THE ROAD TO VICTORIOUS LIVING
Notes
Transcript
INTRO:
INTRO:
We have been making our way through the book of Joshua, looking at Joshua and the children of Israel as they have entered the promise land and as they have been gradually conquering the land of promise.
we have seen great victories and we have seen great defeats. We have seen moments when Joshua the leader and the people are walking in step with the Lord and we have seen moments when it seems that everything they know has been thrown out the window.
and throughout the whole journey we have been able to see God’s grace active within the lives of Joshua and the people as God has been patiently leading the people step by step further in the conquest of the land, and further and further in the fulfilling of God’s will for their lives.
and i couldn’t help but see myself in this statement and can’t help but see God’s grace working in my life as i can be much like Joshua and the people in our story.
moments when i am walking in step with the Lord, moments when i am nailing it, i am doing exactly what God has called me to do , exactly the way he has called me to do it.
and then there are moments in my life, where it can seem that i throw out everything that i have learned. In the moment of a great battle, in the moment of great difficulty, i can lose myself in the moment , and may need the Lord to patiently and gracefully lead me by the hand from the wrong path, back to the path of fulfilling His will
this roller coaster of a story was meant to teach us the important principals needed to have a Victorious Christian life. To be able to live a life to the fullest of our potential and be able to obtain everything that God has for us.
Transition
now the book of Joshua is divided into 2 parts .
First Part of the book of Joshua
chp. 1-12- which really describes the conquest of the land as a unified group of people.
there are (3) main sections of military campaigns that we look at in these first 12 chapters.
A. The Central Campaign
where we see the conquest of Jericho and AI.
B. The Southern Campaign
the campaign at Gibeon and Bethoron ( Josh.10).
we looked at this last week. How a poor alliance with the Gibionites, drew Joshua and the people to have to defend them against the 5 kings that came against them.
yet we saw how the enemy meant the attack for harm against Israel, God made it so that it was a part of accomplishing His will, in being able to defeat these 5 kingdoms that came out against the people in one location.
we saw the awesome works of God in having time stand still giving the people enough time to further destroy the kings.
C. The Northern Campaign
this is the portion of scripture that we will go through today in Josh. 11.
while we find the end to the 3 campaigns in chp. 11, chapter 12 goes to outline the kings that were conquered.
2. Second Part of Joshua
when you get to chapter 13, we see now the dividing of the land of promise to all the tribes. And there is a shift in the battle.
in the first 12 chapters , the battles have been fought together as one unified group of people under the leadership of Joshua.
now as the land is divided to the people, there would be more battles that would take place , more enemies that would have to be conquered , but now it would be personal and individual battle as a tribe , working to conquer the specific land that they were given.
this is important to understand because all of the victories that the people had as a group was meant to teach the people the principals of victories that they would need in dealing with their own enemies within the land that they were given.
and so even for us as we look at these stories of victory and defeat, these are meant not only to guide us as a group of believers to victory but they are meant to teach us individually the principals needed in having spiritual victory in our own lives.
Transition
so what we are going to do today as we look at this last military campaign as a whole group, is to identify the progression of Victory within the people.
These Principals that would be important for the people to take with them on their won individual journeys. Principals that ring true to you and me today .
“ THE ROAD TO LIVING IN VICTORY”
I. JOSHUA IS ATTACKED BY THE ENEMY (V.1-5)
So you remember now from last week that Israel has had a great victory over the 5 kings that came against them in Gibeon. The Lord did an amazing work in making time stand still in order to give more time for the Joshua and the people to conquer and destroy the kingdoms that came against them.
now this great victory was not unnoticed. We are told that Jabin, the king of Hazor heard of these things. He heard of the defeat of the 5 kings and their armies that went out against Israel.
so this King of Hazor begins to rally an alliance with these other kings , to try to work together to destroy Israel. We are given a bit of insight in v. 4 of a couple of things.
Hazor’s Army (v.4)
They were the largest army that Joshua had faced
the number of the armies that have come to rally against the people is huge. We are told “all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the sea shore in multitude”
this is a huge army that is coming up against Joshua and the people.
2. They were highly advanced in warfare
we are told that this large army came with “many horses and chariots”
this was no small army that didn’t know what they were doing. But they were a highly advanced army that had encamped against Israel.
Transition
i want you to notice that Israel has just come off of one of their biggest victories to date. They have conquered the 5 kings that came against them.
It is here at the moment of great victory that the enemy comes with a bigger , larger scale attack against them
this is true in our lives as well, many times some of our biggest battles we face may come on the heals of the biggest victories
We see here this large army come and encamp around Israel.
We must understand that this encampment of the enemy was much more that the attempt to destroy Israel physically, it is an attack spiritually on the people of God with the attempt to get them to stop moving forward in their pursuit of fulfilling God’s will
and this is an important lesson that we must keep in mind.
that every battle we face is first a spiritual battle.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
the attacks and the battles that you and i will face on a daily basis are of a spiritual nature first above anything else.
the argument with my wife , the argument with my kids, the opposition from y boss, from my co- workers, from my teachers.....
these things are a spiritual battle first . And the attempt of the enemy is to get you and i to engage in the battle in the flesh rather than in the spirit.
And how you and i view our attack or our battle will determine how you and i will respond to that attack.
we will see here how Joshua views the attack of the enemy and how he responds.
II. JOSHUA IS ENCAMPED NEAR THE PRESENCE OF GOD (V.6) (JOSH. 10:43)
In chapter 10 we see that as the 5 kings come against Joshua and the people, Joshua arises from Gilgal, and at the end of the battle we see that Josua returned to Gilgal.
you remember as we have been going through the book of Joshua how Gilgal was the home base of the people.
