So this evening at St. Columbus, we're beginning a new series
We're gonna be looking through the book of Joshua
So if you have a Bible with you and you want to follow along and please have it open at page
178 where we read from Joshua and chapter 1
Excuse me
But before we dig into the text of Joshua together
I wonder if anyone here this evening has heard of something called the Edelman trust barometer
I doubt it the Edelman trust barometer is it's a grand name
It's a survey that takes place every year and it's something that tracks levels of trust within the UK
And I'm a bit of a geek for stats and figures and surveys and stuff
So I think it's really cool, but very briefly. I want to just highlight something that the Edelman trust barometer
Found it's found that year on year trust in the UK is declining
As a people we are apparently becoming more and more cynical and more and more mistrustful of others
According to the survey trust in politicians came in at 36%
Trust in social media and news outlets and all sorts of things like that came in even lower
And the point of the survey basically was that trust across the UK is falling and we know that I think I think it's hard
In the political climate we live in to trust what people say
Maybe we know in our own personal lives. We find it hard to trust people. Maybe we've experienced
the the
the damaging effects of a broken promise or a lack of trust in a
relationship or within our family or amongst friends the
Book of Joshua presents us with someone who is absolutely worthy of our trust
One of the key points in the whole book of Joshua is that God is
Absolutely trustworthy God is someone who always keeps his promises
God is someone you can take at his word
In chapter 21 towards the end of the book spoiler alert jumping head to the end
For verse 45 says this not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed
Everyone was fulfilled
And this is a theme we're going to come back to time and time again in this series is that God is a God who makes promises and
keeps promises
God does not lie. There is no fake news with God. God has no hidden agenda
God has no ulterior motives
God does not deceive us and God cannot disappoint us like the people around us can
Maybe you're here this evening and you find it. It's hard to trust God
Maybe you're here this evening and you've trusted God's your entire life
Or maybe you're here and at one point in your life you trusted God, but you found yourself grown distant and far away
Well, wherever we're at this evening. I think we all need to be reminded of God's faithfulness of
God's trustworthiness of
God as who he is a person we can trust with our lives
Now this evening really what we want to do is just just give an introduction to the series and we set the scene for
Joshua and what's going on in the book of Joshua
It might be a book of the Bible that you know well
You might know all the stories within it. It might be a book you don't know at all
But hopefully together as we dig deep into Joshua
We'll see more about who God is as the great promise keeper who we are as his people in response
And how Joshua as God's chosen leader points us to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ
So what is Joshua all about? Why is it included in our Bibles?
How is it relevant to our lives today as Christians?
How do we read parts of the Old Testament like Joshua that at some level seem quite distant and detached from our experience in the 21st century?
I think a good starting point is to know that God is the main character
God is the main character in Joshua
Now we might be tempted when we come to a book like this to think that Joshua
Surely would be the main character in a book called Joshua
If I told you that Harry Potter was not the main character in Harry Potter
Or that John Wick was not the main character in John Wick or that Matilda was not the main character in Matilda
You probably think I was crazy
So we come to a book called Joshua and we have to think surely it's all about Joshua
But I think our starting point has to be that Joshua is a book all about God
And what we're going to do in this series over the next few weeks is look at different aspects of what the story of Joshua teaches us about God
Different aspects of God's character who he is and what God has done
And I think that way of looking at the Old Testament is really helpful for us because sometimes we open our Bibles
And we go to a book in the Old Testament and our first thought is where am I in this?
What does this say to me in my experience today?
But I think if we read our Bibles first and foremost with the understanding that God is the main character
The first question we have to ask is what does this tell me about God?
What does Joshua tell us about who God is what God has done and how does that point forward to the climax of his plans in Jesus?
Christ and from there. How does that speak to us as Christians?
