The Torch Has Passed - The Book of Joshua

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Holt.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

So we are in 2025, and this is a year of courage.

And that's why our theme at the road is Breakthrough Courage.

That's why we've entitled this book of Joshua as the courage it takes to possess the promises of God, because we are going through massive transitions in our country right now, if you haven't figured that out yet.

Since January 20th, we could say that there has been a political revolution in Washington that's affected states all over the fruited plain.

We could say that there's a cultural revolution happening as a result of the political revolution.

And I believe there is a spiritual kingdom of God revolution as a part of it too.

And even though we see the controversy that's come with certain leading pastors who have hidden sin and it's come out, God's cleaning house in his church.

God is cleaning house in Washington.

God is cleaning out the house of man and the house of God.

We're a part of two kingdoms, church.

We are a part of the kingdom of God, which is the most important.

Matter of fact, Jesus says that of all the things you can be anxious about and worried about, the only answer to that is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

So even on Sunday night, when I talked about what the dream, and Liz and I talked about the dream that she had, and if you were here, you know what I'm talking about.

What we see happening in the next two or three months, which could shake our nation.

It will not shake the unshakable people of God if we're seeking first the kingdom of God.

It'll actually be really, really exciting.

Liz and I wake up every morning and I look at the stock market stuff first because I'm anticipating something's going to happen and I'm ready.

And I want you to be ready.

Because if you're not ready, you're going to be really, really frustrated.

But you're at the right church because I'm getting you ready.

Now I can't make you do anything, but it should be, and I hope it is, the most exciting experience you're ever going to go through because God is bringing a kingdom of God revolution to America.

It's not just cultural and it's not just political.

You know it's cultural when you see the ladies on the view backpedaling on all the things they've been saying over the last three years.

So there's something going on, gang.

It's in the air, okay?

But there's also the kingdom of this earth.

We're part of the kingdoms of this earth.

We should care about these things.

We should care about these things.

But overarching it all is the kingdom of God.

Overarching it all is the unshakable kingdom of God.

The earth's going to shake.

We are going to go through shakable times.

If not nationally, you're going to go through shakable times personally.

And some of you are going through shakable times right now.

And the book of Joshua is about transitions.

It's about entering into the promises of God.

It's about entering into the kingdom of God.

It's about the power, the strength, the courage, the tenacity to stand up, rise up, and cross the Jordan of your life.

And some of you have Jordan Rivers in your marriage, some of you have Jordan rivers in your finances, some of you have Jordan rivers physically, mentally, maybe emotionally.

I'm telling you that in 2025, this is the year.

This is the year for breakthrough courage and breakthrough promises with the inheritance that God has always destined for you to have.

And you know, you look at Israel, and for 40 years they couldn't go in because of their passivity and their unbelief.

That's true for all of us.

We have things in our lives that you've been passive about.

I've been passive about in my life that I don't want to cross that Jordan, manna.

I I like the manna.

I just like the manna coming down, I like water coming out of rocks and cool stuff like that.

But if I go in, if I go into this, it's new territory and it's scary.

Anyone know what I'm talking about?

It's scary to do that.

That's why it's called faith.

That's why you need faith.

That's why being in God's word every day gives you courage and strength for the beautiful, wonderful inheritance that God has for each one of you.

And that's what the book of Joshua is about.

So we're gonna we're gonna enter into the book of Joshua.

And I want to entitle the day, The Torch of Leadership is Passed, because Moses is dead and Joshua is taking over.

So look at Joshua chapter one.

It's in the Old Testament, as I introduced everything about Joshua last week and the different themes.

I shared that this is the first book of the Bible with the name of a leader on it.

It's the first of the historical books.

We're leaving the law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the law, the Pentateuch, the first five books written by Moses, and moving into Joshua.

So the torch of leadership is passing from Moses to Joshua.

How many of you know that revolutions always follow leadership change?

Revolutions always follow leadership change.

That's what's happening in our country right now.

