Prayer Night - Taking the Mountain - Joshua 17:14-18

All right, well, tonight is our prayer service.

It's the first time I've been up here doing a prayer service, so

I guess that's how this one's going tonight.

But I do want to get into the word a little bit with you

before we break up into groups and pray.

So if you have a Bible, you can turn to Joshua chapter 17,

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

Joshua chapter 17. And then just to prepare you for

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

the social awkwardness that may ensue after our time in the

Word, our first prayer time is going to be y'all talking to

each other before we pray. So I'm going to give you a

substantial amount of time with some questions on the screen to

engage with what we're talking about together and then pray

together. And then we'll have something

really specific that we'll pray for together.

So Joshua, chapter 17, and we're looking at taking the mountain.

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

I've been meditating on this passage of scripture for weeks

and I am so excited to just be able to talk about it.

I do want to keep our time, just so you can know, maybe about 20

minutes and there are some notes, but they're blank and I

have no screen notes, somewhat on purpose.

I don't want this to be intellectual.

I just want you to hear and listen, and you can write

whatever you want. So let me read for us Joshua

Joshua 17:14–18

chapter 17 verses 14 to 18. The Bible says, And the children

of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me

but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great

people for as much as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto?

And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get

thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in

the land of the parasites and of the giants, If Mount Ephrem be

too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph said,

The hill is not enough for us. And all the Canaanites stood

dwell in the land, in the valley have Chariots of iron, both they

who are of Bethsheon and her towns, and they who are of the

valley, they're the valley of Jezreel.

And Joshua spake unto the House of Joseph, even to Ephraim and

to mount to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people and has

great power. Thou shalt not have one lot

only, but the mountain shall be thine, for it is a wood, and

thou shalt cut it down. And the outgoings of it shall be

thine, for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have

Chariots of iron, and though they be strong.

So tonight is taking the mountain.

There are many things that we think God asks us to do that are

just going to take more work than what we really want it to

be. And we're in the throes of

planning a church. You all know you are the

faithful on a Wednesday night here.

We're going to pray together. It's going to be great.

But maybe even considering for your own life what is something

that you feel like God wants you to conquer or pursue today we'll

be, we will be challenged with that.

And if you're a note taker, I have three points.

So if you want to spread them out somewhere, first we'll see

the need and then we'll see the excuse and then we'll see the

challenge, the need, the excuse, and the challenge.

And I do want to be brief, but I want to enlighten our minds for

our time and prayer together. So first of the need, in verse

14, the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, why has

thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit?

So we come into the book of Joshua.

If you're familiar with the Old Testament, the first five books

of the Bible or the law, Moses leads Israel out of captivity in

Egypt. They spent 40 years wandering in

the wilderness. They're told about this promised

land. They'll no longer eat manna.

They're going to have their own inheritance, and each tribe will

have a spot for their families to build and worship God.

When we get into the book of Joshua, Joshua is a stud.

He is the man. He takes Israel across Jordan

and conquers city after city after city and helps Israel

inherit their land. And you don't have to feel bad.

We're told that Israel conquered this land not because Israel's

righteous, but because the Canaanites were wicked.

They were killing babies, they were worshipping demons and

false gods, and it was a part of God's judgment on them to give

that land to another people. But we find ourselves in Joshua

Joshua 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17. Most of the tribes have received

their inheritance. Joshua's the lone guy waiting

back to receive his inheritance. And now there's one tribe,

really 2 together, the sons of Joseph that say, hey, we didn't

get enough. I need more.

And it's it's likely that they did need more, but we're going

to find 2 errors in their need. In verse 14, we see they think

that they're a great people. They think they deserve it.

Why has thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit?

Seeing I am a great people. And many times we can feel this

way as well. Man, what God loves me.

I deserve to have some things. And sure, there are many good,

wonderful benefits afforded to us in our Christian life.

Man, someone sent us here to plant a church.

We need to have like all this stuff.

God can just do it for us. But to assume that we're great

would be the opposite of humility.

And if someone just gives us something, we're likely not to

steward it well. Proverbs 20 and 21 says an

inheritance maybe gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end

thereof shall not be blessed. And this is what Israel wanted.

They they wanted more than one portion to inherit.

And God says if you get that thing hastily, you didn't work

for it. It's not going to really work

out well for you. And we have that I deserve it

attitude. Secondly, we see that these

people want a blessing without the work.

They say, for as much as the Lord hath blessed me, it's

surely that's true. This tribe has increased, God

has blessed them, and they need to spread out.

