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[0:00] Tonight I want to talk about courage and particularly a call to courage, a call to be a Joshua.

[0:20] ! I wrote that before our preacher this morning said be a Joshua. A call to courage, a call to be a Joshua and really three keys for success. Simple three keys for success I suppose in your walk with God.

[0:34] I know we all want and long to have a closer walk with the Lord and as someone was sharing with us lately how they particularly wanted to find out how can they grow in their faith. Really this is a three-fold simple formula that Joshua used for success in his spiritual life and we can in our lives too.

[0:53] When much of Christianity is weakening all around about, when many are prone to discouragement and we have much need of courage in these times don't we? A bit of background is that Moses' work ended at the river Jordan and then Joshua's work began really in earnest at the river Jordan.

[1:13] It's like when Elijah, the mantle of Elijah fell on Elisha and he became the successor.

[1:24] Joshua here becomes the successor to Moses and for forty years, forty long years, Moses had led the children of Israel. Moses led them through the plagues of Egypt, led them through the first Passover time and God's provision and protection.

[1:43] Led them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea. Led them across that water. Led them to the water in the desert. Led them to the quail and the food, the manna in the desert.

[1:56] Moses led them to Mount Sinai and to the law of God. And now Moses' commission was to bring them over the Jordan. And, sorry, Moses' commission was to bring the Hebrews up to the Jordan.

[2:11] And Joshua's commission was to take them beyond the Jordan and establish them in the promised land, the land of Canaan. And 500 years before, God had told this promise to Abraham.

[2:26] Genesis 12, verse 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there built Abram, who became Abraham, an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him.

[2:45] Unto thy seed will I give this land. It was a promise from God. And Joshua helped to bring that to fulfilment.

[2:56] Every one of us, yeah, every one of you, every one of us has a work to do for God. He prepares us for that work that he has for us.

[3:07] I know someone this morning was talking about the spiritual gift questionnaire and how it had given them an impression of how they may feel led to serve God.

[3:21] And we all have different inclinations, different callings, different abilities. But sure enough, all of us have something we can do for God. A work that we can do. So we're going to journey with Joshua.

[3:34] Who was Joshua? Joshua was a firstborn. He was born into Egypt. And he grew up as a slave. So Joshua is, I'm told, the first person in the Bible to explicitly be given a name that incorporates God's holy personal name Yahweh.

[3:56] Joshua. Joshua. What? Yahshua. The name Joshua, it means salvation. It means God saves. Joshua means God saves.

[4:08] We see that in his life as we'll get to that. Joshua had his life in danger in those early years because he was a firstborn.

[4:20] And on that night of the Passover, his family by faith had applied the blood to the doorpost and he was saved. Joshua was saved.

[4:31] Joshua was a man filled with the Spirit of God. We see that in Numbers 27 verse 18. He was saved. He was saved. And the Lord said unto Moses, take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hand upon him.

[4:49] Joshua, a man in whom is the Spirit. He had been chosen long before. Long before the Jordan. And Joshua had been long preparing as a minister to Moses.

[5:04] As Moses' servant. He served alongside Moses. And he'd received 40 years of training. Wow. That's a long time preparing, isn't it?

[5:15] 40 years. Joshua had been one who'd gone up the mountain with Moses when they received the Ten Commandments. Joshua had been right by Moses at the tent of meeting as Moses met with God.

[5:29] Joshua had held up Moses' arms at the Battle of Rephidim. And God brought a mighty victory there. Joshua and Caleb, these two, had gone to stay out of the land.

[5:41] And these two brought back a report of faith. Of victory. Of certainty. Of trusting in God's promises. While the other ten spies brought back a report of unbelief.

[5:54] So Joshua stood out along Caleb at that time. Now we see Moses is dead. Moses is dead. And Joshua is about to take on the role of the new leader.

[6:09] Now Joshua, at this time, some reckon he was at least 60 years old. So some of you would qualify. You're around that age, 60.