There's been a leadership change politically, and I believe, and I'm going to talk about this at a conference that I'm doing at a church in April, that God is doing that in the church too.

There's a new transition happening in the local church.

There's churches across the country where leaders, and John MacArthur being an example, who is kind of on his last leg.

This was a thing he gave, a word he gave at his shepherd's conference.

I saw it online last night.

But many of your great and awesome and wonderful leaders in the church are passing on.

And there's a need for a new breed of leader, new Joshua's coming up.

And that's what's happening across our country.

That may be what's happening in your life, that God has called you to not be just the guy who took his family or his company or his church or whatever your background might be or whatever it is you lead to the Jordan, but now there's this big river, and we're gonna see in a couple weeks, it's actually gonna be at flood tide.

So it's gonna be at the at the most dangerous time that God's gonna call Joshua to lead a million people plus across the Jordan River.

And sometimes God places you in a calling at the most dangerous time, that's when you're supposed to move out.

Isn't that crazy?

I'm not God, but that's how he often works.

That's how he's worked a lot in my life.

So look at verse 1.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' sister.

Whenever I read this, I always think this way, and I've read this so many times, but Moses' assistant to uh being Joshua, and Moses is 120 years old.

So I always think in my mind that Joshua's this young guy.

He's 80.

Okay, so he's 80 when he goes into leadership.

So that's really encouraging to me.

If you hang out at this church, you might have me for the next 20 years, man.

I'm only getting stronger and stronger, okay?

But it says, it says, this is interesting.

You ought to circle this in your Bible, servant of the Lord.

It doesn't say leader of the Lord, it says servant of the Lord.

And this is really interesting because in the King James Version, I'm reading out of the New King James, that's the version I like best, and I'm not against other versions, but that's the one I use when I teach.

Servant of the Lord, listen to this.

King James Version leader is mentioned only six times.

Only six times in 66 books of the Old and New Testament.

Servant is mentioned 885 times.

So the first character quality of a Christian leader is servant.

We're servants of the Lord.

And it does, and I'm not talking about like pastors.

I'm talking about anything you do, if you uh aspire to be a Christian leader, you're a servant of the Lord.

So whether you're a physician or a mechanic or uh uh uh whatever you do, you're a housewife, you're a father, you're you're a single mom, whatever your role that you're in, you're leading someone somewhere.

And the first thing to remember is that you're a servant of the Lord.

In a way, and I don't I don't mean this to be pejorative, it may sound that way, but I'm not a servant to you guys.

I'm a servant of the Lord equipping you guys.

So I'm here, I serve Jesus, and I equip the saints.

So people have asked me questions about, like, you know, ask about direction for the church and stuff, and what I say is I'm like I'm a Bible teacher and I'm an equipper of men.

I'm a Bible teacher, I'm a quipper of men.

And what I mean by that is that when we talk about a kingdom of God revolution, that's our vision, but our mission is empowering people to change the world.

So we empower people toward a kingdom of God revolution.

And what is a kingdom of God revolution?

It is you taking Jesus wherever you go.

It's being a godly, humble, loving, compassionate leader wherever God calls you to go.

Be that.

It's not full-time vocational Christian work, it's full-time vocational Christian leadership.

Whatever we do.

So let me give you my definition.

Definition of Christian leadership is a person who knows God's vision and can influence people to follow it.

A person who knows God's vision and can influence people to follow it.

So so leadership, just leadership in general, is influence.

If you have a vision or a thought or a teaching or a direction, and you are trying to motivate others to follow you, and you look back and nobody's following you, you're only taking a walk.

But leadership is when you influence people toward God's ways.

Isn't that exciting?

That's the most exciting thing that we get to do.

Everybody in this room is a Christian leader.

You may not like it, you may not be very good at it, but you are, and you can always get better.

So people ask the question are Christian leaders or leaders in general born or made?

The answer is yes.

They're born and they're made.

And you know, you can see it in little kids.

Um, little kid in kindergarten there, you can you'll see who the leader is.

That's a natural-born leader.

But let me tell you something from experience.

