The Book of Joshua

0:09 Well, this week we read through the book of Joshua, and I don't know about you, but I really believe my faith is stronger this week than it was a week ago. Just from reading this book, just by looking at what God did in history and going, God, you're the same God right now, just like you used that tiny nation and those couple of believers to change this whole land and do it for your glory. God, you've always wanted to do that. You've always wanted to find the underdog, to take this group of people that shouldn't be powerful, that should not be able to accomplish all these things, and you enable them to do it so that you get the glory after. God doesn't want us chasing things that we could do in the flesh, but to say, God, I believe, I believe that all, you're the only factor. If you decide to do something, it will happen. Whether it's through me or whoever, it's just up to you. That type of faith.

1:16 And I'm more convinced than ever that people need to be alone, reading the word of God, just communing with him like deeply because you're going to get so many contrary messages out there. And so you need to be this man or woman of God that gets alone with him every day and just says, okay, I'm going to wipe all of that clean. It doesn't matter what anyone else says. It's you and me. Gosh, when I was reading just the speeches of Joshua and Caleb, I just want to go over those today. Just, man, they're so beautiful. This is what we want to be able to say at the end of our lives. Okay, remember how this all started? It was 12 spies that were sent out to look at this land, and 10 of them said, we can't do it. And there were two guys, Joshua and Caleb, who believed and said, no, we can do this. God said we can do this. They lost, you know, I guess in the popular vote, and everyone started following the 10 spies and said, we can't do it.

2:29 But these two guys kept believing. So God says, look, you know what? You're all going to die except for these two guys. And they're going to actually see the promise. Man, did you see the picture here? It's about all of these people who were supposed to be Israel. They were supposed to be the people of God, but there were really only two who believed. And God says, everyone else will die, but these two, because they follow me, because they have faith. They're going to see the promised land. And so here we are in the book of Joshua, and they get to see it.

3:09 And these speeches are so powerful because they're from old men at the very end of their lives. And gosh, as I was reading these, I was just a bit jealous and saying, God, this is what I want to be able to say to my children at the end of my life. Not just my biological children, my spiritual children.

3:34 And am I en route to being able to do that? So you've got Caleb. Listen to these words from Caleb in Joshua chapter 14. In verse 6, he says, You know, as he's talking to Joshua in front of all the people, he says, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God. You know what? I'm going to back up. picture these old men picture these two old men who've just been through it I mean they watched everyone die they went out and they believed 45 years ago and here they are 45 years later picture these old men in their 80s and they're speaking in front of all the people I picture the camaraderie the friendship of just these two guys who have believed all of these years for great things.

4:35 And Caleb says to Joshua in front of everyone, You know what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God in Kadesh Barnea, concerning you and me. I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day 85 years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me.

5:40 My strength now is as my strength was then. So in verse 12, he says, of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.

6:24 Okay, that's just one of the greatest speeches in history. This 85-year-old man said, you remember that day. Josh, you were the only one that was there with me. And you remember what it was like. Remember how you and I believed and everyone else, man. And everyone else was just like, no, it's not going to happen. And they made the people terrified. Man, that verse, that verse, verse 8. But my brothers, my brothers, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt. Yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. man memorize that verse that that's caleb going man i this is 45 years ago i still remember like it was yesterday where where all of my brothers man these guys were supposed to be with me and and instead they're just like we can't do it we can't do it we can't do it says but me I wholly followed the Lord my God.

7:36 And he says it again later. He says, man, I follow the Lord my God. Holy follow the Lord my God. And God says, you know, I'm going to give you this inheritance because you wholly followed me. And then at the end, in verse 14, he says, you know what? You're going to get this land. You got the land. You inherit the land. Why? because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. Man, isn't that what you want to hear at the end of your life? The promise from God saying, look, here is your inheritance because you wholly followed me. And there were people who were supposed to be your brothers and they didn't believe. but you kept your faith you kept believing in me i mean what i love is here's an 85 year old man and he still has this childlike faith saying you know what get me up that hill right now i'm just as strong as ever i believe like i it doesn't matter it's all about god he says it's it may be verse 12 it may be that the lord is with me and i'll drive them out just as the Lord said, it doesn't matter how old I am. What matters is that the Lord is with me.

8:57 And if he's with me in this, as an 85-year-old man, I will conquer this land. See, so often in the church, man, we lose our faith. You may have had faith when you were younger, when you were in your teens, and you did these crazy things, but then your brothers, people start talking to you and tell you how brilliant you are and how you need to use your mind. And I'm not denying that we use what God's given us, but it's almost like this push to make us less and less childlike. And I've been praying to God saying, God, I want to be more like a child because I've spent years becoming less like one. And I want my faith to grow again. I want to become more like a child in this back half of my life, however long I have left. Because I want to be a guy like Caleb. Man, are you wholly following the Lord? Strengthen what remains. and you have the speech that Joshua gives same thing here's this old guy it says in chapter 23 Joshua was old and well advanced in years and Joshua summoned all Israel its elders and heads and its judges and officers and said to them I am now old and well advanced in years and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you he says look I'm old I'm about to die now and but you saw it yourself you saw how God was the one who fought for you it was the Lord your God who pushed these enemies back and in verse 6 is therefore be very strong to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left. And here's the phrase I love in verse 8, but you shall cling to the Lord

11:04 your God just as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. This is his message. Man, that phrase, you shall cling to the Lord your God.

11:41 Here's this old man just saying, look, you saw what he did, and here's what I want to end with. just cling to him man you ever have your you know for me sometimes my my kid will cling to my leg and just not let go or or you know my my kindergartner you know as i'm dropping her off to school just clean no no no don't go don't go just that that like we've had that where a kid just clings onto your leg and won't let go that's the picture he's saying you know what cling to him Everything's about him. And I know that sounds so childish. Man, you're a grown man. You're a grown woman. You're not going to cling to something. You're going to look silly. And the world's going to do everything they can to pry you off and say, No, you can do this independently with your gifts. But instead say, No, God, make me more like a child. I've spent too many years becoming less and less like a child.

12:37 believing less and less. Strengthen what remains. gosh, as I was reading this, I'm just thinking about, man, yeah, I'm not 85 years old, but I'm turning 50 this year. And I'm thinking back to even when I was a little kid, there's just something in me that believed. And there were years where yes, I became less and less childlike and started believing more in my own giftings and abilities in my mind.

13:17 But God was with me and I never lost that faith. And just like Josh was able to say at the end of his life how God, everything he promised came true. You know, he says in verse 14, now I'm about to go the way of all the earth. And you know, in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God has promised you.

13:46 Gosh, I can say that at this point. All the things that God has promised me over these 40 years or so of knowing him, he's always been faithful. Gosh, I can say with integrity if this were my deathbed to my children, But gosh, everything God told me from one time I was a kid, everything I read in this book, it was true. It was true. And everyone's going to try to pry you off of God and believe in something else. And there's going to be the majority and everyone telling you you're stupid. But you've got to get alone with him. You've got to wholly devote yourself to him. The way Caleb did, the way Joshua did. And we are going to enter the promised land. even if no one else does. And we hold on to that faith and we follow him like we did when we were young.

14:41 Hold on. Every single one of his promises is true. So get alone with him every day so that you can believe and tell him that you believe even if no one else does.