Scripture focus: Joshua 3:1
Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Let’s get into the shoes of the nation of Israel!
Visualize yourself as your 20 year old self, young, vibrant, and excited. You’re about to enter a land that your parents have been talking about your whole life. The only land that you’ve known is hot, dry, sandy wasteland. The land you’re about to enter is a land flowing with milk and honey that God has for you to grow and prosper. It has been hard these past decades because all you’ve known is death around you. There have been wars and battles and thirst and God always provided. It’s been manna over and over again! You cannot wait for figs and grapes and did you hear about those giants?! There are people literally twice your size with massive fortified cities. By the way, what’s this thing called iron that they have? You’re mom and dad have died, Moses has died. Joshua and Caleb are here but there are so few people that are wiser and older. You can almost see it – the land – just seven miles ahead by the Jordan River. It’s flooding, and you have no idea how to cross, how to break through the walls, how to defeat the giants. You have only 3 days to prepare and gather manna and the pillar of cloud is leading you straight to the banks.
Sermon Text: Joshua 3:1
Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
Have you ever been scared facing something ahead of you?
I don’t know about you but one of the first things I do when facing the unknown is to consult with someone who has been there and done that. The Israelites didn’t have that. Their parents and grandparents had passed away and the example they were left with was one of failure. The river right in front of them was impossible to cross. The phrase “passed over” in verse 1 is a particular word that means to move from one point in your life to another, a changing of seasons and moments. This was what God was preparing the people for in three days – moving into a new season of life. The message is to be strong and courageous! Do not fear!
How do we walk by God’s grace into a fearful situation?
Today we’re going to talk about ways to overcome a sinful response to fear. There is no such thing as an emotional sin. Emotion in and of itself is not sinful. Read through the gospels and you will see every single human emotion expressed by Jesus, from joy to sadness, from anger to fear, from happiness (although laughing isn’t recorded in the text) to sternness. We see the spectrum of human emotion encapsulated in Jesus who was without sin. Which means that as we go through our day, the emotions we feel are not inherently sinful, it is how we respond and move forward as we are feeling those things and quite regularly helping to get our emotions in line with truth. Satan loves to take our emotions in the moment to run ahead of what we know to be true and change the truth around and we become what the bible calls self-deceived. Taking a culture that spews lies and getting us to have an emotional response so we begin to rationalize and twist things so that what we think is true aligns with what we’re feeling rather than what is true guiding to how we respond to our feelings.
- By God’s grace, we can overcome responding fearfully in sin through proper preparation
We spent a lot of time on this in one of our past teachings of Joshua 1 on preparing the provisions, but to summarize – In the Hebrew mindset we prepare for the worst case scenario, count the cost, and get everything in order and in the Greek mindset we are focused moving forward on the task, prepare for the job at hand, and leave behind anything that is going to hold us back.
How can we do this? When? What types of preparation?
Rise Early
This sounds a lot like Jesus. There is tremendous value in preparing spiritually each day so we await with expectation so we can walk with the Spirit and not gratifying the flesh so we are led by God. What type of routines do you have? Athletes go through stretches and maybe eat a specific meal or listen to certain songs. Many people have their cup of coffee and wake-up rituals. There is value and power in healthy routines. But none healthier and more powerful than starting off focusing on the Lord. Spiritual preparation is woven throughout all other kinds of preparation including mental, emotional, and physical.
Psalm 119:147-148 – I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I hope in your words.
My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promise.
Psalm 5:3 – O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
Psalm 143:8 – Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Mark 1:35 – And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Mentally Prepare
When we rise early we better be seeking to get our heads screwed on straight because the enemy is coming after our mind. God has made it abundantly clear what the Israelites are to do and that they will accomplish it. Eight times in chapter one it says the Lord is going to give them the land. Psychologists will tell you an important strategy is to visualize yourself winning the competition. This is not where winning starts for us christians. Winning starts for us knowing that the Lord has already won. If the Lord is calling me to do this then he’s always going to equip me to accomplish whatever it is he has called me to do.