That little kid that's in the corner over here, playing with his blocks all alone, can become a Christian leader too.

And so it takes a parent, it takes a mentor, it takes a Moses for Joshua to see something in Joshua to pull out of him something that maybe nobody else saw.

And so you've got you've got young men.

That's what fathers in the field is about, is about fathers mentoring young men who don't have a father in their home.

And so you're fathering, you're you're you're a part of fathering that kid, mentoring that kid.

They have a father, maybe I have a biological father, but they're not in the home, but you're mentoring that that young man.

And so it is in our lives.

If you're a school teacher or you own a company, or you're a mom, or you're a father, and um, or or you have grandchildren, whatever, it's it's asking God, Lord, what are you doing?

What are you doing in that young man?

What are you doing in that young lady?

What's the anointing that's on that child?

And then call it out.

You're not gonna see it.

You may never see it, but you call it out.

And I remember people calling out stuff in my life, and I've called out stuff in other people's lives.

And I've had situations countless times in the church where I've called out stuff, and it's almost like the opposite starts to happen.

And I found myself going, I totally missed that.

And then two or three years later, there's this move of God in that young person's life, and they start to come into the calling that's on their life, and they become and start gradually becoming the kind of leaders that God wants them to be.

So somehow, somehow, Moses noticed in Joshua something wonderful.

And he, this is really fascinating.

You if you go to Numbers, if you just do a word study on Joshua in Numbers and Deuteronomy, look at what Joshua did to hang out with Moses.

Joshua is with Moses with the presence of God falling.

Joshua's the one who goes into battle on occasion where Moses doesn't go into battle, but Joshua does, and he leads Israel to victory.

So many situations, Joshua is there.

Moses is guiding him.

Look at verse 2.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

That's important.

Moses is dead now.

Therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving.

Circle giving, giving to them.

The children of Israel.

So, Moses is the lawgiver.

No other leader in the Bible is known as the lawgiver like Moses.

The law cannot take you in.

The law can only take you so far.

Joshua, Hebrew Yeshua, the Greek for Yeshua being Jesus.

Only Jesus can take you in.

Jesus, the grace of God, is being given to Joshua, this anointing and this mantle, prophetically to us, looking with a New Testament lens, looking back at the pictorial prophetic picture of Joshua, Jesus leads us over the Jordan.

Why is that important?

Because there's a tendency in all of us to be legalistic.

To want the, and you guys know we all struggle with this.

We want to codify everything.

Well, okay, should we be doing that?

Should we be doing this?

Should we be, I'm a Christian, I want to follow Jesus.

Should I be doing that?

Should I be doing this?

The answer is I don't know.

But through the grace of God, God speaks to us and He guides us and He leads us in because that's why we have the cross.

So if the law could take us in, then we didn't need the cross.

And we're gonna have a good Friday service here.

Probably a good Thursday is when it actually happened, but that's a whole nother issue.

But we're gonna have a good Friday service.

I already know what I'm gonna talk on.

The deliverance of the cross.

That there's, I see five, maybe seven things that you're delivered from when you're crucified with Christ.

When you take on the cross.

The law can't do that, church.

The law is a tutor, the law shows us what unrighteousness is and what righteousness is, but the law can't make you righteous.

But Jesus can through his Holy Spirit.

The religious law cannot take you into God's promises, but the grace of God can.

So raise your hand if you struggle with being legalistic.

I mean, with you know, you this kind of you want to codify everything.

Okay, the rest of you are liars, you know that you are too.

Okay, so we all struggle with that, all right?

So, so this was not, this was not a just a 21st century or 20th century problem.

This was a first century problem.

So there was this group of Christians who come out of Judaism, because the first believers for the probably the first three or four years were all Jews who became Christians, who started to teach that you had to become a Jew to become a Christian.

You had to follow the law like you were a Jew to be a part of this new sect called the way, or what later became what they called Christians.

So in the book of Galatians, Paul is writing about this issue.

Here's what he says at the beginning of Galatians.

It'll come up on the screen.

