Be Strong and Courageous.

Steve Gentry

[0:09] Go ahead and have a seat. [0:10] Welcome to Village Church. [0:11] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve, one of the pastors here at Village [0:14] Church. [0:14] And as always, I’m thankful, grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:18] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Joshua chapter one.

[0:21] That’s where we will be beginning this morning right there in verse one, as we start a new [0:26] in which we’re going to go through the entire book of Joshua as a church. [0:31] If you have not been with us for a few weeks on your way out, if you’ll commit to being [0:35] with us next week, we have a free copy of a journal taking copy of the book of Joshua. [0:42] It’s free of charge provided by the generous gifts of those that call Village Church home. [0:46] And that’s going to be available to you.

[0:48] So go ahead and pick one of those up. [0:50] This is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament because it’s filled with narratives [0:55] of God’s faithfulness to his promises, as well as his actions on behalf of his people [1:01] to keep those promises. [1:03] One of the things that always instructs and challenges me are the texts and narratives [1:08] that urge me to, in fact, live by the very faith that I claim to have in Jesus Christ.

[1:14] And reading the Old Testament, though, difficult for some people. [1:17] They seek to kind of understand it in light of the resurrection. [1:20] And for some people, that’s difficult. [1:22] So they kind of ignore some of the Old Testament. [1:24] Some people kind of over allegorize the Old Testament. [1:27] But one helpful thing that’s going to help you to understand how you view the Old Testament

[1:31] is what the apostle Paul actually writes in Romans 15, verse four. [1:35] He writes for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that [1:39] through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. [1:44] And so he says there’s four things that you glean from these Old Testament narratives. [1:49] First is instruction. [1:50] Second is endurance.

[1:52] Third is encouragement. [1:53] And fourth is hope. [1:55] God gives us these narratives in order that we might apply them to our contemporary lives. [2:01] And if you don’t apply them, you are missing a great fruit of what God has given us in [2:07] His word for us to shape our lives around the faith that we claim to have in His Son, [2:13] Jesus Christ, every single day of our lives, because a life of faith must be anchored in

[2:21] so that it can endure the resistance that you’re going to have in life. [2:25] One of the most difficult things that I’ve seen over not just life as a pastor, but [2:29] just being a follower of Jesus for many decades is people that don’t endure in the faith. [2:35] People that forsake faith in Jesus Christ, walk away from His church. [2:39] And of course, I don’t mean by that, that people lose their salvation. [2:43] I don’t believe that that is true.

[2:44] I believe they never had salvation. [2:47] And that’s what’s revealed through whether or not you live by faith. [2:51] The faith of the scripture gives us pictures of is one that we are to model every single [2:58] day of our lives. [3:00] But faith doesn’t mean much until you define it by scripture. [3:05] It’s not some force like thing where you just believe and things happen, where people always

[3:13] say the dumbest things. [3:14] People just say believe.

[3:19] What have faith? [3:22] In what? [3:24] You do not conjure things just by believing. [3:27] You don’t make things happen through your faith. [3:31] Faith necessitates an object that has power to do something. [3:37] Faith necessitates a God who is, in fact, faithful.

[3:41] And so I want to start reading in verse one so we can get a picture of this. [3:45] The text says after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord. [3:49] That’s a great picture that encapsulates what defined Moses’s life, that he was called [3:56] the servant of the Lord. [3:57] That’s probably the greatest compliment anyone could ever pay to you, is that you are a servant [4:04] of the Lord.

[4:06] The Lord said to Joshua, the son of none, Moses’s assistant.

[4:12] That’s less complimentary. [4:14] We’ve gone from the servant of the Lord to his secretary. [4:18] That doesn’t fill you with much kind of hope or confidence. [4:24] It kind of fills you with feeling like, well, we’ve kind of had a downgrade here. [4:28] And we’ve gone from the servant of the Lord to his assistant. [4:32] Verse two, Moses, my servant is dead.

[4:35] Now, therefore arise. [4:37] Go over this, Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to [4:41] the people of Israel. [4:42] Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I [4:48] promised to Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the [4:54] river, you freighties, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea towards the going

[4:59] down of the sun shall be your territory. [5:04] Number one, this morning, these first four verses mean to tell us that God is faithful [5:08] to his promises, not complicated, but difficult to believe. [5:13] God is faithful to his promises. [5:14] The reason this is difficult for the people of Israel to believe is because they’re going [5:19] through a difficult transition in which really a person that is unique in all of scripture

[5:25] beside Jesus Christ is Moses was a triperspectival is the theological term figure. [5:32] In other words, he inhabited three different offices at one point or another. [5:37] Moses was the prophet of Israel, the priest of Israel and the king of Israel. [5:43] No other person in the Old Testament lived that kind of life until we get to the gospel [5:48] accounts where we get to Jesus Christ, who, of course, is the prophet, the priest and [5:52] the king.

