Be Strong

Joshua 1:1-9

Joshua

- called to leadership

- Moses died before leading the people into the promised land

- relate to forefathers

- V6: "Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them."

Leadership

- Annual Meeting coming up

- people called to leadership

- abide by the by-laws

- Preamble: "This church recognizes the Bible as the sufficient rule of faith and practice,"

- V8: "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night"

Purpose

- prosperity means land

- V4: "From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory."

- Unrealistic border:

N: Lebanon

S: Egypt

W: Mediterranean

E: Half-way into Iran, including all of Iraq

- Never has Israel had this much land

- It is a bold vision

- Who needs such a bold vision?

- Whoever has hit rock-bottom

- Deuteronomist in Exile

- The purpose for teachers like that is to lift the spirits of their people

- Even if we are lost, we can be found

- "By The Rivers Of Babylon" Boney M.

- The commandment "Be strong and courageous" is given three times. Obviously it cannot be easily accepted

God is still speaking

- Why would I even want to belong to this lost people?

- Why not dissolve into the societal and religious majority?

- Why stick with this God?

- Because God is still speaking!

- Because there are people who hear God and listen to God

- Because where this gathering occurs I have an opportunity to hear God speak to me, too.