Hebrews chapter number eleven, have one verse, so maybe two verses we’ll look at this morning, something we talked about with our teenage class on Wednesday night. So those young men that were in that class and heard this lesson may have a different twist to it, so make sure you listen, okay? Number 30 and verse number 31, hebrews, chapter 1130 and 31. And we’ll title this morning’s lesson by Faith. The walls fell down. By faith the walls Fell down. Before we begin to read God’s precious and holy word, let’s say just a moment and pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the privilege and opportunity to be back in Your house this morning. Thank you for our church family. Thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege it is to be a Christian, Lord, and to be able to open Your word this morning and be able to hear from heaven. We as a group of believers stand in need of help. We as a group of believers stand in need of hope. Lord, we need some encouragement, we need some strength. We need some help, Father, to get through this life. Lord, we thank you, Lord, without you, we couldn’t get through this life to start with. Lord, we thank you that you’re ever with us and you ever see everything that we’re going through and you’re with us every day of our life. But Lord, we need at times we just need a little more help, a little more encouragement, a little more strength. There’s people, Father, that are facing battles that I know nothing of. But Lord, I know that you know all about it and ask you to put Your arms around them, lift them up close to you and encourage them, let them know that you love them. Father, blessed in the sunshine hour, help all those are here to hear with their spiritual ears what you have in the word of God for them this morning, lord, encourage them. We pray emptiness for ourselves, fill us with Thee and help us to be attentive to Thy Word. We ask in Jesus name, amen. We’ll read a couple of verses here and then we’ll read more Scripture. But I just want to start this morning here in Hebrews chapter number eleven. And look at verse number 30. The Bible says, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the heart of rehab perished not within that believed not which you’d receive, despised with peace. Now, probably won’t get into a lot of the rehab this morning, but those verses are intertwined because they both happen in the same location, right, and the same time in the Scripture. But there’s two different things I want to give to you. One thought this morning, one thought, by walls by faith, the walls fell down. Look at something with me. If you were to look at that verse. The Bible says, by faith. How many times you read this verse? By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down comma. What’s the next word? After. Well, if we could really tie to this morning’s lesson, it would be after. Great things happen in our life. After. Sometimes there’s things that come into our life. Sometimes there’s circumstances or trials, tribulations. Sometimes there’s it looks like it’s the end of the road. This is it. There’ll be no tomorrow, may not even be today finishing today. But there’s one thing we can always rest assured of. There’s always an after. There’s always an after. If something happens in this life and today’s the last day that we live we don’t make it through this day, there will be an after. There’ll be an after. There’s an after for those of us who born against children of God, saved on our way to heaven, there’s an after. There’s a heaven. Amen. For those of us those that may be listening, those that are not saved by the grace of God, there’s still an after. The grave is not the end. There’s always an after. There’s a trial. There’s a tribulation. There’s something that’s going on in your life. There’s a hardship. There’s a battle that you’re facing. There’s a battle that you’re in the middle of. There’s a storm that you’re in the middle of. There’s a Jericho that you’re facing. Let me encourage you this morning, there will be an after. There’ll be an after and this too shall come to pass. Now, it’s that point of getting to Jericho and going through Jericho that seems to be difficult. After we’ve crossed the Jordan River and the battle’s been won, the victory’s been won where God parted the Jordan River like he did the Red Sea and they walked across on dry ground. God did great and wonderful things. It was a mighty act of God. They placed stones as a memorial. They had a cleansing of purification. And then there was Jericho. Then there was Jericho. Then the battle began. Then the task began. Then what seemed maybe to be insurmountable began. But there was an after. Now, we’re blessed to be on measure that we know the results of what happened. We’re blessed with that. But how would you like to travel back in time if we could? All of us? If you go, some of you might be afraid of heights. I am. When we drive, maybe we just fly back. Right? What if you could go back in time and stand among the soldiers that day after the purification after they’ve come across the Jordan River they’re standing there and they’re looking at the walls of Jericho. You could say to them, man, great things are going to happen. It’s going to be wonderful. Where do you see what God’s going to do? But in turn, when you’re looking at that soldier what’s that soldier feeling? What’s that army feeling? What’s that army see? Oftentimes we get caught up in the seeing and not the by faith believing. We see the walls of Jericho. We see the soldiers that have been trained. We see the battle. We see what the outcome might be. We lose sight of the one who’s in control. There’s