How many of you have military experience? I appreciate your service so very much! How many of you would want to go back and do it again? I saw this letter written the other day and thought it was pretty funny.
I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing backwards. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35.
For starters: everybody knows that all young men think about is young women. Old guys only think about women a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.
Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. 'My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry.' We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some jerk that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.
An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a.m and old guys always get up early anyway so why not? Besides, like I said, 'I'm tired and can't sleep,' and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatic.
If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.
Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.
They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with a rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training. Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone outrun a bullet.
An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.
These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way.
Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten coward terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million ticked off old dudes with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.
If nothing else, put us on border patrol....we will have it secured the first night!
Now, I don't know if that's good military strategy or not but it's an interesting take. And it's probably not the craziest military strategy ever used either. In fact, and this is true, if you Google "crazy military strategy", do you know who's picture comes up? Kim Jong Un, the young dictator of North Korea who keeps threatening the United States with nuclear war. Not very smart. But that's still not the most radical departure from normal in military strategy.
What kind of military commander would see that the enemy has 20 men camped out on top of a hill and so he sends one man with his armor bearer to kill all of them? That happened in I Samuel 14. What kind of military commander would say, "Now Gideon, you are way outnumbered so I want you to cull out about 30,000 of your men until you only have about 300 and then I want you to attack"? That happened in Judges 7. Or what kind of army general would send out the smallest boy with the least effective weapon and no armor to do battle against the biggest, baddest giant in the land? Look at 1 Samuel 17 to see that favorite story.
Yes, the Bible is full of crazy military strategy. And honestly, I hope our best and brightest young men at Westpoint are not studying the Bible in their Military Strategy class. I hope they are studying it elsewhere but not there. But I hope you are studying it for military strategy because we know that our battle is not against flesh and blood and the truth is that we are called to be warriors.
Now we have had so many people lately to join our young church that I want to spend 3 Sundays letting people know what is expected of new members at our church. We joke a lot about how we don't have any rules around here and that's pretty much true but there are some expectations. And as a new member, you probably want to know what will be expected of you. And for those who have been around a while, this will hopefully be a good reminder and also informative.
For the next 3 Sundays we will see what is expected and we will see that new members and really all of us are expected to be warriors. We are expected to be holy. And we are expected to be biblical. Those will be the next 3 sermons. But for today I just want us to look at how God wants us to be warriors by looking at the book of Joshua.
When was the last time you read anything in Joshua? I went back over my notes from sermons and saw that I first started preaching about Joshua crossing over into the Promised Land in June of 2011 while we were still in Runaway Bay. We didn't know what God had planned for us but we wanted to be ready to cross our own Jordan River when God asked us to.
And then, just before we moved from Runaway Bay to Lake Bridgeport, I preached a couple of times on chapter 3, verse 5 where it says that Joshua told them to consecrate themselves because tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. And the next day, God allowed them to cross the Jordan River into the land that He had intended for them.
And some of you know a similar feeling. Those of you that were here back in September of last year and heard me preach on that know the feeling of consecrating yourselves, of setting yourselves apart, of making yourselves holy and available for use by God. And you know that the Lord has done amazing things among us in this church. We have crossed over into the land that God intended for us and He has done an amazing work in Lake Bridgeport. We have not only seen new members but we have seen people accept Jesus and we have seen lives changed, marriages made better, finances improved and bodies healed. And while God never promises any of that specifically, He has done all that and more amazing things among us.
And just like the Israelites who crossed that Jordan River, we have a lot for which to be thankful and a lot for which to celebrate. We know we didn't do it; we know that God is the one Who did the amazing things and we just want to celebrate, and we should. There is a time for that. Just like there is a time to be still and know He is God.
You know, I'm quite sure that when the Israelites crossed that big river there was a huge celebration. I'm sure they were grateful and wanted to worship. You know that feeling, right? And I also have an idea that there were a bunch of them that just wanted to start building homes and businesses right there on the banks. "We made it. We don't have to go any farther. Mission accomplished!"
How many of you have ever heard God tell you, “Good job! Now just relax for a while. Mission accomplished.”? None of you have ever heard that because you are still alive. He may tell you to be still; that He’s got this, but the mission is never accomplished until He takes us home to be with Him and it wasn’t for the Israelites.
Let’s read what they had to do as soon as they crossed over the Jordan in Joshua 6:1-21. They barely had time to catch their breath and the very next thing they had to do was conquer Jericho. And as we read I want you to think about how you would have reacted if God revealed this military strategy to you.
Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7 And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” 11 So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Now, that’s some crazy military strategy! Like you, I have heard this story over and over since I was a little kid and I think the older I get, the more incredible it becomes to me. I will say that it had to be pretty intimidating for the city of Jericho. They had 2-3 million people walking around their city, basically the size of Lake Bridgeport, for 7 seven days without saying a word! That would be pretty spooky.
But I want to focus on the people of Israel. I want to see what they did and what they didn’t do. It’s real easy to see just 2 points here but it is vital that we understand them. The Israelites:
1) believed the Word God gave and
2) finished the job God gave.
And the thing about it is that if they had not done the first one, they would not have done the second one and then the end of the story would have been completely different. So let’s see how we know they believed the Word God gave.
We have to admit that the Israelites did not have the best “faith track record”. Over and over again, God would do some amazing thing among them and 30 minutes later they were complaining and crying about “What’s God done for us lately? We’re gonna die out here. All we have to eat is this miraculous manna and we wash it down with water that comes out of a rock. Boo hoo hoo!”
But evidently that walk across dry land where the flooded Jordan River had just been stuck with them at least long enough for them to believe God when He revealed His crazy military strategy for taking Jericho. They didn’t question God. They didn’t murmur. They didn’t complain. Read verse 8 again. 8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward…
They just “went forward”! All of my life I have heard my dad say, “Just act like you know what you are doing.” When I was a little boy, we got back stage at the circus. Do you know how? By just acting like we knew what we were doing. When President Gerald Ford spoke at the SBC we got to meet his Secret Service detail and talk to them and see their guns. Know how? By just acting like we knew what we were doing. That motto has served me well all of my life. I’m pretty sure it’s how I’m standing here today! You think I’m kidding! See, when I was little, my dad would say that and I just assumed he knew what he was doing and so I followed him. What I didn’t learn for several years was that he didn’t know what we were doing either. He was just acting like it. But it worked.
With God, we serve one who knows what He is doing. In Proverbs chapter 8, it says the Lord brought forth wisdom as the first of His works, before His deeds of old. He invented wisdom! He’s not just wise. He invented it and so we know that God knows what He is doing, we believe the Word He has given us and so we trust Him and when He says to, we just go forward.
I want more than anything for it to be said of me when I am dead and gone that Todd went forward when God said to. He wasn’t smart, rich or good-looking but when God told him something, he went forward with what he knew to do. What’s the word God is giving you today? Is He telling you to teach a class or lead a Bible study? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? That doesn’t make any sense. Surely He’s not saying that.
Maybe He is telling you to start some kind of ministry or to give your time and resources to some ministry here in the church. Are you the one whose heart He is laying it on to expand the food pantry or to reach the youth in the area or to minister to battered women? Surely He’s not giving you that word, is He? That would be crazy. You don’t have the time or the money or the knowledge or the blah, blah, blah…tell it to the Israelites!
Do you know what they would say? Believe the word God has given you and just move forward. And then…finish the job God gave you. Now, this can be tricky for us. See, it’s sometimes difficult to know what all the job entails. Sometimes we don’t do enough and sometimes we try to do too much. It’s the tension between “being still and knowing He is God” and doing what young David did when he saw Goliath. He didn’t wait. He wasn’t still. He saw the need and picked up a few rocks and ran toward Goliath and finished the job.
God told the Israelites to march around the city. He told them to blow the horns. He told them to take the Ark of the Covenant. He told them to shout on the last day. He didn’t tell them to try to sneak in or around or over the wall. The wall was God’s job. In 1 Samuel 14, the Israelites didn’t even have to do the killing. It says that God put the Philistines in such confusion that they turned their swords on each other.
So, for you new members, that is what this church does and we expect that from you as well. Not long ago, someone realized that the nursery needed a lot of work so they went after it. Do you know how many babies we had at the time? Zero. But they knew God was asking them to be obedient and so they went forward and did the job.
There are some here this morning ready to teach a children’s Sunday School class or one for young kids. Do you know how many kids we typically run in this church? Zero. I had somebody in the church come up to me a couple of weeks ago and tell me they felt the need to give some money to a fund that didn’t exist at the time. They didn’t know why and it didn’t really make any sense to me but it almost immediately was the exact amount somebody else desperately needed.
It’s up to you to witness to your neighbor. It’s not up to you to save him. It’s up to you to support the church. It’s not up to you to build it. It’s up to you to be close enough to God to know what He is asking you to do and it is up to you to believe Him and it is up to you to finish the job He sets before you. It’s not up to you to know the best way to do it. Believe the word God gives you and then just finish the job He gives you. That’s all He is asking. What is He telling you today?
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