The Courage to Follow | Joshua 1:1-9

I'll title this message The Courage to Follow.

The courage to follow.

Joshua chapter 1.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

Joshua's life's about to change.

He's going to be uh going to be a leader for the nation of Israel.

And that's what God says.

We serve the Lord, is what our roles and things constantly changing, doing the things that have us to do, and if we are just to have the courage to follow him.

But look in Joshua chapter 1, verse 1, it says, Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Joshua 1:1

Now therefore, rise and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give them, even the children of Israel.

And he says in verse 3, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness unto this Lebanon, even to the great river of the river Euphrates, unto the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.

And he says, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

And he says, As I was with Moses, so I'll be with thee.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

He says, Be strong and of good courage, for this unto this people that shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them.

In verse 7 says, Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee.

Turn not from it from the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, and that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

For when thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

And then he says in verse 9, Have I not commanded thee, be strong and have a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee with us wherever thou goest.

Let's go, Lord, in a word of prayer.

Let me Father, we assume the Bible before you.

Again, Lord, just thank you for the freedoms we enjoy to be here this morning, to come and worship you in spirit and truth.

And Father, I do ask you for your preaching grace.

You just have me behind the cross.

And Father, I pray we all understand, realize as we read your word, and have the Holy Spirit, Lord, with us and guiding us, that we, that's you, that's you speaking to each and every heart, uh, for your will to be done, for the lost to be saved, and for the saved to be growing, and to have the courage to continue to follow you, to have your will done, where you're where you're lifted up and glorified.

And we do pray, Lord, if it's lost among us, that today be the day that they would realize how much they're loved, that realize the message of the cross, that cross, that Christ died for their sin, and his blood was shed to cover their sins, and they would repent of their sins and call upon you and be saved.

Or any other decision that needs to be made, Lord, we pray it be made today, all in accordance to your will.

Again, we just love and we praise you.

We thank you for your word, and we thank you for all your Holy Spirit.

I pray, Father, we're always yielding to Him.

We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask it's all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So again, some great verses, some great verses to encourage us to see what God would have us to do.

And most of the time I've read this so many times.

I love the book of Joshua.

I love Joshua the man.

He was a faithful servant, following, and then going to be a leader.

And so many times I've read this, uh I always think about him having the courage to lead.

And this week I was reading it, and God put upon my heart and said, Well, you're missing the point.

He had the courage to follow.

The courage to follow.

And that's really what it's all about in a Christian's life.

Uh yes, you might be in a leadership role.

But what gets you to that leadership role is having the ability to follow.

I've heard it said before, it's about military men and women, that the ability, all great leaders had one ability.

They had the ability to be humble and to follow.

And it's so true for us that we are humble, God will use us in his servants.

But we have to have the courage, the courage to follow.

To follow the Lord's word and all that we do as servants to God.

We we follow his word.

Uh to follow, uh, the courage to follow is really what we're, it's not a blind faith.

We follow the word, we have the Holy Spirit, and we follow Christ.

When the whole point of this message is understanding today we're living in the same world, same sin-cursed world when Joshua was here, when Jesus was here, and we'll be this way until he comes back.

Here's the thing: do we have the courage to follow Christ when the world says go this way, and Jesus says, go this way?

Well, who will you follow?

Do you have the courage to follow Christ?

And that's what it's all about.

And understanding that it's a decision we all have to make.

Even after salvation, we're in this flesh, but we should be yielding to the Holy Spirit, should be growing in our faith, growing from like Joshua was a servant to before we become a leader.

And that transformation takes time.

It takes time.

He followed Moses for years and years and years.

And Moses passed, guess what?

The baton was passed to Joshua.

As we look around us, you see young people.

Guess what?

They are the next generation.

And they have to have young people to step up and be the next generation for the Lord, to be the church.

So we're going to look at this today.

We're going to look at the beginning of Joshua's role.

We're going to look at his life.

And in between, we're going to see some things in the New Testament, what Jesus says.

So I want us to look at this first, at this beginning of his work, of his walk as a leader.

Verses 1 and 2, it says, Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses ministers, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now therefore, arise.

Go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, into the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel.

