Oct. 7th and 8th, 2017 The Battle Begins
Scripture: Joshua 1: 1-11, 16-18
Today we continue our journey
through “The Story,” and it’s been quite a journey so far. We’ve been to the
mountaintop and we’ve been to the valley. We’ve encountered God’s goodness and
lamented our brokenness and experienced God’s relentless desire to make things
right again. We’ve journeyed to the bowels of Egypt where God heard the cries
of his people and set out to rescue them through a man named Moses. We’ve
listened as God promised a new land for his people, and a new life, and we’ve
found ourselves wandering in the wilderness, waiting for God’s promises to
unfold. And that time has arrived.
Much has changed since God first
rescued his people out of Egypt. A couple generations have died, including the
leader of the whole thing- Moses. Moses had the opportunity to see God’s
promises from afar, but he never stepped foot in the land God promised. He made
some pretty grave mistakes, and those mistakes prevented him from fully living
into God’s promise. But yet, the promised remained. God had said that he would
lead his people into a new land, and he remained true to his word. So he raised
up a new leader named Joshua. Joshua was one of the few who could see what God
was doing, and no matter the obstacle (and there were many), he remained
hopeful. Listen to what God tells Joshua: “Get ready to cross into the land I’m
about to give you. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I
promised Moses.” And it happened. Little by little, Joshua began to claim the
life God wanted to give.
This is essentially what the Book
of Joshua is about. Even though it’s a book full of military prowess and
conquest, (and we could talk about the hundreds of battles) it’s really about claiming
the life and promises God wants to give you. Author and pastor Max Lucado once
said in a sermon that the most important word in this book is inheritance.
An inheritance is not something you take for yourself, but rather something you
receive. In fact, God never once tells Joshua to go and take the land of
promise; he simply tells him to receive it, because it is God who will do the
taking, and it is God who will do the giving.
You may or may not realize this,
but God has an inheritance for you. It’s not land, however. It’s something much
greater than that. When you place your faith in Jesus and allow God to take up
residence in your life, you are promised an inheritance. Listen to these words
from Ephesians 1: 13-14: And you also
were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are
God’s possession.”
Did you catch that? You are marked
in Christ and given the seal of the Holy Spirit, (sort of a stamp or a tattoo marking
who you are!) who is a deposit for your inheritance to come. And what is that
inheritance? It’s simply this: Whatever
is promised to Christ, the Son of God, is shared with you! Whatever Jesus
receives, he willingly shares it with you!
Paul writes in Romans that we are children of God, and if we are children,
then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. That’s pretty amazing
stuff. I want you to hear this, because this is your identity, and it can be
hard to wrap the mind around it: YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD AND A CO-HEIR OF JESUS.
Let me say that again. Whatever is promised Jesus both now and in eternity,
he’s going to share it with you. So let me ask you? Are you actively receiving
your inheritance? Are you actively living into who God already says you are?
My guess is that many of you
experience a big gap between who God says you are and what you believe about
yourself. Am I right? Scripture tells us that Jesus’ life is one filled with
peace despite all sorts of reasons to worry. It tells us that Jesus experiences
joy in the face of adversity. It tells us that Jesus never wavers in his
commitment to the Father’s will, even if it involves suffering. That’s who we
are and who we’re meant to be. That’s just a glimpse of the life God wants to
give us, the life God longs us to receive. And I bet every single person in
this room longs for that type of life. Then why the gap? Why do we struggle so
much to receive that inheritance? Why do we struggle so much to live out who we
are? Well, I have a few thoughts on that.
One reason some don’t firmly take
hold of God’s promises is what I call a grasshopper mindset. Remember what most
of the spies said when they came back after scouting out the promised land? God’s promises are everything God said
they’d be, but…there were giants in the land. And enemies. And
fierce-looking warriors. And they felt like grasshoppers compared to them.
