Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing

Blessed With Every Spiritual Blessing

PPT 1 Series title

PPT 2 Message title

PPT 3-4 text

Jos 1:1 Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying,

Jos 1:2 "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

Jos 1:3 "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

Jos 1:4 "From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.

Jos 1:5 "No man will [be able to] stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

I have a short message today, and we will be in both the book of Joshua and the book of Ephesians. Today I am going to use some pictures that show the physical landscape of Israel, while at the same time showing us something about its spiritual landscape. And as we look at them I want you to try and imagine what your spiritual landscape looks like. I will show you Israel's actual borders and compare them with it's promised borders, and I want you to also imagine the same for your life. We will then talk about what God has promised us in Christ and how to access it. I want to start this morning with some images as they will be highly instructive in you getting the point of the message today.

PPT 5 Dome of the Rock

First up is a picture of Jerusalem with the dome of the rock. I have not altered this picture in any way, and I don't know about you but to me it simply shows that the dome of the rock is a dominant aspect of Jerusalem's skyline.

I have used this picture and ones like it before when preaching on the subject a garrison of the Philistines, from 1 Samuel 9. This image shows in picture form what the lives of some believers are like. A dominant aspect of their spiritual life is under the control and influence of the enemy. We need more men to be Gideon's and tear down the altar's of Baal.

The second image I want to show you is a map of the Middle East as it is today.

PPT 6 Map of the Middle East

There are a lot of maps of Israel and the Middle East that are like this one. Israel is so small often a highlighting arrow is used to point it out, or it might take you a while to find the country.

So modern Israel is a small country, that has within it borders garrisons of the Philistines. Actually we should call them armories of the Philistines, because Gaza and the Palestinian territories are being continually filled with weapons and arms, from Muslims all over the middle east. So it is not simply that they have enemies within their territories, but their enemies are always making plans and seeking ways to enlarge their territory. What is true in the natural for physical Israel, is true in the spiritual for us. The devil seeks a toe hold, to get a foot hold, to get a leg hold, to get a choke hold.

Now our next map is even more shocking, it is a map of what was promised to Israel by God. Specifically it lays out all the land God gave to Joshua.

PPT 7 Map of land promised to Israel

"From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.

This was spoken to Joshua on the Eastern side of the Jordan River, in Modern day Jordan. Lebanon would have been visible to his north. The map you are looking at includes all that was promised, much of it is understood to have been under the control of the hittites and the other ites living their in Joshua's day. How many of you have realized that the promised land went all the way to Iraq!?

One more picture and this time I am putting modern Israel alongside promised Israel:

PPT 8 Promised land and realized land

That is visually a sad state of affairs. They have fallen far short of what was promised/given to them.