The Giant in the Mirror: Why the Enemy Is Closer Than You Think

What if the giant you've been fighting isn't the obstacle in front of you — but the one living inside you?

That's the uncomfortable truth I sat with as I prepared this week's message. We're in week three of our Slaying Giants series, and I have to be honest: this one hit differently. Because this giant doesn't confront us from the outside. This one inhabits us.

When the Battle Goes Wrong

We've been following Israel as they step into the Promised Land. Week one, they faced the Jordan River at flood stage. Week two, Jericho — with its impenetrable walls. Both times, God showed up. Both times, the giants fell.

So when Israel marched toward their next target — a tiny village called Ai — the scouting report was almost dismissive. "Don't send everyone. Two or three thousand will be enough. They are few." This one should have been easy.

It wasn't.

Thirty-six men died. Israel's army ran home in defeat. And Joshua chapter 7 records this devastating detail: "The hearts of the people melted and became as water."

That's the same language Rahab used to describe how the people of Jericho felt when they heard Israel was coming. Now Israel was the terrified one. Something had changed — but what?

The Call Is Coming From Inside the House

Joshua did what any of us would do. He looked outward. He fell before God and essentially asked, "What went wrong out there?"

And God redirected him: "Israel has sinned."

The problem wasn't Ai. The problem was in the camp.

God's words in Joshua 7:11-12 are striking: "Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies."

Before the walls of Jericho fell, God had been explicit: the silver, the gold, the vessels of bronze and iron — those belong to the Lord. They were off limits. But someone decided that what God said didn't apply to them.

That someone was a man named Achan. And when he finally confessed, he gave us one of the most honest and heartbreaking sequences in all of Scripture: "I saw… I coveted… I took… I hid."

A Pattern as Old as the Garden

Here's what stopped me cold in my study this week. Achan didn't invent this pattern. He inherited it.

Go back to Genesis 3. Eve saw that the tree was good for food. She desired it. She took it. And when God came, they hid.

Jump to 2 Samuel 11. King David looked from his balcony and saw Bathsheba. He desired her. He sent for her and took her. And the rest of the chapter is a desperate, increasingly destructive attempt to hide what he had done.

Saw. Desired. Took. Hid. Same pattern, different tent.

And then the Apostle Paul makes it uncomfortably personal in Romans 7:19: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

Paul isn't pointing at Achan's tent. He's describing the war inside himself. And honestly? When I read that, I felt the investigation getting awfully close to home.

The Giant Is Us

Here's the hard truth I had to preach — and live with: the giant isn't out there. The giant is us.

The giant of "us" is the desire in me to be lord of me. I want to decide what is good. I want to determine what rules apply to me. I want the throne.

James 1:14-15 explains the whole anatomy of it: "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

The object of temptation may be outside of us — the cloak, the fruit, the gold — but the hook on the outside is catching something on the inside. And the sin we bury doesn't stay the same size we buried it.

So if I am the giant, how do I defeat me?

The Answer Is Jesus

Paul cries out in Romans 7:24-25: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

Notice the question. Paul doesn't ask how to fix himself. He asks who will deliver him. Because if I am the giant, I cannot defeat me with more of me.

The answer to the giant of us is not trying harder to be better. It's Jesus.

As Paul writes in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

All morning we chase the word I — I saw, I desired, I took, I hid, I want the throne. And the Gospel answers: it is no longer I, but Christ.

Here's how you defeat the giant of us: with a cross and an empty tomb.

And here's the word I want to leave you with from 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

You don't have to hide from a Savior who already knows. You don't have to protect a sin that Jesus already died for. Stop protecting what's killing you.

What's Your Nail?

I told the story of a couple who bought a house at half price with one strange condition — a single nail above the fireplace belonged to the original owner, and anything on that nail was his to do with as he pleased. They thought, A nail? That's all? But that one nail eventually drove them from their own home.

I wonder how many of us are trying to do that with Jesus. You can have everything, Lord — just not this. This nail is mine.

Achan had one hole underneath his tent. One place he decided was his. And it cost him everything.

What's your nail? What's the one place you keep telling Jesus, "Not this — this is mine"?

This week, I want to encourage you to do two things. First, let God examine you. Ask Him honestly: Is there something I'm hiding that's keeping me from being on mission with You? Second, think of one person in your life who needs to hear about Jesus — a neighbor, a coworker, a friend — and begin praying for them by name.

The giant of us is not supposed to have the throne anymore. Jesus is. And because of Him, sin doesn't get the final word.

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Watch the full message on our YouTube channel, and join us this Sunday as we continue the Slaying Giants series.

