The Conquest
The Story - How the Bible Explains Everything March 8, 2026 Joshua 21:43-45 Notes
In today’s message entitled THE CONQUEST, we’ll be looking at the story of God’s people finally coming into possession of the Promised Land after 40 long years in the wilderness.
We live in a world of broken promises. We’ve been let down by leaders, friends, and even our own strength. When we look at the mess of our lives, or the mess in the Book of Joshua, we wonder: Where is God? Is He actually in control? Sometimes we feel like we’re stuck in a “wilderness” of waiting, wondering if we will ever truly “possess” what has God promised.
To understand how we can trust God today, we can look back at how He finished what He started with Israel. After years of wandering and warfare, Joshua stands at the end of his life and looks back at the “Big Story.” He doesn’t point to his own leadership; he points to God’s faithfulness.
In Joshua 21, Joshua concluded his summary of the conquest by triumphantly declaring that the Lord had faithfully fulfilled every covenant promise made to Israel.
Audio
All right. Good morning, church. It’s good to see all of you here this morning. And I'm glad you're here. I know you're awake, right?
It's not like you lost an hour's sleep last night. The first service. I had to get really enthusiastic in my preaching to try to keep everybody awake. Pray for me, that I still have energy to do it again.
But you've got to do your part, so keep those eyes and ears open. I'm praying for you, too. We have a lot of our women missing today. We have around 85 of our women on a women's retreat this weekend. Praise the Lord.
We're thankful for that and we'll be really thankful when they get back home. So I got up extra early this morning and tried to tidy up the house so my wife won't think I'm a slob while she was gone, you know. But I left a few things so she knows that I need her. So when she gets home, I left a few things. I probably put some things where they don't go and she'll feel good about that, too, you know, like, why'd you put these here?
I will say, honey, I can't do without you; I don't know where things go. So I'm sure that that's going to go well today, too. I'm looking forward to the ladies coming back in town and being encouraged. I've got a few things I want to mention to you that we're excited about. We are at that point where we're in a countdown.
We're four weeks out for Easter Sunday. And you might say, well, why are you doing a countdown about Easter Sunday? It's because people are more likely to attend church at Easter and Christmas than any other time of the year. And so it's an opportunity for you to invite people that are far from God, that you've been praying for, that they would be brought near. And Easter Sunday is one of those Sundays that they are more likely to attend.
We are praying that we have 20 first time guests at Rocky Mount Campus and 30 first time guests here. So let's all do our part. You bring your guest, you bring your “One;” that's what we're praying for. And we're trying to give you tools to help remind you to do that. You see in your seats that we have that network evangelism card, where it gives you five categories of people that you already know in different areas of your life.
It’s just a way to prompt your memory to think about who you are praying for; who you are asking to church. And at the end of the service, when we give a time of response for people to come forward, take communion and respond in other ways, we do have our “It's Time” container down front. We have cards down in front of that where we're saying it's time to see people come to Christ. We want to be strong, we want to be courageous, we want to do the work, we want to be fearless.
That's what we're saying. So come down front, write down one of the names or two that you're praying for that would come to know Jesus during this Easter season. And so that's a prompt in your seat. The cards are an expression of your prayer for someone. In a couple of weeks, the next couple of weeks, we're going to give you invitation cards, business-size cards that you can actually give out.
We've already been encouraging you to get one of our yard signs. We have those in the lobby as you walk out to your left. I've been saying this the last couple weeks that this is only for the brave. If you're among the brave, who'd be willing to stick this in your yard.
And now your neighbors will know you go to church. And so then you have to start acting like a Christian. No, I know that you already do, but it is a serious way where it makes it easy for you to have gospel conversations with your neighbors as you walk around your neighborhood praying for your neighbors. Get to know your neighbors. And it's a way to let them know that they're invited to church with us. And we're praying for this time.
It's a time of prayer. It's a time of preparation. It's a time for baptisms. We're having a baptism service on Easter Sunday. Can you think of a better time to get baptized?
If you're a new believer and you've never been baptized, you ought to sign up for that. What a great day to get baptized on Easter Sunday. We're encouraging all of these things; I want to give one more plug - our first Eastgater is this coming Friday night. Sign up on your card or tap the QR code in front of you on the chair. Sign up for Eastgater.
We're going to be there; I'll be there. We're going to provide a wonderful meal. Our staff will be there. We'll have several other members of our church there, just to tell you more about our church. If you've been checking out the church for a season, it's a wonderful opportunity to learn more.
Okay, well, that's enough in the way of announcements, let's dig into our message. Today we're in part six, going through a twelve-week journey through the entire Bible. We're calling this story, this series, “The Story: How The Bible Explains Everything” and we started in Genesis.
In a few weeks, we'll finish in the book of Revelation. And we're going through the major themes of the Bible. And what we're noticing is that the Bible, although it's made up of 66 books written by over 40 human authors over a period of about 1600 years, it's still only one book. That's why it's called the Bible, or in the Greek, the biblios. The word Bible just means the book.
It's one book, it's one story. And we're looking for Jesus on every page because we think when we look closely, we can find him there. Here's where we've been. We started in Genesis chapter one with the creation story. And we found out that God created a good world, a beautiful world, and that he created us in his own image.
But yet because of sin, man's image was warped and fell and God put them out of the garden. But yet God provides a way, even in that story, that he says that in the future a seed will come that he would crush Satan's head. And so we see even in chapter three of the book of Genesis that God was already promising a Savior. Then we get later in the book of Genesis to the catastrophe of the flood. But yet in the midst of that, because of man's sin, God still rescued a remnant through Noah by having him build an ark.
In the following week, we're still in Genesis. We talked about Abraham, whose name started out being Abram. We found out that God made a unilateral covenant with Abram. What I mean by unilateral is he decided that he would support both sides. He would support God's side, but he would also support mankind's side.
And so he put Abram in a deep sleep and walked the bloody path twice, saying that if I don't keep my word, may this happen to me. And if you don't keep your word, I am going to pay for that too. Which is what he did with Christ on the cross. Then we talked about a couple of weeks ago the crossing of the Red Sea and how God rescued the Israelites. This is the book of Exodus.
And how he rescued them from slavery in Egypt and crossed on dry land. And then last week we talked about how God himself gave a covenant with God's people. He saved them first. Grace precedes law. He gave them the commandments literally in the scripture.
We found that he said he gave them 10 words. He gave them the words. And the words sounded a lot like a marriage covenant. And now this week we'll be looking at the conquest. How after 40 years in the wilderness, they've crossed the Red Sea.
They've been 40 years in the wilderness. Now God is ready to bring them into the Promised Land. Now we live today in a world of broken promises, don't we? Leaders fail us. Friends sometimes fail us, sometimes we fail ourselves.
We can't keep our own promises. And we look at the mess in this world, we look at the mess in our lives and we think, where's God? Is God going to keep his promises? And I'm convinced today, as we look at the scripture today, whether we've been in a wilderness of waiting and wondering, maybe waiting on certain things from God.
I believe today that God is faithful and that he wants to show his faithfulness to us. And as we look in the book of Joshua today, as I said, we're moving through the whole Bible. We're moving through quickly. We're looking at the book of Joshua today and how the Lord was faithful to give the people of Israel that which he had promised their forefathers. And now it's their calling to believe God and possess the land.
As we look at the text today, I believe that God demonstrates His faithfulness. And as we look, I think we'll see three demonstrations of God's faithfulness in our text today. Now we have a short reading today. I'm excited about that.
Just three verses, but there's a lot in it. There's a lot in these three verses. Verse 43 is where we start in Joshua, chapter 21, here. Joshua 21:43-45 (ESV) 43 “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them,
for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” This is God's word. Amen.
We're looking for three demonstrations of the Lord's faithfulness. Here's the first:
1. The demonstration of a Secured Inheritance.
Verse 43 says, “Thus the LORD gave…” Now that's a key word in this passage. 43 “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers.” This goes back to Genesis 12 and Genesis 15, where he first calls Abram out of the land of Ur. He calls him into a land he'd never seen before, the land of Canaan. He says, I'm going to give you this whole land.