[6:20] Maybe even, some say, maybe he was 80 odd years old. So nobody, there's no retirement plan in the kingdom of God.

[6:31] You know, he was maybe 80 odd years old, nearly 90. But he was about to see. When God called him to rise up and go over into the new land. God commissioned him.

[6:42] He called him. Set him apart. He gave him keys for victory in the fight that lay ahead for him. And we can know too and apply these same truths, this same formula, if you like.

[6:55] As much as some say formulas for success, I could write a best selling book like that, couldn't I? But this is what the Bible says is a formula for the successful Christian life.

[7:06] You know, this is scriptural stuff that we try to hone it down to some key scriptural principles. And so there lay many challenges ahead beyond the Jordan. The main road leading through the land of Canaan was guarded by the fortress city of Jericho.

[7:23] A supposedly impregnable fortress city of Jericho. And people have reckoned that the campaign to conquer Canaan took about seven years.

[7:35] Seven years. Seven years. And there were seven nations living in Canaan into this land that they were about to enter. Seven nations, all of them larger and stronger than Israel.

[7:48] So they were up against it. It was going to be seven nations to conquer. Seven long years of hard slog. And by all human standards, it looked like Joshua's future was an uphill battle.

[8:04] What does the Lord tell Joshua at this time? Be strong and courageous. Amen. Ahead of you lies a land filled with milk and honey.

[8:16] Flowing with milk and honey, a land that is rich and fertile. You know, it took two blokes to carry the grapes between them. A fertile, fruitful land.

[8:29] A land of blessing. And these verses we'll look at, show us how we too can know spiritual success in our own lives. A life of victory.

[8:40] Notice it takes courage. Courage. And God wants to fill you. To fill me with courage. With courage. Courage.

[8:51] Courage has been defined as doing what you know is right when it needs to be done, regardless of the level of difficulty involved.

[9:07] That's courage. Many definitions. But we can see courage. Courage in the time of battle. When someone's backs up against the wall. When it seems like the odds are against you.

[9:18] When the pressure is on and the flaming arrows are being shot at you. When the pain is intense. And when the attack is happening. That's when courage comes to the fore.

[9:31] We see courage in David's time in the valley of Elah. With his sling as he goes and runs towards the giant. We see courage when Moses stands eye to eye.

[9:43] Face to face with Pharaoh. We see courage at Elijah's time on Mount Carmel. With the prophets of Baal. And it looked like it was hopeless for him. Courage.

[9:54] Courage can only be seen in the midst of conflict and struggle. I like this definition. This is a really good definition I found. Courage is knowing that you are indestructible until God's work is done in and through you.

[10:11] Amen. You are indestructible until God has done his work in and through you. So have courage. Have courage today.

[10:22] So Joshua gets the divine marching orders if you like from Joshua chapter 1 from verse 1 through 9. And there's more in the context. You could go further. But looking from verse 1.

[10:33] Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord. It came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead.

[10:48] Now therefore go, arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

[10:59] Moses my servant is dead. Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan. It was a time that called for courage. They faced overwhelming odds into this uncertain place with certain giants that had been spotted.

[11:16] Moses was dead. Moses was dead. He didn't enter into the promised land because he had disobeyed God. It was a sobering context here. In that Moses had acted in unbelief.

[11:27] He got disqualified from entering the promised land. Moses my servant is dead. It was a time of grief. It says in Deuteronomy 34 that Israel mourned for Moses 30 days.

[11:41] A time of an outpouring of grief. What a loss to lose the man of God, Moses. Perhaps there was a sense of panic after 40 years of his leadership.

[11:53] What's ahead for us? What does this mean for us? There's giants in the land that lies ahead for us. It takes courage to face what lies ahead. Courage in your life, in mine.

[12:05] For whatever lies ahead for us in our futures. But we must press towards the mark. Let go of that. And press towards the mark. Press towards the mark. For the prize of the high calling of God.

[12:17] Sometimes the past can hold us back. And drag us down. Or distract us. One man said this. No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again today.

