Everlasting King of glory, we thank You, we exalt Your holy name, we magnify You, we honor and adore You, hallowed be Your name. Thank You Lord for the dawn of this new day, Father, thank You for the salvation of our souls, thank You for the privilege to come and worship at Your feet this morning. Father, thank You also for the privilege we have that You will speak Your word to us, glory be to Your name forever more.
Father we thank You for the ministration of the choristers already, my God and my Father, we can stand on mountains because of You; Father Lord, the stormy seas we’ll walk through it because You are there for us and Father Lord, we are assured this morning that we will overcome every obstacle along our path in the mighty name of Jesus.
My God and my Father, You have done it before, this morning will not be an exception, manifest Your glory and power through us in Jesus mighty name. Father, Lord God of heaven, we thank You; Lord, we bless Your holy name. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus marvelous name we prayed.
Good morning daddies and mommies, brothers and sisters, God bless you in the name of Jesus.
I’d like to first acknowledge God as the source of life and the reason why I’m standing here and the reason why we all are here, glory be to God. And I would like to appreciate our father in the Lord, the PICR of Region 71 for this privilege I have to take the sermon today. I pray Lord will continue to also empower him, enable him and strengthen him in the name of Jesus.
Before we get into the message today, a few things to deal with quickly. Prayer Chain tomorrow, same time, 6:30, and the topic for tomorrow is God’s Divine Counsel, Isaiah 46:10. We invite all of you to please join us physically and we’re also available online, peradventure you are not able to come physically; we’d also like to invite you to our other midweek services – digging deep, faith clinic.
Digging deep, last week we started a series on Integrity, and it was a very interesting topic, it continues through the month, please be part of it. As a fallout of that digging deep last week, there was a discussion towards the end around the identity of Esther, I took a position from a view of the theme of the book of Esther saying that her identity was not disclosed, but then my attention was pointed to the fact that in Esther 2: 20, her uncle had actually told her not to disclose her identity, so I was off the mark.
This is just to restate it and by the grace of God that would also be done in the course of digging deep on Tuesday. Praise the living Jesus!
So going forward to today’s topic, the theme for today is Overcoming Obstacles. We will take our reference from the book of Joshua 6, ideally, we would like to read the whole chapter but we don’t have that time, so I’ll try to just paraphrase it.
(Amplified Version) Now Jericho (a fortified city with high walls) was tightly closed because (of the people’s fear) of the sons of Israel; no one went out or came in. 2The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, (please follow this story, brethren) with its king and the mighty warriors. 3Now you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do this (once each day) for six days. 4Also, seven priests shall carry seven trumpets (made) of rams’ horns ahead of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
15Then on the seventh day they got up early at daybreak and marched around the city in the same way seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. 16And the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.” 17The city and everything that is in it shall be under the ban (that is, designated to be destroyed as a form of tribute) to the Lord; only Rahab the prostitute and all (the people) who are with her in her house shall (be allowed to) live because she hid and protected the messengers (scouts) whom we sent.
18But as for you, keep yourselves (away) from the things under the ban (which are to be destroyed), so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban (for personal gain) and put the camp of Israel under the ban (doomed to destruction), and bring disaster upon it. Praise the living Jesus.
Our theme this morning, like I said, is Overcoming Obstacles. This story, the fall of the wall of Jericho, is a story that many of us are very familiar with, though we take a few things for granted but we’ll go to the peak of the message.
Now let us try to establish some commonalities in our understanding of the key words here – overcome and then obstacles. So when we say overcome, what does it mean? To overcome means to succeed in dealing with something, to get the better of something, to prevail over a problem or a difficulty, to have victory, that’s to overcome.
Various words can be used in place of overcome, and because of this preaching also, some of these words are conquer, to defeat something, to overthrow, to subdue and so on.
Let’s look at obstacle. When somebody is an obstacle, what does it mean? Anything that blocks one’s way or that prevents or hinders progress. I’m here, if I choose to walk in a straight way, once I get here, I will not be able to continue because there is an object here which is serving as an obstacle; except it is taken away, I will not be able to continue that movement.
