Strength and Courage: Embracing God's Call in Our Lives

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

All right, so we're going to start our Bible study here this evening.

Now, we started a new one last week.

Does anybody remember what book we're in?

What?

Joshua.

All right.

Sometimes that's a scary thing to ask as a teacher, if anyone remembers what we talked about last week.

Okay.

The last week you heard a confession from me that I'm a prosperity preacher.

But not.

Don't clip that.

I'm not a prosperity, material prosperity preacher, but I do believe in spiritual prosperity.

Right.

Biblically speaking, we looked at Joshua, chapter one, and God gave Joshua a promise.

The promise was his presence.

Essentially, like, I'm going to be with you.

I've got a plan for you.

And he says, if you want to be spiritually successful, or another way we could put it, verse number eight, spiritually prosperous, follow this path.

And what was that path?

He talked about observing the law, observing the word, staying true to it, not departing from.

From his mouth, meditating upon a day and night, observing it.

He says, if you follow in my word, if you follow in the law, you'll be successful.

And he's not talking about material success.

You know, if I got up here and told you, if you just love God enough, he's going to give you everything you've ever wanted, I would be lying to you, because that's not biblical.

Does God choose to bless certain people materially?

Of course.

But that doesn't equate God's love to us, because there's plenty of people that I've seen God's hand upon that don't have a lot of money, that.

That might have physical problems.

And so we, we know that the type of prosperity and blessing that God promises is at the deepest level, a spiritual blessing, an eternal blessing.

There.

There's a passage that we could cross reference in the New Testament.

Many of you know that the book of Ephesians speaks to the blessings, the spiritual blessings that we have in the Lord, the spiritual riches.

And I just thought of one verse, Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 3.

Blessed be God, be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

And so to have a relationship with Christ means that we have access to God, and having access to God means we're part of the family of God.

And being part of the family of God means that we are inheritance of the blessings of God.

And, and so in the book of Joshua, we, we see the literal story of God moving the Israelites or finishing moving the Israelites from a land of bondage to a land of freedom, the land of promise.

And so we do have that story here, but also I believe it's a parallel story to how God takes us out of the bondage of sin in our Egypt and moves us to the promised land, moves us to a place of new life.

And so in Joshua, chapter one, verses one through nine, last week we looked at God's promise to Joshua, God's promise to his people.

And we're going to look this week about how we as believers can properly respond to the plan of God in our life.

How do we, how do we properly respond to the plan of God?

Because God has laid out for us a path.

He's laid out for us a plan.

But it's upon us to follow that plan and to live a life of those spiritual blessings.

And so he says last week, hey, this is what I've promised you.

What did he promise Joshua and the people of Israel?

Well, he promised Joshua Specifically, verse 5.

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

So the promise to Joshua was this.

I'm going to be with you.

God says, joshua, I'm going to be with you just as I was with Moses.

And by the way, Joshua would have understood what that meant by witnessing all the great things that God did in the life of Moses, as Moses was the leader.

And so now God says, just as you saw me in the life of Moses, so I will be there with you.

So it's a promise that I will be with you through the difficulties.

He doesn't promise Joshua, hey, life's going to be easy.

You're not going to face any problems, you're not going to face any giants, you're not going to face any people that are going to come against you.

By, by war standards.

No, he says, I'm going to be with you.

And I think that's the same promise that God gives us.

Obviously, you think about the story of the disciples following Jesus and they get in the boat and Jesus says, we're going to go to the other side.

Well, he doesn't say, hey, we're not going to have any storms.

He says, I'm going to be with you and we're going to get to the other side.

And so God doesn't promise us exemptions from the struggles and the storms.

What he promises us is that he's going to be with us through that.

And so when God gives us a plan for our life, when he gives us a direction, when he gives us promises, when He.

To claim those promises essentially means to trust him and to trust that he will keep his word.

And so what did God promise Joshua?

That he was going to be with him?

His presence.

His presence was part of the promise, but he also promised his power, right?

He says, I it's going to be my power that you're going to have this victory.

It's going to be my power that you cross the River Jordan and go to the other side and face all of these foes and eventually have the land that I have promised you.

And so God, when He gives us his plan and his promise, he always gives that to us with his promise and his presence and his power.

