The Source of Courage

Opening

Good morning Huffman Baptist. I’m honored to be with you this morning. My name is Luke Long and I am the Church Resource Associate for the BMBA. I can certainly imagine that Rob Paul belabors you with information about the association but for those who have forgotten what he has told you, the association is the big baptist family of nearly 180 churches that cooperate together for the mission of God.

Although we may come from different parts of town and were raised in different families, maybe even fans of different of sports teams but if anything, we are common in that we are image bearers of the most high and we have been made with a purpose - a purpose to seek first the kingdom.

Now, I was told that this Sunday was a kind of Samford Sunday and when I was tasked with this Sunday I was overwhelmed with what I could preach on! I mean there are 66 books that I could choose. But part of Samford tradition in recent years has been for President Beck Taylor to designate a virtue as the university’s theme of the year. Last year, the theme was gratitude. In former years, the words “faith” “hope” and “love” were the focus. But this year,he elected “courage” to be our banner.

Upon hearing President Taylor call us to “courage,” I felt a sense of great agreement come over me. When we look at the chaos and calamity of the world, the confusion over identity, the cruelness of humanity, we cannot help but feel called to have courage.

And yet, I also had an issue when President Taylor proposed courage. Not for anything he had errored in, but primarily because our culture seems to contrast the Bible in defining courage.

“Courage is be scared to death but saddling up anyway” - John Wayne

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore” - William Faulkner

“A Man without outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live” - Lao Tzu

I could go on, but I hope you’re seeing a thread being weaved through these statements on courage. Culture tells us that courage comes from within. A self-driven matter.

And although our culture defines it this way, I believe God’s Word suggests something different. And the reality is, that culture will always have a definition for matters of life, but so does the Bible. So today I want us to look at Joshua 1 in search of the source of courage.

Joshua chapter 1. To set the scene as you’re turning, Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible of the Old Testament. Moses for a long time had been the leader from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But there’s a change that has occurred. A large event which the text reveals. So let’s look to the Word. Scripture says,

Joshua 1:1–9 “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.””

Let us pray. “Heavenly Father, we are thankful to gather today in your presence to corporately worship you. To open your Word and seek truth. Thank you for keeping us safe today as we gathered in your house and for those unable to join us today we pray blessings over. Keep them Lord and allow them to experience your peace this morning. Lord we ask that you teach myself and Huffman about Your Word. Might the presence of Your Spirit be made evident to us this morning. In Jesus name, Amen.

For the most generations alive today, to be raised in the United Kingdom was to be raised under the leadership of the Queen Elizabeth the second. She was crowned queen February 6th, 1952 and remained on the throne until September 8th 2022. What was over 70 years of reign had come to an end. And so upon her death, the mourning process began. A 10-day national mourning period for the queen. Things would change and they did gradually and in time. And yet, it is immensely hard to grasp the fact that there is a new king for the United Kingdom. I actually had to look it up again, but it’s King Charles the third.

Now when Queen Elizabeth died, the UK mourned for 10 days. This has been common practice throughout history in the death of a ruler and so when Moses died, there was a mourning period for 30 days. But what is next? There are elders or leaders that Moses had appointed but who will be the next leader? Who will be the one to lead them into the promised land? What’s it going to take to enter the promised land?

I’m want to give you a roadmap as we begin and here it is. I submit to you this morning that God was calling Joshua and His people to courage which comes only through God’s complete providence, God’s Continued Promise, God’s Constant Presence, and God’s Consuming Precepts.

So first, God’s Complete Providence. Now this point was not originally in my outline but as I meditated on this text I found it necessary to include it. Because as Moses has gone on and Joshua has risen to be the new leader, the question must be asked: “How did he become the leader?”

Was it a vote like we do in America? No I don’t believe the text says that

Was it a family thing? Well Joshua wasn’t related to Moses

Well maybe it was because Joshua was the servant of Moses. Clearly that must be the answer. Even then I don’t think that’s the case

The first instance that we see Joshua being made the leader is Numbers 27:12–18 “The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.”

So here’s what’s neat. Moses wasn’t the one to choose. God was. I think we approach Joshua as this mighty warrior after the book named after him. And because of his leadership and military strategies, we think that’s the reason why He was chosen. That’s why he was the deserving to be the next leader of God’s people.

And I find this to be the foundation of our discussion on courage because we must humble ourselves and remember whose in charge. Y’all we’re in the new year and I know that many of you like me have new years resolutions. I certainly hope you haven’t given up on them. Maybe you want to have a sharper mind, a healthier body, an efficient lifestyle. You have careers and callings and aspirations but might we not forget that we are where we are because God has established established our steps.

We have the resources because we are stewards of God’s wealth, not the other way around. We have salvation because Jesus paid it all, not the other way around. So might you rest this morning that God is provident. He has a plan and one in which “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

He is provident. And his providence is complete. Though we are tempted, if God is working all things for good, we don’t have to worry if He’s changed His mind on you. He did not on the disobedient Israelites and He has not in your life.

Second, we find our source of courage in God’s Continued Promise.