[5:52] The greater Moses, some would say in looking at the Old Testament, Moses inhabited these [5:59] offices for Israel by the call of God. [6:02] He had led Israel out of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt and was leading them towards the [6:08] promised land. [6:10] Now they find themselves on the brink after falling under the judgment of God for faithlessness. [6:17] And Moses dies.

[6:19] So this moment, Israel is going through a transition of power where they’re going from [6:25] the servant of God to Moses’s assistant. [6:29] So understand the morning that they’re going through, probably the shaky foundations that [6:35] they think Israel as a nation has. [6:37] And God looks to the one who’s going to lead Israel into the promised land. [6:42] And he says, nothing has changed.

[6:45] Do not ground your faith in a person or in a circumstance in life because it can’t shoulder [6:53] the responsibility. [6:56] Only God can. [6:58] Moses is referred to as the servant of God, and that is his obituary. [7:02] That is the life that he lived, saved moment of faithlessness that led him to not being [7:09] allowed to take the nation of Israel into the promised land.

[7:12] And now he looks to Joshua and Joshua is referred to as Moses’s assistant because Joshua hasn’t [7:18] done it yet. [7:20] Moses had. [7:22] Joshua is just on the brink of leadership and God wants Israel to understand Joshua [7:28] is going to lead you into the promised land. [7:31] But God was going to be the one that was going to deliver them into the actual promised land.

[7:37] Faith responds to promise by action. [7:41] And that’s what God tells Joshua. [7:44] This, of course, is a role that Joshua was anointed by God to inhabit, but I doubt he [7:49] felt prepared to walk in those shoes. [7:53] In the midst of the implications and the imperatives of this text, God is quick to reiterate that [7:58] this is all based on the promise that he had made.

[8:02] This wasn’t about what Joshua was capable of attaining. [8:07] So it wasn’t about his potential. [8:09] This wasn’t about his leadership ability, even though this was about God’s faithfulness [8:15] to deliver on his promises. [8:17] Put yourself in Joshua’s shoes. [8:21] He hadn’t experienced all that Moses had experienced.

[8:24] He’d seen Moses experience these things, but he hadn’t experienced them himself. [8:29] Not only that, but outside of his brother, Aaron text really leads us to believe that [8:35] Joshua was the second closest person to Moses in his life. [8:39] So Joshua isn’t just going on through a transition in leadership. [8:44] Joshua is mourning the loss of Moses.

[8:49] He’d seen Moses go up onto the mountain and he had gone up a little ways with him and [8:53] waited. [8:54] He was the first person to see Moses come down, face shining, because he had seen the [8:58] backside of the Shekinah glory. [9:02] He’d seen Moses as soon as he received the Ten Commandments and he’d been there when [9:06] Moses destroyed the Ten Commandments in anger.

[9:09] He’d seen Moses through highs. [9:11] He’d seen Moses through lows, and he’s probably going through one of the darkest periods of [9:16] his life. [9:17] But God looks to him and he says, Moses is dead.

[9:25] That quickly, and the text tells us. [9:27] But what does he say?

[9:32] Keep moving.

[9:34] Keep moving. [9:36] Keep going. [9:38] Don’t stop. [9:41] Friends, some of you are sitting in a moment of pain from 20 years ago and you are not [9:47] living the promises of God because you refuse to move.

[9:54] He looks to Joshua and says, now is not the time. [9:58] Moses is dead. [10:00] You must lead. [10:02] If you live in that grief and define what God is able to do through you based on the [10:09] grief of losing Moses, you will never cross the river and experience my promise. [10:16] But he says, it’s true.

[10:18] You’ve lost him. [10:19] He’s gone. [10:21] And that changes absolutely nothing about the call of God on your life.

[10:28] Friend, every single one of you have endured pain. [10:32] You’ve endured suffering. [10:33] You’ve experienced some form of loss. [10:35] This is universally true. [10:37] Some of you have experienced a more impactful loss that others cannot even imagine. [10:44] But that does not change the reality that God is calling you to move forward.

[10:51] You are stuck in a moment that you cannot get out of when God looks to you and says [10:57] nothing that you have lost, nothing that you have suffered, nothing that you have endured [11:04] changes one thing about his promises. [11:09] You’ve not lost so much that you don’t still have the promises of God true in your life, [11:14] but you will not experience the joy of the promise until you move forward for the promise. [11:21] You will not experience the joy of the promise by sitting still.

