Moving Forward – Part 2 Joshua 1:2-5

First Southern Baptist Church

Dr. Patrick Mead

Series: Forward

June 29, 2014

Moving Forward – Part 2

Joshua 1:2-5

I like Mexican food. How many of you like Mexican food? I'm almost a little bit too fond of Mi Ranchito. When I go there, 99 percent of the time I order the same thing. I order the Fajitas Mi Pueblito, mixed. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about when I say fajitas? You order the Fajitas Mi Pueblito? You should. Nobody else has ordered? I had one person in the last service. Is that what you order, Fajitas Mi Pueblito? Okay, you're going to understand this.

Now what makes it so special… It's not the chicken or the beef, and there are the onions, of course. I know you are probably hungry, right. The onions. They put tomatoes in there. They sauté the mushrooms with it and they put cheese on top when they bring it out. But there's one ingredient. This is really the only reason I order it. They put bacon in it. Oh, do they put bacon in it. They can leave out the chicken, they can leave out the beef, just bring the bacon. I want bacon fajitas, I guess.

So you can imagine my shock and dismay when one night (it might have been a Sunday) they brought me the fajitas and there was no bacon. I'm like, "Who's cooking back there? Do they not know the ingredients? Read the menu!" I was doing it in the niceness of the Lord, but, "Dude, I'm not eating this. You have to go get the bacon. Bring to me the bacon."

Now I'd like to say it only happened one time, but it happened three times. One time I was just so tired. This was on a Sunday. I just ate them anyway, but I didn't like it. So now every time I order I say, "Give me the Fajitas Mi Pueblito mixed, and make sure you put the bacon in it," because for me the bacon is the Promised Land. Anything less is the wilderness.

I think there are too many Christians who are living their lives without the bacon. Figuratively, not literally. What I mean is they're not experiencing all God has for them, the abundance of their salvation and the fullness of their salvation. Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly."

I think we make a mistake when we present the gospel, "Hey, you need Jesus so you can go to heaven." I'm learning more about the kingdom of God, and I think you need Jesus so heaven can come to you right now. See, Jesus wants you to have the abundant life now. Jesus wants to begin to make you whole now. He wants you to enjoy bacon now. He wants you to enjoy the fullness of your salvation now. Many Christians don't abide in Christ and enjoy the fullness of all God has for them.

As we study the book of Joshua, we're journeying with Joshua and the Israelites to the Promised Land. Their journey is a picture for the Christian life. If you think about it, they were delivered out of the bondage of Egypt, they were led into the wilderness, and it was only going to take them a month to get to the Promised Land. 

How many years did it take? Forty years. Why? Because they didn't want the bacon. They didn't trust God. They didn't believe God. They grumbled with God. There was a whole unbelieving generation that did not experience the fullness and the abundance of the Promised Land. But see, that's a picture of the Christian life.

When you come to Christ, God delivers you out of the bondage of sin, and you come into the wilderness and he expects you to move forward to enjoy the abundant life, the full life in Jesus Christ. Now the Promised Land for us is not a place. He's a person, and his name is Jesus Christ. He is the Promised Land. Read Hebrews. We experience the Promised Land because we have the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, living in us.

We have to abide in Christ, and as we abide in Jesus Christ then we experience the fullness of all God has for us. Think about this. I'm doing a study on the Holy Spirit. In fact, it's called Forty Days with the Holy Spirit. R. T. Kendall wrote this book. He's just emphasizing things I think we take for granted concerning the Holy Spirit.

As I was witnessing to Muslims in New York, it's so interesting when you say, "Well, we worship one God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." They're going, "What?" "Yeah, I don't know how else to tell you. We worship one God. He's in three persons. They're all distinct persons, and well, they're one." I just accept it by faith. I can't explain it. 

Anytime you try to explain the Trinity you become a heretic. Do you know that? Don't try to illustrate the Trinity. You can't illustrate that we worship one God in three persons. They're all different but they're one. You can't do that. It's a mystery. I think we take for granted the fact that God is eternal, right? God the father is eternal. God the Son is eternal. Now the eternal Son became man, right? He become God-Man. So the logos came and dwelt among us, but he has always existed.

Then we have the Holy Spirit. Guess what? He's eternal too. If you are a believer, he lives in you. Now that blows my mind. The everlasting God, the God who always exists and the eternal God who has always existed… Kids always ask, "Well, who created God?" Nobody! He just is. Well, the just-is God lives in every true believer. Now we have the eternal God, and he says, "I want you to have life abundantly. I want you to have victory in this world. I want you to be blessed by the abiding presence of Christ in your life."

