Be Strong and Courageous

Transistional time

Dear brothers and sisters, it is a historical moment for our church. For 30 years we’ve been in this Marsden High School worshipping week after week. And from next week onwards, we are moving on. For a lot of you, I’m sure there are many memories of this place, many brothers and sisters worshipping together, many fellowship time, many activities, basketball, football, sunday school, lunch. But I hope out of all the experiences, you are able to encounter God. To know him deeper, to love his church and people, and to serve him more wholeheartely.

Moving home is one of the top 5 stressful events in life. Some of have done that recently would know it. While moving church may not be as stressful, please feel free to talk to any pastors or leaders about this, or if any of you need any assistance. It would be a bit uncofmortable to all of us as they are going to be transistion time, as well as adjusting time. So please be patient and loving to each other. But as I reflect on this moving, I believe more importantly we have to prepare spritually. What it means to move as a church and how God wants us to do. And as I read the book of Joshua God again has spoken to me . While it is so far far away from our time, there are principals about the nature of God and his relationship with us that is still applicable to us, and us right now. And may he spoke to us today again. Let’s pray:

Let’s look at the

Joshua 1:1 “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant,”

By this single verse, we could see the beginning of this sixth book of the Bible is as stark as it is surprising. From Exodus onward - the last four books have been dominated by one giant human figure - Moses. For forty years he has been the constant factor, the meditator and deliverer of his poeple - always there, always dependable, the man who speaks face-to-face with God, “as a man speaks to his friend”. It must be impossible to imagine life without Moses. Just imagine all the miracles that accompanied with Moses, the burning fire bush, the ten plagues, the passover, the red sea, the Sinai ten commandments with Moses face lighted up, the manner from sky the water from rock, and the bronze snake lifting up, the fire and cloud pillar following them day by day in the desert. And now his is dead.

But this momemtn, the Lord has spoken to Joshua, Moses assistant, and they must have come with awesome demand and challenge, and they must surely have provoked the mixture of excited anticipation and inner panic we all know when we stand on the threshold of a major new chapter of our experience,

Joshua 1:2 ““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.”

As we looked at Commission of the apostles in Acts, today we look at the commission of Joshua and the Isralites people. The time has come to enter the land, to posess in reality all that their covenant Lord had promised Israel through the centuries, since first he told their father Abraham, “Gen 17:8 “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” This was why he brought them out of their slavery in Egypt. This was waht their forty years in teh desert was always anticipating. This was how the sovereign Lord would now fulfill his promises.

These are also transistion times. On a macro level, the world has changed. How Covid-19 and technology has totally transfomred how we work, how we interact and even how we worship and go to church. While the global technology come to a peak in brining the world together, there is also polorization of world and war is also breaking in these times. In a personal level, there might be many changes. Maybe we hit another milestone of age, a new work enviornment, kids grow into another stage, but today also, our church is changing. We’re moving into a different enviornment . In all these uncertainty, while very different situation of what Joshua is encountered, it is important come back to God, and heed his word as well as Joshua.

Hold onto God’s promises

And so there are two important truths I would like to share with you. The one, which helps multiple generations of believers and Christians, is to hold onto God’s promise. Hold onto God’s promise. Let’s look at Joshua 1:3-5

Joshua 1:3–5 ESV

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.

After the original command in verse 2, as God commissions Joshua, the next three verses are entirely reminding Joshua God’s promises. God is declaring his intentions and is relating them to his character as he proclaims the integrity of his covenant faithfulness. There are three things to which God unreservedly commit himself (1) to give them the land to its fullest extend (2) to overcome their enemies and (3) to be with Joshua as he was with Moses. Let’s go through them one by one.

Hold onto God’s promise:

Land

Overcoming enemies

God’s presence

First, land. Not that although none of the land is yet in their posession, God can say, “I have given it to you, using the past tense to epxress absolute certainty of a future occurance. The area described in verse 4 is enormous, though very much in tune with the original promise to Abraham in Genesis. In the Bible, land in Old Testament and the promise of land to Israel indicateds the presence and blessing of the Lord, it is called a land flowing milk and honey. Since the Lord owns all of the land by creation, he may bestow it and without it as he chooses, and it is a promise to the father of ISrael and their decedents on hi selective love. Also, the land represents “rest” - meaning secruity and propserity in the land. The land, therefore, is a indicative of convenant relationships between God and the people. After all these year, staying in Egypt, forty years of desert wandering, they now finally were given the land. As the Isralites hold onto the promise of God, they finally will receive the land God promised them.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Second, to overcome their enemies. This promise is particular personal to Joshua. It is a commitment of limitless divine power to overcome all human. The thing is the task in front of them looks huge. If we remember how they did wander for the 40 years is exactly because they know what would happen here. There is innumerable tribal groups, the great wall of Jericho. Their security and wealth, they cutting-edge technology and powerful war machines. It is like the movie “Mission impossible”. But with this promise of God, he was more than equipped to accomplish God’s purpose. God personally spoke to Joshua on that day, when he lead and said no person in your conquest will stop you.