[12:29] Amen. And today was Joshua's day. Amen. It is time now for Joshua to take command. And here we see God's call and what? God urges Joshua to.

[12:40] To leadership and to courage. Joshua was to step into the sandals of Moses. Who God calls my servant. These were big sandals to fill, you could say. It was a hard act to follow. As we know how wonderfully God used Moses through his time.

[13:01] Joshua was taking on this brand new heavy responsibility. And he was now to be the one to lead the children of Israel.

[13:16] And what a dramatic thing it would have been for him. Imagine, you know, there's times when I've had just a little team. And then my next job was hundreds of people. You know, there's times when you go from a little responsibility to a massive responsibility.

[13:32] And that was the case with Joshua here. Here were 600,000 fighting men. 600,000 fighting men. Wow. 600,000 fighting men. Plus their families.

[13:43] Probably, some reckon, 2 million or more people. Yep. This was no small outfit. 2 million or more people. And at times we know the children of Israel, were they an easy going sort of easy bunch to work with?

[13:58] No. No, they weren't. You know, there's times when it says they're all murmuring and complaining. They were faithless. They were wandering. They were disbelieving. Moaning. Complaining.

[14:09] Whinging. You know, maybe there were a load of whinging poms. No, I should discriminate against pommies. But no, there were a load of whingers. A load of complainers. And here's Joshua given this responsibility.

[14:21] 600,000 fighting men. Maybe a people of 2 million or more. And the Lord tells Joshua, Arise! He says, get these people ready for battle.

[14:33] He tells Joshua, get ready to cross this Jordan. And in chapter 3, it tells us that the Jordan River was now in a flood stage. So it was about 100 foot wide.

[14:46] The river had swollen and it made it virtually impossible to cross. And God is saying, get out of the desert and move on into Canaan. Now, spiritually speaking, we could see how sometimes we get stuck in the desert, as it were.

[15:01] But God wants us to enter a more fruitful stage. A more fruitful Christian life. God wants us to be fruitful as Christians, as it were. You could picture it. Leaving that wilderness time, that wandering time, and entering into that fruitful time.

[15:17] God wants his people, you and me, to bear fruit for his glory. So, Joshua, it's time to get out of the land that you're in, and to go and possess the land. The promised land. Canaan.

[15:28] It's a picture of the victorious Christian life. There's many pictures you could paint of what it means spiritually in a tight kind of way. We have need of courage. Entering in means crossing that Jordan.

[15:40] It means taking some, going through some tests, some difficulty to get through. And we have need of courage through the trials of life, the testing, the troubles, the challenges we face.

[15:53] God is saying to us, get ready to enter into new spiritual territory, if you like. Get ready, he says, for victory, if you like. Get ready, he says, for victory.

[16:04] This is the kind of picture of it. And friends, today, God's will for the believer is not just to be stuck in the wilderness, but to enter into Canaan.

[16:17] Into that place of victory, that place of deliverance and conquest. And Joshua is told, it's for you and all these people. It wasn't just Joshua, it's for all these people.

[16:28] Now, someone has noted that though God gave Israel 300,000 square miles, they only claimed 30,000 square miles. That's interesting, isn't it?

[16:39] God promised them 300,000 square miles, but in reality they only claimed about 10%. 30,000 square miles of it. Why?

[16:50] Someone said it's because of their cowardice, laziness and disobedience to God. Now, what a shame. The potential wasn't realised. And that's the case in many Christian lives today.

[17:02] We don't realise our full potential. We need courage to enter in and to do God's will for our life. Courage, brothers and sisters, courage to stand strong with God as individuals, as families, as a church.

[17:16] Courage, to confront the culture that we're living in. To live godly in Christ Jesus. To speak the truth of God's word in love. Courage, to rise up and use your callings and abilities for God's glory.

[17:35] And take your spiritual life seriously. So what were the keys? I'll put it to you, three keys that we'll look at of courage. Three aspects that we see featured in why Joshua had courage.

