22When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 24They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” Joshua 2:22-24
Lisa Marino has a personal fitness coach who gives her advice and encouragement but she’s never seen him. As a participant in a program called Life Practice, Lisa begins each day by sending a report of her diet, exercise, sleep, and stress to an Internet web site. Later she receives an e-mail response from her coach. She says that the daily reporting helps keep her honest and focused on her fitness goals.1
Each day, the Holy Spirit gives advice and encouragement to help us maintain our spiritual fitness. The Bible reminds us, “For physical training (exercise) is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (2 Timothy 4:8-NIV) Could I encourage you in this principle with another translation of that verse?
“Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.” (2 Timothy 4:8-MSG) You can count on this. Take it to heart. Remember our sermon series theme: Everything You Do Matters Forever.
The Holy Spirit provides constant oversight and minute-by-minute updates to help us stay focused and accountable. Do you realize that you have to involve the Holy Spirit in your life daily? What areas is the Holy Spirit fully engaged in? Each person is concerned about one or several issues in life: 2
1. Everyone wants to be loved.
2. Everyone wants his or her life to count.
3. Life is empty without Jesus Christ.
4. Many sitting here today are loaded down with guilt.
5. Many in this auditorium are eaten up with bitterness from their past.
6. Each culture faces a universal fear of death.
Through your personal fitness (spiritual) trainer, God is lifting encouragement and instruction out of His word today to apply to these areas of your life. Are you ready? God has been looking forward to this moment all week. He delights in your sacrificial efforts to give yourself to Him. Go ahead; take a bow. Give yourself a high-five. You made a courageous decision this week to receive from God through the preaching and teaching of His Word. You have made going to church a priority.
Joshua was 80 years of age when he received the mantle from Moses and 110 when he died. Moses’ leadership was associated with deliverance; Joshua’s leadership is identified with conquest. The conquest of the Promised Land was a sure thing - if Joshua followed God’s instructions. Why was it a lock? The deal had been secured hundreds of years earlier between God and Abraham in Genesis 12. In the Abrahamic Covenant, God gave three promises to the founder of faith:
1. The promise of land (Gen. 12:1)
2. The promise of seed (Gen. 12:2)
3. The promise of blessing (Gen. 12:3)
So, in they went to the Land of Promise, and God was with them each step of the way. The cities of Jericho, Ai, and Gibeon fell like clay pigeons at Joshua’s feet. God wants you to take new territory for Him. Joshua sets the stage for all believers to do great things for God, even if they only have average potential. God is raising up a Joshua Generation, a people who are not afraid to take God at His Word. In order to take new territory for God you must make some Courageous Choices for Conquest. There are four elements to making Courageous Choices:
Courageous Choices For Conquest
1. Our Mission Must Be From God
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.”(Joshua 1:6)
Joshua’s life was filled with resolve and purpose. He seldom wavered and he never stuttered. His mission was to take the Promised Land by conquest and force. He didn’t have the luxury of knowing how God would do it, but he did possess a certainty that through a promise it was his for the taking.
This opening principle sets the stage for you to take new territory for God. What in your life are you trusting God for that only He can bring about? What territory are you preparing to take, some financial deliverance in an economically depressed market? Family fertility when doctors have declared child bearing is impossible? Restoration of health, relationship, or dreams when all seems impossible?
Follow these four steps in your personal life, family and ministry, and watch God take you into the Promised Land.
Rudolph was a young musician in Vienna with a burning desire to write a symphony. Finally the time came when he was able to do so. After writing and rewriting it many times, he showed the score to some friends and asked for their opinion. Without exception they agreed it was an excellent work. But Rudolph continued to labor over it, polishing and perfecting what he hoped would be a masterpiece. At last, he was ready to present it to the public.
The orchestra performed his symphony beautifully. After the last movement ended, there was a brief pause. Then the audience broke out in thunderous applause. Rudolph, however, seemed unmoved until an old, white-haired man approached him. Placing his hands on the young man’s shoulders, he exclaimed, “Well done, Rudolph! Well done.” Only then did the young musician smile with satisfaction.3
Few things in life provide as much satisfaction as the smile from a parent or mentor, or God for that matter. Set as your goal the ambition of Numbers 6:25 (NLT), “May the Lord smile on you…” There is nothing God won’t do for a person whose goal is to make Him smile. Joshua’s life and mission were from God, and it had been commissioned since the days of Abraham.
2. When Pursuing God’s Promises (Smile), Both Facts and Faith Are Needed.
“Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” (Joshua 2:23-24)
Three million Jews were camped just 14 miles from Jericho. The inhabitants knew that somewhere in the area a couple of spies were looking over their defenses. The first mission forty years earlier was to bring back a report of the quality of territory that God had given His people. This second mission forty years later was to determine the most strategic place of entry for conquest. To acquire such information demanded a reliable source and a place of refuge during the mission. Joshua’s spies found such a reliable informant in the prostitute Rahab.
It can be concluded that since the previous spy mission ended in such disaster, Joshua would be very careful as to whom he selected for this mission. They would have to be men of courage, valor, vision, and obedience. Do we have any of those here today? Say amen!
