Good morning everyone and glad to see you here today and if you're visiting with us We especially welcome you you honor us to be among us and we're glad you are here And we hope that you will sense that God himself is among us as we look at his word together If you have a Bible, please turn with me to Joshua chapter 1 the Old Testament book Joshua and chapter 1
Joshua chapter 1 beginning in verse 6 Here now the word of God himself Be strong and courageous Because you will lead these people to inherit the land. I swore to their forefathers to give them Be strong and very courageous Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you do not turn from it to the right or to the left That you may be successful wherever you go Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it Then you will be prosperous and successful Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be frightened do not be discouraged For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go Let's pray together. Oh, Lord Jesus. We've heard these words that were spoken to Joshua We know your name is Joshua We come before you knowing that these words must be special to you Knowing that you are the one who fulfills all that Joshua's life stood for all that he accomplished And yet we are here in this day in the 21st century And we know that we live in a very different world and So we come to you now asking you to take this word given so long ago and bring it into our lives Send Holy Spirit to us Lord that we may understand how these precious words apply to us We want to know you We want to be strengthened and encouraged by your word And so bring them to us and as you do Lord we will give you the thanks and we will give you the praise for it Amen Friend of mine told me that last year when his 18-year-old son was applying to different colleges and universities He was so excited with all the anticipation of where he might go and what might happen that he he said at one point Oh, I wish I just had a crystal ball. I wish I just could tell what the future was going to be and His dad looked at him and said oh son If you knew what the future was you'd be so discouraged you throw in the towel You can kind of understand that can't you a young man 18 years old when he thinks about the future He's thinking about all the Possibilities that are out there. Where am I going to go to school? Who am I going to marry? How happy am I going to be how much money am I going to make? Oh, isn't life going to be grand if I just knew how it was going to turn out that would make it so exciting But you can also understand how an older man would think about the future and sort of go well I'm not so sure. I want to know what's around the corner I've been around there and I've seen it and it's not all that wonderful full of challenges full of hardships full of trials and troubles and I guess that somewhere in the middle is the truth isn't it somewhere between Being enthusiastic about the future and being realistic about the future and And that's the way it must have been in Joshua's day We just read this passage from the first chapter of Joshua where God is speaking To the leader of the people of Israel You'll remember that Joshua was a protege of Moses and that Moses had brought the people of Israel right to the border of the Promised Land but at that point he had to hand it all off to Joshua and Joshua is looking and actually physically staring at the promised land that God had sworn to give to them and He knows what's over there He knows that yes, there's a bright future But at the same time he knows what those grand cities looked like he had been a spy he had gone into that land He had seen those cities he had seen those armies and he knew that the future held huge Challenges and so for this reason apparently from this passage Joshua had a little bit of misgiving about all of this He felt a little discouraged a little weakened by the reality of the future as he looked out and saw what was coming And so in this passage God says to Joshua three times he says be strong and courageous Be strong and courageous be strong and courageous Now this was not God giving Joshua a mantra that he could stick up on his bathroom mirror and read every morning I said be strong and courageous be strong and courageous be strong and courageous. I could do it I can do it. No, that's not what God's doing He doesn't repeat it three times so that Joshua will somehow whip up the energy inside of himself to be able to face the future Instead God says it three times because he directs Joshua's attention toward Three different things or three different ways in which he can have the kind of strength and the kind of courage he needed for his future Now if you know the Bible story you know that what Joshua is about to do is to wage war and This was not an ordinary war. It was a miracle war. It was a very supernatural war So don't think of this along the lines of normal geopolitical warfare But at the same time it was a physical war there were spiritual things going on while the physical battles were going on too And you might wonder well what connection does that have to do with me? What's that got to do with the Christian life today? Well the New Testament tells us that at this time between the first and second Cummings of Christ the spiritual battles are still going on and And you are involved in those spiritual battles and the physical dimension will only reappear for us when Jesus returns in glory at the resurrection of the body and the life of everlasting But just because we call them spiritual doesn't mean they're not real We think about your life and the struggles that are in your life And if you know anything from the past you know that in your future There are Jericho's staring at you with invincible walls You know that there are challenges ahead of you Some of you know that your marriages face significant challenges in the future You know that you are struggling with what the future holds for your children You know that you are struggling if nothing else You know you face these enormous cities that you must conquer called sickness and death and that's enough to discourage anybody From thinking about the