Joshua: Living in God's Promises

So, for us as a church, back in January, Audrey, who's in the back, she can wave if you want to turn around and look at her.

So she has been our part-time student ministry coordinator for the past two years.

And back in January, she came to me and we started talking about her future, and she wanted to head in a different career path moving into the future.

So back in January, our elders began to pray about what that means for our student ministry at our church.

And so the elders back in January decided, well, that meant this was now time for the first time for our church to look for a full-time student pastor.

And so we began to get our act together, get that job description together.

What does that mean?

What does that look like?

So just about when we had all that lined up, coronavirus hit.

And so I pressed pause, and then a month later the elders said, no, don't press pause because this is something we need whenever through all this season and after this season, uh, you know, this isn't a hire for us to do just for the next five months.

This is the next five years.

It's the future of our church for our children and our students.

And so, right at the at the end, a few weeks ago, um, I mean, I was at the end of my network at this point.

Like, you know, I'd send all the emails I could send, I'd hit up all the other pastors I could hit up and all the seminaries.

I mean, I was at the end, and we were in our elder meeting in uh, I guess the beginning of June, and we were just like, you know, we're at our end here.

Let's you know, just we're gonna have to pray again.

Let's just pray again.

The Lord brings the right person.

And within days, we get an email from this young man, Sam Rapp.

And Sam, you can come on up.

And he emailed me about our job and position, and through interviews and assessment and question and answer, um, we have hired him to be our new student pastor, so he's gonna introduce himself and then we'll pray for him in our student ministry.

Yeah, just it'll pick you up.

Because I had already committed to a sales job.

And I'll be honest with you, I wasn't even the one that found this job listing.

It was actually my mom and dad who were sitting right there.

And I woke up to a text from my mom saying, Hey Sam, text me and you wake up.

And normally when she does that, it's because I'm in trouble, and so I was like, oh boy.

So she texts me and I look at this, and it is like the most perfect job description I could have dreamed of.

And about a week before that, Grace and I, my fiance, who y'all will see a lot of, we were praying a lot about what church to be a part of.

And you know, we were praying for a church that we could just come serve on Sundays, not necessarily a church that I would come on staff with.

Um so I think the theme that Grace and I, and I'm sure Russ and the others are seeing too, is that like Ephesians 3.20 says, God does far more abundantly than we could ask or think.

Um and so two weeks ago, yeah, or three, I guess I reached out to Russ, and then very quickly the Lord just started opening this door and moving us at a thousand miles an hour.

And for whatever reason, Russ likes me, and so we're here now.

And so I'm thankful for that, and I'm also thankful to be here.

I am in love with student ministry, and I'm so excited to come disciple your students and show them that Jesus is who he says he is, and that he's worth following with everything.

So we're thrilled to be here.

Grace and I are so excited to be a part of this family and to come be here.

We are committed to you all, and I can assure you that this decision was permeated with a lot of prayer, and so I can trust that the Lord has led us here and that he's gonna lead us here for a long time.

So we're here to stay, and we're here for you, Christ the Redeemer.

So again, just wanted to say thank you and that we are so excited.

So we're gonna pray for St.

R.

Ministry.

Uh, for us, you know, this was uh myself and Brad O'Kelly and Al Pereca drilled him the first time he met us for two and a half hours late into the night and did so well.

Then it was lots of emails of QA and some assessments, and he's been a real trooper through all that because we we really put it put him through it.

Um and every step was was was confirmation.

Um he's called to ministry, he's called to be here, called to lead and build our student ministry.

So let's pray for Sam for our student ministry.

God, we are so grateful that we stand here today where we're at.

Um, we are thankful that we stand upon the shoulders of all the uh part-time student ministry workers that we've had and our volunteers that have got our student ministry to where it's at and have served and loved our students.

And we are thankful that we can now take this next step of having Sam here to lead and build and minister our students to teach and show what it means to follow Jesus and be known and loved by Jesus.

And we pray that you would be equipping him and his heart, first off, to be a husband, um, and then secondly, what it means to be a pastor.

And we know that where you call, you will provide the grace and the wisdom.

And so we pray for that grace and wisdom and anointing upon Sam, and uh we pray that he finds great welcome here.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

Well, let's head into the sermon.

Yeah, you can clap for that.

That's a good one.

So we're at the end of the book of Joshua.

Uh, if it's your first time here, you're picking up at the very end of months of study, going through the book of Joshua, but we're gonna jump right in.

I think you'll pick right up with us.

Joshua 20, verses 1 through 3 says this.

Joshua 20:1–3

Then the Lord said to Joshua, say to the people of Israel, appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there, they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.

