Be Strong and Courageous!
Joshua 1:1-9
Joshua Installed as Leader
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “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. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 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. 5 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. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “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. 8 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. 9 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 want to give you some background on this OT book of Joshua, so we can put this story in context.
The book describes the conquest of the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, who was Moses’ successor. I thought it was interesting that the name Joshua means “the Lord saves” or “the Lord is Salvation”. The Greek rendering of his name, can you guess what it is? Jesus.
When we really get into this text, understand the story of the Israelites and their 40-year journey in the desert, wandering around because of their grumbling and disobedience…they were lost. The idea of coming into the Promised Land parallels the NT concept of being Saved, entering the Salvation Promise that Jesus provides and leads us into. This whole story is great.
Back to some background information; Joshua had worked with Moses since receiving the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai, he served with Moses throughout the wilderness wanderings, and became a strong leader who was full of faith and courage. Remember from your Sunday School classes as children… it was Joshua and Caleb who were the only 2 Spies, out of 12 that were sent who believed that God could help them conquer the people they found in this promised land…the naysayers won out, and if we remember our SS stories, those 10 spies and all those adults who refused to trust in God and instead looked at the obstacles in their path…. They were punished and died in the desert.
Do you see how that correlates with Faith? Put your faith in Jesus and Live, or put your trust in anything other than Jesus and you will die.
Friends, today’s message is for every single one of us…. It doesn’t matter if your rich or poor, it doesn’t matter if your where you live, what you drive, or if you have a degree or not…. This question will be answered by Kings, Presidents, Senators and Congressman, we will all answer this question….
Will you live in Fear or in Faith? (Repeat)
First we are going to talk about one thing that Fear Costs you.
How many of you know that Fear will cost you many things in life? There are so many directions we can go with this thought, but I’m going to focus on what it cost the Israelites as they were faced with this same question that we are faced with today… will you Trust God and live in Faith? Or will you listen to the faithless and live your life in fear?
The one thing I want to speak to you that Fear will cost you is this: Fear keeps you from Living and it robs you of Time.
I want you to listen to this report. God has instructed the Israelites to explore and then take this promised land, He will give it to them, He will be with them in battle, He will provide everything they need to carry out His Command. Listen to the 2 points of view.
Numbers 13:26-33
Report on the Exploration
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Faith talking)
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 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. 33 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.”
These 12 men took the same trip, they had the same instructions from the Almighty God who had already brought them out of Egypt, who had divided the Red Sea right down the middle, who had defeated the greatest army in the world… but 10 of these spies, who saw the same thing these other 2 saw, they made a choice…. They made a choice the same as we make this choice…. Do We Live In Faith and Believe what God has said? Or do we listen to all the voices around us, look at all the people and craziness around us and Choose to live in Fear? Faith or Fear, what will it be for you?
What did the spies do that were living in Fear? They spread the bad report….
Can I ask you a question? I don’t care what channel you watch… What does the News do every night? Every single minute of the day, our News channels spread the bad report for the day, whatever that is…. Negative, Fear, Opinion, Many times lies…
I’m not suggesting you not be informed on what is going on in our world. I am suggesting that all of us, Remember who We Trust… Remember Who We Put Our Faith In… it’s not the news; It’s not all these various voices that are screaming for our attention…. Christians Choose to live by Faith, Christians Choose to Listen to God when He instructs us to “Be Strong and courageous..” It is God who will lead us into Truth… We should be Praying about those things that we are confused about, those things that trying to speak Fear into our Lives…. We take those things to the King…and We Stand in Courage and in Faith, We know we are Strong in the Lord… amen?
What did Fear cost these Israelites? It cost them 40 years of wondering around in the same desert. It cost those adults, that older generation who made the Choice to listen to Fear instead of Living in Faith, they died in the desert, they would not see the Promised Land. They were punished for their disbelief.
Will you Live in Fear or in Faith.
Friends, your living in Fear instead of Faith will have devasting effects not only on your life, but also the lives of your children, on the lives of others around you who you may influence to live the same way. Choose Life, Choose Faith… Reject this lifestyle of Fear that this world throws at us constantly…by the way this was true before COVID…. COVID is just the latest Satanic attack upon our world.
Now all that happened previous to our passage…. Now we are going to watch Joshua lead with his Faith. We also hear God speak Life into Joshua’s heart and mind, encouraging Him to Trust what He has been told, Trust what He knows is True…. Don’t fall for the Lies that Fear tries to whisper in our ears….
The 2nd Fact I want you to Know and to Experience for your self is this:
The Promise that God makes to Joshua, God is making that same Promise to you today? Will you believe Him? Look at v. 5-6
5 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. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
I need you to understand this picture. In our OT story today, God is promising an actual piece of property to his Chosen people, we could go and walk on that property today, it’s still there and God’s Promise to his people has not been forgotten! The OT was a picture of what was to come….and has now come!
For us, in the New Testament, for all of us Gentiles… God has offered us a New Promise… He offers us Rest, He offers us a Home, He offers us security, He offers us Family….and so much more…. His Promise to us is Jesus! When we accept Jesus into our heart, When we put our Faith in the Messiah… Jesus Christ… We gain the greatest Promise, We gain eternal Life, We gain a personal Relationship with God the Father, We gain the protection, the Joy, the Peace, the Love, the Blessings…. We are truly made alive!
What did God promise Joshua? “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.” Who could defeat Joshua when God was on his side? NO ONE.
When you have Jesus as Lord and Savior….who can wrestle your Salvation away from you? Who can steal your Peace? Who can take away your Promise of Heaven? Everyone say it with me…. NO One…. There is no Other!
What did God say to Joshua? “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Did you hear that?
When does God run and hide? When will God leave you? When will God turn His back on you? Never.
I don’t know if you need to hear this today, but I’m going to tell you anyway!
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
God’s commandment to Joshua on that day is his Commandment to us today.
God’s promise to Joshua on that day, is his Promise to us today.
So the Question is How Can We Stay Focused on Our Life of Faith, and not give into this World of Fear?
God gave us the Answer in our passage when he gave Joshua his instruction for success…it’s our recipe for Spiritual success still today. Did you catch it?
The secret is found in verse 7-8 7 “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. 8 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.
How can you stay away from falling for Lies and living in Fear?
Read and Meditate on the Truth of God’s Word.
How can you stay strong in your Faith when this world tries to tempt you to look in other areas?
Not only Read and Know what God’s Word says, but Obey it… Obey it like your life depended on it.
Listen to what Romans 2:13 says, 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Later in this book of Joshua, 22:5 it says this about Obedience…
5 But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Psalm 128
1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.
2 John 6
6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
This morning… as we look back over 2020 and as we also look forward to 2021… There is only One who can give us the Peace that we seek. There is only One who can drive out Fear and fill our hearts with Faith… His name is Jesus.
If you will choose to accept Him as Lord of your life, to put your Faith in Him alone…. And if you will seek His Truth… You will experience this Faith filled life that can Break the Chains of Fear in your life…and you can experience the Peace of Christ, it is like nothing this World can offer.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
We need to not only know this promise was given to Joshua… We need to know it has been given to us today. We need not only know it’s available… We need to Experience God’ Grace, His Forgiveness and His Peace… not only for our own benefit, but so that you can Share this Good News with your Family, with your Friends, with this Hurting and divided World we live in.
If you are tired of Fear having a grip in your life, today you can make a choice to allow Jesus to Break that in your heart and mind. Pray with me and ask Jesus to give you His Peace, His Courage, His Strength….all through His Spirit!