So let's look this evening just briefly at the opening verses of Joshua the first scene chapter 1 verse 1
And there's two points I want to raise this evening as we look at Joshua together
First of all that God promises his people a new home
God promises his people a new home and then secondly God equips his people to get there
So God brings us home
So first point God promises his people a new home read again from verse 1
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua son of none
Moses my servant is dead now therefore go over this Jordan you and all this people into the land
I'm giving you to the people of Israel every place the soul of your feet will tread upon
I have given to you just as I promised to Moses
From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites to the great sea
Toward the going down to the sun going down to the sun shall be your territory
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life
Just as I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will not leave you
I will not forsake you be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land
I swore to their fathers to give them
So right at the start of Joshua the very first scene we find God's people right on the verge of entering the promised land
And I think for us to understand what's going to happen in this book
It's helpful for us to to reflect very briefly on the story so far
If you go right the way back to the start of the Bible in Genesis
We're told how God's created a good world a world free from evil and sin and suffering and pain and death
He's created a world for human beings to enjoy a relationship with him and with each other and
Then in Genesis C we read about the fall where human beings
Mess things up and that perfect world is tainted and distorted by sin
And the rest of the book then and the rest of the Bible really is God's amazing plan to rescue and to redeem and to restore
what was lost
And a really important part in Genesis is in chapter 12 where God goes to a man called Abraham
And chooses him and says to him. I'm going to make some amazing promises to you
He promises to give him a place to live
He promises Abraham there'll be a people to live there and he promises a blessing and relationship with God to enjoy
And the important part for us as we study Joshua is to have that first promise in mind a place to live
God has promised a people a place to live
So this is the key thing as we as we go into Joshua together the promise of a home for God's people
And I wonder this evening for you what the word home and what kind of memories or thoughts that conjures up
I think the word home can be quite a comforting word at times
I've just spent a few days at home up north near Inverness and every time I go up 39
I begin to get this sense of home where I can see the Kessok bridge
I can see the Kessok bridge and I know I'm almost home
And home can bring up wonderful memories memories of family and friends and loved ones. Maybe it's a place a geographical place that you're attached to
And home can be a comforting thought
But God's people here have spent so long homeless
They've been in slavery in Egypt
Then God brings them up out of Egypt and takes them towards this new home. He's promised them
And then everything went wrong just as they were about to enter the land
Towards the end of the last book they they doubt that God can do what he said
They doubt that God can actually take them into this land
And so that generation spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness
But now as we go into Joshua together, we're almost there
That goes 40 years up. Moses has passed away. Joshua is the new leader. He's been commissioned. It's a new generation and God says
We're going into the land
And if we take a step back from Joshua itself, we see that the promise of a home for God's people is throughout scripture
Excuse me
For God's people in Joshua, it's primarily about the land of Canaan. It's a geographical land
But as that promise is developed as God's redemptive purposes
Unfold in the Bible
That hope develops and for us today the hope of a home of a land for God's people
Comes to a climax in the New Testament
Jesus says in John chapter 14
My father's house has many rooms if that were not so would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am
Revelation speaks of that hope as a new heavens and a new earth a place where God will dwell with his people forever
And verse 4 of chapter 21 says he will wipe away every tear from our eyes
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain
First Peter picks up on that the language of promise when he speaks about this as an an inheritance that's been kept for us
An inheritance that's kept in heaven for us
I imagine that none of us here this evening will have to wander around in a desert for 40 years
But we all have to face up to the reality of of death
Death is a sobering reality for every single human being
There's a there's a finality to death that we all have to face up to
And if if if we're here this evening and we're not a believer in Jesus we have to think about well, where where are we going?
After all the busyness and the chaos of life. What is at the end for us?