an after. Amen. Two great events here. The walls fell down. Rehab, perish not. I want to look at the first this morning and dress the first this morning. I think about those soldiers as we travel back in time. And then we stand next to them and we hear them talking, and we listen to their concerns and we see all that’s happened over the last couple of days we’ve traveled through. We know the history of their ancestors and how their ancestors came over to the promised land. The first time decided, well, we’re not going to go. Spent 40 years in the world and this Moses passed away. Now, Josh was the leader. We’re going to go again. We get over to the Jordan River. It seems like it’s unsurmountable task. We’re going to cross that river, but God blows the wide open. Amen. We cross the cross on dry and what a blessing it is. The stones are placed there. We make that a memorial into God. We gather and we look ahead and we can see there’s the first battle that lies ahead. Now, it’s not an obstacle of water that we’re going to cross now. It’s life or death. Now, it could be that somebody could get killed. We don’t know. They don’t know. They’re just trusting Joshua and the Lord as to what may happen. What war experience did they have? What fighting experience did they have? What weapons did they have? They’ve been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. What weapons did they have? When you examine their inventory of weapons and knowledge, truly it may not have seemed like a good idea to go against war against Jericho. However, there’s one thing that they had that Jericho didn’t have, and that was the Lord who was on their side. Hey, man, I like that song. And the walls came tumbling down. Hey, man, the walls came down. They had hope. There was encouragement. There was a great event going to take place. But there was that time period between the purification and the actual walls coming down that it may have seemed like a task insurmountable, but I want you to note something. When you look at Hebrews chapter 1130, you see that word. But by faith. The walls of Jericho fell down after they were capacity about seven days. Here’s the fact. The fact is the walls fell down. How do the walls fall down? By faith. By faith. Faith can move mountains. Faith is as a mustard seed. Faith moved that mountain. I don’t know that it was the result they were expecting. Did they expect the walls to come crashing all the way to the ground? Did they expect that? Did they expect maybe it would split in half and fall over? Did they expect God to blow wind and the wind would knock it over? What were they expecting? I don’t know, but this is what I do know. They were walking by faith. By faith. You and I have Jerry codes in our life. You and I have walls in our life. You and I have a Red Sea that we must go through. You and I have a Jordan River that we have passed through. There’s always going to be a Jericho in your life as long as you’re living. There’s going to be issues, there’s going to be problems. There’s going to be things that come into our life that we don’t know how we’re going to get through them, but we are going to get through them because we’re going to walk by faith. Amen. And we’re going to trust the Lord. Amen. Listen, you need nothing else but to trust the Lord. You don’t need anything else. You’ve got everything you need in your heart, trusting God for what he’s going to bring. Amen. Listen, all of you here this morning. You’re here this morning because God’s allowing that heart to beat in those lungs to breathe. It’s nothing that you’re doing. It’s nothing that you’ve done. God’s allowing your heart to beat. He’s allowing your lungs to breathe. He’s giving you life to live. Amen. That’s why we’re here this morning. If God can cause these hearts to beat and these lungs to breathe, god can bring any Jericho that you have in your life. He can bring those walls, tumble him down. Amen. See, Brother Mark, you don’t know my circumstance. You don’t know how dire my situation is. No, I don’t. I don’t. But I can promise you this. There’s an after. And either way, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay because we’re walking by faith. We’re not walking by sight. We’re not going to look at the walls of Jerry Coast. Well, that’s too insurmountable. No, we’re going to say, God, I don’t know how we’re going to go through those walls. But this thing I know, we’re going to go through those walls. They went through the Red Sea. They went through the Jordan River. If God can do that, what else can God do? Amen. By faith. The walls fell down after they were compassed about seven days now. That’s interesting to me. I think we’ll hit that for just a moment here. In a second we’ll look at that and see what that is. But can you imagine that, the witnessing this event, a city that is built to defend itself, right, the walls of Jericho. That it would have been really difficult to overtake that city anyway because it had a fortress around it. It was impenetrable going up against an experienced city that engaged in battle before. Jericho had been in battles before. They fight many battles. Their warriors were experienced. Their warriors had the right weapons. Their warriors knew how to fight. Children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They hadn’t fought. They may have benefits and skirmishes here and there, but as far as an all out of salt on Jericho, a city that seemed to be impenetrable, I don’t know that that was on their thought process when they crossed over the land. But when they got there, there was a city that God wanted them to take and go through. Can you imagine if they would have let