But the promises did not end there, the greatest promise of all to Joshua, which undergirds everything else the Lord has said. When God threatened to withdraw his presence from his people after the incident of the golden calf, MOses had pleaded eloquently and persusively that if God were to desert his people they wouldlose everything that was udistinctive about them. This is what made Israel unique. And now God graciously assures JOshua that this blessing will be his as well. He will never let him go. No matter what lies ahead, no matter how many wars or challenges ahead of us, I’m with you. I also fight with you. And God hold true to his promises. As we read the whole Joshua, it was true, till the very end, God is with Joshua. While God never forsakes Joshua, Joshua also do not forsake God, the famour verse, Joshua 24:15 “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

As God commissioned Joshua out to take the land that he promised them, he promised him to overcome enemies, he promised him his presence. Today we do not live in Joshua’s days, but God’s promises today Christians are those we could hold onto as well. While today God hasn’t promised us land, he promised us as the land Israel find rest, to day we find rest and our destination, our home in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:8-10 “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” Brothers and sisters, today we have this promises, that if we find Jesus, we find rest, we find home, we find this new spiritual land today in his church and its fellowship, and in future the new heavens and the new earth.” As Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” But more than Sabbath, more than rest, he promises us an overcomming spirit. While today we do not fight against others, the citedals of atheistic materialism and reductionists physchology seems impregnable. Indeed, they are to human being, but Paul reminds us “If God for us, who can be against us?” The answer is that there are many enemies today - tribulation, distress, persectuion, famine, danger sword, Yet Romans 8:37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Nothing can seperate his people from the love of JEsaus, and nothing can stand in the way of the fulfillment of his purpose. Victory belongs to God and his people. But finally, his presence. By the death and ressurrection of JEsus Christ, it is wonderful strength to know the LOrd is committed to his people than we ever can be to him. As we again look again in Matthew and Acts, as we obey his commission, he said Matt 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Illustrate: Next week we will leave Marsden, and as different transistions of life, let’s first learn to hold on to God’s promises. And his promises has been always true to us CABC. From a few families, CABC grew and plant into two different congregation, CABC-WR. And for 30 years, God gave us this place, Marsden High. And yeah 20 years ago I walked in here. No matter what happen during the week, these 20 years this place had been a place of rock, a place of peace, a place of rest. I know when I come here, I can come to our Lord, worshipping all his glory, be able to come in prayer in his gracious seat. I could come in front of father’s embrace. I can find rest and peace in Him. And no, it hasn’t stopped these 20 years till this day. There were ups and downs, and I still remember some of sad time, and times where I felt defeated, it was the church here that lift me up again, to pull me to the direction of God, and to overcome the distress and failure I have. And as we sing and as word of God is spoken out week after week, his presence was here. One time even so strong, it felt like Holy Spirit has directly spoken to me, that I was to give my life, give my whole career to him. I am sure there are countless story of these. Hold onto God’s promise.

Apply: His promises that in him alone we will find rest and belonging. In him we would be able to fight off enemies in his presence. Forever we are in his presence. So often in these periods of our life we panic, we are scared, we are confused, and forgot all these promsies that God has given us to sustain us through these times. Brothers and sisters, let’s learn from what God has said today, let’s cling to all his promises. And from these promises, we must step out by faith today and claim them. He has set before His church an open door that nobody can close (Rev. 3:8), and we must walk through that door by faith and claim new territory for the Lord. It is impossible to stand still in Christian life and service; for when you stand still, you immediately start going backward. “Let us go on!” is God’s challenge to His church (Heb. 6:1), and that means moving ahead into new territory. Today as we leave, we must move ahead.

But God’s promises always, always come with our response. And this is the second point today. The land that God has given would not be ISralites if they do not respond to God’s promises, if they do not act. Joshua must fight, lead, and obey in order to claim the land. And so, the second point today, is to be strong and courage. be strong and encourage.

Be Strong and courageous

Joshua 1:6-9 “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.””

How to we show we really believe in God’s promises? But obeying his commands. So three more times God exhortes JOshua to “be strong and couragous”. Clearly Joshua is no omicompetent superhero. The same command has already been issued three times in the Deuteronomy. And now, on the verge of Jordan, ti would not be all surprising his knees were knowing and if the people are award of it. There is no MOses to fall back on. There is a good and glorious prize ahead - a land flowing with milk and honey - buyt the prospoect of actually fighting the Cannanites with an almost untired army was terrifying. MOrever, Joshua should by now knew only two weel the fickleness of his people. Even God had spoken about giving them up! And so, God repeatedly claim at the time of claiming God’s promise, obeying God’s command at transistion time is be strong and courageous. Courageous, as he has to run into conflict, uncertainty and most importantly battle. Strong, to consistently, keep God’s commandment. which bring us to an importantly.

Be Strong and couragous

The meaning of strong and courageous

Strong and courageous in the word of God

Strong and couragous by action

But while it is certaintly important to stump up this will for fighting, be strong in this conquest, be courageous in this conquest, probably more important is in verse 7 1 Joshua 1:7 “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.” It is striking that God’s instructions here to Joshua are not about military matters, given that Joshua and the Israelites faced many battles ahead. However, the keys to his success were spiritual, directly related to the degree of his obedience to God. The keys to Joshua’s success were the same as those for a king: being rooted in God’s word rather than depending upon military might, in other words, to be strong and courageous is not because to stump out the morale, but to get back to the word, obey the word, mediated the word.

