Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Amen. Church, would you bow your head in prayer with me?
[00:00:06] Father, we thank you so much for this time.
[00:00:09] And Lord, we do value your presence above all things.
[00:00:15] Thank you for giving that to us this morning.
[00:00:18] Lord, our heart's desire is to draw near to you.
[00:00:23] And would you draw near to us right now, Father, as we look at your word, I pray you would make it make sense to us.
[00:00:31] I pray we could hear your calling to be strong and courageous and what you have for us as a church, but also what you have for us as people and families and individuals.
[00:00:45] And we pray you would be glorified in all of this. Teach us your way. Help us in all these things we ask in Jesus name.
[00:00:52] Amen.
[00:00:54] Amen. Well, good morning, Church. It's so good to see your beautiful faces today.
[00:01:00] My name is Chet. If we haven't had a chance to meet, I would love to meet you and shake your hand and hear more about your story. But I want to begin today. I have some good news to share with you.
[00:01:15] Are you ready for this?
[00:01:17] Well, Church, you know, I've been asking you to pray for a lot of things these last couple years, but especially these last couple weeks. And last week we had our zoning meeting and we got the zoning permit on Thursday.
[00:01:35] Praise God.
[00:01:39] And to make a long story short, here's what that means. We are beginning construction this week. Church, is that awesome or what? I am so thankful. And I just have to say a few things about this number one church. I just want you to see every obstacle we've faced. We have come together and prayed together.
[00:02:04] You see all the connections of these things. And I just want us to not lose sight of that, that God has brought us to this point. God has opened up all the doors. And God's the one that we need for every step of this journey, Church.
[00:02:20] Because as much as I want a new building, you know what's even more important? That our faith grows through this journey. That we deepen our trust in God and the reality of God. And so I don't want you to miss that.
[00:02:35] And here's the second thing. I just wanna. I just gotta take a moment this morning and I'm gonna kneel and pray a prayer of thanks.
[00:02:45] Because this has been such a journey for us. And if you wanna do it with me, you're welcome to, but. But I'm just gonna pray right now.
[00:02:53] Father, I just thank you so much for this adventure that you've called us on as a church family.
[00:03:03] I thank you, Lord, how you have been so faithful in small Ways and big ways. Lord, I thank you for the hearts of the people in these seats. Lord, I thank you for their faith, their love for you, their desire to see Christ glorified in a special way. And I pray you'd bless them for it. I pray you would bless, Lord, this process, you know every detail of it from beginning to end, and I pray that you would bless it and, Father, that all of this would build our faith, but it would also capture the attention of people in this area.
[00:03:41] And those who are far from you would come home and, Lord, people would see this building going up and they would be curious, and it would lead them to see the excellence of Christ. And I pray it would be a place of hope, a place of healing, a place of salvation, and a place where your name is glorified above all. But, Lord, this morning I just want to say thank you.
[00:04:05] And I acknowledge, Lord, that none of this can happen without you.
[00:04:10] And it is your good hand that has brought us to this point. And we give you all the glory and honor, and we ask and thank all of you all these things in the great name of Jesus.
[00:04:24] Amen.
[00:04:25] Amen. Church yes.
[00:04:30] Well, we are gonna, you know, spend a lot of time celebrating these things church this summer, so get ready, because it is just so amazing what God is doing. And I'm so thankful for you. I'm thankful for your hearts to pray, to serve, to give.
[00:04:50] This is not an easy journey.
[00:04:54] We will have no doubt that it's worth it, our first time in that building, but it's not easy. And I'm so proud of you, Church, and so thankful to be on this journey with you. So thank you.
[00:05:05] All right, well, today we are starting a new sermon series, and we are going to talk about all these different times in scripture where God calls his people to be strong.
[00:05:19] And this is a theme that we see in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. And there's different nuances and different ideas around each of these times. God calls his people to be strong, and I wanna look at them with you because I believe that God wants to strengthen you and me today. I believe that part of God's purpose in this next season that we're going into is God wants to strengthen our faith, strengthen our commitment to him, strengthen our love for him, strengthen our willingness to serve him and follow Him. And so we're gonna look at all the different ways that this plays out.
