November 13, 2022
We’re in a message series on Virtue. Last week we talked about Honor, next week is on Gratitude, and today we’ll talk about the virtue of perseverance. I want to talk to those of you today who feel like quitting. Maybe you feel like throwing in the towel. It could be you feel like quitting a dream. You thought one day you could, and you would, and now you think there’s just no way. Maybe it’s a relationship with a friend or family member. And you’ve tried and you’ve tried, and you don’t feel like there is any way to get it back to the place where it should be. There’s a verse from Hebrews 10:35-36, I want to encourage you with. It goes, “So do not throw away your Confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Our virtue for the day is perseverance. We’ll hear a story of how the Israelites kept on keepin’ on, when it probably all seemed like foolishness to them and like they were getting nowhere. And we’ll find out what success really is.
We’re in the book of Joshua, chapter 6. God had promised his people they would take the city of Jericho. But the gates of Jericho were tightly shut, because the people were afraid of the Israelites. The city of Jericho had big walls. No one was allowed to go out of or into the city. But the Lord said to him, “Joshua, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.” Before they ever went out to fight, God says, “Joshua, I have given you Jericho!” Why does God say that? Why does he say, I have already given you success when nothing has happened? We’ll get back to this.
After God told Joshua, I have given you Jericho, God says, March around the city once every day for six days with all the armed men. Have seven priests carry trumpets. Behind them bring the ark! The ark of the covenant was a sacred chest. This summer in a message I talked about how the Israelites felt like while they were camping in the wilderness for 40 years, God needed a place, too. God camped with them. To them the ark was like God was with them, and the ark had a special tent. When the ark was with them, it felt like God was with them.
Now God gives Joshua marching orders! March around the city of Jericho! Take the ark with you and take trumpets. Are they a marching band or are they an army?
Then God says, on the seventh day, march around the city 7 times! Have the whole army give a loud shout! Now let’s practice that: let’s give a loud shout…. You did good! God says when they give a loud shout, the wall of the city of Jericho will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight into Jericho.
It was a simple assignment. Walk around the walls one time a day. On the seventh day, walk around seven times. Then shout, blow your horns, and the walls come tumbling down. Why do we give up when God has promised us so much? Why do we find it hard to keep going and often lose our trust in the promises of God? Here’s a big reason why: because our progress isn’t obvious. We think we’re getting nowhere.
In this story, Joshua got the full marching orders from God. But he only told the army part of the orders. On Monday Joshua said, Get up and walk around the city. On Tuesday Joshua said, Get up and walk around the city. On Wednesday, get up, walk around the city. Don’t shout. I’ll tell you when it’s time to shout. Joshua only gave them orders for each day. So, the army doesn’t know when this will end or how it will end.
In life, you might feel like you’re getting nowhere, when you are making progress. God might say you’re an overcomer through Jesus, but you feel like you’re overcome each day. God might say you’re healed, and you feel broken. God might say you’re blessed, buy you feel like He’s forgotten you. My two kids were diagnosed with ADHD in the same year, although they’re almost 4 years apart in age. I remember going to parent teacher conferences. Alan was in fifth grade and Ian was in 1st. Their parent teacher conferences were arranged so they were right after each other. It was efficient: Ian’s then Alan’s. But it was not a good idea. They each had numerous difficulties in school. I went to the parent teacher conferences, and it felt like at Ian’s I heard a million things wrong with Ian. Then I leave and go right to Alan’s conference and hear, it seems like, a million things wrong with him. I can understand the teachers had a point. But I felt like I got punched in the gut once, and then again.
I felt broken, like I can’t do this. I realized I couldn’t do this by myself. So, from then on, Kevin went with me to the parent teacher conferences. I was ok when he was there! Looking back, I can see that’s how both Ian and Alan would make it through school and both graduate from college. Because in a tough time, God helped me figure out how to persevere. From then on, I went to all the parent teacher conferences and IEP meetings with Kevin! I kept on keepin’ on.
Here’s where I think we don’t understand what success is. Success is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for you. Success is not the raise, promotion, recognition, Christian home, or wonderful children and all the things they achieve. Success is not the rewards at the end. Those are enjoyable. Those are wonderful. Instead, success is staying faithful to the process that contributed to those things becoming a reality. Unfortunately, we often don’t consider ourselves successful until we experience the rewards.
God said to Joshua “I have given you Jericho.” It hadn’t happened yet! God is saying the success is now, before it happened. The success was Joshua’s perseverance. The success was also the army’s perseverance. Can you imagine how they felt, parading around Jericho everyday? They probably thought, this is so stupid. Josh has lost his mind! I’m not gonna put up with this every single day. I came out here to fight, I’m not doing this stuff. Where’s God? If has hasn’t come through yet, he’s not coming through. They must have had thoughts like these.
Why did they keep going? They had learned to persevere. They, or their parents and grandparents had been in the Wilderness with Moses for 40 years! There they had sinned regularly. They made a golden calf and worshipped it. Then God would punish them. Then they would behave. Then they would sin again. But if you or your family has been in the wilderness for 40 years, learning to follow God, then one week of marching around Jericho, when you’re finally in the promised land, well that’s not so bad! They could do that. They learned to persevere, to keep following God, when they didn’t know how long it was going to take, and they didn’t know if they’d reach their dream. They had Jericho, before the walls came down. Success is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for you.
It’s frustrating when there’s no end in sight. It’s so much easier to stay the course when you feel like it’s working and when it pays off. You could deal with your spouse’s depression if you knew God would help them find help and heal by Christmas. You could stop worrying about how you’ll pay your heating oil bills if you knew prices would be back to normal in January. Where is God in trying times? Where is He when you don’t see Him? Maybe God’s just building your faith. Maybe He’s teaching you to depend on Him even when you don’t see the results.
The army of the Israelites made it to the 7th day. On that day, they marched around the city SEVEN TIMES! Joshua said, SHOUT! All together, let’s SHOUT! Hooray! The wall came down!
You may be closer than you think to your goal. Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. Two years later, in 1952, she decided to swim from the California Coastline to Catalina Island which is 26 miles. 15 hours into her swim a very heavy fog settled in, and she couldn’t see where she was going. She told her support team she wanted to quit. They said, no, keep swimming, keep swimming! She swam another hour. Finally, she threw in the towel and quit. And it wasn’t until she got into the boat, and she could hear everyone, that she realized the shore was just 1 mile away. If she had known she would have kept going!
You may be closer than you think. You need to persevere, so that when you’ve done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. Florence Chadwick went back to attempt that swim again. This time she kept a vision in her head of the coastline. When she couldn’t see it because of fog, she trusted it was up ahead. She made it! Success isn’t the reward at the end. Success is you, in the messy middle, in your doubts and fears, persevering anyway, because you have put your trust in God.
My homework for you this week is to think of something you are hoping for, praying for, slogging through in the hope of a new day. Tell yourself: I am a success! Because I just keep on keepin on! Let’s encourage each other. Tell someone near you: You are a success!
If all you see is obstacles. if you feel like you haven’t heard from God, keep trusting Him. Maybe you keep marching, you’re on lap 2, 3, 4, 5, marching around your promise, don’t quit! Don’t quit believing in your children. Don’t abandon the church. Don’t abandon God. You may be so much closer than you think! I love what the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time you will reap a harvest, if you do not give up.” Stay in the game, God is with you. Don’t give up! Because in God’s eyes you are already a success! Amen.
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