This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is week two, our last day, day five, of looking through the book of Joshua.
And today we're going to look at what happens in our lives as we fight the
battles of life. We're walking through chapter five and what happened in
Joshua's life as they prepared their hearts for victory.

And Joshua has, by God's grace, prepared all of the people for victory, but God
still has something to do in Joshua's life. As you fight the battles of life, it
helps to remember that they are not your battles. They're God's battles, heading
towards God's victory.

And that means that you never fight alone, not those battles. Never, never get
into the trap of feeling that you're fighting for God. You are fighting with God
alongside you.

God is actually fighting through you, his battles. There's no other way to win
God's battles than to realize they are God's battles and he's fighting them
through you. And in a very powerful way, Joshua is going to be reminded of that
in verses 13 to 15.

Listen to what happened. Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and he
saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went
up to him and he asked, "Are you for us or our enemies?

" "Neither," he replied. "But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now
come. " Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked him,
"What message does my Lord have for his servant?

" The commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the
place where you are standing is holy. " And Joshua did so. Now before we get
into the lessons for our life, there is a question in this passage and that is,
who was this man?

This man that stood before Joshua, this commander of the Lord's armies. It's a
deeper theological discussion to get into this, but it is well worth it. This is
an example of a number of times in the Old Testament when a figure called the
angel of the Lord or the commander of the Lord's armies appears before people.

It's evident as you read the passages in the Old Testament that this is more
than an angel. This commander, this angel, he is spoken of in terms that relate
more to God himself. Just a few examples.

Back in Genesis 16, the angel whom Hagar sees says he would increase her
descendants. Only God can increase descendants. Angels can't do that.

And Hagar recognizes the angel as the God who sees me. The Bible refers to him
as the Lord who spoke to her. In Exodus 3 we're told the angel of the Lord
appeared to Moses in the flames of fire from within the bush.

And God called to him, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses, Moses. "
So we're equating again the angel of the Lord and God. In Genesis 18, 1 and 2
we're told that the Lord appeared to Abraham also in the form of a man.

And here you have Joshua worshiping this commander of the Lord's host. He calls
him the Lord and he bows before him and worships him. The figure that's before
him does not reject that worship.

An angel would. Don't worship me, worship God. You see that in the book of
Revelation.

But instead accepts that worship. In fact, it says, "Take off your sandals. The
place that you're standing is holy ground.

" That's what God said to Moses at the burning bush. Now there's no single
biblical reference that describes the identity of this angel of the Lord that
says this is exactly who this is. But as you put together these different
appearances, the great majority of Bible scholars see these as appearances of
Christ on earth before his human birth.

Remember, Jesus has always existed. He became a man at Bethlehem, he became a
baby, but he's always existed. Now did he look like Jesus of Nazareth?

No. No. It's not like he was born.

He didn't physically become a man. This is a spiritual appearance of Jesus
before he came to become a man. He simply here takes on the appearance of a man
so that Joshua can talk to him.

Now there's a term that theologians use for this. The term that theologians use
for an appearance of Christ on earth before his birth in Bethlehem is a
Christophany. An appearance of God is a Theophany, Theo, God, Ophany.

Appearance of Christ is a Christophany. This is that kind of an appearance of
Jesus. Here's Joshua meeting with Jesus before he goes in to fight the battles.

Now theology means something. In fact, theology means everything. What we
believe about God means everything.

So what does all this theology mean? It means you do not fight alone. You do not
fight the battles of life alone.

Jesus says, "I will be with you. " He's promised us that in the New Testament
and he's promising Joshua that right here. "I'll be with you.

" Joshua meets the captain of the Lord's host and an entire army of the Lord
stood behind in all the battles that they would face. If you're going to emerge
victorious from life's struggles and you're going to have You might be going
through one right now. You have to face them with the confidence that the Lord
fights with you, that the Lord fights for you.

Now, as you have that confidence, just a quick warning before we go further into
this. Be careful with that confidence. Did you notice what happened when Joshua
said, "Are you for us or for our enemies?

" An interesting answer from the commander of the Lord's host. He says,
"Neither. " Neither.

God is for God and we're created to serve him. So be careful of what you mean
when you say, "God is on our side. God is on my side.

