Joshua: 2-Courage to Obey God’s Word Audio Transcript
Joshua: Pursuit of the Promise
02-COURAGE TO OBEY GOD’S WORD – Toby Beck
The Challenge of Following a Legendary Leader
Amen, yeah, go ahead and be seated. Praise God for banjos and grace. Both are beautiful. Both are beautiful. Yeah let’s get into the scriptures this morning. Joshua chapter 1 is where we’re going to be.
I want to start off with a saying and I’m realizing it’s only a saying in my life. I thought it was a common saying but apparently I’m the only one who’s heard of it. So here’s the saying: “You don’t want to be the guy who follows the guy. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the guy.” Has anyone ever heard that? Yep, confirming it’s just something I say. I thought it was a thing that people say.
So the saying describes the daunting task of following an extraordinary leader, to be the next one up to follow after an extraordinary leader. Some examples, George Washington, extraordinary leader, hero of the Revolutionary War, first U.S. president, not an easy act to follow. In fact, if you enjoy the musical Hamilton, King George comes out, sings a very hilarious song, and when he hears that George Washington is stepping down, he hears they have no one in their “country” who looms quite as large, and then he says, who is it? John Adams? and he just laughs and says good luck, right? And it highlights the difficulty of following somebody whose leadership was just so legendary.
Fast forward a couple hundred years, totally different context, context of sports, Joe Montana. Any old 49er fans? Because it was way back in the 80s when they were good. They’re good again, I guess. But not like, I mean, there was no period for the 49ers like the period when Joe Montana was a quarterback. He won four Super Bowls with them or led them to four Super Bowl wins. That’s incredible. He’s among the leaders of passing yards and passing touchdowns. Good luck taking over as quarterback at the 49ers after him. Because how do you measure up to that? I will say Steve Young did a pretty amazing job.
One more and this might seem really, yeah, George Washington, Joe Montana and Stan Scholl. And if you’re going, who? Stan was the pastor here before me and he was here for 13 years, which was twice as long as any of the pastors that had come before him. And not only just longevity in ministry, but also just establishing Evergreen Bible Church on the scriptures.
He taught the scriptures so well. Just organizational strength, spiritual maturity, financially, like just in every area, the church became well-established and strong. And I will say I mention him because in my own life, I followed him. I was 32 years old when I was installed as the pastor, which still sounds like a funny thing to say. You install a pastor. I just, [click click click click click click], okay, I think that’ll hold. And so I was 32 years. I think I had preached five sermons in my life.
This was not so much an agreement that this is a good plan. It was an agreement that, I think this is the best we can do. It was kind of the need of the situation. It really was. I’m not trying to just be self-deprecating. It was just the reality. It was not a, it was not, people would say, Pastor Toby, and then we would all laugh because it sounded like a joke.
Do you remember that, honey? Yeah. Pastor Toby. That would be so funny. Yeah. And it feels a little more normal now, but then it did not. And I was laughing along with everybody else. So I’m being installed as the pastor and I’m feeling like, man, I am in way over my head. I do not feel prepared for this. People say, where did you go to seminary? I didn’t go, because this was not the plan that I had for my life. And I would say, okay, so I think about that feeling of not feeling like, well, how am I supposed to follow Stan’s leadership and follow in his footsteps, fill his shoes, so to speak.
Nobody though had a tougher act to follow, I believe, than Joshua. Joshua, look at, if you’re looking at your Bible, Joshua 1, right before it should be the very end of Deuteronomy. And look at the last three verses of Deuteronomy. Here’s what it says about Moses.
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt.
Verse 12, no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
How would you like to follow that? Nobody has ever been the guy like Moses was. And now Joshua, if you read the very first verse, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River, right?
You’re up, Joshua. What an act to follow.
How difficult is that? And I have a lot of respect for Joshua. So here we are. If you weren’t here last week, we are just now starting a new series through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. And the great thing about it is we get to continue the story. We’ve been here a little while.
A couple of years ago, we spent 15 months working our way through the Torah, through the first five books of the Bible. And that story just traces the story ultimately of God’s people, Abraham. God comes to Abraham in Genesis 12, promises him essentially three major things.