I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ.

Remember, we're talking about the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want you to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Now that's true today.

That runs in our churches today.

Hyper fundamentalism.

That if you don't do this, this, and this, then you're not saved.

Or if you don't follow the law the way I say you would, because I have Jewish extraction or whatever it might be.

Dangerous stuff, you guys, and it's a different kind of gospel.

It's a perversion of the grace of God.

He goes on to explain in Galatians 2.

For I through the law died to the law.

Remember, Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

So he followed the law scrupulously.

For though, for I through the law died to the law that I might live to God, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now listen to this: I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

So following the feast or following the law and all those things is not gonna ever make you more righteous.

Now, if you want to follow that, that's fine, that's up to you.

But it doesn't make you more righteous.

You know what makes you more righteous?

Putting on more of Jesus, letting Jesus surrender more to Christ.

Got this kind of a problem in my life, or I've got this kind of an issue in my life, and I struggle with jealousy, or I struggle with envy, or I have sexual hangups in my life.

Surrender to Christ.

Surrender to Him.

And then be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Some of you need to do that today.

You battled and battled and battled these areas, right?

I wish, man, I just wish we could get saved and then all our sins just go away.

They don't in practice, they do positionally.

So positionally, you're you're set free.

You are forgiven, past, present, and future.

That's exciting.

But I don't want to just get saved.

I want to get sanctified.

I want to walk in the victory of Christ.

I want to possess the promises of God.

So if you're satisfied with just getting into heaven and kind of having fire insurance, then okay.

You're you, you know, probably you're at the wrong church because I'll make you uncomfortable every week.

Okay.

But I want you to be equipped, empowered, and strengthened, and empowered for victory so that we possess the promises of God.

I want to be I want to be better financially.

I want to be better emotionally.

I want to be better mentally and spiritually in my life by re-surrendering and maybe for the first time surrendering stuff that I've been empowering.

I get tired of Steve Holt power.

I want Jesus power.

How about you?

So that's what, so Joshua is about coming into these things, these promises of God, and I think what's interesting is that Moses has to die first for Joshua to rise up.

Some of you, like I grew up in a very religious home, and in a way I kind of had to die to my old life to be born again into my new life.

Even though it was Christian, both are Christian.

Okay?

And so it's true for many of us.

We come out of religious backgrounds that are that have within them these kind of legalisms that go with it.

And so God's taking us all through these things, and it's so important that we realize where Joshua came from.

Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I'm giving to them.

Grace of God, grace of God to Abraham, grace of God to Isaac, grace of God to Jacob, grace of God to Moses, grace of God to Joshua, grace of God to you guys.

2025.

And Joshua is a study in where God has all of us.

He's a slave, he's a student, and he becomes a spirit-filled leader.

So imagine Joshua growing up in Egypt as a slave for 40 years.

His dad takes off his shirt at night in the tent, scars running down his back from the lash marks of the slave owners and slave soldiers that would rule over them.

And then Joshua takes off his shirt and he's got the same scars on his back.

And some of you have scars on your heart from abuse.

Guess what?

All of us are recovering patients, recovering sinners who've been raised by sinful parents.

We're all recovering from something.

Hello?

Right?

So we carry those scars, but God was not ever done with Joshua, and God is not done with each one of us in this room.

I mean, 80?

He's just getting started at 80.

Just getting started at 80?

Come on.

I want that to be said of me.

And I want that to be said of you.

That God has that.

And so I think, you know, it's interesting that Joshua would not have been who he was if it wasn't for Moses.

And outside of Jesus, I don't think there was any other leader in the Bible.

Maybe David, if you count the 400 men and the mighty men of David.

But Jesus, David, and Moses mentored men.

They mentored.

So you may be 80.

You may be 40.

You may be 20.

Look for mentors.

Look for men and women who you respect.

Take them to coffee.

You don't have to make the same mistakes.

Because there's others out there that can teach us and train us and equip us and guide us.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, verse 3, I've given you.

There he says it again, second time.

I'm giving it to you.