In verse 2 he says, Now therefore.” The Lord has a plan for the people and the time is now. You see, although the book begins anew, the mission is incomplete. The people are not within the promised land.

So it says, “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.”

Might we not miss this important command.

Sometime I believe we’re prone to dismiss this part of the story to be natural because we’ve heard it so much. But the Lord is calling them to receive the gift of the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, but crossing the Jordan river. This was a treacherous river with violent gushing rapids. Typically it was about 100 feet wide but we see in Joshua chapter 3 that the river could flood and become up to half a mile long.

If Joshua was anything like me, he’d be thinking, “Lord are you kidding?” You know what happened the last time I tried to convince the people to cross the river. And now you not just asking me to go into the land but to cross this river with all the children and the elderly. And what about the materials and the covenant of the ark? This just seems to be an impossible task.

Rather than any courage and confidence, Joshua likely felt dread and fear, like the generation before him. And yet the Lord has not finished. He says, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tead upon I have given to you, just as I promised Moses.”

Notice there is no pause from the Lord’s command. Yahweh is not afraid, nor is He worried. He is confiend that His will shall come to pas. And so there lies the continued promised. The Lord has not forsaken his people, nor has he forgotten them.

Just like at the track record of promises

Genesis 12:7 “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”

Genesis 28:13 “And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.”

Exodus 3:7–8 “Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people… I have come down to deliver them to a land flowing with milk and honey”

Numbers 14:8 “If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.”

We see this promise is a long time coming. Generation after generation the Lord has kept faithful to His promise and in the midst of Joshua’s commissioning to do the impossible, the Lord comforts and reminds him that He will remain steadfast to the promise.

And the beauty of this picture is that the story points us to a greater Joshua. Some of you may be aware but Joshua in Hebrew means Yahweh saves or the Lord is salvation. And could you guess how you say the Lord is salvation in Greek? Well that would be Jesus.

And Jesus does not lead us across the Jordan but rahter he leads us into eternal rest. He is no watchmaker who winds the clock and watches it turn from afar. Rather he was present in the time of Moses and continually in the time of Joshua and then on to even now.

For might it even be noted that Joshua receives these orders and encouragements directly from God, so as to remind us that although the book bears Joshua’s name, the Lord is Israel’s true leader. He was while Moses led the people and remains while Joshua is the leader.

It is not the heroic acts of these men that earned the promised land but a gift from God. And we see Him describe this gift in detail in verse 4.

“From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.”

Some of these words are familiar to churched folk but in general we don’t have great bearing for what this includes. But scholars have developed a working map and one states “IN terms of current political boundaires, the promised land would thus cover modern Israel, the whole of Jordan, a large part of Saudi Arabia, half of Iraq, the whole of Lebanon, part of Syria, and the whole of Kuwait.”

In other words, a large expanse of land and yet this land is not empty. Rather it was filled with great nations and tribes that posed great offense to the Israelites. And so the Lord’s words imply future opposition, but the opposition in the Lord’s eyes is nothing.

In light of this concern, the Lord continues, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” So Joshua is told no man will be able to stand against him. But don’t miss this. Joshua is not taking this promised land by himself. No, the Lord has taken initiative of this conqest and only by the gifitng of the land can Israel rejoice.

This leads to our third source of courage: God’s Constant Presence

Often we might overlook this part in which the Lord will always be present. Well of course Lord, you’re always present. And yet the Lord gets specific. He says, “Just as I was with Moses.” To grasp the importance of this we gotta go to the obituary of Moses.

It’s just a page to the left and it says, “And there has not risen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

That’s the kind of relationship Moses got to have with the creator of the universe. Face to face.

You see, the people of Israel relied on the prophet Moses to relay the message of God, and Joshua receives courage that God’s not going to leave him. And so he commands JOshua, “Be strong and courageous.” In other words, to be unshaken. To not sway from the mission.

That in light of what seems impossibe, to have confidence. Not confidence in how good you look, how much you’ve done, or what you mother says about you. No to be confident, because “If God is for us, who can stand against us?”

I know that some of you need that this morning. I know I need it. You’re against the wall with your finances and you don’t know how things will work out. You’ve come into this year without loves one who the Lord has called home. You feel the Lord calling you into a new chapter of life and it means change. And yet in these trials and tests you today can be confident that the Lord is present in your situation.

Joshua was being called to lead the people to a foreign land and to fight foreign nations and in the midst of great uncertainty, Joshua is to hold to the Lord’s providence, promise, and presence. Well how do we do that.

Well the Lord continues, “only be strong and courageous being careful to do according to all the law of MOses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.”

So in the moment of great expectation the Lord reinforces the command to be strong and courageous and adds the word only and very to deepen the importance of these actions. But more than that, he adds that Joshua is be obedient to Moses’ commands. This is argued in the academy whether God is referring to the first five books of the Bible or just Deuteronomy.

But the reality is that Joshua is being called to lead according to the Word of God. And more than that, God makes clear that His success is contingent on obedience to the Word of God.

Contingencies are important. We must obey them.