Let’s take a bit of time to talk more about this The importance of obedience to the law as the key to Joshua’s success cannot be overestimated. This is emphasized over and over in these two verses. (1) Joshua was to “be careful to do” this law 2) It was “all” the law that was to be obeyed (v. 7a). (3) Joshua was not to deviate from it even slightly, neither to the right nor to the left (v. 7b). (4) The Book of the Law was not to depart from Joshua’s mouth, since he was to meditate upon it by day and by night (v. 8a). The idea of meditating here is not the one commonly familiar in the late twentieth century, namely, of emptying the mind and concentrating on nothing or on self or on visualizations of various types; much of this hype recently with mindfulness. Rather, the Old Testament concept of meditation involves two things: First, a focus upon God himself , his works and his law (Josh 1:8; Ps 1:2), and second, an activity that was done aloud. This is why God told Joshua that this lawbook should not leave his mouth. In numerous conferences, I have often told pastors and seminary students, “If you don’t talk to your Bible, your Bible isn’t likely to talk to you.

When we really take the very word of Bible, meditate it, read it, make it our first priority, do not sway from it, what would happen? For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Here prosperity means to prosper in one’s endevours. Every time the bible uses these verses, it is always because of God’s gracious hand, for his people to respond in faith and obedience. Success here means “have insight, understanding, be wise.” Success is to be achieved because individuals seek the Lord earnestly or carefully obey his commandments, is specifically equated with obeying God’s law or the covenant. Christian believer, prosperity and success aren’t to be measured by the standards of the world. Rather, it refers to succeeding in proper endeavors. These blessings are the by-products of a life devoted to God and His Word. If you set out on your own to become prosperous and successful, you may achieve your goal and live to regret it. The questions God’s people need to ask are: Did we obey the will of God? Were we empowered by the Spirit of God? Did we serve to the glory of God? If we can answer yes to these questions, then our ministry has been successful in God’s eyes, no matter what people may think.

Joshua 1:9 “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.” sums up the commission for Joshua, In the years to come, whenever Joshua faced an enemy and was tempted to be afraid, he would remember that he was a man with a divine commission—and his fears would vanish. Whenever things went wrong and he was tempted to be dismayed, he would recall God’s command—and take new courage. The rest of the book of Joshua took about a faith with action, strong and couragous with action. If we want to know God’s promises in practice and experience their growing potential in our lives, we must obey God’s commands. That is what the life of faith is about. The promises of God are uncondtional in terms of God’s own commitment, but their enjoyment depends upon our detailed obediecne. The rest of Joshua shows how God’s promise is fulfilled with Joshua’s action. We see how Israel entered Cannan, how Israel overcome the enemeis, and at the end how Isareal divided the land.

Looking at us now, this passage could be applied to us through the lens of the cross of Christ. We today also are called to be strong and courageous, because of Christ. Not have we by our own strength could listen and obey law, but all commands point to Christ, and Christ enabled us to be obedience to God’s word, and hence strong and couragous. To be strong and couragous to Paul means to fight the spiritual battle, Ephesians is very clear about this, how we should fight and be strong.

10 我還有末了的話、你們要靠著主、倚賴他的大能大力、作剛強的人。 11 要穿戴　神所賜的全副軍裝、就能抵擋魔鬼的詭計。 12 因我們並不是與屬血氣的爭戰、乃是與那些執政的、掌權的、管轄這幽暗世界的、以及天空屬靈氣的惡魔爭戰 13 所以要拿起　神所賜的全副軍裝、好在磨難的日子、抵擋仇敵、並且成就了一切、還能站立得住。 14 所以要站穩了、用真理當作帶子束腰、用公義當作護心鏡遮胸． 15 又用平安的福音 、當作預備走路的鞋穿在腳上． 16 此外又拿著信德當作籐牌、可以滅盡那惡者一切的火箭． 17 並戴上救恩的頭盔、拿著聖靈 的寶劍、就是　神的道．

And so we fight with God’s word. The full counsel of God’s word. To put on the full armor of God is to apply all of Gospel to all of your life. The whole armor is the expression of your full trust in God and wh at he has done for you through Jesus Christ. In a world of spiritual warfare, we focus on God’s word instead of the devil. The belt of truth and the sword of th e Spirit both emphasis the need to be central our lives with the word of God.

A new battlefield, a new unknown. As we go out and leave Marsden, we know church is not about a building. But again, we thank God for week after week, we have this place to put the word of God in the focus of our lives. Each week we are called by God’s words to worship, we obey God’s word by our confession and dedication. WE listen attentatively to God’s word by preaching, we live out the word of God in our annoucement as a community. I pray to God as we step into uncertainty, into difficulty that God’s word is still central to everything we do. That we will not because of the changes ahead that we become weak spiritually, or slowly see God’s word as something optional in a life, but the very life itself. That everything we do and see or act, is an outliving of GOd’s word. Let’s pray.