Seeing What God Sees | New Normal - #6 | John Lindell

[Music] this morning i want to talk to you on the theme seeing what god sees seeing what god sees we're going to look at joshua chapter 5 and verse 13 we're going to read several verses so you can follow along on the screen when joshua was by jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand and joshua went to him and said to him are you for us or for our adversaries and he said no but i am the commander of the army of the lord now i have come and joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him what does my lord say to his servant the commander of the lord's army said to joshua take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy and joshua did so now jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of israel none went out and none came in and the lord said to joshua see i have given jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor you shall march around the city all the men of war going around the city once thus you shall do for six days seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priest shall blow the trumpets and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn when you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people should go up everyone straight before him it's a very unusual story you're familiar with the book of joshua even if you aren't joshua's led the people of israel moses has died he's led them now into the promised land and now they face their first formidable obstacle jericho was a garrison city established by the amorites one of the seven nations that inhabited the promised land and they put jericho right at the jordan as a defense or a garrison to protect the land from invasion from the east at the very least what would happen is jericho would be there armies would have to take it while they were trying to attack and take jericho other armies from the canaanites would come down and would together confront the invader as a garrison city jericho was heavily fortified and it was a formidable fortress we know from excavations that were done in the 1950s that there were a series of two walls in fact we'll bring a picture up here it had a retaining wall that was 12 to 15 feet high on top of that another wall 20 to 26 feet high then a slope of ground with another wall that was 20 to 26 feet high what happened then is that as people were trying to as an invader was trying to attack the city they would have to scale this wall once there they would have to endure really the the onslaught of all of the arrows the spears and and go up this no man's land almost a death zone if you will and then begin an assault on another 20 to 26 foot wall here's another picture that gives you an idea so if you're an army down here europe this high the wall may have been with all of the different walls and the elevation there could have been as high some scholars say as high as 75 feet tall it's a massive massive fortress so as joshua is looking at this fortress it's not the first time that he has seen jericho 40 years earlier when moses sent 12 spies into the land joshua and caleb were two of them the only two who had the faith that god could help them conquer the land joshua had seen jericho then in numbers chapter 13 verse 28 the people who dwell in the land are strong this is what the spies said and the cities are fortified and very large so now 40 years later joshua faces this massive obstacle he knows that to have a siege where they surround the city and try to starve it out is not going to work jericho has stores of food which interestingly enough in the excavations they found whole stores of food completely intact so they've got food they've got water and they've got allies that are coming to their rescue in that moment what joshua needs is not a good idea what joshua needs is a god idea some air this morning and you're facing a jericho it could be an emotional jericho could be a relational jericho could be members of your family at odds with one another could be somebody in your in your family that you've grown apart a husband a wife a son or a daughter for some it's a battle at work maybe a battle in your finances maybe a battle physically and you need a divine solution to your human problem and in moments like that and all of us face moments like that what we need is we need in that moment to see more than what our physical eyes can see we need to see as god sees i've talked many times about proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18. i quote it all the time because i think it is such an important principle for people to get a hold of the message puts it this way the king james says where there is no vision people perish the idea is if you can't see things as they really are you're not going to make it eugene peterson in the message puts it this way if people can't see what god is doing [Music] god is working all the time god is working in your life and my life sometimes he pulls the veil back and we can see what he's doing as he's doing it other times we simply are called on to trust that he's working but whether we see it or whether we don't if we're walking with the lord god is at work there's some of you today and you wonder if god is where is he how come he's not helping you let me tell you he's at work he's on time he's active he's setting things up for you god wants us to have a sense of what he's doing if people can't see what god is doing they stumble all over themselves for a person to go through life especially for a believer to have some kind of idea that all that matters is all that you and i see with our eyes physically is to miss everything spiritually when we're only looking at the physical world and the physical realities we're going to stumble all over ourselves we're going to make mistakes we're going to make bad decisions but he goes on to say when they attend to what he reveals they are most blessed listen vision is not what i think needs to be done vision is not what i can dream up in my head vision is not where i'm headed or what i am doing vision is seeing what god is doing the question is never is god doing something the issue is always what is god doing [Applause] and our vision determines what we see yeah you know it's possible for us to see and not see i mean i was preaching at a a