Other words for obstacle can be hurdle, obstruction, embarrassment, barrier, impediment, interference, hindrance, handicap, problems, challenge and the likes.
So when we talk about overcoming obstacles, we are saying how you can prevail over difficulties, over challenges, over anything and everything be it physical or spiritual that may hinder your progress or fulfillment of purpose. Hallelujah.
Before we go into the thick of the text that we read today, let’s take some general lessons around what obstacles are. Obstacles come in different forms, they can be physical – physical like what we can see and touch like this; they can be spiritual. Somebody may be unable to achieve things and they don’t even find what it is, they say is spiritual.
It can be economical. Somebody wants to achieve something but they don’t have the economic power to do it. Can be biological, psychological, social, can be political, and it can be technological, it can be anything. So the discussion this morning covers anything and everything that we possibly can think of that is an obstacle or could be an obstacle.
For example, somebody will ask a question, why is Nigeria not one of the greatest nations of the world? Obstacles, many obstacles ranging from political to technological, social, cultural, all sorts.
Some of the things we must know about obstacles before we go into overcoming it; number one, there is nothing that is too difficult for our God. Nothing in the name of challenge or difficulty or obstacle or mountain that is too difficult for our God.
Pharaoh and the host of Egypt did everything to stop the Israelites when it was time for them to be free, but because there’s nothing difficult for God, what happened to Pharaoh and his team? God put them into the water while Israel was delivered. Luke 1: 37 says, for with God nothing shall be impossible; Jeremiah 32:17 & 27 basically say the same thing, saying that I am the Lord God of all flesh, is anything difficult for me to do? I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, because there’s nothing difficult for God, no challenge, no difficulty, no obstacle will be too big to stop you from progressing in the mighty name of Jesus.
Secondly, that hindrance, that obstacle, that problem to success is not beyond you if you are walking with God. That means those things that we look at and we say, “Oh, so big, problem,” hey, please, if you walk with God, you will find that is a piece of cake.
As a matter of fact, often times those things that present like challenges, like mountains, like problems, they are actually stepping stones into greater glory, they are never to break you. Think about Joseph, what many people would have considered to be obstacles were the things that pushed him to glory.
Think about Daniel, think about David, think about Paul, those things are not obstacles, they disguise, they are actually steps unto greater glory. First Corinthians 10:13, the Bible tells us that there’s nothing that presents itself as an obstacle or problem before you for which I, the Lord, have not already given you a way out, so when we are faced with these things, what we should do is, God, where is the way out? Because walking with God, there should be nothing called obstacle that can keep us on one spot forever.
Three, every obstacle has a key that unlocks it, except you know the key, you will not be able to overcome or unlock the obstacle. Hallelujah.
In 1 Samuel 17: 34 to 51, the Bible tells us about David and Goliath. Now David wanted to fight Goliath, the description ‘David was a boy, Goliath was a warrior – giant size’, if David had engaged Goliath in a fight, Goliath would have used the hand to tear him into pieces, but God gave him a key.
Take five pebbles, take your sling, take one of it, I will hold Goliath’s head steady, shoot it, and that will be the end of the battle. I pray that God will give you the key to unlock every obstacle in your life in the mighty name of Jesus.
Then number four, God knows the beginning of every problem and He knows the appropriate key to apply at every point in time. You see why it is important to walk with God when there are obstacles, problems can be permanent if we let them be.
There are people who will say ‘oh, this their cough,’ they are allowing the obstacle to be; there are people who will say this runs in their family, they are allowing it to be, but when we go to God who knows the key to unlock, He will give us at the appropriate time.
For example in Exodus 14, the children of Israel thought they had escaped from Egypt, then they got to the Red Sea and there was no more movement. They could have stood there, many of them actually threatened to go back to Egypt but Moses asked God and God said what are you waiting for? What is that in your hand? Moses didn’t know that he had something in his hand that could part the Red Sea until God told him, then he did that and the Red Sea parted and they passed through.
May you hear God in the name of Jesus. Anytime and every time that you get to a point of decision making, you will not be stranded going forward in the mighty name of Jesus.