We looked at the Great Commission, you guys remember at the end of Matthew, chapter 28, Jesus says, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth.

And then he gives us the Great Commission.

Go make disciples.

Go preach the word.

Go baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Go disciple people.

Make disciples.

And then he ends with this.

And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the earth.

And so what we see in, in this concept is this.

When God makes that promise, he then reminds us that it's his power that's going to give us the opportunity to do the things that he's promised us.

And it's his presence that will be with us through that, through that struggle.

And so he ends with verse number nine.

This is what we looked at last week.

And then we're going to jump into it.

Verse 10 this week says, have I not commanded thee?

Be strong and of a good courage.

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.

Why, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

He doesn't just say, joshua, don't be afraid, Joshua.

Figure it out.

Joshua.

Just, just don't fear.

I. I remember having good coaches in sports and bad coaches in sports.

Some of my bad coaches would say, like, hey, stop making mistakes.

And I would say, yeah, no kidding.

Like, I know that.

I know I shouldn't do that.

I know I shouldn't make this mistake.

But a good coach comes alongside and says, hey, hey, you're making mistakes.

This is how you can fix it.

Let's work on this.

This is how we can overcome this struggle that you're having in your life.

That's what God does.

God doesn't just tell us, hey, stop the fear, stop the anxiety, stop the, the doubt.

No.

He comes in and he says, no, I've given you a reason to have the understanding of victory.

I've given you the reason that you can overcome fear.

And that is what the end of verse nine.

For the Lord thy God is with the whithersoever thou goest again.

It's his presence, we know in the New Testament it says that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

And that's a, that's a promise that sometimes we do talk about, but sometimes we forget about by the way that we live.

You know, sometimes I'm willing to trust that God has my eternal destination handled, but I don't trust that he's got my day to day handle.

And I stress and I worry about maybe a thing that's going on in my life or I doubt or I fear.

And so understanding the promise of God and the plan of God means this, that he's going to be with me whether or not I understand it right now, whether or not it's in my timing, whether or not it's in my way.

He's got a plan, and I need to trust that plan.

So let's see how we can properly respond to the plan and the promise of God in our life.

So let's look at verse number 10, Joshua's response.

This is where we see Joshua responding to the promise that God gave him.

There in verses one through nine, we see that he takes action.

We see that the action is proof that he believes.

Now, we talk about faith, and we should, right?

Faith is what saves us.

But we know that the book of James says, faith without works is dead.

Now some people say, well, does that mean that my works are what saves me?

No.

But true faith produces action.

You've heard the classic analogy of, okay, I've got a chair here, and I believe that that chair will keep me up, but it's sitting.

Being seated in that chair proves that I trust in it.

And so what happens here is that a lot of people will say, I trust God.

I know he's got my back, I know he's got my future.

I know he's got my family.

But their life doesn't look that Way their life doesn't look like they trust that God has got it all under control.

So what does Joshua do?

Well, he takes action.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the host and command the people, saying, prepare your victuals, prepare your provisions, for within three days, ye shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.

So you say, what's.

What's happening here?

Well, Joshua says, hey, we need to prepare for the work of God.

God has made a promise.

Now we need to get ourselves ready to see God's plan coming to pass.

What can we take from that?

When God promises us something, we don't just sit back and say, well, I. I guess I'll just, you know, it'll all just drop on me.

No, it's preparing ourselves to be used by God.

1.

I don't remember a lot of sermons, and I've heard thousands and thousands and thousands of sermons in my life.

I grew up in a Baptist church just like this.

I grew up in a Christian school.

I heard countless sermons, and I'll remember a lot of them.

But I do remember one sermon that my pastor preached shortly before I got into the ministry.

And he got up and he says, are you ready to be used by God?

Is your life in a place where you could say, you know what?

I'm ready to be used?

Or are you.

Do you have too much baggage?

Are you holding on to too many things from this world?

And I thought about that, and in the reality, in the moment, I'm like, you know what?

No, I'm not ready.

If God called me to do something right now, I've got too much business with this world that I can't go to what God would have me to do.

And so in that moment, I went forward.

I remember that day going forward and saying, lord, get me ready for whatever you have for me.