[00:05:58] And as I was thinking about this series, I came across a story about a woman named Kathryn Graham. And this story kind of took Place in maybe the late 60s, early 70s. And for all of her life, she had been a daughter. Her dad owned news outlet, a newspaper that was, you know, up and coming and doing pretty well.
[00:06:23] And then when he got out of the business, he passed it on to her husband, Philip, and he was the CEO of this company. And she was a wife, a mother, a daughter, and very content in those roles. But when she was 46, her husband unexpectedly died.
[00:06:44] And so not only did she have the loss of her husband to deal with, but also, what do we do with this company that we have?
[00:06:53] And she started to try to figure out what her options were with it. And so she said, well, I could just sell this company and be done with it and go from there. But she said, I just didn't feel right about it. Felt like that would have been too extreme of a decision in this difficult time, so she didn't want to do that. The second thing she said, well, I could hire someone to run this and. And to manage it. But she thought this could really get tricky, and I don't know if that feels really great. And she said, the third thing I could do is I could try to learn it and figure things out, get to know it more. And then if I want to go back to decision one or two, I can make those, and I'll be all the wiser for it because I'll have more understanding of the company. And so that's what she decided to do. So she started to learn and figure out all the different components of the HR side and the journalism side and all that goes into it. And she started to love it.
[00:07:54] And she started to also realize that she was actually pretty good at it. And she got in this role, and she got more and more comfortable. And again, this was like the late 60s, into the 70s. And then her company, which, by the way, is the Washington Post, was faced with this story coming out, you may have heard of it, called the Watergate scandal. Ring any bells? If you're not familiar with that, you can Google it and get the story. But this was a huge thing. And so here she was, seven years into this new role that she didn't ask for, that was unexpected.
[00:08:32] That came out of tragedy and nowhere. And now not only is she leading this whole paper, but now she has to figure out, how do I deal with this tremendous story that's breaking?
[00:08:46] And she figured it out, and it became not only a nationally transforming story, but also changed her industry.
[00:08:56] And it's really a pretty amazing story.
[00:09:01] And what I find most fascinating about it is that man, at this moment of difficulty and confusion and loss, she had the strength and courage to step up and to try to figure things out and to take on a difficult role, to do something that she was completely uncomfortable with and found her way forward in that. And I find that so many times, God's call on your life, and my life often looks like that.
[00:09:36] See, here's what I believe. God doesn't call you to do things you're able to do on your own.
[00:09:42] God doesn't show up in your life and say, hey, I have a purpose for you. And you know what? You can totally do it without me.
[00:09:51] You're more than capable right now.
[00:09:55] And you can stay comfortable and complacent and you won't face any fear. And it will be easy.
[00:10:03] I've not found a story in the Bible that goes along those lines, and I've not experienced it myself, nor heard of other good brothers and sisters go on that journey. In fact, what I find is the opposite, that often when God shows up and calls us, we're terrified.
[00:10:21] That when God taps us on the shoulder, we're like, lord, I think you're at the wrong address here.
[00:10:26] Why don't you check it? There's this nice person I sit to church, sit in church with. They seem way more spiritual than I am. Ask them.
[00:10:33] And the Lord's like, no, no, I'm at the right place.
[00:10:37] I kind of got this thing figured out. And I am speaking to you. And today I want to talk about how that understanding God's call to be strong and courageous is so essential to living the life that I believe he has for each of us, but also for our church. And we're gonna look at this together in the book of Joshua. This is probably my all time favorite chapter and verses in the Bible and I wanna read it to you and then we'll talk about it. It says this, Joshua 1, starting at verse 1. It says, after the death of Moses, now don't lose that part. 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.
[00:11:27] Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I'm giving to them to the people of Israel, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I've given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
[00:11:44] From the wilderness in this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, the all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
[00:11:57] No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
[00:12:01] Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
[00:12:10] Now say this next phrase with me. Be strong and courageous.
[00:12:16] For you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Say it again with me only. Be strong and very courageous. You see a theme here?
[00:12:27] Being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
[00:12:42] So you may be careful to do according to all that's written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous. Then you will have good success.
[00:12:50] Have I not commanded you? Say with me one more time. Be strong and courageous. Church. If you weren't counting, that's three times.