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When Nothing Seems to Be Happening: Keep Walking

Meta Description: What do you do when you've prayed, obeyed, and tried — and still see nothing? This week's message from Joshua 6 has an answer. URL Slug: keep-walking-giant-of-nothing Featured Image: A lone figure walking a long, empty road toward a distant, imposing stone wall at dawn — warm light breaking on the horizon behind them

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Have you ever worked hard at something and seen absolutely no results? No movement. No cracks. Nothing.

Most of us know that feeling — and most of us also know the whisper that follows it: Why keep going? If it was working, wouldn't you see something by now?

This past Sunday, I shared a message from Joshua 6 about exactly that moment — and about the giant that lives inside it.

The Wall Was Real. And So Was God's Promise.

When Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, they didn't walk into open, uncontested land. They walked straight into the shadow of Jericho — one of the most fortified cities in the ancient world.

Archaeological evidence tells us this wasn't just a fence. We're talking about an outer wall of giant boulders stacked 10-12 feet high, topped by a mud-brick structure rising another 25-35 feet above that. Forty to fifty feet of stone saying one word to Israel: no.

And yet, here's what God said to Joshua in Joshua 6:2:

"See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor."

Same wall. Two completely different perspectives. Joshua saw an unconquerable fortress. God saw a promise already fulfilled.

Before a single soldier took a step, Joshua had to decide: Would his sight or what God said determine how he walked?

Six Days of Nothing

God's battle plan was, to put it plainly, a little absurd. March around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, march around seven times, blow the trumpets, shout — and the walls will fall.

So they walked. Day one: nothing. Day two: nothing. Days three, four, five, six — nothing. No cracks. No crumbling stones. No visible sign that anything was working.

I want you to sit in that for a moment, because I think a lot of us have lived there. You prayed and nothing happened. You obeyed and your circumstances didn't improve. You invited someone and they didn't come. You kept walking and the wall is still standing.

And when nothing goes on long enough, nothing starts talking.

That's the giant I want to name today: the giant of nothing. Here's how I'd define it — the giant of nothing convinces me that because I can see nothing, I should do nothing.

Action Isn't the Opposite of Inaction — Obedience Is

Here's where I want to be really careful, because I don't want to leave you with a simple "just keep trying" message. That's not what this is.

Israel could have taken tremendous action against Jericho. They had the army. They could have built siege ramps, battering rams, ladders. All of that would have looked like progress. But God didn't ask them to do any of that.

The answer to the giant of nothing is not do something. The answer is do what God said.

You can be incredibly busy, incredibly exhausted, and still be walking in the wrong direction. Sometimes the giant of nothing doesn't say "stop" — it says "do something different." And we mistake the absence of visible results for a new direction from God.

Here's the chain I shared Sunday, and I want you to hold onto it:

God speaks → Faith trusts → Obedience walks → God determines the outcome.

That last part is the one we want to control. But it belongs to Him.

Walking by Faith Isn't Blind — It's Informed by What's Behind You

In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul writes: "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

I love that Paul chose the word walk — a daily, ordinary action. One foot in front of the other. That's what Joshua was literally doing when his sight gave him no encouragement whatsoever.

But here's what I want you to understand: this isn't blind faith. Biblical faith is not faith without reason.

Joshua wasn't being asked to trust a stranger. He had watched God part the

Jordan River just days before. He knew the stories of the Red Sea. He had a history with a faithful God. Yes, there was no crack in the wall in front of him — but there was a Jordan behind him.

And if you're a follower of Jesus today, you have something even greater behind you. You have a cross. An empty tomb. A risen Savior. We've seen enough of God's faithfulness to trust Him with what we haven't seen yet.

That's not blind faith. That's informed faith looking back at everything God has already done and saying, "I've seen enough to trust you with what I can't see."

The Goal of Obedience Isn't to Get Your Wall to Fall

I have to be honest with you here, because I think this is the most important thing I said on Sunday.

I can't promise you that if you just keep walking, your wall will fall. Some of you already know that painfully. You've prayed for healing and you're still sick. You've prayed for a relationship and it's still broken. You've done everything you know to do and there still isn't a crack.

The goal of obedience isn't to get your wall to fall. The goal of obedience is becoming a person who keeps walking with God — whether the wall has fallen yet or not.

We don't obey so that God will be faithful. We obey because He is faithful.

Our responsibility is obedience. The outcome belongs to God.

Keep Walking

As we head into this week, here's what I want to leave with you — the same thing I closed with Sunday:

You may not have a crack in front of you. But you have a Jordan and a Jesus behind you. A cross and an empty tomb. We've seen enough to trust Him with what we haven't seen yet.

Fear rehearses the obstacle. Faith rehearses the promise. And the promise you rehearse becomes the path you will walk.

So what do we do tomorrow? The same thing we did today. Keep walking.

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If this message resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who might need the encouragement. You can also watch the full sermon at our website or join us this Sunday as we continue our Slaying Giants series through the book of Joshua.