[11:26] You will not experience the joy of the promise by refusing to move from grief. [11:31] You will not experience the joy of the promise by reliving that trauma over and over and [11:38] over and over again in your life. [11:40] God calls you to move.

[11:46] Even in light of the pain, even in the pain, even through the pain, even through the suffering, [11:54] God says forward. [11:58] I tell people all the time, the only choice that we have in life is to sit still and [12:02] move forward, and I’m sure not going to sit still. [12:04] You can’t go back. [12:06] There’s nothing back there.

[12:08] It’s gone. [12:08] It’s over. [12:09] You’ll never get those years back. [12:11] You’ll never get those days back. [12:13] You’ll never get those moments back. [12:15] You can sit still, but God’s not going to do it with you.

[12:20] He’s moving forward. [12:22] The only option any of us have that makes any sense according to Scripture is to believe [12:27] the promises of God to a level that says move. [12:32] Because sometimes we get so overwhelmed by life that we lose sight of the anchor of [12:40] faith that is God.

[12:45] Life is not about what I am capable of.

[12:49] Life is about what God is capable of, and he’s capable of far more than I will ever [12:55] be capable of. [12:56] The expectations that we have or even the responsibilities that we shoulder can consume [13:02] us because we look within ourselves rather than anchor our hope in God. [13:07] And God looks to Joshua in this moment of pain in this moment. [13:11] What could you imagine?

[13:12] He says you’re getting a promotion. [13:15] You’re going from the copy boy to the leader of the nation. [13:21] How overwhelmed would you feel in that moment where you’ve got grief, you’ve got loss, [13:26] you’ve got new responsibility and all that God looks to Joshua and basically says he [13:31] says, here’s the task. [13:32] I’m going to keep my promises.

[13:34] Get going. [13:35] That’s it. [13:36] That’s the training. [13:38] But God says, do it. [13:40] God didn’t call Joshua to be responsible for keeping the promise. [13:46] God called Joshua to be responsible for following God as God kept the promise.

[13:54] Joshua, though, trusted God. [13:56] That’s why he was capable. [13:58] That’s the one thing that he had on his side was that he trusted God more than anything [14:05] else in life. [14:06] I mean, of course, this is something that God knew was going to come in the life of [14:11] Joshua.

[14:11] I mean, look at Deuteronomy, Chapter three. [14:15] He tells Moses, charge Joshua, encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at [14:21] the head of this people and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see. [14:26] Further, the promise and demand of Joshua one, three through four can also be found [14:32] in Deuteronomy 11, 24. [14:34] Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours.

[14:37] Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the river, the river [14:41] Euphrates to the Western Sea. [14:43] This was the promise of God. [14:45] The responsibility that Israel had was to walk in light of that promise, not to deliver [14:51] on that promise. [14:53] Some of you are trying to deliver on things in your life that God has never called you

[14:57] to deliver. [14:59] Some of you are shouldering a responsibility that God has never given you. [15:04] God has never said you deliver on the promise. [15:07] No, God has said walk in light of God delivering on that promise. [15:11] That is a totally different outlook. [15:14] If you look to the scripture as a whole, the question you got to ask is, are you walking

[15:18] in light of the promises of God or are you shouldering the responsibility of forming [15:25] some kind of personal vision that has an unknown future that is dependent on you, [15:31] your ability, your strength, your capability, your potential, your ability to come through [15:39] in tough times? [15:40] That is not the design of God. [15:43] No wonder you’re filled with anxiety.

[15:45] No wonder you’re stressed to the max. [15:49] No wonder you’re manic all the time. [15:51] You’re trying to deliver on things that God didn’t design you to deliver on. [15:56] God’s called you to live his vision, not your vision. [16:01] God’s called you to trust his promises, not promises that you came up on yourself. [16:05] Some of you are really disappointed in God, actually, because you are blaming God for

[16:10] not delivering on promises that he never made. [16:12] He made you anyway.

[16:16] He didn’t promise you every day was going to be sunshines, rainbows and unicorns.

[16:22] He’s actually told you the opposite. [16:25] This is going to be hard. [16:27] It’s going to be suffering. [16:28] There’s going to be pain. [16:28] There’s going to be persecution. [16:30] If you’re not hurting right now, somebody’s waiting around the corner to smack you right

[16:33] in the face with it, friend. [16:35] It’s coming. [16:37] God demands faithfulness to his promises above everything else. [16:40] That is where his blessings dwell. [16:43] Because, friend, if God is faithful and he is, then faith demands a ruthless commitment to him [16:51] that sometimes deny the very circumstances that are real in your life.