You know, growing up my parents had a theme for Christmas. I think they primarily did that because it saved them energy when choosing gifts for myself and my other seven siblings. One year it was an atheltic theme with balls and bats and gloves. The next was bicycles. The next bow and arrows. And then the culmination was fifth grade when I got a twelve gauge shotgun. It was black and sleek. An man was I excited.

So you can imagine the dissapointment that I got as I was really ready for my sixth grade Christmas and I run to the living room to find a daisy BB gun under the tree. I mean I hadn’t shot anyone or anything. What was with the serious downgrade?

Needless to say, we had only two rules. Don’t shoot other and don’t shoot the house. Those are simple rules for most but not for boys. And so in a young boys fashion with the inspiration of a then new game called Fortnite, we simulateed a war in which would shoot each other and we soon discovered it was most effective to gang up on the youngest and shoot him instead.

Put briefly, after torturing our seven year old brother, guns were taken away, spankings occured, and everyone was in tears.

You see the rules we clear, and yet we had other plans. And because of that, the gift of the BB gun which we couldn’t have earned was taken away. At a much larger scale, the Lord had gifted this land and explains, if you run after other Gods, you will not be successful in receiving the gift, nor will you be able to keep the gift.

I mean how often in our prayers are we prone to say Lord just give me this much money and I’ll be good. Lord give me that job and I’ll be fine. Lord give me this spouse and I’ll take it from here.

But the reality is, the Lord has made clear, although I am bringing you to place you could never go by yourself, I am not dropping you off. I will be your God and you will be my people. Follow my commands which are good for you and I will bless you and your generations.

And so we have our fourth source of courage, God’s Consuming Precepts.

Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.”

Joshua is called to meditate on the Word. That Hebrew words literally meant to murmur or grumble. This was a calling for Joshua to constantly be thinking upon and reciting Scripture.

In other words, Joshua is being told the short devotion in the morning kind of faith isn’t enough. The Sunday morning and that’s it kind of faith is not enough. There was more that was required.

But alternatively, this command was not that Joshua was to be the most prepared Sunday School attendee that also did two other small groups. He wasn’t to just read the bible nonstop, after all he was leading a nation and that wasn’t practical.

But here’s the thing, nothing was excluded from the Hebrew phrase, “Day and night”; so as to say that there should never be a moment when, whatever decision was to be made, the Word of God was not in the driver’s seat. This is the kind of consuming influence that the precepts of God were to have is his life and should be in our own.

And so the question must be asked, what does this have to do with us? For we are not seeking to conquest over Huffman and destroy the city council. This physical conquest idea doesn’t really hit home.

And yet it has everything to do with us. For as followers of Jesus, we must recognize that this place is not our home. For we long not to go back to Eden, but to enter into the promised rest of the new heavens and earth. A place, where there is no temple because God dwells among His people. This is the longing we have

I said it once and I’ll say it again, Joshua’s leading Israel into the promised land is a picu=ture of Christ leading his people to eternal rest. But in the meantime, in all the struggles and uncertainties, will you trust the Lord?

For we all know the promised land is coming, but what are the rivers you must cross in the meantime?

Some of you are aware that the Lord has place someone in your life to witness to, and yet you haven’t made the effort total to them.

Some of you are longing for retirement or that big break ,when in reality your longing should be that Christ’s name be known.

Some of you are glad to be a consumerisitc member at church or in life and you’re not willing to serve others as the Lord has called us to.

Some of you are cruising through this life instead of taking the next step of obedience in your walk with Christ whether that is to be baptized as a witness and symbol of your faith or to become a member of the church.

What is the decision that you need need to make? For all of us have a calling to be faithful followers of Christ and to be follower of Christ is to have courage - not a call to self empowerment. T

For to be a Christ follower is to have strength - not from within - but by the indwelling of the Spirit.

For to be a Christ follower is to do the uncertain, not because it makes sense, but because God’s promise is continued in your life.

For in a world of great chaos and calamity, we have a sure and mighty hope.

For in a world of sin and suffering, we belong to a mighty kingdom of God. A kingdom with a mission far greater and abounding then we could ever be by ourselves.

And though we may not not be conquesting to a physical place, we make conquest for the kingdom of God, seeking to bring those lost to the foot of the Cross.

As Madeleine L’engle, the writer of a Wrinkle in Time once said, “We have to be braver than we thinkwe can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.”

True courage is not found in ourselves, but in the providence, the promise, the presence, and the precepts of God. And Christ, our greater Joshua, says to us, “I am with you always to the very end of the age.”

Our call is to Christ. Our call is to His kingdom. Our call is to courage. Will you receive that call?

For the day is coming when no more courageous acts can be made because our lives are all fading. The altar is open, the Lord is avaiable, the decision is yours.

Let’s bow our heads.

How might the Lord call you to be courageous this year? Not will he but what he is calling?

Baptism, Church, Witness, Small Group/Sunday school, Service’

Lost:

Lord, forgive me for my sins. Forgive that i am broken> I need your help and I recognize today fully that you Christ are the savior of the world. You died for my sins and I surrender my life to you. My sins, my brokeness. All of it I surrender to you. Thank you for your work in my life. In Jesus name. Amen