Abraham, I’m going to make you- I’m going to give you a great family. I’m going to give you a great blessing. I’m going to give you a great homeland. And so when you finish the Torah, when we finish Deuteronomy, you see a big family. They’ve got lots of people in their family.
The Jewish people are a pretty large people group at that point. You see quite a lot of blessing, but homeland, not yet. That was still to come. Well, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth carry on that story of God fulfilling his promise to give them a homeland.
And you need to know that the story continues.
I don’t like to assume that just everybody knows the story. When I- I remember back in, I think it was 2000, whatever year the Fellowship of the Ring movie came out. And so being a big Tolkien nerd, I was eager to go see it, watched it. And as the credits are rolling, I heard somebody nearby in the theater say, that’s a weird ending.
They didn’t know that there’s part two and part three still coming. They just thought, yeah, they just call a wander off in their different directions. And that’s a strange ending. Yes, it is a strange ending. And it would be a strange ending if you just got to the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies, the people are camped outside the promised land. Well, I guess that’s the end of the story. No, it keeps going. So we get to follow that story now. And as the people are going to go into the land, and here we are in Joshua, and Joshua, essentially chapter one is God commissioning Joshua to lead the people into the land that he had promised him.
Joshua: Entering the Promised Land
Joshua 1:1-9
So if you’ve got strength to stand, I want to read our opening verses here.
I’m going to read the first nine verses of Joshua one. That’s really where we’re going to focus our attention here this morning. So Joshua one:
After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses’ aide, Moses, my servant is dead.
Now, then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan river into the land. I’m about to give them to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot. As I promised Moses, your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the Great Sea on the west.
No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life as I was with Moses. So I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. 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 look to 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 terrified. Do not be discouraged for the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go.
Let me pray. Father, I just delight to read those words.
It’s so encouraging, Lord, to see your, both your commands and your encouragement to Joshua as he is ready to take the, take on the daunting task of following Moses in leadership. And Lord, I can just only imagine how reassuring and how encouraging these words from you to Joshua were.
And Lord, I’m even more grateful that these words are not intended only for him, that you have us in mind as well, your people today to fulfill the callings that you have given to us. And I pray that by your spirit, you would do the work in our hearts necessary so that we might take courage, so that we might be strong, because you have promised to be with us.
We pray this in Jesus’ good name. Amen.
Go ahead and be seated.
Courage to Obey God’s Word
The name of the book is Joshua. Joshua is the main character. He’s the one that most assume wrote the book, except for the part about when his life is over. But most of this is his record we are assuming, and he’s the main character. And so before we dive into this whole account about Joshua, I want to do a little bit of backstory.
God prepares Joshua
Like who is this guy? This is not the first time he shows up in scriptures. How did Joshua come to be the person who’s taking the leadership baton from Moses? So if you were to start at the beginning of the Bible and just read through until you encounter Joshua, son of Nun, you would read until Exodus chapter 17.
So Joshua was likely born, no, not likely, certainly born in Egypt as a slave. So as all the Israelites were in Egypt, slaves under Pharaoh. When they left Egypt during the Exodus, he would have been roughly 40 years old. Moses was about 80. Joshua would have been about 40.
And so they leave Egypt, cross the Red Sea in the miraculous fashion, make their way through the wilderness toward Mount Sinai. And it’s on the way toward Mount Sinai that the Israelites are attacked by the Amalekite fighters. And in that episode, Moses famously goes up on the hill to pray for them as they defend themselves from the Amalekites.
But Moses commissions Joshua to gather a band of fighters to go out and fend off the attack of the Amalekites. So Joshua leads, basically it’s Joshua takes care of the ground war and Moses takes care of the air war. He is praying over the people. And very famously, his hands are getting tired and they’re coming down and that’s when the battle starts to go against them.
Aaron and Hur help him hold his hands up in prayer. And what’s really, I think, significant after the battle is over and they have successfully fought off the Amalekites, God tells Moses, write this down, write an account of what just happened.
And he specifically says, make sure Joshua remembers it. I find that really striking. Make sure Joshua remembers what happens today. And I’ll tell you kind of what I think about that in just a couple of points down because it, Joshua, God really wanted Joshua to remember there’s a reason why you successfully fended off the Amalekites.
