The God Who is Faithful

So this evening at St. Columbus, we're beginning a new series

We're gonna be looking through the book of Joshua

So if you have a Bible with you and you want to follow along and please have it open at page

178 where we read from Joshua and chapter 1

Excuse me

But before we dig into the text of Joshua together

I wonder if anyone here this evening has heard of something called the Edelman trust barometer

I doubt it the Edelman trust barometer is it's a grand name

It's a survey that takes place every year and it's something that tracks levels of trust within the UK

And I'm a bit of a geek for stats and figures and surveys and stuff

So I think it's really cool, but very briefly. I want to just highlight something that the Edelman trust barometer

Found it's found that year on year trust in the UK is declining

As a people we are apparently becoming more and more cynical and more and more mistrustful of others

According to the survey trust in politicians came in at 36%

Trust in social media and news outlets and all sorts of things like that came in even lower

And the point of the survey basically was that trust across the UK is falling and we know that I think I think it's hard

In the political climate we live in to trust what people say

Maybe we know in our own personal lives. We find it hard to trust people. Maybe we've experienced

the the

the damaging effects of a broken promise or a lack of trust in a

relationship or within our family or amongst friends the

Book of Joshua presents us with someone who is absolutely worthy of our trust

One of the key points in the whole book of Joshua is that God is

Absolutely trustworthy God is someone who always keeps his promises

God is someone you can take at his word

In chapter 21 towards the end of the book spoiler alert jumping head to the end

For verse 45 says this not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed

Everyone was fulfilled

And this is a theme we're going to come back to time and time again in this series is that God is a God who makes promises and

keeps promises

God does not lie. There is no fake news with God. God has no hidden agenda

God has no ulterior motives

God does not deceive us and God cannot disappoint us like the people around us can

Maybe you're here this evening and you find it. It's hard to trust God

Maybe you're here this evening and you've trusted God's your entire life

Or maybe you're here and at one point in your life you trusted God, but you found yourself grown distant and far away

Well, wherever we're at this evening. I think we all need to be reminded of God's faithfulness of

God's trustworthiness of

God as who he is a person we can trust with our lives

Now this evening really what we want to do is just just give an introduction to the series and we set the scene for

Joshua and what's going on in the book of Joshua

It might be a book of the Bible that you know well

You might know all the stories within it. It might be a book you don't know at all

But hopefully together as we dig deep into Joshua

We'll see more about who God is as the great promise keeper who we are as his people in response

And how Joshua as God's chosen leader points us to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ

So what is Joshua all about? Why is it included in our Bibles?

How is it relevant to our lives today as Christians?

How do we read parts of the Old Testament like Joshua that at some level seem quite distant and detached from our experience in the 21st century?

I think a good starting point is to know that God is the main character

God is the main character in Joshua

Now we might be tempted when we come to a book like this to think that Joshua

Surely would be the main character in a book called Joshua

If I told you that Harry Potter was not the main character in Harry Potter

Or that John Wick was not the main character in John Wick or that Matilda was not the main character in Matilda

You probably think I was crazy

So we come to a book called Joshua and we have to think surely it's all about Joshua

But I think our starting point has to be that Joshua is a book all about God

And what we're going to do in this series over the next few weeks is look at different aspects of what the story of Joshua teaches us about God

Different aspects of God's character who he is and what God has done

And I think that way of looking at the Old Testament is really helpful for us because sometimes we open our Bibles

And we go to a book in the Old Testament and our first thought is where am I in this?

What does this say to me in my experience today?

But I think if we read our Bibles first and foremost with the understanding that God is the main character

The first question we have to ask is what does this tell me about God?

What does Joshua tell us about who God is what God has done and how does that point forward to the climax of his plans in Jesus?

Christ and from there. How does that speak to us as Christians?

