Moving Forward-Part 1

Moving Forward – Part 1

Joshua 1:1-3

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a week with a team from our church. We were planting gospel seeds in the hearts of Muslims in what is known as "Little Egypt," located in the Astoria part of Queens, New York. The housing we stayed in was located in the same area. In fact, it was probably about three blocks from what is considered Little Egypt. It was operated by New York School of Urban Ministry, or for short it's called NYSUM.

The building is a renovated hospital, probably built in the early 1900s. The women stayed on the third floor. The men stayed on the fourth floor. Each room had bunks in it. The room I stayed in had four bunks. You can imagine. I chose the bottom bunk, because I sure didn't want to spend my time during the night getting up and down from that… You know, as you age, you have to do a few things in the middle of the night, and I sure didn't want to be falling out of the top bunk.

I noticed when I was lying there, when the top bunk was occupied, the space between the two… It was limited already. It's probably a good thing I wasn't on the top. It sagged. I started thinking about the Christian life. Fortunately, it sagged in the middle but was firm at both ends. I think there are many Christians whose Christian experience is like that. They're firm on the ends, but they're sagging in the middle.

They're firm in their justification. They know they're saved, and they know they're going to be glorified in the future, but they're sagging in their Christian experience. By that I mean they're not experiencing the abundance and fullness of all God has desired for us in our salvation. Now today we start a new sermon series, a summer sermon series, called Forward. It is a study out of the Old Testament book of Joshua.

I'm calling it Forward because that's what the book is about. It's about moving forward with God. It is about the Israelites pressing on into the Promised Land. Contrary to popular hymns, the Bible never speaks of heaven as the Promised Land. No, the Promised Land is a place for Israel to come and enjoy the fullness and blessings and abundance of their salvation. So for the Israelites, it was a place for them to go and enjoy the covenant blessings.

As they enjoyed the covenant blessings of God, they were to be witnesses to all of the Gentile nations around them. They were to be witnesses of the glory of God and the goodness of God. God promised, "If you obey the covenant, I'll give you peace in the land, and you will enjoy covenant blessings." However, God said to Israel, "If you disobey the covenant, you won't have peace. I will remove you from the land." If they obeyed, God says, "You enjoy the fullness of the land. You enjoy the abundance of the land."

Now Joshua and the Israelites' journey into the Promised Land is a picture of the Christian life under the new covenant. Our Joshua is Jesus. Our Joshua delivered us out of the bondage of Egypt, the bondage of sin. Our Joshua leads us through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. In fact, our Joshua, Jesus, is the Promised Land. The Promised Land is something you experience with all the chaos of a fallen world.

The Promised Land, Jesus… He says, "I have come that you may have life, but I've come that you may have life more abundantly, that you may enjoy the fullness of salvation." We can enjoy the fullness of salvation only as we abide in Jesus Christ. So the Promised Land speaks of the fullness of our salvation. It speaks of the blessings of our salvation.

The main theme for this study is that God calls us to possess the fullness and abundance of our salvation, just as he was calling the Israelites out of the wilderness to go into that land of promise, that place of fullness, that place of abundance. For Israel, God was calling them out. You have to understand the events of Joshua took place about 1,400 years before the first appearing of Jesus Christ. What had taken place before God called Joshua and the Israelites to the Promised Land is they had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

They'd been moving but not forward. Now God says, "It's time to move forward. It's time to leave the wilderness of distrust. It's time to leave the wilderness and go into the fullness and abundance of your salvation, the Promised Land." As God speaks to us individually and as a church, we can see from Joshua, as God still speaks today, that he calls us, he calls the church, he calls believers, to move forward and to experience the abundant life, to experience the fullness of salvation.

We see that move forward, first of all, with a call. God calls you to move forward in your Christian experience. There are eight commands given to Joshua in the first nine verses, and two of those are found in the first two verses. "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.'"

Two commands: arise and go over. "Joshua, I am calling you, and I'm ultimately calling Israel." Because as God commissions Joshua in the first nine verses Joshua, in turn, commissions the Israelites. He says the very same thing. "We are going over. God has called us to move forward. God has called us to arise and move forward and enjoy the blessings of our salvation." Arise and go over. He's calling them to move forward.