There’s no way they could ever conquer that enemy! It’s no wonder that God
tells Joshua to not be terrified or discouraged, because there’s plenty in the
world that can terrify and discourage us. I mean, how do we NOT experience
discouragement when we wake up to discover that 59 people were shot dead at
concert, and over 500 were wounded? How do we not grow a tad fearful when we
see people giving themselves over to hate? When we see these giants, these
enemies, so to speak, it can even be hard to remember just how good and strong
God is! Peter was a man who had a bit of grasshopper complex. He so badly
wanted to follow Jesus out into the water, where Jesus was miraculously walking
on water! And Peter got out of the boat and took a few victorious steps, and
then he saw the wind and the waves, and they loomed so large. And Peter began
to sink. The wind and the waves were certainly scary, but in reality, they were
nothing compared the one who called Peter forth. When we see the enemy, the
giant or the obstacle, we need to remember 1 John 4:4: “Greater is he who is in
you than who is in the world.” God is bigger than the world. We need to remember
that. So that’s one reason.
Another reason, and I think this is
more prominent than we care to admit, is this: we aren’t convinced God’s ways really
work. God’s ways are not our ways, remember, and God’s ways often require a
good deal of trust in what we cannot see. You have to think that there were
more than just a few eyebrows raised when God told Joshua that Jericho would
fall, but all they had to do was march around the city 7 times. Now you and I
both know that’s not how you defeat an enemy. Can you imagine President
Roosevelt commanding his troops to march around Germany? C’mon God, really? We
have these awesome weapons at our disposal and we can put them in their place
if you’d just give the signal. All you want your people to do is march around
the city and blow some trumpets? Really? Some of us just remained unconvinced
that God’s ways will actually get the job done. I’ll admit to you that I
struggled with that very notion this week. In his teachings, Jesus speaks
numerous times about loving your neighbor and loving your enemy- that’s his
way, the life he wants to give us- but that way is so hard to reconcile with a
world that knows very little of love, whether it’s a Facebook conversation or
mass shooting. There are days when love doesn’t seem to be the answer, but in
the end I know it’s the only way.
Finally, some don’t firmly take
hold of God’s promises because they’re focused on the wrong battle. And this is
a major issue. This is not just a battle for a new land flowing with milk and
honey; it’s really a battle for the heart. God didn’t rescue Israel for the
sake of changing their zip code; he rescued them for the sake of changing their
hearts. One of the errors of Christian thinking is that Jesus died only so that
our eternal zip code would change from hell to heaven. But it’s so much more
than that. Listen to these words from John 10:10: I have come that they may
have life and have it abundantly. That’s our “Promised Land.” That’s our
inheritance. It’s a life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and
forgiveness, not just in a existence after death, but here and now. That’s the
life God wants to give us, but sometimes we miss out because we’re focused on
the wrong battle, and we’re focused on them.
And you know who them is. They’re the people and the
problems we blame when it’s too uncomfortable to look at the battle going on
inside of us. It wasn’t the Caannanties they had to worry about; it was their
own struggle with God. And that’s always going to be our challenge. It’s not
the them, whoever we think them might be. The real challenge isn’t
the government or the muslims or the conservatives or the liberals or whoever
you’d like to fill in the blank…The real challenge is us. And it always has
been. Our own hearts, constantly distracting us from the goodness of God, and
the gift he wants to give us. That’s what the story of Achan’s sin teaches us.
They caused their own destruction, and they had no one else to blame. That’s
the battle we’re in, and that’s the battle God will deliver us from, if we want
it. The Book of Joshua has a fitting ending, a high crescendo, if you will. And
Joshua hits that nail on the head and calls out the problem. Here it is. Even after the Hebrews have experienced
great victory in military battles, and even after they have stepped foot in the
promises of God, it is still clear that God is battling for their hearts. Here’s
what Joshua has to say: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all your
faithfulness. Throw away all other gods and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord is undesirable to
you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But AS FOR ME AND
MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD. You see, Joshua gets it. It was never
about the Canaanites; it was never about any external enemy; it was about becoming
who God wanted them to be. That’s the battle we’re in.
So, I guess the question to ask is
this: Who is winning the battle for your heart? Is it fear? Anger? Worry? Is it
an external enemy that you are quick to blame? Or is it God? He has an
inheritance for you, an identity, full of life and goodness and abundance. And
all you have to do is receive. Amen.
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