So let's look this evening just briefly at the opening verses of Joshua the first scene chapter 1 verse 1

And there's two points I want to raise this evening as we look at Joshua together

First of all that God promises his people a new home

God promises his people a new home and then secondly God equips his people to get there

So God brings us home

So first point God promises his people a new home read again from verse 1

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua son of none

Moses my servant is dead now therefore go over this Jordan you and all this people into the land

I'm giving you to the people of Israel every place the soul of your feet will tread upon

I have given to you just as I promised to Moses

From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites to the great sea

Toward the going down to the sun going down to the sun shall be your territory

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life

Just as I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will not leave you

I will not forsake you be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land

I swore to their fathers to give them

So right at the start of Joshua the very first scene we find God's people right on the verge of entering the promised land

And I think for us to understand what's going to happen in this book

It's helpful for us to to reflect very briefly on the story so far

If you go right the way back to the start of the Bible in Genesis

We're told how God's created a good world a world free from evil and sin and suffering and pain and death

He's created a world for human beings to enjoy a relationship with him and with each other and

Then in Genesis C we read about the fall where human beings

Mess things up and that perfect world is tainted and distorted by sin

And the rest of the book then and the rest of the Bible really is God's amazing plan to rescue and to redeem and to restore

what was lost

And a really important part in Genesis is in chapter 12 where God goes to a man called Abraham

And chooses him and says to him. I'm going to make some amazing promises to you

He promises to give him a place to live

He promises Abraham there'll be a people to live there and he promises a blessing and relationship with God to enjoy

And the important part for us as we study Joshua is to have that first promise in mind a place to live

God has promised a people a place to live

So this is the key thing as we as we go into Joshua together the promise of a home for God's people

And I wonder this evening for you what the word home and what kind of memories or thoughts that conjures up

I think the word home can be quite a comforting word at times

I've just spent a few days at home up north near Inverness and every time I go up 39

I begin to get this sense of home where I can see the Kessok bridge

I can see the Kessok bridge and I know I'm almost home

And home can bring up wonderful memories memories of family and friends and loved ones. Maybe it's a place a geographical place that you're attached to

And home can be a comforting thought

But God's people here have spent so long homeless

They've been in slavery in Egypt

Then God brings them up out of Egypt and takes them towards this new home. He's promised them

And then everything went wrong just as they were about to enter the land

Towards the end of the last book they they doubt that God can do what he said

They doubt that God can actually take them into this land

And so that generation spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness

But now as we go into Joshua together, we're almost there

That goes 40 years up. Moses has passed away. Joshua is the new leader. He's been commissioned. It's a new generation and God says

We're going into the land

And if we take a step back from Joshua itself, we see that the promise of a home for God's people is throughout scripture

Excuse me

For God's people in Joshua, it's primarily about the land of Canaan. It's a geographical land

But as that promise is developed as God's redemptive purposes

Unfold in the Bible

That hope develops and for us today the hope of a home of a land for God's people

Comes to a climax in the New Testament

Jesus says in John chapter 14

John 14 · chapter mention

My father's house has many rooms if that were not so would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am

Revelation speaks of that hope as a new heavens and a new earth a place where God will dwell with his people forever

And verse 4 of chapter 21 says he will wipe away every tear from our eyes

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain

First Peter picks up on that the language of promise when he speaks about this as an an inheritance that's been kept for us

An inheritance that's kept in heaven for us

I imagine that none of us here this evening will have to wander around in a desert for 40 years

But we all have to face up to the reality of of death

Death is a sobering reality for every single human being

There's a there's a finality to death that we all have to face up to

And if if if we're here this evening and we're not a believer in Jesus we have to think about well, where where are we going?

After all the busyness and the chaos of life. What is at the end for us?