Many Christians won't cross the Jordan, and they'll live defeated lives. Now the Promised Land doesn't mean that everything is going to go good for you. In fact, the Promised Land was a place of conflict for the Israelites. They had to battle. They had to fight. But God gave them these wonderful promises that he'll give them the victory and all they needed to enjoy the land. It was contingent on them wholeheartedly obeying God.

Now here is the main theme of this study as we go through Joshua. We're going to spend the summer months in this, but the main theme is that God calls you. He calls believers to move forward in our Christian experience to possess the abundance and fullness of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Now last week we saw he was calling Joshua and then calling the Israelites to go forward, to move forward, to press on, to leave this wilderness, and to go into the Promised Land. What we learned from that calling is that God calls us to move forward in spite of changing circumstances and on the basis of his unchanging character and purposes. God is commissioning Joshua in these first nine verses, and he gives him eight commands. Two of them we saw last week. "Arises and go over." 

In verse 2, he says, "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over…" "I know Moses is dead, but I still want you to go forward because I'm an unchanging God. My character is unchanging, my purposes are unchanging, and I am now calling you to go over." As he's calling him to go over, he also prepares him. God prepares you to move forward.

When God called Joshua in that first chapter, do you want to know how old he was? He wasn't young. He was 85 years old. Yeah, I let those 85-year-olds in the first service have it. You have no excuse. If God is calling Joshua at 85, he's calling you too. No, I'm just kidding. But he was 85 years old when God says, "Okay, Joshua, it's now time for you to rise and move forward. You're going to lead these people into the Promised Land." 

That means he was 45 years old when God delivered the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt. Let's do our math…85 minus 45 is what? Yes! For 40 years God was preparing Joshua for this day, and 40 years he spent in the wilderness. You can't bypass the wilderness to get to the Promised Land. It's all a part of it. It's the pathway to the Promised Land.

The wilderness has a purpose in the life of God's people. For the Israelites, it was a place where they were going to have to totally trust God to provide food, to provide water, to provide protection, to provide guidance, and all those things God did. All those things he did, but it's a place of brokenness. It's a place where God gets us to the point.

Some of us struggle with the wilderness. We think, "Why does God have me in the wilderness?" Have you ever had anybody say this to you? I have this all the time. It's not an uncommon statement that's made to me, but I imagine if you're a believer you've probably had this too, or maybe you've thought this. 

"Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" Have you ever heard that? Yeah. My first response is, "Well, I don't know anybody good." In fact, Jesus said there's only one who is good. Who's that? Yeah, God. God is good. We're sinners. But then I thought to say that is to really not understand the very purpose of why God allows us to go through wildernesses. 

The wilderness has a purpose. It is to get us to a point in our lives where we are broken, where we're no longer trying to trust in ourselves, we're no longer trying to worship ourselves, where all we can do is say, "God, I surrender to you. I'm broken. I trust you." That's why we need the wilderness because it's the pathway into the Promised Land. It's the pathway into the abundant life. You can't go around the wilderness to get to the abundant life. 

So I want you to think about this for a moment. On your notes if you take notes (and if you don't, I want you to make a mental note) every one of us is probably in some sort of wilderness right now. It could be your marriage. It could be your finances. It could be your work. It could be your church experience, relationships in the church. Every one of us is probably in some sort of wilderness right now. That wilderness has a purpose. So if you can, I want you to write it down or just make a mental note because we're coming back to that.

Then I want you to make a note of this because that wilderness you're going through right now, whatever it is, has a purpose. What it's probably doing, and you can begin to identify with that right now, is what happens is it begins to reveal these inner (I want to call them) bondages to things that belong to the old nature.

For instance, it can bring out anger. You're in the midst of this wilderness. All of a sudden there's anger. Maybe it's anger with God. Maybe it's anger with another person. Maybe it's bringing out a bitter spirit, a resentful spirit. Maybe that wilderness is bringing out unforgiveness or maybe fear. Maybe it's bringing out disbelief that, "God, if you really love me, why are you allowing these things to happen?"

