Some of my most significant preaching experiences with a local congregation
have come in the context of an extended series of sermons. Series preaching
can offer the congregation an opportunity to soak in a biblical text or in
the story of a Bible character and learn some deep lessons.
Here is a series possibility on the life of Joshua. This is a wonderful and
colorful story that begins in Genesis with God's amazing promises to the people
who would eventually be called Israel. In Joshua, the promises of God are
ripe, just ready to be harvested. But it won't be automatic. What is still
called for is the obedient response of God's people. So this series might
be called "God's Promise and Our Potential." Or simply "Crossing
Over," in reference to the mission of Joshua to take the nation into
the Promised Land.
This series can be effective in helping to call a congregation to a time of
transition and change that involves risk. It asks the question, "What
will it take for us to 'cross over' into the future that God has planned for
us?"
(Complete manuscripts of these sermons are available for download at www.preachersmagazine.org.)
This first sermon needs to set the stage by telling the story of what has
happened to the people up to this point. In the pursuit of the Promised Land
they got close but could not enter. Because of disobedience, they only saw
from a distance. Moses dies, and the people languish and mourn on the edge
of God's promise. After 40 long years, the people sit down on the wrong side
of the river Jordan and seem content to accept what is. These are disappointed
and disillusioned people. They are in a place similar to what many of our
people are experiencing. The Promised Land is in sight, they hear and understand
the promises of God for a life of joy and peace, but they just can't seem
to cross over and take possession of it.
But that's when the gospel word comes. The Lord speaks to Joshua and in essence
says, "Moses is dead. That's not going to change. So there's no use in
sitting around and grieving any longer. Joshua, it's time to move on."
And that's when the Lord renews His promise to Joshua: "Get ready to
cross the Jordan River . . . you and all these people . . . into the land
I am about to give to them" (Joshua 1:2). God's fresh word creates limitless
potential in the lives of these defeated people. If ever a group of folks
were stuck in the mud, it was these folks. But God does not leave them there.
He comes to them and to their new leader and says, "All right, enough
already; it's time to move on!"
This is a penetrating word for our people. Many of them are stuck spiritually,
emotionally--chained by the past. They need to hear God saying, "OK,
it's time to move on now." An important question for them is, "How
long will you allow your future to be defined by your past?"
This sermon works off the phrase that first appears in verse 9 and is repeated
in verses 11 and 24. The phrase is "melting in fear." The people
of Israel know about "melting in fear." When they first spied out
the Promised Land, they "melted in fear" because the land was occupied
by giants. Now here they are again. Joshua again sends spies into the land.
The surprise is that they find out the Canaanites are afraid of them! Israel
thought she was weak and unable to cross over into what God had promised.
But the people of Canaan understood that Israel was awesome and powerful,
not by themselves but because of Yahweh.
Fear is also what often keeps us from moving over into all that God has planned.
We need to hear the same message that these people under Joshua's leadership
needed: "Be strong and courageous. . . . For the LORD your God will be
with you" (1:9).
Now we come to chapter 3, and the people are ready finally to cross over.
It's time to go. But there's still a problem. Joshua and his officials define
the problem very clearly and concisely in verse 4: "You have never been
this way before." In other words, "You don't have adequate directions.
And it's not good enough to think that somehow you can just figure it out
on your own. You can't make it on your own; you need help."
It's another mirror of our spiritual lives. Perhaps one of the reasons that
some of us have never really crossed over into God's new Land of Promise is
that we've tried it before, but we got lost. Once we started the journey,
we tried to go our own way, tried to follow Jesus on our own terms, and we
got lost. We hear God's call to go deeper in our spiritual lives, and immediately
we think, "OK, I can do that. I know the way."
The problem is that when God calls us to something new and deeper in our life
with Him, we can't just strike out on our own. We don't know the way. We've
never been this way before.
There are three things in this text that the people must do in order to successfully
cross over. They must follow Yahweh without reservation. They must consecrate
themselves for the journey ahead. They must follow the leader, Joshua.