[17:54] Why Joshua had courage. Joshua had courage because of God's promises. God's promises. We saw that it was Abraham's promise and then Moses took it on and then Joshua came to fulfil that promised land.

[18:12] God's promises. God gave Joshua a call, a commission. And we too can have courage to pursue God's plan. We've all got an assignment.

[18:24] I can't do what you can do. You can't do what I can do. We all can do different parts and different things. We all have different ways we can serve God with one another together and individually.

[18:40] We've all got an assignment. And so Joshua had courage because of God's promises. We see that in verse 3. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.

[18:58] As I said unto Moses. Verse 4. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.

[19:16] Here we see God calls Joshua and he gives him a set mission. He gave him an assignment, a difficult assignment, and the power to fulfil it. So Joshua was given this assignment, his marching orders if you like.

[19:29] It was a tough assignment. It called for courage. Amen. And his job was to step out and to trust God. To obey God. What is God showing you to do?

[19:42] Step out. Search God. Search the word. Search his will for yourself. Search it out and find it. What is God impressing you? How is God impressing you?

[19:53] I know a sister this morning was saying how God was impressing her in a particular way. What is God showing us to do? What is his call? It's different for each one of us. His mission for you.

[20:04] Find that mission. Find that mission. Even as we think of this, we think of the courage that it takes to step out into the unknown. As Joshua did. Courage to fulfil God's call on our life.

[20:18] And it happens, courage happens when the tough get going. When the going gets tough. There was a pastor, Lee Robertson from the US.

[20:29] He's been a pastor for 40 plus years. And in his closing days of his ministry, there was a time where there was a get together with some other ministers and they were asking questions and workshopping things.

[20:45] And one man asked Dr. Robertson and they said this, this question. Dr. Robertson, what would you say has contributed the most to your ministry?

[20:57] What has made you the man of God that you are today? What's contributed the most? What's made you the man of God that you are today? And without hesitation, Dr. Robertson's lips began to quiver.

[21:11] Tears filled his eyes. And he said the answer to your question is troubles. He talked about the trials he had been through.

[21:26] The death of his daughter, Joy. And the sorrows he had been through. He went on to say everything worthwhile in my life was born through troubles. Isn't that the case sometimes?

[21:39] I know I've heard a businessman say that they're through such a testing time and they look back how it was a victory in their life. In reflection now that battle is now a victory.

[21:50] They can put the stake in the ground there. They can put that memorial stone that says what God have wrought, what God has done. And the heartbeat of this pastor's message was summed up in what he called his life verse, Romans 8, 28.

[22:05] And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God. To them who are the court according to his purpose. It doesn't matter what you have to overcome.

[22:17] Sometimes those greatest battles will be your greatest victories in reflection. And you can go forward with God with courage and fulfill your God given assignment.

[22:28] Because of God's promises he will see you through. So we see Joshua had courage because of God's promises. And we still have promises here.

[22:39] They are yay and amen, aren't they? They are absolute yay and amen. Guaranteed. Exceeding great and precious promises. Exceeding great and precious promises.

[22:51] You can have courage because of God's promises. Secondly Joshua had courage because of God's presence. He had courage because of God's presence. We see in verse 5. Therefore shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

[23:12] I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. It's very personal, isn't it? I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Here was another promise from God. There shall not any man stand before thee.

[23:25] While this land was theirs for the taking, the promised land, promised by God, it would not be taken without conflict or battle. They were up against many giants.

[23:36] And we too can expect conflict and adversity. There are giants in the land. There are giants in this land of Australia. There are giants. What kind of giants do you face?

[23:48] Maybe it's the giant of discouragement. Maybe it's the giant of fatigue. The giant of fear. The giant of opposition. Many giants in the land.

[23:59] And just as the land of Canaan was full of fortified cities and committed enemies that needed to be driven out, so too the Christian life can be full of conflict with the enemies of God, which must be overcome.

[24:13] But we have God's promises. But we have God's promises. Amen. And they are yea and? Amen. We have God's promise and we have God's presence. He says to you, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee.