That's what it was doing in the Israelites, and unfortunately, the reason they stayed in the wilderness for 40 years was because when it came out they didn't like it. They didn't allow the wilderness to fulfill its purpose, and instead they grumbled and they complained with God. They became angry with God. They wanted to go back to Egypt. They were the first generation of instant gratification. Do you know that?

I used to think, "Man, people my age and younger are instant gratification," because we grew up with microwave. We want it and we want it now. We have fast food. But the Israelites were doing the same thing. Now maybe their timeframe for instant gratification was a little bit longer and slower than ours, but they still wanted it, right? "We want food! We want it now. We don't want this stuff called manna. What is it? We want meat. Where's the water? We want water. Oh, we had it much better in Egypt." The wilderness has a purpose.

Now we're coming back because you have a wilderness. There's something in you God is bringing up to the surface. The wilderness is synonymous with what Peter calls trials in his first chapter. In 1 Peter 1, he says there is a purpose for trials. They are necessary. The wildernesses we go are necessary because when you go through that wilderness what God does is he begins to bring out those inner bondages, whatever they may be, and he begins to purify your faith to really see if it's genuine because if you have a genuine faith you're going to stay with it.

Many people give up. "God, I'm not going your way. I'm going my way. I can do a better job doing it myself." But true faith will hold on. What that trial will do, what that wilderness will do is begin to… Well, it's going to be hot for sure, and it's going to purify that faith. As it purifies that faith, guess what happens? All of those impurities are removed and you're broken and all of a sudden you look more like Jesus. 

See, that's the wilderness. Those things are coming to the top and God is trying to get you to that place to say, "I surrender. I trust you." God calls you, he prepares you, but he also provides for you to move forward. 

Here's the blessing of God's call. When he called Joshua, when he called the Israelites, he didn't just prepare them; he also said, "Oh, by the way, I'll provide everything you need to move forward." What is true of Joshua and the Israelites is also true of you, child of God. God provides everything you need.

The provision God provides, everything that follows the commands in verse 2 are God's provisions. Let's look at verse 2 again. He says, "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over…" There's the command. Now here's the provision. "…arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land…" Here's the first promise. "…that I am giving to them…" "I promise to give you the land." "…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."

What God does is he says, "Joshua, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to provide for you, and the provision all comes in the form of promises." So first of all, God provides his promises so we can walk on those promises and move forward into the abundant life. The first promise was the promise of the land. He said, "I'm giving you the promise. I'm giving you land. I'm promising you the land. It's the same promise I gave to Moses."

Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines the promises of God in this way, and I think it's a correct way. "The promises of God, or biblical promises, are God's grace given to man." That is a good description of the promises of God. God's grace given to man. Do you know why we call it grace? Because God does not have to give us any promises. That's why we call it grace. God gives us what we don't deserve.

What God does when he makes a promise, he says, "I'm going to make a pledge, and whatever I promise, whatever I pledge, I will perform it, I will grant it to you." We know God is faithful to his promises because we know of God's character that he is a God of mercy, he is a God of grace, and he is a God of faithfulness. When God gives a promise, he will keep it. So he says, "Joshua, I want you to go forward. I promise you, and it's the same promise I gave to Moses, and it's the same promise I gave to Abraham."

That's why in verse 3 he says, "I have given to you." In verse 2, "I will give it," and then verse 3, "I have given it. I've given it to you because I promise. It's a done deal." Now what did God give? Well, look at verse 4. He gave the land. He says, "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."

Now to really understand what's going to transpire here, I'm going to encourage you to read the book of Deuteronomy. But what God does here is he says, "Here's what I'm giving you. Here's the Promised Land." So what does that consist of? Well, it consists of modern-day Israel. It consists of all of the country Jordan, most of Saudi Arabia, half of Iraq, all of Lebanon, all of Kuwait, and some of Syria. That's a lot of land, isn't it?

If you look at the map, you realize they don't posses that right now. They don't have that land. Some would suggest they've never possessed all the land. If they don't possess the land and they've never possessed the land, the great question is, "Well, Pastor, does that mean God is unfaithful to his promise?" No, not at all.

The reason they don't possess the land and never have possessed the land is not God's doing. Whose doing is it? Israel's. See, that's why you need to read Deuteronomy. God said, "I'm giving you the land, and I'll give you peace, and I'll give you abundance, and I'll bless you, and as I bless you and you live the abundant life, you'll become a witness to all those nations around of the glory of God and the goodness of God. They will see there is only one true God and he is the God of Israel."