And Abraham believed God, and God credited that faith as righteousness. Did Abraham inherit the land during his lifetime? No, he didn't. But he believed God and God revealed in that covenant that I was talking about previously. He revealed at that point.
He said, look, here's what's going to happen. He told him what's coming. He said that your offspring are going to be carried into slavery in a foreign land for over 400 years. But after that time, they're going to come back to the land and they'll actually possess the land.
He was very specific. And that's where we are now. Those 400 years have passed. And so he'd given him this covenant, a promised inheritance.
As you look at verse 43, he says, this is Joshua, he's reflecting on this. In fact, some commentaries, if you read about it, biblical scholars say verses 43 through 45 are kind of the “pearl” of the whole book.
It kind of summarizes and describes theologically the whole book. And so here's Joshua towards the end of his life. He's saying that we had to possess it, we had to fight for it, but it was always the Lord who gave it to us. He gave it to us. And it was according to that which he had sworn to our fathers, like Abraham, who had a son named Isaac.
And he told Isaac, God has promised that this land would be ours. And then when Isaac raised his children, he raised Jacob. And he says, God has promised us, Jacob, this is our land, that we will possess it all one day. And so that's the father, in verse 43, that we're hearing Joshua talk about, that they had believed it, but had not yet received it. But now here they come into the promised land.
The promise is being kept. Oh, can you just experience with Joshua for a minute the joy he must have felt? All of my fathers were looking forward to this. All of my mothers, all of our fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers, we finally have come into the promised land. Praise God, he's given it to us.
This is what he's declaring in verse 43. As you look at this, though, I would say to you, as I remember what he told Abraham, and although Joshua was saying that he's given us all the land. Did you see that inverse 43, “all the land.”
As you go into the book of Judges and even in other places in Joshua, you find out they didn't get all the land that God promised. So is the Bible being inaccurate here? No, we just have to think through what the implications are. There is a tension point here because God had promised Abraham that from the great river in Egypt to the Euphrates, if you pull up a map, you'll see that they haven't quite obtained all of that. They haven't possessed all of that.
So what's he talking about? Well, I was reminded of what God told Joshua in chapter one of Joshua, verse three. Here's what he told Joshua. He says, Joshua 1:3 (ESV) “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you…” Every place that you go to possess, it's yours.
And he promised them, but did they go to every place? So, God, past tense, I've given it to you, it's already a done deal. It's a sovereign declaration, but your part is to walk by faith and go possess it. And they didn't. They didn't possess it all.
They ran into some iron chariots over there in Philistia and they turned back. I could go through more stories, but they did not possess it all. Here's the tension point that I think solves the mystery. The land was given, past tense. But it had to be trodden, present tense. It was given, but it wasn't trodden.
And that happens to some of us. God gives us callings, he gives us promises. He puts a calling on our lives to accomplish the dreams that he puts in our heart from the Holy Spirit. And this is just me thinking about how it might be in heaven someday. I hope this is not an experience that I have or that you have, but it could happen.
And that there might be a room in heaven. And you ask God, well, what's in that room? And he goes, that's all the things I gave you, but you didn't possess them because you didn't believe. Man, I hope there's not a room like that waiting for me. You know, I want to take possession of everything that God has promised.
I want to believe his word. I want to walk by faith and take possession. I want to be like this old man that's still alive here in this story. He's in his 80’s.
He's about 85 now. His name is Caleb. There's only two guys who survived the wilderness, and it was Joshua and Caleb. They were the two spies of the twelve that came out with a good report. And Caleb's still alive.
I like what Caleb says when Joshua says, now Moses told me, Caleb, to give you whatever land you're asking for. And Caleb basically said this. My right arm is as strong as it was 40 years ago when I first came into the land. Give me the mountains, give me the giants. I want to be like Caleb.
Caleb's like one of my favorite characters. I'm getting a little older now. I don't know if y' all noticed. Some of y' all have been hanging around here for a little while. The pastor is getting a little older. But I'm still running up the steps. I have new knees; a couple of years ago, I got my knees replaced.
I'm feeling pretty spry. Y' all are stuck with me until the Lord calls me home. I want to be like Caleb. I don't want to slow down. I want to speed up for God.
So, people, if you're getting up in years a little bit, don't let off the gas. Keep living for Jesus. Keep declaring his glory. And as you grow in influence, don't waste the influence God's given you. Come on.
This is what he's saying. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread, I have given to you. So get walking. Keep on claiming what God has promised to you. And recognize as Joshua did, it was the Lord that gave it to us.
It says in Psalms. The psalmist was meditating on this. He said, Psalm 44 (NLT) 1 “O God, we have heard it with our own ears— our ancestors have told us of all you did in their day, in days long ago: 2 You drove out the pagan nations by your power and gave all the land to our ancestors.
You crushed their enemies and set our ancestors free. 3 They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory. It was your right hand and strong arm and the blinding light from your face that helped them, for you loved them.”
And that's the truth. God is the one who gave them the land that they had to tread upon and take possession of. I'm remembering how they entered into the Promised land. Do you remember that story in Joshua, chapter three? Remember how they got into the wilderness, how they escaped the Egyptians by God leading Moses to lift up his staff, and God parted the Red Sea and it walled up on both sides, and they crossed on dry land?
Well, now God is going to do something similar, and he tells Joshua how to do it. He tells Joshua, I'm going to make the people look to you the way they did to Moses. This is going to be a sign that I'm with you, Joshua. Tell them to do it like this. Tell the priests to pick up the ark.
The Ark of the Covenant was the ark that carried the Ten Commandments. They carried Aaron's staff that had the almond blossom in it. They also carried a little clay jar that had manna from the time God had fed them heavenly bread from the heavens and all that's in the ark. And. He says, I want you to take the priests and have them walk out into the middle of the Jordan.
And by the way, the Bible tells us it was at harvest time, when the Jordan river overflowed its banks. And so it's at that time of the year. Nobody wants to cross the Jordan at that time of the year.
It's just furiously flooding. God says to tell them to go and stand in the middle of the Jordan and they can cross on dry land. And if you read the story about this in Joshua chapter three, I don't know if I had wanted to be the first two priests, because they're on either side of the Ark, they're holding the poles carrying the Ark. And the way it seems to read is the water has not stopped yet. I believe that first two priests might have got their sandals a little bit wet as they were stepping in, but then right as they stepped in the water, the water walled up upstream and they walked across on dry land.
And God told Joshua, tell them, now stay in the center on dry land until all of Israel crosses over. So they stood there with the ark and the waters walled up upstream. And then he says to send twelve of your men, twelve strong men, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Send them back. Keep that ark in there.
Now send them back into the center and have them pick up big rocks and carry them on their shoulders and carry them over into The Promised Land. Set them up as stones of witness, so that when your children's children ask, what are those stones bearing witness to you, tell them this is where God brought us into The Promised Land, we crossed over the Jordan on dry land. Because, see these children, they'd been born, many of them, in the wilderness. They didn't see the Red Sea crossing, but they're going to see the Jordan river crossing.
I grew up singing a lot of hymns growing up. I don't know if you've heard some of these hymns, but so many of them were about crossing over muddy Jordan. Oh, man, it's a picture. Crossing over the Red Sea is like coming into salvation. The wilderness journey.
That's kind of what it's like as a Christian living in this world. But then crossing over that muddy Jordan, that's entering into The Promised Land. That's eternity. We see all of these things. You see as you look at this, the story.
the land is just a shadow of the kingdom and Joshua is a shadow of Jesus. They have the same name. Did you know that? Yeshua; it means God's salvation in Hebrew.
And then as it passed into Greek and then into English, it became Jesus. There's no J in Hebrew or Greek. There's a Y sound, but they gave it a J so that we could pronounce it. It's the same name. It means God's salvation.
Every time you say the name Jesus, you're saying God saves. That's what this points to. It says in 1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV) 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” You see, as we read this Old Testament story, God was preparing a people to recognize the greater Joshua when he came, so they would recognize the Messiah who would bring them into the true inheritance that God has promised.
God has promised us a secured inheritance kept in heaven for those who believe in him. That leads us to the second demonstration that we see in the scripture.