And I don't know what that is, but, Lord, get me ready.

And that's a scary thing.

For some people, it's becoming a missionary.

For some people, it's getting into vocational ministry.

For other people, it's serving where God has you in the business field and serving God in that way.

And all of those things have challenges.

And so what does Joshua do?

He says, hey, we need to get ready.

We need to get our provisions ready for God to move us.

And so it's.

It's a waiting period.

It's a waiting period.

Even though it's three days here, sometimes when God gives us A promise, and he gives us a plan.

It doesn't happen in the way that we think it should happen, in the timing that we expect.

And so the waiting for God is often, sometimes, I would say, for me, the most difficult part.

But what ultimately comes through that is the waiting should be preparation.

There's.

There's.

God doesn't waste his time.

So a lot of times the waiting period is not just us sitting there.

It's us supposed to be preparing ourselves for God working in our lives.

And so I think about it, there was this Christian movie one time.

I can't remember the exact context and the exact thought, but basically it was this.

Like, the farmer is praying for rain, but he goes out and prepares the fields.

Right?

You know, I, I, Lord, I want the rain to come.

Well, I've got to go plant the seed.

And so I'm not, I'm not saying that God helps those that help themselves.

That's.

That's not what I'm saying.

But what I am saying is if I believe that God has a plan for my life, I want to be ready to be used by him.

I want to be prepared to be used by Him.

And so that's what we see here in this, that Joshua takes action.

He's busy about God's plan.

He says, hey, we need to get going.

Within three days, it's going to happen.

So get yourselves ready.

And as a pastor, one of my goals, the best that I can, is to, to get.

To get us ready, to, to get the church ready for the plan that God has for us.

The Bible says to redeem the time.

Why?

Because the days are evil.

Redeem just means to buy back, to use, to.

To.

To get in, in.

In a place where we can start serving now.

To, to use the time that God has us.

A lot of us, including myself, waste our time.

I can't tell you how many times in my day I realized, you know, what I've just wasted.

I've wasted too much.

I. I've got distracted for whatever reason.

I'm not saying, you know, I'm not saying that we should all smash our smartphones because they're great tools.

They're awesome tools.

I mean, I run my calendar off of this.

I run.

I get this.

I'll communicate with people.

But at the same time, we all know that things like this can be huge distractions for us to just waste our time.

But I guarantee you, people are wasting time before smartphones.

Some of you guys remember those times when we didn't have smartphones, but we still wasted our time, because in our human nature, that's what we do.

But what I want to say here this evening is this, as a pastor, I want to.

I want to challenge you.

Because Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four tells me as a pastor what my role is.

And that is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, to prepare us.

My job is not to do the whole ministry.

What if I said, okay, guys, I'm going to do everything.

You guys just sit back and enjoy?

That would not be.

That's not biblical, right?

Sometimes that's how we think church should be.

But, but really, biblically speaking, my job is to do the work of the ministry and equip those and challenge those and encourage those to get involved with the ministry as well.

Sometimes people hear the word ministry and they think, well, that's pastor, that's missionary, that's evangelist.

Well, that's vocational ministry.

Those are people that get paid for that.

But all of us are in the ministry.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are in the ministry.

You signed up.

You know, whether or not you're going to be preaching or you're going to be serving behind the scenes.

We all have a purpose.

We all have a plan in our life.

And so what we can see here is this.

We have an opportunity as a church to move forward and say, lord, you have a plan for me, you have a plan for our church.

And a lot of times we sit there and we.

We worry.

We stress about, well, are we in the will of God?

Are we doing the right thing?

I'm going to tell you very clearly, the Bible gives the church what our marching order should be.

Matthew, chapter 28.

It's called the Great Commission.

Make disciples to.

To live a life of salt and light so that the world around us can see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven.

It's to lead people to Christ.

And then at the same time, the Bible speaks a lot about the body of Christ edifying one another.

Forsake not the assembly of ourselves together, as the Bible says many were at that time.

Why?

So that we can encourage one another, so we can exhort one another to love and to good works.

So we have a purpose.

Now, your individual purpose might be different than somebody else's individual purpose.