the fear of the unknown take over or the intimidation factor take over? As I said before, many of us experience the same type of things our Christian life. And we come to a Jericho and we’re not sure what tomorrow is going to bring. And we don’t know what tomorrow’s going to hold. But think about this for just a moment. Are you saved by the grace of God? Can I get an amen? Okay, there’s about five of you. How about now? Are you saved by the grace of God? Amen. We’re all saved, going away to heaven. If God can save you, can he keep you? Hallelujah. We’re all on the same page. Amen. So if God can save you and God can keep you, and God can bring down the walls of Jericho for the children of Israel, what can God do for you? Amen. So Joshua, in Joshua, chapter number five, verse 13, I want to read this to you. Listen. Follow along and listen to the words. Bible says, they came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho. They ripped up his eyes and looked. There stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said, art thou for us or for our adversaries of adversaries? See, I like that. See, that’s how I approach things. People say I don’t have good delivery because I come right at you about things, right? I’m at work and things aren’t going the way they’re supposed to be. I’ll come directly to you and speak to you about it. I won’t beat around the bush. So I’ve got bad delivery because of that. But Joshua does too. Joshua came up to and said, art thou for us or for our Adversaries? I like that. And he said nay. But as captain of the host of the Lord, Am, I now come. And Joshua fell on his faith to the earth and did worship and send him what saith my Lord and his servant. From what I can see and what I can read, that is a Christophy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, we don’t worship angels, we worship the Lord. So we see him falling before the Lord. He said, Why is that so important? Because before the Jericho and after the walls came tumbling down, there was a time when he met with the Lord and he worshiped the Lord and he was at the Lord’s feet and he prayed and he saw God’s face. They had a cleansing service, they had a purification. All these took place before they went in to Jericho to possess Jericho. He says to the Lord, the Lord host said in the Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot and the place where all thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. So you turn the page to chapter six and verse one and you see. Now Jericho was straightly. Shut up. Because of the division, none went out and none came in. But before the battle of Jericho, they met with the Lord. I think one of the things that we miss when we’re facing our Jerichos is the fact that we need to meet with the Lord. We need to meet with him. I appreciate our pastor having a list of people to pray for that’s lost. I appreciate the fact that we have a prayer list of people that we pray for on a daily basis and we think of on a daily basis. I’m thankful that we do that because I believe we need to bring our petitions before the Lord. Amen. We need to pray and seek the great position. Amen. I believe that. I’m thankful for that. All of us, when we come to that Jericho, when we come to that place in our life, we should have already been meeting with the Lord. I’m thankful that Joshua met with the Lord before the battle of Jericho. I’m glad that he did won much of a battle. Amen. But I’m glad he met with the Lord. But it teaches me that I need to be in touch with the Lord before my battles take place. I think that’s the key to victory. So the Bible tells us in. The Lord says to Joshua, see, I have given in the thin hand Jericho in the kingdom of the mighty men of all. Now wait a second. At this moment we have not taken Jericho. What do you mean you’ve given to me. The Lord is saying that’s the end result. That’s what’s going to happen. You see, I know the end from the beginning. I see it all. Before Joshua, before you were born. I have seen everything. I know what the future, what your future is. Your future is my past. I’ve already seen it. Amen. So he tells Joshua, he says, I’ve already given thine given into thine hand Jericho. He said, here’s what’s going to happen. Walk by faith. Now, notice the next verse, verse six three. Listen very carefully. It says, and ye shall compass the city all you men of war and go around about the city once they’ll shut out loose six days. So I had our young people downstairs and we were talking about Hebrews chapter eleven or 30 Wednesday night. And one of the things we talked about can you imagine the excitement in the soldiers the night before. Hey, hey. It’s going to be a good day. Tomorrow we’re going to ground capture. I can’t wait to see what we’re supposed to do. Joshua is going to give us the work list, the battle, this assignment, all of our positions. We’re going to take over Jericho. This is going to be a great day. We’re excited about today. They get up the next morning to go out and they’re out there and they’re getting ready to get in a straight line and they’re all stretching there, make sure they got their Betty behind and their Betty in front of them. They’re all looking and said, we’re going into battle. And Joshua said, now, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to march around and then we’re going to come back. Can you imagine the look on the soldier’s face? What, we’re going to march around once and come back. So imagine you’re talking about, you know, they don’t make a whole lot of sense, but that’s what we need. This is what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re going to do. What’s going