12th April || Uncharted Territory || Libby Woodward

Wonderful. Feel free to pause your

conversations and you can unpause them again momentarily.

What would you do tomorrow if you were absolutely, 100% sure

that God was with you? Just going to leave that

dangling? You can have a little think

about that. As I said at the beginning of

the service, we're starting a new series today.

We're going to be looking at the book of Joshua, uncharted

territory. Be strong and courageous.

If you don't know the story of Joshua, hopefully that will

unfold. But can I encourage you over the

next few weeks to maybe read it when you're at home?

And we're not going to, there's 24 chapters.

We're not going to do a chapter a week.

We're going to skip a few out. So it would be really helpful if

you read it at home and you understood the historical

narrative that unfolds through the book of Joshua.

But we've got, I've called it uncharted territory because if

you read the book of Joshua, you'll realize that that he is

leading the people into the promised land and it's uncharted

territory. But I felt like, you know, for

us in the world that we live in, you don't have to look far to

think we don't. We can't really predict what's

going to happen next, whether it's world leaders making

decisions to invade other countries or we have a health

health scare and we find ourselves in a situation that we

didn't anticipate or particularly want.

We are living in times where the future is perhaps feeling quite

uncertain and we are entering or we are already in the middle of

uncharted territory. Not very different from the rest

of life. But you just have to look at a

few news headlines to think, huh, how's this going to unfold?

What's going to be the headline tomorrow?

Who's going to say something crazy anyway?

And so uncharted territory kind of over arches the whole topic,

the whole theme of this series, be strong and courageous is kind

of the the tagline. And if you have read Joshua, you

will know that that those words come straight out of the opening

words that God says to Joshua as he steps out into a daunting

task of leading God's people into the promised land.

So do let me encourage you to read it.

I wonder what your answer was to the question, What would you do

tomorrow if you were absolutely sure 100% that God was with you?

Maybe it would be something that requires real courage, where

fear is no longer at play. I love a good courage story, and

if we've got time at the end, I'll share one that I heard I

was reminded of recently. But often when we don't have

courage, it's probably because we're actually full of fear.

And the famous theologian Carl Bart said courage is fear that

has said it's prayers. I did a bit of Googling this

week, and according to Google, the number one fear of people is

public speaking. The second fear is of dying, so

I thought that was quite interesting.

People would obviously rather be in the coffin than giving the

eulogy. Perhaps.

But we all have fears, don't we? And it might not be that either

of those two top fears are your fears, that your fears might

look very different. But so often we have fears that

have been formed deep down within us.

Fears of getting things wrong, fear of being powerless or being

out of control, Maybe a fear of not being good enough.

And fears are triggered when we look round and we see perhaps

uncharted territory. We see things being unstable or

changing, whether it is loved ones dying, the economy being

all over the place, world leaders doing and saying some

crazy things, whether it's people being displaced by war,

violence and persecution. At the end of 2024, it was

estimated that 123 million people were living displaced.

You know, whether it's high profile people who we have

admired, maybe even looked up to, maybe listen to their

teaching appearing that actually they have many skeletons in

their closet. It might be that looking ahead,

as you look at the territory ahead of you that you don't know

what it's going to look like. Maybe you're planning a move.

Maybe you're changing jobs. Maybe you're going off to

university. Maybe you are graduating, maybe

you're leaving school. Maybe friends are moving on and

things are going to look different.

Maybe a bit scary, maybe a bit unknown.

Maybe you feel out of control when fear is up close and

personal. We could all do with a good dose

of courage, couldn't we? What would you do tomorrow if

you were absolutely sure 100% God was with you?

The Book of Joshua is the account of the life of Joshua as

He led the people of Israel into the Promised land.

It's not a superhero story about this man called Joshua.

It is a God story. It's a story of a flawed group

of people stepping into impossible things because God

goes with them and he says over and over to them be strong and

courageous. And I believe that he's saying

that to us today. It's one of the most powerful

truths that we can find in Joshua 19.

It says this, the Lord your God will be with you wherever you

go. So before we jump in and read

some of Joshua, one a bit of context for starters.

For those of you that might not know the story of Joshua and do

grab your Bibles if you've got them.

We've got some on the information table if you'd like.