So we'll make sense of that in a little bit.

First, let me tell you about Christy's grandparents, Nana and Granddaddy.

So when we first started dating, I was 23 years old, 17 years ago, and 18 years ago, forget that sometimes.

And we first started dating, Christy takes me over to Nana and Granddaddy's house.

Now, Nana and Granddaddy, they lived on about an acre of land, small little ranch house.

That back third of that acre was a huge vegetable garden.

The entire property is just gardened and beautiful and flowers.

And show up, walk inside that kitchen through their little carport.

As soon as you get there, Nana's over the stovetop and she's got stuff cooking, and there's food all over the kitchen bar.

And granddaddy comes up and he says, There, the picture of Nana and Granddaddy right there.

And as soon as you walk in, granddaddy says, You want a Coke?

And he said, Yeah, I'd love a Coke, and off he goes, he disappears with a cold Coke that are kept in the shed out in the backyard.

And so off he goes and disappears, probably just an excuse to get away and sit in the shed for a little bit.

But he comes back and you sit down and you eat, and Nana never sits down, and she's just providing and cooking more and feeding you.

And then we get up, the whole family, and you tour around the yard and the garden and the veggies and the flowers, and you're going through all you come back in, you eat some pound cake, and then Christy's family, which I had not seen this in their home, they just start laying around and watch the falcons lose and fall asleep.

And it was like for me, it took kind of years to realize what was going on here.

What was interesting was is like, I mean, from the first time I stepped in there, here I am dating their granddaughter, and here I am.

I step in.

They never asked me once, like, how well are you doing at seminary?

Like, what are those, what's that career path looking like for you?

I mean, they never asked that.

They never asked me about my pedigree or my, you know, like how, you know, how esteemed is my family?

They never asked me about my network or who did I know.

I mean, none of these were the questions they asked.

They just they just loved me because I was there, not because I performed.

It took me years to realize what was going on in that house for Christy growing up and for her entire family, and for me for those few years.

You see, out in the world there was one set of values.

But as soon as you stepped foot on that property, a different set of values took over.

It was a place of refuge amidst a world of demand.

And in this way, it's sort of like a city of refuge.

Here's point number one.

We'll make sense of all this.

Point number one.

In Jesus, we have refuge from our mistakes and from a world of demand.

So in this Joshua story, the war is over, they're starting to divide up the land.

That's what's going on here in the context here toward the end.

The land's getting divided up, and then they start to assign cities throughout the land spaced out, and they're called cities of refuge.

So if you accidentally killed somebody, let's just say that happened, I mean a horrible moment, right?

But if that happened, the avenger of that person, like a relative or something, they could come and they could kill you, right?

Ancient times, okay?

But if you killed somebody, you could run.

And you could get to one of these cities.

And once you got into the city, you were safe.

So, like out there was one set of values, but if you could get to a city of refuge, a different set of values took over.

Now, this word refuge in our text, the refuge comes from the Hebrew word miklat.

And this means to be taken in, to have asylum, or a receptacle to hold you.

Right?

Like, I mean, I need that.

Like, I need refuge.

I'm like you, where I I need I need refuge.

I need refuge from my mistakes.

I need refuge.

I need to be held.

I'm looking to be received and held from my mistakes and from a world of demand.

Lately, Christy and I in the events, we're watching the show Alone.

Does anybody watch the show alone?

Nobody else.

Yeah, I think that's how popular it is, obviously.

So it's just Christy and I, the only people in the world watching it.

We're alone watching it apparently.

And so they take ten people, they take ten people and they set them off, like usually like in the Arctic, somewhere it would be awful to survive, and they drop them off with a set of cameras and like 10 essential items for surviving.

And the whole show is them filming themselves trying to survive.

They got to build their shelter, they gotta get their food, they get so you get to sit in your home very safe, like on the couch, nestled in your favorite blanket, and you get to judge all the decision making and their mistakes and their failures, and you talk to your you know, your sweet someone about what you would do and how you would do that, you know, and like how oh well I wouldn't kill that moose like that, I would, you know, like I've ever killed a moose in my life.

Right?

And you know this moment, right?

Like in the evening, I don't know what your show is or how you settle in, or maybe you don't watch TV, but you're on your phone or whatever, but you settle into that seat or that chair or that couch or on your porch, you get your blanket or whatever, right?

Like you're you're taking refuge at the end of the day.

Because the day's been busy, or maybe you felt anxious, or we're all looking for refuge.

And maybe it's in a book or a show or maybe at the beach, but we're all looking for refuge.

Ultimately, we have this refuge in Jesus.

He's our ultimate refuge.

