1 Chronicles 4:10
9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.
 
As we call upon God and ask Him to bless us and enlarge our territory it is amazing that He is so willing to do that for us…
 
He will give us the land of purity and joy and peace and faithfulness and kindness and contentment but look at how Jabez asked for the land…
 
Verse 10 says… that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”…
 
Give me the land Lord but be with me and keep me from evil and ensure that I would not build walls for others but tear them down…
 
and then Verse 10 says… So God granted him what he requested…
 
Let's look at the importance of “defending the increase” once God has granted us what we’ve requested…
 
Psalms 80:8-16a
You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River. Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, And the branch that You made strong for Yourself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
 
After the deliverance from Egypt there was a great expansion and enlarging of the territory but 3 things began to happen…
 
1.  The hedges were broken down…
 
2.  The enemy began to pluck the fruit…
 
3.  Wild beast began to devour...
 

1.  The Hedges  
Job 1:6-10
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."8 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" 9 So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
 
The hedge of the Lord is part of the enlargement of the territory…
 
Matthew 21:33 
33 "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
 
The Lord sets the hedge but we must maintain it…
 
John 15:1-2a
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
 
The Lord prunes the hedge and we maintain the hedge by growing in our walk with Him…
 
2 Peter 1:5-8
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
As we add these things to our faith you can see the picture painted of a beautiful well trimmed & pruned hedge of protection around our enlarged territory… also with great fruit but we’ll get there in a minute…
 
In the physical you could picture the city of Jerusalem with a wall built around it and watchmen stationed along the wall to prevent the enemy from entering and to proclaim to all who approach who the city belongs to…
 
Imagine if your life had this as a reality…
 
Isaiah 62:6-12
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, 7 And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. 8 The Lord has sworn by His right hand And by the arm of His strength: "Surely I will no longer give your grain As food for your enemies; And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine, For which you have labored. 9 But those who have gathered it shall eat it, And praise the Lord; Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts." 10 Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! 11 Indeed the Lord has proclaimed To the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.' " 12 And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
 
So we see the watchmen on the wall “Protecting the Borders” and they are anything but silent about the Lord and the land He has given them…
 
This is what the borders of your territory should look like…
 
2.  The enemy began to pluck the fruit
 
Isaiah 62:8-9
8 The Lord has sworn by His right hand And by the arm of His strength: "Surely I will no longer give your grain As food for your enemies; And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine, For which you have labored. 9 But those who have gathered it shall eat it, And praise the Lord; Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts."
 
When we don’t “Protect Our Borders” the hedge is down and the enemy plucks our fruit so that we never taste of it…
 
Matthew 13:3-9
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" 
 
I think we see here the importance of establishing your borders and cultivating all of your land…
 
If the Lord is spreading seed it is valuable…
 
I think it’s pretty easy to make the connection that the enemy will pluck the fruit that grows without a hedge of protection…
 
We also need to see that he can prevent good seed from ever growing on the wayside and stony ground…
 
We have to cultivate all the land within our borders… 
 
Many of our Jericho’s are land within our borders that the enemy has crept into and then he keeps them from bearing fruit or he steals the fruit every time it begins to grow…
 
When we leave any of our territory undeveloped or unattended the enemy sneaks in to steal seed and fruit…
 
John 10:1-11
1 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. 7 Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
 
The enemy is a hedge hopper but if we have watchmen on the wall and we water every area of our territory every day we can limit his ability to steal from us…
 
Luke 22:1-3
1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.
 
