Spiritual Strength

Joshua • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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I will teach about the strength that it took and that Joshua learned in standing for what was right by God even when he was the minority report.

Notes

Transcript

Giants and Problems

Our family has faced so many health problems....

.....but God....

But as God has stepped into the picture He has provided strength and peace to face any health problem or situation.......

Need to make this specific.

The Israelites had a big problem

God asked them to invade another country and take it over.

Israel just came out of hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt. They were abused as slaves in a country not their own.

God provided some amazing supernatural miracles to free Israel from slavery and lead them to the land He promised to give them.

They were 1 year into their journey from Egypt to the promised land.

They were at the edge of the land looking forward.

Behind them they saw a year of uncertainty and wandering through the desert dependent on God. God certainly showed up and gave direction.

The nation of Israel was also a people used to living in civilization. They lived in Egypt, a world superpower. Now they are starting to see life was totally different now.

They had just gotten used to camping nonstop through the Sinai dessert. Now they stand at the edge of an inhabited land. God told them to conquer it and it would be theirs.

Can you imagine how tiring this would be?

God was asking them to change again completely who they were as a people.

They weren’t a warring people, children didn’t grow up learning to fight, they learned to make bricks. A country with slaves doesn’t train them in fighting, they train them to do not-dangerous stuff.

God was telling them to fight a war it was unlikely they would win.

The current residents of the land were quite literally fighting on home turf. They had well build towns and walls and armies. The nation of Israel had none of these. By all human measures they had lots of reasons to doubt their abilities. By all human means the average Israeli mother had a lot of good reasons to be scared for the life of her children and husband.

They all just came out of Egypt. They saw God do some freaky things.

They saw frogs invade the country and then all of a sudden die.

They saw swarms of locusts (hopping insects like grasshoppers) cover the entire country at Moses’ command and they leave just a quick.

They saw a river of water transformed to blood. ....Then they saw Moses change it back.

They saw blackness so thick you could almost touch it cover the land.

They saw thousands of Egyptian firstborn men, women, boys, and girls simultaneously die at the hand of God.

They saw a sea of water split down the middle forming two walls and a dry path wide enough for tens of thousands of people to walk through on foot.

They had good reason to believe God was pretty powerful and Moses practically glowed in the dark.

Yet here they were and they couldn’t deny who they were.

They were a group of former brick-building slaves tasked with conquering a country. What kind of craziness was this?

Can you relate to them?

Have you ever felt like the job God set before you is way bigger than you are qualified to accomplish?

Do you ever feel like parenting requires more wisdom, knowledge, and self control than you possibly can have?

Do you ever feel like figuring out how to manage your family finances and even make enough to provide are sometimes beyond your abilities?

Do you ever feel like the family problem you are facing is unsolvable?

Do you ever feel like speaking up for the values Jesus calls you to is a recipe for disaster in our world?

Do you ever look at God’s call to make disciples of your friends and family....

....and then you look at yourself and know you have a lifetime of mistakes and you certainly aren’t perfect...

…what does God think asking you to share your faith with others??

If you ever feel like the odds are stacked against you I hope today’s story can encourage you.

We catch up with the Israelite nation on the edge of their new home country. It’s time to figure out how to get in and see what the land looks like.

Numbers 13:1–3 ESV

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

God wants not just spies who will do the behind the scenes work of plotting out the plan of attack for Israel. God wants men of standing. God wants men that others look up to and listen. This isn’t just a black ops spy mission, this is a mission to galvanize support and bravery for the journey ahead. God is no fool, He knows what the Israelites are thinking. He knows how scared they are. So he wants men others will follow getting eyes on the new land.

The Return of the Spies

Numbers 13:25 ESV

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.

The spies had likely covered close to 500 miles in this time. They returned with samples of what they found

Numbers 13:23 ESV

23 And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they also brought some pomegranates and figs.

The men bring back a very positive report about the land.

Numbers 13:27 ESV

27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

So the land was rich and full just like God told Moses.

The men should have stopped there......

Then they reported on the people in the land.

Numbers 13:28–29 ESV

28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

Let’s walk through this.

The people are strong with fortified cities. In those days the strength of a city depended both on walls and armies. The country had both.

The sons of Anak were giants. They were a family of men known to be extremely tall and strong.

Then the men point out that the land was very thoroughly populated throughout. There would be no easy taking of free and empty land.

So the report was good and bad.

It was good because the land was worth it. It was really valuable.