And what that means is it means we are accepted.

Not because we perform, but just because he has chosen us and he loves us.

And we're accepted before.

We're accepted while we're a mess.

That's what a city of refuge is, is you get to go there while you're amass with your mistakes.

Psalm 61, 1 through 3 says this hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.

From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.

Paul, in the New Testament, starts to make sense of this when it comes into what does Jesus mean for us, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

See, in him we have refuge.

Our sin is put upon him, his righteousness is given to us, we are held, we are accepted.

Now in Joshua 21, while everybody was receiving their land, right?

The land's been divided up, everybody's receiving land, the Levites had not gotten their land yet, but they were promised.

And so they come to Joshua to claim theirs, because they had a promise, and they wanted that promise.

And so what we read in Joshua 21, verse 3 is this So by command of the Lord, the people of Israel gave to the Levites the following cities and pasture lands out of their inheritance.

Joshua 21:3

So that was what's interesting about these Levites.

They're different than all the other people groups.

Because the Levites, they didn't actually get land.

They got land within other people's land.

So in this way, we get point number two, and this is this we are guests in this world, truly at home in God.

We are guests in this world, truly at home in God.

So the Levites didn't actually have their own land, they had cities inside of other people's land.

And it's because the calling these Levites had.

The Levites had the calling to be covenant teachers.

They were called to help the priests, and they were called to teach all the other people about this covenant God who keeps his promises and is faithful to them.

And in that, their identity and their calling, they were guests in the land.

Maybe you've gone and you've uh visited a relative and you spent the night or a few nights, right?

Or first night, great.

Second night, pretty good.

It's about the third day.

Right?

Everything they do starts to annoy you a little bit, and you talk to your sweet someone about how they load the dishwasher and how they fix the meals and how they parent and how they talk to each other and how they wake up in the morning, how they go to bed at night.

They're doing the same thing about you, by the way.

This is how this works.

Right?

And this is how it works.

Of course, because you're you're a guest in their home.

Of course it would be that way.

Why would you why would we think it would be any different?

Of course it's that way.

You are a guest, you are passing through their home and their values and their ways.

You're a guest.

See, there's a reason why the things of the world keep disappointing us, including me.

That wave runner, remember the first year of the Wave Runner?

That first summer was so sweet.

And the second summer's okay.

It's still good.

Let's call it great.

Third summer, you start to have some mechanical issues with the wave runner.

Not as fun.

You wish your friend owned the wave runner and you just got to use it.

Right?

It's just all of a sudden the thing that was it was gonna solve your problems, the thing of the world that was gonna be so good.

And let's be honest, wave runners are so good, right?

Like it's so much fun.

Nothing like doing a wave runner across the lake.

That is so fun, but it eventually it just doesn't keep fulfilling at the same rate.

It doesn't quite fill us up.

And it's just because, you know, even within all the goodness of this world, and there's a lot of goodness, right?

Like, even within all that goodness, it's still not our home.

We're still guests.

We're enjoying things, we're experiencing things, but we're guests.

St.

Augustine knew this.

I mean, even from North Africa, back in the fourth century.

Here's what he said You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

So I think there's two implications, at least for me, there were two implications this week for my heart and my life.

Number one is this we can be at home in the Lord while feeling lost in the world.

You may feel lost in the world, a little like ungrounded, like you don't quite have a footing.

But we can be at home in the Lord.

I read this this week by priest and author Henry Nowen.

We don't have to be limited to one country or another because Christ and the Spirit, all places are ours.

All the world is ours to travel because we are already at home.

We are already in God.

We have already found a communion, and we don't have to limit that to any family, any country, or any circumstance.

See, we already have a communion.

We already have a city of refuge.

We already have a home.

Number two is this we can be at home in the Lord while feeling lost in the future or the past.

So we can be at home in the Lord while feeling lost in the anxiety of the future or the shame of the past.

So easy for us to go in those two places, but not live right here, right now.

So Jerry Seinfeld in his Netflix special, 23 Hours to Kill, which came out on Netflix maybe, I don't know, a month or two ago.

Here's what he says.

He says it's a lot funnier than I do, but I'll read it.

Wherever you are, really, anywhere in life, at some point, you gotta get the heck out of there.

You're at work, you want to get home, you're at home, I'm working all week, I gotta get out.

You're out and it's late, I've got to get back.

I've got to get up, gotta get at the airport.

When are we getting on the plane?

Plane takes off.

When's the plane gonna land?

Plane lands.

Why don't they open the doors so we can get out?

Nobody wants to be anywhere.

Nobody likes anything.

Right?

He's funnier than me, but we see the truth of it.