[16:55] We get so cynical because of the pain, suffering and sin of this world [16:58] that it detracts from walking in the promises of God. [17:03] But Joshua lived encouraged by God’s promises, regardless of what stood in the way. [17:09] And I don’t know that from Joshua one. [17:10] I know that from something that took place before Joshua one in Numbers 14.

[17:16] Moses had sent spies into the promised land. [17:19] This is before they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years. [17:23] Most of those spies came back and they said, it’s over. [17:27] We’re sunk. [17:29] We’ve wasted our time. [17:30] God’s not going to give us the promised land because those guys are bigger than us.

[17:34] And I don’t know if you know this, but big guys beat little guys.

[17:39] They say, oh, man, the land looks wonderful, but the people in it are ferocious. [17:43] The people in it are huge. [17:45] Some people pontificate that it could have been the descendants of the Nephilim. [17:48] I don’t know.

[17:50] But they look to the people of Israel and say, we are too few, too weak, too ill equipped [17:59] to take the promised land. [18:02] And then here’s Moses and Aaron’s response. [18:05] This was one of the weaknesses that Moses had. [18:07] Moses lived by popular vote. [18:09] And so if the people didn’t trust him, he just took his ball and went home.

[18:14] Numbers 14 verse five says that Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the [18:18] assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. [18:22] Why don’t you trust me?

[18:25] That’s bad leadership. [18:28] Moses should have mourned the faithlessness of Israel, but he should have done something [18:33] about it because he trusted God. [18:35] But look at verse six, Joshua, the son of none, Caleb, the son of Jeffune, who were [18:42] among those who had spied out the land. [18:44] Yes, they tore their clothes in mourning.

[18:47] But verse seven and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, the land which we [18:54] possessed through excuse me, that we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. [18:59] If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. [19:04] A land that flows with milk and honey. [19:05] Honey, only do not rebel against the Lord and do not fear the people of the land, [19:10] for they are bred for us.

[19:13] Their protection is removed from them and the Lord is with us. [19:16] Do not fear them. [19:18] Love this passage of scripture because this is why Joshua was the one to lead them [19:24] into Israel, because he had one thing that other people didn’t possess. [19:28] That one thing was a ruthless, radical trust in the promises of God. [19:34] They said, friends, if God wants us in that land, he’s going to give us the land.

[19:40] Obviously, those big boys don’t have protection. [19:44] No matter how much bigger they are than we are, we’ve got the protection of God that [19:48] they don’t have. [19:49] And in fact, if God is for us, then they were bred for us. [19:55] In other words, they’re going to serve us.

[20:01] Twelve went in, two believed. [20:05] Joshua trusted God. [20:07] Friends, even when circumstances would discourage, Josh exhorted everyone to trust in God [20:13] and move forward. [20:15] But you have to walk in faith. [20:17] You have to anchor your life to the God of the promise and refuse to be dissuaded,

[20:25] refuse to be discouraged. [20:28] Just refuse it. [20:30] And you say, you don’t know how hard my life is. [20:32] I don’t need to know how hard your life is. [20:35] Stop making the choice to be discouraged whenever anything bad happens in your life. [20:40] If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you have the favor of God in your life.

[20:45] Live to be encouraged. [20:48] When I get discouraged, you know what I do? [20:50] I say, stop it.

[20:53] And move on with my life. [20:55] It’s not that simple. [20:56] It really is. [20:58] It really is.

[21:01] Fathers, let me ask you a question. [21:02] If you’re a father in here, what is your life anchored to?

[21:07] If you want your family to walk in faith, trusting the promises of God, [21:14] you have to cultivate that environment and culture in your home. [21:17] You have to. [21:19] What vision are you following? [21:21] The world’s vision? [21:22] Are you following God’s vision?

[21:24] I will tell you, bad things happen to me all the time, and I am tempted to feel sorry for myself. [21:31] I mean, look, I just said all the time.

[21:36] But I refuse to ever let my children see me sit in discouragement and wallow in self-pity, [21:41] because that’s not what they need. [21:43] They need someone who believes the promises of God. [21:46] And when pain enters my life, I take a stiff upper lip and I say, [21:51] what is God trying to teach me through this pain? [21:54] I refuse to be a coward when suffering comes into my life.

[21:58] I refuse to be a coward when hurt feelings come into my life. [22:01] Not because I want to be the toughest man in the room, [22:05] but because I believe the promises of God and I’ve got a family to lead. [22:09] Men stop wallowing in self-pity. [22:12] No one feels sorry for. [22:14] So stop feeling sorry for yourself.