Now there's a very interesting principle that's communicated in these first two verses. Remember, in Hebrew language, in Hebrew literature, whenever you see repetition, that should speak to you. For instance, the other six commands we'll find in these verses (this is part one, by the way; part two is next week) are the same commands. He gives them to Joshua. "Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous."

If God repeats the commands three times, what do you think? Do you think he's trying to tell us something? Yeah. "Be strong and courageous. Move forward and enjoy the blessings of your salvation, the fullness of your salvation." Here's the principle, and I think it's important that we as Christians and we as the church understand it: God calls us to move forward in spite of changing circumstances.

See, two times God makes mention of a significant person dying. His name is Moses. In fact, he begins the book saying, "After the death of Moses…" Moses has died. Yes, Moses, that great prophet who would lead the people of God out of Egypt. "He has died," it says in verse 1. "…the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant…" Again in verse 2: "Moses my servant is dead."

This isn't a trivial truth we need just to learn. A very prominent figure in the history of Israel and in redemptive history has now passed away. Let's be honest. People by nature do not like change. Amen? We like it just as long as it doesn't bother us. "You can change whatever you want, just don't change my life."

But here's the reality of life: because of the fall, life is always changing. As much as we would love to keep everything the way it was or the way it is, the fact of the matter is we live in a fallen world, and life changes…for the good and also for the bad. You see, there's a change here. Some of them are going, "Oh my goodness. Moses is dead. What are we going to do now?" Some are thinking, "This isn't a good thing. Moses is dead."

From God's perspective, it is a good thing, because God is about to do something new. God is about to fulfill what he had promised to his people, Israel. He's about to do what he could not do with Moses because Moses got angry and forfeited his opportunity to go into the Promised Land. So things are changing, yet God calls them to move forward in spite of the changing circumstances.

Things were changing, but God says, "You know what? It's time to move forward. It's time to leave the wilderness. It's time to go into the Promised Land, the place of abundance, the place of fullness." Things were changing. They were coming out of the wilderness. For 40 years, they were in the wilderness.

Now you can describe the wilderness in three ways: covenant, miraculous provision, and judgment. Covenant was what brought them into the wilderness in the first place. If you know the book of Exodus, in Exodus 2, the people of Israel are calling out. They're crying out to God, and God hears their cry. That's when God begins to lift up someone to deliver them.

God did just that. He lifted up Moses, and he led the people out of Egyptian bondage, and they went into the wilderness, because God is faithful to his word and to his people. It was there in the wilderness, in coming out of Egypt, they experienced miraculous, unbelievable provision. I mean the miracles that took place in Egypt.

Then, of course, the crossing of the Red Sea that took them into the wilderness, and then the cloud by day and the fire by night that guided them, and of course there was the "What's this?" The manna. "What is this?" That's what manna means. They had manna for 40 years. They had water. They had everything they needed. Their clothes never wore out. That is miraculous provision. It is covenant. It is God's faithfulness to his people, but it's also a place of judgment.

You see, in spite of God's faithfulness to deliver his people, in spite of his miraculous provision, Israel did not trust God. They didn't allow those events in their lives to strengthen their faith. So when the 12 spies returned, 10 of them… We all know Joshua and Caleb were saying, "Let's go," because they understood the promise of God.

Ten of them said, "No, we can't do it. There are giants in the land." And what do the people do? Instead of trusting the Lord, instead of trusting his promise, instead of trusting his word, they listen to the 10 spies. God said, "Because of your unbelief, this unbelieving generation will not experience the fullness of the land. They will not experience the fullness of salvation."

They would die in unbelief. In fact, some of them would say, "Let's go back to Egypt." They would grumble and complain, and they never tasted the abundant life. It's in the midst of all that God says, "Rise. Go forth. In spite of your changing circumstances, in spite of your changing culture, go. I have a Promised Land for you. I have abundance for you. I have fullness for you. Go. Move forward."

What wilderness may you be in? I believe many believers stay in the wilderness. Sometimes they're in the wilderness of regret. You have regrets in your life and you think you'll never overcome those regrets, or maybe there's failure in your life and you think, "My life is over." It wasn't over for Israel. I want you to hear this.