You know, God wants to use all of us in his work.

You know, we hear it all the time that people will say, Well, God has a plan for your life.

He does.

In a true sense, he does.

But in reality, is our life is our life in his plan?

See, God's plans don't change.

But people in his plan do.

Because of what?

Death.

Or they fall away.

Or they're not serving, but his plan never changes.

Adrian Rogers said this.

He says, we shouldn't surrender to preach, teach, or do anything.

He said, we should surrender to God.

And when you do that, God will use you in amazing ways.

Do things you thought you could never do.

And it's all about having the courage to follow him.

But it starts with surrender.

Surrendering your will for God's will in your life.

And that's what God's telling Joshua.

You don't have to go out and try to be a superhero.

Just go and be what?

Have the courage to follow me.

Have the courage to follow me.

I've heard it said before, we don't have great men or women.

We have a great God.

And that's so true.

It's so true.

And so we look at what God is trying to tell Joshua.

Look what he says in verse 3.

It says, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness unto this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the going, to the great sea, going down towards the sun, shall be your east, shall be your coast, about the Mediterranean Sea.

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

Then he says this.

He says, You come along with me, and I won't fail you.

God never fails.

What happens?

We fail.

We fail what?

To be faithful, to be not be committed.

But he's saying, he's telling him, and he gave him a great, a great example.

And who was that great example?

Was Moses.

Everything that Moses has been through.

God was with him all the way.

But really and truly, Moses was with God.

Moses was with God.

That's what he wants him to understand.

But I love what he says in verse 5.

So I will be with thee, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

And again, it's the same promise.

Again, what a promise that he made.

And really the Lord says something remarkable, really, that he's doing the work.

And if you'll just follow along, he'll use you, be faithful.

And that phrase there, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

We can find it in the book of Hebrews.

Turn all the way over to the New Testament.

Close to the end.

Turn to the book of Hebrews, if you would.

Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Keep your place here.

Why don't you turn to Hebrews chapter 13?

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Hebrews is an amazing book, too.

Help us understand what who Christ is and what he wants us to do and how we live for him.

Such an encouraging book.

And I pray you're here today.

You're encouraged.

Be encouraged to what?

Have the courage to follow God.

We should have that courage.

We have the Holy Spirit inside of us.

But it begins with salvation.

But look in Hebrews chapter 13.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Look what it says in verse 1.

It says, let brotherly love continue.

This book of the Hebrews is written to the believers.

It says, let brotherly love continue.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, and be in yourselves also in the body.

Then he says in verse 5, Let your conversation, or the way we love our life, be without covetedness, and be content with such things as you have, for he has said, What'd he say?

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

And he says in verse 6, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

And what did God tell Joshua?

No man will be able to stand in your way.

I mean, what a con what a what a promise as long as you are walking with him.

That's why we see in the book of Hebrews, and when we think about the people that received this word, who were they?

Well, let's jump back to chapter 12 in Hebrews.

Look in chapter 12, verse 1.

We just went through the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

If you read that, it's people that God had used as an example by their amazing faith and really their amazing courage to follow.

And then we get to verse 12, talking about kind of great example they were.

In chapter 12, verse 1, he says, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses?

Then what's he say?

Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which though easy which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

So who's Hebrews written to when we get to chapter 13?

He's talking to those that are running a race.

Are you in the race?

Let's ask you.

Are you in the race?

I pray that if you belong to Christ, you should be.

You're on his side.

That's what he says.

What are we to do?

He says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was despised that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He says, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds.

That's not what God wants.

God has given us the grace, God has given us the strength to understand that we are doing this, we're running this race for him.

But that he's with us every step of the way.

Every step of the way.

And look what Jesus says as you turn back towards Joshua.

Stop it, summon John.

Look in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

You would have turned to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

Because we all start a race the moment we're saved, as we grow, we hear the word, what's God want from us?

Well, look what Jesus says in John chapter 8, verse 31.

John 8:31

He said, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.

If you continue in my word, you know you're my disciples indeed.

And he says in verse 32, too, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Free to do what?

Free to have the courage to follow.

Because you know the truth.

You stand upon that truth.

What's the truth do?

The truth gives you confidence.

