The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E14 - Joshua

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

In the face of overwhelming obstacles, the Israelite leader Joshua was given this command by God: “Be strong and courageous.” And we can do the same, because of the One who is with us, in us, and for us. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” — Joshua 1:9

Hey church family, it is time for our daily divo. If you've got your Bible, we're going to be in the book of Joshua, chapter 1. Joshua's way back towards the beginning of the Bible. And we're just going to pick it up there, Joshua 1-1. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord. For five books of the Bible, the first five, the Pentateuch or the Torah, was written by Moses, one of the greatest leaders. really in the history of the world. Moses has this miraculous story of his birth and really his salvation, not at like the soul level, but at the physical level, because the Pharaoh is killing all the babies two and under, and so his mom puts him in a little raft or a little reed basket and sends him down the river,

and he's picked up by the servants or actually by the daughters that are in charge in Egypt. And then, of all the people in the world, they pick Moses' mom to be his own nanny, and he's raised in the palace of Pharaoh's place. And then he gets in this fight with some Egyptians because of really their anti-Semitism against some of his brothers. And he kills a guy, and while he's out in the, like out on the run, on the lamb, then God comes to him in this miraculous way through the voice of a burning bush and has him go to Pharaoh and say to Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world,

let my people go. And through a series of ten plagues, which is culminates, with the Passover that we just celebrated last week, he frees the nation of Israel. They cross over the Red Sea. Moses goes up on to Mount Sinai and receives the law of God, the Ten Commandments of God. He is God's man. And because of the rebellion of the Israelites and because of seemingly one mistake in Moses' life, he is not able to lead the people into the promised land. but he is the greatest leader, especially up to this point,

that the nation of Israel has ever known. And after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of none, Moses's assistant, Moses, my servant is dead. So let me stop right there. It ain't about you. I mean, all the things that Moses did, Moses writes five books of the Bible.

Moses leads the children of Israel across the church, dry lamb out of Egypt. Moses literally delivers the ten commandments to God's people and this is how much he gets from the Lord at his funeral. Moses, the servant, my servant is dead. What coachily used to tell me all the time, he used to say, boy, you want to know how replaceable you are. Boy, you want to know what a big deal you are. Stick your finger in a cup of water, pull it out and look for the dent. Now, I think he was talking about how easy it would be to find another linebacker, but it is just true. God does not need us at all, and it is not about us at all. And this hero of the faith passes away, and God says, all right, Josh, he's done, and now it's your turn.

Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this story. people into the land that I am giving to them to the people of Israel. Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have noticed that past tense. I have given to you, just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the great sea towards the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses,

so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give you, only be strong and very courageous. Being careful to do according to the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you, do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For them, you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, third time, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed,

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Now, why do you think God feels the need to repeat himself three times to Joshua in just these nine verses? Be strong and courageous, be strong and very courageous. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Well, I think it's obvious. It's because Joshua was weak and afraid, weak and afraid, weak and afraid. Now, I'm not sure exactly what he was afraid of. Actually, I think there were some things in front of him, and there were some things behind him that made him afraid.

You see, Joshua was a part of the spying expedition back in the Pentateuch, where Moses sent in 12 spies to check out the promised land, and 10 of the spies came back with this report. They're giants over there. We are like little tiny grasshoppers compared to these giants. and we know that part of what they were saying was true, because as we're going to find out, you know, a few books later by the time you get to like First and Second Samuel,

that they have like Goliath over there. So they are legitimate giants. However, one of the things that fear causes us to do is fear causes us to exaggerate the potential circumstances that we cannot see that may come in the future. And so that could be part of it. Joshua could be looking out into his future about the giants that lay before him, and that could cause fear, and the God says to him, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. It could also be the giant that's behind him. I mean, can you imagine taking over leadership of the nation of Israel and trying to fill the footsteps of Moses, the one who went up on Mount Sinai, and when he came down with the tablets of the law of God, his face was glowing?

and Joshua, let's be honest, up to this point in Joshua's life, what has he led? He hasn't led anything. Because the only leadership that he's had so far in the wandering in the wilderness is he's like an expert camper. That every single day, what the Israelites would do is they were led by God. God would give them a fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day. And whenever God told them, pack up your stuff, we're ready to move. They would pack up all their stuff and they would follow God's, lead and then he would say, okay, we're going to put down roots here. And so they would

unpack and everybody would get settled. The manna would come in the morning. They would get enough food. Then they would pack things up and they would go again over and over and over. And so Joshua has absolutely no experience leading a military campaign against a group of trained soldiers. He has a bunch of professional campers and packers and wanderers. And so maybe he's nervous. Maybe he's afraid. So God says, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. And maybe it's not the giants in front of him. And maybe it's not the giant behind him, Moses, that he's trying to fill his shoes.

But maybe he looks at his current situation with the people that God has called him to lead. And maybe that makes him nervous. I mean, because the nation of Israel, they're not exactly the best followers under the leadership of Moses. I mean, they were just like grumbling, complaining people, and nothing that God ever did for them was enough. In fact, at one point, they were begging to go back and be slaves in Egypt. And Joshua looks in front of him, looks behind him, and looks around him, and he's filled with fear and trepidation.