Joshua and the Israelites moving forward really wasn't about Joshua and the Israelites. It's about God. The hero of the book of Joshua isn't Joshua. Did y'all know that? Oh hey, did you know the hero of this book is God himself? The hero of the book of Joshua is God. Maybe you think, "I'm in a wilderness, and I don't think I can ever get out of this wilderness." Can I just suggest this to you? Your life isn't about you; it's about God and what he wants to do in your life.

God wants to move you forward, and you can move forward. I don't care what wilderness you are in. I don't care what wilderness you're struggling in. I don't care what sag you find yourself in. God will call you to move forward in your Christian experience, and you can. In spite of the changing circumstances, you can move forward on the basis of his unchanging character and purposes. This story is about God.

Notice what happens in verse 2: "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan [move forward, press on], you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them…" "I'm giving you this land, Joshua. It's yours. All of the blessings and all the fruitfulness and all the abundance of this land I give to you and to my people."

Oh, but it gets better. Then again he says in verse 3… In fact, these are all promises. "I give you the land." Verse 3: "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon…" I love this. He says in verse 2, "I will give it to you," and he says in verse 3, "I have given it to you. I'm giving you what I already gave. In fact, I'm giving you what I promised Moses."

If you know the Scriptures, you know it goes way beyond Moses. It goes all the way back to Genesis 12, where God calls Abraham out of Haran. He says, "I want you to go to the land I'm giving you. In that land, I'm going to make you a great nation. More than just being a great nation, I'm going to make you a blessing to all nations." So he moves out.

Then again in Genesis 13, God says, "I'm giving you the land." Again in Genesis 15: "I'm giving you the land." Again in Genesis 17: "I'm giving you the land." When he says, "Moses, I'm giving you the land," he's just reiterating the promise he has already given to Abraham. "I'm giving you the land I swore to your fathers. I promise. I pledge it." And if God says it, he'll do it. That's what he's doing.

Now beyond just the promise of the land and the call of Abraham to the land… You see, God wanted to do much, much more than make Abraham a great nation. I think sometimes we forget the overall purpose of God's plan. The reason he called Abraham was not just to make him a great nation, but ultimately to bless all of the nations through him, which means it takes us all the way back to Genesis 3, where God said, right after the fall, "The seed of the woman will crush the seed of the Serpent."

The seed of the woman is the seed of Abraham, and the seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ. So at the heart of it all is God's desire to redeem people from the bondage of sin and to redeem them to himself so he can say, "I am your God, and you are my people." That's the theme of the Bible: God redeeming people to himself through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So they were to move forward. God called them to move forward. He called them to move forward based upon his unchanging character, his unchanging purposes. They never, ever change. God is always faithful to his covenant promises. He's always faithful to his character. Because of that, they could move forward.

God hasn't changed. Oh sure, my circumstances have changed, but God hasn't changed. He's still a gracious God, a good God, a longsuffering God, a God who's full of grace, a God who's full of mercy. God says, "Yes, you are in the wilderness, but I want to take you out of that wilderness, and I want to move you into that place of abundance and fullness." Again, what wilderness are you in?

As it speaks to us as God's people, maybe we think, "I have failed." Maybe we struggle, just like the Israelites. Do you know what kept them in the wilderness? They didn't trust God. I think a lot of us will stay in the sag of the wilderness because we don't trust God. God doesn't want us to stay in the wilderness. Jesus didn't say, "I've come that you may spend the rest of your life in the wilderness."

He said, "I have come that you may have life. Not just eternal life, but I want you to have abundant life. I want you to experience the fullness of joy and the fullness of your salvation and the fullness of what it means to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and walk in victory in the midst of a chaotic world."

It speaks to us individually. You know what? Things are constantly changing in our lives, but God says, "Move forward. Don't stay there in the wilderness." It speaks to us as a church. You know, you watch the news, and the culture is changing at such a rapid pace it's unbelievable. Have you noticed how fast? I mean the statistics for things we oppose, the things that are against God, are not leaning in our favor.

But God doesn't say, "Oh, okay. Just sit around until I take you out." God expects us to move forward. He wants us to reach our communities, the lost and dying who are outside of these walls. We don't live in a culture where everybody says, "Let's go to church." We have to go to them and be the church. Things are so rapidly changing.