2. The demonstration of a Sabbath Rest.
It says this, 44 “And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.” “And the LORD gave them…” There it is again, that's really important in this text. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He'd promised this. “Not one of all their enemies had withstood them,
for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.” The word Sabbath, in the Hebrew Shabbat, means rest. When we look at our calendar, when we look at how we've divided up days and weeks and years, we look to the sun to determine our years. We look to the moon to determine our months.
One's based on the solar; one by the lunar. But when we look at a week, seven days, we look to Revelation. God is the one who told us about the week. That's where the idea of seven days comes from; that God created everything in six days.
And on the seventh day he held a Shabbat; he held a day of rest. And as we look here, we see that the Lord gave them a rest on every side. He gave them rest from their enemies and He entrusted those enemies into their hands. Now, when you read the books of Joshua and Judges, it troubles modern sensibilities.
And I often have people who read the Bible with me during the year. Every year we start out and we say, let's read the Bible together. Many of you have done that. But I often have people, when they get to the book of Joshua and Judges, they'll email me, they'll call me and ask, is this the same God? They get worried. God's telling the Israelites to go in and wipe out these Amorites and Canaanites; destroy them.
That bothers our modern sensibilities. But I would say to you to think about a few things from what we've already learned. Remember what he told Abraham back in Genesis 15? Look what he says in verse 16 of chapter 15 he says, Genesis 15:16 (ESV) “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” He's talking to Abraham in this vision in the fourth generation.
Now here's what he's saying: When I bring your people out of captivity, he's telling Abraham 450 years in advance, when I bring them out of captivity, they're going to possess the land. But part of that is they're going to be my sword of judgment against the Amorites.
But it's not time yet for you to do that because their wickedness has not yet risen to the full. Now what were they doing? What was going on in the land of Canaan? All we have to do is to look to archeology and other history to see how they were worshiping the Baals, how they were worshiping the God of war, Molech. How they were worshiping the goddess of fertility, Ashtaroth, and how they did these things.
One of the most wicked things that we've discovered archaeologically is finding the bones of infants by the thousands gathered in certain places where they would worship by offering their firstborn to the goddess of fertility so that their crops would come in good that year. And so they would offer their firstborn. And this had been a growing thing. And the way they would worship the gods would be a prophetess of Ashtaroth would maybe come to your village and all the husbands would go to her and be intimate with her as an expression of fertility. And this was the way they were worshiping.
So if you look at the culture at that time, instead of thinking, man, what kind of God is that that judges sin so harshly? Maybe if you had been there and seen them when they had built the God Molech, who held his iron arms out like this, and he had a furnace where his belly was, and they would put a newborn infant into his arms, allow that infant to slide down his arms, screaming into the furnace. And how this was something they did as worship, how many babies would you feel like it's time to do something about that? God waited over four centuries.
Sounds like an awfully patient God. So I don't want to be in the place of God. I don't know when it's time to judge and when it's time to be patient. But he seems way more powerful and patient than me, because I don't think it might have taken more than one baby before I would be ready to do something about it. I don't know about you, but let's take another look at the book of Joshua and Judges and recognize that God is patient, he's loving, he's merciful, but he's also holy and he also judges.
And that's what I see in this book. And so be careful with your modern point of view, that these modern sensibilities, that they have not been biblically trained. As we look at the text here, remember what he told them in Deuteronomy 20. He said, Deuteronomy 20:16-18 (ESV) 16 “But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction,
the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.” So he's doing it because it was time; their sin had risen to the full. But it was also to protect his people so that they weren't infected by this culture. They've crossed on dry land across the Jordan river, and the first city they face is a fortified city.
It's the most impressive city. It's the city of Jericho. And they pull up in there and God gives them a military strategy to overthrow this city. And it's based on the number seven. It's not the kind of strategy that most generals would come up with.
But General God came up with this. He said, here's the strategy. I want you to march around it seven times, and I want you to bring the ark, and I want you to get seven priests blowing seven trumpets. And on the first day, march once and sound the trumpet. On the second day, march once and go back to your camp.
On the third day, march again one time. For six days, march around the city once. Can you see the people inside trembling? They're losing heart completely.
You have 650,000 warriors marching quietly. That's more scary than if they were shouting. They're just marching quietly. And you have these seven trumpets blowing.
And then on the seventh day, he says, I want you to march around it seven times and blow the trumpets and shout. And when you shout, God's going to give you the victory. And you go in there. And so they do it. They're at the point where they're so well trained, they trust God's word so completely, they do exactly what he says.
And the walls come tumbling down, and they go in and they completely wiped this place out, almost, except for one family, because God's merciful. And there's one family, it's a prostitute named Rahab. And she had rescued the spies from Israel that had spied out the land. And she had let them out her window so they could get out safely. And she made them promise.
I know that your God is God, and I know he's going to win the victory. Will you save me and my family? They promised. They told Joshua, we can't kill them; we made a promise.
And so he said, before we go in, on the seventh day, you two guys, you go in as soon as the walls fall and you find Rahab. They told her, now, if you want your family rescued, get them in that house, because the only people that are going to survive are the ones that are in your house, in your ark, right? Only those that are in that house will be saved. And she brought her brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and father and mother. She brought her family there.
And the spies go in and they identify her and they are saved. So everybody's wiped out except for her. And if you turn over to the New Testament, Matthew chapter one, you find out that Rahab is in the lineage of Yeshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. She's not an Israelite. She didn't cross the Red Sea, she didn't cross the Jordan River.
But she believed God and repented of her sins. And God saved her. And so she was the mother of Boaz. And Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of David, who became king.
And David is the forefather of Jesus, who is the true and only king. Isn't that amazing, that a prostitute named Rahab would become a saint in the lineage of Jesus? Well, that's a good story, isn't it? That's a true story.
And this Sabbath rest that we're talking about, Hebrews chapter four picks this up and says, Hebrews 4:8-9 (ESV) 8 “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” So what's he talking about? This Sabbath that Joshua gave was temporary, but the one that Jesus brings, the greater Joshua, is eternal and it's forever. And it's rest for your soul.
Remember the invitation that Jesus gives, Matthew 11:28-29 (NKJV) 28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” That's the invitation of Jesus. He's the greater Joshua.
He gives your soul rest. And so we've heard about a secured inheritance, a Sabbath rest. And that leads us to the third demonstration that we see in our text today:
3. The demonstration of a Sufficient Word.
“Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” Not one word, not one jot or tittle, not one crossed T or dotted I.
Not one word failed to come to pass. Literally in the Hebrew, not one word, it says, fell to the ground. Hebrew is a very colorful language. Not one word fell to the ground.
Whatever word God sent, it hit its target, it accomplished its purpose. It's a word. When a word comes from God, it's sufficient to do exactly what he intended for it to do. I don't have the power to do that. All you have to do is to be a mom or a dad to find out how much power your words don't have.
But the Father's power in his words is sufficient. He has a sufficient word. Not one word will fall. Dr. Dale Davis, in his commentary on Joshua, he entitled it, “Joshua: No Falling Words.” He thought this was the key verse of the whole book of Joshua.
Not one jot or tittle will fall. Numbers 23:19 (ESV) “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
What God says, he will carry out. Now, his timing is not my timing. My timing is, can I have it now? You know I want it now. That's our generation.
But the Bible says that a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years with the Lord. I don't know which day he's working on right now, but I know he's faithful and that his word is sufficient to do what he says he will do. The prophet Isaiah prophesies this, speaking on the Lord's behalf, Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV) “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
You know, one of the things that I encourage you to do when you're praying for someone that's far from God and you're talking to them, is to memorize scripture. Have scripture in your heart so that you can speak the word of God to people. Because your words will fall to the ground, but His Word will not return void. In other words, it won't return empty. It will do the thing he wants it to do, that he directed it to do.
And so I think it's important that when I'm preaching on Sunday morning, I don't want to preach my opinion. My opinion will fall to the ground. It will not help you. I want to preach the Word of God. And know this, that if you believe the Word of God, it will not fall.
It will stand. And it will cause you to rise up for Him. So, memorize scripture and plant scripture. When you're talking to people about the Lord, it's His Word that has the power to save. I want to tell you another story.
