The Game Plan - Setting A Spiritual Game Plan For Your Life With Jesus

Are any of you sports fans? This time of year is one of the worst times when it comes to sports. Unless you watch NASCAR, regular season MLB, or Golf there really isn’t a whole lot going on. But before that we have had a very exciting year in sports. In January, we had the first ever college football playoff that ended with Ohio State winning the National Championship, which I know all you Gator fans loved watching your former coach do. In February, we had the Super Bowl with New England Patriots defeating the Seattle Seahawks on the worst play call in Super bowl History. I mean come on you got Marshawn Lynch in the backfield on the goal line just hand off the ball. In March, we had March Madness where the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats went in as the heavy favorites but couldn’t get out of the Final four and Coach K and Duke Blue Devils come away with another championship. In April-June, we had the NBA playoffs where the Golden State Warriors played team ball and beat King James, the best basketball player on the planet in the NBA finals.

Now what did all of these teams that won or made it to the championship game in their sport have in common? They all sat down before the season ever started and they came up with a Game Plan. Now all the teams in all the leagues all had a Game Plan that were less successful than the Champions but they all had a Game Plan with goals that they wanted to reach. All of the teams that won a championship only had Success because they laid out a Game Plan, set goals and they followed it.

As kingdom men or women or Jesus followers to be successful in our spiritual lives we have to have a Game Plan. Some of us have set a Game Plan for our careers where we want to be in 5-10 years, how much money we want to make. Some of us have set a financial Game Plan to buy a house or for our future or retirement. Some of us had a Game Plan for our families when we got married; how many kids we would have. As they get older, we have a Game Plan for their future. Whether it’s getting them through college, or just a Game Plan for getting them out of your house. But how many of you have actually set a Spiritual Game Plan on where you are in your walk with Christ? What I mean by that is “How am I going to glorify God and advance his kingdom in my daily life by exhibiting responsibility and leadership in my marriage, in my family, in my church and my community?”.

So…..today I want us to turn to the book of Joshua and talk about one of what I consider one of the Manliest Men in the bible, and personally one of my favorite Men in the bible to study and talk about and God’s Game Plan for him. After I was saved and I started truly studying the bible I set out a Game plan to study all of the Men in bible that God used in a great way, and I somehow started with Joshua. See Joshua did a lot of big things for God. But he didn’t just start out as the Leader of Israel, he didn’t just overnight become the General of the God’s army that led the people into the Promised Land. No God had a Game Plan for Joshua.

First he was a slave in Egypt, just one of millions that followed Moses out of Egypt across the desert and through the parting of the Red Sea.

Second he became a servant or an aide to Moses, it refers to him in the book of Numbers 11:28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth.

Third he was an explorer as God told Moses to send some Men to explore the land of Canaan he was one of the 12 men that were chosen as a leader of his tribe.

Fourth he became a spokesman, as the reports 10 of the returning men brought fear and doubt to the people, Joshua and Caleb stood up and told the people that the land was good, and God promised it us, and he warned them that they should not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, because the Lord is with us and if he is with us we shall not fear. But in their doubt and fear the people wanted to stone him. But for his faith he was sparred as 10 of the 12 men that were sent to explorer the land and came back and doubted what God had promised, and spread that doubt among the people. Those other 10 explorers were struck with a plague and died.