[22:17] Everybody’s got pain in their lives. [22:20] Everyone’s got loss in their lives. [22:21] Why do you think you’re more important than everybody else? [22:24] Where you can sit and refuse to lead.

[22:29] I cannot stand a coward. [22:32] I can’t stand it, and neither can God. [22:34] He says they won’t be in the kingdom of heaven. [22:36] So father, if you sit passively, letting life just just overwhelm you [22:42] and overwhelm your family and your kids don’t know what it’s like [22:46] to watch a man of God lead through the hardest moments in his life

[22:51] with a smile on his face and joy from Jesus Christ in his heart. [22:55] Repent of your sin and stop being a coward. [22:59] But I got another service after this, so let’s keep going.

[23:04] Number two, expect resistance when you walk by faith, expect resistance. [23:10] This is the main flaw that I see. [23:14] This is the kryptonite to most people’s faith. [23:18] Because you see the promises of God, go and take the land. [23:21] It’s great. [23:22] But then the storm clouds start to form and you say, wait a second,

[23:26] I didn’t sign up for this. [23:29] I’m going home. [23:31] Look at what he says to Joshua in verse five.

[23:35] He says no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. [23:39] Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. [23:42] I will not leave you or forsake. [23:44] Be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land [23:48] that I swore to their fathers to give them. [23:51] I love that because he does two things.

[23:54] He gives us everything we want to hear and everything we don’t want to hear. [23:57] All in two verses. [24:00] Everything that we want to hear is you’re going to get everywhere that your foot shreds. [24:06] Then he goes on and he says, no one’s going to be able to stand against you. [24:11] Then he moves on even further and he looks to him and says, [24:14] you will inherit the land that I swore to your fathers.

[24:17] But then he also tells us what we don’t want to hear. [24:19] I don’t know if you know this, but the promise no one will be able to stand [24:23] before you brings with it a presupposition that somebody’s going to try to stand up before you.

[24:29] That for somebody to fall before you, they got to fight against you. [24:34] I don’t know if you know this or not, but when he says be strong and courageous, [24:38] that means there’s going to be moments that are only designed for the strong [24:42] and the courageous to endure. [24:44] In other words, resistance is going to come when you’re walking in the promises of God. [24:50] People are going to stand against you.

[24:52] They’re going to vilify you. [24:54] Many will try to stand against you as you trust God. [24:59] But all of them will fall. [25:01] All of them. [25:02] No one shall be able to stand before you. [25:06] We get fired up at such a notion and set a path of following Jesus into the promises that God

[25:11] has made. [25:12] But then reality sets in and it’s harder than you thought it was going to be. [25:17] It’s more difficult than you ever considered it might be. [25:20] Resistance pops up in your path. [25:22] And that is the moment of the great discouragement. [25:25] That is often the moment that many people quit because they didn’t look at the implications.

[25:30] The path of trusting God is always going to be filled with resistance. [25:35] And that is why you have to, number one, trust the promises of God. [25:39] And number two, be strong and courageous with the promises of God. [25:44] You have to stand against those that stand against you. [25:47] I love Ephesians six tells us, he says, well, now when you’ve done all that you can to stand, [25:54] stand.

[25:56] That’s like, well, I already did all that I could. [25:59] And I’m going to fall. [26:00] Why are you just following with stand, Paul? [26:03] Because what Paul is saying is when you’ve come to the end of yourself, [26:07] you’ve just begun to experience the power of God. [26:10] So when you have done all to stand, stand in the power of God,

[26:19] because it’s not about you. [26:21] It’s about God’s ability to follow through on his promises. [26:24] If you look back at numbers 14, those other spies looked at Israel and pointed out all [26:29] of the reasons that they would be defeated. [26:32] Every one of them was anchored to circumstances that were real. [26:39] I’ll try to pretty this up.

[26:40] They were real circumstances. [26:43] If you look at it on paper, they were bigger, more numerous, better organized, [26:49] more powerful and on and on. [26:51] If you were looking at a risk assessment, go the other way. [26:55] Those circumstances weren’t fake, but the path of trusting God is founded on one key factor [27:02] that outweighs all earthly factors.

[27:05] God will be faithful to his promises. [27:10] That’s the one reason Joshua said, let’s go take the land. [27:14] We’ve got God. [27:16] That is greater than any other factor. [27:21] These are similar promises from the New Testament. [27:23] Just last week, we talked about the Great Commission.

