently, all of us have used toilet seat covers incorrectly our entire lives, if you've ever used them. They go that way.

I don't know why I don't agree with this one. I just put that out as I said, I actually think that's against the laws of nature and science. It just doesn't look right to me, but that's how they're supposed to be used. And then answering all these everyday things that we see all the time and use that they either they do more than what we think or we just don't use them right.

And and that's what we're gonna talk about today in this last last episode. I was gonna say I've been binge watching way too many shows. This last episode of True North is gonna be we're gonna look at something that we are called to do, we're given to do. It's something as Christians we do, and we just don't

fully utilize it. I don't think we really understand it to its fullest, and that's worship.

See, when you hear worship, most of us, the first thing that comes to mind is we already did the worship part. That was with the band. Now we're listening to the guy that hopefully doesn't make me wait too long to go eat lunch. You know? And then and there was the worship and then that, and and and we think of worship as just the singing.

Worship is so much more than that, A lot more than that. And we are so underutilizing

what it is and what it's for that I think that's where we're struggling a lot in our desire to follow true north, to walk out a life that just trusts and follows God. We need to have worship. And here's what we're gonna see today is what worship really, really is. And that is this, our worship is our weapon.

Worship isn't about feeling. It's about fighting. It

really is. That's what it's for. And we're gonna see that today as we we look into the story that we've been following along and watching this story of how God led his people from slavery in Egypt to this promised land. And now we're at the part that we're gonna go into the promised land. We've jumped past the forty years where they've been in wandering because the first generation

we saw last week ultimately would not trust God. So he says, hey, I'm still gonna love you, still gonna take care of you, but you're gonna be you're gonna stay out in the wilderness, and your kids are gonna go. The only one that the only two people that are going to the land is a guy named Joshua and Caleb, because they were the only two spies when Moses sent 12 spies into the land. 10 came back and scared everybody else. Two said we should go take the land.

And so now they're going into the land. And what we're gonna see is that Joshua is now their leader. He's he's he's acting like a general.

He's got a plan. He even sent spies in. I said this last week, but he learned from what happened with Moses. He didn't send 12 in to go walk through every place and basically go, let's go see if God was telling the truth. You know, this was he only sent two in. And my theory is he found his Joshua and Caleb, left the other 10 out of the whole deal, sent them in a land, but he didn't send them to wander. He sent them with a specific task. I need you to go reconnoitre. I need you to go spy out Jericho. He had a strategic plan. He knew where he's going. I've been there. If you cross over where they crossed over and you knew where those cities were, that was a good plan. The best place to go, the strategic place would be take Jericho first. So he has them go spy it out. Why? You're gonna look for weaknesses in their defense. How can we get through this wall? How can we break down? And then because you're either gonna siege a city and sit out there and wait till they're starved, or you're gonna have to find a way over it, under it, or through it. That's really just what you gotta do. So he has this whole strategic plan mapped out, and they're gonna go take Jericho.

What we're gonna see is what we think of a strategic thing was more of a spiritual thing. What we often think as our battles out there in life, we think of we wanna handle them like a physical war, but where they're really supposed to be an act of worship. Because what God does in this story

is opposite of everything you would think you're supposed to do. And here's what's crazy. It wasn't just theoretical. It wasn't just a feeling. It wasn't just spiritual. God had them handle an actual physical obstacle and battle in front of them in a very different way than how we want to handle all of ours.

And we're going to see in the story how worship is our weapon. But where we're going to start is in Joshua chapter five. We're going to have this little three verses of something that happens as they're going to Jericho.

Before they even get to the battle site, something happens, and that's where we'll see our first point. But let's look. So it says in Joshua five chapter 13, when Joshua was near the town of Jericho,

he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in hand. So he's walking along and apparently there's one guy, he's got his whole army, and there's one guy just holding a sword. Now he must have looked really impressive or something about him kind of

put some fear because Joshua was like, basically, wait here, guys, I'm gonna go check this out. You have an entire army. And it says he goes over and he went up and demanded, are you friend or foe? So this guy's intimidating, I gotta know.

Are you with us or are you Guinness? You know, are you are you you on our side or the enemy's side? And look what he says. He goes, neither one, he replied. So I'm not on either side. Okay. But then he says, I'm the commander of the Lord's army. Oh, wait. Wait. You're with God.

And then you think he's an angel? Is he not? But we know who he is by what he says next and what happens next. He says, I'm the commander of the Lord's army.