[24:26] Here was the promise of continued deliverance. In battle after battle that they would see through the days ahead. God's presence was with Joshua and with the people of God.

[24:38] And it is with us. Have courage. Have courage in that. Fear not. Isaiah 43. It's a lovely familiar verse that our Lord promises to us. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel.

[24:56] Fear not for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.

[25:08] And through the rivers thou shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

[25:20] God plus one is a majority. Romans 8.31 What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

[25:33] Amen. We see here an assurance again of God's presence. I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. It's a like to the scripture in Hebrews 13.5.

[25:44] Let your conversation be without covetousness. And be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. We have reason for boldness today.

[25:57] Reason for courage. Joshua had courage because of God's promise and because of God's presence. And thirdly we see Joshua had courage because of God's power.

[26:08] God's power. The Lord told Joshua, be strong, go over this Jordan and stick with it. That's the Andrew Craig version. We have need of perseverance.

[26:19] He says, go through this Jordan. Go over this Jordan. Our strength is found in God's power. Isn't it? That's where we can be strong. He says, be strong. Verse six.

[26:30] And of good courage. For unto this people shall they divide and inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. He repeated this three times. Be strong and of a good courage.

[26:42] Three times. That means we should take it in, doesn't it? And God repeats something. God calls us to serve. He calls us to obey. And he strengthens us for the task.

[26:53] And the leadership of our church today, of the church Australia wide, nation wide, global wide, needs this same spirit, doesn't it? The spirit of Joshua, the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, these same qualities.

[27:10] I like this quote that I read about this aspect. It says, leadership is strengthened by acts of obedience. It's a verb, not a position. You'll know you're flying over the right target when you're being shot at.

[27:23] Amen. That makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah. You know you're flying over the right target, you know these bombers, when the anti-Akak, you know the flanks coming.

[27:35] Yeah. You know you're over the right target when you're being shot at. And it goes on, if you're running because of opposition, you'll be running for the rest of your life. So when opposition comes, don't buckle in.

[27:50] Just buckle your seat back. Enjoy the ride. You know, expect to get some flag. Expect to get shot at. Expect to suffer attacks and difficulty.

[28:02] You know, I know we've talked about people becoming new Christians and the sort of things you say to them, is you tell them you've got an enemy now. You've got a committed enemy now. And he's working harder than you probably will too.

[28:13] You know, he's sober, he's vigilant, he's always on the lookout to find some chink in your armour. And you have an enemy. He's committed against you. So expect some attacks. And don't let that put you off.

[28:24] But rather let it make you dig deeper. Do not despair. Have courage. Trust in God's power. That is what enables you to do God's will. So it calls for perseverance this battle that Joshua faces.

[28:39] And he says, our Lord says to Joshua, have courage. Be strong. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his strength, he says, doesn't it?

[28:51] We're enabled by God's power. Our enablement comes from our Lord and his power. Verse 7 again. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law.

[29:08] Which Moses, my servant, commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper with us so ever thou goest. He says, don't deviate. Don't go off to the right or to the left.

[29:21] Go straight ahead. Do what God says, in effect. So the command is repeated here. Now in the heat of battle, sometimes it's easy to forget the orders from headquarters.

[29:36] That's what can happen. And so God underlines it. He puts it in bolt type. He reinforces it. He repeats it. And he says, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left.

[29:50] Now Satan must to sidetrack people. To sidetrack Christians. To sidetrack churches. To go off down rabbit holes. To send us on detours. To get us off track of the main game.

[30:01] And we can all make that mistake. Again, detoured from God's will. Stay the path. Stay the path. Do not compromise. Be faithful. Keep on track. God's power is your strength.

[30:13] And he gives us the word of his power and the power of his word. In verse 8, it says, this book of the law. Shall not depart out of thy mouth. But thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

[30:25] That thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein. For then shall thou make thy way prosperous. And then shall thou have good success. There's an anchor for us in the word of God.

