The walls didn’t fall from a fight. They fell from praise — and the praise came first, not after the win.

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“Until the Walls Fall Down”

Joshua 6:1–21

Oh, thank you, Brother Watson. That was so, so good. Friends, we are in the third and final week of this three-week series we have been in called Onward: Moving Toward the Uncharted. In this series, we have been looking at the story of Joshua’s leadership of the people of Israel as they step into new ground, as they step into a brand new season, as they cross over the Jordan River into new lands the Lord has given them but of which they have not yet taken possession. There is a promise God has made to His people, but the people have not yet fully stepped into the promise. Two weeks ago, we saw this picture: that God had confirmed this promise, but it wasn’t just a promise — it was a principle. And a principle is a promise that is user dependent, meaning the promise God makes to Joshua is, “I have given you every place the sole of your foot treads” (cf. Josh 1:3, HCSB) [see “A New Dawn, A New Day,” July 12, 2026]. Now that’s a beautiful promise, but it also means that if Joshua and the people of Israel stay where they are on the eastern side of the Jordan River, that’s all they get. But if they take steps of obedience, if they take steps of faith into a new land, if they follow a new journey and a new path to this new destination, God will be true to His promise to them. So we see it’s not just a promise, but a principle — a user dependent promise. And last week, we saw this picture: how the people, after forty years wandering in the wilderness, had finally crossed the Jordan River (cf. Josh 3–4) [see “Walk This Way,” July 19, 2026]. They finally had crossed, and the Jordan River is not a huge river, but the Jordan River was an obstacle in the way of the promise. It was an obstacle in the way of stepping into the fullness of who God had called them to be. And so He gave very specific instructions as to how they were to cross the river, so that God would be praised and the generations to come would know that God is mighty, and He would be teaching the people to walk in wisdom. And so as we conclude today, we’re going to do so with a message I have titled “Until the Walls Fall Down.” Until the walls fall down. Shock of all shocks, we’re going to be looking at Joshua chapter six and the Battle of Jericho. Now, how many of you grew up in VBS, and you know the Joshua and the Battle of Jericho song? Come on: “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.” [Congregation sings along.] I want to write each and every one of your names up on the chalkboard and give check marks next to you. I don’t think that means anything in heaven, but that’s how proud of you I am that you all knew that song so well. Now, here’s the thing. Many of us have heard the story of the Battle of Jericho in Sunday school and VBS growing up. But here are some of the things we may not have thought about when we were children hearing this story. Jericho is not a big city. Jericho was actually a relatively small town during this period of time. What Jericho had was two very important things, and in order to demonstrate those things, I need all of my youth in Passport shirts to come back up. I need all of your help. So youth and adults — if you’re an adult here in a Passport shirt, I need you too. You are my wall. I need you all right here, right across the front. And by the way, I do want to see that special high five y’all worked on together. All right, so here we go — I’ve got my Passport teens and adults. This is my wall. Now, here’s what’s true about having a wall in front of you: I feel a whole lot braver with them in front of me, right? Because you can’t get me — I’ve got the wall in front of me. Now, a wall is really great, but here’s the problem: if I’ve got the wall in front of me and you are the encroaching army, you outnumber me, but I’ve got a wall, so I can just wait you out. But in order for me to wait you out — the same problem siege warfare has had for thousands of years is this: if you are the larger army and we’ve got a big wall, you don’t have to tear down the wall. You just have to prevent anything I need from coming into the city. So the longer you surround the city, the more trouble I’m in. But Jericho had one thing going for it: Jericho had a spring in the middle of the city. So Jericho had fresh water and a wall. And if you’ve got fresh water and a wall, you don’t need much else, because you can’t get past my wall. And as long as I’ve got some animals and maybe some farming and fresh water, you can just keep hanging out out there — you don’t bother me one bit. So, how many of you — raise your hands real quick, and then I’m going to dismiss the wall — how many of you have seen The Odyssey already? How many of you went to the theaters and saw the new Odyssey? Yes, excellent, you get it. So of course it’s a bunch of men — Nolan made a new movie — that’s how it goes. So here’s the beauty of The Odyssey: The Odyssey is what happens after Homer’s The Iliad, right? It’s what happens after the Battle of Troy. And Troy was a walled city with a spring inside.¹ So Troy could just wait out the opposing army — which is where the story comes from of the Trojan horse, because that was the only way you had to get someone to bring something into the city of their own accord. Otherwise, the people would just continue to wait and wait and wait — years waiting — because there was a spring and a wall. Y’all give it up for my wall! We’re going to go ahead and let the wall fall down. Y’all can head back. “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.” But anytime you have siege warfare, the goal is to wait out the people inside. In fact, there are a lot of stories of siege warfare throughout history where no battle was ever actually fought — the people inside the city simply ran out of resources and ultimately died without a battle ever occurring. Jericho was not a large city. Jericho was a well-defended city. So we’re going to read in Joshua chapter six, verses one and two — we’ll go back, please: Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites — no one leaving or entering. And the LORD said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you.” (Josh 6:1–2, HCSB) Now, they’ve always had a big wall, but it’s “fortified,” meaning they are in a defensive posture. And the reason they’re in defensive posture is that suddenly that eighty thousand to a quarter million people — the Israelites who crossed the river — suddenly that group is now surrounding them. So the people of Jericho are shut up inside. No one’s entering, no one’s leaving. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king and its fighting men over to you.” And if you’re Joshua in that moment, you’re thinking, “Not really — they seem to be doing just fine inside their walled city. They seem to be doing okay, God. You say You’ve delivered them to us, but here we are just hanging out outside. It doesn’t look like we’ve been delivered much.” But this is why it’s so important to remember that Jericho was not a big or powerful city — it was just well fortified. It’s not a big or powerful city. It’s just well fortified. And so this is our first point today that I want you to grab hold of: often in life, our obstacles are not large — they just appear insurmountable. Often our obstacles are not large. Often the obstacles you are facing are not crazy, they’re not scary — you’ve just accepted that you can’t do anything about them. Maybe that’s where we are today as the church. It’s easy to be the church in the world right now and look around and go, “Man, every church is declining.” It’s easy to go, “It’s not looking good.” And we’re not quitting — but we’ve kind of thrown in the towel on going further. We’re still going to show up, we’re still going to be faithful, but if we’re honest, we’ve lost a little bit of hope that there’s more to come. We’ve lost a little bit of hope that the best is yet to come. We’ve lost a little bit of hope that the next generation is going to go further than we ever thought possible. It’s not because it’s big or scary — we’re just looking around at the trends, and it feels insurmountable. But this is why what God says to Joshua next is so important. If we continue reading, we read these words: March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets. (Josh 6:3–4, HCSB) You know, I should have asked about this before — I don’t think we have a trumpet here, do we? We have the players, but not the horns. If there are any trumpet players in the room, I want to give you a moment to practice. Will you give me the sound you’d need to create the trumpet sound? Let me hear it — all the trumpet players in the room, any horn players in the room, let me hear it. There we go — it sounds a little bit like an elephant, doesn’t it? Sounds a little bit like an elephant. Now here’s the thing: I want you to imagine seven of those going off nonstop as an entire army marches around a city seven times. That’s big, and it’s loud, and it’s scary. We continue reading: When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear it sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. (Josh 6:5, HCSB) Let’s ...