Spring TrainingChapel 3/8/20
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 11 viewsNotes
Transcript
Be Strong and Courageous
Be Strong and Courageous
I’m going to read this weeks scripture passage and I want you to listen to repeated words or phrases.
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.”
Before we talk about the repeated words and phrases, let’s talk about what’s going on?
So from the passage, what’s happening here?
Moses is dead, the leader of Israel from the time of the Exodus from Egypt to their 40 years in the wilderness, to their now soon to enter the Promised Land.
They are on the precipice of entering the Promised Land and Joshua is now the man in charge.
God tells him of the land that He is giving to the Israelites.
Ok how about repeated words and phrases?
So how about repeated words or phrases
Strong and Courageous, Never Leave Him, good success and prosper.
God tells Joshua that He is with him just like He was with Moses.
That He’ll never leave Joshua or forsake him.
The word forsake means to abandon, desert, and/or reject.
Why is that comforting to hear? That God will never leave or forsake Joshua?
Then God tells Joshua what? To be strong and courageous, why?
Be strong as in have the ability to accomplish what is intended, implying an element of resolve.
Courageous—strengthen and support, cause others to have or show courage
Strong and Very Courageous, we’ll get to that in a bit.
If we go back to we see Moses and the Lord echoing the same message, but we also see some reasons to be fearful.
Deuteronomy 31:
So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Let’s also look at
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.
Ok, so should Joshua be afraid? No, of course not.
And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”
But listen to what the Lord says in
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
Ok, so should Joshua be afraid? No, of course not.
Ok, so should Joshua be afraid? No, of course not.
But realistically, do you think he was? Why?
We all can claim we have faith, but how do we really know we have faith or how strong it is?
True faith is proven, it stands the test, it holds up under really tough circumstances.
Are those circumstances easy? No, of course not, but if those circumstances are ones we feel the Lord has led us into or sent us into then we can have confidence we will get through them.
So, what’s a takeaway?
So, what’s a takeaway?
Sometimes the Lord sends us or leads us into really difficult circumstances, uncomfortable circumstances, tough or painful circumstances but these are meant to prove our faith and allow us to know Him better and see Him work.
Remember we mentioned God telling Joshua to be strong and Very Courageous, do you remember what was said after that?
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.
Joshua 1:7
To be obedient, to do all according to the Law, to follow God’s good and perfect way of living right with Him and right with others.
Why does Joshua need to be Very courageous? Because being a leader is hard, being one who is above reproach is even harder, and making the hard decisions, leading by example and teaching others to do the same, living and trusting the Lord takes a ton of effort and comes with many disappointments.
Then through his obedience, through Joshua not deviating from it, not turning from it to the right or the left, he will have good success.
So what is the promise we are hearing? Be obedient and experience prosperity and he’d have good success,
Is this a general promise or a specific one? Specific, Joshua is the leader of Israel, and it’s army, his obedience to God matters. It will be God who will also be giving Joshua orders on how to conquer the land, Jericho for example.
If Joshua can’t be obedient in the good law of God, how will he be obedient in the difficult things God tells him to do?
The word prosperous here in the Hebrew means that Joshua would be powerful and forceful, having success in his actions, in what he’s being called to do.
We do have to see, and would see if we read further, that the obedience of not only Joshua, but also the people does play a role in their successes and failures in conquering the Promised Land.
It’s also a general promise, obedience matters, Jesus said His true followers are obedient to His commands, our obedience doesn’t guarantee us material prosperity, but it doesn guarantee us more of God and the opportunity to see Him work in what He’s called us to do.
Let’s talk for a minute about the “promise” the Lord makes with Joshua, “I’ll never leave or forsake you”. We talked about those words for a minute.
But what do you think that meant to Joshua?
This wasn’t common in the O.T., look at King Saul, when he was unfaithful to the Lord, offered unauthorized sacrifices and didn’t obey the Lords orders, the Spirit of God left Him, God rejected him, and had Samual anoint David as the next King of Israel.
What’s a takeaway from that?
What’s a takeaway from that?
When God calls us and sends us, He goes with us. We are never alone.
Matthew 28:
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Lastly,
It’s no coincidence that Jesus uses the same terminology at the end of the great Commission, He has been given all authority, He’s commanding us to go and make disciples, which takes courage, with our obedience we will experience prosperity and good success, and in case we are scared, He promises that He is always with us.
So what is it that God is asking you to do?
But Joshua is going to ask us what was it like to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us? Wh
What or who is he calling you to?
Can you hear Him telling you to be strong and courageous, to not be afraid, that He will never leave you nor forsake you?