And he says, at this Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. He starts worshiping him. I'm at your command, Joshua said. He surrenders to him. What do you want me, your servant, to do? He says, I'm your servant.

The commander of the Lord's army replied, take off your sandals, for the place where you are is standing is holy. And Joshua did as he was told. So we know that by the way Joshua acted, every time in scripture, if it's if it's some kind of an angel,

they tell you, get off the ground, get up, you don't worship me, worship God. This is what we we, in cemetery, I mean, seminary, I was taught. I said that on purpose, by the way. A theophany. A theophany is when God takes the form,

of of a man or a person so you can see him. And we know that Jesus is the God that we can see almost every Bible theologian would agree with me on this, is whenever you saw Theophany in the Old Testament, it was Jesus pre incarnate.

And so we know it's the Lord because he let him worship him, and he says, you're on holy ground. So, basically, he's going where God told him to go. He's got his battle plan. He's one of the two guys that was faithful forty years ago. So he's following God, and yet Jesus meets him on the road. And when he asks,

whose side are you on? He says neither. How many of you are confused by that answer? You're puzzled, aren't you? Why would he say he's not on Joshua's side? Is he mad at Joshua? Is he a jerk? Why would he do that? Why would he why would he say, I'm not on your side? You know why? Because god doesn't take a side. He is a side.

God doesn't take a side. He is a side. You you gotta get this, guys. A lot of us are worshiping all wrong because we think our worship is an obligation in order to make sure that God's on our side. God will never be on your side. Like, what? I'm just telling you flat out. I don't even have to meet you.

I'm gonna tell you, God's never gonna be on your side ever. You know why? Our side is the way of death. God is his side. What God does want is to provide a way for us to be on his side. And if I get that backwards, if I misunderstand that, my entire faith is in the New Testament, they call this legalism,

law. I've talked about this before. And if you're not you like to read your Bible, maybe you're trying to read it, it's like, man, they keep fixating on it. I'm not about law. I'm about grace. I'm not this. It's about this. And they keep talking about law. You think that what it's saying is, oh, so I don't have to go to church. Don't have to read my Bible. I shouldn't tithe. I shouldn't do these things. No. That's not what it's saying. What legalism is is you're doing these things to get God on your side.

It's like, I want him to be on my side and fight for me, but really, in the end, you're doing that to get God to be with you to go where you want him to go. That's what legal I'm earning God's love. I'm getting him to serve. I'm getting him on my side. That's never gonna happen. God will never be on your side.

What you have to decide is God has provided a way for me to join him on his side. And that's what worship is. Worship is a way of of of reminding

me, of of calling out, singing. Like when I say singing, worship is more than singing. But what singing of music is in worship is it's it's it's a battle cry and a victory shout.

So we should sing the songs to God even if we think we're lying because we're singing words we don't even follow and mean. But if you sing it with the heart that says that's where I wanna be, that's what I long for, help me to be this God, help me to see you this way, help me do that. That's a battle cry. Help me walk into the battle of surrendering to you. And then as you walk with him in obedience and you see the victories that he takes you to, because you're on his side now, you're with him. You're winning those battles, because guess what battles you're in? You're in the battles where he is.

Not the battles you want, the battles he takes you to. And as you win that, then we sing more. Singing is also the thank you. It's the shout of victory. And so a lot of us don't sing, and it's not just because you don't like music.

It's because you're trying to get God on your side so you don't really have a battle cry, and you don't have anything to shout victory towards. Because until God gets on your side and gives you your blessing, you don't really embrace it. That's the truth. That's how it works. So in other words, what am I saying here?

Point number one on how to make worship our weapon is simply this. Our strategy is our surrender. That's how this type of fight is different. Our strategy what did what did what did Joshua do on that road? Why did he kneel down a bit? And why did God wanna remind him of that at this moment? He's already been following him.

See, in because in in regular battle, in the way we think in the world, the world's way of thinking is you go win a victory, and then there's a surrender. God says, you surrender, then there's a victory. Surrender always comes before victory when it comes to being on God's side.

And so what he's doing is he needed Joshua to be reminded, are you on my side? I need you to know. It's almost like he came up to Joshua. He's like, hey. Wait. Wait. Wait. Before you go any further,

I just gotta make sure we're on the same page here, buddy. And you know why? Because we're about to look at what happened to the battle of Jericho.