This sermon comes out of the same text as last week, but with a different
angle. It deals with the need that we humans have to be convinced. We want
evidence, proof, assurance.
The nation of Israel always needed signs. And they got them! Powerful signs
of God's power and presence. Now, as they prepare to cross over into the Promised
Land, they again want a sign.
So, the Lord is going to demonstrate His power to them once again by stopping
the flow of the swollen Jordan River and allowing them to cross on dry land.
That's amazing, but what is really important here is the reason the Lord was
going to do this miraculous thing in their midst. The reason is given in two
different ways. First the Lord says to Joshua, "I'm going to perform
these amazing signs so the people will know that I am with you as I was with
Moses."
And then Joshua says to the people, "The Lord is going to do this so
you will know that the living God is among you." God is going to be gracious
to give them a miraculous sign in order to convince them that He can be trusted
to give the land that they are so afraid to claim.
We, too, have been blessed with amazing signs of God's power and presence.
But in truth, signs and wonders can be overrated. Israel had them all. They
had plagues and parting seas. They had manna and pillars of smoke by day and
pillars of fire by night. Yet they still struggled to believe God. Which reminds
us that ultimately it comes down to a decision to place my trust in a God
who says, "Step into the river. Cross over and you will see My power."
This is the simple and wonderful story of the people of God building an altar
of remembrance out of 12 stones picked from the Jordan as they crossed over.
"Remembering" is a significant part of our discipleship. There are
times when we need to stop and look back. We need to remember and celebrate
what God has done for us. We need to build an "altar of remembrance"
that we can look back on.
I used this sermon as an opportunity to celebrate the past seven years in
the life of our congregation. I had 12 persons to represent 12 significant
markers of God's power and presence among us. As I spoke of each marker, the
person came and placed his or her rock on a special table at the front. When
it was complete, we had built an altar that remained in the sanctuary for
a year, reminding us of God's great work.
The 12 markers that I chose were:
· God's healing power among us
· God's faithful provision and our stewardship
· Our commitment to and involvement in world missions
· New Christians and spiritual growth
· A revival of prayer
· A renewal in worship
· The vitality of our teenagers
· The blessing of our children
· Those sent out from us to minister in other places
· The deepening of lay ministry
· A renewed vision for the future
· Hope for those who haven't yet crossed over
Now it's 40 years later, we're on the other side of the river, great possibility
lies ahead, but the core issue is not different. Obedience to the Lord is
still the very heart of being His people.
God marks them again with the covenant sign, but He knows it's not enough.
He stops the manna and gives the fruit of the land, but He knows it's not
enough. Obedience is still required.
In this simple story, that almost seems out of place in the narrative, there
is an air of warning to us. You can have all the marks of a child of God but
lack the response of a child of God. You can receive the sacraments but have
no faith. Paul was right in 1 Corinthians 10: you can experience the Exodus,
eat the manna, drink water from the rock, and still remain in unbelief.
The point of application can be a poignant question placed before your congregation:
"You may have all the external marks of a Christian, but do you have
the true mark of obedience? Do you have a real, vital, personal relationship
with the living Christ?"
Does God take sides? With athletic teams? With nations? With individuals?
The story of the Conquest is usually hard for contemporary people to get because
it seems as if God is capriciously taking sides with Israel to wipe out people
who really were there first anyway!
Truth is, the conquest of Canaan is not a bunch of land-hungry marauders wiping
out, at the behest of a vicious God, hundreds of innocent, God-fearing folks.
In the biblical view, the God of the Bible uses none-too-righteous Israel
as the instrument of His judgment on a people who had persistently reveled
in their sin.
Joshua wanted to know, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither,"
the warrior replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have
now come." And Joshua fell on his face, realizing that he was in the
presence of the Lord. And in the presence of a holy God, Joshua's question
changes. No longer is it, "Whose side are you on?" but now the question
is, "What do you want to show me? What do you want to say to me?"