And so God says, Joshua, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Now, here's what God doesn't say. God doesn't give him a pep talk. God doesn't say, you know what, Joshua, you got this, you're smart enough, you're good enough, and doggone of people like you. God doesn't look at Joshua and say, you know what you need to do, Joshua, you just need to try harder, you need to just stay focused, you need to get up early, you need to, he does not

give him a to-do list. Do you know what the thing that God promises to Joshua that is going to give him strength and courage in light of fear and trepidation. He makes this promise over and over and over. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed. Why, Lord? When I got giants in front of me, a giant leader behind me,

and a bunch of grumbling and complaining people around me, how can I be strong and courageous? And the Lord says, for the Lord your God is with you, wherever you go. If you've been around church for a while, those words may sound familiar. Then at the end of the Great Commandment, or the Great Commission,

Jesus gives that same promise. He says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and lo, I will be with you, wherever you go to the very ends of the age. So God's instruction to Joshua when he finds himself in a place of fear and trepidation is not suck it up buttercup,

but it's that your courage and your strength can be found in me because I am with you. And then he gives him instruction on how to be with him. He says, do not let this law depart from you. He says, Joshua, a part of the way that you are with me and that I am with you is that every single day may you meditate on the law of God. At that point, this was all the Bible that they had. And so God is saying, if you want to be with me, if you want to understand how close I am to you, if you want to be able to sense my presence, then one of the primary ways to do that is to meditate upon this book of the law. It shall not

depart from your mouth and you shall meditate on it. Just two times day and night. In fact, it's really close to what Jesus says in John chapter 15. Jesus is going to say these words to his disciples right after he told them, let an arch your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me. Because I'm going to be crucified, dead, buried, resurrected. On the third day, I'm going to ascend to the right hand of God the Father. But don't worry, I'm going to prepare a place for you.

And I wouldn't have told you that if it wasn't true. so don't worry, I'm coming back to get you. And then in John 15, because he knows, after he gave that kind of announcement to his disciples, that they are afraid and timid. And so he looks at them and he says, so do this, boys, listen, abide in me and I will abide in you. Stay close to me and I will stay close to you.

And then he goes on to say, listen, it's like a branch into the vine. You're the branches and I'm divine. and so just stay plugged into me, and my father is the gardener. Now there's going to be some pruning, there's going to be some pain. He's going to strip away all the things that don't bring life. And a part of the way that Jesus says that we are to abide in him, he says, abide in my word, and I will abide in you. So listen, we are in some crazy times right now.

We all know this. We're all watching the news, and we're seeing charts and flattening curves and spikes and ventilators and all of this. And we can look out in our future, and let's be honest, we do not know what the future holds. Some of us look into our past, and there's still some shadows of that that are lingering over us, and then a bunch of us that are quarantined, and we look at around with the grumbling, complaining, Israelites that we live with, and we can be just full of fear and worry and trepudation, and God says to us over and over and over, don't be afraid, but be sure.

strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be afraid, how God, because I am with you. And did you know we have an advantage over Joshua? You see, for every single believer, every single post-resurrection Christian in Jesus, when we put our faith in Jesus, then we get the Spirit of God inside of us. And who is in us is more important than what's going on around us. Do you hear that? Who is in us, the Spirit of God?

of God that is to bring peace is more important than the things going around us. So how do we stay close to him? How do we know that he is with us? Then we stay close to his word. That's one of the reasons that we're doing these daily divos so that we can stay close to his word, that we can meditate on his word day and night. Because here's the deal, man. When we are weak and afraid, week and afraid, we can afraid. When we have somebody bigger and stronger with us, it gives us a sense of peace. When my kids were small and they were afraid of the dark, or particularly if my kids had a nightmare, and they woke up in the middle of the night and they were freaking out, do you know what the first thing that they would do is they would come and give me and they'd say, Daddy, I had a nightmare.

Will you come and lay down with me? And when I walked into their room and I laid in the bed with them and I put my arms around my kids, their circumstances didn't change. Their room was just as dark, they still didn't know what was under the bed, and they still didn't know what was in the closet. But that was okay. Do you know why? Because they do, my dad is with me, and that calmed their fears. God says to Joshua, don't be afraid of what's before you, don't be intimidated by what's behind you, don't get too frustrated with what's around you. But Joshua, be strong and courageous because I am with you. A lot of us are leading through some areas and circumstances,

and we don't know what the outcome is, but we know the one who does, and he is with us, and he is in us, and he is for us. You see, the problem with fear is that it paralyzes. And so the next thing that Joshua is told to do by God is to cross over the Jordan and go into the promised land. And again, if he was paralyzed by fear,

he would never be able to obey what God commanded him to do. And just as importantly, he would not be able to walk into the promises that God had for him. But by faith, he crosses the Jordan and he conquers the promise life. So my question for you is this, what area of your life has begun to overtake you with fear? And may God's word be true in your life. You, I'm talking to you, be strong and courageous. do not tremble or be afraid. Abide in his word and he will abide in you

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we thank you for the example of Joshua, but we thank you more for what Joshua was pointing to, that he was pointing to Jesus. The reason we don't have to be afraid is because Jesus came on a rescue mission for us.

And no matter what our circumstances, are, they are temporary on this world. And so, God, we thank you that you came to rescue and to redeem and to draw us unto yourself. And so, Lord, we pray for the Holy Spirit to do what you said he would do in us, to give us a peace that transcends all understanding. And God, we pray that by faith, we would be able to step out in obedience and do the things you've called us to do, to lead in the areas that you've called us to lead in, to step out by faith and not be ruled by fear. And the reason is not because we're awesome, but because you are awesome, and you promise to never leave us and forsake us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.