[27:25] He says, Jesus rose from the dead. [27:27] He has all authority in heaven and earth. [27:28] Go make disciples. [27:29] And then how does Jesus end it? [27:31] He says, I will be with you always to the end of the age. [27:36] Hebrews 13, five states that we should not be distracted or tempted

[27:40] by the materials that the world around us offers. [27:45] Why? [27:47] Because in Joshua one, God said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. [27:53] He says that promise is still true and it is for the church. [27:57] We must anchor ourselves to the promise of God that he will never leave us. [28:01] He will never forsake us.

[28:02] Friend, I will tell you, the favor of God is greater than anything in this world. [28:07] Do you believe that? [28:10] Maybe a greater question is, do you live for that? [28:13] Because if you don’t, you will cower whenever resistance comes your way. [28:20] But if you trust God, you will have the faith that it takes to face resistance, [28:26] whatever it may be head on as one who knows victory is on the other side of pain.

[28:34] Friends, God uses people to lead by example. [28:38] It’s real. [28:39] When verse six says, be strong and courageous, [28:42] God is speaking directly to Joshua because the people who would follow his leadership [28:49] needed to look at his faith and be encouraged to have their own. [28:55] You need great examples of faith in your life.

[28:58] But here’s the deal that some of you refuse to accept. [29:01] You need to be an example of great strength and courage in the lives of other people. [29:09] That’s why living by faith should never be reduced to an academic effort. [29:15] I hope and pray in this series that many of you are stretched. [29:21] Many of you are challenged, especially those that like me, you are of the reformed camp [29:27] where you tend to have a temptation to reduce everything in scripture to some type of academic

[29:33] pursuit with really no life on the other side of that pursuit. [29:38] There is no question that the intellect is a vital part of growing as a follower of Jesus [29:43] Christ, but it is no substitute for actually living by faith. [29:50] The knowledge of God is that which pushes us to live in obedience to what God has revealed to us. [29:58] This obedience then forms a life that is fundamentally dependent on the truth of [30:04] God’s promises as they push us to pursue his calling more and more every single day.

[30:11] Here’s the deal with Joshua. [30:13] He believed the revelation of God to the extent that he formed his life around it.

[30:20] Therefore, he’s about to lead Israel into the promised land. [30:23] The life then, friend, I will tell you, of the disciple of Jesus Christ [30:30] cannot be reduced to sitting around pontificating about the breadth and depth of the promises of [30:38] God with no actual living in light of those promises. [30:41] There’s no substitute for actually going and saying, because Jesus has authority, [30:48] I will make disciples.

[30:50] Because Jesus is with me, I will teach them to observe all that he has commanded me [30:55] because Jesus is true. [30:57] I can stand against anything that this world throws against me, any threat, [31:04] any vilification, any suffering, any persecution. [31:07] I will stand though everyone else around me fall because someone needs to be the example [31:14] of strength and courage in a world that is damned in sin.

[31:19] We must never cower before this unbelieving world, even if they redefine love, even if [31:26] they redefine truth, even if they seek to take all that God has given into the life of the church. [31:32] I will tell you one thing, friend, that I claim every day in light of the sinfulness of the world [31:38] is I’m going to live in the favor of God every day, no matter what anyone says, no matter what [31:44] anyone does. [31:45] And that’s going to require me to face the resistance of the world head on and

[31:51] realign my life over and over in order to match what God has commanded every single [31:58] day of my life. [32:00] And then I seek God’s strength and courage again and again to wield the giftings that [32:06] he has given me to pursue his promises, no matter who stands in my way, no matter what [32:13] they threaten, no matter how attractive the world is, no matter how much easier the path [32:18] of compromise is, I won’t fall for the lies of the enemy.

[32:25] Even if he is very witty, I won’t do it. [32:29] So understand number three, this morning, you need to form a faith that requires courage. [32:36] You need to form a faith that requires courage. [32:39] A lot of you are forming a faith that requires ease. [32:44] You are forming a faith that requires leisure. [32:49] You’re forming a faith that depends on sunshine.

[32:53] And even on those days, you’re looking for sunblock.

[32:58] If the wind is a little too hard, well, today is not a day to be strong and courageous. [33:04] If you woke up and your big toe on your left foot feels a little funny, [33:08] well, today is not a day to be strong and courageous. [33:13] Now, that is the very day to be strong and courageous. [33:15] That is the very day that you are facing resistance. [33:17] You’re going to face resistance from outside.

[33:19] You’re going to face resistance from inside. [33:21] You’re going to question yourself. [33:22] You’re going to question everyone around you. [33:24] You’re going to have people literally stand against you. [33:27] And I don’t know if you know this, but you’re still living in a world that’s cursed by sin. [33:30] So you’re going to get sick.

