Scripture: Joshua 1:1-9; Philippians 3:12-14
Introduction
- We had a great dinner Wednesday night with my friend Win Davis, the Dover Association Director of Missions.
- He gave a great presentation about our Dover association and where we fit into it.
- One of the things that he said really fits with our message today.
- He was responding to concerns I raised about reaching children and young families.
- Win said: “we long for the days when the halls of the church were full of children.”
- But, as he said: “that was a time when soccer fields weren’t full on Sunday mornings”
- “Kids weren’t on cell phones and social media, and the world was a very different place.”
- I must agree with Win, things really have changed in our environment – a lot.
- We face so many new challenges, don’t we sometimes wish we could turn back time?
- This church sprouted out of the ground here in a brand-new development just as we entered the Great Depression.
- Can you think of a worse time in American history to plant a new church?
- There is no turning back because the world we once knew is no longer there.
- There’s no going back to a place that doesn’t exist.
- Win’s response is: “we need to keep moving forward doing what we are doing.”
- There is real value in our diversity and in our heart for helping others here.
- Isn’t it nice when someone comes in from the outside and sees the value of what you do?
- Sometimes we want to push our agendas, but God has His own agenda that He is pushing.
- Last week we talked about one of the ingredients God is mixing up here at Biltmore – DIFFERENT PEOPLE. This week we are focusing in on the next ingredient – DIFFERENT NEEDS with these three points:
- It’s time to go.
- Be strong and courageous.
- Don’t look back.
1. It’s time to go.
- In our Joshua story we are picking up with the Israelites poised to enter the promised land
- The Bible had left off with the last few words of Deuteronomy and the end of Moses.
- In Deuteronomy 34:4, God says to Moses:
This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.
- Forty years, God made the Israelites wander throughout the desert leading up to this day.
- In Joshuah 1:2, we see God speaking directly to Joshua:
Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites
- There’s no mention of a burning bush or any other such dramatic communication.
- We are just told that God is having a conversation directly with Joshua.
- God is giving assurances to Joshua: “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.”
- As we think about our goals and plans and strategies, we need to listen to this.
- God gives us the same assurances.
- When He is ready and tells us its time to go, He promises us the same as in verse 5:
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
- Win told the joke: “How many Baptists does it take to change a lightbulb? CHANGE?!”
- Yes, old established Baptist churches are not big on change, but fortunately this one is.
- We have seen more change in the last few years than probably in the previous 20.
- I wasn’t here the previous 20 years, but I know they didn’t go through COVID19.
- I know they didn’t replace all the windows, and the roof, or buy four new buildings.
- I know they didn’t start a major clothing retailer from the ground up.
- I know they didn’t give away thousands of dollars of food through a 5’ x 5’ box.
- I know they didn’t remodel 6 rooms and 2 bathrooms.
- Yes, change is happening all the time around here and God is with us for every step.
- As God brings us to the next challenge and the next need He wants us to fill, we need to be ready to go.
2. Be strong and courageous.
- Remember God is talking to Joshua personally in this passage.
- God tells Joshua three different times to be strong and courageous.
- The first time, He says to be strong and courageous is: “because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”
- What He is saying is that He made a commitment and Joshua will be fulfilling that commitment on God’s behalf.
- This is something we can relate to because we are here working on God’s behalf.
- God is telling Joshua “You’re working for me so you can be strong and courageous.”
- If we are doing what God wants us to do, then He has our back and helps us.
- Do you ever worry? Do you ever wonder “how in the world are we going to do this?”
- It’s OK to admit it. I feel it sometimes. We can’t imagine how powerful God is.
- Nothing is impossible with God and He shows us that over and over.
- If we can overcome our fear and leverage God’s power, there are no limits for us.
- The second time He says to be strong and courageous, He says: “Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you.”
- This is why it is so important that we always stay true to the Bible and not water it down.
- Sadly, a lot of churches around us – some growing rapidly – do water down the Bible.
- I’ve even seen church leaders post on social media that the Bible is a myth.
- In a post from Jim Palmer on Facebook from June 19, he lists 14 things the misguided religious establishment doesn’t want you to know. Here is #4:
The stories in our sacred books aren’t history, nor were they meant to be. The authors of these books weren’t historians but writers of historical fiction: they used history (or pseudo history) as a context or pretext for their own ideas. Reading sacred texts as history may yield some nuggets of the past, but the real gold is in seeing these stories as myth and parable, and trying to unpack the possible meanings these parables and myths may hold.
- Palmer is an author and the founder of The Center for Non-Religious Spirituality.
- This was reposted by a church leader in a church I pastored some years ago.
- This is the dangerous way that some are diluting and discounting God’s Word.
- God is saying “don’t do it!!!” He’s saying “stick tight to my word” and in verse 7 says:
Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
- God is saying that if we trust in His Word, we can be strong and courageous.
- Finally for the third time, He says “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
- God is saying: “I’m not gonna just turn you loose to sink or swim.”
- God is with us every step. Yes, He wants us to do the work, but He is in the background.
- We have nothing to worry about when we are doing God’s work.
- God Himself is telling us to be strong and courageous.
3. Don’t look back.
- Paul tells the Phillipians in verse 13:
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
- God does not want us to look back.
- Does this mean we should forget about our past and all the great things we’ve done here?
- No, it means we need to have faith in God and look ahead.
- Why? Because the past is irrelevant. The game has changed.
- Oh yes, there is that CHANGE word again.
- Paul says: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
- And that’s what we need to do: press on toward the goal that God sets before us.
- You remember what happened when Lot’s wife looked back on Sodom?
- In Genesis 19:17, the angel of the Lord warned Lot’s family:
“Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!
- Then as the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 26:
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
- The future that God has in store for us is so glorious that we need to be ready for it.
- We can’t be ready to see the future if we spend our time looking back.
- God is telling us, just like the Israelites “It’s time to go.”
- God is telling us to “Be strong and courageous.”
- And God is telling us “Don’t look back.”