Joshua moving from the past into the future.

Transcription

1 Joshua moving from the past into the future marks our 50 th anniversary at Kingsway Chapel. We come to the end of a season, and the start of a season. As we look back, so we must look forward. In the book of Joshua we see God s people coming to the end of their time in the wilderness, and starting a time of dwelling in the land. They are in transition: change from one season into the next. It would be good to keep this thought in our minds as we prepare each message from Joshua and ask how it can be applied to us. General Questions for use each week: 1. Ask for people to share a summary of what was said last Sunday morning. (You may need to encourage people to take notes each week, so they can share.) 2. Is there one thought from last Sunday that God applied to you personally either a challenge, an encouragement, or a prompt? What is / has been your response to that? 3. In reading the weekly summary (see notes below), does this agree with what we heard on Sunday, or does this raise some different thoughts and ideas? 4. In reading the passage for the week, identify the different people and / or groups of people involved. What emotions are involved, what might they be feeling? What thought patterns, beliefs, might be challenged? Can you identify an aspect of faith or trust that God is calling for? (Note: to increase discussion, encourage as many people as possible in your group to answer the above questions they may have slightly different answers, which can prove helpful in generating discussion. Please remember, the goal is to talk about the subject, not get through all the questions.) 1. Step into your future. Joshua 1:1-9 (Note 1:2, 1:9) God ordains times and seasons, and Moses time had ended. You cannot move forward if you are constantly looking back. It is vital that you let go of the past, as only then can you take hold of the future God is offering to you. 2. God is faithful, He does not change. 1:5 Just as God was in the past, so He still is, and always will be. God s plans and purposes are being worked out. We are called to hold on to God: not people, not our past, not our promise, but God Himself. God is with us! (1:9) 3. Keep your word Joshua. 1:10-18 (Note 1:13) If we have responded to God, and agreed to go with Him, we must keep our word! God is looking for His character to be formed in us, just as He is faithful, so we are called to be faithful, to Him and to each other. 4. Unexpected Believers. Joshua 2 (Note v11) Joshua-FromPast_toFuture.docx Geoff Thompson, December Page 1 of 5

2 Rahab was an enemy, and a sinner (prostitute). Yet she believed. God may chose to work in ways we are not expecting, call the most unusual people to serve Him. In the new season, we need to keep our eyes open for God to be working people s lives, for signs of faith, which may well surprise us. 5. Consecrated followers. Joshua 3:1-6 (Note v5, and v4) To be consecrated, given over to God for His purposes, sold out for Him. This is about following Him, especially in ways we have not gone before. God is calling for a people who will trust Him, give themselves to follow Him, knowing that He knows the way. 6. Signs of God s presence. Joshua 3:7-17 (Note v7) God is wanting to confirm His presence among us. He has done this in the past, and will do it again in the present, and in the future. Our focus is to be on Him, on seeing and recognising the presence of God with His people. As Moses said, if God is not going with us, why would we want to go anywhere without Him? 7. The Purpose and place of memories. Joshua 4 (Note v24) Erecting a memorial was a visual reminder of what God had done in the past. How do we remind ourselves, and our children, of all the great things God has done for us? Memories teach us things they can teach us about God, and teach us about ourselves (what we value, we remember, we treasure). Memories show us what we are taking with us into our future. 8. A set-apart people. Joshua 5:1-9 Circumcision was a physical sign to show that people were members of a physical nation (to be done at birth). Baptism is a sign of a spiritual birth, and shows that we have joined a spiritual kingdom. If you have wandered in a desert and not been baptised, then do it. Make it a declaration that you are set apart for God, that your life is going to be lived with Him and for Him from now on. 9. God provides in God s way. Joshua 5:10-12 The miraculous provision of the manna in the desert was amazing. Yet once the people entered the land, the provision changed: they were no longer living in a desert. The way God worked in the past is not necessarily the way He will chose to work in the future. We cannot demand that God keep providing manna, but we need to look around and see what this new land has for us, because this is now God s provision. 10. Follow me! Joshua 5:13-15 Joshua assumed he was fighting for God, so his question is, are you with me or against me. God does not work that way! God calls us to follow Him, to join in with Him, not expect God to join in with us. 11. This is not a children s story. Joshua 6 Joshua-FromPast_toFuture.docx Geoff Thompson, December Page 2 of 5