And man, I think as a pastor, what a wonderful problem that

would be if we had to spread out.

If we needed more space, that would be absolutely wonderful.

That may not be where we are quite yet, but there is an error

in assuming that blessing comes without work.

I just get to be blessed. Proverbs 13 says wealth gotten

by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor

shall increase. He that gathereth by labor shall

increase. So maybe for you ask, you could

ask yourself in what area of your life do you feel like I

deserve it? Somebody just needs to give it

to me for me. And we've had car trouble.

You know, I just figured, God, you, you can just buy me a new

car and someone can give it to me.

And sometimes he's like, why don't you just fix it?

God, man, I'm trusting you for the city, man.

You can just give us a new facility and someone will just

want to give it to a an up and coming church and you'll just

drop it in our lap. And I've in faith believe that

he can, but he hasn't. And he may be asking us to do

here. What we're going to see tonight

is like, you need to get to work.

Why don't you go do something about it?

But they have an excuse, much like you do.

I mean, I love you. I'm sorry, but we're all humans.

We have a sinful nature. We don't always want to do the

thing that we're supposed to. If we look at verses 15 and 16,

there's the conversation continues.

And in verse 15, we see that there were giants.

And in verse 16, we see that they have Chariots of iron.

And if you just think about going to conquer somebody, if

you said they have iron and giants, like, you know, that

sounds like a lot of work. I don't know that that's that's

easy. That's not just the blessing

dropped in my lap. That's I mean, David famously

killed Goliath and that was a really big deal.

But you know what kind of faith David had when he killed a giant

with a with a stone? He said, thy servant slew both

the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised

Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he at the five, the

armies of the living God. This is the kind of attitude

that we need to have if we're going to take the mountain.

If we're going to see what does God have for us, We got to do it

in faith, trusting God for it. As far as the Chariots of iron

go, this is an interesting time. Israel has been in the

wilderness for 40 years. They haven't exactly had a lot

of resources. They've had to have God fight

supernatural battles for them. But now they come to the land of

Canaan. And it would be interesting if

we had the time to study the use of iron in the Bible.

But in Deuteronomy chapter 8, it's said that this land that

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

they would inherit would it says whose stones are iron, and out

of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

A part of their inheritance would advance them in

technology. So essentially the people that

are currently inhabiting it are more advanced than them.

So when God asks us to fight a battle to take a mountain, it's

likely it's an uphill battle. They're more technologically

advanced. We have less resources if God

doesn't come through man. We, we just, we got nothing.

This is the fight of faith as Paul tells Timothy in first

Timothy 612. Fight the good faith fight of

faith. So maybe for you or you could

think about our church. What uphill spiritual battle

does God ask you to fight? I can think about.

We have a missionary guest with us tonight.

Whenever we went on deputation and just the thought of how on

earth is God going to raise any money for us to move across the

country? This is crazy.

We sold our house and we just, it was insane.

And then that's when the Lord really shows up and we have to

trust him for it. That's when God really shows up.

So we see that they're stronger. And secondly, we see that this

is going to be a lot of work. If you look at verse 15, Joshua

says get the up to the wood country and cut down for

thyself. Have you ever cut down a tree?

How about maybe have you ever not cut down a tree?

Anyone I know, my wife's probably raising her hand.

Anyone else not cut a tree down? All right, my sons need to learn

to cut a tree down. Let's find a place to do that.

Cutting a tree down without a chainsaw is a lot of work about

cutting firewood. Even if it's already cut and you

just have to split it. If you're wearing your little

Fitbit thing, you know your heart rate stuff is going to be

stressing out. It's a lot of work.

Now consider a mountain covered in trees that need to be cut

down so that you can inhabit them.

And then the stumps. I mean, this is a lot of work.

This already sounds like I don't know if I'm interested in this

kind of Labor. And this is what the problem was

with Joseph's tribe. They were slothful.

Proverbs 2125. The desire of the slothful

killeth him. So the slothful has a desire.

You know what a sloth is, right? It's really slow.

For some reason on our Amazon Fire TV, my kids chose my

profile picture to be a sloth. I don't feel like I'm

particularly slow. They thought it was funny, but

the slothful has a desire. Proverbs 2125.

As I just said, the desire of the slothful killeth him.

He has something he wants to do, he just never actually gets

around to it. It says his hands are the

problem. His hands refuse to labor.

And man, I hope God dropped some blessings in our lap.

He is good and he can do the miraculous, but he also says you

just got to do your part, man. I need you to do some stuff.