And what we're gonna see is what God's almost setting him up for is I just gotta make sure you understand you're on my side, I'm not on your side. And we gotta get this right because what's about to happen tomorrow is not gonna happen in any way, shape, or form the way you drew it up in your battle plan. It's not gonna happen the way you imagined it. It's not gonna be. And even the result of the victory, you're not gonna get what you think you're gonna get. Because what happens when you went to take a city, traditionally, you had a plan to get through the wall, over and under it or through it, some kind of weakness.

You also, once you took these cities, the reason you took the city, if you're gonna take the whole land, I need that strategic city to hold the land, but I also need to take that city because I need their food and I need their gold.

So that's what you do. That's the traditional way. That's how you survive. That's how you make it. So, yeah, the one thing they're doing, they're agreeing with God, is they're gonna go take the city, but what's about to happen is not gonna happen the way they thought.

It's actually gonna happen a way they think is stupid. And and what he tells them to do once they have the city is very different than what you do. And if you don't surrender first, and you surrender to the fact that I said, my goal here, worship in my life means I am on God's side.

Abraham Lincoln even said this in the civil war. Because, you know, the North South, they both said that, you know, a lot of Christians. And they said, whose side do you think God's on? And he says, I pretty much would rather prefer to think, am I on God's side? That's what we need to figure out.

Not whose side is he on is is who's choosing to be on his side. So you gotta surrender. Surrender is the strategy of worship if you want it to be a weapon. And that's why I challenge people to sing if you don't feel like singing. You know why? That's a choice to surrender. But see, if worship is about feeling, not fighting,

if you don't feel it, you won't do it. Hence, you're not surrendered. That's the point. That's the whole point. So strategy is surrender. We have to remember that

going in. So then what happens next? Let's go into the story now. Because it's about to happen very different than I get than Joshua and all his officers and his men and his people imagined this was gonna happen. It says, now the gates of Jericho, in chapter six, were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites.

No one was allowed to go in or out. But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around. Listen to this what he tells them to do. March around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the ark,

each carrying a ram's horn. On the seventh day, you're to march around the town seven times with the priest blowing the horns. When you hear the priest give one long blast on the ram's horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse and the people can charge straight into the town.

Let's keep reading. So Joshua called together the priests and said, God has a plan that just won't work. I have to support you. We need the town. We need the food. We need the money. We need this. His plan is dumb. It's never gonna work. We're not gonna listen to him. We're gonna do it our way.

No. Wait. That's not Joshua. That's how we talk. So

I said we. I included me. Okay?

So Joshua called together the priests and said, take up the ark of the Lord's covenant and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram's horn. Then he gave orders to the people, march around the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the ark of the Lord. After Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests with the ram's horn started marching in the presence of the Lord. It's kinda interesting, in the presence of the Lord. Remember that? Blowing the horns as they marched, and the ark of the Lord's covenant followed behind them. Some of the armed men marched in front of the priests the horns and some behind the ark, with the priest continually blowing the horns.

Do not shout. Do not even talk, Joshua commanded. Not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout, then shout.

So the ark of the Lord was carried around the town once that day, and then everyone returned to spend the night at the camp. Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests again carried the ark of the Lord. The seven priests with the ram's horns marched in front of the ark of the Lord, blowing their horns. Again, the armed men marched in front of the priests with their horns and behind the ark of the Lord. All this time, the priests were blowing their horns. On the second day, they again marched around the town once and returned to the camp. They followed this pattern for six straight days.

On the seventh day, the Israelites got up at dawn. They had to get up extra early because they and they marched around the town as they had done before. But this time, they went around the town seven times.

The seventh time around as the priest sounded a long blast of their horns, Joshua commanded the people, shout for the Lord has given you the town, and then said Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, she helped the spies.

Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel. Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought to his treasury. That is a weird battle plan.

If even if you don't know combat, you know that's a stupid plan. Because in that, like I said, how you take a town, God says you're not gonna do that. What you're do is you're gonna line up. The army's not gonna talk. No hooping and hollering. You're gonna quietly, solemnly follow the ark.

The priests are gonna be there. There's gonna be seven priests with seven ram's horn. The only noise is gonna be these priests are gonna blow these ram's horns the whole time. And you're gonna do that once a day for six days, and the seventh day, you're gonna do it seven times in a row. Can I just tell you how strategically,

if you think the way the world thinks, the way we wanna go fight our battles, and we say we believe in Jesus, but then we go fight him the way everyone else does is, this is colossally stupid? Because if you walk around the distance of that town, you walk around that wall, you are in the line of fire.

