Catch the Vision
Joshua 1 & 2
The book of Joshua is a book of vision. It’s the story of Israel moving into the Promised Land. And we’re going to focus today on chapter two, but we need to know that three times in the first 9 verses of Joshua 1, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. And the third time he tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, he tells him WHY. He says he is to be strong and courageous BECAUSE “the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
I want to let you know right up front today, that the Lord OUR God is with US wherever WE go.
Chapter two of Joshua is a spy mission. It is a MISSION that is accomplished as part of fulfilling the VISION God has given the Israelites of entering the Promised Land.
This spy mission allows us to see the reality of any vision that comes from God. Several things that we need to understand fully, if we are going to be like Joshua and gain the promised land. And it doesn’t matter if we’re a church trying to buy a building, if we’re trying to win a family member to Christ, if we’re a missionary leaving the comforts of home and going half way around the world, OR if we’re a motorcycle association trying to expand our membership. In moving forward to pursue anything we think God is calling us to do, there are some things we need to understand about a vision that comes from God. Any vision that comes from God, will include:
1. A vision of the lost.
These two spies went into a world that was condemned by God. They were lost. Rahab confirmed for them that even in a pagan, sinful world, God is the Lord of heaven and earth. Look at verses 9-11. Rahab says, “I know the Lord has given you this land.” “We’re all afraid of you.”
The people living on the other side of the Jordan river recognized the God of Israel and were afraid!
We live in a society today that has little to no fear of God. And we do it ourselves. Do you REALLY view God as sovereign Lord? Do we REALLY believe that people who do not submit their lives to God are eternally lost.
Do we have a vision of people who are condemned and need Jesus? Do we see every opportunity to tell people about Jesus as critically important because if we don’t tell, they might spend eternity in hell?
Every decision we make must include the reality of lost souls.
Secondly, we need to have
2. A vision of Salvation
Lost people matter to God. Verses 12-14 give us a beautiful picture of Rahab pleading for her life and the spies ministering to her.
Their mission, certainly, was to spy out the land, but I believe God saw Rahab’s faith while Joshua was still telling the spies where they were to go, and despite their mission, they didn’t loose trace of their vision - they didn’t loose track of who they were - the children of God. And even here, in the Old Testament, with all it’s ritual and ceremony, and bloodshed, these two men, find a lost soul and rescue it for the kingdom of God.
Rahab put down a scarlet rope - a cord. And throughout church history, the scarlet cord, has been a symbol of the blood of Christ shed for lost people.
There were conditions on Rahab’s salvation. But this mission gives a clear idea of the longing of God for the salvation of people.
Every decision we make must include the courage necessary to reach people for Christ.
Finally, we must have:
3. A vision of action.
It’s no good to have a vision and not do anything about it. The spies committed themselves to Rahab. They guaranteed her safety.
We can say:
“Wouldn’t it be great to have our own house of worship?”
We can say:
“Wouldn’t it be great if their whole family was serving the Lord.”
We can say:
“Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had more members.”
Every decision we make must move beyond how we feel about it to what we will do about it.
Every vision is three-dimensional:
Without a vision for the lost, we won’t see the eternal difference our actions will make.
Without a vision of salvation, we might judge the lost, but not reach them.
Without a vision for action, our faith is useless - it’s not going anywhere. James refers to is as being dead.
All the legs of the vision have to be in place, in order to gain new territory.
Another thing any vision of God will include is:
4. A blend of fact and faith (2:23-24)
Look at versus 23-24 - they told Joshua everything that had happened to them - (those were the facts), then look at verse 24, they said, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands . . .” (That’s faith).
Any vision the Lord gives us is going to be a blend, a balance, of fact and faith.
There’s no such thing as blind faith - that’s foolishness.
Vision is faith that considers the facts, and moves forward in the grace of God.
Now let’s look at our vision
(Show slide of “church”)
Can you see it?
Does it make your heart jump for joy with the possibility?
Does it give you the sense of excitement of reaching more people for Christ?
What does it make you want to do - what action will you take?
There is a pledge card in your bulletin and you have the opportunity now to put your faith into action. And there is a fact sheet also there that you can look at.
You don’t need to put your name on THIS card, just the amount that you believe the Lord is calling you to give. No amount is too small.
While you are thinking about that, let me give you two more things that a vision from God will always include.
First from Joshua chapter one.
A vision from God will always include:
5. Courage over comfort (1:1-9).
I said at the beginning, God tells Joshua to be courageous. God reminds Joshua that even though Moses is dead - that’s the reality, God is alive and well and assures Joshua that he will be with him wherever he goes - that’s the faith.
Without courage, we will only go where we are comfortable.
Only doing what is comfortable will stagnate our purpose and deaden any potential ministry opportunities we might have had.
Look at Joshua 1:10-11. Joshua told the officers to go through the camp to tell the people that “three days from now” they would cross the Jordan River and enter the land God had promised.
Why three days? Maybe that was the time it would take for them to get packed up.
Maybe it was the time necessary for the spies to complete their mission.
Maybe it was symbolic of Jesus being in the tomb between his crucifixion and resurrection.
It may have been any of those things, but I believe there was another reason. It was a waiting period. We are going to have a waiting period of three days. Wednesday, we will meet and make our final commitments. This will give us time for the reality of what is ahead to sink in. It will be a time for us to decide whether we can own this vision and be part of it. It is a time to weigh the cost and test our willingness to pay the price to have God’s very best. It’s a time for us to affirm in our hearts and minds that this IS indeed God’s very best for Faith Bible Church.
I want to finish with this quote from Wayne Schmidt from his book “Ministry Velocity.” He says this, “A God-given vision requires the whole team. Everyone in the body of Christ must function. I regularly told our congregation that we had a vision from God which did not afford the luxury of spectators. We needed everyone’s prayers, everyone’s spiritual gifts, and everyone’s financial stewardship. I also told them that if there every came a day when our vision had shrunk to the point we didn’t need them, I’d apologize - and then I’d pray until God enlarged the vision to the point that we couldn’t do it without them once again.”
Every vision that comes from God, includes:
6. The whole congregation. (3:1)
There is nobody in this church today who doesn’t count. If we decide to move ahead with this, next week we are going to look at some of the dynamics of change - what we can expect as we move forward - move out of our comfort zones. We’re going to stay in the Book of Joshua.
Resources always follow vision. And the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” God has given us a clear vision for Faith Bible Church. I believe he is leading us to better fulfill that vision by completing the mission set before us.
Let’s pray:
Lord, now, it is up to your people. We recognize that while the principles we’ve just learned from your servant Joshua are applicable to us today, they are a little different because we are living in the New Covenant now and not under Old Testament law. Because of that, Lord, we ask you to increase our faith, show us your perfect will, and give us the courage to be the church, the people of God, you are calling us to be. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.