Redefine Success
We don’t define what success is, the Lord does! If He calls you to do something, success is obediently doing it. The result does not define success because so regularly the enemy gets us wound up and fearful of not achieving some outcome. The Lord never said, “This is the outcome.” The Lord just said, “Go and do this.” Do we see the difference there? By God’s grace, mental preparation is simply getting into the mindset of being humbly obedient to what he has called us and enabled us to do and that’s it. The rest is completely up to Him.
Be Courageous (Not Brave)
All that depends on us is our humble obedience, our willingness to walk and follow, even if we’re shaking in our boots. This, by the way, is the definition of courage. “Be strong and courageous, Christian!” Is that God saying, “You can’t feel the emotion of fear.” No! Courage means even when I feel fearful I still press forward. Why? Because I know my God has won it and I know that He has enabled me to do whatever He has called me to do and it’s in His hands. That is courage. This is way different than ‘bravery.’ Nowhere in scripture are we ever called to be brave. Bravery is when I feel the emotion of fear, I push it aside, and do what I think is necessary to accomplish this task. It’s all about me – “I’m brave.” Bravery is rooted in yourself, courage is rooted in God – knowing Who’s in control and moving forward anyway. We are called to walk in courage even when we are fearful because the Lord has done it. Mentally – we prepare!
Emotionally Prepare
It’s okay to be nervous, it’s okay to have that feeling in the pit of your stomach – learn to be okay in that emotional state. The way that we train in this is by resting in truth. Learning to feel emotion and even letting that emotion spur you on – it’s good to be excited and there are situations that it’s okay to feel a fearful awe of who He is. In fact He tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of many good things. When these emotions begin to drive us, this is where we are getting the cart before the horse so to speak. This is where we often make decisions not rooted in truth, but rooted in feeling and emotion.
The Israelites have moved to the threshold of the Jordan. We don’t know exactly when the spies returned. Perhaps Joshua had sent them out ahead of time, they had done their recon, and then the Lord said, “In three days you’re crossing.” So Joshua got the people prepared, they set out and made camp on the banks of the Jordan. The spies return after hiding in the hills for three days and the people are ready to cross over. This timeline makes sense, however, it is speculation because scripture doesn’t tell us the exact timeline. It does tell us that the spies gave a good report before the crossing. “And they said to Joshua, ‘Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us’” (Joshua 2:24).
It’s important for us as we work through our own emotions to remember that we’re not the only person on this planet. Something the enemy excels at doing is tempting us to believe it’s all about us, all about how I feel, and no one else understands. The enemy and other people oppose us, but from this verse (Jos 2:24) we see that the Israelites’ enemies already knew that they lost. Remember the servant of Elisha – when he was encircled by foes on chariots ready to kill them, he had his eyes opened to see the hills filled with chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:8-23). He was reminded that our God is far bigger than the problem we face here. When we’re reminded of the reality of the big picture that helps to put our emotions in the right frame and the right state. As we grow and mature, as we are learning to put our emotions in check with truth, we will be able to say like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who also stood at a threshold, the threshold of a fiery furnace, that our God is able to save us, but even if He doesn’t we will still praise His name. That is a mindset that has put emotion in the right seat behind truth. The fear is not driving me, God is and that is a spiritually, mentally, and emotionally courageous step into the flame.
Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” The word ‘understanding’ in Hebrew thought is rooted in your heart. The heart/gut was the center of yourself & your understanding, which encapsulated both your mind and your emotions (your will and volition). Don’t just do what you have logically arrived at, but also don’t just ‘go with your gut’ or your emotional sense in this moment. Proverbs 3:6 continues, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” What does moving forward in active faith sound like? Courage! Regardless of what we’re thinking or feeling we do what the Lord has called us to do. Proverbs 3:7-8 goes on, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.” I love this passage because it’s the whole man – mind, body, soul – all right there. If any of these things get out of whack then we’ve got problems but if we keep it in line with the Lord then we’re refreshed in every way – that’s what our God does!
