Paul Daugherty - This Pain Has Purpose
Jericho was the vision that Joshua had seen. Jericho was the vision that the spies had seen. It was their next step. It was the place that they had been praying for. It was the dream they had been waiting on. It was the vision that they had circled. Everybody needs a Jericho, Jericho represented God's promise to the Israelites. All of us in this room have goals, dreams. Let me just say this. You might go, well, I don't know if you could call my dream or goal a Jericho, Jericho just represents something that hasn't happened yet, that they were hoping would happen. It represents a promise from God, how many you are praying for some promises of God for your life?
All right. How many are praying for God's will to be done in your life? You're not finished yet, yeah. All of us should have something that's not yet that we're praying for something we're waiting on. Maybe for some of you in the room, it's just to be healthier. Like this year you're going, my Jericho is just to be spiritually stronger. Like to know more of God's will for my life. For some of you, Jericho is to have restoration in your house. You've walked through all kinds of strife, all kinds of brokenness. And you just like Jericho represents a unified family for you. For some you in the room, Jericho is you desire to get married and you have circled your Jericho. You are literally marching around him. You are going, Lord, I am praying. It may not be God's will, but let me just say this.
If God can be glorified through the dream in your heart, don't you discount it and say, God doesn't have a Jericho. If God could be glorified through you getting married for some youths to have children, or maybe it's to adopt a child, or maybe it's to be a foster family that takes care of foster kids right here in Oklahoma, maybe it's a ministry or business or something, a book that you're called to write a dream that you're called to fulfill whatever it is, don't let go of it. Joshua held onto it for 40 plus years. And now he was standing right in front of it. He was standing looking at the fulfillment. He was, he could literally smell it, he could feel it. He could tell, this is what I was waiting for all these years, all the Israelites with him, they were so excited. They could feel the momentum. "And Josh was set up at Gilgal the 12 stones that they had taken out of the Jordan river. And he said to the Israelites, 'When your descendants in the future, when your descendants ask their parents, what did these stones mean?'"
I think Joshua was a futuristic guy. Like if he was taking a personality test, a strengths finder test, I think he would score high on futuristic. He was always thinking about what's next. He was always thinking about the future. And he said, when we get into the future and kids are asking their parents what these stones mean, tell them that Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. Make sure your kids' kids' kids know that the Lord, your God showed up that he was not late. He was not early, he was right on time. That the Lord, your God dried up the Jordan river before you that God who did miracles for Moses is still doing miracles today. That the same God who showed up for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is showing up for your generation. Tell them that the Lord, your God did to the Jordan, what he had done to the red sea, that this is not his first rodeo.
He knows how to handle whatever problem your kids are facing. Tell your kids that there's a God in heaven who sees them, who cares about the details of their heart. Who's interested in the dreams and the promises that he has not forgotten. He is not slow to keeping his promise. Tell them that the Lord, your God, look at verse 24, verse 24. Tell them that the Lord, your God did this so that the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful. The hand of the Lord is powerful. God does not have those little T-Rex arms like this right here. God has powerful, strong arms. His arms are long enough to reach your prodigal son. His arms are long enough to reach your prodigal husband. His arms are long enough to break those generational curses that trace back 14 generations in your family. His arms are strong enough to break off the strongholds that have been holding you back.
Make sure your kids know that God is not a weak God, that he's not a shorthanded God, that he's not a God who doesn't know how to intervene in situations that look impossible, make sure they know that the hand of the Lord is powerful so that you might always fear the Lord, your God. When Joshua gave this speech, the Israelites were filled with hype. They were filled with momentum. They could see Jericho, they could smell Jericho. They could even see the produce that they had heard about back in Numbers. In the book of Numbers, they had been told 40 years prior that this land was the land flowing with milk and honey. This was the land with grapes and fruit and meat.
In fact, I got a cheeseboard with me today. These Israelites, they had been eating dry manna in the wilderness for the last 40 years, but now they could see the grapes. They could see the fruit, they could see the cheese, they could see the milk. They could see the honey, come on somebody, I'm rhyming up here about all this food and watch this in verse one. The momentum is only getting stronger. "When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and the Canaanite Kings along the coast, heard how God had dried up the Jordan river before Joshua and the Israelites until a million people crossed over that river, their hearts melted in fear".
