Living An On-Purpose Life

Living an On-Purpose life Joshua 1:3-5

Joshua 1:3-5

I will give you every place on which you set foot, as I promised Moses. [4] Your borders will be the desert {on the south}, nearby Lebanon to the Euphrates River (the country of the Hittites) {on the north}, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. [5] No one will be able to oppose you successfully as long as you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will never neglect you or abandon you.

The opportunities that are best for us are those that fall in line with the will or promises of God. Here we find that God promised Joshua, “I will give you every place on which you set foot, as I promised Moses.” God promised His blessing on Joshua in one on one meeting. We need to have those one on one meeting with God if we are going to have success in His work. Many a church has many programs that could keep them running without the aid of God. That comes when it is our doing and we ask for God to bless what we do instead of first taking time to ask Him what He wants done. You know as I do it is as we persist in prayer and seek God’s will that the church will move ahead in a way that pleases Him. Is there another way?

Let me put it this way, we are all created in the image of God. This means we have ability to create and see what is unseen. The future of this church depends on what we do and think. God saves people from sin so that they may make this world a better place. It is God’s people that make the future a bright one. I also have to say that people have been able to do great things without God through a positive thinking attitude and visualizing what could be. A good example of this is from Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel.

As we look at our lesson for today we find that Joshua is to lead God’s people into a land they had not been before but was promised to them. Between them and that land was river which was nothing like the Red Sea that God had led their ancestors through many years before. Yet we want to see that the river was not the only thing that was blocking them from what God wanted for them. There were four things that also relate to us as the church today.

1. They had wandered for many years with no sense of direction or specific destination. For years they had been going in circles with no target where they would end up at. Do we know where we are going as a church? Do we know what we are here for? Is your personal life lined up with a purpose God has given you? Are you involved I activities that make you more Christ like and fit for heaven? The people Joshua was leading were God’s people yet they did not know their purpose because they had been wandering for man years. A church can become this way if it is set on never changing and doing the same thing year after year. If church decided we like things the way they are and only want what pleases them now they will not move ahead for God. Are you wandering or do you know where you are going and what needs to be done to get there?

2. These people just wanted what met their needs. For many years they did not have to work for the food they ate for God gave them manna from heaven. They had become lazy in seeking what they needed. We find that even with this they were not thankful in their hearts toward God. They had no desire to conquer what god had before them. Today we can limit God and His desire if all we want is our own comfort. Is our mind set to please and take care of the people who come to this church or do we want to reach out and touch lives that they might enjoy the blessing God has given us? Many churches are in decline today because they have grown inward. They have failed to take time to be alone with God and listen to His voice as to what His plan is. Let me ask you a personal question, “Do you only come to this church to see what you can get out of it? Do you come expecting God to move on your heart and the hearts of others who do not know Him? We are God’s voice and body in this world and He is depending on us to reach others.