LEAP of Faith | Joshua 11:16-23 | Pastor Sanaz Mesa

Amen. Amen, that's so awesome.

All the things that we get to do here at

this church, all the people we get to help, all

the people that God has called into our church and

that we've been called for to serve those people. I

tell you, I'm going to really miss having counseling sessions

in that tiny room with all of the kids from

UCA having lunch banging on the door, I'll tell you,

but it'll be really, really really nice to be able

to truly give the quality of care that this church deserves.

So it's going to be so amazing.

Well, if we haven't met, my name is Pastor Sonas.

I have the honor and the privilege of being on

our speaking team, our preaching team, and as you know,

and as Pastor Sammy said, we have been going through

the Book of Joshua all year long, and tonight we're

going to continue and we're going to be able to

learn some more.

And I just want to encourage you.

I saw there was quite a few of you who

have been here every single Wednesday night going through the

Book of Joshua.

But you also might be here and be like, who's Joshua?

And that's totally, totally, totally fine. Because let me tell

you something about this. The Word of God is alive.

It's a living word. And what that means is that

no matter where you are, if this is the first

time you've ever stepped into a church, or you have

been to church seven eight times a week, every single

week of your life, you can learn something fresh today

that applies to exactly where you are.

So it's going to.

Be such an incredible, incredible experience because God is that good.

Amen.

You know, like I said, we've been in the Book

of Joshua and we are in chapter eleven today. So

let me give a little bit of context. The Book

of Joshua is all about how they entered and conquered Canaan,

and it is the promised land that God had promised,

and so under Joshua's leadership, they went in. Now, let

me tell you how Joshua. The Book of Joshua is

broken up. It's broken up into three sections. The first

five chapters, chapters one through five, is all about them

entering into the promised land. Chapter six through twelve is

all about conquering the land, and then thirteen through twenty four,

the last part of the Book of Joshua is all

about the distribution the redistribution of that land that they

conquered when they entered. Okay, and so we are in

chapter eleven, but like I said, conquering the Land goes

all the way up to chapter twelve, and you're gonna

learn about chapter twelve next week. But chapter twelve is

really just kind of a geography and a biography of

all of the lands and all of the kings that

were conquered. But tonight is really the end of the

conquering because we get to finally, finally have a finale,

and it's gonna be really exciting.

I just also happen to be here when we The

last time.

I was speaking, I got to tell you about the

walls of Jericho coming down, which happened to have been

the first land that they conquered. And so I'm really

excited that I get to bookend this. So in a moment,

we're going to stand for the reading of God's Word.

But if you have your Bible or your Joshua booklet,

your journal, and if you have a pen or a

paper or not paper, if you have a pen or

a highlight or whatnot, I am going to ask you

that every time that you see the word all in

what we're going to read that you circle it, highlight it,

and if you don't have a Bible, that's okay. The

words are going to be on the screen. So let's

all stand for the reading of God's Word. We're going

to be in chapter eleven, and we're going to start

in verse sixteen. It says, so Joshua took all the land,

the hill country, and all the Nageb and all the

land of Goshen, and the lowland and the Araba, and

the hill country of Israel and its lowland from Mount Halleck,

which rises towards Sear as far as Ballgad, in the

valley of Lebanon, below Mount Herman. And he captured all

their kings and struck them and put them to death.

Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

There was not a city that made peace with the

people of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon.

They took them.

All in battle, for it was the Lord's doing to

harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle,

in order that they should be devoted to destruction and

should receive no mercy. But be destroyed, just as the

Lord commanded. Moses and Joshua came at that time and

cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron,

from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country

of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was

none of the Anakim left in the land of the people,

except in the land of the people of Israel. Only

in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

So Joshua took the whole land according to all that

the Lord had spoken to. Moses, and Joshua gave it

inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments, and the

land had rest from war. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we

thank you for today. We thank you that we get

to learn more about your character. Let us lean in

tonight to hear what you have to say. Push me

out of the way. Talk to your children tonight. In

Jesus' name, we pray, Amen, you may be seated. So

this text is a summary of all that had been

conquered according to the promise that God spoke to Moses.

Joshua took all the land from the south to the

central to the north, and that it was promised to Abraham,

to Isaac, and to Jacob and to Moses. But what

was it that made Joshua different? What was it about

Joshua's leadership that allowed him to truly conquer all that

we've been seeing these past few months. Simply put, it

was his faith. It was his faith that allowed him

to lead the Israelites and do exactly what it was

that he was doing. You know, I'm sure you've heard

that expression, I'm going to step out in faith.

But here's the thing.

