You're Next Series

YOU’RE NEXT

Joshua 1:1-9

S: Courage

Th: Profiles in Courage

Pr: WE MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO MOVE FORWARD.

?: What? What keeps us from doing so?

KW: Obstacles

TS: We will find in our study of Joshua 1:1-19 six obstacles that may keep us from moving forward.

The _____ obstacle that may keep us from moving forward is the…

I. DAYS GONE BY (1)

II. DIMENSIONS (2-5)

III. DEFICIENCIES (6)

IV. DISTRESSES (6)

V. DISTRACTIONS (7)

VI. DELINQUINCIES (8-9)

Version: ESV

RMBC 20 July 03 AM

INTRODUCTION:

So…you think you have problems?!

ILL Notebook: Problem (CPR)

Toward the end of Scott’s senior year in high school, they were required to take a CPR course. The classes used the well-known mannequin victim, Rescue Anne, to practice.

Scott’s group’s model was legless to allow for storage in a carrying case.

The class went off in groups to practice. As instructed, one of Scott’s classmates gently shook the doll and asked "Are you all right?" He then put his ear over the mannequin’s mouth to listen for breathing.

Suddenly he turned to the instructor and exclaimed, "She said she can’t feel her legs!"

TRANSITION:

Well, today we continue our series of “Profiles in Courage.”

The person we are studying could have easily posed that earlier question.

He could easily say, “So, you think you have problems?”

The man is Joshua.

To fully understand Joshua’s situation, we need to go back in time to the book of Numbers (which was our Scripture reading this morning).

1. Joshua and Caleb had been minority voices when it had come time to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 13-14).

Let me do one more quick review.

As Israel came to the end of their travels on the Sinai Peninsula, they came to a place called Kadesh-Barnea.

It is at this place that Moses appointed twelve men to spy out the Promised Land.

Joshua was one of these men.

For forty days they traveled and investigated the length and breadth of the land.

When they returned, they all agreed that the land was truly wonderful.

It was a land of milk and honey.

But, ten of the spies gave a discouraging report.

They said that the enemy cities with their armies were too great.

They would be like grasshoppers to these people.

There was no way that the people of Israel would be strong enough to defeat them.

Joshua and Caleb, though, said such a report was a bunch of nonsense.

If they trusted God, moved forward, and took the land as they were instructed, they would be victorious.

Guess whom the people listened to?

Right…the majority view.

So…

2. For their lack of faith and courage, the people of Israel were left to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

This decision on the part of the people was an act of rebellion in God’s judgment.

God would not have a people that refused to trust Him enter into the Promised Land.

It is still an important lesson for us today.

For…

3. WE MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO MOVE FORWARD.

But what is it that holds us up?

What keeps us from doing so?

Well…

4. We will find in our study of Joshua 1:1-9 six obstacles that may keep us from moving forward.

OUR STUDY:

I. The first obstacle that may keep us from moving forward is the DAYS GONE BY (1-2a).

[1] After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, [2] "Moses my servant is dead.

Immediately, at the beginning of this historical account, Joshua is faced with this alarming reality.

It is hard to live up to the past.

It was now time to take the role of leadership that once belonged to Moses.

It was now his job.

This was no easy task, for Moses had certainly been larger than life.

Joshua was now going to replace this beloved and inspired leader.

How could he possibly fill those shoes (sandals actually)?

But even more, would the people follow him?

Would they be able to forget the past and actually move forward?

ILL Notebook: Past (The Past)

Years ago a thunderstorm swept through southern Kentucky at the farm where the Claypool forebears had lived for six generations. In the orchard, the wind blew over an old pear tree that had been there as long as anybody could remember. John Claypool’s grandfather was grieved to lose the tree on which he had climbed as a boy and whose fruit he had eaten all his life.

A neighbor came by and said, “Doc, I’m really sorry to see your pear tree blown down.”

“I’m sorry too,” said my grandfather. “It was a real part of my past.”

“What are you going to do?” the neighbor asked.