The Promise Still Stands

Let’s go to Hebrews 10, verse 36.

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

— Hebrews 10:36

The promise doesn’t always come when you want it. Sometimes it takes time, and sometimes it involves waiting. But I’m here to tell you today that the promise still stands.

In Year 10, a friend and I were supposed to raise money for a trip to Cambodia. We decided to ride 100 kilometres around Lysterfield Lake. It worked out pretty well. I raised over two thousand dollars, mostly from my Asian aunties and uncles. One thing I learned from riding in circles is that it can be incredibly frustrating. After those 100 kilometres I didn’t go back to Lysterfield for about two months, because I was so sick of it.

Sometimes life can feel like that. It can feel like going around in laps, going around in circles and getting nowhere, and it leaves you frustrated and confused. We see this in a story from the Old Testament.

God, I thank you that your Spirit is here. I believe there are some people here who are about to stop short of something great that you have placed in their lives. Give them the strength to keep walking, and help this message encourage and inspire them. Speak through me as well, God. You know I’m nothing without you. Amen.

A city on lockdown

Joshua 6. You know this story pretty well: the fall of Jericho. For some context, the Israelites had been walking around in the wilderness for 40 years. Jericho wasn’t necessarily a big city, but it was known for its walls, high and strong, and it was thought nothing could get through them. So the Israelites approach Jericho, see the walls, and wonder how they’re going to break through. They’ve conquered other cities, but here they ask, what are we going to do?

Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.

— Joshua 6:1

The city was on lockdown. There was no way in and no way out. Sometimes when there’s a shutdown in your life, it isn’t a sign of your inability to get in. Maybe it’s a sign that the enemy can’t keep you out. Jericho was scared of the Israelites. They had seen how the Israelites conquered other cities, so they shut the gates. When there’s adversity in your life, maybe it’s a sign of the Spirit of God in you, not the absence of him, because there’s power there, and the devil is scared. Maybe it’s a sign the devil has become so desperate that he’s throwing whatever he can to stop you.

We often see the adversity in our lives as something given by the devil, but that isn’t always the case. At the end of the day it has to pass through the hands of God. Sometimes God lets us have that conflict so that he can conquer through us, and then we know it was him who did it and not us.

See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.

— Joshua 6:2

I love how God gives a promise before the destruction, and we can hold on to that promise even in the waiting. And I love how God speaks about a victory that hasn’t happened yet in the past tense. We serve a God who speaks in the past tense about a battle that hasn’t been fought.

But what do you do when what God says doesn’t add up to what you see? What do you do when God says you are not alone, and then you go home and feel so alone? When God says he will never leave you nor forsake you, and you don’t feel his presence? When God says he’ll do amazing things through you, but you’re struggling and can’t get the breakthrough you want? I’m here to tell you that what God says is more powerful than what you see, because what you see is very small compared to the bigger picture he has in mind. His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are wider than our thoughts.

A ridiculous plan

You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.

— Joshua 6:3–5

Isn’t it crazy that God’s command to the Israelites is to walk around the city? If you know anything about physics, you don’t bring a wall down by walking around it. God tells them to do something downright ridiculous. And to be victorious, sometimes you have to be prepared to do something downright ridiculous, like walking around walls.

I can imagine the Israelites walking around Jericho and the people on the walls mocking them. I remember that VeggieTales scene where the Israelites are walking around while the people on the wall mock them. And you can imagine them going home thinking, what we need is more firepower, and building some kind of rocket, and Joshua saying, nah, I think we should trust God. But it’s ridiculous. Living a ridiculous life with God involves step-by-step faith, because faith doesn’t work like a staircase laid out in front of you. Faith sees only the next step, and sometimes not even that. You take the next step of what you can see, because you can’t see the whole picture. I’ve learned that I don’t have all the answers, so I trust the one who does, and that is Jesus.

That’s how we live: walking around walls. It makes no sense, and it feels like walking in circles. Just when you think the problem is over, you end up in the same place again. Walking around walls is also tiring and exhausting. The longer a war holds you back from where you want to be, the more tired you become. Maybe you’ve been fighting for a breakthrough and all it does is wear you out. You go home, lie down and say, “God, I am so drained. This war is taking it out of me.” And God says, keep walking.

Dory has it right: just keep swimming. We need to do the same. We keep walking, because breakdown is the prerequisite for breakthrough. God is going to give that breakthrough soon. It’s just around the corner. Wait expectantly, and God will come with the breakthrough at the perfect time.

Obedience is mine, results are God’s

Are you willing to keep walking even when it seems like God isn’t working? He is working. What he’s telling you today is that obedience is your responsibility and results are his.

When I’ve done ministry, I’ve often based my identity and how I feel on the results I get. But as you know, you’re sometimes in a place where you’re not getting the results you want, and you just have to keep going. God is telling you today that the results are coming. Leave that in my hands. Just be obedient, follow my will, step into the current of my grace, and I’ll give you the results, because the promise will come to pass.

I’ve just started doing calisthenics again, which is a bodyweight workout. If you know anything about exercise, the results don’t come straight away. You do 30 sit-ups and don’t get abs the next day. I learned in PE that it takes about six weeks before you see the gains. It’s the same in our lives. It takes time, a stretch where nothing seems to be happening, and then all of a sudden you see the breakthrough.