When you take a step, you take a step to

where you believe God is taking you. But in order

to take a set, you still have two feet planted.

And what happens when we take a step of faith

when everything gets a little bit too scary, when it

becomes a little bit too unfamiliar, when it's a little

bit outside of our comfort zone, all we do is

shift our weight back because our foot is still planted

in our comfort zone. But there's a difference between stepping

out in faith and taking a leap of faith, because

when you take a leap of faith, as soon as

you decide to take a leap, then you can't turn

around and you can't change your mind after you have

made that decision to step out to leap in faith.

So it's important for us to understand the difference. But

between a step of faith and a leap of faith,

we can't have step of faith and expect God to

be faith full. God in this scripture gave all the territory,

So tonight we're gonna break down what it looks like

to take a leap of faith. And if you haven't

learned by now, if you've ever seen me, come up

here and teach I love.

An acronym, I really really do.

So our acronym is gonna be leap l eap I'm

giving you. I'm giving you the points right off the top.

In order to take a leap of faith, we have

to listen to God's voice, expect God to move, act

by faith, and persist through the process. The first step

is to listen to God's voice. Now, we started in

verse sixteen, but last week we talked about the first

half of chapter eleven, and I want to share a

little bit of that because in chapter Chapter eleven, verse

six it says and the Lord said to Joshua, do

not be afraid of them, for tomorrow, at this time,

I will give over all of them slain to Israel.

And then in verse nine it says in Joshua did

just as the Lord said to him. And then finally,

in verse fifteen, it says, just as the Lord commanded

Moses his servant, and Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did.

He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded.

God spoke, Joshua did. That's what made him different. Joshua

heard from God because he knew God. His faith was

where it was because he had heard and he had

seen the faithfulness of God. Roman ten seventeen says, so

faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of

Christ over and over again. Joshua heard the Lord say,

and he did. He didn't doubt, He didn't look to

his own strength. He listened to the voice of God.

Hearing and knowing the voice of God comes from relationship.

I know my husband's voice, I know my children's voice,

I know my parent's voice. You remember back in the

day before we had cell phones, or call her id

and someone will call you on the phone, and they'd

be like, it's me. If you truly knew them, if

you had intimate relationship with them, if you understood their heart,

if they were a part of your life, you would

recognize their voice. Do we recognize God's voice in our life?

You know? I imagine right now.

I don't know if you've ever seen, if you've ever

seen a toddler at a swimming pool and they're wearing

a floaty and they're standing on the edge of the pool,

but they're kind of looking at the pool with confusion,

and they're realizing that they don't know how to swim.

They're unaware that that floating is gonna help them, gonna

save them, so they kind of look at it funky.

And then they maybe dip their toe in and they

try to figure out how to get in, and they're

constantly just looking at their own ability. But imagine the

same toddler is standing on the edge of the pool and.

He's looking out.

He's not wearing a floaty, but he sees his father

in the pool, and he sees his father in the pool,

and he's looking with anticipation and he's waiting.

What is he waiting for? He's waiting for.

His father to say, jump, and without tribulation, without hesitation,

without any anything, just.

Jump. What's the difference between the two.

The water hasn't changed, His inability to swim hasn't changed.

What's changed is that but his father is in the

water with him, and he waited and he heard, and

he listened to the voice of his father telling him, listen,

you can jump because I'm in.

Here with you. I am here with you.

Therefore, when I say you can go, you can go.

And you do not have to worry about your ability

because I am in here too. What has God instructed

you to leap into that you have yet to listen?

Faith starts with listening. Are you reading God's word? Are

you creating space to hear him speak to you? Elizabeth

Elliott says, the still small voice is anything but a whisper.

It's the voice that drowns out all others when we

truly listen. The boy jumped, expecting his father to catch him.

When we listen and hear God's voice, then we can

expect God to move.

Point two.

Starting in verse sixteen, Joshua took all the land. At

the end, he made war with all the kings, and

at the end of verse twenty it says, just as

the Lord commanded, Joshua expected God to do all that

he said he was going to do. And in verse

twenty one it says in Joshua came out that time

and cut off the Anakin from the hill country, from Hebron,

from Debir, from Anab, from the hill country of Judah,

and from all the hill country of Israel.

Let's back up a bit. We're going to back up

about forty five years.

There's a story in Numbers chapters thirteen and fourteen, and

it's when Moses sends twelve spies into Canaan to scope

out the land.

So they go in and of.

These twelve spies, one of them is Joshua, one of

them is Caleb, and there's ten other spies. So for

forty days they're scoping out the land. And then they

come back. And the ten spies came back and gave

a grim and fearful report. They said, ooh, the land

is good, but ooh, those people are giant.