to do? Second day, we’re going to do that, but today’s the day. We take it. Today’s the day. No, I’m going to walk around and come back. What if there are you wanting to do is to walk around and I can’t say anything, but it would be hard for some guys to go on that trip. They couldn’t speak a word. I know some fellows. I know some fellows when they come into the store and I’m not talking about anybody in this church. Good. Not Brother Bill, not anybody. So I don’t want to give that impression, but they some fellas coming to the store. I mean, you hope the phone rings and you don’t ever want the phone ring when you’re at the store because it’s always a problem, you’ve been there. I mean, people come in, that’s all they want to do is visit, isn’t it? I mean, it is, but anyway, he said we can’t even talk. So can you imagine the third day to get together to do the same thing? But this time they’ve made a path, I’m sure, around Jericho. And they probably know where every soldier is and who probably what their wife’s name, their kids name, probably knows everything about their soldiers by the fifth or 6th day. Right now, I’m being a little facetious here, but I’m being facetious for a reason, because I want you to understand something. God had a plan. God’s plan was you want to march around the walls for six days one time round, go back home, not say a word while you marching around those walls for six days. Now, that sure doesn’t sound like a plan to take down the city. These men that we’re going up against are experienced in war. These men that we’re going up against have weapons of warfare that we don’t know anything about. And all you want us to do is march around the wall. That’s all God said to do. Now, here’s my point, and this is one of the points I made with the young people Wednesday night. God’s plan is not always my plan. And the way I would do things is not always the way God does things. Who am I to question the way God leads me through? Who am I to question what comes into my life? Who am I to question God? The creator of all heaven and earth, the one who set this will in the nation, who put the moon, the stars, everything in existence? That’s God. Who am I to question him, his way, his will? But, see, the soldiers may have thought, well, this isn’t very smart. Why should we do this? Some people look at you and the things you’ve been through. I talked to young people about my life and some things I’ve been through in my life and how God led me through certain places and certain things and things I didn’t understand. Many of you probably even questioned him at the time because I’m human as to why God would lead me down that way. But God’s plan for my life was not the same as my plan. And the more we try to work our plan, the worse it will get for our life. I told our young people Wednesday night we need to follow God’s plan for our life. So God did Joshua very clear and concise direction. He said, Capacity all you mean a war going out about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days and seven priests shall bear before the arch seven trumpets of ram’s horns. The 7th day shall compass the city seven times and the priest shall blow with the trumpets and they shall come to pass them when they make a long blast with the rams on and you hear the sounds of the trumpet all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat. Very clear and concise directions. Now, remember where we’re going. By faith, the walls fell down after. After. When did the walls fall down? After. After. They marched around the city one time, one day, six days. Then on the 7th day, they marched around the walls. They blew the trumpet, the ramshorns, and with a shout, the walls came down then. The walls came down after. They did what God asked them to do. By faith, the walls fell down after. That’s where we get confused and that’s where we get kind of out of source. We don’t follow the after. In other words, the after is what took us from the time that Joshua met with the Lord, the captain of the army. After the purification. The after is that point from there to when the walls fell down, when God gave us very clear direction. That after right there, is what we have a hard time with because we don’t think that’s silly. That’s silly. Why would you want us to do that? Why don’t we go up against those walls and let’s try to push those walls down? Would that make more sense? Don’t make it make more sense to me pushing them off. Hey, I got an idea. Let’s go back to the river and get some of those big blocks and we can throw them at the wall and we can bust holes in the wall. That’s the best way to get those walls down. I said, all I want to do is just march around at one time, do it for six days and then on the 7th day, do it again. That’s all God wanted them to do. You see, we miss the after because we can’t follow the clear direction. We can’t follow the clear direction. Now, wait a second, lord, I’m 55 years old. God says I’m forever have been and forever will be. Your life is better vapor. What do you think? You know, Lord, I’ve got a lot of experience. I think first mistake, don’t ever think. Just follow the Lord’s commands. I think we should do it this way. I think I should do it this way. I would get better results. Listen, you gotta get AI out of it. It’s all about the Lord. