God Speaks, His People Walk, and God Wins
Sermon Notes
In Joshua 6, Israel finally stands outside the walls of Jericho after five chapters of preparation, and God's battle plan sounds almost absurd: walk around the city once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day, and shout. Brad Kirby opens CityBridge's new series in Joshua with a message about the pattern underneath that plan: God speaks His promises before anything visibly changes, His people respond with faithful and consistent obedience, and then God wins the victory in a way that leaves no question about who gets the credit. The central challenge is one most of us feel: we want to see results before we trust, but God consistently calls His people to trust before they see. Whether you're navigating uncertainty at home, stepping into mission for the first time, or somewhere in the middle of a long season of faithfulness with nothing to show for it yet, this message speaks directly to where you are.
Key Takeaways
God speaks before anything moves. In Joshua 6:2, God tells Joshua "I have given Jericho into your hand" in past tense, before a single step is taken, because from where God stands, the outcome is already settled.
Grace initiates. Obedience participates. God declares the victory before Israel walks a single lap, but He still calls His people forward, not to earn the outcome, but because they trust the One who already secured it.
Obedience will feel weird, hard, and routine. Walking in silence around a walled city for seven days with nothing visible changing is exactly the kind of obedience that strips away self-reliance and builds real, God-dependent faith.
Your job is to walk. God's job is to work. Israel didn't bring the walls down. They just had to be there when God did. Brad applied that same truth to mission: we share, serve, and stay faithful, but God is the one who saves and transforms.
Discussion Questions
Where in your life right now does God seem to be asking you to trust a promise you can't yet see?
Brad said God has to pull your eyes off the problem before you can see His promise. What problem are you most tempted to stare at right now?
Of the three realities Brad named, obedience will feel weird, hard, and routine, which one are you most in the middle of, and what does that look like for you?
How do you personally hold the tension between doing your part and trusting God with outcomes you can't control?
Is there someone in your life who needs to hear about Jesus, but you've held back because you weren't sure it would make a difference?
Brad said, "We don't obey to make God's promises come true, we obey because they already are." How does that shift the way you think about everyday faithfulness?
This Week's Challenge
Identify one step of obedience God has been asking of you that you've been waiting to feel ready for, and take it this week.
Transcript
From Formation to Mission
For five chapters, God has been forming His people. Not advancing. Not conquering. Not building cities. Just forming them. He reminded them of His promises, taught them to follow His presence, called them to consecration, and re-established their identity as covenant sons. Every lesson was deliberate. Every delay was purposeful.
The pattern runs all through Scripture. Moses was shaped in obscurity for decades before confronting Pharaoh. David was formed in fields and caves before sitting on a throne. Jesus was tested in the wilderness before His public ministry began. God often does His deepest work in us before His greatest work through us. Now, in Joshua 6, everything shifts. The wilderness is behind them. The promises are in front of them. And Jericho stands in the way.
God Speaks Before Anything Happens
You would think this is where God unveils a brilliant military strategy. Instead, He gives them something that sounds more like a joke. Walk around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, walk around seven times, blow the horns, and then shout. That's the whole plan.
But notice what God says before any of that. In verse 2, He tells Joshua: "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor." The tense is striking. Not "I will give." Not "I might give." Already given. The walls are still standing. Israel hasn't taken a single step. And God is speaking as if it is already done, because from where He sits, it already is.
"Stop Looking at That. Look at Me."
God uses one word at the start of verse 2 that's easy to rush past: "See." It's like a parent stepping in front of an overwhelmed child, taking their face in their hands, and saying, "Stop looking at that for a second. Look at me." Joshua is staring at Jericho: massive walls, locked gates, no visible way in. And God steps in front of him.
God has to pull your eyes off the problem before you can see His promise. That dynamic plays out in our lives constantly. When guilt hits hard after a failure. When life feels uncertain and nothing is going the way you planned. When prayers seem to go unanswered. The instinct is to stare at the size of the problem. But God keeps pointing back to what He has already spoken. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us." "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." The future is secure. Certain. It is finished.
Grace Initiates. Obedience Participates.
This is not a call for God's people to do nothing and wait for miracles to fall out of the sky. Israel acts. They march, they obey, they move when told. But the method, the timing, and the victory are entirely God's design. Joshua 21:43-44 makes it plain: the Lord gave Israel all the land, granted them rest, and delivered their enemies into their hands. Israel didn't create the outcome. They received it.
God moves first. He always moves first. He makes the promise before they take a step. He declares the victory before the walls ever fall. That's grace. But grace doesn't make His people passive. It calls them forward. They still have to walk. They still have to show up and obey, day after day, when it doesn't make sense. They didn't obey to make the walls fall. They obeyed so they would be there when God made them fall.
When Obedience Feels Routine
Verses 8 through 14 document the walk. Day one, they march. Day two, they march. Day three, day four, day five, day six: same thing. No visible progress. No cracks in the wall. No sign that anything is happening. Just walking. And that is where obedience gets real. It is one thing to obey God when you see results. It is another thing entirely to obey when it feels like nothing is happening at all.
Most disciple-making doesn't look dramatic. It looks like showing up for coffee again, opening the Bible with someone again, praying for the same person again. Day after day, week after week, with no visible breakthrough moment. This is where most people quietly step back from mission, because they expected something more exciting. But God often works through repetition. Every step mattered. "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)
God Does What Only God Can Do
After all the walking, all the waiting, all the wondering, God does what only God can do. The people shout, and the wall falls down flat. No battering rams. No siege towers. No military breakthrough. Just a shout of faith, and God brings the walls down.
Israel didn't slowly chip away at Jericho. The walls stood exactly as they were until God dropped them. All their obedience was never about causing the victory. It was about trusting God until He brought it. Hebrews 11:30 interprets the whole scene: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days." God isn't impressed by flawless execution. He's looking for a people who trust Him enough to follow His word, even when it feels slow, strange, or like nothing is happening, and then stand there and watch Him do what only He can do.
The God Who Saves and Rewrites Stories
Right in the middle of the walls falling, something else is happening. Rahab's house stands. Not because she positioned it better. Not because Israel protected it. Because God kept His word. That scarlet cord wasn't magic. It was a sign of a promise. And when the walls fell everywhere else, God preserved what He promised to preserve.
The spies go back in for Rahab. They bring out her and everyone with her, alive. Verse 25 says she lived in Israel from that day forward. When God saves someone, He doesn't leave them where they were. He brings outsiders in. He gives them a new identity. He writes them into His story. That is the same God who is at work today. We don't change hearts. We don't save people. We don't build the church. God does. Our job is to walk. His job is to work.