They're huge.

Now to give you an idea of what they mean

by these people are giants. Do you remember when we

read the scripture up on the screens earlier, and they

were talking about how the Anachem was all wiped out,

but there was just a few left in Gaza, in

Gath and in Ashtod. Well there's a man named Goliath

way later who is a giant, and he's from Gath.

So it's believed that Goliath is an Anachem. So imagine

they're all going and they see just a ton.

Of guys that look like Goliath. That's what they saw.

So they came back and they said, these guys are

huge and scary, and we looked like grasshoppers next to them,

and you know what, I don't know, it just seems

really scary. We cannot take this land. It's just far

too dangerous. Their report caused fear and discouragement amongst the Israelites.

But Joshua and Caleb they came back and they said,

this land is flowing with milk and honey, and you

know what God is with us, and if God is

with us, we surely can take it.

And they urged the people not to rebel against the lord.

It's also important to understand the type of leader that

Joshua was.

He was an offensive leader. He wasn't a defensive leader.

He didn't wait until somebody attacked and then he would go.

He went in and he took exactly what God had

told him that he can have, and he did it

because he had an expectation that God would fill in

the gaps, that God would do what he said he

was going to do. He could move because God was

going to be with him. He didn't enter Canaan wondering

if God would move. He entered as if the battle

was already won. And I don't know what goliath size

battle you're facing today, but you can respond one of

two ways. You can respond like the ten Spies and

say this problem is too big.

There's no way that I can handle it.

It's far too scary, so I'm just gonna go back

to what I already know. Or you can respond like

Joshua and Caleb did and say, if God is with me,

nothing is too big, because nothing is too.

Big for my God.

It's the difference between being full of faith and being faithful.

We have to be full of faith so that God

can be faithful. We sang a great song earlier. Great

is your faithfulness to me? But is our full of faithness?

That's a word I just made up full of faithness

great towards God. Are we truly full of faith that

God is gonna do what he says he's gonna do,

Because in order for him to be faithful, we have

to be full of faith. Hebrews ten twenty three says,

let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful. If we're full of

faith and the Lord is faithful, therefore we must now

act by faith, act by faith. See faith is not

a feeling, it's an action. Corey ten Boom says, never

be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

Verse twenty three says, so Joshua took the whole land

according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Joshua time and time again. He didn't doubt, but he

trusted a faithful God. When others wavered, he said, no,

we gotta go. God is with us. We can do this.

Let's go.

He listened to the voice of God with expectation that

God would move, and he acted in faith. James two

seventeen says faith with that works is dead. In fact,

in another translation, it says, in the same way, faith

is dead when it doesn't result in faithful activity. Basically saying,

having faith but not acting on that faith is not

really faith. If you have faith that your body will

be healed, are you acting as if your healing has

already is coming. If you have faith that your marriage

will be restored?

Are you acting? And are you?

Do you have actions by faith? Are you doing the

work that it takes to get that that God has

called you to have? Are you treating your spouse the same?

Are you taking steps to restore? Because God is faithful,

but it takes action. You know Hebrews eleven if you

know your Bible. Hebrews eleven is known as the Great

Hall of Faith. But every verse when it talks about

someone's faith, it says by faith, says the name, It

says what they did by faith.

So we'll start right here by faith.

Verse four by faith Abel Okay, Verse five by faith Enoch.

Verse let's see what else?

Verse seven by faith, Noah by faith, Abraham by faith,

Abraham by faith, Sarah by faith, Abraham by faith, Isaac

by faith, Jacob by faith, Joseph by faith, Moses by faith,

The people that crossed the Red Sea by faith. The

walls of Jericho fell by faith rehab. It's constantly by faith.

Are we truly truly having the actions that follows that

God is going to respond to?

Because that's what it means.

To have faith, to actually do what God is calling

you to do and doing it by faith.

This is what it looks like.

Over Here is my circumstance right now, right here, and

I'm comfortable here.

You know, things aren't perfect, things aren't great.

My marriage isn't great, my kids aren't great, my health

isn't great.

But I'm comfortable.

I know God's called me over there. But the truth

is that a lot of us love to have a little.

Bit of a victim mentality.

They say things like God gives the greatest battles to

the strongest soldiers. That's not in the Bible, just so

you know, because God has called us over there, But

we like to complain about our situations because at least

it's known. Hear God saying I want you to go

that way, and then we're like, Okay, I'm going to

expect God to move, so here I go.

I'm gonna go over here. But here's the problem.