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Faith over Fear

 

Stop Ignoring the Giant: How Faith Defeats Fear

Here's something we've all been told at some point: just ignore it, and it'll go away. Whether it was a bully on the playground or a problem we didn't want to deal with, that advice sounds reasonable. But most of the time, it simply isn't true. Ignored problems don't disappear. They just get louder.

Israel learned that the hard way.

Forty Years Later, the Giants Were Still There

When we open the book of Joshua, forty years have passed since a generation of Israelites stood at the edge of the Promised Land, saw the giants waiting for them, and turned back in fear. An entire generation lived and died in the wilderness. And when the new generation finally arrived at the Jordan River, ready to enter what God had promised — the giants were still there, waiting.

They'd spent decades avoiding what eventually still had to be faced.

That's the thing about giants. They don't retire while you're not looking.

As I kicked off our new series, Slaying Giants, I wanted us to sit with that reality for a moment. Because many of us have our own giants — fears, obstacles, and challenges we've been hoping would quietly disappear. And God's invitation to us is the same one He gave Joshua: now, therefore, arise.

The River Was the First Giant

When God speaks to Joshua in Joshua 1, His instructions are surprisingly simple:

"Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them... Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you." — Joshua 1:2–3

No ten-step strategy. No "wait until conditions improve." Just: get up and cross.

The problem? The Jordan River was at flood stage. We learn in Joshua 3:15 that "the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest" — and it was harvest time. This wasn't a peaceful creek. It was a dangerous, swollen, overflowing river standing between Joshua and everything God had promised.

And here's what I think that river represents for many of us: fear. Because fear works a lot like a flooded river. One thought catches on another, and another, and before long you're not making decisions anymore — you're just being carried by the current of your anxiety, ending up somewhere you never intended to go.

The aim of fear is paralysis. Fear wants you frozen on the bank, calculating every reason not to cross. And a paralyzed Joshua never gets to Jericho. He just stands at the edge of everything God promised and never takes a step.

Fear Is Often Right — But It's Almost Always Wrong About God

Here's something I said on Sunday that might have surprised you: fear is often right. At least partially.

Go back to Numbers 13. The ten spies who came back with a bad report

weren't lying. The cities were fortified. The people were powerful. There were giants in the land. They didn't have a fact problem — they had a perspective problem. They measured the giants against themselves and saw grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb measured the giants against God.

So let me say it plainly: faith is not pretending the giant is smaller than it is. Faith is refusing to pretend that God is smaller than He is.

Fear says, you're not strong enough — and sometimes that's true. Fear says, you could fail — and yes, you could. But fear doesn't stop at a possibility. It turns a possibility into a command. You're not strong enough, therefore don't go. You don't have enough, therefore don't give. You could fail, therefore don't try.

Fear is a good servant, but a terrible lord. It can give you information, but it should never be given authority over your obedience.

Three Ways to Slay Fear

God doesn't just tell Joshua not to be afraid. He tells him what to do instead. And He repeats it so many times it's hard to miss — in verses 6, 7, 9, and 18: "Be strong and courageous."

Why does God keep saying it? Because fear has a way of making us forget what God has already said. So here are three practices I want to leave with you:

1. Remember who is with you. God's promise to Joshua was personal: "Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you" (Joshua 1:5). Fear is capable of calculating what you are capable of. God wants you calculating what He is capable of.

2. Rehearse what God has said. God instructed Joshua: "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night" (Joshua 1:8). The Hebrew word for meditate here — hagah — means to mutter, to ponder, to rehearse. Fear already knows how to do this. Fear will replay your worst-case scenario on a loop all day long until you've memorized your giant and forgotten your God. The answer is to rehearse Scripture back at it.

When fear says, you can't, God's Word says: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

When fear says, stay safe, God's Word says: "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).

When fear says, you're too small, God's Word says: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).

3. Regroup often. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom." Sometimes I fill my hammer by memorizing God's Word on my own. And sometimes, somebody who loves me picks it up right alongside me and says, let me swing that with you. You were never meant to face your giants alone.

The Giant in Front of Us

I want to be honest with you — I'm not preaching this from a place of having it all figured out. As we've been talking about adding a second service to make more room for people in our community, I've heard every argument fear has to offer. What if we don't have enough people? What if we don't have enough volunteers? What if we mess up what we already have?

The sermon I preached to you on Sunday is the one I've been preaching to myself all week.

But here's what I keep coming back to: I see families in this community who don't know who God is. My heart breaks for them. And the only way they're going to find out is if we take ownership of that — if we make room, learn to invite, and show up as people whose lives have genuinely been changed by Jesus.

That's the vision. That's the giant in front of us. And the only way we slay it is together, and with God's help.