As Christians we know that we can focus in on this absolute certainty of God's promise

The promise of a home for his people

The sad case for many people in our country today is that that grief is something to be faced without hope

We retry and face it with sentimentality or pragmatism or a stiff upper lip

But death is an enemy to which there is no answer

The Bible tells us that Christians can grieve differently

We grieve as those who have hope

First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 Paul says brothers and sisters

1 Thessalonians 4:13

We do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of humanity who have no hope

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him

God promises us a new home

A home with him in eternity

Secondly the second thing we see in Joshua is that God equips his people to get there

We see that in Joshua chapter 1 in two ways. First of all God equips his people with his presence

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

Read verse 5

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life

Just as I was with Moses so I will be with you

I will not leave you nor will I forsake you

Now in the first instance these are words that are spoken to Joshua as an individual

Here in chapter 1 Joshua is being commissioned

for the huge task of leading God's people

He's been given this responsibility of taking them over the Jordan into the land to battle with their enemies

and to claim the land as their own

So this promise God has given is primarily to Joshua to strengthen him and to encourage him for what lies ahead

But at the same time in the gospel God speaks these words to us

It's a promise to us

Hebrews chapter 13 picks up on these verses. It says God has said this never will I leave you never will I forsake you

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

So we say with confidence the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid

What can mere mortals do to me?

You see the presence of God in the Christian life is the greatest source of strength and courage

In our Christian lives we have to face all manner of difficulty and opposition

It might not be an army like in Joshua, but we all have to face grief and pain

and anxiety and stress and the burdens and responsibilities and pressures of our lives

So the presence of God is an enormous source of strength and courage

You see the reality is that the journey is hard

That's true for God's people in Joshua and it's true for us today

Chapter one alone God says to his people four times be strong and courageous be strong and courageous

The implication clearly is that their journey is going to be difficult

There will be hurdles and challenges and opposition and enemies

So God says be strong and courageous because I am with you

And this is a consistent promise throughout scripture

That God promises to be with you

To be with his people

I think for many people the review of Christianity is one of a God who is cold and distant

and detached and far away and removed from all of our pressures and burdens of life

But God promises to be with his people

It's helpful as well I think to look at the language in

Chapter one of Joshua verse two God speaks about the land. He says he wants to be with his people

And verse two God speaks about the land. He says here that I am giving to them

And in the very next verse in verse three God says every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon I have given to you

Do you notice the grammar there? The tenses change

There's an element of now and not yet

It's almost as if they've been given the title deeds to the land but they've yet to take up residency

And I think in much the same way for us as Christians

You know, we know that our citizenship is elsewhere Paul says in Philippians chapter three our citizenship is in heaven

But at the same time we are exiles. We are strangers. We are

sojourners here in this life

The Bible often puts the Christian life into the language of a journey. It says we are travelers. We're pilgrims

When me and my brothers were growing up and we would go away on family holidays mum and dad would often drive

I admire them for that because we were not well behaved

And we would so often be impatient. We would so often be asking are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

How much longer?

We've probably just left the house at that point

Um, but we can all resonate with with with that and we can feel sometimes that this journey of life is hard

It's long. It's arduous

So often we're battling with discouragement and doubt and despair and grief

and fear and tiredness

Sometimes we want to say to God are we there yet? How much longer?

See as believers in Jesus Christ the journey can be hard, but God promises to be with us

Why can we be strong and courageous in the face of all of that kind of challenge because God is with us?

Verse nine goes on to repeat this be strong and courageous

Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go

So God equips his people for the journey with his presence

Secondly God equips his people with his word look at verse seven

He says being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded to you

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go

The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth

But you shall meditate on it day and night

Excuse me 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

In other words God has given his word his book of the law his word the Bible to his people

So they may know how to live in response to what he has done

You see another great hurdle for God's people on this journey

Both in joshua's timing in our own lives is not just the suffering and the difficulties we face

But it's temptation

It's the constant danger of being drawn away

Of being distracted of being

Going off the path

And so God equips his people not only with his presence, but with his word

Sometimes we have to find ourselves in our lives at a point where all we can do is go to God's word