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. See, the walls fell down after because after he met with the Lord and between the time when the walls actually came down that period of after there was clear direction and they followed that direction that God had given them. That’s where I think we make our biggest mistakes, is the after. We don’t do what the Lord tells us to do. We don’t follow the Lord’s leadership. We don’t follow his direction. Joshua command the people. We shall shout. You shall make any noises with your voice. You say a word, proceed out of your mouth until day. I bid you shout. Then you shall shout so the Lord can pass the city going about so the Ark of the Lord can pass the city going about it once. And they came to the camp and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up the Ark of the Lord. And the seven priests bearing seven trumpets of Ram Jordan before the ark, Lord went on continually and blew with the trumpets and the armed men were before them. But the reward came after the Ark of the Lord. I’m sorry. The priests were warned and blowing with the trumpets. And the second day they can pass the city once and return to camp. So did they. So they did. Six days they followed the actor because they did what God asked them to do. The walls fell. The walls fell. By faith. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have any answers. But you’re not following me. You’re following the Lord. Joshua didn’t have all the answers, but they weren’t following Joshua. They were following the direction that God had given them. Now, brother Martha, that’s wonderful. That’s a beautiful story. That’s a great account in the word of God. That’s a wonderful event. I wish I could have been there. I do, too. Wouldn’t have been a wonderful thing. But here’s the thing. We all face a Jerry Co. We all see walls that are insurmountable. We all see opportunities in front of us and we don’t know how we’re going to get through this opportunity. We don’t know how we’ll get through this struggle. We don’t know how we’ll get through this battle. And we’re all looking for direction, aren’t we? We’re all looking for hope. We’re all looking for answers. Right? I’d like to report to you this morning that we have all the answers that we need on this side of eternity in these 66 books. I’d like to report to you this morning that we have all the answers to any of life’s questions that we truly need in the pages of God’s Word. You want clear direction from the Lord about your certain situation, certain circumstances? Right. Here it is. He said, Margaret, that doesn’t tell me what’s going to happen tomorrow. That doesn’t tell me if everything’s going to be all right. That doesn’t tell me if everything’s going to turn out the way I think it should. I’m going to tell that Brother Bill told me this week, it doesn’t matter. It’s still going to be all right. Amen. It’s going to be all right, you say it’s awful easy for you to say. No, it’s not easy for me to say because I hurt with folks that hurt. I feel pain. When people feel pain, I empathize with folks. It breaks my heart. I hate to hear. I hate to see things I understand. The only thing that I can comfort any of God’s people with is tell you this is god is smack dab in the middle of your wall of Jericho, no matter what it is. And God’s given us clear to wrestling. However come it, there will be an after. So we go on to read so the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted the great shout that the wall fell down flat. I mean, flat. That’s amazing. If you’ve ever seen any kind of demolition, it’s rare that anything falls flat. Things usually fall as kind of just in a big mess. But here the Bible tells us that the walls fell down flat so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. Now there’s victory, right? We have clear direction, we have the after. There’s the victory. Go back and read our verse again. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they. Were compassed about seven days. I’m going to give you this. I’m done you’re seven days. Your seven days might be seven months, might be seven years, might be a long period of time. But let me encourage you this morning, there is an after. We must follow God’s direction, no matter what it is and look to him for strength, god’s direction. I promise you, and I tell our young people this, I encourage our young people this. I encourage them this every Wednesday night. I don’t know where they’re at in their life. I know they’ve got their whole life ahead of them. As mankind looked down upon as man looks as to the way life is. They’re very young. They’ve got their whole life ahead of them. The best thing you can do is follow God’s direction. Do what God would have you do. You want to save yourself some heartache in life. Follow God’s direction. You want to save you some sorrow. You want to save some tears in your life, in your family’s life and others around you. Follow God’s direction. Amen. You follow God’s direction. That Jericho comes, there’ll be an after. There’ll be an after. I don’t know where you’re at. I don’t know what you need, but I can promise you this. The word of God gives us hope, gives us hope, gives us strength, and gives us comfort. There will be an after. There will be an after. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus mercy, grace and salvation. Thanks for the opportunity to go to open your Word this morning and look at it and discuss it and read it together, Father. But more importantly, Father, thank you for the Holy Spirit of God that speaks to our heart, helps us and teaches us and comforts us and strengthens us. And I pray that he’ll do that this morning. For your people, Lord. For your people that you’ll help them this morning, encourage you and bless our pastor next to our encourage him, Lord. I pray to bless the choir as they sing. Each and everything is said and done. We praise and honor and Lord of the year, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.