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12 08 2009

Be strong and Courageous.

Posted by: John in Uncategorized

    JOS 1:6

 

Intro to Joshua.He was Moses right hand man for years.He was 2nd in charge.

He was a soldier

 Now THE leader. Lost his leader, his friend, his mentor, all at one time. 

He had seen God use Moses in amazing ways. Out of Egypt, Cross

Red Sea, Through the desert, the 10 Commandments, the law. 

Now He was in Charge. 

1.      God comforts when its needed.. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 

As God helped Moses, He will help Joshua. He will do miracles through him, He will be there for him, it will be amazing. 

What else could you hope for. 

 

 

       2.      God sets the boundaries.Boundaries are important. (EG story of school play ground.)Physical. – 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates–all the Hittite country–to the

Great Sea on the west 

 

Spiritual –

8 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. 

Our boundaries are set. We know them. We can have total freedom to move inside the boundaries God sets. In fact we can totally reach our potential within those boundaries. 

3.      God gives us a realistic view of the future. 

Be strong and courageous. 3 times in this passage.God would not have given that statement if life was going to be easy.What about v. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

Don’t be terrified. What kind of warning for the future is that.  

God is realistic, the bible is realistic, We have teaching that helps us when life gets tough. We actually know life will be tough. That’s the warning. It will be. 

But the thing is if we hang with God, Do life the way he thinks is best for us. We will be successful in what we do for Him. Prosperity was a thing about land in those days. The promise of going into the promised land and owning it was their idea of prosperity. Their greatest desire was to have a land of there own. We have to be careful not to impute or put into the bible reading our own ideals of prosperity, The prosperity it talks about is what is best for us. More than we can image, but not what we perceive.  

How does this relate to us? Much the same as it related to the Israelites. Things are changing in our world. We need to know God is there.We need to know what the boundaries are for life, how life fits into the world, just how far we can go.And we need to know life is going to be tough. Probably more so than in the previous generation. We need to be realistic as a church about the future. Ministry to this generation is going to be hard work, probably uncomfortable, we need to be strong, we need to be courageous but we also nee to be ready to prosper.

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