Here's the encouraging thing. We might think we are the church in the wilderness. Listen to this. We might be in the wilderness, but we can move forward, because our God is an unchanging God. His character is unchanging, and his purposes are unchanging, and God's purpose will prevail. God calls us. He says, "Arise. Go over. Leave the wilderness. Go over into that Promised Land."

When God calls, he prepares. He prepared Joshua for this calling. Verse 1: "After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant…" That says a lot, because it tells us that before God called Joshua, he prepared him. I enjoyed going back to see how God prepared Joshua for this moment in his life.

Everything in the Scripture tells me that what Joshua learned to take him into the Promised Land… Guess where he learned it? The wilderness. It was Joshua who was fighting against Amalek while Moses was on the mountain. Do you know the story? He has his hands raised. As long as he had his hands raised, they had victory, but when he grew tired and his hands were down, they started to lose.

That's where Aaron and Hur came and held up his arms, and they had victory over Amalek. Joshua got to experience that, and he would need that going into the Promised Land. By the way, the Promised Land isn't heaven, because if the Promised Land was heaven, there would be no conflict. You can experience the Promised Land in the midst of conflict. Then, of course, he was up on the mountain of God with Moses. I mean this guy got to experience some great things.

He was in the Tent of Meeting with Moses. He was one of the twelve spies, one of the two who came back and said, "Yes, let's go. God has given us the land." Of course, he was out there in the wilderness when he saw the lack of faith on the part of God's people, when they turned to idols and grumbled and complained and wanted to go back to Egypt. All of this prepared him to go forward into the Promised Land.

The wilderness is not necessarily something you can avoid; it's something you pass through to get to the fullness. The wilderness was part of it, but the wilderness was designed to prepare the Israelites to go into the Promised Land. The wilderness is really a place of brokenness. It's a place where God brings us. This is really a place we need to be at every day.

God allows certain circumstances to get us to that point, but the wilderness is that place where you're following the leadership of God, and all of a sudden there's no water, no food, no protection, all of a sudden you have this cloud leading you by day and this pillar of fire by night and you're seeing all this miraculous provision, and all you can do is trust God. Oh, in fact, that's what you want to do.

See, that's the problem with the Israelites. They did not see the purpose of the wilderness. Some of you are in the sag of the wilderness, and you're grumbling and complaining and thinking, "Man, I had it better in Egypt." Listen. You're in a place so you can learn to trust God. God wants you there at that place of total trust, total surrender, total brokenness, and when you come to God broken and surrendered and totally trusting in him, that is the doorway into fullness. That is the doorway into abundance.

Joshua and Caleb learned the wilderness is a place of preparation. It's a place of brokenness that allows us to move into the Promised Land. Once we're there in the Promised Land, as we abide in Jesus, we experience the fullness of Jesus. We experience the fullness of eternal life, in spite of the fact there are enemies all around us.

I was having a discussion with my wife last night, and she preached this sermon to me. I had told her what it was about. I told her, "Hey, Jesus is our Promised Land," and how we have peace. I made this comment that I'm ready for a season of rest, and she said, "You know, I thought you said Jesus was our rest." "You're right." She nailed it.

We're always looking for seasons of rest, but in the midst of our unrest, guess where our rest is found? Come on. Yes! In the midst of your unrest, you can have rest, because your rest is the Promised Land. His name is Jesus Christ, and as you abide in him and trust in him, you can have peace in a very turbulent season of life. Oh, it's good to be rebuked by your wife every once in a while, husbands. How true it is that no matter what season we're in, no matter what sag of the wilderness we're in, God says, "You know what? You can have peace."

I read a story of a young lady. Her name is Jenny Williams. I read the story because of her ministry. This young lady's husband abandoned her for another woman, and it left her bitter and broken. She could have stayed in that wilderness of bitterness and brokenness, but she allowed that brokenness to bring her into the Promised Land of abundance. She spoke of God's abundance in her life, how she found healing and hope.

In fact, she calls her ministry "A Modern Day Ruth." What struck me is the fact that she has come into the abundant life, she has allowed the abundance of God's blessing and the fullness of salvation to bring healing and hope to her life, and now she has a ministry. She is ministering to women who have faced and experienced the very same thing. She's allowing the abundance to flow through her.