But they had to believe. The reason that promise was never actualized in the life of Israel is because they did not wholeheartedly believe and keep the covenant. Time and time again, even when they went into the Promised Land, some of them didn't even go over. They said, "We're going to stay on this side of the Jordan." Others of them said, "Okay, well, go," but once they got there they didn't kill all the enemies. They didn't kill all the people, but instead they compromised and they settled for comfort.

They didn't keep the covenant. Then through the years they disobeyed the covenant, and God would say, "Okay, you're not going to have any peace. Not only are you not going to have any peace, I'm going to remove you from the land." If the people of Israel were breaking the covenant and if there was a prophet saying, "Oh, don't worry, we have peace in the land because the temple is here," they were considered (Jeremiah 14) a false prophet. 

A false prophet doesn't tell a disobeying Israel they're safe in the land. A true prophet like Jeremiah says, "Repent, or God is going to discipline you," and history shows he did. They spent 70 years in exile. Now of course, under the new covenant, we have a more glorious kingdom, one that belongs to Christ, one that's way better than this world could ever offer. The reason those promises were never actualized is because they didn't wholeheartedly abide in the covenant.

God says, "I give you all the promises you need. What you need to do is now abide in my Son, Jesus Christ." He provides promises. He also provides power. Notice the very first part of verse 5. He says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life." That's pretty powerful. He's telling Joshua, "When you go into the Promised Land, you have all the power you need. You can destroy the foreigners. You can destroy the nations that are located there. You can destroy all the "-ites" who are there, the Hittites, all of them. I give you the power."

I like to think that the very first part of verse 5 is the Romans 8 of the Old Testament. In Romans 8 it says if God is for you who can be against you, right? That's what he's saying. "I am for you, Joshua. Don't worry. I am on your side. I've given you all the power you need." 

It doesn't matter what trials you're going through. It doesn't matter what hardships you're going through. It doesn't matter what wilderness you're in. "I give you the power," he says to Joshua, and he says it to us as believers as well that in Christ Jesus no matter what you face you are more than conquerors. Think about that.

Where's the power we have located? Where? Holy Spirit. Right. And he lives in every one of us. The eternal God lives in us. What does that mean for the believer? The same power, resurrection power, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that lives in you, and you can live the Christian life because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will take your dead nature and has turned it alive, and you are now alive in Jesus Christ. 

You are a new creation in Christ. The old is gone, the new has come, and you have resurrection power in your life. You have reigning power because it says that now the power of righteousness reigns in the lives of believers, and we have the ability to live a righteous life, a righteousness that comes from God, because the power of God lives in us. We have a released power. There's this mighty power working in us so we can labor and serve and worship. God says, "I give you my promises, I give you my power, and I give you my presence."

Look at the last part of verse 5. This last promise is really the promise that holds it all together. "Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." That promise is not just to Joshua; it's carried over, isn't it? Jesus says that as well. "I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you." The Lord says it here. "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." That's what holds it all together.

"How will I know you'll give me the power? How will I know you'll fulfill the promises?" "Because I'm with you." As God's presence went with them and as they wholeheartedly obeyed the covenant, they would enjoy the blessings of the Promised Land. God would bless them. God would give them peace. God would just miraculously bless them. Have you read some of the blessings that are in Deuteronomy? He said, "Man, these things won't happen to you if you will obey, and then you will be a light to all those Gentile nations around you."

The abundant life has a responsibility. The abundant life has the responsibility of witnessing to the lost nations of the glory and the goodness of God. It's carried over into the new covenant when Jesus said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…" Go and make disciples of your neighbors. Go and make disciples of your family members. Go and make disciples of the people at work. Go and make disciples of that person who works down at the gas station, the person who works at Walmart. Go and make disciples of them. 

"…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold…" What is it that Jesus says? "…I am with you always, to the end of the age." That's significant because just as he calls us to live the abundant life, the only way we can do that is to wholeheartedly abide in Jesus. As we wholeheartedly abide in Jesus and we allow the power of God to live through us and the fullness of the Spirit to live through us, our responsibility is to not hold that into ourselves. 

God never intended for the abundant life to stay with you. He never intended living water to stop with you. For that water to stay alive it can't be stagnant, right? So it has to flow out of you. That's why Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are thirsty, and I'll give you living water." Living water, the fullness of the Spirit, the fullness of the Christ life will flow through you and to others. So we're supposed to be leaking all over everybody, amen? Think about it. 