It’s from the book of Joshua; it’s a demonstration of God's power and his word. It's in Joshua, chapter 10, when God promised Israel victory over the Amorites, the battle seemed impossible, but Joshua prayed: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the Valley of Aijalon” (Josh 10:12). And God answered: the sun and moon literally stopped in the sky until Israel finished the battle (Josh 10:13). God had promised Israel victory over the Amorites and the Canaanites and all the people. But there was one little people group that slipped in there and tricked Joshua.
It was the Gibeonites. And they were in the promised land, but he hadn't met up with them yet. But they were hearing about what happened at Jericho. They were hearing what happened in the city of Aijalon. They were hearing some bad news.
These Israelites are serious business. And so they put on old clothes and got some moldy bread, and they acted like they had traveled hundreds of miles. And they pulled up in there. We just want to be part of the Israelites. We'll bow down, we'll be your servants, whatever you want us to do.
We just want to be your vassals, you know, we want you to be over us. Joshua is thinking, well, all right, then, you know, this is easier. And he didn't know that they were in The Promised Land. So they made a covenant with the Gibeonites. And then later they found out that the Gibeonites tricked them.
And they were supposed to be under God's judgment. But God tells Joshua, you have to keep your word now because you represent me, even though they tricked you, you have to keep your word now. Here's what happens next. Five of the major kings among the Canaanites heard what Gibeon had done.
Gibeon is one of the major cities. I can't believe they bent the knee. We need to go wipe those boys out so that no one else bends the knee to the Israelites. And so five kingdoms come, and they attack Gibeon. And Gibeon sends a word to Joshua and says, hey, do you remember that covenant?
Can you rescue us? And so Joshua praised the Lord, and Joshua took his army down there. And I really think God provided that so that those five kingdoms all showed up in one place. But there were so many of them. God says to him, I'm going to give you the land.
I'm going to give you those people. They pulled up in there and they were winning the battle. But the sun looked like it was about to go down. And here's what Joshua prays.
This is the part that's so amazing. This is Joshua, chapter 10. Joshua prayed like this. Now, this is a man that will pray a prayer for the sun to stand still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. Now that's kind of stretching it there.
What kind of faith is that now when you're asking God not to let the sun go down? Yeah, but there are laws of nature like that, you know. That's troubling. Gary, do you believe that? Well, I do.
I believe that the same God who spoke the world into existence by his very word is a God that can interrupt the laws of nature. Well, Gary, if it says there'd be no gravity, we'd spin into space. Yet, see, you're dealing with the supernatural here. That's what supernatural means. It means against nature, above nature.
That when God interrupts the laws he wrote and performs a miracle. That's what a miracle is every time. It's where he's doing something contrary to the natural order that he wrote. Because here's what happens. And God answered.
And the sun and moon literally stopped in the sky until Israel finished the battle and was victorious. God's word does not return void. Whenever John begins to write his gospel, he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. And all things were made by him.
And without him, nothing was made that was made.
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we've seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten.” We're talking about Jesus. We have the written word, but we also have the living word in Jesus. And he wants to live in us today.
And every miracle and every promise is yes in Jesus. So that Paul writes to the church at Corinth in his second letter. He says, 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NLT) For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. Every promise of redemption, every promise of forgiveness, restoration, eternal life.
Every promise. And there are thousands of promises in God's word. And be sure of this Christian, he will keep everyone. If only you would trod in that place in your walk and go take possession of the promises that God has given you. That's your pardon by faith to take possession of what he's promised.
And he's promised you Jesus. He sent him to you. Have you said, he's my Savior, he's my Lord. Have you taken possession of the greatest promise of all? And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see three demonstrations here, a secured inheritance, a sabbath rest, and a sufficient word. How do we respond? What does that mean for us today? It means that we are not to rely on our own strength. God wants to give a promise to you that you can walk out and believe today.
He wants to give you an opportunity to respond by trusting, by resting, answering God's invitation and by obeying. Let's live in confidence of the faithfulness of our Lord and our God today. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Thank you that you are the living word.
And not one word of yours will fall to the ground.
And you have said in your word, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.” And I'm praying for you, my friend, right now. If you're here and you sense that the Holy Spirit's knocking at your heart's door, the Spirit of Christ is seeking entrance into your life, would you open the door?
What's that look like? Pray with me. It looks like a declaration of faith to speak words to the Lord. Say, Jesus, I believe in you. I'm a sinner, I've fallen short.
But I believe you died on the cross for me and that you were raised from the grave and you live today. I believe that. Lord Jesus, would you come into my life, forgive me of my sins, adopt me into your family as a child of God. I want to follow you all the days of my life. I surrender my life to you. If you're praying that prayer of faith, answer the door.
He's knocking. Others are here. And you've said yes to Jesus. You're a Christ follower. But today you're wandering in the wilderness.
You're struggling. There's something in front of you right now. It's a mountain too big and you don't know how to get around it or over it. You certainly don't know how to go through it. Would you call on the promise making, promise keeping God and recognize that he's faithful?
Would you declare your faith again? Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I trust in you. I rest from my anxiety and my worry in you. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen.
Audio
Alright. Good morning, church. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm very grateful you're here today. We spoke just a few moments ago about the Eastgater.
I want to do one more shameless plug. This Friday night we're doing our very first Eastgater together. We're going to have a really great meal together. So if you're new at our church or you're just kind of checking us out, even if it's your first Sunday with us, totally, you can sign up this week and come find out. This is your right next step to find out what it means to be a part of our church.
You don't have to do anything, you don't have to agree to anything. We're just going to tell you about the mission and vision of our church and how you might get plugged into that. And this is a great next step for you. Plus it's going to be a really good meal and so we're going to have a great night together. So sign up for that.
Also, in just a few weeks we're going to have Easter together and we're very much looking forward to that. I've been talking about that for a few weeks. It might seem like, why is he so far ahead of this? But something that's very true, that you probably know instinctively is people will try out church on Easter, Christmas, maybe Mother's Day. There's a couple of times a year where they'll give church a chance.
And I just want to put tools in your hand and prayer in your mind for the people around you that you really are longing for and desiring to come to faith. And so what we're agreeing to as a church is we're going to present the gospel every single week. But Easter Sunday is going to be particularly pointed at the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, as well it should. And so you can trust us with your friends and family. And so we put a few tools in your chair and one of these is this one.
This is just a tool to make you think, to get you praying and get you thinking about your friends, the one perhaps that's in your family. So there's vocation who's at your workplace that you're praying for, who's a family member, geographic, who's a neighbor, who's somebody at a restaurant or a coffee shop that you frequent a lot, a grocery store. And then lastly, who's somebody you enjoy playing disc golf with or golf or pickleball, whatever it is you guys do for fun. Maybe some of you Just like walking around your neighborhood, well, find a friend. And I pray that you have opportunities to share your faith.
But if that's for some of you, a little bit difficult, maybe a first step for you is, hey, just, will you come to church with me? Like, I'm just looking for some people to come to church with me. I don't want to be lonely on Easter Sunday. I mean, whatever you want to use to tool in your toolkit, but show up here and we're praying for you. The other tool is this one right here that you would begin right now.
Maybe some of you know who this will be. You've already been praying about it and thinking about it. Please write a name in there, a couple of names in there and drop those in the buckets or drop those in that glass container on the way out. Myself and our staff, we're going to be praying over these for the next few weeks. We're not going to necessarily know all these names.
We might know a few of them. We might read it and go, hey, I know that guy. But we're going to be praying for you, praying for your family members, your co workers, whoever that is you put on that card. But I want you to begin engaging the idea that we're inviting people to church. Why?
Not just because we want to fill the room. That's not even a good reason at all. It's because we want to see people come to saving faith. We want to give them the opportunity to see Jesus in a real way and perhaps be stirred by the Gospel. And, and so please begin praying, begin inviting, and let's pray together for a big Easter Sunday together.
All right, let's dig in. We're going to be in this series for a few more weeks. We're at the halfway point right now. We're in a 12 part series we've called the Story. And the idea of this whole sermon series is that we're going from creation to consummation, really in one quick look.