I need you to step out in faith. So we saw the need, We saw the

excuse. But now let's look at Joshua's

response. Joshua in verses 17 and 18 is a

great leader as I said, and he maybe could remind you of a

mentor or somebody you've had in your life.

Whenever you said, hey, I feel like why isn't God doing this

for me? I deserve more, this stuff

should be happening. What should I do?

Joshua is a great example. So there are four things here I

think we can see that make a great mentor.

First, a great mentor will build you up.

Joshua says in verse 17, thou art a great people and has great

power. Isn't that what you want to

hear? This tribe said, hey, we're a

great people. We need more land.

Why don't we gather the tribes of Israel to go and fight the

battle and take this mountain for us?

And Joshua says you're a great people.

Remember, you got this. This is frequently what I tell

Tucker, some of my disciples like you're going to do great

whenever they go out to do stuff.

I'm like, you're going to do a great job, man.

I I got faith that you can do this.

That's what a good mentor should do.

We should be like man, you know what God, God really can use you

and do some great things in your life.

Romans 837 and all these things. We are more than conquerors

through him that loved us. That's what a good mentor does.

You're right man, you do deserve more.

Let's get out there and get it. Let's go.

A good mentor will also help you grow.

He says in verse 17, Thou shalt not have one lot only He's not

holding back this tribe from taking more.

He's like, you know what, you do need more.

He says in verse 18, but the mountain shall be thine.

You know what? God does want you to have more.

I want that for you too. We see that for the Christian.

That's what we see in discipleship.

We're trying to help people grow because Romans tells us that

we've been predestinated to be conformed to the image of His

Son. The God wants us to continually

look more and more like Jesus and to grow and not be content,

not be overtaken by sin and have faith and be willing to do

things for him. So a good mentor will build you

up, help you grow, and they're going to give you firm

direction. This is maybe where what you

don't love as much. It's like when they take the

sword and they just slowly stick it right into your gut.

The sword is the sword of the spirit.

By the way, Ephesians 6, because look at verse 18.

He says, for it is a wood and thou shalt cut it down.

Thou shalt is commandee kind of words, right?

He says in verse 18, thou shalt drive out the Canaanites.

He wasn't asking them, hey, how do you feel about this?

Maybe there's an alternative plan.

Maybe we can outsource, he says. I'm going to tell you what you

want to do. You're a big boy.

Let's get on out there and get it.

Thou shalt cut it down. Thou shalt drive it out.

This is what a good mentor does, speaking the truth in love, that

you may grow up into him in Christ.

But we have to be somewhat forceful with the truth.

Do you have somebody like this in your life?

They've got your back. They're all for you, but they

just aren't going to relent. You know what, God has more for

you. You're right.

Let's get it. Can you think of something like

that? We all need somebody like that.

And lastly, Joshua, as a good mentor to this group gives

realistic expectations. This isn't pie in the sky.

Like let's go get them slugger, because that's actually flattery

and it's not really helpful when we go to the people that just

tell us what we want or they say, yeah, that's that's

ridiculous, let's do it. He says in verse 18, though they

have iron Chariots and though they'd be strong.

So yeah, you can defeat them. Although they are a strong

people. A good mentor doesn't make play

in the make believe land. They say, you know what, we're

doing this church planning thing, you're doing this

discipleship thing. You want to grow and be more

like Jesus. You're going to have you're in a

spiritual war. Actually this isn't a physical

war. We're not taking territory.

But as far as it is taking spiritual development in your

life or seeing souls come into the Kingdom, there is more that

goes on in the spiritual world around us.

Second Timothy 2 tells us that we're to endure hardness as a

good soldier. So a good mentor is going to

remind you, hey, it's not going to be easy.

I want this for you. You're going to do great, but

we're going to have to slug it out.

I know you can do it. So those are your three things

from Joshua 17. There's a great need.

Very. It's easy to make excuses, but

if we have good leadership pushing us forward, honestly

with the truth, man, I look forward to what our church looks

like. I don't think it'll always be

easy. I'm willing to cut down some

trees with you guys, but you also have things in your own

life. So whatever comes to mind for

you. I have a couple slides that I'm

going to put up and I'm going to give you guys 20 minutes.

You're already on sides of the room.

So I'm just going to say, you know, get into groups, two

groups maybe, and go through these questions, say hi, talk to

each other, be real. This time is for you guys just

to converse. And then at the end of 20

minutes, I'm going to come up and we'll we'll pray for each

other. So let's begin.