Confidence to do what?

What God would have you to do.

So many people today are placing their faith in a lie, false religions, all the different things that the world wants to teach.

And there's no, it's like sand.

It's built upon sand.

We're built upon the rock because of the rock is Christ, and that Christ, the Christ is the truth.

That's what he's saying.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Ain't it great to be free?

I mean, if you want to watch it or not, the World Cup was over just a few weeks ago.

We hosted it over here, part of it.

And so many people from all around the world came to the United States for the very first time.

And they interviewed a ton of them from the Netherlands, from all over.

And they all basically said the same thing.

We love it here.

We love it here.

You know why they love it here?

They said, Man, y'all are so free.

Y'all are so free to go and to do.

It's amazing.

Yes, physically, it's amazing.

But how much more blessed is it to be spiritually free?

And we're free from the bondage of sin, of guilt, and shame and those things that we've been free from it because we have the truth inside of us.

That's what Jesus says, you shall know the truth.

I pray you know the truth today.

Do you know the truth?

Look at the cross.

That's the truth about how much God loves you.

That's the truth about what it cost him to pay for all of our sin debt and how he despises sin, that he sent his own son to die for you and for me.

He despises sin, but he loves us enough to send his son to die in our place.

So know the truth.

And that's what he wanted Joshua to understand, that he had lived that truth.

So turn back to Joshua.

And Joshua knew that truth because he had lived it.

He had seen Moses and how much God was with Moses and how he had blessed him.

But now it's his turn to be the leader.

Look what it says in verse 6.

He says, Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people thou shalt divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them.

And he says, Only be thou strong and very courageous, verse 7, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee.

Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithesoever thou goest.

Then he says in verse 8, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to thus written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shall have good success.

Then verse 9 he says, Have I not commanded thee?

He gets back to the very beginning.

Have I not commanded thee?

Be strong and of a good courage.

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

What's the key word in those three verses, those four verses?

It's observe.

He says it like three or four times in those four verses.

To observe what?

The word.

They had the word.

First five books.

We have the word today, the completed word of God.

I mean, that's the truth.

It's bound for us to have it in a book, but more importantly, we're to have it in our heart, and we ought to have it in our life.

We ought to be living the word.

That's why people are, when they see your life, heard it said so many times, lost people sometimes, maybe even be your neighbor.

The only Bible they ever read is what?

Your life.

They see your life.

And what happens?

It should bring, if they're not living right, doing wrong, it should bring what?

Conviction.

Conviction.

Not to be self-righteous, but just live for the Lord.

And the Lord just shines through you.

People can see Christ in you if you're living for Him.

And that's what God is telling us to do, to have, like He's telling Joshua, to have the courage to follow.

But He says observe.

And that word is not to just look at from afar, to just see something.

He says to observe.

There's too many Christians that do this today.

They see things from afar.

They don't want to get, they want to stand on the sidelines.

God wants you in the fight.

In the fight.

And what do we come to gather to get our instructions?

We come to church.

To get to have our armor on daily, to learn and to grow, to understand what God would have us to do.

That's why it's so important to be faithful to the church.

He's leading us.

We're the bride.

We talked about it Wednesday night.

Being the bride of Christ is an amazing blessing.

An amazing blessing.

But really think about our lives.

I'm going to use a silly illustration.

I'm good at silly illustrations.

Our Christian lives are like bicycles.

I mean, you'd like to ride a bicycle when you're a kid.

I used to ride a bicycle all the time.

All the time.

I used to love it.

And I still got a bike today.

Don't ride it near as much, but I used to I like to ride a bicycle.

And God gives us a bike.

He walks beside us.

We learn how to ride it.

And yes, sometimes we crash, sometimes we fall.

But what are we to get back up?

It's like riding a bicycle.

Don't forget how to do it.

But what do we do?

What's one thing in common about old school bicycles?

I say old school bicycles is what?

As long as you're riding it, you have to pedal it.

Unlike today, everything's electric and all different things.

Buy you an old school bicycle, and that's really good for you.

But you have to pedal it.

And if you're not pedaling that bicycle, what happens?

It falls, it runs out of gas.