And it’s not because you’re an amazing warrior. This is really significant. So we see him protecting God’s people there in Exodus 17. Fast forward, we find out that while Moses has lots of people who are helping him lead God’s people, Joshua is specifically mentioned as his assistant or his aide.
He is vice president, if you will. He is the right-hand man for Moses. And you see that, one, he gets to accompany Moses partway up Mount Sinai as Moses is going up to receive the law from God.
Fast forward a few bit, a few chapters more, the golden calf debacle in Exodus 32, the people sin against God. There’s judgment, a lot of repentance following that. And Moses sets up his tent, it says, outside the camp. Moses now, I think it’s kind of a representation that these people are, there’s a lot of cleaning, cleaning of house that needs to happen. And Moses is going to set up his tent to meet with God outside the camp.
And it says in Exodus 33, it’s an amazing statement where it says God would meet with Moses in this little tent of meeting. And he would meet with him face to face, it says, and talk with Moses like a man talks with his friend. And what it says about Joshua is that he was right there — I assume just outside the tent. And the reason I think this is such a big deal is think about the impact on Joshua’s relationship with God. When he follows Moses everywhere, he follows Moses up Mount Sinai, Moses comes down with the law from God. He’s stationed outside the tent while inside he hears Moses and God talking and having a conversation.
Do you think that would do something to your walk with God? Do you think that would do something to your understanding of who God is and what he’s about? And so Joshua’s just, he’s assisting Moses, but it’s just so much more than paperwork or doing tasks.
This is developing spiritual foundation in Joshua.
The next thing that we see is in Numbers chapter 13. We find out that Joshua is not the name he was given when he was born. His parents named him Hoshea, which means he saves. But then it says in Numbers 13 that Moses changed his name to Joshua, which means Yahweh saves.
So it’s not just he saves, it’s Yahweh saves. And that’s where I go back to the account of the battle against the Amalekites. And God’s saying to Moses, make sure Joshua really understands what happened here today. It’s not just that somebody will save. No, it’s that Yahweh is the one who saves us from our enemies. Yahweh is the one who protects us. And so his name became Joshua.
And you see Joshua inhabiting that name going, okay, I know that it’s Yahweh who really takes care of us. And he was so strongly urging the people, trust Yahweh to protect us. And we see that most vividly in Numbers 13 and 14, where Joshua is fighting for faithfulness.
You remember, they sent 12 spies into the land when they came to the promised land for the first time to scout out the land and they came back, right? And the famous, if you know the walk through the Bible thing, right? The spies came back, 10 said no, two said go.
It’s a great little kids thing and it’s a way to remember. Yes, the 10 unfaithful spies, they said, yeah, it’s a great land. It’s impossible to get in there. And Joshua and Caleb like, no, we need to trust the Lord. They were urging the people to trust God.
Joshua and Caleb urged the people to trust God, fighting to help the people be faithful. And what’s remarkable is the people ignored them, rebelled against God. And so began 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. 40 years, and Joshua and Caleb, who were faithful, had to go out and wander in the desert with them.
They were not, it’s not like, well, you guys are faithful. You guys can come in. Everybody else has got to go out in the desert. No, they all went out in the desert. Think about it. The next four decades of Joshua’s life were spent hiking through the wilderness because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people.
Think about the impact of that on his development in his relationship with God. You think he would learn some patience. I believe he did.
So near the end of Moses’ life, the 40 years of wandering the wilderness are nearly done. They’re coming near the promised land again. And Moses prays to God, God, don’t leave. I know I’m about to die. I know my time is coming. Don’t leave your people without a good shepherd. Provide a leader for your people.
Moses cares deeply for what happens to God’s people after he’s gone. And God told Moses, appoint Joshua. Appoint Joshua. He’s the next one.
And here’s what God says about Joshua. It’s very significant. A man in whom is the spirit.
This is remarkable. Joshua was a remarkably talented, gifted, admirable person. He’s everything you would want in a leader.
He’s brave, he’s strong, he’s skilled, he’s intelligent, he’s wise, he’s honest. Everything you’d look for in a leader. But more than all of those things, Joshua knew where those things came from and Joshua was filled with the Spirit of God. And I hope you recognize this is a really extraordinary thing.