Now, now and goes on in his book, Following Jesus, and speaks to the same exact issue.

He takes a spiritual slant at it.

Here's what he says The world in which we live makes us believe that the real thing is happening next week, next month, or next year.

Jesus says, be patient.

Patience means to remain close to the moment and to fully taste where you are so that the seeds that are sown in the moment can grow and lead you to the future.

Trust that a promise is given to you that is hidden in the soil on which you stand.

It will grow into a strong tree, but you have to give it time.

It will reveal the future to you and it will grow right where you are.

Trust that that is what the Spirit does.

Easy to move into anxiety of the future, easy to live in shame of the past, but the spirit is calling us to live in this moment, trusting that we have a city of refuge from the past, and that God holds the future as our sovereign Lord.

Last point.

Point number three.

God faithfully pursues and fights for us, which empowers us to cling to Him.

God faithfully pursues and fights for us, which empowers us to cling to Him.

So this is a point we've been reiterating over and over and over again throughout the book of Joshua, and it's just because it keeps coming back up in the text.

Here we go, Joshua 21, 43 through 45.

Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there.

And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers.

Not one of all their enemies has withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.

Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed.

All came to pass.

And here's what this means such good news.

It means our faith is inside of his faithfulness.

And if you come from a performance background, that is just a huge sigh of relief.

That our faith is inside of his faithfulness.

Last reading, if we jump to Joshua 23, this is the end of his life.

So Joshua is an old man at this point.

This is old man wisdom, right?

Here's where he's just dropping it on the people of Israel.

Joshua 23, verse 2.

Joshua 23:2

Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and he said to them, I am now old, 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.

So Joshua says, God is faithful.

And then he says, and we're going to read it here in verse 8, you should cling to him.

That's what he says.

So after he gives them this promise that God is covenantal, faithful, he loves you, he always will, it's secure, and you should cling to him.

So this word cling comes out of verse 8, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.

And that's because earning is over in the grace of God, and that grace of God empowers us to have effort to cling to the Lord.

Cling means the Hebrew word devok, meaning to cleave, abide, and pursue.

It means to stick, is what it means.

Stickiness.

So of course, my mind went to Phil Swift and flex seal tape.

Do you remember this commercial?

Have you seen it?

Have you used it?

I used on a gutter.

I mean, that's it's incredible.

I mean, it solved the gutter problem.

It was amazing.

I mean, so on the commercial, if you remember the commercial, at first he takes the tape and he he has the tape in his right hand there and he just smacks it up against that bucket and it solves that.

I mean, the water stops, it seals completely right there with the water flow, it's unbelievable.

And then you're thinking, this tape's incredible.

And then he, there's the next one, right?

He cuts the boat in half.

Do you remember this?

He cuts that boat in half, and in the commercial, you get to see it, and then he tapes it and he rides it across the lake.

Oh, this tape's amazing.

And you think that's a, and then they have clear flexil tape in case you're wondering.

So he cuts a square out of a boat and he tapes it with the clear tape.

There he is.

And so he rides it over a bunch of sharks because that's a wise decision.

But it does show you the strength of the tape, right?

Like, I mean, this is incredible tape.

I mean, I mean, this is this is like maximum, it's not, this is maximum bond.

This is this isn't duct tape, this isn't masking tape.

I mean, this is ultimate strength of bond tape.

And this is what this word is.

This is actually what we're called to do.

Is to cling to God with that sort of pursuit, that sort of clinginess and stickiness.

Now that could feel like a real burden, right?

Like if I just threw that on you and left the sermon, you go, oh my gosh, I gotta go and produce that amount of cleaning.

Wow, that would actually be not good news.

But you have to remember this comes after everything Joshua has just said.

Remember, is it God's fought for you?

Not one of his promises is short.

So when he says your sins are forgiven on the cross, that is the covenantal God who holds his promises.

When he says you are righteous by Jesus as righteous, you are you are already accepted.

That promise is secure for us.

That's what this Joshua story shows us that our faith is inside his faithfulness.

And our faith is an act.

If we look at Joshua and over and over again, our faith is an act of bringing our weakness.

That's the clinging we're doing.

We're doing clinging, coming, bringing our weakness, not our strength.

Because in that, that's how we know this covenantal, promise-keeping God who is enough for us.

Inside the belonging we have in Jesus, we are forgiven and we are free to cling to Him.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy that yes, you call us to cling to you, but that calling is within your perfect, absolute grasp of us.

Thank you that you are faithful while we're not always faithful.

You are strong while we're not always strong, and you are our very righteousness.

We pray this in the perfect, complete, and powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.