Sue, I'm going to use you as an illustration, if you don't mind. Sue lost her dad. He's my hero. He preached the gospel for 60 years. Can we get an amen for that? He was faithful to the gospel. But he died unexpectedly. I'll never forget what Sue said to me that day. It was very profound. She said at the funeral, "Now I know how to minister to those who have lost loved ones unexpectedly."

She was broken and in a wilderness, but she's now allowing God to take that brokenness to bring abundance to her life. Now she can minister to others. God calls us to move forward in spite of changing circumstances. It could be the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a husband. Usually we don't struggle with all of the positive things that have happened to us. We struggle with the bad things.

God says, "You know what? Whether it be failure, whether it be regret…" Some of us have so much regret from our past, and we're like, "I can't get over this." Listen. God doesn't want you to stay there. The Devil does, but God doesn't want you to stay there, wallowing in regret. He doesn't want you to stay there in failure because you've failed. He's not there condemning you. God wants you to move forward. He wants you to move from that wilderness, no matter what hurt or whatever you're struggling with.

Whatever is causing you to sag, God says, "Listen, I brought you to that place of brokenness and to that place where all you can do is trust in me so you can experience the abundant life." What's your wilderness? I think all of us could probably identify some struggles in our lives. What's your wilderness? Identify it. Is it marriage? Is it your children? Is it bitterness because you've been hurt? Unforgiveness? Regret? Failure?

Whatever your wilderness is, here's what God is saying to you: "Move forward. Move forward, because I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Move forward. You come into that place of abundance. You cross over that Jordan. You step out in faith and you move and you accept my forgiveness. You accept my restoration. You accept my blessings. You move forward. You go into that place of abundance and allow that abundance to work in you so it can work through you."

The Promised Land is never meant to be something we keep to ourselves. The Promised Land for Israel was to be a place of blessing so they could witness to all of the Gentile nations around them of the one true God, witness of his glory and of his goodness. Unfortunately, they kept it to themselves, and many times they disobeyed the covenant. God would not allow them to stay there in peace, and he would not allow them to stay in the land, because they disobeyed.

God does not intend the fullness of our salvation to stop with us. He wants it to leak out of us and to go into the highways and byways of our communities so people can see the one true living God. The Promised Land is for those who were at one time and are right now in bondage in Egypt, who need to be delivered from Egypt. Only Jesus can deliver us from the bondage of sin. Only Jesus can lead us into the fullness of the Promised Land.

Some of you need to move forward today, but it's not out of the wilderness. Some of you are in the bondage of Egypt. You're in the bondage of sin. You can't get to the Promised Land until you cross through the Red Sea. You can't get to the Promised Land until you pass through the blood of Jesus Christ, and that will only happen through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When you trust in Jesus, he brings you out of the bondage of sin. He cleanses you and purifies you from all your sin, and he takes you into the wilderness. Now he says, "Go into the Promised Land. I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly." Some of you today need to do that. You need to say, "Jesus, I trust you as Lord and Savior." Others of you are in the sag of the wilderness, and God is calling you. "Move forward."

Let's bow our heads, close our eyes. You need Jesus today. You need to be freed from your sin. Right where you are, from your heart, just call out to Jesus. The Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Tell him to deliver you. Tell him you trust in his death and resurrection. Tell him you have faith. Tell him you'll follow him. If you mean that from your heart and you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you have just passed from death to life.

Others of you are in the wilderness. You're a believer, but you're in the wilderness, and you're struggling with trusting God. You're wondering if you'll ever get over the Jordan. It's going to take faith, and it's going to take you today saying, "Lord, I'm moving forward from this wilderness. I'm moving forward, and I'm going to go into that place of abundance. I'm going to allow you to heal me. I'm going to allow you to give me hope. I'm going to allow you to restore me."

You know who you are. God is speaking to you today, and he's saying, "Come and enjoy the fullness of your salvation." If you're here today and you know you need Christ… In a moment we're going to sing this song about how God saves us. He's mighty to save. He's saving you. You come forward and tell me, "Pastor, I've given my life to Christ." You may want to come forward and say, "I'm moving into the Promised Land, Pastor." Whatever God is speaking to your heart, you obey, you move.

Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for this truth today that penetrates every one of us. May we take it, may we accept it, and go forward. In Jesus' name, amen.