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"Be Strong and Courageous and Move Forward"
Forty years have gone by since we were together last week.
Maybe it feels like that to some of you depending on what
kind of week you had. And of course that could go either way –
maybe you had one of those weeks that seemed like it would
never end – or maybe it was one that had so much packed into
it that it was gone before you knew and you’re wondering
where it went. (That’s especially true for those of us with
children being confirmed this morning. Looking at the pictures
on your lifeline projects it does seem like only yesterday we
were carrying you home from the hospital, strapping you into
car seats, and hauling around strollers and diaper bags).
But of course I’m talking about the story of God that we’ve
been working our way through this year when I say that forty
years have passed since we were together last week. We need
to catch up to the people of Israel. A new chapter is about
to begin. God has been busy. He called Abraham and promised
him that he was going to give him a place to call home, a
stretch of land where his descendants would become as numerous
as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore – and
most importantly of all - that through one of those descendants
He was going bless all the nations of the earth. He was going
to send a Savior.
Three generations later Abraham’s family totaling about 70
people in all moved to Egypt during a time a famine and
wound up getting stuck there as slaves for the next 400
years. Finally God sent Moses. He led the people out. He
opened water of the Red Sea. They came to a mountain called
Sinai where God gave them their instruction, their teaching,
their catechism. You might say he was preparing them for
their confirmation – for it was right there at Sinai that
they declared – “you will be our God and we will be your
people. Everything you have said we will do.”
So, would you like to guess how they did after they made
their confirmation vows? They marched up to the border of
the Promised Land. They sent spies into the land who reported
that it was more than they had ever hoped for or dreamed of.
And right there at the edge of receiving a grand and glorious
fulfillment of hundreds of years of God’s work they melted
like an ice cube on asphalt on a summer day in Florida. In
fear they sat there and refused to move forward. And so it
happened that for the next 40 years they wandered around
in the desert as God taught them day after day after day
to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. Today,
with Joshua, God is about to try again.
I am desperately trying to get you to understand that all
of this – the story of God – is not just fun facts about
the Bible to help you in case you’re ever on Jeopardy and
one of the categories is the Bible – this is in fact THE
story of all life. Your life, the very things that are
happening right now are part of this story of God. And
because of that, what happened then informs and instructs
us for what is happening now.
We are forever like the people of Israel standing on the
edge of receiving the final and ultimate fulfillment of
all God’s work and the grand finale of human history and
we melt away. Locked in fear we so often just sit here
in our pews and refuse to move forward – afraid of the
economy, afraid who might or might not get elected, afraid
to fail, afraid to succeed, afraid of how we might do in
high school, afraid of what others will think.
Three times in our reading God says to Joshua – “Be strong
and courageous.” Now when your parents or a teacher or
your spouse or your boss repeat something three times what
does that usually mean? Hello…is anybody home…Be strong
and courageous…did you hear me…Be strong and courageous…
no seriously I mean it…Be strong and courageous. I would
like for you please, when you get home today, find Joshua
1:6-9 and underline the words in verses 6, 7, and 9. “Be
strong and courageous.” Then in the margin I want you to
write these three words – promise, power, and presence.
That’s what I want you to remember and take home today.
Standing here on the edge of the fulfillment of all God’s
work since the beginning of time “be strong and courageous”
because God has made a promise – and what he promises he
will not, in fact by his very nature, he cannot fail to
do. That’s what he says to Joshua – “be strong and courageous
because you WILL lead these people to inherit the land I
SWORE to their forefathers to give them.”
Now believe me folks God is not interested in real estate.
He didn’t promise the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
speculating on its future value as an investment for
their portfolio. He gave them the land so that the Savior,
God himself in human flesh, Jesus Christ, could be born
into the story at exactly the right moment to rescue the
human race from a tragic ending. If you get this part,
if you hold on to it and never let it go, you will
discover the secret to life and your purpose in it.
God has kept his promise. Jesus has come. He is God in
human flesh. He lived perfectly, suffered willingly,
died innocently and rose again victoriously so that
in Him you now have these promises – all your sins are
forgiven and you will live forever.
Standing on the edge of the fulfillment of all God’s work
since the beginning of time “be strong and courageous”
because not only to do you have the promises of God you
have the very power of God at your disposal at all times.
Listen: “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey
all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it
to the right or to the left, that you may be successful
wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart
from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that
you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then
you will be prosperous and successful.”
The power of God to be successful and prosperous – does
that sound good, does that sound like something you might
want? Well listen, the power of God to be successful and
prosperous is the very Word of God written down and recorded
for you in the Bible. The “Book of the Law” that Joshua was
to hold on to and meditate on day and night and never let go
of was simply first five books of the Bible written down by
Moses. In other words the story of God that we are trying to
read, mark, learn and inwardly digest in this "Thy Kingdom Come"
sermon series.
The more you know this story, the more time you spend reading,
listening, meditating on it, the more it shapes your understanding,
the more successful and prosperous you will become. But be careful
here – because what the world and your sinful nature consider
success and prosperity might not be what God considers to be
success and prosperity.
You see for God – success and prosperity is to get you through
this sin-sick and dying world alive and into His kingdom for
eternity. So the story of the Bible is littered with people
like the rich man and Lazarus, where the prosperous, successful
man in Jesus’ parable is declared a fool by God while, a sickly
beggar whose only friends are dogs that lick his sores is a
success as angels carry him to Abraham’s side in heaven.
What you will learn as you live more and more inside the story
of God recorded in your Bible is that the way God does things
doesn’t always make sense to us. Consider the story of the
taking of the city of Jericho. Can you imagine anything more
preposterous, more ludicrous, than marching around a city for
six days and on the seventh day marching around seven times
and then blowing trumpets and shouting as a strategy for
success? Can’t you picture the people of Jericho, safe and
secure inside their walled fortress coming out, a few more
every day, standing on the wall, eating their lunch, laughing,
joking at these crazy people marching in circles?
It will be that way for us too at times – clinging to the
Word because it is the very power of God for success and
prosperity by the only standard that counts for eternity –
will at times, perhaps more often than not - put us at
odds with the world and the people around us. At the end
of the book of Joshua – Joshua will say to the people,
“choose this day whom you will follow, but as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Standing on the edge of the fulfillment of all God’s work
since the beginning of time “be strong and courageous”
because you have the promises of God, the power of God
in His Word, and finally, the very presence of God. Here’s
how he said to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not
be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your
God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua had the tabernacle with the cloud of God’s presence
by day and the fire in the cloud by night to remind him –
God is with me, God is with me, God is with me. The people
the New Testament had Jesus, God himself in human flesh
walking around with them, teaching, preaching, doing miracles,
showing them what the Kingdom of God was really all about. But
what about us?
Didn’t you hear Jesus in the Gospel for today? “I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor
to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth … you know
him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
Do not despise the presence of Holy Spirit – he comes
more and more to shape and form you from the inside out –
every time you remember your baptism, every time you hear
the story of God, every time you receive the Lord’s Supper –
it is the Spirit who enters your heart and mind. He gives
you eyes to see things the world cannot see – to stand on
your tip toes and peek into heaven. He gives you ears to
hear things that others cannot. In the midst of trouble,
in the face of temptation, he whispers again and again,
“don’t despair, I’m right here.”
Be strong and courageous you have the promises, the power,
and the presence of God. It is time to move forward – move
forward with your life – move forward in our mission to
serve in Jesus name and show the world what real life is
all about.
Amen.
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