As Christians we know that we can focus in on this absolute certainty of God's promise
The promise of a home for his people
The sad case for many people in our country today is that that grief is something to be faced without hope
We retry and face it with sentimentality or pragmatism or a stiff upper lip
But death is an enemy to which there is no answer
The Bible tells us that Christians can grieve differently
We grieve as those who have hope
First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13 Paul says brothers and sisters
We do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of humanity who have no hope
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him
God promises us a new home
A home with him in eternity
Secondly the second thing we see in Joshua is that God equips his people to get there
We see that in Joshua chapter 1 in two ways. First of all God equips his people with his presence
Read verse 5
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life
Just as I was with Moses so I will be with you
I will not leave you nor will I forsake you
Now in the first instance these are words that are spoken to Joshua as an individual
Here in chapter 1 Joshua is being commissioned
for the huge task of leading God's people
He's been given this responsibility of taking them over the Jordan into the land to battle with their enemies
and to claim the land as their own
So this promise God has given is primarily to Joshua to strengthen him and to encourage him for what lies ahead
But at the same time in the gospel God speaks these words to us
It's a promise to us
Hebrews chapter 13 picks up on these verses. It says God has said this never will I leave you never will I forsake you
So we say with confidence the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid
What can mere mortals do to me?
You see the presence of God in the Christian life is the greatest source of strength and courage
In our Christian lives we have to face all manner of difficulty and opposition
It might not be an army like in Joshua, but we all have to face grief and pain
and anxiety and stress and the burdens and responsibilities and pressures of our lives
So the presence of God is an enormous source of strength and courage
You see the reality is that the journey is hard
That's true for God's people in Joshua and it's true for us today
Chapter one alone God says to his people four times be strong and courageous be strong and courageous
The implication clearly is that their journey is going to be difficult
There will be hurdles and challenges and opposition and enemies
So God says be strong and courageous because I am with you
And this is a consistent promise throughout scripture
That God promises to be with you
To be with his people
I think for many people the review of Christianity is one of a God who is cold and distant
and detached and far away and removed from all of our pressures and burdens of life
But God promises to be with his people
It's helpful as well I think to look at the language in
Chapter one of Joshua verse two God speaks about the land. He says he wants to be with his people
And verse two God speaks about the land. He says here that I am giving to them
And in the very next verse in verse three God says every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon I have given to you
Do you notice the grammar there? The tenses change
There's an element of now and not yet
It's almost as if they've been given the title deeds to the land but they've yet to take up residency
And I think in much the same way for us as Christians
You know, we know that our citizenship is elsewhere Paul says in Philippians chapter three our citizenship is in heaven
But at the same time we are exiles. We are strangers. We are
sojourners here in this life
The Bible often puts the Christian life into the language of a journey. It says we are travelers. We're pilgrims
When me and my brothers were growing up and we would go away on family holidays mum and dad would often drive
I admire them for that because we were not well behaved
And we would so often be impatient. We would so often be asking are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
How much longer?
We've probably just left the house at that point
Um, but we can all resonate with with with that and we can feel sometimes that this journey of life is hard
It's long. It's arduous
So often we're battling with discouragement and doubt and despair and grief
and fear and tiredness
Sometimes we want to say to God are we there yet? How much longer?
See as believers in Jesus Christ the journey can be hard, but God promises to be with us
Why can we be strong and courageous in the face of all of that kind of challenge because God is with us?