future So perhaps as we hear God tell Joshua be strong and courageous We can find in our own Christian wars our own Christian struggles how we can have strength and courage to And I know you well enough to know that you need it I mentioned that God said three different things to Joshua here and the first thing appears in verse six Read with me again verse six Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them Here God reminds Joshua something He reminds him that in the days of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that God himself had taken an oath He didn't simply say I'm going to give you something. He swore that he would give him something And what was that something it was the land of Canaan the promise land and we always need to remind ourselves that in the Old Testament when They talk about the promise land that this real estate was simply the beginning of something that was going to be much larger Because from the time Israel received this land They were to then use that as a starting point for spreading the wonders of God's grace to the ends of the earth In fact the New Testament tells us in the book of Romans that Abraham and his see Jesus were not just promised a little piece of land They were promised the inheritance of the entire earth This is just the beginning point God is promising Joshua something Enormous here and he's telling him you can be strong and courageous because you know me That no matter what you face no matter what struggles are out there you can trust in me Now some of you are old enough to remember when a man was as good as his word. Do you remember those days? That if you spoke to someone Made an agreement and you shook on it and looked each other in the eye You knew with great confidence that you could trust that person to carry through with what they said It was a matter of honor. It was a matter of it was just a matter of Convention that we could trust each other that way, but nowadays we know we can't do that at all And I don't care how many young people say word
Taking an oath that their word is good. You know you can't trust it anymore. I mean does anyone in here trust the politicians? Stand up if you do please because I can't believe that you do I mean we hear them make promises Crazy promises sometimes from the left to the right We hear them say things like read my lips no new taxes and what happens the next week new taxes We hear them tell us things like don't worry about it. They're not going to be the earmarks anymore I promise and what do we have earmarks? We know that politicians simply make promises to get people to vote for them and to like them and they Apparently have very little intention of keeping those promises and when the leaders of a nation do this It seeps into all of society so that now even in a local church even in the same church where you have two Christian people Who love Christ? They're not about to make a financial deal without all kinds of contracts without lawyers looking at the contracts working them all out Making sure everything signed in triplicate and put in some lockbox somewhere What a terrible world we live in when you can't trust anyone, but I have some good news for you Maybe you're here and you're a person who wonders Yeah, in this kind of world what what can you possibly trust whose word can you possibly rely upon? Well God is saying here to Joshua you can rely on me I'm the one who made everything. I am good. I Have your best interest in my and I have sworn that You will receive the land Now you and I live in a position and history that's even greater than Joshua's Because not only did God affirm this and accomplish this for Joshua He gave him the land But we live even beyond that to the point that God confirmed his promise that his people would one day inherit the entire world And he confirmed it by Jesus's life on this planet He confirmed it by Jesus dying on the cross to Secure and make sure that you and I would not have to pay for our sins And he confirmed it by Jesus rising from the dead and ascending into heaven and Raining over all things and right before our eyes Transforming the earth Into the kingdom of God. We have good reason to trust in God. I Told you last week that I was going to have a debate with Muslim and a mom and a rabbi at the University of North Carolina And that did happen and we're trying to get the recording trying to wrestle it from the Muslims hand so that we can put it on the web but One of the things that came up in that debate was how The best that the Muslim could offer was the possibility of salvation the possibility of paradise He said everyone must try everyone must work hard to be good and to try to serve God as much as possible Now we're all going to fail he admitted and when you come to the judgment seat of God You will stand there and he didn't use these words, but in effect cross your fingers and hope that God might have mercy on you How much courage and strength do you get from that? The answer is none Well, here's the good news of the Christian faith Because Jesus was so good and so approved by God that if you put your faith in him You can be absolutely confident Absolutely assured that God will not break his word That he will give you an internal inheritance in the new heavens and new earth And so when the troubles come when the stumbling occurs when you face the Jericho's that are out there in everyone's life You know that in the end in the end You will be the victor now what kind of religion do you want? The kind that says cross your fingers and hope or the kind that says you can be sure God is saying to Joshua Joshua listen to me. I have given you my word Be strong and courageous Trust me on this, but you remember that God didn't say this just once to Joshua He said it a second time look again at verse 7 Be strong and very courageous be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you do not turn from it to the right or to the left That you may be successful wherever you go God had not simply given Joshua a promise He had also given Joshua a guide book on how? To wage this war Now I'm sure that as Joshua looked at the law of Moses and as he read it a lot of the things that