1 Joshua is five books into the Bible.

So it's in the Old Testament just a few centimeters in.

If your Bible looks like mine about that much in do do find

that. And just I'll give you a bit of

context so you've got time to find it.

When we're coming to the beginning of this book of

Joshua, Although it is the beginning of this book, it is a

continuation of what has happened before.

And one of the things I love about the Old Testament

narrative passages particularly, is that they are real people in

real places, in real times in history.

And so whenever we read the Old Testament, we need to think

about the part of the whole Bible story that we're jumping

into. When we read Israel's story, we

need to know as well that it is a story that we have been

grafted into. It's our story as well.

This overall story of the Bible is our story, the God story.

And another little sneak peek, after we've looked at Joshua,

we're going to be looking at the Bible.

We're going to be going through it and doing on Sundays and in

small groups, a whole series on the Bible.

So I'm looking forward to that. That wasn't in my notes.

So we look at the whole story of Scripture and we are grafted

into it. It's our story as well.

And in the Old Testament, the story of Joshua is really

critical. The first five books of the

Bible focus on God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of and

the about the land of their descendants.

And then it goes on and it talks about God, God's people being

rescued from slavery in Egypt. Moses leads the people out of

Egypt in the story of Exodus. He parts the Red Sea.

They crossover. They wander in the desert to the

land that God has promised them. They go to Mount Sinai where

Moses receives the 10 commandments from God.

And that only takes them about a year and a half to get to the

border of the Promised land. At this point, Moses sends spies

into the Promised land to see what's there.

He sends one person from each tribe. 12 spies go, 10 of them

come back saying there's no way we should go there.

It's a land filled with giants. We would be crushed.

We shouldn't do it. But two of those 12 spies come

back and they believe that God is with them.

Their names are Caleb and Joshua.

They are the ones who trusted God.

But the people of Israel, when they hear the report from these

ten other spies that the land is filled with giants, they start

grumbling and complaining again to Moses and to God.

The result is that these people end up wandering the desert for

another 38 1/2 years, so a generation has nearly died off.

They get back to the border of the promised land.

And you can imagine, after a long walk in the desert, getting

to this border is a moment for celebration.

It's the moment they've been waiting for.

They're ready. They're good to go.

They're finally here. Moses goes up onto a mountain to

survey the land, and that's when God tells him that he will not

cross into the Promised land. He's going to die before he gets

there. And this is where we pick up the

story of Joshua because Moses is handing on the baton to him.

So that was a bit of a context leading up to it.

If you're still awake, turn to Joshua 1 and I'm going to read

the first 9 verses from Joshua 1.

After the death of Moses, which I just talked about, the servant

of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses's

assistant. He said, Moses, my servant is

dead. Therefore the time has come for

you to lead these people, the Israelites, cross the river

Jordan into the Promised Land. I am giving them.

I promise you what I promised Moses.

Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you,

from the Negev Wilderness in the South to the Lebanon Mountains

in the north, to the Euphrates River in the east, to the

Mediterranean Sea in the West, including all of the land of the

Hittites. No one will be able to stand

against you as long as you live, for I will be with you as I was

with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon

you. Be strong and courageous, for

you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the

land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

Be strong and courageous. Be careful to obey all the

instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them,

turning either from to the right or to the left.

Then you will be successful in everything you do.

Study this book of instruction continually.

Meditate on it day and night so that you'll be sure to obey

everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and

succeed in all you do. This is my command.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged,

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

So the first thing that we can learn from Joshua in this

opening paragraph of the account of the people of God is that we

can be certain of God's promises in all we do.

I'm just trying to read my sentence in all we do would we

do? What would we do?

I think that's supposed to say if we actually believed the

promises of God. And Joshua shows us here that we

can be certain of God's promises. 3 times in just 9

verses. Joshua is told by God to be

strong and courageous. A side note, when there's when

there's repetition in Scripture, that means pay attention.

God's making a point. It is possible that Moses was

feeling very weak and not courageous, and so he needed

reminding. I mean, if we think about it,

he's stepping into the shoes of Moses.