" In one sense, that is absolutely true. He is for you. He is working in you.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that having God on your side means that
he's against everyone else. He's against everyone that's against you. Truth is,
God's on everyone's side.

He's working to make everyone, cause everyone to come to him. Even more, God is
working to get us, every one of us, on his side. I know there are some enemies
that will reject him.

I know there are some enemies of God that will be judged. But that does not mean
that God's not working to bring them to him. So this idea that somehow I've got
an end with God and you don't, that's not what the scripture teaches.

The scripture teaches instead that I need to recognize God is working in
everyone's life to do something wonderful. Even those who are his enemies, he's
trying to bring them to him. Now with that in mind, there are two attitudes in
Joshua that helped him in this moment to recognize and to begin to draw on God's
strength.

He needed it in his personal life. These two things were an attitude of
servanthood and an attitude of worship. If you have those two things, it's going
to carry you through the battles of life.

Just those two things, an attitude of servanthood and an attitude of worship. An
attitude of servanthood, he says, "What message do you have for your servant? "
God does not fight for those who use him as a pawn.

God I'll tell you what, here's what I want you to do, now you fight for me. God
I'll go to church this week, I'll even read the Bible a little bit, and now you
fight for me. You get done what I want done in my business, in my family,
wherever.

You help me to make the money that I want to make or get the person to do what I
want them to do. You do that for me and I'll keep going to church. God does not
work in the lives of those who use him as a pawn.

God works in those who recognize him as their king. I'm your servant. You want
to win the battles of life?

Be a servant. Be a servant to God and a servant to others. It's upside down
thinking, no doubt about it, it's the kind of thinking that Jesus challenged in
our lives.

You have an attitude of servanthood, that's how you emerge victorious in life.
And then you have an attitude of worship. Joshua falls on his face before this
angel.

He takes off his sandals because he's on holy ground. He worships him.
Worshiping and reverencing God's holiness, God's greatness causes these
qualities to make their way into your thinking, to make their way into your
actions.

When I act in life based on just who I am and what I do, sometimes I'm going to
act in pride, sometimes I'm going to act in fear, it's going to be based on me
and who I am and what I do, what I can get done. But when I take the time to
worship God, it can begin to change my thinking so that instead of acting just
based on what I think I can get done, I begin to act based on who I know God is
and that changes everything. The battles of life, they can seem very confusing,
very big sometimes, very overwhelming.

Maybe you're there right now and you don't know what to do, you don't know where
to turn. These two simple things will get you through every time. An attitude of
servanthood, God, how can I serve you even through this?

How can I serve others even through this? An attitude of worship, no matter what
happens, God, I'm going to keep worshipping you because in this world where
everything isn't great, you are great and you have a plan that's greater than
this world. What we've looked at, all that we've looked at these last few days
comes as they're facing their first big battle, this battle they're going to
have at Jericho.

And if you're at that point in life right now where you're facing a big battle,
these are verses that are right for you, right in your heart's place. Maybe
you're facing a Jericho right now. See it as an opportunity for God to win a
victory.

Not for you, but for God to win a victory. And the way to do that, the way to
begin is to do what God called them to do in these verses that we've looked at
today and even back into last week. What do you do?

You measure your dream, you solidify your faith, you recognize the Lord. You
measure your dream, you look at what only God can do. You solidify your faith,
you trust Him instead of yourself, and then you recognize that Lord, His
presence is going to go with you.

One of the great ways to do that is in prayer, so let's do it right now. Father,
as we spend a few moments with you, we recognize that the battles are yours and
not ours. And that there's a victory that you want to win in this world through
our lives.

Forgive us for those times when we pridefully think it's just about us. We know
you do. We know you see how weak we are sometimes.

And Lord, give us instead a broader vision, a vision to see that we're a part of
what you're doing in this world. Thank you for allowing us to be a part. Help us
to measure that dream that you have for our lives, to see the vision of what you
want to do, to solidify our faiths, to start trusting in you and not just
ourselves.

And Lord, to recognize that you're with us every step of the way. In your name,
we pray, Jesus, amen. Next week, next we're going to find out that the song was
wrong.

It wasn't Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho. Next week, we're going to see
God fights the battle of Jericho.