Do you know what the Lord wanted to say to Joshua? It's in verse 2 of chapter
6: "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands." It's a done
deal because this is what the sovereign Lord has decreed. It's as if God is
saying, "Joshua, you are going to have victory, but it's not because
I like you best. It's not because I'm taking your side against another. It's
because this is what I have planned to accomplish My purpose."
We need to understand this because in the daily course of our lives we sometimes
become far more interested in the help than in the Helper. We just want God
to be responsive to our needs. "God, whose side are You on here? Are
You going to come to our aid? Are You going to help us?"
Too often our last question is, "God, what do You want here? What is
Your plan and Your desire? What are You seeing that I cannot see?"
"It's nobody's business but mine." That is the doctrine of our time.
The pervading belief of our culture seems to be that one's actions have consequences
only for that individual. We have lost much of our sense of community responsibility.
This deals with that issue. Things were going so well for Joshua and Israel.
Until Achan went directly against the command of the Lord and took for himself
what he was supposed to leave alone. As a result, the battle of Ai becomes
a disastrous failure. Now Joshua has to get to the bottom of what happened.
Now the specifics of dealing with this kind of sin have certainly changed
under the new covenant made possible through Christ, thanks be to God! But
the principle here remains: the Lord makes it clear in His Word that none
of us is an island. There is no such thing as "my private business."
The choices I make and the way I live my life does matter, and it does impact
those around me.
When we are members of the kingdom of God, we must live with the understanding
that we are integrally connected to one another, and our lives do affect our
brothers and sisters in Christ. In the kingdom of God, you never act as a
private citizen. We belong to each other. Paul says in Romans, "Each
member belongs to all the others" (12:5).
The second remarkable feature of this text is the way that Joshua and Israel
react when defeat comes. At the end of chapter 6 they were on top of the world.
The walls of Jericho came crashing down, and they easily took over the city.
They were feeling very good about this whole conquest thing.
In fact, they were feeling so good that when it came time to spy out the next
city, the spies came back and said, "Nothing to worry about; we could
do this with one arm tied behind our backs." So Israel went sauntering
up to Ai and promptly got beaten back. They were driven into almost immediate
retreat and lost 36 men in the process.
Suddenly, they aren't so confident. In fact, they fall into awful despair.
They tear their clothes and pour dust on their heads and begin to cry out
to God, "Oh, what have You done to us? You've left us alone; life is
awful. Oh, woe is us. We should have just stayed on the other side of the
Jordan."
Now is it just me, or does that sound kind of familiar? I mean, doesn't that
sound a bit like us whenever the going gets a little tough? When that happens,
we need to move beyond the cries of "Oh, woe is me" and "God,
why have You left me?" We need to come to the question that Joshua asked
in faith: "Lord, what are You going to do for Your great name? What is
this really about? What do we need to learn? How can we become better as a
result of this setback?"
When in the most difficult experiences of our lives we can make the shift
from "Woe is me" to "What about your kingdom?" that's
when God can begin to teach us the deepest lessons of what it means to live
as His children.
This passage has to do with identity. It's about the people of Israel remembering
who they are and where value in life really comes from.
Suddenly, at the end of chapter 8, we are whisked away from the battlefield
and planted in the midst of a worship service. In the midst of the conquest
Israel stops to worship and remember. They stop to worship the God who gave
them this mission and to remind themselves of who they really are in relationship
to Him.
It's critical that they did this. It would have become awfully easy for them
to begin to draw their identity from their vocation. To see themselves as
great conquerors and lose the sense of their utter dependency on God. In this
simple moment of worship they realign their lives to the sovereign Lord, without
whom they would have no life. That's what worship does.
We need to hear this lesson. "Stop the war and listen to God. Put everything
else aside; this is now the most urgent matter. It's time to remember who
you are." This text calls us to worship, and we remember. And as we remember,
we go into the world.
Common sense is important to us. We can't get along very well without it.
However, there are times when functioning by common sense alone can get you
in trouble. Sometimes conventional wisdom isn't wisdom at all.
That's the lesson that Joshua and the people of Israel learn in this story.