It's the grace of God that it's going to be yours, as I even said to Moses.

Now, spiritual passivity gets us nowhere.

Step out and possess God's promises.

So we can hear it and hear it and hear it.

But here's the deal, guys, you have to step out and want it.

You have to go after it.

So Peter says it this way, and he would have known.

Peter, who probably carried more shame than anybody in the New Testament because of his denial of Christ, said, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these, he's meaning the promises of God, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.

You heard what he's saying here?

He's saying that it's in believing the promises of God, it's believing in the inheritance that God has for us that we become more Christ-like.

That we walk more in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Like I said last week, the book in the New Testament that's closest prophetically to Joshua is Ephesians.

Because Ephesians 1 and 2 is all about the promises of God, the inheritance we have in God.

And guess what Ephesians 6 is about?

Battle.

Spiritual warfare, having to fight for it.

That's what the book of Joshua is gonna take us for 23 more chapters, is going to be battle, fight, battle, fight, because that's the Christian life.

That's the way life is.

From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river, Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and of the Great Sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.

That's Jordan, Iraq, modern Lebanon, Syria.

300,000 square miles.

And Israel never received more than one-tenth.

Because they didn't believe.

Now that's that's kind of crazy to me because I look at my life and I think, man, there's so many things that I've not surrendered to God.

I discover them almost every day, right?

You two?

And so and so there's who knows what God could do if we if we believe Him for His inheritance and His promises in our life.

I mean, we would see bodies getting healed by the thousands.

People wouldn't go to hospitals anymore, they'd come to the road.

They'd be lined up out here Monday through Saturday, lined up out here, wanting to get prayer because they hear that there's healing at the road church.

And wouldn't that be cool if hundreds of churches in El Paso County were like that?

And so people are like, we don't need your health care plan.

We've got a health care plan.

And it's God's health care plan.

It's the Kingdom of God health care plan.

Instead of going to Big Pharma, we go to Big Jesus.

And he starts healing us.

So, but it but the problem for all of us is it's bit by bit, right?

It doesn't all just fall off.

So I like Exodus 23.

I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you.

Little by little.

Little by little, I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and you inherit the land.

That's the Christian life, little by little.

I wish it was a lot.

We're done.

Victory every day.

We're good.

No, it's not that way.

Because the problem is, is we when we get when we get a victory, we tend to trust in ourselves again.

So it's always this humility part and this grace of God part.

We're walking that out little by little in spirit-filled life.

But to possess the promises of God, it's his presence flowing from us.

So what I do in the morning, you've heard, I say this ad nauseum.

So I know you know Steve always says this, but I'm gonna say it again because I think it's important.

Get up in the morning, drink your glass of water, take my adrenaline cocktail.

Y'all know what the adrenaline cocktail is?

Go like this if you know what I'm talking about.

Okay, a lot of you done.

All right, half orange juice, half coconut water with real salt, mix it up, and then I work out.

No more than 30 minutes.

I'm a lazy guy.

I just do 30 minutes, and then I open God's word.

Because we're gonna possess the promises of God, start the day off that way.

Go like this, if you know what I'm talking about.

Because here's the deal.

I think that that's where courage comes from.

Courage comes from mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical strength with God flowing in our lives.

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

Verse 5, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Verse 6.

Be strong and of good courage.

For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance a land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

Well, next week.

Next week I want to talk about being strong and courageous, and what I think are five aspects of building strength and courage into our lives.

And it's there's too much good stuff in the rest of this chapter for me to go there now.

But let me just close with this.

Some of us here have scars.

Deep, deep scars.

It's a miracle that you're even in this room right now.

It's a miracle that you're streaming us right now.

But I'm telling you, God's got something more in 2025.

God's got a river for you to cross over.

Step out.

The days of passivity are over.

Trust the power of the Holy Spirit.

Please do this.

God will show up.

He's a good God.

All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes.

He's there to envelop you and love you and strengthen you in ways you could never ever even imagine.

Step out.

Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steveholtonline.org.

God bless.