You say, yeah, aren’t all God’s people filled with the Spirit? Yes. In the New Testament after the Spirit was given after Pentecost, yes, that’s now. If you believe in Jesus Christ as he is your savior, you are indwelt by the Spirit. That’s the promise of the scripture.
He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. That was not customary in the Old Testament. People being filled with the Spirit in the Old Testament was a very exceptional occasion, sometimes only momentary for a specific task.
So it was very unusual. And here’s God saying of Joshua, choose Joshua, a man in whom is the Spirit. I believe that the main reason that Joshua was ready to take the leadership baton from Moses is not because he says, yep, I’ve got all these talents and skills and gifts from God.
No, he knew that he had opened himself up to say, God, I want to be used by you. I wanna be a vessel that you fill to lead your people for you. He was filled with the Spirit. That is the primary reason Joshua was ready to lead God’s people forward. And here’s where I wanted to take a moment and just begin to think, okay, Joshua is given a daunting task, lead God’s people into the promised land that he had promised them.
Joshua is not the only person that God has given a calling to. You and I, if you are in Christ, if you belong to God, if you’ve given him your life, he has a calling on your life. You may have very little clarity about what that calling is. I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this or this or this.
Okay, fine. But there’s some callings that you already know and we’ll get specific. For example, some of you are married. Whatever other calling you may have, you are called to love your spouse well.
You might have parents, meaning you might still live at home with your parents. Whatever other calling you have, you have a calling to honor your father and your mother.
Now you say, well, but if you knew them- yeah, daunting, huh? Yeah, read Joshua. It starts to come into focus. Exactly. Whatever you’re calling is, we’ll think further about these things, but the bottom line is you may have a certain amount of anxiety about, I don’t know how I can pull this off, especially if I think about like parents raising kids.
And especially if you have an example of your parents, you’re like, man, they seem to do it so well. How could I ever possibly hope to do as well as them? And you have perhaps an even idealized version of it. Parents might have to remind you, it wasn’t so pretty as you might remember it.
But the bottom line is, regardless, you could have anxiety about whether or not you feel well-equipped to do the calling that God has given you.
Look at this. This is for you. God is saying the first thing that you need is to know who you are in Christ and to lean into the fact that I have put my Spirit in you. This is huge.
God promises himself
Now, God comes to Joshua and says, I’ve called you to this. And before he commands him to do anything, he ultimately gives him promises to reassure him. We’re gonna look at these promises now. And ultimately all the promises are God promising himself. God ultimately is promising himself. Here’s how it splits out.
First, God promises him his provision. Look at verse three. Joshua, you’re gonna lead these people and I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses.
And I underlined the word give.
And if you’re wondering what’s that graphic there with all the dots on it, hard to read, I know. But it’s my study sheet for Joshua one and every place where it said, God is saying I’m giving this land to my people, I highlighted it. It’s eight times in chapter one.
I think it’s supposed to be really, really clear. It’s not a matter of the Israelites going, hey, there’s some land, we want it, we’re gonna go take it. No, this is a matter of God saying, I’m giving this to them. So here it is, the gift from God. Now here’s the remarkable thing.
They have to go in and take it. So which is it? Is God giving them the land or do they have to go take the land? And the answer is yes, both.
Both are true. And this is a really important spiritual, scriptural principle, a biblical principle that you see in so many occasions. There are exceptions, but much of the time, God gives gifts, but we have a responsibility to do something to receive that gift, okay?
It’s all a gift. God does the work in giving us the gift, but there is something for us to do. Let’s take, for example, one really foundational thing, spiritual maturity. God has promised He is gonna make us more like Jesus the Son, right? That’s what He’s promised.
It’s called the process of sanctification to make us more and more like His Son. And He says, I’ve done everything necessary to give you the gift.
I have sanctified you. This is gonna happen. We start off as little babies. He says, I’m not gonna leave you. I’m gonna teach you. I’m gonna grow you up. Sometimes it’s gonna be difficult. Sometimes you’re gonna fight me on it. I’m gonna win because I’m the Father.
