Joshua (2)

Happy New Year! This is the fun time of the year where we set goals for ourselves and believe we’re going to become better people! Most of us won’t though, we’re going to be the same old sad sacks! Y’all know what this Friday is called? Quitter’s Day…

I’m not a resolution guy, I think I’m kicking butt so no need to try harder. Do any of you make resolutions?…

Seriously, this is a time of year, the beginning of the year, where there is hope and excitement for the future, where we make goals for ourselves. And the worthwhile goals for us are those that honor God and help to further his Kingdom, and our only hope for achieving those is through faith in God. We’re going to look at God’s story with a guy named Joshua for the next couple weeks. His name means Yahweh saves. Tonight we will start where he first shows up…

Here’s what we will see in this passage…

Only when our eyes and our faith are focussed on God will we have the boldness to walk where He’s called us to walk.

pray

Before we can start with Joshua, we have start with Abraham so we can fully appreciate what the Lord is doing with Joshua. So we need to coverer several hundred years in the next few minutes. Hold on!

read 13:21-14:12

Don’t focus on the enemy

There is not faith to be found doing this.

Romans 8:32 ESV

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Think of all He has done for us, why would He stop being faithful now?

The enemy will use different things to keep us from doing what God has called us to, from walking the path God has called us down. Things like…

When our focus is on those things instead of God, they seem to be too great for us to overcome. We begin to believe that we’ll never be able to do it, because we begin to think it depends on us. But it doesn’t! It depends on God, so…

Focus on God

It’s about Him, for his glory!

Have y’all heard about the wild fires in LA? I saw a video earlier of a bulldozer that was having to clear abandoned cars off the road so others could get through… Focussing on yourself or what’s in front of you instead of focussing on God would be like someone saying that they aren’t strong enough to push a car out of the way or that the car is too big for them to move so they didn’t know if the bulldozer could do it.

Exodus 6:6–8 ESV

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”

God bookends this statement with “I am the LORD”. That’s why He’s doing it, because of who He is! It’s not about us, it’s not about the enemies of God, it’s about God!

So this year as you seek to live for God’s Kingdom and walk down the path He has put in front of you, walk it by faith. Whatever that may be for you…

Focus on God. Don’t focus on what the enemy puts in front of you, have faith in God to be there for you!

If you have never put your faith in God and surrendered your life to Him, start your year off doing that. The Israelites learned over and over again that they couldn’t save themselves, only God could save them. It’s still the same today…