Your Promised Land

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:58

Today, we're going to look at Joshua chapter 1 and talk about taking our promised land. Please read with me Joshua chapter 1, verse 5 through to verse 9, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. God wants us to inherit our promised land. He wants us to take a hold of His promises in our lives, and not just for our own benefit, but also for the benefit of others. As we read in Joshua chapter 1, verse 6, he says, For you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. You shall cause this people to do what? To inherit the land. And then we see in Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, You shall make your way. So the cause or the action is you shall, a something that Joshua needed to do, and the effect was that they would inherit the promised land. Now the promised land represents God's promises for us. What has God promised us? What does He want us to go and take a hold of that He has taken a hold of already for us? What promises has He given you as an individual, perhaps as a couple, perhaps as a family, and what promises has He given us as a church family for our future? Now there are three causes, three things we need to do to inherit the promises that God has for us, or three causes to inherit our promised land. Number one, know that God is with you. Let's read Joshua chapter 1 verse 5 and Joshua chapter 1 verse 9. Joshua 1 verse 5. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. And Joshua 1 verse 9, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Don't those sound familiar to the promises that Jesus has given us? In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5, he says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And in Matthew 28, verse 20, he says, He will be with us always to the end of the age. We need to recognize that God is with us. As we go into the future, we might not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. We know that he is with us and he promised he will never leave us or forsake us. He wants us to go into our future confident that he is with us. Now let me ask you a question. How would you act, plan or live if you knew that God was with you? If we know that God is with us, we can go forward with confidence. We know that his presence will never leave us or forsake us, that his promises are yes and amen for our lives today, and we can go into his plan and his purpose for our lives with confidence, knowing he is with us. So the first thing that we need to know if we're going to take hold of God's promises in our lives is we need to know that He is with us. Know God is with you. Number two, the second thing we see in these verses that encourages us as we go forward into God's promises is we must immerse ourselves in God's word. We see in Joshua chapter 1, verse 7 and 8, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. We need to speak, we need to think, and we need to act on God's word. God's word should be in our minds as we think about it, and God's word should be in our mouths as we speak about it, and God's word should motivate our actions as we put it into practice. I believe that if we build our lives firmly on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and his word, we will stand strong through life's storms. Whatever life throws at you, you can stand through that storm if you are built on the rock. And the way that we build our lives on God's word is by thinking about God's word, speaking God's word, and acting on God's word as much as possible. What has God promised you? What promises do we need to muse over and meditate upon? What do we need to think about and what should motivate our actions going forward? It's important for us to build our lives on God's Word. So, step number two, or the second thing we need to do in order to take a hold of the promised land God has for us is immerse ourselves in God's word. Number three, be strong and courageous. Now, three times in the five verses we read, we saw this phrase, be strong and courageous. Let's look at these verses again. Joshua chapter one and verse six, be strong and courageous. Joshua chapter one and verse seven, only be strong and very courageous. Joshua chapter one and verse nine, have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous. We see that God wants us to be strong and courageous. Now, courage is not the absence of fear, it's moving forward in faith despite the challenges that we face. And God wants us to be strong in our faith, and he wants us to move forward with courage. Let's not be dismayed or afraid because of the challenges that we face, but let's keep our eyes firmly on Jesus Christ and his call on our lives and the prize, the promised land that He has for us. So, in conclusion, we've seen that God wants us to take a hold of His promises in our lives. What does He want us to take a hold of so that we can live in the full inheritance that He has made available to us? We've seen today that there are three things that we must do. Number one, we must remember God is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us, and He goes with us into our future. Number two, we must immerse ourselves in God's word. Speak, act, think, meditate. Let God's word be in your mind and in your mouth and let it motivate your actions. And then number three, we saw that we need to be strong and courageous. The future belongs to the bold. Friends, let's take a hold of all that Jesus Christ has taken hold of for us. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you have great and precious promises for each one of us. We want to take a hold of that which you have promised us. We want to take a hold of our inheritance in Christ. We ask you, Lord Jesus, to help us remember that you promised you'd never leave us or forsake us. Help us to stay in step with you and include you in every choice and every decision we make. Give us a hunger for your word so that we may immerse ourselves. We may think, speak, and act on your word. Thank you for your great and precious promises. Help us to feed ourselves on your word. And thank you that you've called us to be strong and courageous. And I pray for courage and for strong faith to fill the hearts and minds of everyone who's watched this message today. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.