You will grow up, right? So He just, He won’t leave that alone. So you look at a scripture that testifies to that. Think about Philippians 1, right? Many of you have this memorized. Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion.
How many of you have heard that verse before? Yes, like yes. It’s a statement that God is going to do this work. So God takes responsibility for the process of growing you up, making you like Christ.
But what’s interesting is two chapters later, the one who wrote the letter is saying, Forgetting what is behind, straining towards what, doesn’t that sound like work? Straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize. That’s work.
So wait a second, is God doing the work or do we work? Yes, both. God’s work is decisive, but we work. And if you wanna see two of them right next to each other, go to the chapter in between, Philippians 2, right? Work out your salvation. That’s a command to us.
We’re supposed to work at it with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, His good purpose. And so God is the one giving them this land. He is providing it for them, but they have a responsibility to go in, to fight the battles.
There is real human responsibility there. Welcome to the mystery of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Both are true, both are true. So God’s promising them this land.
Secondly, God is promising them His protection. Look at verse five, look at this simple sentence.
Joshua, no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. That’s astounding. And how reassuring must that be? Because Joshua, of all people, knows what they’re about to go face. He was one who saw with his own eyes the massive fortified cities and the really well-trained and very large armies and the natives of unusual size running around, right?
Really, you know what I’m talking about? Sorry, I had to throw that in there. Giants, they said. They came back and said, these people are not just numerous, they’re not just strong, they’re huge. We look like grasshoppers in their eyes. That’s what the spies came back and said.
Now, the unfaithful spies were not wrong about the frightening obstacles that are in the land. They weren’t wrong that the cities are huge and well-fortified. They weren’t wrong that the armies are big, well-trained, well-equipped. They weren’t wrong about the fact that some of those people are really big and they’re frightening us.
They’re not wrong about that. What they were wrong about is that they did not trust the God who had already got them that far through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, all the way there. They were wrong not to trust the God who was with them. And that’s what Joshua could see.
If you remember in Numbers 14, here’s what Joshua and Caleb were pleading with the people to remember. Do not be afraid of these people because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them. God has promised he’s gonna protect us.
We can go in with that. And you say, yeah, they should have trusted him. What were they thinking? Think about the things that intimidate you. Think about the things that make you fearful and think about how powerless sometimes you can feel, even though you know, is God with you?
Yes, but there’s this neighbor or this coworker or this situation, and that’s frightening.
So just recognize that when the fear is on you, trusting the God who is with you, who promises to protect you, doesn’t just suddenly make you feel better. It is a battle to actually trust this. And ultimately it’s the promise of provision, protection, and ultimately presence.
The verse five finishes with this, God telling Joshua, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. If I was, I just wanna grab that and just like stick it in your bag so that you could take it home with you, right?
This is so important. This is so valuable. And think about Joshua, as I was with Moses.
So how was God with Moses? Extraordinarily close. Think about Mount Sinai, Moses and God. Think about the Tent of Meeting, Moses and God talking face to face. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.
You know, I think about how Moses had to learn to trust God. Remember when Moses met God at the burning bush and God said, I’ve seen my people suffering. I hear their cries. I’m gonna do something about it. Moses is like, good, good, good. This is all good.
So now go, lead my people out of Israel. And what was Moses’ response? Ah, you know, basically that was his ultimate. Any reason to get out of it, he could find.
And the very first thing God told Moses when he did not want to do this daunting thing is I’m gonna be with you. The main reason, Moses, that you should say yes to this is because I will be with you. And I wonder how many times Moses told that story to Joshua.
You know, the older you get, you forget what you’ve said to people. And so you say it again and again. Yeah, I’m doing that. And how many times do you think Moses told Joshua, did I ever tell you about the time God spoke to me at the burning bush? You need to hear this again.
And he’d tell him again. And God said to me, I’m gonna be with you. And you know what, Joshua? He has been. And think about how that has been reinforced so many times for Joshua.
So now when God reinforces it, just like I was with Moses, Joshua, I’m just, Moses was right. I will be with you. And it’s not just for, okay, so God’s with Moses. I expect that. He’s an amazing guy, hero. Joshua, expect the same. What about regular folk?