So watch this, the enemies of all of Israel are literally melting in fear. They've completely surrendered. They've waved their white flag. They're saying we can't even stand against you. They no longer had the courage to face Israel. Somebody is saying, "Let's go". ome on, this was a perfect time for Israel to just rush in and take Jericho, but that's not how God works. So in verse two, at that time, when they had all the momentum on their side, the Lord said, "Make flint knives and circumcise the men of Israel". Everybody go, ouch. Hold up, wait, what? We were talking about milk and honey, we were talking about enemies running. We were talking about momentum hype, and God says, make flint knives. You guys ever seen an illustrated sermon gone bad before? I can already tell there's some people in the room going what's the big deal, what's circumcision?
I had that same question when I was in eighth grade. I didn't know what it meant. And I asked my Bible teacher and she was like, let me explain it like this. And she was trying to be very conservative with her words. And finally, one of the boys in the class just spoke up and said it. And I was like, ouch. And all the guys just cringed. That this was a moment where all of Israel, these were not baby boys getting circumcised. These were guys in their 30s and 40s. These were guys in their 20s, mid 20s, like 29 years old. These were guys that just got married. These were guys that just had their first kid, maybe their second or their third kid. And God tells Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcised the Israelites".
So in verse three, Joshua obeyed, he made Flint knives and he circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. Now this is why he did so all those who came out of Egypt, all the men of military age died in the wilderness on the way, y'all are like put the knife down. Okay, I got it. On the way after leaving Egypt. So... their parents had been circumcised when they left Egypt and went into the wilderness, but this was a new generation. All the people that came out had been circumcised, verse five, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. And so the Israelites had moved about in the wilderness for 40 years. So the first batch of babies that were born in the wilderness would now be 40 years old.
So the 40 year olds are going, hmm. And the 30 year olds and the 20 year olds. And they're listening to Joshua explain that the Lord told him to do this. And they're going, we were excited about the 12 stones. We were excited about Jericho. We were excited about Rehab. We were excited about all the parts of the story, but this is the part that feels like we just took two steps backwards, but see, God has to prepare you before he promotes you. God has to oftentimes cut some things before he promotes you into what's next, there's always a cutting process. There's always a painful process that precedes the promotion, the victory that God has for you. And it's never easy. When you look at scripture, every person, God used, went through some sort of pruning process to prepare for the greater growth that God had ahead of them.
So "All the men who were of military age, when they left Egypt had died since they had not obeyed the Lord, for the Lord had sworn to them" in verse six, "That they would not see the promise land that he had sworn to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey". So he raised up their sons in their place. And these were the ones that Joshua circumcised, they were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way that is a whole lot of circumcised going on right there. He said the word about five times and he's not done yet. And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed. It's important not to skip the healing process. It's important to take time to get healed so that you can run faster, so that you can finish with perseverance, so that you could do what God's asked you to do.
And it says in verse nine, "The Lord said to Joshua, after they had been healed, 'Today, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.'" And "On the evening of the 14th day of the month, while they were camped at Gilgal on the planes of Jericho, the Israelite celebrated the Passover. And the day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain". That same day that the manna stopped, God gave them a new menu. God gave them some new appetizers. God switched from manna to the land that was flowing with milk and honey. That same year they ate the produce of Canaan. I wanna title this message. This pain has a purpose. Turn to someone next to you and say, this pain has a purpose. This pain, say it like you mean it. This pain has a purpose.
Well, why did God do this? Why did God wait until they were in the most momentum moment of their season, their journey, to put them in a very vulnerable spot? Why would God put them in a painful place, right as they were getting ready to step into their promise land, why would God allow you to go through something painful when you are literally doing nothing wrong? Like these Israelites hadn't done anything wrong. They've been following God. They've been crossing the Jordan river. And yet here they go through a very painful situation. And here's what I think God wanted them to know. Zechariah 4:6, the Lord spoke to the prophet and the prophet said, the Lord has said, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord almighty.
