Be A Man

Be A Man

Father’s Day

CCCAG 6-18-23

Scripture- Joshua 1:1-9

This Father's Day morning I'm going to be giving everyone here, but especially the men some practical tools that we need to develop or redevelop quickly in these last days.

But this is not just for the men

Ladies, these three things that we're going to focus on this morning are things that you should be encouraging your guy to develop in his own life and if you don't have a guy yet you should be looking for these things in anyone you might want to get close to.

Also, sooner or later you're going to probably be involved in the raising or at least close mentoring of a boy who is struggling to become a man, so this lesson is for you as well.

And quite honestly these three principles are true for both men and women even if I make it mostly about the men today since it's Father's Day.

I’m going to give some background to our central scripture this morning as we are going to be looking at the life of Joshua today from the Old Testament.

If you don't remember who Joshua is, he was Moses’ closest friend and servant. Joshua served Moses the entire 40 years that the nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness and got to see firsthand what intimacy with God looks like. This served him well as he prepared to take over the leadership of over 6 million people who are getting ready to take on some of the most ferocious and powerful nations in their world at that time.

All these nations, when grouped together, were called the Canaanites. Even though the Canaanites were several different kingdoms and tribes and nations, they still had very similar lifestyles, worship practices, and cultures.

This included:

Rampant sexual sin as part of their worship to pagan gods.

This included prostitution, homosexual sin, pedophilia, and what we would call today swinging. All of this was part of worshipping false deities that demanded human sacrifices including the children that were born from their sexual sin.

In fact much this same type of rampant sin was going on in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities got to experience firsthand the direct wrath of God in the form of fire and brimstone falling from the sky.

This was the spiritual condition of Canaan as Joshua lead Israel to it’s borders.

Some of this sound familiar? Sound a little like the evening news-

Some might think that’s a little bit of hyperbole. After all, it’s not like we are living during a time where there are Pedophiles targeting children with drag shows in public schools.

If you think that’s harsh, what else would you call an adult who is trying to act sexually with a child or sexualize them before they even reach 1st grade?

But I don’t want to run down that rabbit hole this morning. I’m just giving you the background of what Cannan was like before you think that God was too harsh in order Israel to wipe them all out- man, woman, child, and even the livestock and family dog were to be slaughtered.

God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent and turn from their sins, but they refused, and now his judgment was going to fall, and the Nation of Israel was going to be the tool God used to judge them.

By the way, this wasn’t just a snap decision by God.

God told Abraham all about this in Genesis 15 when God gave the Abrahamic covenant. God told Abraham what was going to happen to his descendants over the next 500 years or so- that the Amorites, one of the nations in Caanan during that time, was going to be conquered by his offspring. I’ve copied those verse and put them in your verses page for you to read later.

Gen 15:13-16

13 Then the Lord said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

This is what Joshua was facing. Not only did he have charge of over 6 million people, but he had to wage a military campaign over uneven and even mountainous terrain against heavily fortified cities filled with battle-hardened military forces.

Joshua’s Army consisted of the offspring of former slaves.

Not great military leaders