So many people today are not pedaling their bike.

A Christian life.

It's just a bicycle creating dust, cobwebs.

Get on your bicycle.

Pedal that bike.

Ride it to church.

I'm talking about triggeratively.

As you're walking through your life, daily work.

You're riding your bike, reading your word, yielding to the Spirit.

Get it here today.

Have it.

Be growing.

Be growing.

Pedal your bicycle for the Lord.

And when you do it for the Lord, guess what?

He gives you the stability, He gives you the direction.

Stay on the narrow path.

When the world says, go this way, God says, go this way.

You go this way.

You have the courage to go this way.

Because you're riding it for Him.

Because, yeah, sometimes we will crash.

We will.

We take our eyes off the Lord.

We just looked in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

What he says, keep your eyes on the Lord.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finished of our faith.

I'll tell you another funny story.

Wasn't funny at the time.

I had a little Kawasaki 175.

Wasn't a motorcycle, but it was a motorcycle.

Wasn't a bicycle, it was a motorcycle.

Man, I used to ride that thing like crazy.

Buddy of mine had a little 70, but that thing would run.

But one we used racing one day down the dirt road.

And so I got over in the ditch.

Man, I was passing him.

I was just flying, man.

And his dad cut a bunch of cedars the fall before.

And he drug them all out to the edge of the road.

And he picked them all up but one.

And that grass that grew up that spring and that summer.

And that grass was hiding that big old cedar log laying there by the edge of the road.

And man, I'm just smoking old Scott.

I look over him on my way ahead of me, and all of a sudden, bam.

I turned into Superman for like about, seemed like five minutes.

It was like 10 seconds.

I hit that hit that log and I went straight over the handlebars.

And I'm no helmet, no nothing.

And I'm just hitting the ground rolling.

Jump up, and I heard a bit.

Well, if that was today, I'd still be laying there.

But uh, we jumped up, got on that bike, and we took off again.

But what happened?

I took my eyes off what was in front of my motorcycle.

I probably could have seen it if I'd have had my eyes here, but I took my eyes off of it and I paid the consequences.

So many people today, Christian people today, are taking their eyes off the Lord.

Worried about so many different things in this world.

Have the courage to follow Christ.

In every situation, every area of your life, in your marriage, in your finances, in your kids, in your career, every area of your life.

Have the courage to follow Christ.

And he will use you.

He will use you to do the things that God would have you to do.

Look at Joshua's life.

Turn all the way to Joshua 24.

Start at the beginning of his walk as a leader.

We're going to see he's at the end of his life.

They've had great military victories.

They've conquered the land.

The walls of Jericho have fallen.

And Joshua's at the end of his life.

And now it's time to divide the inheritance with each of the tribes.

And they are going to have, for the first time, the Jewish people, for the first time, those tribes are going to have one thing: freedom.

Freedom.

To go out and settle that land and not have Joshua or all the rest of the tribes right beside them.

They have an independence.

They have a freedom that they have never gotten.

And that's what God tells them, tells Joshua to tell them.

Look in verse 1.

Joshua 24 and verse 1, he says, And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to session and called for the elders of Israel and all for their heads and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

They wasn't coming to stand before Joshua.

What were they doing?

They were all coming and standing before God.

Just like you come to church, guess what?

You're not standing before me or sitting before me.

You're not.

You're here to worship God.

And I pray you have his word open and you hear God speaking to you.

I hope you didn't hear a bald glasses wearing guy here today.

You hear God speaking to you when you come and worship, and your heart is right.

That's what he says.

They come and they present themselves before God.

And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.

That is so important.

That is so important.

It wasn't some rah-rah speech or some story that Joshua come up with.

He is going to speak to them as God has spoken to him.

And what's he say?

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your father has dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Torah, the father of Abraham, the father of Naker, and they served other gods.

He's going to give them a history lesson real quick.

That's why he's telling them.

Remember where you've come from.

He said, I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.

And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, and I gave unto Esau Mount Seor to possess it.

But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

He said, I sent Moses also Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did among them.

And afterward I brought you out.

And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came into the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen of the Red Sea.

And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them, and your eyes have seen what I've done in Egypt.

And you dwell in the wilderness a long season.