There are many ways that we can deal with obstacles, I will not be able to go through this because of time but I will refer you. Interestingly, I had prepared this message or have this message already in the framework, and then I read the Open Heavens (I think) it was yesterday talking about how to deal with mountains and I think some of them are here, so I’ll refer you to that as we move forward.
Now how then do we relate this story? This is the thick of the message having laid background. This story of Jericho, the wall of Jericho, relating it to our lives today; from that passage in Joshua 6, the children of Israel were on their way to the Promised Land, and when they got to Jericho, the Bible tells us Joshua 6:1, it says Jericho was a fortified city and it was tightly closed. Why? Because of the children of Israel, because the people are afraid of them. That gate was not normally closed, but that day it was closed because of them.
So the city of Jericho became an obstacle to their movement, to their progress, and by the end of the day, we know what happened to the city of Jericho, it went up in fire, the wall came down and the inhabitants were killed. So what was an obstacle, they passed through it and they continued to their journey. Every obstacle to your progress in life, the Lord will deal with them in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now brethren, we can draw parallel from this. The children of Israel were on a journey, life is a journey also, every one of us, we are not here to struggle in life, as in that’s not the objective, there may be struggle in the course of it but there will be solution to it, and we’re not here to just merely survive. You, me, us, every one of us, we are here for a purpose and that purpose needs to be fulfilled.
But often times in the course of fulfilling that purpose, then we will come across things that we can refer to as challenges and obstacles and all of that. Like the children of Israel eventually got to the Promised Land, in the mighty name of Jesus, when you come across these situations, you will overcome and you will eventually fulfill purpose in the mighty name of Jesus.
So from that passage we’ll pick up a few things specific now to that passage. The oppositions and the obstacles that we face, they take root in the fear of who you will eventually be.
Somebody has seen that you’re going to be great, something is afraid that you will get better than they are and then they create an obstacle. Joshua 6:1 again, it said ‘for the fear of the people’ for the fear of what they’ve heard about them, how God had dealt with their enemies, how big they have become, they said no, we cannot let them come here. Praise the living Jesus.
So sometimes you just find people are unhappy with you, are fighting and you can’t find reason, brethren rejoice, is for the fear of who God has made you that you yourself you have not seen but you will be there in the name of Jesus.
Then the Bible tells us nobody went out nobody came in, and I asked a question, does it mean even they will starve? But it implies that they had prepared well ahead of that day, they have stocked food, they have stocked everything, they have planned all their journey for whatever period they assume will happen.
What’s the lesson in that, brethren? Sometimes you get into a place and then there’s battle, something like battle or a fight, don’t roll your sleeves and start fighting immediately. The person you are going to meet has prepared, they’ve prepared for you, don’t just walk in and start fighting because you do not know. What should you do? Step back, look at God, hear from God and then you can respond.
Many times in life, the enemy is ready for you, they profiled you, they say, ‘this is the way he goes through, let’s go and wait for him,’ and then you get there, you just want to respond. Think God, the Lord will help us in the mighty name of Jesus.
Judges 16:25 – 30, that’s Samson, he didn’t know, he thought he was still the same person, they called him, ‘Samson, come and fight,’ he got up, but eventually he was captured. Praise the living Jesus.
The second thing that we will see from that passage is that there was a prophetic instruction that went ahead. Joshua 6: 2, God is always ahead of the situations that we encounter in life; the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the mighty warriors,” they’ve not started fighting, nothing has started, but God said I have finished the work.
May I encourage you, brethren, that battle that you are going through, that situation, that challenge, you are in a battle for which God has already given you victory, so hang on to God. Then you may ask, why then do I still need to fight? So that the name of God will be glorified in and through you. Praise the living Jesus. Nothing catches our God unawares, so we are fighting a battle that God has already won.
And then if you look at from verse 3 to 5, then God told him the strategy, how they will go about it. March around the city once every day for six days, then on the seventh day go seven times, at the seventh time after marching, just shout. Simple strategy. But what do we see? God gave them that strategy. and they walked to it and it worked for them. Praise the living Jesus. I pray that when you get to those crossroads, the Lord will tell you what to do, you will never walk alone in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number three, there was a period of consecration and silence. God told them for six days, just march around, don’t say anything, the only time you will talk is after going around on the seventh day and shout. What does that mean? Just go around. God is telling them, consecrate yourself and be silent, be temperate in the spirit.
