This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I'm so glad you're with us for this study of Joshua. This is week three, day
three, we're walking through chapter six together, seeing these principles for
how daily victory comes into our lives, for how you win your greatest battles.
We've talked about that if you're going to win your greatest battles, you have
to trust God's promise above your circumstances.

If you're going to win life's greatest battles, you have to trust God's strategy
above your strength. If you're going to win life's greatest battles, you have to
trust God's timing above your timing. And then in verses 17 to 19, there's a
fourth principle in this chapter.

Let me read those verses and then talk about the principle. "The city and
everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord," God
says. "Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for
she protected our spies.

Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will
be completely destroyed, and he will bring trouble on all of Israel. Everything
made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be
brought to the treasury. " In these few verses, we see this decision that
they're being challenged to make by God and through Joshua, through his message
to them.

And it's the decision to decide on personal purity rather than selfish power.
It's not your selfish power. You may have a lot of power over people.

You may have a lot of willpower. It's not your selfish power that's going to
bring daily victory. In fact, it ends up in egotistical defeat.

It's personal purity that brings real victory. Now, purity for them. What did it
mean?

We can learn some lessons from this. Purity for them meant the integrity to save
Rahab and the morality to not take into their lives that which God had
forbidden. First, they had the integrity to save Rahab.

Remember, this is the prostitute who had shown the spies through the city,
brought the spies in and getting them safely out of the city. And they had
promised that they would protect her. And they had the integrity to keep their
word to her.

And then they had the morality not to take into their lives that which God had
forbidden. God said, "Don't take these things in. These things are to be
destroyed.

These things are to be brought to the treasure to be used for God's worship. "
Integrity in their relationships, morality in their actions. That's a definition
of purity in your everyday life.

Integrity in your relationships, morality in your actions, your relationships.
When you start to misuse people, don't be surprised that you start to mistreat
your relationship with God. They go together.

When you don't have personal purity, it begins to hurt your relationship with
God. Morality in your actions. Don't take into your life that which the Lord
forbids.

When you start to take into your life things that God forbids, don't be
surprised that you're pushing out of your life that which he desires. There's
not room in your life for both. We like to think that there is, but there is not
room in your life for both.

We all fool ourselves and say, "Oh yeah, I can fit this thing, which I know God
doesn't really want in my life, but I got plenty of time. I got plenty of
energy. I'll fit this thing in, whatever it happens to be.

" It might be a greed in your life. It might be a lust in your life, a sexual
lust in your life. It might be a desire for popularity in your life.

And you say, "I can fit this thing in. " It might be a literal thing. God
doesn't really want me to have that thing.

I want to have that thing. I'm fitting it in. Or it might be a temptation that
you're following.

I can fit it into my life, and I'll still have plenty of time for God. Anytime
you do that, anytime you try to force into your life, you put into your life
something which is that which God forbids, you're pushing out of your life that
which God desires. Personal purity grows out of our trust in God.

But remember this, personal purity also enables a greater trust in God. As you
make the choice to have integrity in your relationships, morality in your
actions, you're actually putting your heart into place of greater and greater
trust in God. Because you see that he's faithful.

You see that he comes through. You see that when you do it his way, there's
greater joy. When you do it his way, there's greater fulfillment.

When you do it his way, there's greater fruitfulness in your life. Purity means
that you've trusted God with all your life. Think this through with me.

You cannot be partially pure. If I have a glass of water and I say it's pure
water, why don't you drink it? You'd like to drink it.

If I take a little bit of dirt and drop it in it and say it's pure, it's pretty
pure right now. It's almost pure. You're not going to want to drink the water.

If I say it's 99% pure, you say it's not pure anymore. How about you and I? None
of us are perfect, but we can be pure because Jesus has given his purity to us.

That's one of the gifts that comes because of the cross. But never make the
mistake of believing that you can trust God with one part of your life, but not
the whole of your life. That's trying to be partially pure.

That's no purity at all. Never make the mistake of thinking you can trust God
with just this problem. God, solve this one without trusting Him with all of
your life.

Now I would love to trust God with all of my life, all of the time, but I don't.
I struggle with trusting Him. I instead trust myself.

I trust my way. I trust my feelings, my opinions. I trust my temptations.

When I decide I'm going to trust Him, I can't say, God, I think I'll trust you
with just everything but that temptation now. That's no trust at all. When I
decide to trust, even though I struggle to trust, when I decide to trust, I've
got to go all in.

I've got to say, God, I'm trusting you with my all. None of us are perfect.
We've all sinned.

Jesus will give you his purity and he will give you the power to act out of that
purity in your everyday life. You keep coming back to him again and again and
again and say, God, I'm trusting you with my all again. Now based on their trust
in God, look at what happened.

Verse 20, "When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as
they could. Suddenly the walls of Jericho collapsed and the Israelites charged
straight into the city from every side and captured it. The walls fell.

God brought the walls down. " I want you to remember something with me as you
think about how God works in our lives when we trust Him. Remember, before these
walls fell, they had prepared their hearts on the other side of the Jordan for
the battles they were going to face.

Before these walls fell, they had crossed the Jordan trusting God. Before these
walls fell, they had prepared their hearts again to trust God. Before these
walls fell, they had listened to God and done what he'd said.

Before these walls fell, they'd marched around that city for six days. So if you
think that the walls of Jericho falling was something that happened in one
moment, you've missed the journey of trust that they had. God is showing them
the result of trusting Him day after day after day.

He's showing them the power of trust. I don't know if you know old hymns. You
might remember that old hymn, "Only Trust Him.

" You remember how it goes, "Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him. "
And then my favorite word in the hymn is the next word, "Only trust Him now. "
Do it now.

That's the only time I can trust God is right now in this moment. Throughout
Joshua, he's been saying to them, "I have given this to you. I will be with you.

I will not fail or forsake you. " These are all invitations to trust. These are
all ways that God's telling them of their need to trust.

You and I, God's inviting us to trust Him right now. Maybe you've never trusted
Him. Maybe you've never said to Jesus Christ, "Jesus, I trust you.

I trust you for salvation. I trust you for life. I trust you for eternity.

" Only trust Him now. Trust Him now. Not yourself, not your goodness, not your
life.

You may be a really good person. I don't know. You might be a really bad person.

The truth is, compared to God, none of us have enough goodness. None of us have
enough goodness to be in relationship with Him. But Jesus is willing to give us
His goodness.

You trust Him for it. How do you get it? You trust Him for it.

God, give it to me. Trust Him now. Say, "Jesus Christ, come into my life.

Save me. Forgive me. Give me new life.

Give me abundant life. " If you've already trusted Him for that kind of life,
you still need to trust Him every day of your life. Trust Him now with the day
that you have today.

You have a choice. Are you going to trust your circumstances or are you going to
trust His word? Are you going to trust your timing or God's timing?

Are you going to trust your selfish power or are you going to trust in the
purity that God can bring into your life through Christ? That which you trust
will determine your actions. Trust Him now.

Jesus, that's what we pray for. That's what I pray for. Help me to trust you
now.

Not think about how I trusted you yesterday and try to rest on that somehow or
think about how I'm going to trust you tomorrow and give up on trusting you
today. Help me to see how I can trust you now with my life, with my heart, with
my temptations, with my ministry, with my relationships, with all that you've
given into my life. Help me to trust you now.

In your name I pray. Amen. [Music] Tomorrow we're going to see how quickly we
stop trusting and how to start trusting again.