[30:37] It holds us strong. It founds us. It grounds us. Our faith and courage can spring from the promises of the word. It's our food. It's our drink. It's our sustenance. It's our life source.

[30:48] And Joshua was told. He says, proclaim the word. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Amen. So there's a sense that we want to confess the word. Confess the word.

[30:59] Confess the word. You know, I know there's some that go a bit overboard on some of this confession stuff. But there is the truth that we should confess the word of God. Confess the word.

[31:11] Confess the promises of God. Claim the promises of God. Confess the word. Confess the word. Let the word not depart out of thy mouth. Make a point of saying scriptures to yourself, to your family.

[31:24] Amen. To your people around. Confess the word. There's power in the word. Proclaim the word. That's what Joshua was told. And then he was told not only to proclaim the word, not depart out of thy mouth, but to meditate in it.

[31:40] So it's got the sense of there's a meditating. There's a chewing it over. There's a soaking up the scripture. There's an immersing yourself in the scripture.

[31:51] A saturating yourself with the scripture. And I know I've said this before, and I'll be glad to send such help to people. That there's a good number of different kind of lists of scriptures you can memorize.

[32:04] Amen. And I'll be glad to send that to anyone that would like that. And there's some hundred plus, probably 300 plus scriptures. There's certain ones that are very, very good for you to memorize and to hide it in your heart.

[32:17] So then you can meditate on the word. And what did Joshua do? He was told to meditate therein day and night. Make it a practice. Make it a habit to soak yourself in the scriptures.

[32:30] And it will comfort your heart. It will purify your heart. We know the scriptures bring us direction. The psalmist cried, Oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day.

[32:41] I love thy law. It's my meditation all the day. Meditating on the word can strengthen you with that power of God. The power of God is in his word. The power of his word is the word of his power.

[32:54] It's God's word. It's something we can get nourishment from and sustenance from and fruitfulness from. And meditation is when the word moves from your head to your heart.

[33:05] You know, you can confess it with your mouth. You believe it in your heart. And meditating is where the word moves from your head, where you know the chapter and verse and the...

[33:16] You might have memorized it, but meditating on it is when it's in your heart. It becomes part of you. And you live it and breathe it. And so Joshua was told to proclaim it, to meditate on it, and thirdly, to do it.

[33:30] To do it. That they mayest observe to do all that is written therein. That they mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

[33:41] How do we desperately need the application of the Bible? As James said, Don't be just hearers only, but doers of the word. Now the message this morning was particularly a call to action.

[33:54] Put it into action. D.L. Moody said this. He said, The Bible was not written for your information, but for your transformation. That's what this book is for.

[34:06] It's for our transformation. Honor the word. Be activated. Put it into action. Put it into practice. And you know, how you apply the word is for you.

[34:18] It's the gospel according to you, if you like. Now as you apply the principles of the scripture, down at your workplace, your school place, wherever you go about place, wherever you live, that you apply the word.

[34:34] Do the word. Find some promises you can hang on to. Take hold of these scriptures, and I'll be glad to share them with you, that you can learn and speak to yourself.

[34:45] Confess them to yourself, and confess them to others. So the word of God is intrinsically powerful, and it's able to produce a godly change. Not really for our information, but our transformation.

[34:59] To motivate, to change us, to encourage us, to give us hope and direction. John 8, 31, we see that the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

[35:14] If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. Then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

[35:27] You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Notice there it says, continue in my word. There's a sense of abiding in it. Spend time in it.

[35:38] Dwell in it. Take it deeply into your life. And so we see that Joshua was told, Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage.

[35:51] Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. He's underlining it again. Our Lord to Joshua. He says, Be strong and courageous. It's given three times in the first chapter.

[36:03] Be not dismayed, he says. Don't be discouraged. You know, it's par for the course. Discouragement. How many Christians do we know, they get a bit of discouragement, and they just, it falls over for them.

[36:20] Don't be discouraged. When discouragement happens, press in to God. Press in to God. Do not be dismayed.