So don't face your giants alone. If you're not in a small group, that's your next step. Find one that fits your schedule and get connected — because we need people in our lives who will pick up the hammer alongside us.

And if you're reading this and you've never taken that first step of saying yes to Jesus, I'd love to talk with you. That conversation can change everything.

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If this message resonated with you, share it with someone who's standing at the edge of their own river right now. And if you missed Sunday's service, you can watch the full sermon on our website or YouTube channel.

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Vitals of a Disciple: The Difference Between Listening and Responding

 

Are You Really Hearing It? The Difference Between Listening and Responding

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Have you ever had a doctor tell you exactly what needed to change — and then walked out and changed nothing? That tension between knowing and doing is exactly what James was talking about, and honestly, it's one of the most uncomfortable passages in the entire Bible.

This past Sunday, we wrapped up our six-week series on spiritual health, and I want to share the heart of where we landed — because I think it might be the most important question the whole series has been building toward.

The Hearing Test vs. The Discipleship Test

I opened the message by talking about hearing exams. You know the ones — giant earmuffs, a series of beeps, and the pressure of trying to figure out if you actually heard something or just convinced yourself you did. The whole test revolves around one question: Can you hear it?

But as we got into James chapter one, I realized James is asking a completely different question. Not can you hear it? but what did you do with what you heard?

Here's what James writes in James 1:22-25:

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts — he will be blessed in his doing."

James is mean. I'll just say it. But he's mean in the way that a good doctor is mean — he tells you the truth even when it's uncomfortable.

Samuel Heard the Right Voice but Ran to the Wrong Place

To help us understand what James is getting at, I told the story of young Samuel from 1 Samuel 3. Samuel kept hearing his name called in the night. Every time, he ran straight to Eli, his mentor and priest. And every time, Eli told him, "I didn't call you. Go back to sleep."

Here's what I want you to notice: Samuel wasn't having trouble hearing. He heard perfectly. He woke up, jumped to his feet, and responded immediately — every single time. His problem wasn't his ears. His problem was he didn't yet know how to respond to what he was hearing.

We can hear the right things and still run to the wrong places.

Eventually, Eli understood what was happening and gave Samuel the most important instruction of his young life: "Go, lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.'"

What Samuel said next stopped me in my tracks. Before he knew what God was going to ask. Before he heard the message. Before he had any idea what it would cost him — he settled something in his heart. Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.

That's not just listening. That's a posture. A settled orientation of the heart that says: You are God. I am your servant. Whatever you say, I'm ready to receive it and respond.

The Mirror You Look Into — and Then Leave

James gives us two kinds of people. The first looks in the mirror, sees something that needs to change, and then walks away and forgets. The second looks in the mirror and stays — stays until something actually changes.

For six weeks, we've been holding up a mirror together. God's Word has been showing us places where we've drifted, areas where other things have been winning our hearts, moments where we've been surviving on our own instead of breathing together as a community.

And now we've reached the part of the doctor's visit where you get the report. The doctor can tell you everything that needs to change. But he can't make you change it. That part is up to you.

If what has gone into your ears has not yet gotten into your life, you have not finished hearing it yet.

Obedience Is a Response, Not a Price Tag

Before I close, I want to be clear about something important — because James can be misread. He is not telling you to do more so that God will love you more. Obedience is not the price of following Jesus. It's the response of someone who already follows him.

Christianity doesn't begin with our response to Jesus. It begins with Jesus' response to us. As 1 John 4 reminds us, he loved us first. He lived the life we couldn't live. He died for our sins. He rose from the grave. And because of that, we are brought into God's family by grace through faith — not by our own performance.

God's Word, as James calls it, is "the perfect law of liberty." It's not a prison. It's an invitation into the life we were actually made for. As Jesus himself said, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the fullest."

It's Time to Respond

A disciple's life is the response. Not one moment, not one Sunday, not one
card — a life oriented toward saying, Yes, Lord. You are God. I am your servant. Speak, and I will listen.

As we move forward as a church, I want to invite you to take a concrete next step. We're growing — which is a beautiful problem to have — and we're adding a second service to make room for more people. That means we need more people to step up and serve. We need people to commit to a worship service and a serve team. We need all of us to move from hearing this vision to actually receiving it and responding.

And if today is the first time you're really hearing about Jesus — not just as a story, but as someone you could trust with your whole life — then your first next step is the simplest one: just say yes. Yes, I trust Jesus.

Whatever your next step is, take it. Don't just look in the mirror and walk away.

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Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): There's a big difference between hearing something and actually receiving it. James says if what has gone into your ears hasn't gotten into your life yet — you haven't finished hearing it. This week's message will challenge the way you think about listening, responding, and what it really means to follow Jesus. Link in bio to read the full recap. 👇

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