Joshua: Seize the Future
(Key NT Passage Hebrews 11:30-12:2)
I. Introduction: Seize the Future
a. Table of Contents – notice the first five books we have completed. The next twelve books cover about 1000 years of Israel’s history from the 14th century bc to the 5th century bc.
b. I hope that you have noticed something very important in our first five studies that will continue to be revealed as we study the book of Joshua, History is more than a collection of stories about random people and events. God is moving history to a final moment of victory, triumph, judgment, and jubilee.c. Our lives have meaning because and our actions have an impact because of what God is doing in the world. We are on a collision course to stand before God, the King of the Universe to give an accounting for our lives. This is the reality for the entire world. i. Those who, by faith, confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe that his perfect life, death, and resurrection paid the penalty for their sin and defeated sin and death once and for all, will be granted the ultimate future. The Ultimate Promised Land. ii. Those who reject Jesus as the one who pays for their sin and bow to other gods they will remain subject to the terrible wrath of God, the same fate foreshadowed in the book of Joshua as we witness God ordering the total destruction of the Canaanitesd. I pray that as we look at this book today, we will discover the impact of history on the future. When we think about today, we must always keep in mind today’s impact on the future. e. The church is never called to have its focus on the past –we anchor to the past, but our focus is to Seize the Future. What do I mean? I mean that we do something about what we believe. This is the kind of book we are going to study today….the people finally decide to do something that demonstrated belief in the promises of God. God wants us to do something about his future promises for us!f. Joshua is easy to breakdown. It has 24 chapters. The first 12 chapters cover the conquest of Canaan. The rest of the book is the account of the division of the land among the tribes. The last couple of chapters are Joshua’s final words to the nation.II. The Formula for Success (Joshua 1:1-11)a. Courageous Leadership i. The Magnitude of the Task1. Crossing over 40 years later in the shadow of Jericho ii. The Mastery of the Land1. Destroying the Canaanites (Joshua 11:16-19,23) iii. The Meaning for us Today1. God’s People Conquered Canaan.a. They finally acted on the promises of God as the followed Joshua into battle.b. Joshua is a type of Christ. Christ is our great captain who has not conquered an earthly kingdom but sin and sin’s horrible offspring death.2. The Church is to be Engaged in a Spiritual Battlea. We need courageous leaders to rise up within the church to go into battle, not armed with a literal sword, but armed with the sword of the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ! (Joshua 1:7-8)b. Growth Team Strategy Introduction i. We are preparing the launch a new strategy called growth teams. The purpose of this is not a new program, a gimmick, or passing fad. The purpose is to mobilize our church into the community to accomplish our Great Commission and to live out the Great Commandment. ii. I will be discussing this strategy in detail on Sunday nights in the month of Jan. and we have training session today at 3:30 in the chapel for our CLG teachers and anyone interested in leading out in this new effort.b. Corporate Organization i. They had to prepare to possess the Land and divide amongst themselves once the land was conquered. Chapters 13-22 focus on this entire process. ii. Have you noticed that God is an orderly God? He organizes his people to effectively and efficiently accomplish what he has called them to do. iii. I Cor. 14:40 “But all things should be done decently and in order.”1. We are to be organized and mobilized as an entire body to accomplish the mission God has given us as a church!2. Growth Teams is a way to bring a common effort and organization to our body with the purpose of accomplishing our corporate mission at the forefront.c. Corporate Obedience (Joshua 24:14-24) i. Corporate Obedience1. They promise to follow Joshua (1:16-18)2. The Circumcision of a new generation (5:2-9)a. Think about the commitment of these men to identify themselves with God in this way before going into battle!b. Many people today are not willing to identify with Christ in Baptism – how can we go into battle without the willingness to identify with our savior.3. The fist Passover meal beyond the Jordan (5:10-12)
4. Each of these events demonstrates a critical level of corporate obedience that had been absent in the wilderness!
a. There is life beyond the wilderness!
i. This church can experience growth again. We can see people give their lives to Christ. We can see families saved, marriages healed, the broken restored.
ii. There is life beyond your personal struggles with sin and your dry relationship with Christ.
b. I am convinced the God works powerfully through corporate obedience. Remember that Joshua and Caleb(14:6-15) were a part of the original group of spies who disobeyed…the fruits of their personal obedience was not realized until the entire nation vowed obedience to the Lord.
ii. Corporate Disobedience
1. Only one recorded sin of commission – Achan hides the loot from Jericho.
2. There are many sins of omission
a. They fail to pray when making a treaty with the Gibeonites (9:14-15)
b. The people fail to take parts of the land they are supposed to take. (13:1 and 18:3)
c. To understand life and death, in order to Seize the Future we must understand sin.
d. Are their sins of commission and omission in our lives that hinder the corporate effectiveness of our body? YES
e. We must confess those things individually and we must carve out the time corporately to do some of those things we have omitted from our lives. In a sense we are refusing to take the land God has given us. To saturate Siloam Springs with the message of the Gospel and the love of Christ. Growth teams are intended as a way for us to walk in corporate obedience together through prayer and outreach.
i. Three core values of Growth Teams: Fellowship/Prayer/Outreach
III. The Joshua Principle
a. God does not call us to accomplish what we can do on our own. He calls us to accomplish what only he can do by His Sovereign power in our lives.
b. What is the basis of the formula of success in Joshua chapter 1?
i. Joshua 1:9
c. God is faithful to fulfill his promises
i. God brought them out of Egypt and now He is bringing them in to take possession of the Land.
ii. 24:2-13
d. God is faithful to fight for his people (23:3)
i. Who made the flow of the Jordan stop?
ii. Who makes the walls of Jericho fall to the ground
iii. Who defeats the Israelites at AI when they sin?
iv. Who restores Israels fortunes when he rains down hailstones on their enemies and causes the sun to stand still so that the armies of Israel can complete their victory?
v. Did Joshua do any of this? (21:43)
vi. To understand the Bible we have to understand that we have a sovereign God, who can act without negating our own actions and responsibility.
1. I can’t explain to you everything about how that works, but I know the Bible teaches that both his sovereignty and our responsibility are true!
2. If you try to hold on to one truth and not the other you get yourself in serious trouble.
a. If you think the Bible is just a book of moral instructions and God is sitting around waiting on us and adjusting to us than you have the wrong God.
b. If you think that your actions and decisions do not matter, you do not understand the scripture.
c. This is what gives us ultimate meaning as God’s People, in God’s Place, under God’s rule….we have ultimate meaning as the one’s who carry out the divine initiatives of the King of King’s and the Lord of Lord’s.
e. God is faithful to persevere with his people
i. Did you notice all of the piles of stones in this book?
ii. Each pile of stones reminded the people of a time which God acted in a merciful and gracious way towards them.
iii. Edward Payson said, “You cannot make a rich man beg like a poor man; you cannot make a man that is full cry for food like one that is hungry; no more will a man who has a good opinion of himself cry for mercy like one who feels that he is poor and needy.”
iv. Friend, church – let us recognize our need for God to persevere with us. Let us understand the call to endurance to Seize the future and run the race before us.
Conclusion:
· I saved the key NT passage for last this week.
· Hebrews 11:30-12:2
· Here is the invitation challenge this morning:
o First – Have you trusted in Christ to pay the penalty of your sin?
o Second – To what extend are you willing to go to identify with Christ?
§ Are you willing to be baptized and become a part of local body of believers.
o Third – Will you help us Seize the Future as a church.
§ If you are interested in Helping launch our growth team strategy come to a training meeting this afternoon at 3:30 in the chapel.
§ Attend the evening worship services starting at 6pm during the month of January and discover what God is calling us to do.