The only logical conclusion for the spies ending up at Rahab’s brothel (or ranch) was that this was a part of God’s providential plan. God Himself directed these men to this morally stained citizen of Jericho. God smiles when He can use the least likely person to pull off the impossible. Who better to turn state’s evidence than one of its most enslaved citizens? Rahab worshipped among a people who had many shrines, temples, and idols that filled the market, sat at the entries to their homes, and drew people like a magnate to places of worship. Rahab possessed another quality that made it miraculous that God could use her. She was not only an idol worshipper and carnal toward God, but her life was morally bankrupt.
In spite of the two strike count she carried through life, God was still able to not only get her home through salvation, He used her as an instrument at a critical time in the life of Israel. Rahab gets some pretty impressive press in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 when, in each case, she is described by her sordid past. In the Middle East, the prevailing ethic of the day was to guard one’s guests as an act of hospitality. This was frequently considered one of the greatest virtues in the land. Remember that God commended Rahab in Hebrews for her faith… “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” Hebrews 11:31 (NIV) And in James 2:25 (NIV), she is commended for her works, not her words. “And in the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when giving lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?”
God commended her because of her faith and fact (obedience). Rahab reminds us that God doesn’t owe us an explanation or reason for everything He asks us to do. Never forget that understanding will come someday, but obedience cannot be delayed. Instant obedience is better than 1,000 Bible studies, it is better than hours of unbridled worship, and it is better than the most passionate prayers. Nothing gets God’s attention more than obedience. As parents we know that partial or delayed obedience will not work in the parenting camp. And obedience is experienced when we live our Christian life as a balance between fact and faith.
Rahab’s testimony is found in Joshua 2:8-16. She acknowledges her faith in the God of Israel. Her obedience (fact-filled life) is seen in her accepting the conditions given by the spies: (1) tie a scarlet thread, (2) gather her family, (3) keep the spies’ mission a secret. The scarlet thread that let her spies down and provided a way of escape would become the same instrument that would save her family. The scarlet thread is clearly a picture of the work of Christ on behalf of believers. It is reminiscent of Exodus 12:13b, “When you see the blood, I will pass over.”
The spies followed Rahab’s advice and hid in the mountains for three days. They reported the physical layout of the land to Joshua and told how the hearts of the Canaanites were filled with fear.
22When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. 23Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. 24They said to Joshua, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” (Joshua 2:22- 24)
Fact: They “told him everything that had happened.”
Faith: “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”
3. We Must Defeat The Enemy’s Strongholds.
“Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no came in.”(Joshua 6:1)
God wants to rain a devastating blow of destruction down on the enemy of your soul. He wants to destroy the sin in your life and the demonic strongholds lurking around waiting to tempt you. Does the destruction of an ancient city have anything to say to us? And if it does, what words can we resurrect from rubble that is 3,000 years old.
Jericho is the long awaited Land of Promise that God has for many centuries promised to His people. The entry to this land is one of the high-water marks for the nation of Israel. How does God get started? By destroying sin. Every great work of God must begin with an honest dealing of sin in our lives. No person will know God if they take a casual approach to sin and its consequences. Since God wants to completely destroy the works of the enemy in our lives, freeing us to become all God wants us to become, what does this God of All Power do? I’m glad you asked. Join me at the walls of Jericho and let’s march around with the Israelites and learn several lessons.
4. The Christian Life Is Based On A Truth Encounter and Power Encounter.
At the end of Joshua we fast-forward the account of the nation’s entry into the Promised Land and see three examples of how the tribes took possession. Let me suggest that you have one of the three options today in possessing new territory.
a. Allotment for Judah…Failed To Possess
Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.” (Joshua 15:63)
b. Allotment to Joseph…Prospered Beyond All Limits
“You are numerous and very powerful. You will not only have one allotment but the forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours…”(Joshua 17:17-18)
c. Allotment to Dan…They Did Their Own Thing
“But Dan had difficulty taking possession of their territory, so they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. (Joshua 19:47)
Recovering A Life That Is Out Of Tune
Years ago, a radio station received a letter from a shepherd who lived on an isolated ranch in the western part of the United States. Never before had the station received such a request. It read, “Will you please strike an ‘A’ on the piano in your studio? I am far from a piano, and the only comfort I get is when I play my worn out violin, and it’s out of tune. Will you please strike an ‘A’ so I can get it in tune again?” The life that is lived between the white lines of faith and fact will always be tuned to “A.”4
The longer you play on the string of life, the more likely it is to become off key. When we are not tuned to “A,” our only hope is confession, repentance, reclaiming, and reconsecration.
End Notes
1. David Mc Casland. Our Daily Bread, Radio Bible Class, Volume 48, Numbers 3-5, June 8.
2. Rick Warren. Sermons: Building a bridge between then and now. Ministry Tool Box, Issue 125, 10/22/03. Pg. 1
3. Richard DeHaan. Our Daily Bread (Special Edition), Radio Bible Class, 2001, Day 6.
4. Dennis DeHaan. Our Daily Bread, Radio Bible Class, 2001, Day 43.
