“The Best is Yet to Come!”
Joshua 1:1-9
After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide:
“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
I love this historical account of Joshua leading God’s people into the Promised Land. You may remember him as being one of the twelve men who spied out the land and being one of only two who advised the people to enter the land and take it. Caleb and Joshua figured if God promised it to them and was with them – they had nothing to fear. Their faith was in God. But the people gave into fear and not faith and for forty years they lived in the wilderness when they could have entered paradise. For forty years, instead of building fruitful lives in the Promised Land, they died one by one in the wilderness.
Joshua was called to the task of leading the children of these faithless people into the Promised Land. Again, as they faced that land that overflowed with goodness, God promises to go with them. Not only that, but He gave Joshua a formula for success. His instructions are to, 1. Be strong and courageous; 2. Obey God; 3. Know the Scriptures; 4. And be careful to do everything written in it.
The result of obeying this instruction is 1. God will never leave; and 2. You will be prosperous and successful. I could stop right there and dismiss because that’s some pretty powerful stuff. That’s a fantastic formula for success. But I won’t. Let’s go on.
When the twelve spies first entered the land to spy it out they said,
“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.”
Numbers 13:27-28
“But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Numbers 13:31-33
Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to enter the land and only they did so. Faith or fear – that was their choice. They chose faith and received the reward for their faith. They eventually went into the land and possessed it. Those who chose fear received what they dreaded – death.
As we face the New Year it reminds me a bit like Moses and the Children of Israel. We can dread it and fear it or we can welcome the challenge and anticipate the blessings. We will probably receive whatever we think will happen.
As I was praying for God’s direction on what to share with you, this first day of a New Year, I felt like He gave me three things we need to take into the New Year to make it successfully. Joshua and Caleb and the Children of Israel took with them swords, spears and bows to conquer the land. We need these three things to conquer what lies before us.
The first is faith. Joshua and Caleb had faith that with God’s help they could conquer the giants in the land. It is through faith in God that we will be able to overcome all the giants that we will face this year. Without faith – fear is left. Without faith – we can’t please God. (Hebrews 11:6) Without faith the coming year will be terrifying.
So how do we get faith? Jesus tells us. Listen to this.
“5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Luke 15:5-10
Did you get that? The apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith and this was Jesus’ response. In the fifth verse the request is made. In the sixth verse is Jesus’ illustration of how important faith is. In the next three verses is Jesus’ instruction on how to increase your faith.
Years ago, when I first was confronted with this Scripture, I felt kind of frustrated and disappointed because it was so obscure and unclear on how to get faith. But as I studied it and prayed about it - I got it. Let me share the formula for increasing faith with you.
Faith is always preceded by revelation. God asks you to do something or not do something. Abraham was the example of faith in the Old Testament. God asked him to sacrifice his son to Him as a test of Abraham’s faith. Abraham believed God. He trusted Him and He acted by taking his son up on the mountain, building an altar, tying his son up and raising the knife to plunge it into his chest.
The Scripture says he so believed God; he so trusted God – that he believed that God would bring his son back to life again. (Hebrews 11:19)
So the three elements in true faith is 1. belief, 2. trust, and 3. action. Remove any one of the three and you do not have faith. You can test this formula with anything that takes faith. Take going through an intersection with a signal light. It is preceded by a revelation. Someone told you that you can safely go through when the light is green. You believe that. You trust it and you act by driving through the busy intersection when the light is green.
We need faith to face the new year. God says “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He says that He will give it to us and we can be prosperous and successful – if we face it with faith. Believe it! Trust Him! Act on it!
The second thing we need as we go into the New Year is ‘Hope’. Hope is so incredibly important to us. Who wants to be hopeless as we enter the New Year? Not ME! So what is hope and how do we get it?
I like the way the great Christian lawyer, David Gibbs defined it. He said, “Hope is the trusting expectation that God will keep His Word.”
Hope is an expectancy of good to come. Do you know why people commit suicide? They have no hope. Things are hopeless. They can’t see the future will be any better; in fact, they may see the future as getting worse. Hopelessness is a serious problem to have. So how do we get it? The Bible tells us.
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
Did you get that? It is as we read the promises of God; as we receive their encouragement – that hope is inspired.
When I speak to a suicidal person I often quote Scripture where God promises to bless us or give us a future. I find some way to inspire hope in his heart. As we hear the promises of good things to come – hope is inspired. But there is more. The Scripture says that endurance is needed. The Bible says,
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame...” Romans 5:1-5
Troubles will come. The New Year will have its problems. We are instructed to ‘endure’ them. In fact, we are to ‘glory’ in our sufferings. Why? Because they cause us to persevere, or endure. That produces character in us. And part of the character is hope.
So if you need hope for the future – I would advice you to get into God’s Word and read and memorize His promises. And when troubles come; when suffering comes your way – stand. Take it! Endure it! Believe that better days are ahead.
We need faith and hope for the future. But there is one last thing we need if we are going to have a successful year – love. The Bible says,
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13”1-3
It is all meaningless without love. All the power; all the wealth; all the knowledge – it means nothing without love. And the most important love is God’s love. If we don’t realize God loves us; that He cherishes us; that He adores us – life is very hard, indeed.
This past week I faced a little trouble of my own. Not only was the church furnace having trouble, but our water line was frozen to our apartment that someone was to move into. There were other issues as well. It was overwhelming to me. Emotionally I was shot. But I endured and prayed – then I texted some friends and asked for help. Leon and Randy came to my rescue. They dug the pipe up and after a few problems we got it going.
I think the real blessing to me was realizing I have such good friends. And so do you. As we face whatever is before us, we know that God loves us and will be with us. We know that we have each other’s back. Together, with Christ, the future holds no terror for us.
Paul said, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” May your new year be filled with Faith, Hope, and especially Love.
SONG