Gilgal was the place of remembrance , the place of resurrection , the place of removing of the old carnal life, the place of restoration.
it was the place where they were in a close contact and communion with the Lord, in direct contact with the presence of the Lord.
Joshua has had his failures in failing to seek the Lord, but here you begin to see the lessons learned, as battles come, Joshua is in the place where he can hear God’s voice clearly. He is in God’s presence , and as a result, he is able to see the battle for what it is, a spiritual battle first.
Here God gives Joshua (3) things....
God gives Joshua Comfort and Strength
you remember that this is the largest army that Joshua has had to encounter here in the promise land. This army is highly advanced in its military. It would be very easy for Joshua to fall into the situation and become fearful.
here God tells Joshua not to be to be afraid.
2. God gives Joshua Promises
God tells Joshua that “He” will deliver all of the people slain . God promised to be the one who would defeat the enemies.
3. God gives Joshua Direction
God tells Joshua what he must do in the battle.
“you shall hamstring the horses and burn the chariots” which was making sure that the horses and chariots were not able to be used for battle later.
Application
understand that it is within the presence of God and within the Word of God that Joshua found …
- The comfort and strength in the face of fear
The reassurance of God’s Promises
The direction in the midst of the battle
Transition
and this is important to key in on.
because if i am honest, in moments that i have faced battles in my life, it is one or all of these areas that i seem to struggle in.
in the midst of a great situation, of a hardship, of an attack,....
it is my tendency to become fearful of the unknown, fearful of the situation .
i can sometimes forget the promises of God. I can forget that God is faithful and unchanging, i can forget that if He promised something, He is faithful to fulfill it.
How about this one, in the midst of the battle, i can somethings have a hard time finding out what direction i am supposed to be going.
I have made some of the most horrible decisions in my life because i did not know where to go.
Here we see that it is within the presence of God and within the word of God that Joshua found ...
Strength
Promises
Direction
Transition
I just finished teaching Acts 27 with our High School, which is a look at Paul’s voyage to Rome. And in this chp. we see Paul and those with him encounter one of the biggest storms in their lives both spiritually and pyshically.
In the midst of the storm, Luke tells us that they had all lost their hope in salvation.
and we looked at this, that in the midst of great battles, in the midst of great storms we can be like this as well and can begin to lose hope. And yet we found that Paul began to regain his hope ..... How
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and brought the word of God. He brought promises to Paul. Paul began to regain hope as he was within the presence of God and as he received the word of God. For Paul the promises of God would become an anchor to his soul that would keep him centered , secure and unmoved in the midst of the storm.
God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
Kent Huges
“ When we are anchored to God’s presence, we will display amazing courage in the worst storms. And just as important , when we are thus anchored, we can sustain others, just as Paul did”.
III. JOSHUA WAS OBEDIENT TO THE LORD(V.7-16)
Here we see that Joshua did exactly what the Lord had commanded him to do. (v.9)
There were some lessons that Joshua and the people had learned already in AI about obedience to the Lord and to His commands.
He had learned the lesson of blessing and cursing after their defeat in Ai. They had learned that obedience to God’s word and to His direction would always lead to blessing. And the contrast being true of disobedience. Disobeying God’s word would lead to cursing.
no greater picture they had than at Mt. Elba and Mt. Gerizim. One mountain would be barren, rocky , dead with no life, which was a symbol of cursing. And Mt. Gerizim would be a mountain of blessing full of life, abundant in vegetation .
perfect picture of a spiritual life that has been obedient to God. There is life that is produced. Life produces more life.
IV. JOSHUA GAVE TIME TO THE LORD. (V. 18)
there is something that we have to understand. We read through these (3) campaigns in a few sittings and assume that this was a fast movement. But we have to understand that from the time that the people crossed over the Jordan until this period here in chp. 11, there have been some 5-7 years of battles.
it was a long and timely process of conquering the land that they were promised. Time was needed to allow God to work.
Transition
This is never more evident than in your life and mine. There are many things that God has began to do in us, the process of sanctification.
and much like the people, there can be giants in our lives that we have tried to overcome. Giants that have discouraged us, that have beat us at times.
and sometimes the overwhelming feeling can be that we will never be able to overcome the giants in our lives.
but the reality is that sometimes what God desires out of us is obedience and our time. and as we are able to give our obedience and our time to God, he will begin to little by little , remove the Giants from our lives.
(v.21) we see that Joshua was able to finally defeat the Anakim from the mountain areas. These are the Giants, the same giants that 40 + years earlier had caused fear in the 10 spies and kept and entire generation from entering the promise land.
Here we see as Joshua gives of his obedience to the Lord and as he gives of his time, the Lord allows for him to gain victory over this enemy.
Application
God is still at work within your life and mine. But sanctification takes time. Paul understood this.
being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
V. JOSHUA ENTERED INTO REST (V. 23 )
finally we see that the land was given as an inheritance and that there was rest in the land from war.
this is not to say that there were not anymore battles to overcome, but the process of striving in the battles was over. There was an ability to rest in the work that God had already done.
“The restful Christian is he who lives his life above the storm with Jesus. Oh, he is sensitive to sorrow and to the troubles of other people, but he is able always to discern the wisdom of God. He is willing to trust the loving heart of God and therefore is able in the conflict to await the unfolding of God’s plan. He is able to keep silent while he waits on the Word of God. The Christian who is living there, above the toil and traffic of daily life, who is constantly living in touch with the throne, is resting in Jesus. He is also the busiest man of all, going at such a speed you wonder that he doesn’t break down. The only answer he can give you is that as he has waited on the Lord he has exchanged his puny strength for the almighty energy of the Holy Spirit.” A. Redpath