I believe that God wanted the Israelites to know you are not going to get the glory for this. You are not going to think that this was through your might through your charisma, through your personality, through your skills, through your talents, through your last name, through your bank account that you got the victory. I think God wanted the Israelites to know this victory is going to be completely through the spirit. What God was about to ask the Israelites to do would be crazy. He was gonna ask them to blow trumpets and shout and expect brick stone walls to break with a shout. The only way people would believe that that's possible is if they were weak and humbled enough to only be able to rely upon God, see they had strength, they had power, they had confidence. They had momentum. Everything was going their way.
And all of a sudden, God says, I need you to be vulnerable. I need you to be humbled. I need you to prepare for the promise that I have for you and this pain that you're about to walk through has a purpose. What we believe about God and his feelings towards us really does have a direct effect on how we live the rest of our life. If we believe that God is against us, then we believe that all pain is some sort of punishment from heaven that we're supposed to experience misery. But if we understand that God uses pain to prune us and prepare us for greater things, then we'll be able to trust him through the process.
When you look at the diamond that sits on your wife's ring or on your mom's ring, that diamond is beautiful, right? Like Ashley's diamond is beautiful. The diamond on Abby's ring is beautiful, but that diamond goes through a process. It's not just beautiful right off the bat. It has to go through a cut. It has to go through a heated process. Even Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 1:7. When you look at what Peter says here, verse six, 1 Peter 1:6, he says, "In all of this greatly rejoiced though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer".
If Peter could talk to these Israelites, he'd say, I know it's painful right now, but this pain is not permanent. I know you're going through grief right now. I know you're hurting, all the men, right? He's like, guys, I know you are in pain, but trust me, this pain will not last forever. But what Peter was saying here was not just pain of a certain kind. 'Cause sometimes we go, yeah, but he was talking about the pain of like preaching the gospel and being persecuted for your faith. And sometimes we go, you know, you're outta context, Paul, you are straight outta con... Not compton... straight outta context in scripture. You're twisting this, but Peter actually opens it up. He says grief of any kind trials of any kind.
So it could be a trial you're walking through at home. It could be a trial you're walking through at your job, it could be a trial of maybe losing a loved one to COVID or maybe losing a loved one because of a sickness or disease. It could be that you're just walking through grief. That you're just in a season where you go, man, I just feel like I'm going through something that's not easy. And I'd love to like believe our victory confession that my best days are in front of me. I'd love to believe that God is not finished with me yet. But if I'm honest, life has been painful. And Jesus promised that we would go through painful things. He said in Matthew 16:33... actually John 16:33, he said in this world, you will have troubles of many kinds. You'll have trials, you'll go through difficulties. He never promised us a pain-free life. But he said, "Take heart for, I have overcome the world".
What we need to understand when we go through pain is that God is not the author of pain, but he absolutely knows how to use it for his glory in our lives. Like when Joseph was abused by his brothers and they tried to kill him. There's some people who theologically think, yeah, God's the one who put the jealousy inside the brothers to punish Joseph. He created the anger inside the brothers so that they would hurt him and throw him in a pit. God is not up in heaven going, I really want people to sin. I really want dysfunctional homes. I really want abusive fathers. God's not up there instigating trauma. He's not the author of pain. He's not going, oh, I really wanna hit you with cancer this week. Like there's some people who actually believe God is behind the pain in their life.
But John 10:10 says "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I've come to give you life and life more abundantly". You need to have a better understanding that God is a good God, but that doesn't mean he won't let you go through pain. And that's the contradiction 'cause we go, okay, he's good. He's come to give me life, life more abundantly. But circumcision is painful Paul, especially not like I, I bet these grown men were going, couldn't we have done this when we were babies? Like, why did you have to wait till I'm 35 years old? You know? Like if you were that guy and you're going, why didn't we do this when we didn't even know what was happening to us?
Job 23:10, when he was going through his own painful season, he said, "He knows the way that I take. And when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold". Gold has to be purified. Gold has to go through a heated process. It's tested, James, who was also a follower Jesus. He was one of the top three disciples, he was close to Jesus. The closer you get to Jesus, the closer to Jesus gets to your pain. And the closer he gets to the situations in your life, where he goes, let me help you with that. Before there's a healing, there's a hurt. Before there's a crown there's a cross. Before there's an empty tomb, there is a difficult season that we all go through.