Even if you haven't been in church for very long, you might

have heard of Moses, the Prince of Egypt film and all that, like

he had big shoes to fill. He had led the people, He had

confronted Pharaoh. He'd had a few crisis moments,

but we see from this Joshua is probably having a bit of a

crisis moment. But yet in a crisis moment,

God's promise accompanies that crisis.

Moses was gone. The man who God had spoken to

face to face, who'd given him the 10 commandments, the man who

had parted the sea and LED the people out of Egypt.

It was now Joshua's turn to lead these people to fulfil the

promises that they've been given through Moses.

I'm sure he felt like the stakes were high.

There were enemies ahead. There were giants in the land.

As these 10 survivor talked about, there was generational

trauma. And the question is, how will we

go forward? God says to him, be strong and

courageous. My promises are that I will

never fail you nor abandon you. And just as Joshua could be

certain of God's promises, we can be certain of God's

promises. Whatever we face, whatever is up

ahead of us, whether we know it or not, we can be certain of

God's promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

He will not abandon us. He will not fail us.

Perhaps you feel a bit like Joshua now, and God is inviting

you to step into something. Maybe you know what that is.

Maybe you don't. Maybe it's a new season for you

in parenting, in work, in leadership, in grief, in

uncertainty, and you're asking God the question.

I don't know that I'm ready for this, really, God.

Maybe it does feel a bit like a crisis.

I mean, to be fair, when I think about Joshua being given the job

of Moses, that makes me feel a bit sick.

Maybe you feel like you're being invited to do something and it

feels like a crisis moment because it feels scary and big.

What promise has God made to you that accompanies the crisis that

you feel right now? I read 1 pass one scholar this

week that said that there are over 3570 promises in scripture.

I haven't counted so I'm just going with what I read.

But that's a lot of promises. Just one of those is that he

will never leave you. He will never abandoned you.

God promises. Jesus promises that he will be

with us and that he can be trusted.

There was a famous Baptist preacher called Charles Spurgeon

in the 1800s, and he said this. It's God's nature to keep his

promises. Therefore, go immediately to his

throne and say do as you promised.

I love that picture. We face a crisis or we face the

unknown. We're not quite sure what ahead.

And we have permission to go to the throne of God and say, God,

you promised, you promised you'd be with me.

You promised you'd deliver, You promised you would provide, You

promised that you would show me the way forward.

We can ask God to fulfil his promises to us.

What is God saying to you right now, in this moment?

What promise are you recalling that He has given you?

When I was preparing this, I was using one of my old Bibles, and

I'd written in the margin that probably somebody very

intelligent and clever said it, but I didn't write down who said

it. But I'd written this.

Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's trust in God.

And His promise is enough to obey even when we're afraid.

Whatever our circumstances are now or whatever they are going

to be, we can be certain of God's promises.

Joshua came to realize that, and we would do really well to learn

from him. So we can be certain of God's

promises. And secondly, we can be

confident in His presence. Verses 3 to 6, I promise you,

this is God speaking. I promise you what I promised

Moses. Wherever you set foot foot, you

will be on land I have given you.

From the Negev Wilderness in the South, to the Lebanon Mountains

in the north, to Euphrates River in the east and the

Mediterranean Sea in the West, including all of the land of the

Hittites. No one will be able to stand

against you as long as I live, for I will be with you as I was

with Moses. I will not fail you nor abandon

you. Be strong and courageous, for

you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the

land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

I've already said repetition means pay attention.

Repetition of this command, be strong and courageous is

significant because like I've already said, Joshua was

probably feeling anything but strong and courageous.

Whatever you're facing now personally as or as you look at

the news headlines, whatever you're feeling, if you're not

feeling very strong and courageous, then we're in good

company. But there is a command that we

can be certain of God's promises and confident in His presence.

It might be that we feel less than confident and not very

qualified to do what God is asking of us.

To trust him, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to raise the

dead, to make disciples of one another, to love your neighbor

as yourself. You know, if we look at Joshua

and the life of Joshua, you know, his only real

qualification that we can gather was in outdoor education.

You know, he'd been helping Moses lead a camping trip for 40

years now. For those of you that have been

around, you know I love camping. But they were camping in a land

where everyone around them had weapons and didn't want them to

be there. Awkward.