Now, I have to be honest with you, there are thousands of of stories in the Bible we are not going to cover. There's no way to cover the Bible in 12 weeks, at least not in 40 minutes per session. So we're doing little bites. And today we're going to be talking about the next piece in the story that's leading to the cross and then leading to the second coming of the Savior. And so this week we're picking up at the conquest.
We've already talked about several really important things. The creation God made us. Sin entered the world. And God's got a plan in that. We've talked about the catastrophe.
The flood came. God did something about the evil of the world, but he still showed mercy to Noah. And then we've got the covenant that he makes with Abraham. We've talked about the crossing of the Red Sea with Moses and the people of God. We talked last week about the commandments.
Now we're entering into the promised land together and we're going to look at it as in one sermon. Those of you who've studied your Bible at all know this is like two or three books of the Bible that we're gonna do in one sermon. And so, and not only that, in like three verses. And so you're thinking, this is gonna be something. It is gonna be something and it's gonna be great.
And I'm looking forward to this idea of us talking about how God led his people into the promised land and helped them overcome the giants, overcome the battles ahead of them. And it really was indeed God who kept his promise. That's going to be the big theme today. And so you might be asking, okay, great, we're going to learn a history lesson today. We're going to take on like three books of the Bible and one 40 minute preaching service.
How is this going to help me tomorrow? Some of you might be thinking that. And that's not a bad question, friend. Don't feel bad about that at all. You're already thinking, how is knowing about this thing in Joshua going to help me tomorrow morning when I have to go to work?
And the reason is because all of these things are pointing to one big thing. And that is we need salvation in Christ Jesus. This whole story of scripture is about Christ. That's one thing. But also we live in a world full of people, of circumstances that are completely broken.
We live in a contract kind of environment. We live in a place where our leaders, our friends, even our dearest loved ones will sometimes fail us, sometimes on purpose. And it's good to find out that there is a creator, a God, a being who loves us in spite of us, who is eternally faithful. That this whole picture in Joshua is about God keeping His word. And this is good news to you, friend, believer or nonbeliever.
Today I want you to hear this. God loves you and he is going to keep his word to you. He has already kept a lot of it. It's already in the rear view. The things God has done that have basically secured your promise.
And so let's dig in. You may be in A season right now, like they were, where you feel like you're kind of in a wilderness. You're kind of stuck on something. Maybe you're dealing with some sort of hardship, physical, mental. Maybe there's a season in your life right now that's got you discovered, discouraged.
This is a message for you. But even if none of those criteria fit you, I pray this morning that you'll see a faithful God who is not changed. He is still faithful and is going to continue to be faithful to you. So we're going to be In Joshua, chapter 21, just a few verses, and we're going to see Joshua here giving a summary statement of the conquest of everything that has happened so far in this book. That's why it's such a wonderful verse to preach, because we basically got the whole picture in just a few verses.
And what we're going to see here are three really clear demonstrations of God's faithfulness first to them and now to us. And so let's dig in a couple of verses. Joshua 21, picking up at 43, it says, Thus the Lord God, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.
Not one word. I love this. Not one word. Of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. This is God's word.
Amen. I pray this encourages and speaks to you today. I pray it challenges you where you need that. It's been a huge reminder to me of a few things that you're going to see. It really at the very end is where it really rocked me.
But to begin with, he's talking about the first demonstration, the Lord's faithfulness is this. It's a demonstration of a secured inheritance. Of a secured inheritance. God has done everything necessary for your inheritance. Now, if you're anything like me, this is not a term you're really thinking about very often, nor are you very hopeful for.
My dad is the pastor in Wilson, and if you know anything about church planning, you know that inheritance is not really something we think about, at least not monetarily. And so I'm just hoping he lives forever just because I want to be with him. But I'm counting on this. There ain't going to be anything for me all Right. I'm not even going to think about it.
So this term inheritance is not really something I consider a whole lot now. I would love. Maybe there'll be something I'll be able to help my kids with at this point, not looking so good, but we'll find out. We'll see how things go. But this inheritance that God is speaking of is something entirely bigger, different, more useful than any sort of monetary thing we think of when we think of the word inheritance.
God has secured something permanent and perfect. And it all kind of points back, this chapter really points back all the way to Genesis, that God has been telling a story. He's created, he's made a promise, he's been working through his people, and now we're seeing part of the promise come to fruition. And he's not complete, obviously, because the complete story happens at Jesus and beyond. But he's beginning to write the history that he was promising for centuries.
Though we have to admit something, it looks impossible. It looks completely impossible. Isn't it interesting that the moment that God tells Abraham, hey, I'm going to give you this huge land, this promised land that's rich with milk and honey, that's going from a river in Egypt all the way to a river up in modern day Turkey, that I'm giving you this huge piece of property, I and Abraham never sees it, he never owns it. It never happens in his lifetime. In fact, he tells Abraham, but before I do that, your descendants are going to be enslaved.
That's incredible news. It's like, wow, okay, so then the people are in Egypt for 400 years and God has already kind of told them that that would happen. And so all of this is in the past. And I would imagine, like you've probably felt in the past, the promises of God are starting to feel a little bit impossible. Like, how is it possible that we are going to attain this land of milk and honey, this promised land when we're in chains?
This doesn't make any sense. Sometimes the picture looks bleak. But here we see Joshua coming up in the end here as he's finishing this conquest and revealing, hey, God has been working all along. There's something interesting about what God is doing in his story here. I wonder, friends, if there's ever been anything in your life that you kind of felt God was leading you towards, that you felt like, man, I really think God is in this.
He's called me to this. Maybe it's a career path, maybe it's a relationship. For some of you, you've struggled with difficult. A difficult relationship past where you truly thought you really believed that was the one, and it ended poorly, or some of you have felt like, man, I thought that was the career path I was supposed to be on, but burned up. I felt this so many times in my life that what I thought God was saying, it seemed impossible.
But in the end, God was actually working on it in a way that I couldn't expect. And I imagine this is how the people felt for generations. God's promised this, but I don't see how it's even remotely possible. Well, it's because there's no way they could have envisioned the 10 plagues of Egypt. There's no way they could have envisioned the parting of the Red Sea.
There's no way they could have seen all the amazing tales of the book of Joshua, which a few of them are going to mention today. There's no way I could have known. And this is kind of my own personal experience. And there's a few of you in the room that have been on this journey with me really almost since the beginning, maybe even from the beginning. And we're in our 11th year as a church, and some of you in the room don't know this, but we just bought this building a little less than a year ago.
We started on Easter Sunday, 25th. And God's been doing some miraculous things in our church and in me. But here's what I know confidently. Those of you who've been on the long journey with me, part of the reason it took so long, my fault. Totally my fault.
Here's why. Because the early version of me was a very prideful version of me. And I think God had to spend a little bit of time saying, hey, I'm interested in getting the glory and the credit, and I can't have you trying to get it.
I know that's a little bit, like, personal, but I need to share that story. Like, I need to share that story all the time. Because I'm so thankful for the last two years of my life where. Here's what I can do now. When people ask, how's it going?
What's happening at the new church? People are always like, where are you at now? You know, have you grown? Oh, yeah, we've grown. Guess what?
Guess why God, not me? I don't even know why he used me. I have no clue. That is a better place to find yourself. It is a better place to say, hey, look what God did, instead of, look what I did.
Because that's a dangerous spot to find Yourself. I really. I think, crazy as it sounds, I thought I would come on the scene here in Rocky Mountain and just, man, we would explode. We would explode. Because, you know, I'm funny and, and I'm decent to look at, and I can play guitar.
And I'm thinking, man, I'm somebody. I was in college. I kind of felt that way at least. I led a campus ministry at East Carolina. We grew to over 200 people in college.
I was thinking, man, we're going to. And God said, I got a better plan.
I'm going to make you small so you can learn how to trust me. Because I hadn't figured it out. I'm still working on this church. Pray for me. This is where some of us find ourselves, right?
It looks impossible. I begin to think God, I'm not sure I heard you right, but I did. I heard him right. He just needed to develop me. Some of you are on that path, friend.