[00:12:59] Three times in a short amount of real estate here. You think God's trying to make a point?
[00:13:04] I think so. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
[00:13:16] Now, when we look at these, these verses, this was written to Joshua, but I believe these words are for us today, too.
[00:13:28] This was written to Joshua. God says to Joshua, joshua, you have a role to play.
[00:13:35] I wanna give you something, and I wanna give my people something through you. But, Joshua, this is gonna be tough.
[00:13:44] And you need to be strong and courageous. And you need to know at every turn, I am with you, and I won't forsake you. Now, those are written to Joshua Church, but they are for us.
[00:13:58] Because in the same way that Joshua had his purpose from God, you and I have our purpose from God.
[00:14:07] It's not the same, but I think the dynamics are the same.
[00:14:12] That it's going to still require strength and courage to do it.
[00:14:18] It's going to be intimidating, it's going to be challenging. It's going to be outside of what we can do on our own.
[00:14:27] And yet God is gonna be in the very center of it. And strength and courage are always going to be part of the future.
[00:14:39] God wants to create in your life and my life.
[00:14:42] And so we need to recognize that and accept that and bring it into our lives. Here's another way to say it. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American transcendentalist, he said this.
[00:14:54] God will not manifest his work through cowards.
[00:14:59] That's a little hard hitting, but it's powerful. And that's essentially what God is saying to Joshua. I wanna do this. But this is what's part of the journey, strength and courage. Now let's dig into this a little bit more. Let's see why this strength and courage was needed so much. And the reason is Joshua had a lot of challenges against him.
[00:15:24] And the first challenge that he had was that he was in the midst of a significant transition.
[00:15:32] Now all the, you know, Bible commentators will point this out about the whole book of Joshua, that this is a transitional book that we're leaving what we call the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.
[00:15:47] Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These were all written by Moses, who we'll talk about in a minute. And they all share the story and all the going ons around God, building this group of people, this nation, and leading them towards this future. And all of that is this interconnected story. And then Joshua is a book that begins to transition to really a different chapter of it.
[00:16:16] And all through Joshua is transition. God says to Joshua, moses, my servant is dead.
[00:16:24] Joshua, Moses was the leader, but now Joshua, you are. You see the transition there. And he says, and by the way, where you are right now is not where I have you going. I have a different place for you and I want you to go there and lead everyone with you.
[00:16:45] So there's a lot of transition happening. And I don't know about you, but does anybody here struggle with change in life or like change get away?
[00:16:57] Probably many of us do. And when you're in any type of transition, even if it's a good thing, even if you're like, wow, this is where I want to go.
[00:17:08] Transition is inherently difficult and difficult for a lot of different reasons and in a lot of different ways.
[00:17:17] I read a book recently called Managing Transitions. It's by William Bridges. It's a really helpful read, especially if your life has a lot of transition going on. It's worth checking out and it has a lot of insight. But what Bridges says is transitions are really built on three things, three stages that happen.
[00:17:41] And the first one he says, is that a transition doesn't actually begin with something new, it begins with something old. Ending.
[00:17:50] And the first part of transition is dealing with loss.
[00:17:56] It is recognizing that there is an ending. That's what we see here in Joshua, Joshua, Moses is dead.
[00:18:02] There's loss here, there is an ending here.
[00:18:06] And transition begins with ending, which means they need acknowledged, they need grieved. They need processed. Because what makes change hard is not always the X's and O's, what's happening, but it's the emotions that go with it. Have you ever noticed that it's not just going from one place to another, but it's all the feelings and thoughts and fears connected with that, he said. And then the second stage is tough too. He says. That's the neutral zone.
[00:18:39] That's the point where, okay, my life has clearly changed, but I'm not where I wanna be yet. You ever been there?
[00:18:46] You're like, okay, this ended, and I'm moving towards this, but I'm not there yet. I'm in the land in between. That's where we are today. Church.
[00:18:57] We're in the land we know one chapter's ended. We know where we're going, but we're not there yet.
[00:19:04] And the land in between, that's a tough place.
[00:19:07] You know why? You can get lost in the land in between even more. You can get discouraged.