Moses had written down by Inspiration from God. I'm sure a lot of those things made sense to him I mean things like don't steal don't murder things like that all of us when we hear those things we go Yeah, that makes sense. I mean that would not make for a very good life and a lot of us when we read the Bible as a whole now This thing that is like the law of Moses to us We read it and we find things in it that make good common sense and when we see those things We are ready to follow them and we know that if we follow them We will be successful wherever we go certainly is true Think about it this way Maybe before you became a follower of Christ you were an alcoholic and you saw your life falling to pieces And so you come to Christ and you determine that now you're going to obey God's word and you're going to live in the joy of sobriety Well, that was a good thing and it made your life better Perhaps you found that being faithful in marriage is better than being unfaithful in marriage Maybe you found that following the Bible on raising children has made them better than they would have been before But the reality is this The Bible does not simply tell us things that make good common sense And Joshua had to face that reality in his day too Very dramatically remember he's about to face a war And he's about to face a war against great enemies and these great enemies had all kinds of war machinery And the law of Moses actually told Joshua that he could not have the up-to-date weaponry of his day Oh, they had steel iron chariots They had catapults in those days. They had ramparts and all kinds of machines to knock down walls and things like that And God says to Joshua you can't have them In his word in his law he says I want you to fight this war Joshua with one hand tied behind your back With a little sword maybe a shield and with some slingshots. How's that sound to you Joshua Well, if Joshua had any common sense at all he knew that wasn't the way to fight a war And so naturally he would be frightened and be discouraged facing his future And that's the way it is for you and me You and I have to be the kinds of people who understand That God knows how the struggles of life are to be waged and accomplished Better than we do Now I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of person that absolutely hates instruction manuals Do you feel that way about them? If I get a software package the last thing I'm going to do is read the manual If I get a new car or something like that the last thing I'm going to do is read the manual I figure I can figure this out on my own even as a child. I was that way. I used to love to make model cars And I would never read the instructions and so I put the model car together And then at the end I'd end up having to paint the interior through the windows of the little car And I can never figure out why the other kids Interiors looks so nice and mine looks so messy. Well hello You're supposed to paint the interior before you put the top on and if you do that If you follow the instructions then your car looks really nice and mine always looked like I painted through the windows That's the way life is As a child I didn't understand that the manufacturer might know a little more about how to put a model car together than I did Have you ever thought to yourself? Maybe the one who made the universe Just maybe the one who sustains the universe Knows a little more than you and I do about how to live in his universe Even when he tells you to tie one hand behind your back and to do things that don't seem very common-sensical I mean we live in a day right now where a lot of us are facing economic hardship And you know the temptation that comes with that The temptation is to Well, just fudge a little bit here Fudge a little bit there all in the name of common sense Only the name of doing what's reasonable We even do things like you know god will understand I just not making as much money as I did last year So when I don't give offerings to the church that he'll understand that this only reasonable Or you know my life is busy So you know to be involved in the things of the church well God understands those kinds of things We use our common sense what we think is common sense Sometimes even when the Bible tells us to do just the opposite because we are just not ready to obey the word of God And we are willing to turn to the left and the right when it doesn't make sense to us
And woe to us when we do Because just as in Joshua's day The answer for how to live your life Is not a guess It's found in the word And the word of God is sure and true Because he's the manufacturer of your life and of the world And even if it doesn't make sense to you and me We can be sure of success We can be sure that we will succeed in the battles of life If we do not turn to the left or right Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to read the instruction manual And find out how life is to be lived And live it even when it doesn't seem to make sense to you and me If you're willing to do that Do you know what you can do? You can face the future with strength and courage Because you know you're doing it the way God wants you to do it
But as the Lord spoke to Joshua He didn't just remind him of his great promises and how sure they are And he didn't just remind him of how true his word is and how reliable it is He also spoke to Joshua about a third way A third reason for having strength and courage as you face the future Listen to what he says beginning in verse 9 Have I not commanded you Be strong and courageous Do not be terrified Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go These words sound a lot like Jesus words at the great commission Do you remember that when he sent his disciples to the ends of the earth He said at the end of it he said and low I will always be with you I will be with you always even to the end of the age I'll be with you Oh yeah I'm sending you out disciples of Jesus Not just to the promised land I'm sending you to the whole world But don't worry I'll be with you the whole time These are supposed to be words that assure us and give us confidence about the future And in Joshua's day this meant something rather specific To have God with him meant that he had the priests there with him He had the tabernacle there with him he had a place where he could go To pray and to experience the things of God He had the arc of the covenant he had the experience of God This was not some theory for him He was not thinking you know oh yes I guess that's true God is omnipresent and he's with me everywhere I go No that's not it What he was thinking in terms of was oh yeah that's right I've got the tabernacle oh that's right I've got the place where I can experience God in prayer and worship I've got opportunity to come right into the holy presence of God