And it's not my role to come up to you and say, well, I know how God maybe, maybe I can see something in someone's life, but ultimates between you and the Lord where God has you specifically in that plan.

But what we need to see here this evening is that we have to be prepared.

We have to be ready.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone's going to have a call to do missions, but how many of us, truly.

And I'm going to speak from the heart this evening.

How many of us would really say, like, if God called me, I would go, well, Pastor, you.

You'll know my.

My situation.

No, I. I get it.

Like, not.

I. I'm not saying that all of us are called to go.

And I don't think God's going to call someone that isn't ready.

But what I am saying is this.

If.

If there is something in my life that I'm holding on to too tightly, what.

What I might do is I might miss the opportunity to be prepared for God's work in my life.

I hate to see people go.

I would never want to see anyone leave.

You know, like, when Pastor John left and he went to another church, I'm like, no, I don't want to see you go.

But I knew where.

Where God had him, right?

The same thing.

If someone came up to me here this evening said, and.

And, hey, we.

Maybe we just got them into a ministry.

Maybe they're serving.

Maybe they're on fire for God.

And they say, hey, you know what?

God's calling us to be missionaries to, I don't know, Uganda in Africa.

Part of me would say, no, I don't want to see you go, because there's blessing in that of having them here.

But at the same time, what's it all about?

It's about spreading the gospel.

It's about equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

I remember when I went to tell my pastor in Florida that I was leaving, say, hey, hey.

We had prayed through a lot, and he was like, are you sure you want to go?

Are you sure Delaware is the right place to go?

And I'm like, not really.

But, I mean, I just feel like God's calling me.

And it's.

It was a tough thing, but I remember him saying, you know what?

That's where God has you.

I support this same conversation I had with my dad.

I mean, that was a tough one.

My dad and I are best friends.

And I was like, dad, I think God's calling me to move to Delaware.

And he's like, what?

He's like, no.

At first he was like, man, he was.

He was struggling with it.

I'm not gonna lie.

But.

But he.

He says this by way of testimony that through prayer.

He was like, I don't want to get in the way of what God has for you.

So I support this.

And I say all that to say this.

A lot of times we look at human material hindrances to what God has called us to do.

But when God calls us to do something, he's going to give us everything that we need.

So movement moving forward here.

I don't want to get too hung up that.

Verse 12.

And this is Joshua talking to a portion of the Israelites that have already settled on the one side, that aren't planning to go across, okay?

They, they're already settled in their, Their civilization, their area, their culture is settled here.

He says into the Rubenites, into the Gadites, and to half of the tribe of Manasseh spake Joshua saying, remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, the Lord your God have given you rest and have given you this land.

Your wives, your little ones and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan.

But ye shall pass before your brethren, armed all the mighty men of valor, and help them until the Lord have given your brethren rest as ye have given you, and they also have possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them.

Then ye shall return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses and the Lord's servant gave you on this side Jordan, toward the sun rising.

Now, if he didn't catch what's happening here, there's a group of Israelites that already have their land that was in promise to them.

They're already there.

But what the promise was and you can reference back, we won't go there.

But in numbers, chapter 32, basically, these individuals, these Israelites said they'll help the rest of the people get across Jordan and fight these battles for them so that they can be settled where God had them.

And so if you're not catching this, what it's basically saying is this.

God has already given you your rest, your land, your.

Your peace, but your brethren aren't there yet.

Your brethren need that victory.

And so what do you do?

You don't say, well, not, not my issue, not my problem, no, they're your brethren.

And, and so he says, remember the promise that you made, and for us, we can reference that back to numbers chapter 32.

And, and I believe that this is the same principle that really, I think, should operate the body of Christ.

When one member is in need, the whole body feels it.

And, and so I like how one commentator put It.

He said we should never refuse to help a brother because our own state is settled.

What does that mean?

There's a lot of people that are like, well, God's gotten me in my lane.

God's got me where I am.

I see a person over here struggling, that needs the victory, but they're not my problem.

Okay?

I'm already there.

That's all right.

So.

So what happens is, is that as.

As believers, sometimes we can be complacent because we've already experienced the blessing, we've been saved for 40, 50 years, and we look at someone else that might be struggling, and we say, yeah, I don't need to fight for them.