[00:19:15] Have you ever been through a time of change and you looked yourself in the mirror and you're like, is this really worth it?
[00:19:20] Cause it gets tiring, it gets discouraging. You start sometimes to look at the past, even if it wasn't good. And you're like, well, at least I knew that.
[00:19:30] And there's some comfort in knowing it, even though it was all messed up and I didn't really wanna be there. You with me and the neutral zone stuff, and then you actually get to a new beginning, which, again, has challenges with it. Now, why am I telling you this? I'm telling you all this to say, joshua, this was a tough deal.
[00:19:49] He had to not only go through that on his own, but also help people lead and be in the midst of that. He had to lead them through that change and transition. And then Joshua even more followed Moses.
[00:20:11] I remember one time, I was in high school, and I had to give a speech before my whole class.
[00:20:17] And the kid.
[00:20:18] There was a kid that went before me, and he gave. This kid knocked it out of the park. Like, it was. He crushed it. And then I had to go after him. And I was like, this is gonna be bad.
[00:20:33] And it was. And I'm. And I'm not. You're like, oh, you're being humble. I'm not. It really, like, he crushed it. Mine was like.
[00:20:42] And it's hard, you know, when someone crushes it and then you go after them. You're like, can someone go in between us? And can they be really bad?
[00:20:51] Anybody?
[00:20:53] Joshua had to Follow Moses.
[00:20:58] Those are big shoes to fill.
[00:21:01] Get this. If you don't know anything about Moses, let me tell you a few things about him. Number one, he was the guy that God called to go to Egypt, where God's people were made slaves. And, you know, under the tyranny of the world superpower, he had to look Pharaoh in the eye and say, let all of these people go.
[00:21:24] And Moses said to God, well, God, why is he going to listen to me?
[00:21:29] Well, God said, he's going to listen to me because I'm going to work through you.
[00:21:33] And in a series of miracles, God justified Moses words in an undeniable way, in a way that the world would never forget, and did this miraculous deliverance. And Joshua's like, I gotta follow that guy.
[00:21:53] Well, it gets worse.
[00:21:55] And then at one point in Moses life, God brought him up this mountain. And the scriptures say that Moses spoke to God face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
[00:22:13] Big shoes to fill.
[00:22:16] And it gets even worse.
[00:22:18] In fact, when Moses came down, the scriptures say that because he had this unbelievable spiritual experience and because he experienced the tangible glory of God, it gave a glow to his face.
[00:22:38] And it was so unnerving to people that everybody's like, hey, you mind covering that up a little bit? We don't know what to do. We're freaking out.
[00:22:46] Joshua had to follow that.
[00:22:49] So Moses steps in the room, and the room glows.
[00:22:53] Joshua steps in the room, and they're like, who's this guy?
[00:22:56] You with me? And do you think that at any point in this journey that Joshua maybe could have been a little insecure?
[00:23:05] I tend to believe that. Do you think at any point Joshua, on a bad day could have said, God, what are you doing? I'm not Moses, you with me? Do you think at any point Joshua could have looked in the mirror and felt like an imposter? You ever heard of this thing called imposter syndrome?
[00:23:26] Do you think Joshua. I tend to think that those were probably realities that Joshua had to battle. And the reason I think that is because God is telling him again and again and again, Joshua, be strong and courageous.
[00:23:45] I'm guessing if he felt that way, God didn't need to tell him three times, you with me?
[00:23:50] And he didn't need to up the ante three times, which he does. Hey, have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Here's what I'm saying. Joshua faced a challenge. And then not only that, what God was calling him to was not easy.
[00:24:06] And I believe church God doesn't call Us to easy.
[00:24:12] Have you ever noticed easy doesn't always bring a lot of good things?
[00:24:17] Do you ever sit at home and you veg and you just. And it's easy. But do you really feel rested or better?
[00:24:26] You're like, wow, I feel spiritually alive right now. I just watched 12 episodes of the latest Netflix, right?
[00:24:35] I watched True Crime for three hours.
[00:24:39] I'm paranoid and a little bit afraid. But I am living a dynamic life. Like, okay, that's easy to do.
[00:24:46] Doesn't bring a lot of value to our lives. Amen.