Have you ever seen any movies where they're sieging a wall? You stay back, you run up as fast as you can with something covered. You either ram that gate, throw up those ladders, and a lot of people die climbing the ladders to get over, or you if you, in later times, they could try to even is there a way to tunnel under this? And and and and you do not just walk along the wall.

You know why? They will throw stuff at you. Rocks, arrows, insults. And you and then you look up sticks and stones made vapor a month, but those words really hurt. So not only did god tell him to do something, and then how is that bringing the wall down? How is that doing anything?

It's just putting them in the line of fire. I'm so sorry, guys. God did not call us to be safe. If you don't wanna listen to God because you think that doesn't sound safe, then you don't know God. But guess what? You can do very unsafe things if you're on his side, and you'll be fine.

Because that's where the victory comes from. That's where the battle belongs to. And so he calls him to do this weird thing. Don't talk, walk.

Walk once a day, which was an hour. I've been to ancient Jericho. It's about an hour to walk around the whole distance. So you're gonna go on an hour walk. You know, you'll get your steps in. That'll be good. But but you're gonna get rocks running. So for an hour, you're in danger. And then think about the poor priest. They're the only ones that were making any noise. They had to blow a ram's horn. I've blown a ram's horn. It's difficult. It's hard. Can you imagine blowing one of those for an hour straight?

I'm surprised they weren't passing out, especially on the seventh day when they did it seven times. Imagine that. They'd be

like in no time. I thought they'd collapsing. Like, we've got a piper down. A piper down. It's an old movie reference. If you get it, you're cool. And and and and think so. For for six straight days, for one hour they walked, imagine what they were talking about at the camp at night. Is this Joshua's plan?

Maybe he spent too much time in the sun for those forty years. And then that seventh day, come on people, if you've ever been in combat, would you want to have to fight hand to hand fresh or after hiking for seven straight hours?

So even the plan for when they do, he says, you do get into the fight, you're gonna have been walking silently for seven straight hours.

Imagine that. Imagine how if you think the other way around, god, I don't get this. Imagine that long walk of just sitting there, hearing the insults and the yelling and the rocks and the and the stuff coming at you. And and you're like, I don't see how this is ever gonna work.

See, you'll never do that if you don't surrender first. Surrender is your strategy. But you're never gonna survive that moment if you don't understand what god's doing. You see, that sounds stupid the way they have the processional, the silence, the ark, the horns,

all that stuff. That sounds dumb if you're thinking war. But what they were called to do wasn't an act of war, it's an act of worship. That was more like a worship processional that they would do in this time. Follow the ark, proceed around, the priests are there. So they were actually asked to worship in that moment,

not fight the way we normally fight. New Testament says we don't fight with flesh and blood the normal way. And this is a physical battle. They are gonna have a physical fight. But even going into this real obstacle in this world, this actual moment, they were still called to worship first. It was an act of worship.

Worship is our weapon. If they don't worship, they don't win. And so that's kind of the and and what this act of worship was was they needed to obey. Worship isn't just singing. You do the battle cry, but now they gotta go on the walk. They have to go on the walk. That's what worship do you realize obeying god, obedience,

doing what he's called you to do with your time, your money, your relationships? That is an act of worship.

And he's gonna ask you to do stuff that makes no sense. Matter of fact, why did he say it was an offering to the Lord? He said, you're gonna give. Even when you get into the town, the wind doesn't even mean what you think it means.

And see, that's the problem if we think I'm trying to get God on my side. That legalism that get him on your side is because you wanna be blessed by God. Here's the problem when it's get God on your side. If if if if it's you getting God on your side and your plan, then who defines what blessing is? I do. You do.

So what happens when you hear God's gonna bless me if I obey him? But you think the other way around. It's not about being on his side. You think then blessing means I'll get what I really want if I do what he wants. No. Blessing is not getting what you want.

Blessing is getting what God has planned for you and being a part of what he has for your life. That's what blessing is. And a lot of times it involves things we really, really, really want. Blessing from God's point of view is I'm gonna give you what you desperately need, not what you always want.

And here's the problem. We're worse than our own kids when it comes to this. We somehow refuse to surrender to this, guys. But yet we we we get mad when our kids do it. I didn't realize how exhausting a a a a seventeenth month old was because I haven't had one in so long. But then I'm watching my grandson.

And, man, the kid he wants everything he shouldn't have and and and and and runs at these things and will ignore the things that are there for his benefit.