I can't reach where God is calling me to go

if I'm still holding on to the comfort of what

I already know right now.

And so in order for me.

To get where God is going, there are some things

that I have to let go. I have to let

go of the things that are holding me back to

where God wants me to go. And this is where

we act in faith by letting go of the things

that are holding us back, so that we can begin

the process of moving forward to where God is calling

us to go. And it takes an act of faith

to go there, because now I'm in an area where

it's unknown, where it's scary.

Where it's absolutely frightening.

But God has us in the palm of our hand,

and God.

Will always see us.

Pastor Sammy was preaching my message when he was up here,

and that's when I know God needs you to hear something.

If he's telling him the same thing he's telling me,

that's because He needs you to hear it. So hear

me when I say this. The middle can be scary,

it can be unfamiliar, but is by faith that we

can get to where God is calling us.

But here's another thing about this.

Little area right here. It's not a quick little transition.

It can be long, it can be painful. It can

test our faith, but we have to persist through the process.

Persist through the process.

Verse eighteen says Joshua made war a long time, a

long time. Remember it was forty five years before this

that they had originally gone into the Promised Land. Then

they wandered through the wilderness for thirty eight years, and

then they when they finally entered. Between the time of

Jericho and between this moment was about seven years. Seven

years Joshua and the Israelites were in there fighting doing

whatever God had called them to do, continuing the battle.

Seven years. Seven years of battle, seven years of war,

seven years of.

Choosing to follow God and his direction. And I'm sure

that there were moments, there had to have been moments.

Where they thought, at least the Israelites thought, you know,

maybe the southern region is enough. We don't need all

of this God, like we're not greedy, like I'm tired.

I'm sure there were Israelites that were talking like, hey,

maybe our luck is gonna run out, Like God's been here,

but like he can't get us through every single battle.

At some point, We're going to meet our match. They

could have been saying all of these things and listen,

it happens to all of us. Absolutely, I get it.

Seven years of battle. But they had to persist through

the process until the very end. That last verse that

we read in verse twenty three, that said, and the land.

Had rest from war. It was over.

They finally had gone through all of the work, all of.

The conquering, all of the obedience.

All the things that they were called to do, and

the land had rest from war. You see, faith is

not governed by time. Faith is governed by the persistence

in the battle. Joshua was not looking at the calendar.

Joshua was looking at the promise. You don't see in

scripture where Joshua says no, You don't see in scripture

where Joshua was impatient, where he was restless, where he

was weary. He persisted through. He showed faith, not frustration.

He never asked God, when when is this going to

be over? When do I get to rest? He just followed.

And some of us are constantly asking God, when when

is my battle going to end? But Joshua, he didn't

have a when faith. He had a well faith, a

faith that is well. Can we talk about Jesus for

just a second. All throughout Jesus's ministry, he performed miracles.

He did healings.

But if you look at stories like the woman with

the issue of blood, who fought through just to touch

the hem of Jesus's garment, or you look at blind

Bartimaeus who called out with everything that he had, wanting

mercy from Jesus and healing from Jesus.

As people were mocking him.

You look at the grateful leper when Jesus had healed

them that he turned around and showed his gratefulness to him.

And you look at the woman with the alabasteria. Was

a sinful woman, but she broke the alabaster box everything

that she had to anoint the feet of Jesus. What

do they all have in common? Jesus did not say

I have healed you. He said your faith has made

you well. It's a very interesting phrase that Jesus would say,

your faith has made you well. They didn't have a

when faith, just like Joshua, they had a well faith.

A when faith says when I get married, then I'll

be fulfilled. A when faith says when I have children,

then I will be happy. A when faith says when

my healing comes, then I'll give my life to the Lord.

A when faith says, when I get the promotion, then

I'll start tithing. A when faith says, when this happens,

then I'll do this. But Joshua didn't do that, the

woman with the issue of blood didn't do that.

The woman with the alabastro box didn't do that.

They said, you know what, it doesn't matter to me,

and Jesus said, your faith, your faith has made you well.

A well faith says.

Even in the battle, I am well because God is

with me. It's that type of faith that allows us

to be persistent in the process, because if we're all here,

we're not walking in God's purpose for our life.

God has a calling on every single person in this room.

And it's over here. It doesn't fall into your lap.

When I was single, my friends would say, your future

husband isn't just gonna knock on your door.

You have to get out there. You have to have action.

And so it's important to understand that we have to

be well even in the middle of the battle. We

have to be well every time something gets thrown at us,

because our soul is not.

Wavered on our circumstance.