I don't need to fight for the next generation.

My.

My generation's sealed with.

And I think that Brother Dan, as he was talking this morning about our.

Our teens and the next generation, and Amy, as she mentioned, sign the testimony about the next generation, folks.

We should be fighting for the truth, not just for ourselves, but for the next generation.

We should be preparing the way for them.

Because the truth is, is that who knows what our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren and if the Lord Terry's great, great grandchildren will face when they become adults and are serving in church, okay, we don't know.

And so what we can see here in this case is he says, hey, look, just because you have it, okay, just because you are settled and you are at peace, that doesn't mean you can just sit back and be apathetic.

You are part of this.

You, this is your people.

I think of First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 25 and 26.

I think this is the New Testament principle within the church.

I don't say, well, my life's all good, so I can just.

I can just coast.

No says in verse 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care, one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it.

So I think the principle for us as believers today is that, hey, okay, maybe God has gotten me through that struggle.

Maybe God has given me the victory in that sin.

But.

But my brother might be struggling, so I want to fight that battle with him.

I'm going to be there with him and pray with him and deal with it when he's fallen down and help him get back up and keep walking in the path of righteousness in the Lord.

And so what I think about when it comes to this is is how.

When one part of the body is hurting, whether we know it or not, the whole body is hurting.

And sometimes those things are small things.

I use the analogy all the time.

It gets old.

But it's the one thing that I can see.

I. I have to see it, like, in pictures in my brain when.

When I have my kidney stone.

Like, it was this little, tiny, tiny thing.

But since that tiny thing was in a very specific place, it hurt my whole body.

Right?

My whole body felt it.

I. I wasn't saying to my wife that that night.

Well, my hands feel good and my head feels good and my.

My legs feel good, but damn, Just.

Just this.

This thing on my stomach.

No, I was like, everything.

You're like, we.

We.

My whole body felt it.

And as the body of Christ, we.

We might.

I might be in a good place right now in my spiritual walk, but if my brother's hurting, I'm hurting.

If my brother's weeping, I'm.

I'm weeping with him.

My brother's rejoicing, I'm rejoicing.

So we see it from this perspective of, hey, you know what?

The challenge is this.

Don't leave someone behind.

Don't turn a blind eye.

The Bible talks about walking circumspectly.

Walking circumspectly.

Why?

Well, so that we can know what's going on around us.

Sometimes we get so laser focused in our own issues that we miss needs around us.

I. I think of a story that happened with me some of, you know, a little while back, we went down to Alabama, and when we were down in Alabama, I had some free time, which free time is not something that I have very often.

And I was like, you know, I'm gonna go to the gym.

I'm gonna go to the gym.

I'm gonna work out here.

I'm gonna exercise my body.

And I.

When I go to the gym, I like to listen either to a podcast or to some Christian music.

And my phone was almost dead, so I said, you know what?

I'm just gonna park out in the parking lot, and I'm just gonna let my phone charge a little bit before I go in and work out.

I had a lot of time ahead of me.

I had, like three hours free.

Everyone was just doing stuff, and I'm like, okay, some free time.

So I'm sitting there, I plug my phone in, and I'm just looking at things on my phone, reading some stuff, and a few minutes go by, a few minutes go by, I'm just totally locked in on what I'm reading on my phone and doing.

And all of a sudden I hear, get your hands up.

And I'm like, what?

And I'm parked, by the way.

Let me another part of the story.

We just bought our.

Our new van, okay?

So Alicia's like, park it farther out.

So I'm parked out way on the part.

There's no one around me.

There's literally nobody around me.

So I'm parked way out there.

All of a sudden I hear, get.

Get your hands up.

Let me see your hands.

And I'm, like, looking up.

And as soon as I look up, there's a police officer in front of my car with his gun drawn.

And I'm like, whoa.

Okay, now I'm in it.

Now what did I do?

So I'm trying to think about, like, did I do anything when I was driving in here?

And I'm like, no, I don't think so.

I'm pretty good.

And all of a sudden I, like, I start to, like, it all starts to come into focus, and there's, like, six cop cars around me.

And I'm going, like, what.

What happened?

Like, they had me caught for somebody else.