[00:24:50] And easy never does. Worthwhile is always uphill. You with me? And God's calling is always uphill for us. You with me?
[00:25:01] And so Joshua had an uphill journey. He had battles to fight. He had difficulty. But God says, but, Joshua, I'm right in the middle of this now. Why do I bring all this up? Because probably many of us feel God tapping us on the shoulder today.
[00:25:21] And maybe many of us, we're facing something that God is leading us to, and we're afraid.
[00:25:29] We hear a whisper from God in our heart. We're like, lord, you got the wrong person. You're looking for Moses.
[00:25:36] Lord's like, no, I'm looking for Joshua.
[00:25:39] I got the right one.
[00:25:40] And maybe we're looking at a future that God has. But we see that it's dangerous, it's difficult. It requires stepping out of what is comfortable and what feels safe.
[00:25:54] And maybe we're wrestling with it.
[00:25:57] See, I think what's so powerful about Joshua's call is that's all of our culture, church, that you and I are, Joshua, that as we hear God's voice in our own life, we're probably gonna go through these. And the promises that God gives to Joshua are promises that God gives to us.
[00:26:17] Because here's what he says. He said, joshua, here's what you can expect.
[00:26:22] No man will be able to stand before you.
[00:26:28] Now, just think about how significant this is for a second. He says, yes, Joshua, people will try to stand before you. People will try to stop you. There will be obstacles, but they will not overcome.
[00:26:44] You will overcome them. They will not defeat you.
[00:26:49] I will defeat them.
[00:26:51] And here's what that means in our lives, we can expect that following God does not give us a free card to get out of problems and challenge and obstacles and difficulty.
[00:27:09] We can expect that we can be right in the center of living the life God has for us. And we can still be facing challenge and obstacle and difficulty. Just as a pastor, I've talked to people so many times.
[00:27:27] And they'll look so disheartened, so confused, and they'll be like, chad, I am striving to follow God with all my heart.
[00:27:37] And it's not easy.
[00:27:40] This is hard. This thing is happening. And I'll very gently try to say to them, why did you think it was going to be easy?
[00:27:51] You with me?
[00:27:52] Nowhere through scripture does it say, oh, I'm gonna make this easy. No, it's going to be worth it.
[00:28:01] I'm going to help you.
[00:28:03] No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life, but some will try. You with me. And so what that means is what we can expect problems, but we can also expect power.
[00:28:19] Yes, I'm gonna run into difficulty, but God is going to be with me and his power is gonna be greater than what I'm facing. What am I gonna focus on?
[00:28:32] Church. Today, I bet every one of us, we come into this room with problems.
[00:28:37] If you don't come into this room with problems, you're in the wrong church.
[00:28:41] We only allow messed up people here.
[00:28:45] I'm sorry.
[00:28:47] We don't wanna break the ethos of this place, you know, so if you got it all squared away and everything goes well and you never have problems, you know, and you got a halo over your head, this is not the church for you. But if you're a little messed up and life gets messy and hard and you fail, then you are in exactly the right place.
[00:29:09] We can expect difficulty, we can know it, but we expect God to meet us in the middle of it and help us. And this is what God says to Joshua, joshua, I have given you this future, but you have to go and you have to fight for it.
[00:29:28] I will meet you. That our life is a partnership with God.
[00:29:34] God says to Joshua, joshua, you do what I ask you to do, and I'll do what only I can do.
[00:29:44] And church, what we can expect is that if I'm doing what God is asking me to do, then I can trust God to do what only he can. You with me?
[00:29:58] If I can just show up and say, all right, Lord, this is where you're calling me. I'm gonna take one step towards it, then I can trust. God is gonna meet me and help me. And he says to Joshua, and I will not fail you or forsake you.
[00:30:16] I will be with you.
[00:30:19] Church, every good thing in our life comes from God.
[00:30:25] There is no other source.
[00:30:28] Here's what that means, and here's what our soul needs convinced of.
[00:30:36] God has a future for each and every one of us. See, within every heart here, we all long for a certain type of future.
[00:30:46] Maybe you can articulate it, maybe you can't quite put it into words, but in each of our hearts, we long for a certain type of future.