district conference in arizona and they're pastors there and usually what you do you know when you're a pastor and you're preaching out usually you take a message that you've done a few times so that you know it and you know how it's going to land and and so on this particular occasion i thought there was something on my heart i thought i'm going to preach this i prayed about it uh get up there in front of the people and as i'm there i i happened to touch ears very dry in arizona having to touch the corner of my eye and my contact pops out and uh it was uh you know it made it difficult to see and i was like oh no i saw it go right there and so then reflexively i touched my other eye and the other pop contact pops out so all of a sudden i'm trying to preach a message i can't see my bible i can't read my notes i can't read anything i can see but i cannot see at all it's a terrible thing to be preaching a sermon when you can't see what's in your notes but even worse is to be living a life when you can't see what god is doing in your life so how do we develop spiritual vision what is it that you and i have to do to to put ourselves in a situation where we can see where we can sense what god is doing because god wants you to know what he's doing his will is not a secret paul says understand what the lord's will is he wouldn't say that in ephesians 5 if it weren't possible for you and i to understand the lord's will and to sense his working in our life three keys number one spiritual vision comes when we submit to god's purpose in joshua chapter 5 and verse 13 is very interesting often times people move right away to joshua chapter 6 because i mean hey that's that's a march around the city they shout the walls come down they take the city it's really just such an amazing miraculous story but unless you have joshua chapter 5 and verses 13 through chapter 6 and verse 2 the rest of chapter six is not going to happen it's times in god's presence that set up the victories in our life in the days and weeks and months to come we experience less victory in our life when we spend less time in god's presence look at it joshua chapter 5 verse 13 when joshua was by jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked i'll point this out because you've got eyes and you've got looked you've got this sense what the writer is telling us here is something very important that what's happening in here is joshua is going to see double vision he's going to have natural physical vision and he's going to have supernatural vision in all of our lives god wants us to see physically yes but he wants us simultaneously to have a spiritual sensitivity to what he's doing to be alert to be aware so when we see things happen we're seeing not only the physical world but we're seeing the spiritual world at work joshua is there he's looking at jericho he's trying to figure out how he's going to take it i believe joshua is praying that as he looks at his obstacle he's saying god i'm going to need your help i don't know how to do this how do we take a city like this we've not faced anything like this before and then it says behold in other words like can you believe it suddenly all of a sudden a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand it doesn't say the man was dressed in white it doesn't say the man was had shining robes or anything like that when joshua looks at him apparently the person that is there looks like he's dressed in normal clothing he's not 10 feet tall he's not angelic in his presentation and and we know that because of the way joshua approaches it and i mean can you imagine here's joshua he's 80 years old he's sitting there he's focused on something he's praying have you ever been like praying or you've been you've been thinking about something and all of a sudden somebody comes and it startles you because you didn't see them come in and they say hey excuse me and and it just makes you get your attention joshua looks and here is this warrior with his sword drawn i mean you don't have your sword drawn unless you're going to use it he's ready to fight i love what i see in joshua because you remember in chapter 1 god's word to joshua over and over again was joshua be strong and courageous be strong and courageous be strong and courageous you get an idea that that has happened in a big way in joshua's life he's gone from being timid to being a bold courageous person because watch this at age 80 this is what he does in verse 13 and joshua went to him i mean he gets right up in his face he's not afraid he goes right up to him and he has a question for him are you for us or for our adversaries and the man says no wait a minute that doesn't answer the question joshua says are you on their side or are you on our side and you'd expect him to say i'm on your side joshua but he says no incidentally the person with the drawn sword i believe there's every reason to believe this is a pre-incarnate jesus christ i'll say that because of two things number one joshua is going to worship him and if it's an angel he's going to stop it as well when you get to chapter 6 it says and the lord said so this conversation is happening between joshua and the lord and look at it in verse 14 and he said no but i am the commander of the army of the lord i'm the commander of angel armies now i have come listen we always like to wonder we like to think or predicate our mind that god is on our side the bible says if god be for us who can be against us but honestly the issue is never is god on our side the issue is always are we on god's side we have a tendency to frame all of our trials in life with god i gotta have your help i need you to be on my side [Music] god i need your help with this business steal god i need your help with the teacher at school i i need you to give me favor here because i need you on my side because i want my son or my daughter to have this teacher this class i want them to get accepted into this program god i need you to do this god i need you to do that god i need your help over here god i need you on my side but the real issue is this are you on god's side joshua says god are you on my side and god says no it's very interesting does god want to show his power on our behalf yes but jesus isn't interested in following us he's come to lead us [Music] he's