This is what I mean when I say the enemy is a hedge hopper…
 
Satan came into the Lord’s supper… he came into the garden of Eden to poison Adam & Eve’s fruit… and if you allow him to he will hop your hedge too…
 
Finally…
 
3.  Wild beast began to devour
 
Matthew 13:22
22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
 
The wild beast represent the regular people and things in this world that can make us unfruitful…
 
It doesn’t have to be the active work of the enemy or the lack of a hedge it can just be regular people and activities that draw us away from the Lord and take our focus off of our territory…
 
One of my favorite lines in movies is when soldiers say “I have sworn to protect this nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic”…
 
We’ve seen the foreign enemies in Egypt and Jericho and so many other places and we've seen the domestic enemy as Achan brought sin into the camp and Gehazi stopped following the Prophet Elisha and went after riches…
 
Each of us have enemies that are foreign and enemies that are domestic that we have to be aware of…
 
The best way to deal with all of our enemies is to “Protect Our Borders”…
 
Build a strong hedge as you add to your faith…
 
Do the hard work to cultivate every inch of your land…
 
And keep the cares of this world in their proper perspective…
 
Isaiah 58:8-9
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'

The walking and praying in silence has been completed... The 7th day trumpets have been blown and the walls of Jericho have come crashing down...
 
What do we do now?… Once the wall has fallen sometimes we are frozen in shock because in many ways we never thought we’d be in this place where we can now see beyond the walls…
 
1.  Take the land
 
Joshua 6:20-24a
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 22 But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, "Go into the harlot's house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." 23 And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. 24 But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire.
 
When the walls fall we must still go in and take the land…
 
The inhabitants are fearful, weakened, and exposed and at the same time we are bold and confident having seen the supernatural power of our God but we must still step out in faith and fight…
 
It’s as if the Lord says I want you to look your enemies in the eye and slay them with your own hand…
 
Isaiah 14:12-17
12 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. 16 "Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, 17 Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
 
Satan is a beast and a force to be reckoned with and if you attempt to defeat him with anything other than the love and word of Christ you will fail…
 
However,  when you step out in faith with the love & word of Christ as your armor you will be victorious and when you see the enemy clearly you will say… “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, 17 Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?…
 
Also when you fight for the promised land of your life you are not so easy to let it be taken back by the enemy…
 
Ephesians 6:13-18a
13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit
 
When the walls fall you go even harder… you put on the armor of God and you go take the land…
 
The Lord directed Joshua and all the people to burn everything and everyone that will not come under the rule & reign of Christ…
 
They slayed everyone in the city and then they burned the city and that is the kind of complete victory and definitive end of our Jericho’s that God wants us to have…
 
There are people and places and things that we can never go back to once God has delivered us and as tough as that may sound it is the truth…
 
Rahab and her family were open to the God of Israel and were saved but it was on God’s terms…
 
God said you will make yourself known by the scarlet thread and you will leave everything you’ve ever known and follow my people wherever they lead you…
 
We are called to completely remove ourselves and take our promised land but if there seems to be an openness on their part to the God of heaven and earth who delivered us we can love and pray for those that live live in Jericho but we can only connect with them on God’s terms and they must follow us as we follow Christ…

I want to look at 2 “Prophets” on a “journey”… Elijah & Elisha
 
Definition of Prophet: A person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a God is expressed.
 
It’s 500 years after Joshua had taken Jericho…
 
The Prophet Elijah comes on the scene during the rule of Ahab who was married to Jezebel and God said Ahab did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any king before him so it’s literally the worst time of Godlessness in Israel’s history…
 
500 years later Malachi prophecies that Elijah shall return and again redirect God’s wayward people…
 
500 years after that Jesus calls John the Baptist Elijah and then He’s transfigured before Peter, James and John and who appears on the mountain with Jesus?… Moses and “Elijah”…
 
2 Kings 2:1-15
1 And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. 2 Then Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So they went down to Bethel. 3 Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?" And he said, "Yes, I know; keep silent!"4 Then Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So they came to Jericho. 5 Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?" So he answered, "Yes, I know; keep silent!" 6 Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So the two of them went on. 7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. 8 Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water; and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?" Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." 10 So he said, You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so." 11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!" So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. 13 He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. 14 Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. 15 Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. 23 Then he went up from there to Bethel;
 