It feels like a wilderness. But God's in charge. And this inheritance that he's promising you, it's something even bigger than these little things I'm speaking of. It's eternal. It's perfect.
Perfect. He wants to spend eternity with you. And he's secured it. Now, there's some interesting things in our text today. In verse 43, it says the Lord gave the Lord here is Jehovah, Yahweh.
It's the big name, the covenantal name of God. And it says he gave them all the land. I know this. For those Bible scholars in the room know this is a bit of a problematic statement because to say he gave them all the land is a little bit confusing because there's so many parts of the land they had not yet attained. At this point, you have the entire book of Judges following this that describes all the land they did not take.
And even at the end of it, they didn't finish the job. God promised them all this land, but they didn't take it all. There's a bit of a give and take to this promise for them and for you, my friend. It's not all, hey, God's going to do it all. I don't have to move a muscle.
That's not Christianity. Now, it's also not human effort. And God's going to watch. It's not that either. There's somewhere in the middle on this.
This is why God says in Joshua chapter one, he says, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you. When the people were faithful to walk in that land, God gave them the territory. But here's the problem. They were scared to walk in a few spots. They were scared to tread it all.
Some of us have come upon things God has asked us to do with a similar behavior. Perhaps we felt at some point that God was saying, hey, I want you to go talk to your neighbor. Hey, I want you to go say this to your co worker. Hey, when you're going back home over the holidays or wherever it is, when you're with your family and they're all talking nonsense, how about you speak truth? How about that?
And you say, Here's what's crazy about that, is God might give you the victory in that very spot, but you were too scared to step foot in it. You were too afraid. This is true of salvation, friend. This is what it means to follow Christ. Yes, the gift is free.
It's been given. Christ died on the cross for you and I. He rose from the grave and conquered sin and death for us. Yes, that's true. But it's meaningless to you until you say, I receive it.
I believe it, I take it, it's mine. It's just a gift somewhere until you finally open it up. Until you finally say, well, I'm going to step my foot into it too and say, I identify myself in Christ. Until then, it's just a good gift that has no meaning. This is what he's telling the people of God.
This is what he's telling you, friend. You want to be a part of this? Say yes. Say yes, I receive you, Lord Jesus. Do you feel this tension?
It's a purposeful tension. Yes, I've given you all this land, but it's not going to be yours unless you step foot on it. The words here of Joshua one ring clear. There's the given, I have given it. That's past tense, that's sovereign.
But there's the present tense human moment of trodden have you tread the ground. See, God provides all the potential, but Israel had to take possession. God has given you every opportunity to walk with him and follow him and have salvation in Christ. But you have to possess it to take hold of it. Turns out, in fact, friends, I'll let you know just a little bit about where I land on this big grand argument that some people like to deal with.
And I bet a lot of you in the room could care less about this. But for the handful who do I sit somewhere in the middle between these two camps of Calvinism and Arminianism. If you've ever heard these terms, then you know what I'm talking about, but it's the idea of God's predestination and human free will. And what I'm seeing in Scripture is time and time again, the Bible teaches this. And the Bible teaches a bit of this, too.
So what do we do with that? Well, we need to stop thinking we can get this all boxed in. The moment we think I've got God figured out, he ceases to be God instead. There's something crazy going on where he knows. He's foreknown us, he's predestined, he's elected.
That's all there in the scriptures. And yet at the same time, he tells the people of God and he tells you and I, here's a gift. But you got to open it. I can't open it for you. I'm not going to.
I've given you the land, sure, but you got to step foot in it. You see it. Maybe. Do you see it in your own life that God's calling you to something? God's calling you to speak to someone.
God's simply calling you. Hey, walk with me. And every day, every day you're making that decision. It's a day to day decision, friend. You don't get to just make it once.
This is why Paul said I beat my body daily and make it my slave. He wasn't talking a physical beating. He was saying every day I have to straighten up again and say, all right, God, me and you. I'm walking with you every day. Have you observed this in your own life?
You don't wake up. Well, you wake up needing a shower, getting your hair straight, and you need to walk with Jesus, you don't wake up. Okay. At least I don't. Maybe you figured out something I haven't.
Every morning as I step my feet out of the bed, I have to pray yet again. God, you and me, let's walk.
Says he swore. He gave all the land that he swore to their fathers and they took possession of it. He secured an inheritance for them and for us. God gave them the land. Joshua's very clear about this.
I would encourage you this week, those of you who are looking for something to study, read the book of Joshua. And what you're going to see countless times is Joshua reminding us God did it. He had the right idea. Oh, yeah. They had to lift their sword.
Yes. They had to endure bloodshed. They had to battle. But. But again and again he says, yeah, but God, God was there.
God conquered. God did. Look what the psalmist writes in Psalm 44. He says, oh, God, we have heard it with our own ears. Our ancestors have told us all you did in their day and days long ago.
You drove out the pagan nations by your power and gave all the land to our ancestors. You crushed their enemies and set our ancestors free. They did not conquer the land with their swords. It was not their own strength, strong arm that gave them the victory. No.
And this is it, Church. It was your right hand, your strong arm and blinding light from your face that helped them, for you love them. Oh, he got it right, the psalmist did. So did Joshua. Do you see it?
The only way I'm going to do the things that I'm called to do, the purpose in this life is if God is my right hand. I love that in the story of Joshua, God kind of affirms him in a way that God doesn't often do. God is not really known for doing encores. In fact, he really likes to do new miracles. He really likes to show his creativity all the time.
But in the story of Joshua, he decides to do a bit of an encore. The reason is, I think he wants to show the people, hey, this is my man now. Moses has gone. Moses has passed away. It says in fact that God buried Moses, which is fascinating.
And now Joshua's in charge. And Joshua's probably thinking to himself, I don't know if these people are going to walk with me. They've just been with Moses all this time. And Moses is incredible. They saw the plagues, they saw him part the sea.
Why would they follow me? And guess what God does? Joshua, chapter three. God says, I'm going to give you a little river crossing story for you two. They come to the river Jordan in chapter three of Joshua and God tells them, hey, bring the ark into the middle.
And then I'm going to part the waters and the people walk through. So very similar to the Red Sea moment. A little bit of a smaller body of water, but. But it's his moment. And I imagine that people said, okay, this is God's God now.
This is his new man. It says in Joshua chapter three that when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. So God does another one of these, a little bit different. He added a little element.
Hey, put the ark in the middle of it. They left it there long enough to get A few stones out so they could build a monument that said, hey, look what God did. They wanted to remember this. This is amazing. God has given them an inheritance.
He's given us an inheritance. Now these stories, I've said this for several weeks in a row. We're not the Joshua of this story. We're not the Moses, we're not the Abraham. That's true.
We're the people of God walking across and watching the man of God do this amazing thing. But this is even particularly more true in the story of Joshua. Joshua has a name which could be pronounced Yeshua. And if that sounds familiar to it to you, it's because it's pretty much in Hebrew, the exact same name as Jesus. So him as a foreshadowing is really clear in the text.
In fact, you'll notice from him that he is truly a man who follows God. There's little known. I can't think of many things about Joshua that are that are broken or bad. Now, I'm sure he is an imperfect man. He's not Jesus, but he's meant to point us to him.
He's God's salvation, Yeshua, Christ's victory. And so here we have this picture pointed of a man of God that the people follow, who leads them into the promised land. And he's faithful and he's courageous and he's bold. He's meant to point us to the one who will truly lead us into the promised land, who has victory over sin and death first. Peter.
Peter writes, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Listen to this church. An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Undefiled, unperishable, kept guarded in Christ Jesus.
Friends, he's leading us to the promised land. It's an already not yet. It is actual. We really have it in Christ. Those who walk in Jesus, we have it.
We're not experiencing it yet, but we're on the way. It's like we're crossing the Jordan behind the true Yeshua.
And he gives us rest. That's the next demonstration that we see. I've mentioned this a few weeks in a row, but I need to touch it once more here because it's key to this passage. It's a demonstration of a Sabbath rest. That's the second.
