Sermon Tone Analysis

After the death of Moses the LORD’s servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’s assistant: 2 “Moses my servant is dead.

Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites. 3 I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses.

4 Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great river, the Euphrates River—all the land of the Hittites—and west to the Mediterranean Sea.,h 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.

I will be with you, just as I was with Moses.

I will not leave you or abandon you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance.

7 Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. 8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.

For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. 9 Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous?

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

I. Be strong and courageous, God’s plan is before us!

Jsh

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A. God has, and is working out his plan.

Jsh 1:

Illus: I want to be clear about what God was doing in our passage.

There is Moses when he stood before pharoah and spoke for God.

There is Joshua marching around the city of Jericho.

There is David marching to Goliath with just a sling shot and stones in his hands.

There is Elijah calling down fire on the prophets of Baal.

Oh and there is Peter proclaiming God’s word at Pentecost.

There is Stephen boldly accepting his own death in front of the angry mob.

And there is Paul appealing to Caesar, not to free himself, but instead to be able to share the gospel to him.

The land was not the ultimate fulfillment of the promise.

Jesus was the was the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise.

But Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, Stephen and Paul were not standing in their strength, but were strong in courageous because they stood in God’s plan courageous in God’s strength.

God’s plan was the fulfillment of the promise He made to Adam and eve where God promised he would crush the snake’s head.

David stood tall against Goliath because he knew he stood in God’s power.

The promise God is specifically referring Joshua to is the promise He made to Abraham.

We stand in God’s plan today.

No, please do not go march around Vidalia screaming .But God’s plan is bringing the gospel of Christ to our city and the nations.

To Abraham he promised a family, a nation, and a land SO that through God’s land, family and nation a saviour might be born.

As we accomplish God’s plan and live for him we are strong and courageous because greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world.

God giving the Joshua the land was not the fulfillment of the promise, but instead a step to the promise.

As we study the book of Joshua, we need to make sure that Jesus is the center of all that happens.

All of the conquest, kingdom building, and land expansion was there so that through a specific people, the King of Kings might be born.

Gen 12:1-

B.

B. God fulfills his promises.

Illus: When you think of standing strong and courageous, there are plenty of examples in scripture.

There is Moses when he stood before pharoah and spoke for God.

There is Joshua marching around the city of Jericho.

There is David marching to Goliath with just a sling shot and stones in his hands.

There is Elijah calling down fire on the prophets of Baal.

Oh and there is Peter proclaiming God’s word at Pentecost.

There is Stephen boldly accepting his own death in front of the angry mob.

And there is Paul appealing to Caesar, not to free himself, but instead to be able to share the gospel to him.

But Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, Stephen and Paul were not standing in their strength, but were strong in courageous because they stood in God’s plan courageous in God’s strength.

David stood tall against Goliath because he knew he stood in God’s power.

We stand in God’s plan today.

No, please do not go march around Vidalia screaming .But God’s plan is bringing the gospel of Christ to our city and the nations.

As we accomplish God’s plan and live for him we are strong and courageous because greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world.

The God of a thousand angel armies is with us accomplishing His plan.

II.

Be strong, courageous , and in the Book.

jsh 1:7

A. How do we know what God is calling you to today?

It is in the book.

Illus: Much of modern preaching sounds something like this “Be strong and courageous because God has great plans for your life.”

It is self help with a

I would agree with a caveat… Be strong and courageous because God has great plans for your life which he has spoken through his scripture.

God has already defined what a strong and courageous life looks like.

As strong and courageous life is a life lived by faith in the son of God.

A strong and courageous life lived under the complete authority of God and his word.

A strong and courageous life lives on mission bringing people to know the life found in Jesus Christ.

A strong and courageous life pursues the holiness of God.

God defined what a strong and courageous life looked like to Joshua, and it’s definition does not change today.

It is a life rooted in God’s word.

B. A strong and courageous life today is holding to every part of the book.

Illus: The world is changing.

Our nation is changing.

Where at one point, the ethics and morals of scripture were widely accepted, it is changing now.

In our next generation, it will take strength and courage to hold to biblical sexual ethics.

It will take strength and courage to hold that Jesus is the way truth and life alone.

It will take strength and courage to share the gospel in a time where we will be understood as backwards and bigots.

That said, we have strength because Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.

III.

Be strong and courageous, God is with you.

A. It is easy to grow discouraged in our world today.

Do no grow discouraged, God is with you.

Illus: May I challenge you today to live a strong and courageous life?

Do not worry about the world around you.

Do not fret about the brokenness of our nation.

At the end of things, when we spend our time constantly worried about the brokenness of the world we show how little faith we have in God.

Is not God in control?

Instead of focusing on the world and allowing our hearts to become consumed by fear, focus on God.

When you focus on God, rooted in His word, you will not fear, but instead you will stand strong and courageous.