[00:30:58] And here's what God is telling Joshua. He's saying, joshua, I have the future you actually want.
[00:31:06] It is with me.
[00:31:08] It is through me. It's nowhere else. And one of the most important things that needs to happen in our hearts is that we have to have this deep trust that every good thing in our life has come from God, and that God alone is the source of every good thing that will come.
[00:31:29] That God is not a God who forsakes us.
[00:31:33] God doesn't bait and switch us and say, well, I'm glad I got your hopes up so now I can pull the rug out.
[00:31:41] That's not how God operates, but the.
[00:31:46] The goodness that we long for.
[00:31:49] He is the author of sourcing it. And until I'm willing to trust that church, here's the most important thing. Until I am convinced of that, I will never fully trust him.
[00:32:01] I'll always be hedging my bet, always be saying, well, God, let me see what you have, but I'm going to work something over here, too.
[00:32:11] God, let me see how it pans out with you. But I'm gonna have my side plan over here.
[00:32:19] But here's what God is calling to Joshua and calling to us. The future you long for, you can trust God for, and it will be better than what you can think and infinitely better than. Than what we can create for ourselves. You with me on this. And our soul. We need to convince our soul of that and remind our soul of that again and again and again.
[00:32:49] And so then God charges Joshua. Now, there's several charges in these verses. Let me just hit a few. He charges them three times. Be strong and courageous. Now, let's just break these apart for a second and talk about them. What does it mean to be strong?
[00:33:08] Now, here's what I think it might mean in this context. When we read the book of Joshua, people who study the Old Testament and study these books, they will often comment that Joshua doesn't get a lot of attention.
[00:33:25] Joshua just kind of gets glanced over a lot of times.
[00:33:29] And the reason is, is because Joshua doesn't have any major failures.
[00:33:38] Now, when we look at so many other stories about men and women of the Bible, we will see some royal failures again and again and again.
[00:33:49] And if you've never read the Bible and you're like, well, aren't they didn't everybody, like, live these great lives and have their act together?
[00:33:57] Not at all.
[00:33:59] And in fact, sometimes you read these stories and you're like, that's who God used.
[00:34:05] What a train wreck.
[00:34:07] But the good news is it means there's hope for each and every one of us. You with me?
[00:34:12] And in the Bible, we see failure after failure. And we can look at the life of Abraham, we can look at the life of Jacob, we can look at the life of David.
[00:34:25] Huge failures, conspiracy, abuse of power, terrible family dynamics, adultery, murder.
[00:34:36] And yet the scriptures still call him a man after God's own heart.
[00:34:41] And so many times Joshua gets overlooked because you don't see the highs and lows in Joshua's life. In fact, there's some cool battles, but by and large, it's just pretty straightforward.
[00:34:57] And what people know is that Joshua just lived a life of long obedience in the same direction. You get me?
[00:35:09] He just, just every day served God, walked with God.
[00:35:14] Most days weren't real flashy, weren't real dramatic. Just kind of one day after another, one foot in front of another. And church, I would say that's what it means to be strong.
[00:35:30] See, strength. It's not how much can I do in one day, but how much can I do in a lifetime of faithfulness.
[00:35:40] See, being strong is just everyday committing and saying, lord, I want to be your man today. I just want to serve you well.
[00:35:47] I want to seek you. I want to connect to you. I want to love the people around me. Now, if you do that every day, every day is not a breakthrough.
[00:35:56] Every day is not a parting of the Red Sea. They might look kind of boring and ordinary and unremarkable, but yet they will add up to a life that glorifies God.
[00:36:13] See, what impresses me is people who just put one foot in front of the other every day and say, I'm going in the direction of God's calling.
[00:36:24] Not every day do I have to see the clouds part and the glory of God. I can wake up and do what's right. When it's a cloudy day, I can show up and serve. When it's tough, I pray when I don't want to, I worship when I'm confused.
[00:36:41] I try to love people even though I'm battling with anger and unforgiveness in my heart. But I'm putting one baby step at a time. To me, church, that's what being strong is.
[00:36:53] And I know many of you, you live like that and you wake up and you seek God and you Serve him. And not every day is miraculous. But I'm telling you that that journey is miraculous. That way of life is miraculous. And church, that makes a deep difference in time. You with me. Be strong. Show up.