And so it is for you and me today You simply will not have the kind of strength and courage it takes to face the future If you do not also have the experience of the presence of God
And by that I mean that you have such dramatic encounters with the holy one of Israel That you never could possibly deny that that was the truth May some of you here Who are followers of Christ? You know what I'm talking about you know that at some point in your life Maybe many points in your life You've had these experiences of the presence of God that you just simply can't deny You may not be able to explain them you may not be able to put them into words But you know that God was with you at that moment In a way that was overwhelming without that happening in your life The future does not vote well The future is frightening the future is Terrifying And so God says to Joshua Joshua you have got to come into my presence And know experientially that I am with you wherever you go Once I was at the swimming pool with my daughter when she was about seven years old And there was another girl about the same age Who was sitting with her dad on the other side of the pool And all the big kids were going off the high dive And you know what that's like to make a long line of all the teenagers there And apparently I couldn't I wasn't close enough to hear what they said But apparently the little seven year old wanted to go on the high dive too So her dad, Elboter, encouraged her to do it and she did She got in the line, you know, 16, 15, 14, 7-year-old, 15, 14, 16, that kind of thing And of course as she got closer and closer you could see the teenagers around her sort of giggling And elbowing each other too sort of, you know, here goes the seven-year-old But she was very brave and she climbed up the ladder at her turn And she walked out to the end of the diving board And when she did she was walking out like this And she got to the end look down to it She couldn't believe it was that high up there She didn't know that it was going to be that scary And she was so terrified by the prospect of jumping off into the water That she actually turned around and made the teenagers climb down the ladder And let her go back to her dad And of course she went back crying weeping He put his arm around her Now I don't know exactly what he said to her But it was something like this A few minutes later he talked her into trying again But apparently what he said was Go ahead try it again because when you get up there I'll get in the water It'll be okay And so she stood in line again and by this time the whole pool was watching Because the little girl went made such a scene the first time And her turn came and she climbed up the ladder This time she wasn't smiling so brightly She was a little more realistic about the future But she walked out to the end of that diving board And she looked down it was still just as high It was still scary And her dad got off the edge of the pool and just barely into the water And when he did she did this Like that So he got a little bit further and she went like this And he got a little bit further Right there She knew exactly where she wanted him She wanted him right there Now I sort of expected I'm sure her father did too That she would just kind of jump off the edge And fall into the water and he'd be there But instead she went back on the diving board And ran out With flying out and landed right on top of him And they both nearly drowned And the lifeguards threw him out So I wasn't a happy ending But let me just ask you this question What made the difference for that little girl? What made the difference? The diving board didn't get shorter The future was not less formidable You know the difference It was not that her daddy had said Theoretically I'll be in the water sweetie I'll take care of it It wasn't even some mild experience of that Where if he got in the water Just a little bit then she's okay No She had to know With her own eyes And from her own experience That if she jumped Her daddy would be right there And if anything bad happened He would take care of it Do you wonder Why you're discouraged about the future Do you wonder why the future may frighten you If you have been apart from the presence of God in your life That overwhelming, dramatic assurance of his nearness to you It's no wonder that the future scares you But can you remember the times in the past Maybe it was a long time ago When you faced something that you thought you just could not manage And you whisper Jesus please be with me And you felt And I mean felt his arm come around you And it gave you courage beyond anything that was natural Can you remember those times If it's been a long time You need to have it again This is the way of courage and strength As Joshua faced this impossible battle before him God said him be strong and courageous for your future You can do it There's no problem If you will just trust me as the one who makes sure promises If you'll just trust my word even when it doesn't make sense and follow it And if you will experience me in your life Then you can be strong and courageous Let's pray together Our Lord Jesus we bless you and we honor you That you have not left us Without hope That we don't have to be afraid of the future We bless you and honor you Lord that we can be realistic about it And at the same time have strength and courage Grant to us by the power of your spirit That these things be written in our hearts so that we never forget them That you may be praised and your kingdom furthered Amen