It was really bad because the people were in no way going down without a fight.

A little further we see the spies elaborate a little more.

Numbers 13:31–33 ESV

31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The spies were very afraid and it seemed like they had good reason to be afraid. The problem of taking the land simply seemed unsolvable.

Do you ever feel like the spies?

The problem you feel God calling you too is just too big.

God wants you to share the Gospel with your neighbor but you know they are a committed atheist.

You love your friend so much and want to see them come to know Jesus, yet they already know all the arguments for Christianity and you couldn’t win.

You want to help your friend or yourself break free of that addiction but you feel like it’s impossible?

You see the effects of poverty and drugs in Terre Haute and feel like you in no way have the power to solve those problems?

(Remember, this was a situation where some of the spies said they should disobey God and others said they should obey God. The issue was obeying God. The issue was being brave enough to face the upcoming problems believing that God would keep His promises to provide.

The problem isn’t the problem

Numbers 14:1–4 ESV

1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

When the people heard the report they responded passionately and quickly. With one report they discounted all that God had done to save them from Egypt and carry them through the desert. With one report they allowed fear to take over. With one report they made specific plans to get a new leader and return to Egypt.

Also, did you catch that? The graves in Egypt were better than those in Canaan?

Fear isn’t always logical.

Would it be better for the Israelites to die as slaves in Egypt or die in Canaan trying to be free.

Sometimes when we give in to fear we lose sight of truths.

Instead of sitting down to solve the problem and trust God they reacted in fear.

It’s been said that the vast majority of things we fear never happen. Isn’t that true?

We can’t allow our fear radar to trump our God directives.

Fear is good, it helps you avoid problems and dangers. But it’s bad when it keeps you from doing good yet scary things.

It’s scary to start a new relationship.

It’s scary to move to a new town.

It’s scary to start a new job.

It’s scary to try a totally new food.

If we always listen to our fears we will never experience the best things God has for us in this life.

The people in our story were so scared they made specific plans to find someone to lead them back to Egypt.

The things God wants to make happen are often just on the other side of what we now fear.

The people were so afraid to go into the land. But they didn’t see that God wanted to help them win some amazing victories if they would only trust him.

What victory could God win in your life if you chose to trust HIm?

Where is your family hurting?

Where do you need to apply God’s teaching in your personal life?

Where could you talk about your faith?

Perhaps just on the other side of what you fear is God doing something amazing through your life.

What it looks like to stand against the majority

Let’s back up in our story a little bit. Not all the spies shared a story of doom and gloom.

Numbers 13:30 ESV

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Caleb stands up and quiets the crowds. Note, this is immediately after the spies have shared about all the people in the land. I love the leadership of Caleb. I love that he doesn’t change later in life. Look at him 40 years later.

Joshua 14:10–12 ESV

10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

Later after the people mount their rebellion and make their plans to return to Egypt Joshua joins Caleb in speaking up.

Numbers 14:6–9 ESV

6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 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. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”

Joshua and Caleb stood up with confidence in the power of God. They bravely declared that if God delights in Israel, God would make victory happen.

I want to point something out to you as well. When the other spies talked about the land and the people in the land they didn’t mention the name of the Lord even once. Their entire lense was focused on what they were capable of doing as a people.

On the other hand Joshua and Caleb mentioned God 4 times.

More than this they understood

It’s better to have big Canaanites as your enemy than God.

Refusing to enter the land amounted to disobeying God for the Israelites. Joshua and Caleb saw this situation in terms of spiritual truths.

Opening Up Joshua For the Lord

Faith is believing what God has said, no matter how foolish it may seem to do so.

It’s better to have _______________________ as your enemy than God.

Think about this, God has the power to make a universe with the words He speaks. God is infinitely more capable than any enemy or problem you could ever face. Think about that. Meditate on that. God is powerful.

The ten spies paid a serious price for their disobedience

Numbers 14:37 ESV

37 the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord.

Numbers 14:28–35 ESV

28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

The nation wandered the desert 40 years because of disobedience. When they were finally ready to enter the land they conquered.

Joshua and Caleb lived and lead for years because of their faith in God in this moment.

Israel didn’t win because the giants shrank or the cities lost their walls.

Israel won because they trusted in God.

Believing is crucial to the Christian life.

We are called to be people who believe. we must remember that belief isn’t blind. God had given the Israelites plenty of examples of how He would provide for them.

In the same way God calls us to believe in His power.

He calls us to believe in and hold onto His promises.