(Back to school Sunday)
Last week I talked with a high school student in our neighborhood. I knew he liked to play football, so I asked him if he was going to play this fall.
“No,” he said. “My grades aren’t good enough.”
“But they could be, couldn’t they?” I asked.
He nodded. I encouraged him to do his best so his grades would improve.
During the past couple of weeks, whenever Sue and I went to the stores, some aisles were crowded with kids and their parents carrying lists of things to buy for school. Their carts were filled with backpacks, notebooks, note pads, pencils, pens, crayons and all kinds of interesting things. Most of you students probably went shopping, too. You want to do everything you can to be successful in this new school year.
Some of you will be home-schooled. Some will go to a school that looks like it did last year. Some will attend a school where classrooms have been remodeled. Others may go to a brand new building. But you know and I know that all the finest school supplies and the best building in the world will not make you a good student. Your success in school depends on you. If you are going to succeed in school, you will need to do your best.
Students, I hope that’s what you want to do. And I hope your parents and people of the church will encourage you to do your very best. God wants you to do your very best,
Today I want to take four lessons from the book of Joshua that will help us understand that God wants his people to do their best whether they are students or not. If you are in school, I want you to listen especially well. If you are not in school, then you should be able to apply what I say to your own life.
Most of you remember the story of Moses. He was the one who led the people of God out of Egypt where they had been slaves for many years. They worked hard and life was not easy for them. But God gave Moses instructions and they left and headed for a new land that God has promised them. However, they ran into trouble when they got to the Red Sea and had no way to get across and what’s more, Pharaoh and his army were coming behind them. That’s when God made a dry path through the water and they walked through safely to the other side.
Then God called Moses to the top of a mountain and gave him the 10 commandments They are the most important laws ever made because they were made by God. They were good then and they are good now. The people promised to follow these commandments as a way of saying thanks to God for saving them from slavery. However, because they didn’t always follow the commands God gave them, it took them 40 years to get to the promised land. Moses couldn’t go in because he had disobeyed God, so Joshua became the leader when Moses died.
So it was Joshua who led the people into the promised land. When they got there, the first thing they saw was Jericho, a city with big walls around it. The Bible tells us that God told them to walk around Jericho once each day for a week. And on the 7th day, they were to walk around it seven times. When they did that, God made the walls fall down and they were able to conquer that city. Again and again we read that God fought for them and soon there was a long list of kings and cities they had taken and more and more of the land was theirs to live in. G kept his promise to give them what he said he would.
But, unfortunately, they didn’t always follow God’s instructions. Maybe this has happened to you in school. Your teacher told you about some assignments or exercises you were supposed to do and she told you that the first ones would be easy, but you needed to do them so you could learn how to do them and then be able to do the more difficult ones later. Well, those first assignments looked awfully easy. Anyone could do them. They were just a waste of time. Besides, since they were so easy, skipping one or two of them wouldn’t matter. So you skipped them. But, guess what. Pretty soon when it was time to do more difficult assignments you were completely confused and you got it all wrong.
That’s the way it was for God’s people sometimes. For example, God told them to chase all the people out of a certain city, but they didn’t always do it. After all, what will it hurt if a few of them stay around? And pretty soon more and more of their cities had people in them who didn’t care about God. And later that made it difficult for them to obey God.
One day, Joshua called all the people together for an assembly. Verse 1 says the whole congregation assembled and set up the tent of meeting there. People came from their houses and cities near and far and they gathered at the place where they worshiped, like we gather here. In those days they had to set up a special tent. They knew that this was the place where they would hear a message from God. And here is the first less about doing your best.
1. Listen to God. God knows and cares about what you do. In fact, he will help you do it. He wants to guide you. “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Prov. 3:6) That is why these people got together to worship, so they could listen to God. And that is why we meet here every week. That is why we read the Bible and go to Sunday school, so we can hear what God says. You don’t do things just so you feel good about yourself. You don’t just do things to please your parents or your teacher. You do what you do because you want to please God.
The Bible says that when they gathered there, they could see in front of them the land which was now theirs to live in. As they looked out over the fields and the forest, the hills and the plains, they probably remembered the way God helped them take this city and that city. It hadn’t always been easy, but now here they were in the promised land. They had a place to live and the land around them was quiet. They had done what God had asked them to do and they were satisfied. It is always a good feeling, isn’t it, when you get a project or assignment finished. You have listened to instructions and you have done your work. If you have done your best, you can take pride in what you accomplished! So here is the second lesson about doing your best.
2. Take pride in your work. If you put your best into your work and you did a good job, give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it. Even if it doesn’t seem like something important, you can use it as a stepping stone toward harder things. More than once Jesus said, (Luke 16:10) Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. So do your work well, both the little things and big things.
Let’s look again at what happened when Joshua met the people. Joshua didn’t gather the people there just to look out over the land and to slap each other on the back. He knew there was still more to do. You see, there were 12 groups of people, 12 tribes. Five of them already had their land, but seven did not. Do you know why? They had gotten lazy. They knew it was out there, but they didn’t take advantage of it. Maybe it is like some students I have known who had a dictionary on their shelf, but didn’t look up the meaning of the word. Or they had spell-check on their computer, but they were too lazy to use it. So here were these seven tribes who didn’t yet have their own land. Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to sit around before you go in and take possession of what the Lord has given you?” You haven’t finished your task. Why don’t you get it done? I have known students who knew they had assignments to do, but they waited until the last minute to do them. They procrastinated. Do you know that word? It means to put off or delay. Do you know anyone like that? Do you know anyone like that? As a professor I often told my students “Don’t wait too long to begin your project.”
So here is the third lesson about doing your best. Do your work. Don’t delay. In Proverbs 6 we find some interesting advice. (9-11) How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber.” If you are going to do your best as a student, get to work.
There is one more lesson we can learn from Joshua 18. In verse 4 we read that Joshua gave them an assignment. He asked them to choose three men from each tribe so he could send them out to look at the land and to write a description of it. Then Joshua would put that information in a book and then with God’s help they would decide where each group would live. It was important to know what was in the book. They didn’t have pictures of the land taken from an airplane or a satellite, but they had a written description. They used the book so they could follow God’s instructions. And that is what we need to do, too. So here is the last lesson for you. Read GOD”S book. There is a familiar verse in Psalm 119:105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. If you are old enough to read, then you should have one of these books on your desk. If you are not old enough to read, have someone read to you about Jesus. Be sure to attend Sunday school where you will learn from God’s book. And listen during worship because we always use the Bible to help us understand how God wants us to live.
Conclusion
As you go to school, remember that God wants you to do your best. Listen to God. Whisper a prayer---
As you go to school, remember that God wants you to do your best.
Take pride in your work.
As you go to school, remember that God wants you to do your best.
Do your work. Don’t delay.
As you go to school, remember that God wants you to do your best.
Read His book.