I mean, it doesn't matter how many toys you buy him, he's gonna want the remote controls. You take him out by the park, you're like, there's little kids stuff to play and you think, oh, go play over here. What does he wanna run at? The ducks in the lake. You know, and and what

if he got the blessing he wanted, guess what's gonna happen? He's gonna drown. I hate to say it. We're like kids in the eyes of God. Doing what God wants k. And have you ever had your kids, even as they get older, come home, the house is spotless? It's because they want something.

You know that. It's they want something. Same goes for husbands. Wife comes home. If the house is spotless, he wants something. Very specific.

Sorry.

It only happens in this service, I'm telling you guys.

And a lot of times if it's something that's in your will, it happens. But if you know it's not good, it doesn't matter. So if I think that I'm I'm I'm getting God on my side, what happens when I don't get the blessing I want and I've walked the walk?

See, here's point number two.

If our strategy is surrender, our focus is on our walk, not our win. The focus needs to be on the walk, not the win. There's gonna be a win on the other side, but if I focus on my win,

I won't focus on the walk with God. And God is often gonna say, as we go on this journey, I got someplace I want you to go, and you hear part of the win you want. I I wanna take Jericho. There's things you want. Okay. And God's like, yep, that is my will. Let's go. But then the way he's gonna take you on that journey is not gonna come out the way you want, and you gotta choose. Am I gonna walk quietly with the Lord?

Am I gonna walk in obedience? That's why they walked around. Why do you think it was priests? It was a worship act. It was an act of worship and obedience. Why do you think there were so many sevens? 14 sevens in the 20 It mentions seven fourteen times in the 20 verses we just read.

And if you know anything about scripture, you know that numbers have symbolic and significant meaning. And you know what the number seven means? Completeness, wholeness, perfection. That's why I was born on 07/07/1970. Just saying.

07/07/1977, I turned seven. That's a lot of sevens. But, no, it does. It really means completeness, wholeness. And and so what God is saying is by the seven priests, I'm in this, God's plan,

God's side is whole. God's side is complete. Our side isn't. Our side leads to death. Where we wanna go leads to death no matter what. God's side is the one who has life. It's the only one that's oldest. The only one that has completeness. It's the only one that you walk behind it, and it's got that fullness and completeness.

Do you know a number that means counterfeit, incomplete, never gets the job done, basically? Six. Interesting. Six is used in the Bible, rather scarily in the last book of the Bible. It's repeated three times, isn't it? 666,

the mark of the beast. We're all worried about some type of tattoo or whatever, the nanobots that they're gonna get us and and whatever it is. But you realize six six six repeated simply means this, if you repeat something three times in scripture, that means infinite. That's why the angels

flying around in in Isaiah around the God's throne said, holy, holy, holy is Lord my God Almighty. When they repeat it three times, it meant infinitely holy is God. Perfectly holy is God. So if you say six six six three you say six three times, guess what that's symbolic of? You were saying the counterfeit, incomplete

plan that leads to death that is opposed to this perfect whole plan of God is infinitely counterfeit, infinite complete, and will never ever ever work.

And I'm telling you, too many of us as Christians are worried about a mark on our forehead when the reality is you already live the six six six plan in your life every single day.

That's what we should be worried about cause that's where you're gonna lose. You're not gonna win because winning is being on God's side and winning means life. Our side means death. And we have to surrender to that.

We gotta quit playing a game that says, I'll do a little bit for God and I'm gonna wait. Did he give me what I wanted? We gotta quit saying, I'll trust you with my money when you give me more money when I trust you. That doesn't work. Surrender before victory. Always. Always. Always.

And the second point is worry about the walk more than the wind. When I worry about the wind, I don't care. I'm more worried about that. If I just focus on the walk, it happens. Because here's what it's really saying. My dad, I used two phrases he said as leading man into combat

as many times as he did last week. He had another phrase that he learned in combat was this, planning is everything and nothing. Any soldiers in here already know that to be true? What that means is you can have the greatest plan. Here's what we're gonna do on this mission. And it never goes. Ever. A 100%.

Like how it was planned. So is the answer to not have a plan? That's even dumber. I cannot imagine armed forces having no plan. The idea there is, as the Marine Corps says, you adapt and overcome. You know that any plan, you have to pivot.

And that's why you gotta surrender first and worry about the walk. Because even if there is a plan, god's taking you towards something that that you know is gonna be a great victory. I guarantee it's never gonna go the way you imagined in your head. Ever. This building is a perfect example.

