Joshua: Kingdom Conquest (2)
Book of Joshua • Sermon • Submitted
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Last week we went through the first five Verses of Joshua 1.
We learned that we must possess our possessions- Obtaining God’s blessings doesn’t just happen
We learned to fight for our possessions because obtaining them doesn’t come easy.
Today is about determination.
As a fat strong man who is skilled in hand to hand combat there are two things I learned in my early years. Hit hard and do it quickly. I get winded very easy. My whole goal in a fight is to be done with the fight in under 2 minutes. Stamina isn’t my friend. I can run extremely fast for my size. But If I don’t catch you in the firs t30 seconds I’m sucking on an oxygen tank.
Stamina is one of the most over looked Spiritual discipline in the bible. Most people call it patience, which doesn’t do it justice because obtaining God’s Blessing and doing the will of God is more than just waiting. It’s doing over a prolonged period of time. Stamina is both patience and long term doing put together.
In Tonights text the term strong and courageous is stated three different times.
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, 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, that you may have good success wherever you go.
Strong means to be firm or “to prevail”
Courageous means to be determined.
What God is telling Joshua is to have
Prevailing Determination
God is priming Joshua to understand the time and difficulty his calling will take and need. I was talking to a friend of mine last week about how we see people’s step 1000 and not only wonder why we aren’t there, but then we start yelling at God because he isn’t following through on his promises when we are on step 5.
Back to Stamina for second- Stamina is a strange thing because Stamina can’t necessarily be trained or taught. It has to be practiced. You only obtain stamina through repeated actions. Free divers only increase their ability to hold their breath when they hold their breath for long periods of time. Part of this issue is that stamina requires pain and discomfort.
Most people let go of their breath-not when they can’t hold it anymore, but rather they let go when holding it hurts too much. People don’t neglect exercise because it’s hard, but because it hurts. Stamina requires strength and resolve in the midst of trials and pain.
God was prepping Joshua for the task at hand-not because it was big, but because it was going to hurt. It was going to push him to what he thought were his limits and then ask for another push.
Only be strong and very courageous, 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, that 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, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Many people come to the bible for answers and leave feeling frustrated and upset. The reason is because the bible contains wisdom and not answers. Yes you may get an answer from its wisdom, but that’s not its primary purpose. Its primary purpose is to give a direction.
We cannot just pick verses out of the bible that fits our narrative, but we must through the totality of scripture it should be the basis of all our decision making.
God is telling Joshua the key to success isn’t following the right podcast, reading the right books, investing at the right time, its adhering to scripture and allowing scripture to dictate your direction instead of just supporting your desires.
Obey the Word
Allow it to define who you are not just what you do.
Then we to declare God’s word
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth-
Claiming God’s promises is how we tread on promised ground. His word and Yes and Amen—Amen means let it be so. You have to come into agreement with God’s word to activate it in your life.
Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy and the main way he accomplishes this is to get you speaking lies about your self, your calling, or situation.
The only way to control the narrative that comes from your mouth is change the words you speak. And what better declaration is there than scripture.
you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
Meditate is to fill ones mind with, But in the original Hebrew it means to utter to proclaim. So Joshua is being told twice in one sentence to speak the word of God to proclaim it over his life.
And Joshua commanded the officers of the people,
“Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ”
And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said,
“Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’
Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them,
until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”
Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh didn’t have to fight for their land. They asked for land outside and on the boarder of the promised land that Israel was supposed to fight for, but since their land didn’t require a battle God commissioned them to the battle of the community.
Before They could possess their inheritance or their blessing they had to help the collective church seize their promises. In America we have made our Spiritual journey a personal one, but God built our journeys to intertwine to be a community journey. The blessing was to be poured out of the church to its people.
We cannot receive what God has for us if we are trying to get a our inheritance apart from the body of Christ.
Until we invest in our corporate inheritance we will not see the full potential of our personal inheritance.
And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.
Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!
Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”
Here’s the issue: When a person complains, slanders, or rebels against their leadership they are rejecting the God’s leadership and his refusing to follow Him.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
In this verse God doesn’t differentiate between godly authority and worldly authority. He says there is NO authority apart from God. That’s means every Authority is still subject to God and Judged by GOd. Even the antichrist is put in place by God to bring people to Him.
You cannot personally advance and Receive God’s blessing or corporately advance and receive God’s blessing if you are in rebellion against those who are in authority over you.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Rebellion is equated to doing the will of Satan.