A demonstration of a Sabbath rest.44 is very clear that the thing he gave them, perhaps the thing they had not experienced, well, they'd never really experienced it, not since Abram, had they experienced rest. It says in verse 44 they had rest on every side. This is as close to the idea of a Sabbath as you can get. As close to the idea of a shalom. When they get rest here, it's the idea of ultimate peace, of ultimate shalom.
Now, there are still battles ahead, as we're going to see in the book of Judges, if we were to continue there. But this rest they're feeling in this moment is on every side. This is the idea that from. At least for the first time in their history, that generation is experiencing peace. Why?
Because in verse 44 it says all of their enemies were given into their hands. This goes back to the rest that God said he would always accomplish. Look, this is an incredible word. The promise. God has always said, I'm going to do this.
In Genesis 15, here's what he told Abram. He said, they shall come back here. This promised land in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So God is saying, hey, I'm going to delay this happening. Why?
Because I'm going to give a little bit more time for the Amorites. This is a wild thing when you consider who God is. I recognize, and I've said this recently, but in this room we've got probably two types of people. Those of you in the room who are like man, why is he so strong and so man? He just completely wipes out certain people.
And you're wondering that. But then there's other people in the room who are wondering, why did he take so long? It's interesting that that's who shows up in church together. And I feel a bit of both. But here's what he's made clear.
I'm going to wait 400 years. I'm going to wait a long time before I go judge these wicked people. That's a lot of mercy. It's a lot of patience. It's a lot of grace.
So when he shows up in the book of Joshua, when you're reading that, you might feel like man, he's harsh. No, he's actually really patient. He's really merciful. He delayed his judgment. Deuteronomy 20 tells us about it.
Verse 16. In the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. You shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction. The Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded. I heard somebody recently say, and the skeeter bites.
I wanted to throw that in there for you, but I wish those would go away. Verse 18. That they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods. And so sin. So you sin against the Lord your God.
This is who these people are. You should study them, these Amorite peoples. God is trying to set his people apart. He says, be holy, for I am holy. That's the word to us now, believer.
Be holy, for I am holy. That's in the book of First Peter. Be holy, for I am holy. He says, I want you to be separate from this. These are a people who practice extreme evil.
Child sacrifices too, and just the most graphic kind of ways. Sexual practices out of ritual. This entrenched evil that God is judging here and has given them a great deal of time to come to him, and they have not. So then we've got this wonderful story. And I want to share just a couple of stories today from the book of Joshua, because I don't have time to cover it all.
But there are two stories in there that are probably the big child stories, the big, like children's Bible, like Sunday school kind of stories. And one of them is the story of Jericho. And there's great songs about that. There's wonderful stuff around Joshua, around Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho.
Like that one gets me riled up, man. I'm that weirdo kid that used to march around my house, see if I can make the house fall down, right? Like just weird pastor's kid thing to do. I know. Just be careful getting around PKs.
We're all busted. We're a mess. But anyway, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, man. I grew up with this story and it's just so amazing to see God's provision here. This is why at the end of the day, Joshua can say, if I have rest, if I have peace, if I have anything in this life, it's because God said.
It's because God wanted it. It's because God gave. I wonder, friend, have you reached that point in your life where you say all the good things? I have, all the goodness to me is from God and he is with me. He is walking with me.
This is where Joshua speaks. He says he gave us rest on all sides it began with Jericho.
This is what God does. Immediately as they come into the promised land, they've got this incredible walled city, and God tells them to do something that just makes no sense. There's nothing about this story. Don't try to make this scientific, friend. It won't work.
He says, hey, take seven priests and blow trumpets and walk around the city seven times. He loves the number seven. God always has. He created the world and he rested on the seventh day. There's a lot of sevens in the book here.
He just drops, like, four or five of them. He says, hey, seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days. And then on the seventh day, walk seven times and go, whoo. On the seventh. Okay, why is that going to work?
Why is the wall going to fall down? You don't see this? This is in Joshua, chapter six. There's at no point where Joshua says, why is that going to work? God, no.
Cause he's already been seeing God do some stuff. He's going, whatever you want to do, God. We're with you. I can imagine there was a couple of those days where they're walking around it, blowing their little tootin their little horns, and the people are up on the wall acting like the guys from Monty Python going, "you English kniggits!". You know, I got some of the room, I got some of you.
They're probably getting made fun of. This is the weirdest strategy for victory ever. This makes no sense. Let's walk around this and blow our horns, and let's do it. Six days.
I imagine a couple of those days, they're like, is anything going to happen here? Joshua, like, I don't think he, well, disseminated this to the thousands of men who were in this army walking around this on the seventh day. Now we got to walk seven times. I don't know how big this city is, but I'm like, man, my feet are starting to hurt. Oh.
And on the seventh trumpet, I want you guys to shout, okay? Now. Unless by some chance they were louder than Metallica, like Virginia Tech, I don't think that's the case here. Though sheerly. God.
It's not an earthquake. No. God said, whoa.
And the people were able to see it. Why? Because they were faithful. They did nothing other than say, yes, God, I will do that. And the walls fail.
And it ultimately points to this beginning of this great conquest.
God is here using his people to judge ultimate evil. I want you to understand something. In Christ Jesus, he is still this kind of God, but now the judgment on evil. He has taken upon himself. Nothing changed about the character of God.
He simply changed the methodology. The judgment was once through his people on the evil. Now it's through his Son. Son for us, this is why the cross is important. This is why the bloodshed of Christ is necessary.
Yes, it's graphic. Yes, it makes me uncomfortable. Yes. I'm ashamed that I had. That I hung him there and so did you.
I'm ashamed. And yet it was necessary because the iniquity, my iniquity had gotten very bad. I came into the. I came into this world broken like that. I've watched four kids come into this world, all four of them.
I didn't have to teach them how to sin. They show up with it and they get good at it quick. The conquest now shows God is judge and he's faithful. But Jesus shows God is gracious. Hebrews 4 tells us this rest, this rest that Joshua felt was not perfect.
In fact, it's very short lived. They've got more land to conquer. And even when they're done with that, it's imperfect because rest is not a thing you do. It's a person. It's a person.
Hebrews 4 says, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And that rest is in a person. Here's what Jesus says. Matthew 11.
He says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. And I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. He says, take my yoke upon you. That's interesting.
So you actually find rest in Jesus even when you're holding weight? This means rest is not the absence of work. Actually, in Christ Jesus you find how to rest in your work, not from it. This is incredible. This means the rest that I've been longing for, hungry for, for the next vacation or something like that is not the rest at all.
It's not taking time off, it's finding the one to rest in. Because I mean, I can certainly go home today and just spend the rest of the day. And I used to say this a lot too. Some of you have heard me say this. If you've been at our church for a while.
I say when I get home, I'm going to become the couch. I'm going to become it. I'm going to let it envelop me. But even in that, guess what? Yeah, I might physically feel some energy restored, but it's not rest.
Rest is something else. Rest is peace. Shalom. Rest is feeling secure, is contentment. This idea of rest here is only in Jesus.
Then I can do that every day. I can rest in him every day.
Our true rest isn't a place, it's a person. And then he ends with this final demonstration. And this is where the Lord really spoke to me this week. I pray. Speaks to you?
The demonstration of a sufficient work word. This is my favorite verse in this scripture this week. I think it's becoming one of my favorite verses. Just studying it. He says not one word.
Of all the good promises that the Lord made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. He literally means here. Not a single word fail to the ground. Guess who God is. When God speaks, God does.
He never lies. He never makes promises he doesn't keep. God, every word is success. His Word is unstoppable. It is faithful.
It is sufficient. I'm thankful for this kind of God. And then we know in Christ Jesus, the Word became flesh and was all sufficient for our grace. Says not a single word failed. God always keeps his word, and it always accomplishes what he intends.
There's a couple of Old Testament passages that speak to this. Numbers 23, it says, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? No, he always does.
Isaiah 55, it says, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. This is great news. God's word is unstoppable. There's another really fantastic story in Joshua which I want to bring to light now because this is where God shows up in a powerful way.
That part of us experiencing the sufficient word of God, experiencing this Word, that's unstoppable, has something to do with how we engage it. There's something phenomenal that happens in Joshua, chapter 10. And I just want to say this to you. This shouldn't happen. You're aware of this, I bet.