The people of God are confronted with a critical decision. They make that
decision on the basis of common sense and suddenly find themselves in a compromised
situation.
The people of Gibeon come to them pretending to be the people of a far-off
land in order to save themselves. If they are found out to be close neighbors,
they will be destroyed by Joshua and his army. So they come with ragged clothes,
stale food, and a story of their long journey that seems to make sense. So
Joshua enters into a treaty with them, only to discover that they are close
neighbors, and God had really ordered them conquered.
The narrator of this story does not want us to miss what really happened here.
So he spells it out for us clearly in verse 14: "The men of Israel sampled
their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD." In other words, they
traded God's divine wisdom for a little bit of common sense, and it got them
in serious trouble. This story means to impress us with how Israel suffers,
not from a lack of common sense, but from a lack of the wisdom of God.
How many times have we made decisions in our lives, important decisions, on
the basis of common sense? And yet we have discovered that we needed more
than common sense; we needed a word from the Lord. How often could it be said
of us, "They did not inquire of the Lord"? How often do we make
important decisions in our lives without really coming before the Lord to
plead for His wisdom?
Have you ever been asked this question: "Pastor, does it really do any
good to pray?" Perhaps you've even wondered yourself at times. "Does
it really matter if I pray? Does God ever truly act in response to my prayers?
Can I really believe that the God of the universe listens to me?" Hasn't
that question troubled the mind of every one of us at some point?
In this text, Israel engages in a fierce battle with the Amorites. It was
during this battle that one of the most amazing things in all the Bible happens
as a result of Joshua's prayer. Joshua had learned the lesson well that when
God gives you a mission, you'd better see it through. So in order to finish
their job of driving back the Amorites, Joshua prayed an incredible prayer.
He prayed to the Lord in the presence of all Israel that the sun and moon
would stand still in the sky until the nation had taken care of its enemies.
And the writer of Joshua says with his mouth hanging open, "It actually
happened!" "The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed
going down about a full day" (v. 13).
What amazes him is not the fact that the sun stood still (or from our modern
perspective that the earth stood still). What amazes the writer of our story
is that God, the sovereign God of the universe, listened to the prayer of
a man! How the sun stood still is not the point of this story. God's intervention
is the point of this story.
This prayer was deeply rooted in the sacred promises that God had made to
Israel and that Israel had made to God. This is the consistent witness of
Scripture. God takes us very seriously. He listens to us. And sometimes He
even changes His mind as a result of our prayers. This story means to impress
us with the miracle of prayer.
The miracle of prayer is rooted in the promises that God has already made.
Joshua knew what God had promised. Joshua knew clearly what God was committed
to do. And it was out of that understanding of and submission to God's plan
and will that he made this unbelievable request. Joshua saw a direct answer
to his prayer in part because he prayed squarely within the bounds of God's
revealed will. Therein is the lesson for us. God will not answer amazing prayers
that are rooted in our selfish desires. But He will even miraculously answer
incredible prayers that are rooted in His will and plan.
Bob Dylan is probably an unlikely theologian, but he had it right when he
sang, "It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna serve
somebody." That's really the point of this text. You are going to serve
somebody. Who will it be?
This is really a simple episode. Joshua reminds the people of their story,
reminds them of what God has done, and on that basis calls them to really
cross the line of faith and serve God exclusively and totally.
This text is a call to make that kind of decision. The amazing story that
we have been tracking these weeks finally calls for just this decision: "Who
are you going to serve?" On the basis of remembering their story, Joshua
calls these people to cross the line of faith, reject other gods, and give
themselves without reservation to Yahweh.
We have a story like these people. It's a story that we rehearse every time
we gather for worship. A story of what God has done out of His great love
for us. It's a story that's beautifully summarized in our confession of faith
that we sometimes recite together, the Apostles' Creed. But there is a sense
in which you can believe everything in the creed and still go to hell. It's
more than agreeing in your mind that there is a God or even that Jesus really
did die and rise again. What is called for here is a commitment of your heart,
mind, soul, and body. What is called for here is a definite response to what
God has already done for you.