"Consider it pure joy," James says, "My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds". Now James opens it up here again. You're not outta context if you go, Paul, I'm going through a trial right now. And it has to do with like, I don't know, relationship, or maybe you're lonely, or maybe you're going through something. Maybe it's a habit or an addiction that you just feel so ashamed about. You're trying your best to conquer it. And maybe you've walked through something or maybe you just lost somebody and you're going, I just feel like I am in this, I'm in a crucible. James says, okay, God does his best work when you are most vulnerable, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
This is to make your faith more genuine. This is to make your faith more real. What good is faith if it's all built on answered prayers. It's easy to show up to church when everything's going your way. It's easy to lift your hands when all your eating is grapes and cheese and honey and milk and cashews and salted roasted, salted, whatever you eat, like it's easy to get excited when all is well. But God says before you have that, I need to do something because that will taste much better on the other side.
If you taste it before you should, Joseph, if you immediately see the fulfillment of your dream at age 17, you're gonna miss out on the joy of understanding he is the God of the highs and lows, the hills and the valleys. He's the God who's with you in the pit. He's the God who's with you when you're accused of sins you didn't commit. He's the God who's with you when the butler forgets about you, he's the God who holds you and comforts you when brothers forsake you, he's the God who understands your pain more than anybody else. And if you taste that food too soon, you're gonna miss out on the lesson of trusting in God, because Jericho is just the beginning.
There's battles ahead. And God knows to handle the battles ahead. I need to prepare you for what you're gonna face. And I need you to trust completely in me. Don't put your trust in horses or chariots or bank accounts or last names or reputations or friends that are close to you or your salary or your job or your career or your personality or your charisma. Put your trust in the Lord and him alone. God was trying to get the Israelites to completely rely upon him. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord.
See God is not in a hurry to get you to the promised land. God's willing to wait. I don't know about you, but I love just like, let's go, let's do this right now. Let's make it happen, I'm an activator. Like it's my number one strength. I'm like, let's do this. But God says, hold on. I'm more focused on who you're becoming than how fast you get there. I'm more focused on producing in you the character of the spirit than I am getting the walls to fall down in Jericho. So I'm gonna hold you here for a second and I'm gonna get you ready. And you're going to still see the fulfillment of the dream. But God says it's going to be a process. "So make flint knives and circumcised the Israelites," he says.
God is not absent during those painful moments in your life, in fact, he's more present. He's close to the broken hearted. Rather than ask, why must I go through this? Ask Lord, what do you want to do in the middle of this? What do you want to teach me? Once they were healed? Then they were prepared for what was next. Notice that the appetite changed after this, that once they went through this, God said, all right, the manna is stopping. What you ate in the previous season is no longer what you will eat in this next season.
What you were used to and the things that you grew grew comfortable with in the last season, you will no longer crave in this next season. You're gonna have a new craving. You're gonna have a new passion. You're gonna have a renewed freshness in your faith, in your journey. I want you to stand your feet all over this place. "So when they crossed over," in chapter five, watch this, it says, "That year, they no longer ate the manna," in verse 12. "Instead they ate the produce of Canaan".
In other words, they began to eat on the level of their vision. They began to eat on the level of their dreams. This year is the year that God wants you to rise to a new level. Salvation is free, it costs you nothing. The grace of God saves you. But once you're saved then is the sanctification process. And this is where God begins to do the work in you. And for the rest of our lives as Christians, that work is never meant to stop.
As long as you're breathing, you're still a work in progress. The second we think we've arrived is when we've gotta go back a few levels and God says, all right, we're gonna have to play that level again, but it's okay, I'm not forsaking you. You're still in the game, you still got a chance. It's still gonna be great. But God understands this sanctification process takes humility, it takes work, takes vulnerability, and then it prepares you for the victory. And I believe that this is the year that God says, I want you to go further than you've ever gone. I want you to see greater victory in your life than you've ever seen before, but it's gonna require total surrender.