Everything God opened the doors. We knew we were called to we needed more room. We're serving him. We're doing everything. We're like Josh. We crossed over, you know, the Jordan. We've trusted him. He parted the Jordan, the waters, and allowed us to build this building. We raised the money. The building went up with no problems. And then right when we were supposed to open it and actually start using it, COVID hit, we couldn't use it.

And I met Jesus on the road out here. I said, are you friend or foe, man? And he goes, neither, dude. I am a side. Are you gonna trust me? And I go, okay. And he goes, let's take a walk around the walls. And we walked for months around the walls. And I gotta tell you, that was difficult. I'm not saying this is easy

cause we're wired to want to distrust and and and trust ourselves more than anything else, even God.

But man, we had a newcomers dinner last night. They usually get like thirty, forty. We had almost 200 last night. Our

youth ministry and young adults grew massive. They had to come into here, More than doubled in size. We've had so many people come to Christ. We've had almost 200 baptisms even since we were shut down. We come back. God was still doing what god was gonna do.

But I had to have that moment where had to say, am I gonna be like Joshua? Okay. I'm gonna surrender to you. I'm on your side. I'm not gonna fight you on this. And if I have to walk around this and walk around this and walk around this,

now that's a bad illustration at the end of the story. I don't want the walls to fall down, but I want the room to be filled up. But you know what I'm saying. Planning is everything and it's nothing. Why is it so hard for us to understand that when it comes to God?

We get it in so many other ways. Think about it. You get it as a parent. Every parent has a plan, and then you have a kid.

Every spouse has a plan, and then you get married. And then you realize planning is everything and nothing. Her plan is everything. Your plan means nothing. Right? Why do I always get the claps for that? Like, it's everything and nothing.

Our focus needs to be on the walk, not the win. In other words, what this is really saying is worship is about being faithful, not successful.

I need to focus on being faithful, not so focused on being successful. Write that down. I just gave you a parenting sermon in one sentence. You would have a much better time as a parent if you focus your kids on faithfulness, not success. Grades. Do you do you try to teach your kids to get all a's?

Or do you point them towards do your work to its best and teach them how to love to learn? My mom used to ask me every day when I get home, not how did you on the test? What was your grade? What what what new did you learn today that you didn't know yesterday? Tell me something new. She

never once asked me about grades. I graduated with a 4.6 GPA in high school. Not one time. Now it could be because I'm seven seven seventy seven, and so I'm not complete, but I doubt that.

We focus too much on the success, on the win when God just asks us to be faithful. That's what he was asking me when he said, you're not going in here. He he I think part of what he did for us, and especially for me as a leader, was he took that moment

and said, you do realize why you have this building. You do realize where we're going. You do realize that I'm not on a side. I am a side. And you need to always be surrendered to my side. Period. And that's the journey God's taking us on. In other words, let me me give you a quote from a ruggedly handsome pastor I know.

I'm joking around a lot. I'm sorry. When we worry about our win more than our walk, we lose both.

You lose both. But it's funny, if you worry about faithfulness over success, you almost always end up with success. Maybe not the exact success you wanted, but you end up with the success you needed. If all you worry about is success, you almost always end up with no faithfulness. You push someone to be only about the grade,

you end up with cheating. And then they lose not only the grade, they lost the faithfulness and the success that comes from the grade.

So why do we play that game with God? I don't know. I don't know why. I know what the answer is. And that's this third point. I wanna tell it to you, I wanna jump in another passage so we can kinda wrap this up.

The third thing about how worship is our weapon is you need to understand and embrace that our only way across is the cross.

Our only way across is the cross. The only way I get from my side to God's side is through what God did for me.

The only way we get to a cross to God's side is the cross, what Jesus did for us. We have to embrace his love. If you don't see his love and embrace his love, you won't have the ability to love back. You also won't understand. You'll never wanna trust him. If you don't understand what Jesus did at the cross for you, you will never truly trust Jesus when he asks you to walk around a wall a whole bunch of times and and then cause something to happen funny. Because if you look at the end of the story, look at look at the very end. It says in verse 20 of chapter six, when the people heard the sound of the ram's horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. So they did it God's way, and they got the win.

Now a guy named Achan didn't trust God with the money. That's the very next story. Go read it. See what happens to him. He gets the win and then keeps the keeps the he refuses to trust him with that. I want the shiny stuff.