the captain of our salvation he's the author the finisher the trailblazer of our faith he's the lord jesus said why do you call me lord lord and don't do the things i ask he's in charge he's king jesus he doesn't want to be your co-pilot like the bumper sticker i saw that said if god is your co-pilot you're sitting in the wrong seat watch joshua's response look at it and joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshiped him he doesn't get angry he's not disappointed he's more consumed with the presence of god than he is the solution to his problems his question is what does my lord say to his servant instantly he's submissive it's no longer about who wins or who is for who conquering jericho has become secondary to pursuing god's presence and purpose i want to ask you a question what's more important to you is conquering your jericho more important or is being [Music] wholeheartedly submissively in the presence of the lord your greatest priority spiritual vision comes when we submit to god's purpose when we say god listen what i really want in this is i want your will that's not a cop-out i believe god wants us to know his will how else can we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven god i want i want you to reveal your will to me and that's really what i want it's not primarily about my agenda because there may be things that i want or that i think i need that would actually be detrimental and be less than what you would desire for me in the long run spiritual vision comes when we submit to god's purpose second spiritual vision comes from being in god's presence verse 15. look at this and the commander of the lord's army said to joshua take off your sandals from your feet for the place you are standing is holy and joshua did so say what's with the sandals coming off you remember he did that with moses at the burning bush part of it is i think when you you take your sandals off just think of this you take your sandals off all of a sudden there is a sensitivity to the ground beneath you there is you're going to be a little more careful where you step when we come into the presence of the lord there is this paradox on the one hand where we're in the presence of the one who calls us friend on the other hand we're in the presence of the one who is the king of kings and the lord of lords who is the majestic awesome creator of the universe and here's joshua and i mean immediately he is in this place of humble submission and sensitivity to the lord he's leaning in this is a pattern that you see throughout the book of joshua and i believe it's instructive for us that it's a pattern god wants in our life you see this pattern of consecration as preparation for the supernatural right so in joshua chapter three consecrate yourselves why for tomorrow the lord will do great things you see it again in chapter four and five there's this consecration of thanksgiving we enter his courts with thanksgiving winners dates for thanksgiving is courts with praise it's how we come before the lord there's something about this is why the worship is so important this is why hey to come in 10 minutes late and say well i get a song and then i got the idea is that we're worshiping the lord we're getting our hearts ready we're consecrating ourselves so that god might move in power in our life and in the circumstances of our life you see it again in joshua chapter seven and verse eight they they're defeated at ai and joshua tears his clothes he's weeping before the lord and that sets up the the victory that follows you see the the catastrophic results of not being in the presence of the lord in joshua chapter 9 when they make a decision and it says clearly they did not seek the lord there's something about getting in god's presence that sensitizes us to god's will god's voice that strengthens our heart and the point is simply this that winning our battles is not nearly as important as worshiping the lord winning the battles will come if you worship the lord but if you don't worship the lord there will be some battles you'll never win [Music] spending time in his presence sets the table for us to understand what it is that god wants to do because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers this is a supernatural warfare we're in it's going to take more than your ingenuity and your perseverance it's going to take the hand of god going before you and i and doing in our life what we can never do on our own but we're going to experience less or none of that if we're not in god's presence this is one of the great reasons why we need to be in the presence of the lord you need to be in the presence of the lord it's why the prayer meeting you're in the presence of the lord you're you're there you're you're worshiping there are things happening it's not wasted time no you wouldn't be better to stay home and veg out in front of the television no you wouldn't be better to go run some errands or plan your next day you'd be better off to come into the presence of the lord and watch what god would do in your life this is why daily to be in his presence is so incredibly valuable it opens your heart and your mind to the things that god wants to do many of which again will not happen any other way it's in god's presence that we gain insight understanding a sense of timing [Music] god wants us to see life honestly yes we have physical eyes praise the lord for them but god wants us to see things spiritually just like joshua lifted up his eyes and then he looked that we lift up our eyes to the lord and we're also seeing physically what's happening it's both when a person's walking by faith they understand that there's a spiritual world and there's a physical world paul puts it this way in second corinthians chapter 4 and verse 18. so we fix our eyes not on what is unseen or not in what is seen where are you looking are you only looking at the physical world then you're missing the the heart of life the point of life the the the summit of life fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen for what is seen as temporary what is unseen is eternal that tells us some things it tells us first of all the spiritual realm is more important and superior to the physical realm it tells us that the spiritual realm dominates and influences the physical realm