[00:37:16] Do what God's asking, one step at a time. Sometimes the steps are baby steps, but we're making progress.
[00:37:24] We're moving in the right direction. It says, be courageous.
[00:37:27] Now, there are moments where we have to trust God in deeper ways, and we have to take steps that make us afraid. See, if I'm waiting for fear to be gone before I serve God, I will never serve God.
[00:37:46] Courage is not the absence of fear. It's acting in spite of fear. You with me?
[00:37:54] Courage is saying, look, yeah, I'm afraid. Joshua. God told him, be strong. But he had to battle fear all the time. I'm sure of it.
[00:38:02] But he just kept going forward. And Joshua knew how important this was. Forty years before, in the Book of Numbers, Joshua and Caleb were sent to look at this land and to bring a report. And when they came back to the people, here's what happened. Caleb said, let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.
[00:38:25] Then the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. And just hearing these verses, 40 years before God gives Joshua this commission. They had this moment, and there was a voice of faith, and there was a voice of fear.
[00:38:46] Who do you think the people listen to?
[00:38:48] Sadly, they listened to the voice of fear.
[00:38:51] And what happened.
[00:38:53] 40 years of stuck.
[00:38:57] 40 years of spinning your tires. Because there are moments in life where we need to be courageous and say yes to God. You with me?
[00:39:07] We don't want to miss those moments. Those moments matter.
[00:39:12] They're not all equal. And here's Joshua at this moment again.
[00:39:16] Guess what he's saying?
[00:39:18] Yes, I've seen the other side. I'm not doing that again.
[00:39:23] And church, here's what this means.
[00:39:27] So much of the good things God wants to do in this world get forfeited because of our fear.
[00:39:35] Not because evil is strong. Not because evil is great. Not because evil is more powerful than God working through us. But because we just don't even try. Cause we're afraid. You with me?
[00:39:48] And God's call to Joshua is say, hey, see those moments. See them for what they are, and be courageous.
[00:39:58] Take the next step. Do what God is calling you to do. And then he sums it all up, and he says, have I not commanded you?
[00:40:10] I will be with You. Where does our real courage come from? Where does our real strength come from?
[00:40:17] Comes from recognizing God is with us.
[00:40:21] Church, do you believe in your heart God is with you today?
[00:40:26] Do you believe in your heart that he will not forsake you?
[00:40:31] Do you believe in your heart that he can be trusted in the deepest of ways?
[00:40:39] Because he can.
[00:40:40] And here's how I know he won't forsake you. Might be like, well, he won't forsake Moses, but I'm not Moses. Well, guess what? He won't forsake any of us. Here's why.
[00:40:50] Because Jesus Christ was forsaken on the cross.
[00:40:53] When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:41:01] And the Scriptures say, he who knew no sin became sin so we might become the righteousness of God. What does that all mean? Here's what it means. That Christ was abandoned. Christ was forsaken. That part of the ugliness of the cross was that. But why did that happen? So that as you look and trust in him, you would know you will never be forsaken.
[00:41:24] You will never be hung out to dry. You will never be left behind. Not because you don't deserve to at some points, but because Christ experienced that so you and I could live in the strength and courage of knowing he is always with us.
[00:41:42] And if he is with us, who can be against us?
[00:41:49] Let's pray.
[00:41:51] Father, we thank you for the hope of the gospel.
[00:41:57] We thank you, Lord, that you were forsaken so that we would never be.
[00:42:02] We thank you, Lord, that we can hear your whispers and your call, your commission and your challenges.
[00:42:11] And though they might just seem filled with challenge and danger and difficulty, we can go with strength and courage.
[00:42:22] Because we know you will not let us fail.
[00:42:28] You will not let us fall.
[00:42:32] You will guide us. You will sustain us.
[00:42:35] You will forgive us. You will direct us. You will redirect us.
[00:42:41] And even when we are unfaithful, you will remain faithful to us.
[00:42:46] So, Father, we thank you for that. We pray your blessing on that. We pray we could experience new strength and new courage today through Christ. We ask this in his name. Amen.