I think about, well, remember what God says to us in Psalm 23. It’s not just for King David. Even though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? You’re with me. I’m with you. And that verse came to my mind. And I’m thinking of a number of people that I know of in our church body that are walking that valley right now in one way, shape or form.
And it is a hard valley, but I’m with you.
It doesn’t mean it’s gonna be easy. It just means you won’t be by yourself. I am not bailing on you. I will walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death. And then I think about, fast forward to Jesus who has died on the cross, rose from the grave, appeared to his disciples, gives us our mission, make disciples of all nations, baptize them, teach them.
And what’s the last thing he says? I’m with you always to the end. There is a theme here, and it carries through the scriptures. God is with his people. He promises to be with us so that whatever he’s called us to, however daunting it is, however ill-equipped you feel for it, I can get you through this.
This is gonna work, not because you’re sufficient, but because I am.
That’s God’s promise to Joshua. And that’s why we can actually do what he says. How can you know if you really trust God? The biblical measure is you’ll do what he says. That evidences trust. And so this last point is where Joshua is commanded to obey.
God commands faithful obedience
And it should say faithful obedience, point three, faithful obedience. I only had room to put obedience, so you’ll have to squeeze it in yourself if you’re taking notes. Point three, point three. Sorry, if I’m gonna reference the screen, I better have you see what I’m talking about.
See how I couldn’t fit faithful in there? And I don’t like to go to the next line. I’m that way, in case you’re wondering how I operate.
So this, you see this in the command, verse six. Be strong and courageous.
Isn’t that a great line? And he says it three times in like four verses. Be strong and courageous. And he says it one more time at the end of the chapter for good measure; we won’t get that far. But this is a great line. It sounds like a team cheer, like be strong and courageous. And you have the whole football team, like yeah. If you receive that, like, that’s not something you can go do, right? If you’re out on a mission and someone says, all right, what are my orders? You open up your little secret message order, Mission Impossible is what’s in my mind.
Be strong and courageous, okay? What do I actually do? It’s not something to do. It’s how you do something. It doesn’t tell you exactly what to do, and so it needs something to act upon. It is a way of faithfully obeying God as you do what he’s called you to.
So three times it said to Joshua, and three times it’s followed by, and here’s what it’ll look like.
Here’s where I need you to be strong and courageous to faithfully obey me in this way. So first, trust God as you accept your calling, right? Be strong and courageous, why? Because you’re gonna lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.
Joshua, I have called you to lead these people, and you’re gonna have to be strong and courageous to do that. Accept your calling. I’m not asking anybody else to do this. This is your job. Be strong and courageous, be faithful, and obey me in that calling.
And notice it’s not just do this, but what I have called you to do is part of the big picture work that I am doing in my people, right? I have promised to give my people this land.
So you need to do what I’ve called you to do so that my purposes are fulfilled. Okay, I trust you can see that. Joshua needs to obey, and his faithful obedience is gonna lead to the fulfillment or accomplishment of God’s big plan for his people. Now, do you realize that your faithful obedience is part of God’s big picture work that he’s doing in this world?
Beware of the error of thinking, well, if I obey God in whatever ways that he’s working on my life, I mean, it matters in terms of my relationship, but it doesn’t really affect anything else and all of his big vast kingdom work. I’m not a missionary, I’m not a pastor, I’m not Moses or Joshua, I’m not one of those important people.
I’m just a regular follower of God. And what you need to recognize is that God doesn’t just use the well-known characters in the story, God uses all of his people and says, I am doing a work and it is eternal in nature and your faithful obedience is part of it.
Therefore, recognize you need to hear God’s word as he calls you to fulfill his calling in your life. And you say, you keep referencing calling. That could warrant a much longer discussion. But I will just say, the things that God has given to you to do, specifically, and here’s some examples.
Maybe you find yourself as a stay-at-home mom or a stay-at-home dad.
What a critical calling that you have. And especially if you think, I wasn’t really expecting that, that wasn’t kind of my plan for my life and here I am and maybe feeling very ill-equipped for it, or I was expecting that, but I never realized how challenging it would be.
However long that lasts, a calling from God, you can’t just abdicate, you can’t just bail from that honorably. He is calling you to that and he says, you need to recognize that what you’re doing there at home is part of my big picture plan that I am working out in this world.