That's why I have to talk about a lot. That's one of our biggest downfalls. But look, they want it. And you know what's crazy about that? We don't see what God sees. It's weird. The walls fell out. It was interesting. And back in the nineteen forties, I believe, I've been there, but they don't do a lot of archaeological

stuff there anymore. They kinda shut it down because it's in a Palestinian controlled part of of Israel. And so they don't want anyone in because when they originally excavated it, this group found that the walls were all fall down at the same time outward. That's never happened anywhere else on the planet.

That that walls fell all at the same time, all in the same direction. If a city got siege, which they knew it would, there's always some commonalities. Part of the wall is punched in.

If it fell apart just because the city stopped being used and fell into ruin, you'll have some rocks this way, some rocks that way. It kinda just crumbles down. They found this archaeological thing perfectly. The walls all fell at the exact same time. There's no

other phenomenon in no earthquake would have made it do it that way. Nothing. So that confused them until someone pulled out their Bible

and said, this is actually already talked about, and it actually helped them understand when they found the grain silos empty. So if you abandoned a city or you had a thing that would have eaten it that night, then the grain silos were full. It was, there was grain still in there. It had been, petrified and solid. None of the food was taken.

None of the stuff that was that was left there. It's like, what just happened? What they found in ancient Jericho was exactly what this by the Bible story describes. A matter of fact, there's only one part of the wall still left. It had the remains of of of when they looked at it, they said this part didn't fall,

and it was a little bit left. It was a part of a structure that had been a house. They go, wow. It's interesting. Only this one little thing stayed. What did the story say? There would be one house left. Wouldn't there be? The house of Rahab. Guys, god does what he says he's gonna do. We just gotta start trusting him.

And the only way we can is to the cross. The only way across is the cross.

And and they would've known that even back then, even before Jesus. They wouldn't have known his name was Jesus, but I just wanna finish. I wanna look at a passage in Numbers. Numbers was what happened when why whether they're wandering in the desert. It's it's what was happening during the wandering. There was an incident that happened that I just wanna read. It says here in Numbers 21, the people were wandering on this journey, and it says they grew impatient with a long journey.

Just like kids. God, when are we gonna get there? And and they began to speak in verse five against God and Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness? They complained.

There's nothing to eat here and nothing to drink, and we hate this horrible manna. Doesn't that sound like your kid? There's nothing to eat. The pantry is full. There's not that's what they're saying. There's nothing to eat and the manna sucks. They said there's nothing to eat

but what we're eat but but the food. There's nothing to eat but the food, and we don't like it. See, they were fed. God had supernaturally taken care of them, but they didn't want what God was giving them. So they started complaining again.

So the Lord get this. So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and die. Wouldn't you like to have some of that power as a parent? Nothing to eat,

it worked. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the lord will take away the snakes. So, Moses prayed for the people. Guess what? He didn't take away the snakes.

But look what he does. He tells Moses, the lord then told him, make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it.

So Moses made a snake out of bronze, attached it to a pole, then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed. Think about that ridiculous.

Take away the snakes. Now, you know what I'll do? We're gonna make a bronze version of the snake. We're gonna stick it up on a pole. And then when you get bit,

just look at that, and you'll be okay.

Imagine the first person who had to test that. Oh, I'm gonna die again. Look at the guy. I'm not gonna do it. That's stupid. I guarantee people still die because they thought it was dumb. But whoever trusted God looked, and they were healed.

You know where they would have put this snake on a pole? By the tabernacle.

Because if you remembered Pat a few weeks ago described how they would lay out their camp when they were traveling, the tabernacle where they'd worship the presence of god to be was put always in the center so they can always see. No matter where you're at, you could see the tabernacle to see the presence of god with you. So that would been the place they could put it where no matter where you're at, you can see.

The other thing we learned that Pat showed us a few weeks ago is they didn't just make a huge circle of tents around. God gave them specific instructions on how to set up their camp. So if you remember when they did the aerial shot, he showed you that picture. What did the camp look like? Instead of a big circle, what did it look like?

So A when they were bit by the snakes, they had to look up at the center of this cross and see what was hanging on it.

And why do you not take away the snakes? The snakes was symbolic of their sin. The snakes were not there because God brought them just to be mean. They brought the snakes. The snakes, they were dying from their own sin. Their own rebellion was killing them. That's what sin does. It's the way of death,

even if you think it's the right way. And so what he said is how you're gonna be healed is I'm gonna take the very thing that's killing you, your own sin, and I'm gonna stick it up on this pole, and you're gonna see it hanging there, you're gonna trust that I took care of it. And then you're gonna be okay.