God says, "Move forward. I've given you everything you need. You have promises. You have power. You have my presence." Now I think we need to understand this for a moment because here's where a lot of you might find yourself today, and that is understanding the time element of God's promises.

If you're like me and you struggle with waiting on God… Anybody? I'm glad one person struggles with waiting on God. Have you ever felt like God delays? Anybody else want to? Yeah. Do you know what happens when we struggle with waiting on God? Usually we think he's delaying, but that's only from our perspective. God uses that time element, the waiting, as a tool in our lives. That tool is to really show us where our heart is. It's to teach us how to trust in his supernatural power, to trust in his ways.

In all honesty, I'm still learning all that stuff. I've spent a lot of my Christian life taking things into my own hands. Anybody? Yeah. I've spent a lot of my Christian life trying to make things happen for God when I should've just been waiting the whole time. A lot of times it has caused me to become depressed and even grumble with God and say, "Why, God?" 

I think just recently I've started to understand that that wilderness has a purpose, that brokenness has a purpose, and that purpose is to get me to the abundant life. That's what happened to the Israelites. That manna had a purpose. The water from rocks had a purpose. The turning bitter water into sweet water had had a purpose. The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night had a purpose. It was to keep them humble, keep them broken, and keep them surrendered to God because that was the pathway to the Promised Land.

Let's go back to your wilderness. You know, that one you wrote earlier on your piece of paper. What is it? Were you able to identify some of those inner bondages or a bondage? Some of your struggles inwardly may be with God. Maybe you're in the wilderness right now and you're angry with God. "God, how can you allow me to go through this wilderness experience?" Well, it has a purpose. Maybe it's a marriage. Maybe it's your finances. Maybe it's relationships.

God wants to bring you to that place where you allow him to refine you. Let me just say thank God if you're able to identify that wilderness and to identify what he's trying to bring up to the top. Thank God you are on the pathway to abundance. Let's bow our heads. Let's bow our hearts.

I want you to take that wilderness, whatever it may be. It could be parenting. It could be anything. It could be insecurities. What is coming up? Here's what I want you to do. I want you to commit it to God. Just give it to him and just say, "Lord, here's my wilderness. Here are the inner bondages I'm struggling with," whether it be anger or insecurities, unforgiveness. Whatever it is, give it to him. 

Then I want you to thank God he has given you everything you need to move forward. God does not want you to stay there. He doesn't want you to stay in regret. He doesn't want you to stay in anger. He doesn't want you to stay in unforgiveness. He wants you to move forward on his promises that he will never leave you nor forsake you, that he doesn't condemn you. He gives you all the power you need. He forgives you. He cleanses you. You give it to him right now.

Then here's what I want you to do. Some of you know God has spoken a promise to you. Maybe today he just gave you a promise. Maybe it's the promise of power you needed. Maybe it's the promise of his presence. You needed that. Well, you claim that promise today. It's yours in Christ Jesus. Maybe it's the promise that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Maybe it's the promise he'll work all things for the good, all things for the good, all things for the good for those who love God. That's a promise for you.

He promises that when you can't pray for yourself the Holy Spirit is praying for you right now. That's a promise. Claim it. The Scriptures promise that Jesus right now is also interceding for you. That's a promise. Claim it. It's also a promise that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise. Conditional promise, but it's yours. Take it. It's yours.

Here's what you need to do with that promise. You need to strengthen yourself with it. Don't listen to the lies of the Devil. That's your promise. You remind yourself of that promise. That promise is yours. It's yours because Jesus bought it for you. It's yours. 

Some of you here today there's a wonderful promise that says if you seek the Lord with all of your heart you'll find him. Some of you here today need to be delivered from your sin and self and you need to experience eternal life. Heaven needs to come to you today, and that'll only come to you as you turn from your sin and self and place your faith in Jesus.

If you're here this morning and you know you've never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior (every head is bowed here), I want you to look up and raise your hand and just look at me and say, "I'm trusting Jesus for the first time. I've never trusted Jesus as my Lord and Savior."

Father, thank you for your forgiveness that's in Jesus. As we come to the Lord's Table, we humble ourselves. We confess with you. We're so thankful as we examine ourselves, our wilderness, the things we're struggling with, whatever those sins may be, we humble ourselves. We give them to you. We agree with you right now about them, and we are accepting right now your forgiveness in Christ Jesus and the cleansing we have in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.