Joshua was now asked to lead these people and they had been

camping woefully underprepared. You know, there's a certain

level of preparedness you have when you're camping, but to kind

of go into battle I imagine would be quite tricky.

You know, if you're coming to DTI or you've been to DTI, you

know, you wake up and the battle is to queue for the showers, not

to face people with Spears and swords.

Joshua was feeling underprepared.

If we feel underprepared, if we feel out of our depth, if we

feel unsure. We can be confident in God's

presence that He is with us. He'll never leave us.

And he's saying to us be strong and courageous, not because

we're ready, not because we've got the best plan, not because

we're feeling up for it and raring to go, but because He is

with us and He is who He says He is.

We can be confident in his presence.

You know, if you flick a bit earlier on into Exodus 33, Moses

is having a conversation with God.

And he's saying to God, you know, as he's leading these

people and they're complaining and he's feeling like he's not

doing a very good job. And he says, God, don't send us

out of here unless you go with us.

Moses knew if God wasn't with them, if God wasn't there, it

just simply wasn't worth doing. And I feel like that about

everything I do. You know, when we planted this

church 15 years ago, even leading it today, I'm like, God,

if you are not with us, if you are not with us, then we will

not go. I would rather do anything else

than lead this church. If God is not here and he is not

with us because he'll have something different for us to

do. God always calls us to bigger

things than we can do on our own because He wants us to rely on

Him. He wants us to know that He is

with us and He is doing it. God is in the transformation

business and we get to join in. You know, God didn't need Joshua

to lead the people into the promised land.

I'm sure we could have done it a different way, but He chose to

use Him. You know God doesn't need us to

usher in His Kingdom into the lives of our friends and our

families here and now, but we are His preferred plan.

You know when we feel discouraged when people or

situations get us down? I don't know about you, but I

can feel courage leaking out of me.

But Joshua is such a great reminder he we can get hope from

what we read in Joshua because God's presence and power is far

more powerful and tangible than we can ever ask or imagine.

That's why I give my life to this.

That's why I love meeting people and sharing Jesus with them.

You know, that's why we run things like Alpha so that we can

invite people we know to learn more about who this God is that

we worship. We can be confident to move

forward, to step out, to not be shaken.

Even when things feel shaky, when we don't feel like the

current strategy or plan is very certain, we can be confident in

His presence. John Wimber, who founded the

Vineyard movement, used to say I'm just loose change in God's

pocket. He can spend me how he likes.

And I love that picture because I'm like, if God is calling me,

I'll go anywhere. If God is inviting me to do this

thing, then he must be there and I can be confident in his

presence. We need to be available, not

perfect few. Joshua wasn't perfect.

I don't think we're all perfect, but we just need to be available

and open to what God wants. You know, we can sometimes

muster up our own confidence and certainty in order to take that

first step. But God says you step and I'll

be with you. Have confidence in my presence

and be certain of my promises, NT Wright says.

Faith is what happens when you trust the God who calls you into

the unknown. Faith is what happens when we

trust the God who calls us into the unknown.

So we can be certain of God's promises, confidence in His

presence, and we need the centrality of God's Word.

Verses 7 to 9 Be strong and courageous.

Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you.

Do not deviate from them, turning from the left or the

right. Then you'll be successful in

everything you do. Study this book of instruction

continually. Meditate on it day and night so

that you'll be sure to obey everything written in it.

Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

This is my command. Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with

you wherever you go. You know strength for the

journey ahead. Strength and direction to step

into uncharted territory comes from knowing the Word of God,

the centrality of Scripture. God doesn't just say go.

He doesn't ask us to just step out and leave us to it.

He gives us his word to stay grounded.

Joshua had it study this book of instruction continually.

OK, so Joshua's Bible didn't look like ours, but he had

scripture. He had words to study and

meditate on. It isn't about formulas.

It's about formation. You know, I talked about courage

at the beginning and I think courage grows in the secret

place when we are spending time with Jesus in prayer, in

stillness and solitude, in reading and meditating

Scripture. Courage has this ability to grow

and form in us. If we are saturated in the Word

of God, we pray it, we speak it. You know, if food, if Scripture

is our food, it becomes the fuel of life.

You know, life is always battles and blessings, isn't it?

We live in this middle, this tension.