[33:31] You’re going to suffer. [33:32] You’re going to endure pain. [33:34] You’re going to endure hardship. [33:36] We must stop building a faith that depends on everything going our way. [33:44] We must stop building a faith that depends on my wife being nice to me, [33:49] on my kids turning out exactly how I envisioned having the careers exactly that I thought they

[33:55] were going to have. [33:56] We have to stop building a faith that requires getting the house that we wanted or the car that [34:02] we wanted or the career that we wanted. [34:04] We have got to stop having a faith that depends on us staying healthy for a thousand years, [34:09] no matter how unrealistic that is. [34:12] We’ve got to have the type of faith that says, you know what?

[34:17] Sometimes my breath stinks.

[34:20] And sometimes my wife doesn’t like my mood. [34:23] And sometimes I don’t like hers.

[34:30] Sometimes my kids disobey me. [34:33] And someday all of them will disappoint me.

[34:37] Don’t do it though. [34:39] He ain’t paying attention.

[34:42] Like I said, my faith just ruined. [34:46] He’s not basking in the wisdom.

[34:52] Someday I’m going to get a report from the doctor that I didn’t want to hear.

[34:58] Someday someone is going to hurt me greatly, as many have.

[35:04] Someday it’s going to feel like the whole world is falling right on me.

[35:13] They will not be able to stand before you. [35:19] That’s the day that you need that. [35:22] Be strong and courageous. [35:24] That’s the day that you need that. [35:26] Look at what he says starting in verse seven. [35:31] He doubles down.

[35:33] Only be strong. [35:34] Uh-oh, now a modifier. [35:36] And very courageous. [35:38] In other words, that first courage, that was the warmup. [35:41] It’s going to get worse. [35:44] Now you need to be very courageous.

[35:46] Being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, command you. [35:51] Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left hand. [35:54] That you may have good success wherever you go. [35:57] This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, [35:59] but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful [36:05] to do according to all that is written in it.

[36:08] For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. [36:16] Have I not commanded you? [36:18] Triple down. [36:19] Be strong and courageous. [36:23] Do not be frightened. [36:24] Some of you need to underline that.

[36:28] It’s been all gravy. [36:30] Do this, do this, do this. [36:31] Don’t be afraid. [36:33] Some of you are defining your life by what might happen, even though it hasn’t happened. [36:38] That means you’re scared. [36:40] Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

[36:47] I love that verse nine closes with that. [36:49] He says, look, I’m with you. [36:51] I’m not going anywhere. [36:52] I’m going to give you that promise again. [36:54] Strength and courage. [36:56] Require effort.

[36:58] Some of you treat effort like it’s something you need an anihistamine for [37:02] or an allergy season. [37:03] And some of you act like you’re allergic to effort. [37:07] You act like the sweat of your brow is something that would kill you [37:10] where your faith in Jesus Christ is concerned. [37:12] No, God calls you to great effort.

[37:14] Notice that the promise from verse three, every place that your foot treads. [37:19] Note what that was going to take. [37:20] Their foot was going to have to tread. [37:22] They were going to have to put some effort in. [37:24] They were going to have to walk into the land. [37:25] They were going to have to fight those people.

[37:27] They were going to have to need strength and courage. [37:29] So much so that he triples down on it. [37:32] The key is an understanding that when you trust God, [37:35] you will line your life up with the design that God has revealed in his word. [37:41] This means there is a way to live by faith. [37:43] And then the flip side is there is a way to live by sin.

[37:48] Do not go to the right or to the left. [37:51] Stay committed to the commands of God. [37:53] That is where you will have success. [37:56] That is where you will experience the presence of God. [37:59] That is where you will see God move obstacles. [38:01] That is where his kingdom is being built.

[38:04] Be right there. [38:06] Even when the world tempts you with apathy towards the things of God [38:10] because of the default mode of corruption in sin, [38:14] don’t be lazy towards God. [38:16] Be effort-filled. [38:17] Friend, it takes zero strength or courage to follow the patterns of a sinful world.

[38:24] But when you give your life to Jesus Christ, [38:27] you are giving your life over to an effort-filled war of worship of God [38:34] through living to advance his promises of growth every single day of your life. [38:38] That is the life of faith.

[38:42] This will challenge some of you. [38:45] But the leader of the college that I went to would frequently quote Joshua 1. [38:51] That is why I know it so well. [38:53] Because the older he got, I think the more he forgot he had talked about it, [38:56] so he just kept talking about it more. [38:58] It is also one of the great things about going to a Christian college

[39:00] and side note, parents, send your kids to a Christian college [39:02] so they can learn the Bible. [39:04] Just saying.