And they've got guns drawn, handguns, long guns.

And I'm going, okay, this is.

What am I going to do?

And.

And so then I. I happen to look behind me, and there's a vehicle parked right behind me.

So then I put two and two together.

They're after this guy, but I'm in the middle.

So I'm.

I'm sitting there, and like I said, they were using our vehicle kind of as a barrier in front of me looking back this way.

So what I do is I try to, like, lower myself down the seat as far as I can, because I'm like.

I don't want to get hit by any crossfire here.

I'm like, to get down, and it's pretty intense.

And so they find, like, I won't draw you out with the whole story, but basically they get the guy, and they finally pull him out.

They broke.

Broke the window.

I'm like, all in the middle of this.

They drag him out of the car, like, through the window, and I pull him out, and, like, he's on the ground.

They cuff him.

I don't know what he ever did.

I never found out what he did, but he's obviously a threat.

But the point I'm trying to make is I was so locked into my life and my phone and my stuff that I didn't even notice all these police cars coming In.

Okay, they, like, flown in.

I must have had the, the.

The sound on or something.

And, and I think that's again, how we.

We act within our life.

All right, so Ephesians chapter, cross reference here.

Ephesians chapter 5.

I want you to see this really quickly.

Ephesians chapter five.

And then we'll.

We'll get back to Joshua and I'll have a few concluding thoughts here.

Ephesians chapter 5.

He talks about walking not as a fool, but as wise.

And so he says in Ephesians 5, 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, meaning like walking, looking around, being aware of our surroundings.

Not as fools, but as wise.

And now, by the way, it's not just talking about our physical surroundings, it's obviously talking about opportunities around us, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Be not drunk with wine, whereas in excess, but be filled with the spirit.

So he talks about, hey, don't allow other things to control you.

Allow the Holy Spirit to control you.

And then he speaks more about how we interact.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, a spiritual song, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving things always for all things unto God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to make yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

So the point that I would like to explain here this evening is that we need to be walking around, obviously dealing with situations that we have in the Lord, but looking circumspectly around us for opportunities to help others in need.

And so the point would be is that these individuals back in the book of Joshua, the Rubenites, the Gadites, and half of the tribe of Manasseh could have said, not our problem.

We don't need to cross the river.

We already got our land, promise.

We're safe, we're secure.

But they said, no, they responded properly here.

They responded in verse 16, and they answered Joshua saying, all that thou command us, we will do so.

Yes, they're obeying Joshua, but really in this time period, by extension, they're following God.

They're obeying God.

Obviously, Joshua was the mouthpiece for God, just as Moses was.

And so in this case, we see that Joshua says, hey, this is what I need from you.

And they said, yes, we will obey.

We will follow that commandment.

And so he says all they say.

They say back to Joshua, and whithersoever thou send this us, we will go.

So it's A response ultimately to God that says, hey, wherever God sends us, we'll go.

We'll do what we need to do for him.

We'll do what we need to do for his people.

Verse 17, according, as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so we will hearken unto thee.

So we see that connection.

They said, we followed Moses as Moses followed God.

We'll follow you as you follow God.

And they say at the end of verse 17, only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses.

Again, there's that focus on the presence of God.

Verse 18.

Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment and will not hearken unto thy words, and all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death.

Only be strong and of good courage.

We see that repetition over and over again in chapter one.

Be strong and of a good courage.

Be strong and of a good courage.

Why?

You know, I kind of mentioned this last week when, when I text the church member or something, hey, I'm praying for you.

Like, why do I need prayer?

What's going on?

It's that idea of, like that, that reminder, I believe, is that God is preparing the heart of Joshua because there is going to be a temptation to not be strong and of a good courage, there is going to be a temptation to fear.

Why?

Because some of the things that the Israelites are going to face in this conquest are going to be very, very important, very, very difficult situations.

Obviously, they're going to be going, you guys know a lot of these stories that we're going to be talking about.

They're going to be crossing the Jordan.

They're going to be facing individuals that are not just going to give the land to them.

Oh, by the way, you guys want this land?

Okay, here, take it.

No, there's going to be battles.

There's going to be physical battles and spiritual battles, but the hand of God is going to be upon them when they are.