you're going to watch nick in the the next chapter in joshua 6. it's a spiritual solution to a physical impossibility some of you are facing circumstances and you're looking for a physical solution and the answer is spiritual [Music] this is where faith comes in faith is anchored in the spiritual realm this is what paul says think of this second corinthians chapter five we live by faith not by sight can i ask you how are you living what is it that you're basing your decisions on how is it that you're approaching that problem that that seems unsolvable i'm not saying we shouldn't do what we can do but we have to as a priority and at the core understand that all of life's solutions really come through the spirit realm there's some some here today and i listen i'm so thankful you're here but i want to challenge you in the way you're approaching life your life is anchored in the visible realm and it's because there's a measure of unbelief that directs your life most people i've met who are filled with unbelief call themselves realists there's some of you and you use that term i'm just a realist you believe more in the physical realm than you do the invisible realm you don't understand that the spiritual realm overrules the physical realm and over and over again you see that in the bible but when you're in the presence of the lord what happens is the invisible realm the spiritual realm becomes increasingly real as god begins to speak things to your heart as god begins to show you things and as god begins to direct your thoughts by faith the walk of faith we talked about epic faith a few months ago that that whole idea of of walking by faith results in you and i knowing things we cannot humanly know i mean for example hebrews chapter 11 and verse 3 through faith we understand what do we understand that the world's reformed at god's command so that what is seen was not made from what was visible that's what the rest the verse says listen you can't know that by observation you weren't there you can't comprehend that in your in your physical brain the creation of the universe is very hard for us to fathom if we think about it physically i mean it's just it's hard for us to imagine how all of that happened but we know it how by faith so there are some things that you know in your heart before your mind has settled and accepted as true or understands we see it every week here in the church when you watch people that come forward for salvation in fact i just was talking to somebody yesterday they had family from out of town they came he said i wasn't sure what they would think of the service because you know like he said this is so awesome when you bring people to james river you just don't know what people are going to think i mean he said at the end of the service i looked and their hand was raised when people come forward if you were to ask those people what was happening did you know this did you know you were a sinner did you know did you know and and you begin to ask them what they know there'd be a lot of things they wouldn't know in their mind they would just sense in their heart right as you and i walk with the lord there are things what we want to do is live out of our heart i'm not saying we don't think i'm just simply saying that faith resides in the heart that faith as a result helps us understand some things in our heart we know it in our heart before it makes sense to us in our mind and if we try to reason it through in our mind our faith will be dissipated and weakened the problem for some is is not that you don't have enough faith it's that you don't act on your feet you're too busy trying to figure it out with your mind and your mind's about 10 miles behind your heart god has spoken to you god is leading you he wants you to walk by faith god speaks by faith it's the means by which my heart sees my heart hears my heart understands by faith and let me just say this for people and i hope this is helpful for people that as we're talking about sensing the lord and a lot of times what people want is they want to hear a voice they want to hear words they want to they well i didn't i didn't hear anything if you felt god's presence he's at work if you're in his presence if you know if you know you've been with him that's all you need it's great when you hear things because god does speak and i'm not saying god won't speak i'm just simply saying if you've been in his presence he's at work number three spiritual vision comes when we believe god's promise look at it in joshua chapter six now jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of israel none went out and none came in let me just say this this is verse one and it's juxtapositioned with verse two so what you have here again that the whole passage is built on this this double vision this is the physical world if you look with your physical eyes cities shut up nobody's going out nobody's coming in because israel's there at the base but the lord said see i have given jericho into your hand physically nothing's changed spiritually everything's changed [Music] say that again physically nothing's changed spiritually everything's changed don't make the mistake of thinking that because you didn't see something change after you prayed nothing has changed not true you may not see anything in the physical world yet but in the physical world everything's changed [Music] that's what's happened there i've given jericho into your hand with its king and it's mighty men of valor we're the mighty men of valor they're still up on the top of the wall with their their arrows and their spears the king's still sitting on his throne but he's finished when you go to the lord in prayer when you ask prayer is not an empty exercise prayer is never a waste of time when you ask you receive when you seek you find when you knock the door is open believe that you came in today you prayed things are different it doesn't matter what you see because there's a spiritual world that determines what happens in the physical world [Music] physically jericho's fortified spiritually it has fallen physically it's still an obstacle spiritually the battle's over once he believes those words listen to this he gets god's plan in the verses that follow but he's got to believe he's got to believe that what's going to happen is is right