3 A whole city died (nearly). In this world of sin and corruption, a world in rebellion against God, there is only one verdict: God pronounces this world guilty. The only ones saved out of Jericho are those who choose to believe and align themselves with God. This is a serious message. 12. Sin brings consequences. Joshua 7 Personal sin is not always a personal matter. Sin has consequences. (The impact and fall out on others will vary depending on the sin.) Sin damages relationships, which impacts upon ministry. Achan s sin damaged his relationship with God, and affected God s relationship with the people. Their God given task was then undertaken without God, resulting in failure. We may think our personal sin is a private matter, of no impact on others, but is it? 13. Finding your way back to God. Joshua 8 When we turn back to God we are taken back to the place of our failure, just as the people had to go back to Ai. This time with God, in obedience to God, and in the victory of God. This leads to renewing of the covenant relationship: the people rededicate their lives to God, to living His way. If we need to turn back to God, then we too need to face our failure, overcome with God s victory, and recommit ourselves to living God s way. 14. The danger of deception. Joshua 9 (Note v14) Here is a warning about becoming self reliant rather than God dependant. The people did not consult God, did not seek out His word, and so were deceived. The most vulnerable people to deception are those who think they are OK. 15. Audacious Faith! Joshua 10:1-15 (Note v12 and v14) Joshua s prayer in v12 is an act of audacious faith. He believed the unbelievable and trusted God to come through! When things are changing, do we have the faith to look to God to act in our world? Why is the impossible, impossible, if God is God? Here we read that God listens to a man. Jesus calls us to ask / pray in His name expecting to see the results He saw. 16. The process of sanctification. Joshua 10:16-43 There is a victory that has been won (v42), yet it was a process of facing enemies and triumphing over them. And yet it is not finished (see 11:1). God causes us to face and defeat our enemies (sin) and this is the process, the journey of sanctification. It is not done all at once, but different enemies (sins) are faced at different times. Yet the victory is ours, for Christ has defeated them. (God s victory was certain, and therefore complete. See 2:11, 9:24.) 17. Following God s Plan. Joshua 11 (Note v15, v20, v23) The journey into our future will be brought about through obedience to God. We need to take note of what God has told us (Jesus commands?). We need to know that some will be for us and some against us, and trust God is at work in and through both (see v20). If we keep following God s plan, keep in step with His Kingdom purposes, we shall find our rest. 18. God s Victory. Joshua 12 Joshua-FromPast_toFuture.docx Geoff Thompson, December Page 3 of 5

4 In the past the people had been led by Moses, now it was Joshua. In recounting the victories that both these leaders had seen in their lives we are recounting the story of God, this is God s activity, God s victory, God s work. We must be careful to see God at work in our leaders, both past and present, and in the future it is not all about us, but God with us, and God in us. 19. Live it out. Joshua 13:1-7 Every victory that God gives his people has to be rediscovered in each new generation. Joshua knew that God would give victory, he had seen it. He now calls the people (the next generation) to step out on their own and see God bring victory for them in their battles. Joshua did not go with them, he released then to go and live out the victory that God had already given them and shown them was possible. 20. Did not. Could not. Don t settle! Joshua 13:13, 15:63, 16:10, 17:12 As the people spread out and started to apply the victory God had given them, so they struggled. Sometimes resistance to God s rule is stubborn. The people did not always drive for holiness and compete obedience to God. Sometimes they found they could not achieve it. And they settled. This is a warning to us: don t settle, keep fighting. God s rest is possible if we persevere. 21. Wholly devoted. Joshua 14: 6-15 (Note v9) Caleb is an example to us of someone who was completely, wholly devoted to God. Even in his old age he was prepared to keep fighting for God. Giants were nothing new to him, he had seen them 40+ years ago, and he had seen what God could do. Obstacles were the things God would move out of his way! 22. Danger: don t procrastinate. Joshua 18:3 God has a future for his people. It is there, in reach, waiting for us to take it. Will it be easy? Probably not. Will it involve pain? Probably. Do we let the difficulties delay us, or do we push forward, knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us? 23. The importance of boundaries. Joshua 19 God has set boundaries for nations, for groups of people. Boundaries are good and healthy. They help us know what is permissible and what is not. God has set us in a place (physical and spiritual) that we are to occupy, to make our own. We are responsible for this place. Even the who in that sentence has a boundary: we are defined by our belonging to this group of people. 24. Refuge, Joshua 20 When things go wrong people need a place of refuge. Please note: if you deliberately go wrong, all you can do is cry out for mercy. Refuge is for those who are caught up in something, in circumstance, when things do go wrong without there being any intention of that happening. God has appointed a place of refuge. Where is our place of refuge now? (c/r Ps 46:1) 25. The Place for Priests. Joshua 21 (Note v41) Joshua-FromPast_toFuture.docx Geoff Thompson, December Page 4 of 5

5 The priests do not have their own land, as such (see 13:14). They are spread throughout the land. As a new priesthood, we are not called out into an isolated community, but rather scattered throughout the land. Priests serve the people around them. Priests act like salt and light, influencing their environment for God, pointing people to God, speaking about God. 26. God s Promise is sure. Joshua 21:45 All God s promises come to pass. This truth is seen not just in Joshua, but in the whole Bible. God s word, His promise, is to be trusted, because it will happen. This can give us hope for the present and the future, as we remind ourselves of what God has promised and is yet to do, knowing it will be. 27. How to live. Joshua 22:1-9 (Note v5-6) Joshua is keen to pass on what he has learned about life. To live life with God is not complex, it is actually straight forward: obey, love, serve, and cling to God and God alone. This is Joshua s advice. 28. Beware of mis-understandings. Joshua 22:10-34 Assumptions are dangerous. We may think we know why people have done certain things, but unless we go and talk to them we will not know if our assumptions (what we think) is actually correct. We may be very wrong. 29. Stay faithful. Joshua 23 Faithful to God s commands (v6). Faithful in your worship (7). Faithful in your relationships (v11-12). To be faithful is to keep faith with God, to honour God in how you live. How we start out is good and helpful, but how we end is important. Stay true. Stay faithful. 30. Remember how you got here. Joshua 24:1-13 The great life you now live is a result of God at work. It is a gift. Don t forget that it is all a result of God s call (v3), God s redemption / salvation (v6), and God s grace and provision (v13). 31. A Covenant people. Joshua 24:14-28 We are called to be a people who have made covenant with God. This is no light think. Covenant: a binding agreement, that cannot be broken. We are called by God into His covenant, to be part of a covenant community, a people devoted to God. Joshua-FromPast_toFuture.docx Geoff Thompson, December Page 5 of 5