When.

When they are walking in obedience, When.

When they act in their flesh.

Obviously there's repercussions for that.

And, and so within our own Christian life, what does that mean for us?

What.

How can we take the story of Joshua and say, you know what, what can I take from this?

Because I think that there are important takeaways.

Not.

Not everything in scripture is.

Is prescriptive.

By the way, what do I mean by that?

There are some stories in Scripture that are narratives.

They're descriptive.

So, for example, like, I wouldn't take a young man and say, hey, you're looking to marry a woman.

Let's go to the Book of Hosea.

So if you know what's going on in the Book of Hosea, okay, Would not take them to that.

That's a, that's a narrative that's different.

So, so there are things that are descriptive and there's things that are prescriptive.

So there's going to be some things that we talk about in the Book of Joshua that we should not follow.

Okay.

Rebellion against God is not something that we should do.

But there, there are things here.

And I believe Joshua chapter one is a great passage of Scripture describing what Joshua did, but also prescribing to us what it means to walk in fellowship with God and walk in obedience when God's plan is, is revealed to us.

And God's plan is revealed in many different ways.

God's.

God's plan.

I think.

I believe that God first and foremost reveals Himself through the Word of, through His Word, through the Bible.

And so if we're not in His Word, we're not going to know what God's plan is for us.

I think a lot of times people just want the plan to be written in the sky when they walk outside.

And that's not typical, right?

Not saying that God can't do that.

I'm not saying that he hasn't done something like that.

But, but, but typically speaking the way in the normative sense, God speaks to us through His Word.

And so I would venture to say that if we're not in His Word, we're not going to understand His.

His desires.

He's.

We're not going to understand His.

His plan or his path that, that he has for us.

We talked last week about communication being key with any relationship, communication is key.

And so we communicate with God through the reading of His Word and through praying and through petitioning him for our needs and, and going to him and worship.

And so I believe that to understand the plan of God, we must be in fellowship with Him.

We must be walking with Him.

Now, there are going to be times and places where we stumble, and certainly there's a path to repentance and restoration.

But if we want to know the plan of God, we need to be sensitive to the Word, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, because the Lord speaks to us other ways in the word of God.

I mean, I can sit and read the Bible all day, but if I'm not sensitive to the Holy Spirit's conviction or comfort or guidance or teaching, then I'm not going to be able to understand God's.

Plan for my life either.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is, is.

Is the comforter.

And we love the Holy Spirit's comfort, but sometimes we forget that the Holy Spirit is also the convictor and we push away the Holy Spirit's conviction in our life.

And, and I know that there are some commentators that says that I read this one time, that the Holy Spirit can be a pillow for comfort, but it can also be a prod of conviction.

And we need to be equally welcoming to both of those things.

But the Bible also says that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth or teach us in all truth.

So the Holy Spirit will teach us truths from the word of God.

The Holy Spirit will convict us.

The Holy Spirit will comfort us.

The Holy Spirit will lead for us the path that he has in, in our life.

And so I encourage you to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit's conviction, Holy Spirit's comfort.

And so the proper response to the plan of God is to walk with him, obey him.

Obedience.

That's what Joshua showed us here.

Obedience.

Prep.

Prepared.

Being prepared to be used by God.

They got their provisions ready to go to move.

I would encourage you to get your provisions ready to go if God has you to move.

And I'm not saying move away from Middletown Baptist Church just to move.

I don't want to see you.

I don't see anyone go, but I do want to see you move and follow God's will and plan for your life.

You know, so someone asked me one time, is your church the right church?

For me, my initial reaction, my fleshly reaction is like, of course, like, I'm biased.

I want this church to be your church.

But at the same time, this church isn't forever.

I don't believe everyone in the world can come to Middletown Baptist Church.

That's not God's plan.

We would not reach the world for the cause of the gospel.

Someone asked me, what are we going to do if we get so many people that we can't deal with this building anymore?

And we.

Maybe we'll build another building.

Maybe we'll meet twice.

Maybe we'll plan another church.

Maybe we'll send people.

Who knows what God has for Middletown Baptist Church.

It's not my job to be the one who devises the plan.

All my job is, is to do is follow God's will.