The more you walk around walls, the more you realise it’s God who brings them down. If the walls of Jericho had fallen on the first day, the Israelites would have thought they brought them down themselves. But he has them walk around seven times on the seventh day, and only then do the walls fall, so that they know it was God and not them. God waits for our longing to deepen and our expectancy to reach its full, and then, at just the right time, in his perfect timing, the walls come down.

But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

— Joshua 6:19

That shows me God doesn’t want you to take credit for what he has given you. Give the glory of your victory to God. Maybe you’re at the point where the walls have fallen and success is yours, and God is telling you, don’t keep that to yourself. Don’t take credit, because that wasn’t you. When you’re in a place of humility, where everything in your life is only Jesus, the promise is probably just around the corner. Sometimes in the waiting God wants to teach us something. He’s building our character. So keep walking.

Walking in silence, waiting with expectation

It’s funny that God commands the Israelites to keep silent as they walk around. Why? Maybe because he doesn’t want them to talk each other out of what he has put in them. Hold on to it deep in your heart and keep walking quietly. There’s beauty in silence, and sacredness in it.

There are two ways to wait: passively or actively. I like that God doesn’t tell the Israelites to sit down for seven days and watch the walls fall. He says walk around the walls. He wants you to wait actively, expecting, not just sitting and doing nothing. Prepare as if the promise has already come, because the God we serve speaks in the past tense.

A passive person hopes something good will happen and is willing to sit and wait until it does, but after a short time gives up: “I’ve waited and nothing’s happened.” They have no real belief that what they prayed for will come to pass. An active person waits expectantly, hopeful, believing the answer is just around the corner. Every day they wake up expecting to find it. Their heart is full of hope.

I heard a preacher compare it to a woman who is pregnant. She carries the promise of a baby inside her, and even though she can’t see it, she knows it’s there. The moment she learns she’s pregnant, she starts to plan for the baby’s arrival. She collects what she’ll need and gets the nursery ready. She prepares actively, because she knows the promise will be fulfilled. It’s just a matter of time, and she’ll wait as long as it takes.

We need to prepare as if the promise has already happened, because the God we serve speaks in the past tense. So I want to encourage you: pray earnestly, pray in desperation, be bold in your prayers, and one day those walls will fall, often not in the way we think.

Let the walls fall in you

While we’re waiting, we can’t just wait for the walls to fall down for us. We have to allow the walls to fall in us too. Sometimes, before God lets the walls fall down for us, he wants to change something in us. David says in Psalm 139:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties.

— Psalm 139:23

I love that, because in the verses before, David is asking God to send his enemies away. Then he shifts to looking at his own inner self. Maybe that’s the shift of perspective you need. Maybe, before you expect the walls to fall for you, you need to let the walls fall in you. God wants to come into your life and take over, but the door he knocks on has a handle only on the inside, and only you can open it. So open the door, let God in, and let him change you, because that is what the waiting is for.

It’s funny that Jesus waited 30 years for three years of ministry. Waiting is important. God keeps you in a season of waiting, and in a season of drought, so you can learn something. Focus on embracing the waiting, on embracing the now, and know the results are in God’s hands. Be encouraged by that.

God is with you in the waiting

I’m here to tell you that God is with you in the waiting. The Ark of the Covenant circles the wall, and the Ark is a symbol of God’s presence. God’s presence is always with you when you’re walking in circles and things don’t make sense. Emmanuel, God with us, is with you in the waiting. Joshua means “deliverer,” which points to Jesus. He is our leader, leading us into the Promised Land. He’s with us in the waiting, guiding us and comforting us with his rod and staff. Trust him. He’s going to deliver you into the Promised Land.

So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat.

— Joshua 6:20

Shout, because God has won the battle in your life. I want you to know: don’t give up hope. Don’t stop short of something God has placed in your life.

In F1 racing there’s a lap count. Every time you finish a lap it tells you, one lap done, two laps done, and you keep going. Wouldn’t it be great if life had a lap count? If it said, keep going, you’re nearly there, only three laps left? I’m sorry to tell you that life doesn’t have a lap count, and that’s why you need to trust God. God doesn’t have the Israelites walk around once and then remove a few bricks, then more bricks on day two. He tells them to walk for seven days, and nothing falls. They see no results at all.

I don’t know what lap you’re on. You might be on lap three, or four, five or six. But do not stop on six. As you good Adventists know, six is the number of man and seven is the number of God, the number of completeness. Do not stop short of what God has called you to do. Seven is just around the corner. You won’t know which lap you’re on, so keep walking and trust God, and when the walls fall you’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus, that was you.” And you’ll know it was him, because if the walls had fallen little by little, I would have thought it was me. Since they fell all at once, when I had no other way, I knew it was you. God is more powerful than the walls humans build.

There’s a song I like called “Do It Again” that sums up this message. It starts with walking around these walls, thinking by now they’d fall, but you have never failed me. The chorus says, “The promise still stands.” And the bridge says, “I’ve seen you move, you move the mountains.” God is going to move mountains in your life, today and from this day forward. Trust him. The promise still stands. And those walls in your life, when turned sideways, become bridges you can cross over into God’s grace, and you will see breakthrough in your life.

Thank you.