Equipping The Called Series

As we continue to talk about our Mis-Quoted series…I wanted to focus a little bit on the different things God called His people to do in the Scriptures…WE are going to talk about a guy who, in all honesty, was not equipped to do what God was asking Him to do…but we as His people are called to things much greater than ourselves…

Have you ever been asked to do something that you just did not feel equipped to do? This happens to me, probably literally every single day of my life…I’ve told you before about how I felt about being an officer…I thought God had gotten it wrong…There was no way I would ever have been able to stand up in front of people and preach! Are you kidding me? That’s my worse fear! Public speaking! And that uniform? No thank you! You mean me, shy, scared of her own shadow Emily Horn has to go and talk to people she doesn’t know about Jesus? What if they reject me? What if I don’t know what to say? What if they ask me something I don’t know the answer to? What if I have to pray with them? Nope! No thanks, I’m good…pick someone else…I ran from my calling for almost 14 years…When I finally said yes, I realized that God had been equipping me, and was continuing to equip me to do the things He had called me to do…

The main character in our scripture today was going through a huge transitions in his life, and was facing some of the same questions when he was faced with the great call that God had placed on his life…The Israelites had been following Moses for years…they followed him out of Egypt, they followed him through the desert for 40 years…but now…Moses had died, and God was calling Joshua to lead His people into the promised land…

(Read Scripture Joshua 1:1-18)

God was calling Joshua to do something great! But Joshua required a few things in order to accomplish the task that God was calling Him to do…The first thing we see that God is requiring of Joshua is that he needed courage…

After looking at the scripture, what sticks out to you the most? For me, it’s the number of times God tells Joshua to “Be strong and courageous!”…This was apparently a very important factor for Joshua to grasp! Why do you think God said it to him so many times? Do you think He knew what kind of thoughts were going through Joshua’s mind when God was telling him this? Moses had just died…Moses had been the chosen one of God…the man that brought the Israelites out of Egypt…Joshua was nothing compared to Moses in the eyes of the people…but God does not see anyone as nothing…can you imagine the things Joshua was thinking? How can God call me to do this? Will the Israelites even listen to me? How can I possibly do this? I am not good enough…

We all know the story of the Cowardly Lion from that classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz”…the Lion, who seemed big and tough on the outside, but who was really as scared as a mouse when he faced something that seemed too big for him to tackle…when watching the movie, we could see when he was scared because he would stroke his tail and cry…The Wizard had to show him, that he had courage all along, inside of his heart…it had nothing to do with the medal of courage he was given…he had it all along…he just needed to believe in himself.

God calls people to do things He knows they cannot do by themselves…it is Him working through us that He does His great works…He knew that Joshua was not capable by himself to do what He was calling him to do…He knew what Joshua needed to hear…He knew that Joshua needed to be reminded that He would be with him, and that he needed to be “strong and courageous”. He needed to show the people that he was just as capable as Moses was…and God reminds Joshua once again at the end of the passage, when the PEOPLE say to Joshua, “be strong and courageous”…I think God might have been trying to tell Joshua something…

When God calls us to do something, we are able to meet anything He puts into our path with courage…why? Because we have God on our side! “If God is for us, then who can be against us?”. That’s another one that gets misquoted or misused all too much…

In this scripture he tells Joshua to be strong and courageous…but he doesn’t say, now go and do it all on your own…

Our God has allowed us to be a part of His great plan…and we are able to have courage to fight the good fight…We are never left alone. We are always promised His great presence…He will be right beside us, fighting for us, and we cannot be afraid…we are called to be full of courage!