And so when we meditate on God's word day and night, when we get

it into us, it helps us to to to stay standing when we're in the

battle and it helps us to celebrate when we are walking in

blessing. You know, if you don't read the

Bible daily, if you don't have a reading plan, you don't know

where to start. Please ask somebody.

There's so many different things out there.

The Bible app is a great one to start and it has daily Bible

plans that you can read every day.

Talk to people in your small group.

And as I say, if you don't have a Bible, do pick one up from the

information desk. There's a preacher and vicar in

Oxford called Simon Ponsonby. And he says this Scripture

doesn't just tell us what God has done, it trains us to expect

what he's going to do again. I love that Scripture doesn't

just tell us what God has done, it trains us to expect him to do

it again. You know, we read the account of

Joshua. And as you read it over the next

few weeks, you'll see what God has done, what God can do, what

he wants to do again. He wants to move in significant

ways that nations are changed. We can be certain of God's

promises, have confidence in His presence as we hold on to the

centrality of His Word. So which of those stick with you

the most? Did you?

Do you need this morning reminding of the certainty of

His promises, or that you can be confident in His presence, or

that maybe His words need to be a little bit more central in

your life? As we start this week, as you

look ahead at what is to come, maybe there is uncertainty.

Maybe it's not this week, but it's the week after.

Maybe there's a family situation that you don't feel strong

enough to face. Maybe there's a new opportunity

that has come your way. Maybe there's a step of

obedience you need to take. I think God's word for all of us

is the same. Be strong and courageous for the

Lord. Your God is with you wherever

you go. Don't wait for the fear to

vanish, but move into obedience. God goes ahead of you.

I'm just going to finish by telling you a quick story about

a lady from Cardiff Vineyard, a lady called Zara.

It happened last year and I was reminded of it recently.

She, Zara, received a prophetic word at church 1 morning and

someone said to her, God has called you to be a light in the

workplace. And it's a tough crowd.

And she was like, yeah, that absolutely describes my

workplace. And then these are her words.

She wrote this, she says this. So I started praying into this.

And a few weeks later, I had a teams meeting that I was

leading. At the end of it, the Lord

prompted me to end the moment with prayer.

She works for a secular charity. So I went, OK, she said.

I said, OK, let's just pray and wrap this meeting up.

It felt kind of embarrassing to be saying it, but I wanted to be

obedient to the Lord's voice. Everybody was stunned, but I

prayed for the things that we were struggling with at work,

one of them being finances and getting people to start take

part in our skydiving events to fundraise for the charity.

The next day we had 10 people sign up to the skydive, which

has never happened in the history of the charity.

Normally we have one or two people a year.

Then everybody at work started sending me their prayer

requests, but I didn't want them to think that I was the only one

who had access to God. So I scheduled another all staff

meeting on Teams and used it to share the gospel and to explain

to all of them that they can all talk and pray to Jesus.

From this meeting, I saw two people say yes to Jesus, and

I've had several conversations with my colleagues who honestly

have so many opinions about why God couldn't possibly exist.

But it's been really exciting and to engage with them isn't

that amazing? For those of you that have team

meetings, there's the challenge. You know what?

She was obedient to the prompt of the Lord.

You know, what would you do tomorrow if you were 100%

absolutely sure that God was with you?

You know, Joshua's story as we just begin today, is one of

facing uncertainty, fear, not knowing, not knowing outcomes,

and yet trusting God. He was certain of God's

promises, confident in his presence, and he knew that God's

word was central. You know at Chelmsford, the

village, the towns where you live, it needs people who are

full of courage. In our workplaces, in our

families, in our schools. If we were full of courage and

we knew that God was with us 100%, which he is, places would

be changed, people would be set free.

This is the vision of the Kingdom coming in full.

Be strong and courageous and step into all that God is asking

of you. What do you need courage for?

Is it to pray with a family member?

Is it to step into leadership? Is it to change your job?

Is it to give a prophetic word to a friend or a colleague?

Is it to re evaluate how you spend your time, energy and

money? Is it to plant a church?

What is it that you need courage for this morning?

We're going to pray. But if, if you need courage this

morning, if you need an injection of the Spirit of God

to give you courage for this week and the week after, I'm

going to ask you to stand first. That's brave, I know.