And that's all of our jobs.

Like a lot of times, what happened in my life, and maybe this is something that you struggle with, is I come up with my plan.

I Come up with my 5 year plan, my 10 year plan, my 20 year plan, however long plans that you have.

Some of you may be like, Pastor Josh, that's not me.

I'm not a planner.

I go day by day.

Okay, that's fine too.

But, but sometimes what people do is they make their plan and then they say, okay, God, bless this plan.

But there's.

There's not been any seeking after the Lord in this plan.

It's just been, this is what I want, Lord.

Now bless this plan.

We saw how that kind of goes.

Or, or maybe you would even say it this way.

God, I know you need me to do this, but I, I'm not wanting to wait for you and do it this way.

I want to do it my way.

We saw how that worked with Abraham, right?

Like, okay, got it.

I believe you got.

I believe that you have a son for me, but I'm gonna do it this way.

Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try it my way.

And, and we see the results of that as well.

So I encourage you to think about, okay, what is God's plan for me?

Like, there are some basic things that you don't need to pray about.

Okay.

I believe that is, he's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

Okay.

It's God's plan.

I believe he desires you to be saved.

I believe he desires you to grow in him.

I believe he desires to have you in his word and serving and being part of the local body of believers and presenting the gospel, being the salt and light, doing the Great Commission.

So all of those things are given.

We just go in that.

Lord, give me the strength to do those things.

Be with me when I'm doing those things.

But there are other nuanced things that we do need to seek the Lord's guidance on.

For some that are younger in the room, or maybe not younger, who.

Who do I marry?

Well, if you're already married, that's your plan, that's your person.

Okay?

Stay with it.

Okay, but if you're not married yet, that's, that's a plan.

That's a, that's a thing to pray for.

Some, some people it's jobs.

Some people it's, it's, it's where you live.

Some people it's financial, some people it's whatever.

But, but those are the things that God is going to guide us in more specific ways.

And I encourage you to ask God's wisdom on that.

And then also the way that God does work is he uses godly counsel.

Right.

Don't, don't be ashamed to go to someone that again, that you trust in the Lord that you think is, is following God's plan and say, hey, can, can you pray with me with this?

Do you have any advice in this?

Doesn't mean that you have to take that advice, but there's, there's wisdom in a multitude of counsel.

And so don't, don't think that you're on an island.

That's what the church is here for.

The church, the church is not just a place where we come together and get entertained or hear the word of God or, you know, have a social club.

Like, those are all great things.

But at the end of the day, one of the huge benefits of being part of the family of God is the encouragement, the edification, confessing our faults one with another so that we can pray for each other.

It's coming together and realizing that hopefully, hopefully if the church is running properly like the plan of God, we're in it together for the same purpose.

So your victory is my victory.

You know, that's really when we start to see God's plan working out.

But when we suffer with selfishness, like, why is God blessing that person?

That should be my ministry.

Why is God giving so many people to that small group?

And why is not my small group growing?

I want my small group to grow.

When selfishness starts to seep in, we start to have issues, right?

Because we think that person.

Because that's really ultimately covetousness.

Covetousness is I want what that person has, and I don't think they should have that.

And that's, that leads to bitterness, leads to a lot of other sins.

So what I've encouraged you to do is understand that if there's a believer that's being blessed by God, it's a blessing for you because we're part of the family of God.

And I encourage you to think about that and pray about that.

And so we're going to come back in chapter two, Joshua, chapter two, when we're going to see the famous story of the spies going into the land there.

And Rahab, some of you know the story of Rahab.

If you don't, it's a very interesting story and we'll get into that as we go along here in the book of Joshua.

So I hope that this is a beneficial study for you.

I hope that you can read ahead.

I would encourage you to read ahead.

Obviously, most of you probably have your own Bible reading plan and that's fantastic.

But I would encourage you to know like hey, what what were in books of the Bible.

So Sunday mornings were in Romans, Sunday nights were in Joshua, Wednesday nights were just concluding first John.

Okay.

So you know, hey, I could read ahead and be prepared for that.

Unless you guys like surprises, then you'll just have to wait.

But nonetheless, I think it'll be beneficial for us to travel through this together.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.