Adversity To Joy Series

God's people have been crossing the wilderness of sin for 4o years and now the leader they counted on has died, they are faced with the uncertainty of life. God reassures them that He hasn't brought them this far to leave them.

Today we live in uncertain times. People today face a bleak outlook for today and the future. Everywhere we turn we read concerning doom and gloom. We may be asking ourselves it there no good news, what will the day bring or what about the future will hold. These are certainly valid questions and I am here to tell you I don’t have the answers to the question and many more but I can also tell you that I know the One who has all the answers to these questions and much more.

God’s people have been crossing the wilderness for 40 years under the leadership of Moses with God’s guidance. Moses didn't have all the answers but God had promised to be with them every step of the way. From the time that God delivered them from the hand of Egyptian Pharaoh, He has protected, guided and provided them with all that was necessary for them to cross over into the promised land.

Their journey was not an easy one but God had brought them through to the end of their journey. All they had to do was cross over the Jordan River and the promised land was before them just for the taking or was it?

Our text today finds God’s people facing a new challenge, a challenge of new leadership, Moses has died and they have new leader Joshua. God had given them the land before them but other people were occupying the land, what about them?

God assures Joshua that He has not brought them this far to leave them and for us today He will not leave us!

In chapter one of Joshua God gives Joshua these promises

• The promise of the land (v.2-4)

• The promise of His presence (v.5)

• The Promise of Of Assurance (v. 6-9)

1st- God’s Promise (v. 2-4) Jos 1:3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. NKJV

At the death of Moses God had prepared Joshua to assume leadership of God's people under His direction. What a tremendous task before him (Joshua). The people had been under the leadership of Moses for 40 years and it was Joshua's time to take the reigns of leadership and be God’s representative to the people. This time had to be freighting to the people of God to now have a new leader, crossing over into a new land and starting a life new. Much was happing. Even Joshua must have had uncertainty in his life as he assumes this leadership. As Joshua considers the task before him God promises to be with Joshua as He was with Moses.

Like Moses, Joshua must follow the leadership of God. I think about the leaders in our country today and if they too would follow the guidance of God through these troubled times. Like the Captain of a ship on the sea of life, we need not man's guidance but we need God’s guidance for our lives and our country. Our country was founded under the guidance of God and our founding fathers sought God’s guidance.

• George Washington said “…the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.”

• John Adams said - “My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.” [5]

• Ronald Reagan said- “My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.” [5]

• George H. Bush said - “I do not mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger. Our challenges are great, but our will is greater. And if our flaws are endless, God’s love is truly boundless.”

Moses trusted and follow God so will Joshua will seek the face of God. God’s promised to be which him as he was with his processor. There are-

30+ verses in Gods’ word concerning worry and anxiety, (example)