So Elijah and Elisha started and ended their journey at Bethel… Bethel is more than just a church in Redding with an awesome worship team…
 
Remember Jesus said that God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who are alive because He is the God of the living not the dead…
 
When Jacob left His father Isaac he slept in “Bethel” and encountered God there…
 
Genesis 28:10-19
10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: "I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" 18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel;
 
So Bethel is the house of God and the gate of heaven where angels ascend and descend…
 
Bethel is the place where the men and women who avoid the casket begin to go running for it because God becomes real to us there…
 
When Jesus calls Nathanael to be a disciple John 1:51 reads…
He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
 
Jesus says “I AM the house of God and I AM the gate of heaven”… “I AM Bethel”…
 
I AM the beginning of the journey… The place you must come to encounter God…
 
Where you see the truth with your own eyes and your clearly hear the offer of forgiveness…
 
So at the end of his earthly life Elijah takes Elisha to Bethel and from there in 2 Kings 2:4 Elijah tells Elisha… the Lord has sent me on to Jericho… so they move on to Jericho…
 
Jericho represents the place where there is no victory without a supernatural move of God…
 
Joshua 5:13-14
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" 14 So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
 
This is Jesus appearing and declaring that “I have now come” because this is a battle that only the Lord can fight and win…
 
See we meet Him at Bethel but we realize how much we need Him at Jericho…
 
Jesus fights the battle for “Life Beyond The Grave” at Jericho and we can do nothing to obtain that life on our own…
 
We see Him at Bethel and we run for the other side initially anyway we can except through the casket but we learn that as we come to the Jericho of sin if the Lord doesn’t fight that battle there is no “life beyond the grave for us”… It’s a narrow road that leads to life and it runs through the casket…
 
We must go from Bethel to Jericho and bow down before Jesus in worship and obedience like Joshua did…
 
Salvation is the biggest and most important of all our Jericho’s but there are more along your journey…

So we’ve been “To and Through” Bethel and “To and Through” Jericho so we’ve finally made it right?… NOPE!…
 
As if that isn’t hard enough Elijah says to Elisha and to us we still have further to go…
 
In 2 Kings 2:6-8 Elisha says…
the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan." But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!" So the two of them went on. 7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. 8 Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water; and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
 
The Jordan is the place of baptism…
 
It isn’t enough to meet Jesus in Bethel…
 
and it isn’t enough to come to Jericho where you realize you are helpless without Him… Even if you allow Him to conquer sin and death for you…
 
Jesus is calling us to be baptized just like when the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea and here with Elijah and Elisha as they cross the Jordan river…
 
This baptism in many ways is how we come out of the grave where sin and death were dealt with and we begin truly “living beyond the grave” as we are called to…
 
See we have to come “To AND Through” Bethel, Jericho, AND the Jordan…
 
The truth is that many people don’t want to follow us because we look and live like half dead half resurrected mummies & zombies walking around talking about the love and power of God…
 
Matthew 3:13-16
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
 
Romans 6:3-13
do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead
 
So many of us need to be baptized spiritually and when we are we will run with great joy to be baptized physically in water…

Baptism in most churches has become an “optional future ceremony” when God established it as the backside of the salvation coin…
 
You should not want and cannot really have one without the other…

We’ve gotta go all in… be fully submerged and come up loosed of all our grave clothes…
 
There’s a great mystery and power in baptism that many of us are missing and I believe its the answer to many of the issues and Jericho’s that continue to plague our lives…

Now that Elijah and Elisha have been “To and Through” Bethel and “To and Through” Jericho and “To and Through” the Jordan…
 
2 Kings 2:11 says…
11 Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
 
So Elijah wanted to remind Elisha that the journey with God is about going “To and Through” Bethel and “To and Through” Jericho and “To and Through” the Jordan and if he would do that he too could live beyond the grave…
 
Elijah didn’t have to die a physical death because he was already living beyond the grave and I believe with all my heart that he laid out the blueprint for each of us for how to get there…