We just were studying it on Wednesday nights.

It's been a great study.

Don't want the plagues and the Passover and all the different things.

We see it.

We look back at it.

And he wanted them to remember that he was with them all the way from Abraham to where they are at this time.

They're going to finally get to possess the land.

Finally.

After all the wilderness journeys and all the different things, here they were.

They're going to go and possess the land that God had promised.

He says, I have given you a land for which you did not labor.

And cities which you built not, and you dwell in them, you dwell in them.

And the vineyards and olive is which you planted not, do you eat?

Just think about our lives.

Every time I read it, I think about how blessed we are to have pavement.

We've got new pavement on Wish Street.

Just think about the electrical that we have, the water that we have.

We take so many things for granted.

Think about the men and the women that broke their backs.

Clearing right aways and highways and railroads and things for us to have the conveniences of today.

Don't forget that labor, those willingness to work.

And we think about those things, but think about the church.

Think about the church.

Those that went before us to labor here.

I'm excited about our building project.

One day we may have a new building.

We got the old one down.

Brother Kenny's done a great job getting that ready.

But it's still a work in progress.

I want you to want to be a part of that.

To want to be a part of that process.

But here's the thing as a physical structure.

What's more important?

Spiritual.

You should spiritually pour yourself in where God would have you to be.

And that's what he's saying here.

I have given you a land.

And what's he say first in verse 14?

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth.

You know what?

That's the only way you can serve God.

God sees the heart.

He knows if you're not sincere, if you're lying to him, going through the motions, you can fool me.

I can fool you.

But we can never fool God.

Ever.

And that's what he's saying.

You serve me in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord.

That's what Joshua's saying.

God is speaking to him.

And he says in verse 15, And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to make God Lord of my life.

Okay.

That's what Joshua said.

Choose you this day whom you will serve.

Or the gods which were your father served on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But I love what Joshua said.

And you think about where he was at, when God told him to be fearless and courageous and to not be afraid, and Joshua says, without stutter or stammer, as Adrian Rogers used to say, bold and plain and straight, he says this but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

How did Joshua get to a place like that?

We could boldly say, as for men, regardless of how many of you go out and be unfaithful, unsincere, ungodly.

That's what he's saying to these tribes.

He's what calls it.

He said, I'm not going to be your leader anymore.

You're going to go get your own land that God has given you to settle it.

And you're going to have a freedom you've never had before.

And I and Josh was basically saying, I don't know how you're going to respond.

I don't know how committed you're going to be.

I don't know how sincere you're going to be.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

It wasn't self-righteousness.

He was just stating a fact to be the example because he had lived it.

He had saw it.

He had seen the faithfulness of God in every area of his life.

He had seen the victories, he'd seen a few defeats, but through it all, he knew God was with him.

So he told him, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

And how Joshua lived his life?

With courage.

With courage to follow.

With courage to follow.

So today, do we have the courage to follow Christ?

To follow Christ.

Jesus says to his disciples, what does he say?

Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.

If you would please stand.

Miss Michelle and Brother Matt come forward.

Think about your life.

Think about your walk with God.

Are you on the sidelines?

Are you in the game?

Have you taken your eyes off the Lord?

Do you have the courage to follow Christ?

Wherever He leads.

Wherever He would lead, to say, Yes, Lord, your will be done.

And that begins with salvation.

So I encourage you, if you've never been saved, repent of your sins and call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

Be born again.

Be the greatest decision you ever make.

But after salvation, God doesn't want to leave you a babe.

He wants you to grow and mature and have the ability to say, ask for me and my house.

We will serve the Lord.

But it's a process, it's a growth, it's yielding to the Holy Spirit.

And he's here today.

The Holy Spirit is here today, speaking to each and every heart, but it's up to us to whether we quench the Spirit or yield to him.

I encourage you, yield to the Holy Spirit today, as we sing.

Page 396.

396.

Oh to Jesus I surrender.

That's what it is.

That truly is what it's all about.

Song says it all.

Will you surrender to life?

Are you surrender?

Surrender all.

Between you and you surrender.

Holy Spirit.

Don't take for granted another moment.

Give it a minute.