How Brave Are You, Really? (Joshua 1:1-9) Series

God initiated this new covenant through Jesus. He offers us salvation, and entrance into his people, through Jesus. What God has done in the NT is offer this covenant to everyone.

Now, what difference does it make, whether we talk about our relationship with God in terms of a covenant or not?

A lot of times, when people talk about salvation, they talk about it as a free gift that requires nothing on our part. But it would be much better--much more biblical-- to think of it in terms of a covenant. It is through Jesus' blood that God offers a new covenant to you. God offers you forgiveness of sins, freedom from the power of Sin, membership in his family, access to Him, the Holy Spirit, and the hope of an inheritance when Jesus returns. And God offers you all those things through Jesus.

The question is, do you want to enter into this covenant relationship with God that He offers through Jesus?

And, if so, how do you do this? What does God want?

God wants three things:

(1) He wants you to repent from your sins. What repentance means, is that He wants you to turn from your sins, to serve the living God. Every non-Christian I've ever met has understood this. They know that they are living in sin. And they know, concretely, the things they do that displease God. You have to repent.

(2) God wants you to give your allegiance to Jesus as King. This is what "faith" means. Faith means allegiance, or faithfulness. The salvation God offers, he offers through King Jesus. Whenever you approach a king, you come on bent knee. You submit to Jesus as Lord. You give him everything. This allegiance is not a one-time thing. This isn't the sinner's prayer. This allegiance is how you wake up every morning. Today, Jesus, I confess you as Lord, and live for you.

(3) God wants you to be baptized. Baptism is your pledge of commitment to God (1 Peter 3:21; use NIV); it is how you are united with Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6).

As we begin our study of the book of Joshua, we need to remember that we are not reading about our covenant. BUT, there are a lot of things God can teach us about how covenants with him work through this book. God hasn't changed. And what He wants from people, broadly, fundamentally, hasn't changed either. God wants loyalty, and courage, and obedience.

The main thing we should learn here was found in 1:7-8:

(7) Only, be strong and be very brave to keep to do according to all the instruction

that Moses my servant commanded.

Don't turn from it to the right, or to the left, in order that you shall be successful in everywhere that you walk.

(8) The book of this instruction must not depart from your mouth,

and you shall mutter over it day and night

in order that you will keep to do everything written in it,

because then you will make your road a success,

and then you will prosper.

Many Christians think that God really doesn't care how they live. God loves them the same, and He treats them the same, regardless. They think you can be greedy, or sexually immoral, or an idolater, and it makes no difference for how God relates to you.