Verse nine goes on to repeat this be strong and courageous
Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go
So God equips his people for the journey with his presence
Secondly God equips his people with his word look at verse seven
He says being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded to you
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go
The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth
But you shall meditate on it day and night
Excuse me 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
In other words God has given his word his book of the law his word the Bible to his people
So they may know how to live in response to what he has done
You see another great hurdle for God's people on this journey
Both in joshua's timing in our own lives is not just the suffering and the difficulties we face
But it's temptation
It's the constant danger of being drawn away
Of being distracted of being
Going off the path
And so God equips his people not only with his presence, but with his word
Sometimes we have to find ourselves in our lives at a point where all we can do is go to God's word
All we can do is latch on to his promises
We can come to a God who is faithful even when our faith is at its weakest
A God who is constant
A God who does not change
The Bible is full of God's promises
He promises to give us wisdom if we ask in James chapter 1
He promises to provide us a way out of temptation
1 Corinthians 10
He promises us that our salvation is secure no matter what
He promises never to leave us nor forsake us
He promises to finish the good work that he has begun in you
And lastly he promises to return
So as God equips his people for the journey
He gives us these promises in his word
So over a Christian here this evening whatever is happening in our lives
Whatever difficulties we're facing we know that God is with us
That is the reality
However dark and bleak your life might seem
However hopeless your situation might feel
You have the most amazing promises in God's word
Promises you can hold to and cling to in the storms of life
In a little while we're going to sing a final song
And I thought it would be good just to think about some of the words that we're going to sing
And just to reflect on them before we sing them
The last verse of the song Christ is Mine Forevermore
Goes like this
It says minor days here as a stranger
Pilgrim on a night
Pilgrim on a narrow way
One with Christ I will encounter
Harmon hatred for his name
But mine is armor for this battle
Strong enough to last the war
And he has said he will deliver safely to the golden shore
And I think that really captures so much of the Christian life
It reminds us that you don't have to be a hero
You don't have to be a heroine
It's interesting that in the Bible
Even the name Joshua
The Greek for Joshua is Jesus
The Lord saves
Means that we don't have to be the hero
All we have to do is trust in the hero
The hero that God has provided for us
And that he will do as he has promised
And you see that has huge implications for our life today as Christians
Because what we look forward to in the future
What we believe about the future
Has a huge impact on life in the present
And that's true for everyone
Whether you're a Christian here this evening or not
What you believe about the future
Or what you'd read about the future
Has an impact on the present
And there's an example you've probably heard before
Here in St. Columbus
Imagine that you give two people the exact same job to do for a week
Maybe it's something boring on Monday and like stacking chairs
You tell the first person who's doing this job
That at the end of it they're going to receive 10 million pounds
It's incredible
You tell the second person they might receive something
And the answer is obvious
Of course they won't
The first person knows there's something amazing
Promised to them waiting at the end
The second person doesn't know
Maybe, maybe not
A promise about the future can radically impact life in the present
And as we put our faith and our hope and our trust
In what God promises us
Regarding our faith and our faith
And the answer is obvious
The first person knows there's something amazing
Promised to them waiting at the end
The second person doesn't know
Regarding our future
In doing that we are strengthened
And encouraged in our battles today
Our battles against sin and temptation
We are encouraged to live lives that reflect our trust in those promises
It's one of the unique things I think about Christianity
A lot of other religions and worldviews and philosophies
Are always really concentred on what if
Maybe I've done enough
Maybe I've been a good enough person
They're very much dependent on our performance
Have I done enough to secure a place in whatever afterlife is waiting for me
We trust that God has done it for us
And we trust in his promises
This is what Paul says in the New Testament
In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 20
He says, for no matter how many promises God has made
They are yes in Christ
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand for us
And you stand firm in Christ
He anointed us
He set his seal of ownership on us
And he put his spirit in our hearts
As a deposit guaranteeing what is to come
So the key point really that we're saying here
And the one we'll come back to again and again in this series
Is that God is faithful to his promises
You can take God at his word
The God who promises to give us a new home
And the God who equips us to get there
Be strong and courageous
Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed
For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go
Let's pray together
Lord our God, our loving Father
We come to you this evening as we worship you and as we praise you
And we want to thank you for the amazing promises you have given us in your word
We thank you that in Joshua we see a God who promises to take his people into the promised land
We thank you Lord God
That you are a God who is faithful and consistent
We thank you Lord that we can depend on you and trust in you
We thank you too Father that you've promised us that you will get us home
Father help us to trust in you more
Help us to lean on you
Help us to cling to you in the storms of our lives
Help us to know how loved we are
And help us Lord in the week to come to live for you
And to reflect our trust in you in all that we do
And help us to bring glory to you in Jesus' name
Amen