You're like, this is weird. This is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus. But now let's jump into John three. Everyone knows John three sixteen. Right? Some idiot at a football game always holds up the sign. You ever read verse 14 or 15? Let's read them. Look what it says.

As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

And then if you jump over to second Corinthians five verse 21, for God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ. In other words, it says, he became the sin. So, god put a symbol of their sin up on this thing to say, I've taken care of it.

That's Jesus. The reason they made that that that snake thing up there wasn't because it's a weird Harry Potter thing. Matter of fact, if you work in the medical community, that's your symbol. That's where they get it from. The snake on the stick. Snake. Not snake on a plane, snake on a stick.

That's what it means. And the only way those Israelites could be healed was to just look at their sin on the cross. That's it. People still died because they wouldn't believe it. That's it.

The only way across is the cross. That's the whole purpose of worship. That's the only way we can worship. It's only way we can engage. It's the only way we can live. We have to bend knee at the cross just like Joshua to the meeting. He met Jesus and he got on his knee and he surrendered to him and that's what we need to do and that's what we need to do all the time. We're not about getting god on our side. We're about joining his side. He became sin

for us. That's the gospel. That's the very way we know god. It's only through the cross. It's only through Jesus. So what I wanna do to close off is I want us to take communion. But right now, if if if you already know the Lord,

I think Jesus instituted this moment where the night before he was crucified, he broke bread, said, this is my body broken for you. He then took the wine and said, this is my blood spilt for you. And you know what's weird? He said, do this in remembrance of me.

Of all the things you want us to remember, you wanna remember this moment. You know why? Because it's that story in numbers. What he's trying to say is, this is life. This is the only way to life. This is the only way. You have to put your faith in me. You have to look to me and people go, that's just seems ridiculous.

I've, all those snake bitten people thought that was ridiculous too and we all have been snake bitten by our own sin and our own sin leads to death and eternal separation from god. And if you worship as an obligation or you show up, you're to do the bare minimum to try to get what you want from god

but you need to surrender. So, if you are already a Christian, just stink. Where have I kind of wandered from his side? Because I think that's why he says do this remembrance. He asked us to do this frequently to give us a moment to reflect and return.

So you start thinking, and I just wanna pray. But I wanna pray with some of you online in this room that you've never had that moment on the road where you've knelt to Jesus, looked at him on the cross, you've never turned and seen him, and put your faith in what he did for you.

And I'm gonna pray with you so you can know him and take this and let this be something. And then we're gonna practice what I just preached before we leave. Sound good? Let's pray. Hey. If you're somebody either watching on the TV screen or sitting in this room

that you may have come to church, you may have played the game, you may have done all this, but you've never just surrendered your life to Jesus' love, you can do that right now and just pray, Dear Jesus, thank you. Thank you that even though I've been bitten by the snake of my own sin, I turn to you now, away from myself.

I want to be able to worship you and have it be a weapon in my life, not an obligation. So right now, in the best way I know how, I put my faith in what you did on the cross. You died for me, but you came back to life and you beat death. And I put my faith completely and only in you. Thank you.

Now help me to go from this moment learning more and more what it means to worship you and use worship as a weapon. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. He took the bread. He broke it. Said, this is my body broken for you.

He then took the cup, said, this is my blood spilled for forgiveness of your sins. Drink.

Hey, guys. Can you stand up? You know what? We're gonna sing a song. We're gonna do a battle cry and a preemptive victory shout. And we're gonna have this moment. We're gonna remember. This is what worship is. It's our weapon.

And, guys, I know a lot of us are out there, and God's asking you to just walk around the perimeter of these walls. And you're wondering, this seems like it's taking forever. I don't see how this is gonna work. How do I stay faithful? I don't see anything happening.

And he's like, now you want me to do this again and again and again? Well, that's what we do. We have worship as our weapon in that moment. We honor him. Worship isn't just singing. It's the battle cry, but it's the walk. It's the obedience. It's the trust.

It's the willing to shout it out when it's time to shout out. And it's time to shout. It's time to say, God, I trust that the walls that need to come down will come down. I trust that you'll give me the city I'm supposed to take. I trust that you'll take me where I wanna go, and I will obey you because where I wanna go is where you are.

Because I wanna be on your side because your side is life. The other side is death. So in this moment, I'm gonna shout to you. I'm gonna sing to you. I'm gonna raise a hallelujah because my weapon is a melody.