Maybe it’s serving God as a single person. You imagined that you were gonna be married and here you are and you’re still not married, not that it can’t happen in the future, but this is not the situation I expected to be in. Will I serve God in that?
Or I was thinking about people who are single, not because you’ve never married, but because your spouse has died and here you are, trudging on as it feels, year after year, going home to an empty house and you’re like, this is not the life I imagined.
I never saw this coming. I don’t like this. And God says, I have a calling for you. And right now it is to continue to serve me and to persevere in faith, even in the midst of this difficulty.
It could be you’re working out of your field. You were trained as this, and now you find yourself doing something complete- You’re working retail. You’re like, what am I doing here? I don’t even like people. Now I’m supposed to say, have a nice day, and mean it, apparently.
Or you’re working a collection of jobs because that’s just where you’re at right now and you’d like it to change and maybe it will, but right now you’re called to do that.
Or maybe it’s caring for a child with special needs. Nobody ever plans for that. And yet you can find yourself in that situation and it’s not a short thing, it lasts.
Or maybe caring for aging parents who are needing more and more help and maybe don’t want that help. And you’re like, ah, I’m not good at this. Right now it’s your calling to be at least part of that solution.
Or maybe it’s enduring through a debilitating injury or disease. And you feel like my life’s being wasted because I’m just, I can’t do all the things that I expected to do or I used to be able to do because of my health now. And did you know that that is part of God’s calling to you to be able to live for Him in that painful state to live for His glory. That is His calling for you right now. It doesn’t mean that He might not change that, that healing can’t come. It just means that right now, the calling is to endure in faith.
Or maybe He’s calling you to leave your school or your job or the neighborhood that you enjoy. Or maybe He’s calling you to love that neighbor. Why did they have to move in there? Or why did they have to get that dog that is never happy? And announces it. You see what I’m saying? You say, oh, that’s just funny. Not when you’re not sleeping. And it becomes a test where the difficult coworker or a difficult spouse or difficult child, on and on. Callings. You’re in a situation, it’s not pleasant.
Doesn’t mean change is wrong. It just means right now, that’s what you’re called to and to live as a believer in that. And God says, you need to embrace that calling and ultimately obey me in that calling. He has instructions for us.
The middle- the middle, trust- be strong and courageous is in verse seven.
And it gets unique emphasis. You see it because there’s two qualifying words, only be strong and very courageous. And the NIV that I’m preaching from doesn’t put in the only, but it’s there in the original. Only be strong and very courageous. And the reason that this gets special emphasis, you see it, lots of words is describing it is, the Israelites were facing a really significant danger.
They’re getting ready to go wage a military, a series of military campaigns. And they have a huge danger and it’s not enemy weapons. The big danger is not getting killed by the Canaanites. The big danger is learning to live like them. That’s the danger.
And that’s why God says to Joshua, you need to for yourself and for your people, stick close to my commands and not wander, as it says, to the right or to the left, into the ways of the people that you are going in to displace. The reason they are being displaced is because they are so far from my heart, far from my will.
Don’t follow them in that. Learn the scriptures. And to do that, you got to have it on your mind. You got to turn it over in your mind.
Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night. So much could be said about this. I will just simply say, this is as true for us as it was for Joshua. God’s word, if we are going to be able to follow God in faithful obedience, if we’re gonna enjoy his protection and his provision, live in his presence, we have to turn his word over in our minds.
You say, oh, you mean memorizing the Bible? That’s part of it. But I think, I trust anybody that’s been through Awana knows you can memorize the Bible, lots of verses, and not be really changed by it. And you got to get it in before you can turn it over.
But I’m just saying, just being able to quote a verse doesn’t automatically mean that it’s doing its work.
And there has to be an actual engagement with the scripture. It’s gotta have ongoing impact. I want to draw a parallel with when I mentioned, when I started as the lead pastor here back in the beginning of ’99, the Stan Shull, the man I mentioned, under whom I started as a youth pastor here, he was not able to be present at the installation ceremony, but he wrote a letter, or if you know Stan, he wrote a small book, and sent it.