there and he's going to have to go back into the camp and he's going to have to speak words of faith without any physical evidence he's going to have to go back and tell the people jericho is ours and i've got a plan from the lord we're going to march around it six days once a one time for six days and on the seventh day we're going to march around it seven times then the priests are gonna blow the trumpet and we're all gonna shout and the walls are gonna come down and it's over can you imagine the faith it's going to take for him to say that [Music] some of you are shooting yourselves in the foot spiritually because you're constantly expressing your doubts and your fears well i don't know if it's going to happen i don't know i hope i hope god can do i don't know i didn't feel anything i don't see anything doubt dies if left unexpressed but it lives if you vocalize it and not only does it live in you but you are transplanting it in the hearts of others you're creating an atmosphere of unbelief that is working yes and people say well you know what i'm just being true to myself i'll just i'll just say it like i see it well you know what you can be as true to yourself as you want but you'll never gain spiritual victory by giving voice to defeat god's going to speak his promise to your heart [Music] god's going to say to you at some point i'm going to help you god's going to give you a sense in your heart that he's heard you at that point what you do is absolutely critical will you believe what you say oh god i know thank you you've heard me i can't wait to see what you're going to do show me what to do god will speak his promise to your heart and if you believe it he'll tell you his plan but if you don't believe it you'll never hear his plan because your lack of faith will shut down your ability to hear god's voice now look at this joshua 6 1 we'll close here in just a second now jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of israel none went out none came in and the lord said to joshua see i've given you jericho into your hand with its king and it's mighty men of valor you shall march around the city all the men of war going around the city once thus you shall do for six days seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn when you hear the sound of the trumpet then all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people will go up everyone straight before him does it make sense physically no does it make sense spiritually yes because it's god's plan [Music] and josh is going to have to be bold enough to walk back into the camp and say okay team here's what we're going to do that's what faith does faith speaks god's promise faith speaks god's word faith speaks god's goodness joshua is a man who's walking by faith and as a result he sees the invisible he hears the inaudible and he speaks the impossible what are you speaking so wrap this up i want i want to just ask you to consider three things what's more important to you conquering jericho whatever your jericho is or pursuing god's purpose for your life [Music] are you willing to say you know some some here today you're afraid you're you want what you want and you don't understand that what god wants for you is so much better than what you could ever want for yourself and god's way is so much more life-giving so much more filled with blessing but you're not going to know it until you submit to his presence until you fall before him and just say god i want what you want it's in the presence of the lord we gain spiritual vision it's in his presence that that you and i really begin to see the invisible realm [Music] that's why you need your devotions that's why you need the prayer meeting that's why that's why we need to be in church you know listen i mean in the day when when people are talking because of the pandemic what's church attendance going to be like and all this and that honestly i don't worry much about it i will say this to people whether you're watching online or whether you are are here you need you need church every week you just do i mean i need church every week and you you shortchange yourself and forfeit i'm gonna tell you god's not like oh i'm not gonna bless them there no it's when you're in the presence of the lord things happen that wouldn't happen otherwise straight up that's how it works that's why you want to be in the presence of the lord you never know what he's gonna do what he's gonna show you how he's gonna work how he's gonna help you you say well i think god's big enough that he under hey he gets the vacation i'm not against people going on vacation but i do think if people are checked out all summer long or people are only going sporadically there's a huge void that creates in their life in terms of what god would have done in their life and what they would have experienced of his presence i'm just simply saying there's a value in connecting to the presence of the lord regularly and finally god is speaking to some of you right now for some of you you don't you don't see him you can't hear his voice but you can sense his presence his presence is in this place if his presence is in this place god is at work in your life because you're in this place that needs to encourage you believe him trust him go forward from this encounter in his presence speaking words of faith that the walls of your jericho would fall down the battle's been won [Music] today i really want to encourage you right now to order new normal on amazon or wherever books are sold you can pick up one for yourself a friend or a family member because god wants you to live in a land that's full of his promise and possibility and we believe this book will help you on your journey to a new normal we also have an amazing study guide available on amazon so you can go through the book with a small group your spouse or even friends at a coffee shop so you can get the most out of this amazing resource as you go throughout your day this is our prayer for you may the lord bless you and protect you may he smile on you and be gracious to you may he show you his favor and give you his peace god bless [Music]

Channel: James River Church

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Id: pvJg0vzUdJc

Length: 42min 31sec (2551 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021