Brethren, when we are dealing with the issues of this life and you are walking with God, there is a need for us to always consecrate yourself, there’s a need for us to be temperate in the spirit so that when the Lord is speaking, we’ll hear.
Many people, God is speaking, God is telling you do this, God is telling you do that, God is saying this is the way, but we do not hear because we are too busy. How many of us have realized, often times when we are going through the of Lagos, you don’t get to hear God, but when you get home maybe later in the night and you are trying to recount the day, then you will just hear God will say something to you. I feel that sometimes; in the temperate when there is silence, then God will speak to you.
Elijah had an encounter in first Kings 19, the Bible tells us that God wanted to speak to him but God did not come in the earthquake, He did not come in fire. How did God come? In a small still voice. God wants your spirit to be calm, even in the face of those challenges, salons, the French people will say relax, be calm, and be attentive to what the Holy Spirit will tell you. Praise the living Jesus.
Then number next, in verse six, the Bible tells us that everything that God had told Joshua, he called the people, Joshua called for the priests and said to them, he downloaded everything that God had told him. The leader was obedient to God, what about the follower? Everything that Joshua asked them to do, they also did.
Now, this is the think of where we are going, brethren, it is one thing for God to tell you what to do, it is another thing for you to do what God has asked you to do. Sometimes we think God has made a mistake, sometimes we think we want to help and assist God, but God doesn’t make mistakes. And many times the things that God tells us, they don’t make sense to the natural mind.
For example, in 2 Chronicles 20, three nations came to war against Jehoshaphat and Judah, and in fear, they went and sought the face of God and God said, “Ah, this one? Just assemble a band of choristers, just give Me praise and worship; only that? These people have machine guns, just go and praise Me.
Now, does that make sense? But because God has said it and they did what God asked them to do, there was a landslide victory. God will tell you to do things when you seek His face; brethren, most of the times what God will tell you does not make sense to the natural mind, but because God says it, you should do it.
In John 2, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, they ran out of wine, but the mother of Jesus Christ told the people, she said whatsoever He asked you to do, do it. And imagine what did He ask them to do? Take a pot, fill it with water, start dishing it. The people said haha, is water we are giving them? He said just start dishing, and as they started, it turned out to be the best wine. Brethren, as you obey the divine instruction and commandments, therein lies your victory in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now, to obey God can be a difficult thing if you don’t have faith in this God. The bedrock on which obedience stands is faith in God. When they said to the people, go and march round the city, even the people in Jericho would be laughing at them, who are these people? It didn’t make sense, but because you said it is God that asked us to do it, God has asked me to do it and I will do it. That is faith in God and that’s what fuels obedience.
It is difficult to obey God if you don’t have faith in Him. I pray that the grace to have faith, unwavering faith in the Lord, He will give to you in the mighty name of Jesus.
As I try to close, in that passage you’ll then see what I call the divine sovereignty, something that tells us that God is the God of all.
Number one, God’s purpose will always be accomplished when He has spoken His word. In verse two, He said, Joshua, I have given this city unto you; verses 20 & 21, so the people shouted and the priests blew, when the people heard the sound of trumpets, they raised a great shout as they were told and the wall fell down. God said it, it happened. As you do what God has asked you, brethren, what you want, God will do it even through that word in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number two under divine sovereignty is that the same God that is a God of providence is also a God of judgment.
They said destroy everybody in Jericho but go to Rahab and all the members of her household, bring them out, save them. Hey, excuse me somebody, Rahab was a harlot, God saved a harlot in destroying a whole city. Why? Because Rahab had a heart that submitted to God. That’s divine providence.
God is not a blind God, when there’s somebody whose heart is yearning after God, God also will open His arms and say come unto Me, as He will make that invitation to some people shortly.
But again, Joshua told the people (divine judgment now), don’t take any of the accursed thine=gs. A man named Achan went to take it, what happened to him? In Judges 7, we saw Achan and his whole family were destroyed.