All we can do is latch on to his promises

We can come to a God who is faithful even when our faith is at its weakest

A God who is constant

A God who does not change

The Bible is full of God's promises

He promises to give us wisdom if we ask in James chapter 1

James 1 · chapter mention

He promises to provide us a way out of temptation

1 Corinthians 10

He promises us that our salvation is secure no matter what

He promises never to leave us nor forsake us

He promises to finish the good work that he has begun in you

And lastly he promises to return

So as God equips his people for the journey

He gives us these promises in his word

So over a Christian here this evening whatever is happening in our lives

Whatever difficulties we're facing we know that God is with us

That is the reality

However dark and bleak your life might seem

However hopeless your situation might feel

You have the most amazing promises in God's word

Promises you can hold to and cling to in the storms of life

In a little while we're going to sing a final song

And I thought it would be good just to think about some of the words that we're going to sing

And just to reflect on them before we sing them

The last verse of the song Christ is Mine Forevermore

Goes like this

It says minor days here as a stranger

Pilgrim on a night

Pilgrim on a narrow way

One with Christ I will encounter

Harmon hatred for his name

But mine is armor for this battle

Strong enough to last the war

And he has said he will deliver safely to the golden shore

And I think that really captures so much of the Christian life

It reminds us that you don't have to be a hero

You don't have to be a heroine

It's interesting that in the Bible

Even the name Joshua

The Greek for Joshua is Jesus

The Lord saves

Means that we don't have to be the hero

All we have to do is trust in the hero

The hero that God has provided for us

And that he will do as he has promised

And you see that has huge implications for our life today as Christians

Because what we look forward to in the future

What we believe about the future

Has a huge impact on life in the present

And that's true for everyone

Whether you're a Christian here this evening or not

What you believe about the future

Or what you'd read about the future

Has an impact on the present

And there's an example you've probably heard before

Here in St. Columbus

Imagine that you give two people the exact same job to do for a week

Maybe it's something boring on Monday and like stacking chairs

You tell the first person who's doing this job

That at the end of it they're going to receive 10 million pounds

It's incredible

You tell the second person they might receive something

And the answer is obvious

Of course they won't

The first person knows there's something amazing

Promised to them waiting at the end

The second person doesn't know

Maybe, maybe not

A promise about the future can radically impact life in the present

And as we put our faith and our hope and our trust

In what God promises us

Regarding our faith and our faith

And the answer is obvious

The first person knows there's something amazing

Promised to them waiting at the end

The second person doesn't know

Regarding our future

In doing that we are strengthened

And encouraged in our battles today

Our battles against sin and temptation

We are encouraged to live lives that reflect our trust in those promises

It's one of the unique things I think about Christianity

A lot of other religions and worldviews and philosophies

Are always really concentred on what if

Maybe I've done enough

Maybe I've been a good enough person

They're very much dependent on our performance

Have I done enough to secure a place in whatever afterlife is waiting for me

We trust that God has done it for us

And we trust in his promises

This is what Paul says in the New Testament

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 20

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

He says, for no matter how many promises God has made

They are yes in Christ

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand for us

And you stand firm in Christ

He anointed us

He set his seal of ownership on us

And he put his spirit in our hearts

As a deposit guaranteeing what is to come

So the key point really that we're saying here

And the one we'll come back to again and again in this series

Is that God is faithful to his promises

You can take God at his word

The God who promises to give us a new home

And the God who equips us to get there

Be strong and courageous

Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go

Let's pray together

Lord our God, our loving Father

We come to you this evening as we worship you and as we praise you

And we want to thank you for the amazing promises you have given us in your word

We thank you that in Joshua we see a God who promises to take his people into the promised land

We thank you Lord God

That you are a God who is faithful and consistent

We thank you Lord that we can depend on you and trust in you

We thank you too Father that you've promised us that you will get us home

Father help us to trust in you more

Help us to lean on you

Help us to cling to you in the storms of our lives

Help us to know how loved we are

And help us Lord in the week to come to live for you

And to reflect our trust in you in all that we do

And help us to bring glory to you in Jesus' name

Amen