[39:07] He would tell the story of how he founded the college. [39:10] Before 1971, the land that our college was on was just a mountain of trees, [39:18] forest, and it had one house that a former politician had built on the side of a hill [39:23] for his summer getaway. [39:26] And he said that every day he would go up on that mountain. [39:30] He didn’t even own it.

[39:32] And he would walk through the woods and he would claim Joshua 1.3. [39:38] Everywhere that your foot treads, I will give to you claim it as his own promise. [39:43] And of course, after those chapel services, the biblical studies majors, [39:49] the geniuses that we all were, the seasoned theologians, [39:54] we would all gather in the lunchroom and talk about how out of context such an idea was. [39:59] That is not the context of Joshua chapter one.

[40:02] I mean, that’s a promise to the nation of Israel. [40:04] The church can’t claim that promise for itself. [40:06] Sometimes I would start those conversations.

[40:11] Sometimes I found myself talking to guys about it and I would frequently look at them. [40:17] And I would say, yeah, I think it’s totally out of context.

[40:23] Then I would look around, say, well, but it seemed like it worked out. [40:29] Seemed like God gave it to him because he owned the whole mountain.

[40:36] Friends, the only way forward is through. [40:42] And the only way through is with God. [40:46] So over the years, I frequently ask myself, why do I think claiming that promise worked? [40:51] I don’t think it had anything to do with this specific promise. [40:55] I don’t think it had anything to do with whether that was to Israel or to the [40:58] Church of Jesus Christ.

[40:59] I think it had everything to do with the fact that what verses seven through nine [41:03] are telling us is that when you commit to living God’s vision for gospel discipleship, [41:10] when you saturate your life with his word and commit to living out his design by obeying [41:18] his word, no matter what, refusing to look to the right or to the left, then you will have a vision [41:27] for what God can do through you. [41:28] And then you will be amazed that as you follow him, the obstacles that he removes out of your

[41:34] way and the things that he lets you see that you never thought in a million years you’d be able to [41:39] see. I’ve seen God do some amazing things in my life. And none of them had anything to do with [41:48] my potential. Church started with nine people. Now we’re over 800 people. [41:55] Can I tell you the path along that growth has had some discouraging days. I know that’s shocking [42:02] to believe. There have been a couple of days where I thought about quitting. I’m not going [42:07] to lie to you. I’m going to paint it for you. There have been days when I would pass by a VDOT

[42:11] crew. You know how they have like, you know, 25 people doing a job and you think only two of them [42:15] look like they’re working, but you don’t know what’s really going on. And I would see the guy [42:18] holding the sign and I would say, I wonder if I could feed my family as the sign guy. [42:26] Because God knows I don’t know how to build a road, but I do know how to hold a sign. [42:32] There have been days like that for me. And I will tell you that on every one of those days [42:37] when I thought that the cards were stacked against me, when I thought there were barriers

[42:42] that Village Church would never overcome, when I thought that my inability was too great, that I [42:47] could not be the leader of a people that will form a discipleship movement, that will be a [42:53] church that plants churches. Every single day of that, I’ve reminded myself of Joshua chapter one, [42:58] where he triples down and he says, be strong and courageous because I won’t quit. I refuse to quit. [43:07] I refuse to say, well, God did something pretty amazing in my life 10 years ago. I’m not satisfied [43:13] with what God did 10 years ago. I want to know what he’s going to do through my life today and

[43:18] tomorrow and next week and next month. What could God do through your life? If you would just move [43:26] forward, if you would just believe that the promises of scripture are yours, that the favor [43:33] of God is on you, that he will keep his promises and no one is ever going to be able to stand [43:46] before the gospel of Jesus Christ because it’s true. All of those things

[43:55] will encounter resistance that seems overwhelming. But here’s the deal. [44:03] When you keep trusting and you keep walking, God keeps blessing and keeps moving [44:12] his glory into your life. Only be strong and courageous. A few application points this morning. [44:25] Anchor your life to God’s promises and keep trusting.

[44:35] Be immovable when it comes to the promises of God. Secondly, expect resistance and keep trusting [44:41] when you encounter it. Don’t be a coward. Face it head on. Thirdly, pursue faith with great effort. [44:50] Faith is a pursuit that you must grow. It’s not just going to happen. For the sake of God, [44:59] fourthly, commit to obeying God in faith and just do it. Just do it. Sometimes you do need to look [45:07] at yourself in the mirror and say, stop it and get going with God. And finally, if you do those [45:15] things, number five, watch God move in your life. You will not deliver the promises of God, but God will.