How many of you know that it’s very easy to think your way into a problem? We start imagining the worst outcome. For instance, this chair I’m sitting in could collapse and I could fall into this really expensive camera that’s next to the chair, and then owe a lot of money to replace it and I don’t have that kind of money so I just shouldn’t even go to church today because I might go bankrupt. It sounds completely silly to make these mental jumps,, but this is what we do and how we think! Things have not even happened and yet we start thinking in those terms. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Be sober-minded [There’s the command for mental preparation – don’t be an emotional nutcase! I’m not filled with something that makes me do what I don’t want to do. I am clear headed to think clearly.]; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
Physically Prepare
I’ll very briefly touch on this one, but we need to be physically ready and fit for what the Lord calls us to, which requires self-discipline. There is a reason there is a correlation in Scripture with godlessness and feeding the stomach. The bible is far more concerned with what you’re putting into your mouth and the god of your stomach than it is with making sure you have strong muscles. We are a gluttonous people – which beyond the physical also has spiritual, mental, and emotional connotations. So if you find yourself regularly availing yourself of all the pleasures of the world there is value in making sure we are remaining disciplined before the Lord physically to be able to accomplish what He’s called us to do
Sermon Text: Joshua 1:2
At the end of three days the officers went through the camp
Who do we see walking through the camp? The officers. Not Joshua, not elders (they had died). The Lord is going to use whoever is going to exercise faithfulness. So this was a bunch of young bucks, who were walking in faith and had some leadership ability that presumably Joshua had appointed.
- By God’s grace, we can overcome responding fearfully in sin through walking in community.
One of the favorite strategies of the enemy is to isolate those who are afraid which is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Let me lovingly tell you that when you shrivel inward in fear you are being a prideful, disobedient child. Your pride is not allowing the Lord’s family to walk alongside you. We think, “What will people think? What will others say?” By God’s grace, the moment we start to feel fear and we need to overcome a sinful response by saying, “It’s okay that I feel afraid; I’m going to talk to someone about it and we’re going to process and work through this together. One of the biggest lies that we’ve been tricked into believing is that any feeling of fear is sinful. When Jesus felt fear in the Garden of Gethsemane he immediately sought community and wanted those he was closest with to come pray by him. They went to the Father in prayer.
Be courageous enough to recognize the fear and invite people into that to walk through it together. When this discipleship becomes our practice, we learn to trust the gifts the Lord has placed in each other and we build relational capital to confess our fear or point it out in the lives of our brothers and sisters. There are people living with a sinful response to fear who just aren’t going to say anything. Through the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and discernment we need to learn how to ask the hard questions of others so that we can help and encourage them as the hands and feet of the Lord. This happens best through discipleship where we regularly engage relationally and people have the freedom to share. This is the whole point of what we’re trying to do at Vine – why we’re trying to get into concentrically smaller circles of community. In your Seed Groups you build community and from those Seed Groups the men and the women get to know each other in more intentional discipleship relationships. It can’t be forced; it’s a process that the Spirit does, but it’s one that emerges out of those concentrically smaller spheres of community.
Sermon Text: Joshua 1:3
and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
- By God’s grace, we can overcome responding fearfully in sin through trusting in the Lord
We can prepare spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. We can have all the community we want. In the midst of this if we are not trusting the Lord then we have problems. This is why God reminds His people over and over again that “I am with you. I have gone before you. I’m also around and behind you. My Spirit is in you.” The ark of the covenant was such a visceral reminder of that presence. Next week, we’ll continue to talk about the ark and how the Lord is with us and how He leads us. Let’s end with these reminders from Scripture:
1 Corinthians 3:16 – Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
2 Corinthians 6:16 – What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 3:16-17 – And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.Revelations 21:3 – And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.