This is a warning to us brethren, as children of the most high God, and if you are walking with God, please make sure you do not associate with sin, make sure you do not associate with accursed things, make sure you do not associate with those things that God will frown at because that will work against the work of God in our lives. May it not be in the mighty name of Jesus.
Now the key ingredients to overcoming these obstacles, you must have a relationship with God. The people we are talking about are the children of Israel.
In Exodus 4: 22 – 23, God called them His firstborn son, then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, My firstborn. There was a relationship between those people and God, if you want God to help you in overcoming obstacles, you must have an intimate relationship with this God, you must have a Father – son, a Father – child relationship with Him.
Number two, you must obey Him. You must have faith in whatsoever He says, do it, if you don’t do what He says, you won’t get what you want. Obedience is the way the children of God says You are our God, it’s a way of surrender when you obey God, and the converse is also true, when you disobey God, you are saying we do not have regard for You, and if you don’t have regard for Him, He said the one who do not have regard for Me, I would lightly esteem. Praise God.
Then they continued to serve God even after their victory. Do you know there are people who just wants to use God? They come to church because there’s a problem and they know in their mind once the problem is solved, what do they do? Go back there out of the world. God is looking for those who even after the problem is solved, they stick to Him. Hallelujah!
John 17 talks about the ten lepers; nine of them after being healed, they went away, only one came back, and Jesus said, you mean only one would come back? Jesus wants us to come back even after. So as the Lord is doing beautiful and wonderful things in your lives, He still wants you to continue to be His son, His daughter, His child. Praise the living Jesus.
In conclusion, brethren, you have not come to this world just merely to survive, you have come to this world to fulfill a purpose. Usually people are kept at the level of struggling and just merely surviving by certain things called obstacles, so between you and fulfilling that purpose is usually the obstacle which God can pull away.
You can overcome them when you have this Father – child relationship with God, then the obstacles become stepping stones to greater glory. Praise the living Jesus. Obstacle is a permanent feature in life, it will always come but we will always overcome in the mighty name of Jesus.
But if you do not already have God, chances are that the obstacles will remain there, but we want to be overcomers, we want to fulfill purpose, we want to brag and say we are children of the most high God. And is the reason why if there’s anyone in the house, we will implore you to please establish a relationship with this God starting from this moment. Praise the living Jesus.
Ezekiel 18: 21-23, the Bible says if the wicked man (I paraphrase it) turns away from his sins, from that day, from that moment, he becomes a new person, righteous person, it takes him on. So if there’s anyone who has never had a relationship with God and to fulfill purpose in life, you need God, you know it, it is good for you to establish that relationship starting from now.
If you here this morning, life is being a struggle, things appear not to be working, going around and around in circles, you see people and things are working, it may just be well that you need to establish a relationship with God. You want to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you want to have a Father – son, Father – child relationship with God so that they can take up your matter and blow away your obstacles.
[Altar call]
Brethren, let’s begin to thank God; let us thank Him that He has brought us this far in the journey of this year, let us thank Him for keeping us alive, let us thank Him for sending His word to us, let us thank Him because He can blow away obstacles on our ways. Father, thank You because You are making us overcomers already, thank You blessed redeemer, in Jesus mighty name we have given thanks.
We are going to pray again and say Father, please open my eyes, let me see the solutions that You have provided me for the challenges around me. Please open my eyes, oh Lord, let me not walk blindly in life; open my eyes, let me see those solutions that You provided me for the challenges around me in the name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
We are going to pray this morning and say Father, please give me those keys that will unlock every problem, every obstacle, every closed door ahead of me, give me the keys, oh Lord, this morning in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank You heavenly Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
When Samson just attempted to face the enemy without checking in with God, he ended up entertaining his enemy. You will not entertain your enemies in the mighty name of Jesus. We are going to pray and say Father, in the name of Jesus, don’t let me lose the cover that I have in You, don’t let me entertain my enemies, don’t let me be put to shame, oh Lord, don’t let me lose the cover that I have in You, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
Finally, we are going to pray. Father, every obstacle that is limiting my progress, please take them away, Lord. In the mighty name of Jesus, Father, please take them away.