And I have, I’ve kept it. This is what he sent me. And he had just a list of things that he and Audrey, his wife, were praying for me. And I won’t read it all.
This letter has been foundational for me, especially as a person who didn’t expect to be a pastor, who didn’t know a lot about being a pastor, except for watching him, which was a lot. But he prayed, I want to share the last one with you. He says, I want you to become an expository preacher.
I’d preached about five sermons in my life. And then he goes on to explain in his letter, here’s what expository preacher means. It means I will not plaster people with passages, nor pick debatable proof texts to talk about topics. That is so Stan. Instead, it simply means I will expose these people to the Bible in such a way that they may come increasingly to understand the mind of the Lord in matters of faith and everyday living.
And so our prayer is that you will not only be adequate, but exemplary in this task, never offering up sugar-filled soda when people need the nurture of scriptural meat and potatoes.
Isn’t that good? And I share it with you one, because it’s good to know one of the values that we have as a church. But two, I share it because this letter that Stan wrote to me has had impact on me for years. Like I could have talked to you before I went, dug it back out of my special files.
I could have told you the main points in the letter because they had that impact. And the reason I share that is because this [the Bible] is the letter, God’s letter to us to say, keep this in your heart. Don’t just get it in your head. Yes, you got to do that, but think about it.
Turn it over, let it do its work in your life so that you are equipped to fulfill the calling I’ve given to you. And lastly, trust God as you overcome fear and failure.
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.
Do you know why he tells Joshua not to be terrified? Because he’s going to be terrified. It’s not just, yeah, here’s some good things to say.
No, he knows you’re going to get in spots where you are scared, Joshua. Do not be discouraged. You are going to encounter times when you’re going to want to give up and despair when it just looks hopeless. And I can just say from my own experience and watching that of other people, that if you’re following Jesus, you’re going to encounter moments.
You’re going to encounter even long seasons where you are discouraged, when you think this is hopeless.
I don’t see good things coming. I can’t see, there’s no light coming at the end of the tunnel. Or you’re going to feel like, I have ruined it. I brought it on myself. Things are broken beyond repair. And I did it to myself. And God is saying, you have.
But that I’m bigger than that. That doesn’t mean life is over. You’re still breathing in and out. I still have work for you to do. It’s going to involve a lot of repentance and cleanup work, but come on, let’s go.
So God has, we’re going to see this play out in Joshua, but God says, be strong and courageous. Faithfully obey me so that you might fulfill the purpose I have for you, because I’m with you. I am with you.
I want to invite the worship team to come.
I want to pray for each of you this morning in a specific way. I want you to think about your calling from God. I don’t mean, some of you might be like, well, I’m right kind of at a crossroads in my life. And I’m not sure if my calling is to go this way or that way, to choose this school or that school or this job or that job, or should I marry this person or not? Or all these big questions. That’s relevant.
But the thing that I want to pray for very specifically this morning for you is where you know you are. I have this in front of me and I know I have to go through it. And it’s not easy. I might feel very ill-equipped for it right in front of me.
And what I want to do is pray for you the same things that God has given to Joshua and that he might equip you with his promises, equip you with his- himself, so that you can be strong, there’s perseverance in it, and courageous, trusting him. I want to pray that for you and the callings that you have in front of you.
So Father, I pray that. I pray this morning. I think about our people gathered here, some of whom I don’t even know, some of whom I know quite well and everything in between.
And each of us, Father in Christ, have a collection of callings from you, things that you’ve put in front of us that we know, at least for this season, this is what we’re called to do from you. And you’ve given us instructions about how we’re to do it, with faith, trusting you, with perseverance, enduring with you.
And Lord, I pray for each one here, especially for those who feel like I can’t do this, I’m not good at this, I’m not strong enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not brave enough.
And I’m gonna pray for each one, Lord. That may be true, but you are enough. And you have said, I will be with you to the very end of the age. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will provide for you. I will protect you. And I will accomplish my good purposes for my people in this world.
And so, Lord, I pray, would you help us be strong and courageous to faithfully obey you in the callings that you’ve given us?
And we pray all these things in Jesus’ good name. And all God’s people said, amen.
Let’s stand, let’s sing to the Lord.