[36:32] Do not be discouraged. Joshua had every reason to be discouraged. For forty years he'd heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. They complained about the daily manna.

[36:44] God's miraculous provision. They complained about it. They complained about the quail. They complained about not having enough water. They complained about not having enough meat.

[36:55] But Joshua needed all the reassurance that he could get. Do not be dismayed. Do not be discouraged. And brothers, sisters, we all have times when, wow, it's just overwhelming, isn't it?

[37:08] Don't you feel that sometimes? I'm sure there's times, all of us have had such times. At one time or another. You might have had one in your life. You might have had lots of them.

[37:19] But you know, we can easily get dismayed. We can get discouraged. And you know, the world would give us pills or whatever it be to try to make us feel better.

[37:30] Or some other happy pill. Whatever it be. But don't be dismayed. Don't be discouraged. We see, chapter one, we see the people received the word.

[37:44] And Joshua 1, 16, we see what the people answered. They said, all that thou commandest us, we will do. And with us, whoever thou sendest us, we will go.

[37:57] Amen. Isn't that wonderful? They say to Joshua, all that you tell us, we will do. Wherever you send us, we will go. And wouldn't it be good to have that spirit that we want to obey God's word?

[38:13] If God says something, we want to obey it. We want to do it. Gladly. And Joshua was to be the commander of God's people in a military sense. But he himself was to be subject to God's command.

[38:25] But really, it was a spiritual calling, wasn't it? Not so much a business or military position as such. But at the close of his life, Joshua could say this.

[38:36] In Joshua 23, 14. And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. He said, my time's up. I'm going to go the way of all flesh, of all the earth.

[38:48] And ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you.

[38:59] All are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Now Joshua didn't claim any credit. He said, God's done it. Not one thing has failed of all the good things that God has said would happen concerning you.

[39:14] And wouldn't that be wonderful to, in those closing chapters of our lives, that we can look back and say what God has done. What God has done.

[39:25] It's going to take courage for you to claim those promises. It's going to take courage from you in this hour, in these days that we live. It's going to take courage at this time.

[39:38] And we'll look back and see those battles. We'll see those victories. We'll see how God has provided. We have need of courage for this hour, for this hour. To claim that victory.

[39:49] As we trust Him, as we follow Him, as we trust and obey. 2 Timothy 1, 7 it says, For God hath not given unto us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

[40:02] What a blessing. God hasn't given you that spirit to be fearful, afraid, dismayed. Do not be afraid. Father, be strong and of a good courage.

[40:14] Be strong and of a good courage. Be strong and of a good courage. It's time to take the land. It's time to cross the Jordan. It's time to step out in faith. It's time for each one of us.

[40:26] How can I be more freeful in my Christian life? These days call for courage. Courage for the battle that lies ahead. And we can know the courage and the reasons for courage that Joshua had.

[40:38] Joshua had reason for courage because he had the promises of God. Joshua had courage because of God's promises. We can have courage like Joshua had because Joshua had God's presence.

[40:54] He says, I will never leave thee nor forsake them. We can have courage because God is with us wherever we go. With us however thou goest. He's absolutely everywhere you're going to go. God's going to be there already.

[41:06] And we can have courage today because of God's power. God's power. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. He will make you strong for those battles ahead.

[41:19] And the battles are his at the end of the day. Let's be encouraged brothers and sisters. Let's have courage for the battle. Now this is, I don't want to leave this here. Just a theoretical sense of this here now.

[41:32] As a preacher I'd like to think that I'm going to give you something in your bag that you can take home with. And you can use Monday morning and through the week ahead.

[41:44] That this principle of courage is something that you can have. God says to you, be strong and of a good courage. He says that to us.

[41:55] He said it to Joshua and I believe we can apply what God said to Joshua to our lives too. And he said it three times. So be strong and of good courage this week ahead.

[42:08] Don't let discouragement deter you. Don't let the battles that you have to face bring you down. You're indestructible until God says it's time to go home.

[42:19]  Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.