Our soul is planted in the fact that Jesus Christ

dine on a cross, we could have freedom. Whether we're

having a good day or a bad day, it is

still well with my soul. So tonight, let's not just

step out in faith. Let's take a leap of faith,

a leap like we've never done before, without abandon because

we know who's going to be in there with us,

listening to God's voice, expecting God to move, acting by faith,

and being persistent through the process.

Because even though we don't know when, we know who.

And you know, as I was preparing this message, I

felt God say that there's people in this room. There's

people in this room who perhaps are negotiating their faith

with God, and they're saying saying, hey, God, you know

when if you do this for me, then I'm.

Going to give more of myself to you.

And especially with our salvation, there might be somebody in

this room, there might be somebody in the courtyard or

watching online that has said, maybe I'll give my life

to you, but first you have to do this for me.

And here's the problem with that. It's not that God

is petty. It's not that he doesn't have grace for you.

He has grace for every single one of us. That's

why we have Jesus Christ. He gave us the greatest

gift that ever was, and that was his son, so

that we wouldn't be judged on our own situations.

We would be judged on the perfection that is Jesus.

But perhaps you're here and you're saying, Okay, if you

get me through the storm, Lord, then I will come

back to you.

If you get me through the.

Storm, then I will finally proclaim you as my savior,

my Lord, and my savior. But the problem with that

is that God is not just a god of the mountaintop.

God is a god of the valley as well, and

he wants to be with you to comfort you, to

guide you, for the Holy Spirit, to lead you, even

in the moments that are not good. And every time

we say, when you do this, then I will do this,

I just want to tell you it's never going to happen,

because even if God were to give you what you're

asking for, then you're going to turn around and say

something else.

And so I just want to encourage you.

If you have never given your life to Jesus, don't

wait for a miracle, accept him. Into your heart right

now so that he can be your comfort and your

best friend through the process. And if you have walked

away from Jesus and you're here tonight by circumstance, I

want to tell you that he wants to be with

you as well. He wants to be in the pool

with you, and he's telling you to jump. He's telling

you to leap because he's going to catch you and

he's going to carry you, and he's going to be

with you, and that even though things are scary and

there are moments that are going to just be terrifying

in your life, when we have Jesus with us, we're

not alone. So with every head bowed, every eye closed,

I'm going to pray. I'm gonna lead us in a prayer.

And if you want to accept Jesus Christ as your

Lord and Savior for the first time or the last time,

I want you to mean it with your whole heart,

because it's not just saying the words that saves you.

It's the heart transformation. It's the surrender to Jesus of

saying I can't do this by myself. I can't reach

my promise, my purpose without you. So I'm going to

lead us in a prayer. Just say it with your heart. Say,

dear Lord Jesus, I thank you.

You died on a cross for me.

I believe in you, and I promise to follow you

all the days of my life.

In Jesus's name, we pray. Amen. Amen, Were you blessed

by God tonight? Amen.

It's an honor to be able to share with you.

In a moment.

I'm going to dismiss you. But if you said, if

you said that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord

and Savior, and you meant it with your heart, you

gave your life to Christ for the first time, or

you came back. I don't want to embarrass you. I

want to celebrate with you. It's a boldness to be

a Christian and we just want to celebrate with you.

And so if on account of three.

If you would just shoot your hand up in the sky,

we just want to say congratulations and welcome to the family.

One, two, three.

If you gave your life to Christ tonight, let's shoot

up our hands.

I see it. Awesome. Praise God, Praise God.

Yes, Lord, heaven is rejoicing for every soul that is saved.

God is good. And let me tell you something we're

gonna have.

I don't know what it is that you might be

going through, but we will have a prayer team up here.

If you did say that prayer for the first time.

We also have some information for you. You might give

your life to Christ and say, Okay, now what do

I do? This is gonna be able to tell you

what you're gonna do. It's just a small, short, downloadable

information that's written by our founding pastor, Pastor Diego growing

your Christian walk. And then if you have any questions,

you can ask any of the pastors on staffer in

the foyer. We have a team anybody with the badge,

they'll be able to help you out. And if you

don't have a home church, we would love to invite

you this weekend, either Saturday or Sunday to any of

our weekend services. But we can answer any of those questions.

If you are in need of additional prayer, we will

have a prayer team up here that you can pray with.

They will stand in agreement with you and anything that

you're believing for. Let's pray and then we can be dismissed.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you

that you are a faithful, faithful, faithful God. And we

tell you Lord today that we are going to be

full of faith. We're taking a leap of faith today.

We're never going to be the same because your word

is good. In Jesus's mighty name, we pray Amen, have

a beautiful evening.