But In Joshua, chapter 10, God makes the sun and moon stand still. In fact, it seems on some sort of cosmic level that either A, he just kind of holds the sun in place or he stops the rotation of the earth. I don't know what he does.
Y' all know we're like spinning right now. Isn't that crazy? I Try not to think about that. We're spinning and we're spinning. It's like, okay, somehow we're not flying off this cosmic rock.
This is amazing what God is doing. But in this moment, it appears God made the sun stand still. Now, I will say this. That makes no sense. It's a complete miracle.
And if you have a problem with miracles, then I think you have a really big problem with the Christian God, because it begins with a God who created it all. And if God created it all, then it's pretty easy for him to say, hey, you sit still for a moment there, big guy. I guess for me, it's more challenging to say that he made the sun and the moon rather than to say he stopped it for a moment. That's easy for a God who created. And so coming at it with that in mind, that God is a miracle, giving a miracle, working kind of God.
And that's the God I worship. That's the Son of God. And unless he is that, then it makes no sense that he actually did anything on the cross for me and rose from the grave for me. None of that makes any sense. But God is a miracle working God.
And here in Joshua 10, here's what's fascinating to me. The people of God are beginning to have success. They're beginning to take the land. And there is opposition. Now five great kings of the Amorites decide to band together and attack Joshua.
And I believe it's in Gibeon. They attack, and God gives them great success. He's with Joshua, he's with the nation of Israel. And they're winning the battle, but there's not enough time. So here's what Joshua does.
He says, you can read this. In Joshua 10, he says, God, make the sun stand still.
That's convicting to me today. Here's why I don't pray big prayers like that. I pray. I don't. I didn't even know you could ask for that.
Do you know you could ask for that? You ever considered what you can? Apparently you can ask for that God, hey, make the sun stand still. I'd kind of. At this moment, some of you are going to disagree with me.
I'd kind of be like, hey, God, can you let it be cooler just a little longer? Because I know Hades is coming in June. I don't think he would answer that prayer because it has no value really. Here. It had great.
Josh would. No one tells him, hey, you can pray like that. He knew, hey, this is a big God whom I serve. He can do anything Is your God that big? Are you aware that God can do anything?
He has all power, man. I don't pray like that. I don't pray like that. He makes the sun stand still and they have a great victory. And right after that, it says, Joshua reports in Joshua chapter 10 that in fact most of the victory happened not by our sword, but by God's.
He sends a hailstorm as they're retreating. So God makes the sun stand still, and then he makes a hailstorm show up and God gets the victory. Look, I hate to break it to you, friends. We're not the main actor of this story. We're not even.
We're barely side characters. This is a story about a big, holy, glorious God. And I'm down with being a part of that story. If you want to be a part of that story, then you can enter.
He says he made the sun stand still.
Not armies, not time, the natural order. He totally breaks. Friends, when's the last time you prayed a sun standstill kind of prayer? I wonder this for you. I wonder this for myself.
You know, we were talking to begin this sermon together about filling the room so that more people could hear the gospel. There are some of you in the room that are thinking of people. As soon as I started talking about it, you might even be hesitant to write them down because you might be thinking, there's no way. There's no way. My brother, my uncle, my child.
Some of you are thinking that, oh, I know God promised that if you raise them up in the way they should go, they'll never depart from it. But I'm doubting that. Some of you feel that I know my child is not walking with Jesus, and I'm not sure they will come back. When's the last time you prayed a sun standstill prayer? Guess what?
God can do anything. Certainly move the human heart with ease. God, would you? Would you? Maybe there's some co workers, there's somebody you're interacting with right now.
There's a reason that you're involved. There's a reason that you're there. You didn't get this job by accident. That boss didn't show up. That one that gives you difficulty, that's not accidental either.
God sent you. I wonder, would you pray? Hey, God, make me a better testimony. Make me be a light in my community. When I pull into my neighborhood, let me be the one that's waving and smiling.
Let me be the one that's open and conversational. Look, church, I have to pray like that. Maybe you don't I do. I'm an introvert. I'd love to pull in and shut my garage door.
I don't even have a garage, but I wish I did. Sometimes I wish I could just escape humanity. That's how introverted I am. But that's not who God is in me. It's not because of Christ Jesus in me.
I love people. I love the gospel and I love that God can do these crazy, miraculous things so that more people would come to faith. I'm inviting you, my friends, to pray this kind of prayer with me. A sun standstill kind of prayer. God, would you help my family?
Would you restore some of you. Hey, my marriage looks broken. I don't think there's a way back. God made the sun stop. He made the sun stop.
God, would you restore my marriage? Would you help my child? God, would you help me to. I've burned so many bridges at my workplace. Help me to recover.
Oh, he can do it. He can do it. And all of this testimony points to the ultimate fulfillment of God's promises. This sufficient word, the idea that not a single word of God falls on its face is made ultimately true in Christ Jesus. The promise he gave Abraham, the promise even that he gave Adam and Eve, all points to Jesus.
He will bruise your heel, but you will crush his head. Your descendants will number the stars and they will be blessed by you. It's all pointing to the future, Yeshua, not Joshua. The one that will come, that has come and now is inviting us to walk in this sufficient word and pray like Joshua.
I want that kind of belief, Church. I'm praying for you too. I want us to be the kind of people that really authentically believe God can do anything, that no miracle is beyond him.
There's three demonstrations here of God's faithfulness in Christ Jesus. You have them, a secured inheritance, a Sabbath rest and a sufficient word. Would you pray boldly with me now? Heavenly Father, I ask, I ask courageously, Lord, that you would bring the loved ones of the people in this church to faith. They're thinking of names right now, Lord.
They're thinking of faces right now, of people in their lives that are far from you. Maybe it's a child, maybe it's a parent. Maybe it's a co worker. Maybe it's a dear friend. God, bring those faces to their mind right now.
Bring those names to their mind. And I'm praying right now for them, God, you can do it. You parted the waters, you made the sun stand still. You created it all. You can easily do it, God.
Would you bring people to yourself? Would you use us, use our voice as an instrument of your good news? And nothing miraculous about what we do, but everything miraculous about what you do. God, would you empower people to simply be faithful, to be invitational? Lord, I pray in a few weeks, Lord, really over the next few weeks, Lord, that you would fill the room up with people who need to hear the gospel and that you would do the thing only you can do.
Oh, we can be faithful here. We can be faithful to invite, we can be faithful to tell. We can be faithful to preach and worship. Yes, we can do those things. But God, without you we are nothing.
God, would you be ultimately faithful to save the lost?
Our dear friends and family, Lord, would you rescue them?
I recognize at the same time somebody may have walked in today, they're hearing this like really prayerful evangelistic thing and they're wondering, hey, well what about me? Maybe that's you today. You've walked in today and for the first time it's coming clear that God is faithful, God loves you and apart from him we can do nothing. It's becoming clear that the only way I'm really going to have rest, true peace. The only way that I'm going to have eternal and inheritance, the only way is in Christ Jesus.
He's the all sufficient word. If that's you, my friend, you've walked in here and you're realizing that today I want to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus. Nothing wild here. A simple confession, a simple move of your heart towards faith. Would you pray with me this Lord Jesus, I pray that you would save me today.
I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, that you rose from the grave to conquer death for me. This gives me great hope that not only have you restored me fully, but you have a plan for me. God, help me to walk in you, help me to believe that you are all sufficient word. Help me to know how to pray big prayers with big dreams. God, guide my steps.
Dear friend, welcome to the family of God. If you prayed that we're praying similarly with you, God give us big dreams again. Some of us believers in the room, Lord, we very much, we repent of this, but we've very much forgotten that you are a big God who can do anything we've forgotten. Help us now restore our faith in an omnipotent, omniscient God who can do all things. God, I'm praying a sun standstill prayer right now that you would seek and save the lost in my city.
That the 60,000 or so people in Nash county that say they don't even go to church. Lord, that you would do something miraculous in our town. Use our church. Sure. Use 100 churches.
Use 100 churches to reach them. Lord, I pray these things in Jesus name, amen.