back to indexSunday 12-28-2014 P Alex Han
00:00:00.000 |
And I mean it's crazy to think that the 2014 year is about to end and we're about to start 2015. 00:00:08.000 |
And you know, just kind of reflecting upon what's going on in my family's life, 00:00:14.000 |
most of you guys already know that in about a little bit over 100 days or so, 00:00:19.000 |
our family will be moving out to East Asia to permanently do ministry out there. 00:00:25.000 |
And so with this kind of move, again, I had never moved to a different country before, 00:00:31.000 |
and so I'm being exposed to a lot more different kinds of factors and burdens and stresses. 00:00:39.000 |
And you have to think about, okay, who's going to take the cars? 00:00:46.000 |
What are we going to do about all of our clothes and books? 00:00:49.000 |
And I know some of you guys have asked me about my books. 00:01:01.000 |
And so there's a lot of adjustments that we have to make. 00:01:04.000 |
And on top of that, when we actually get there, there's a lot more adjustments, you know, 00:01:08.000 |
the language, the culture, the smells, the weather, the pollution. 00:01:14.000 |
I know, I've heard it all, heard it all, been through it all. 00:01:18.000 |
And I have to confess that when I take all of those factors all at once, it becomes really overwhelming. 00:01:29.000 |
There's days where I wish 2015 would not come, you know, 00:01:33.000 |
as if I had some sort of cosmic power to prevent time from going forward or whatnot. 00:01:41.000 |
And so obviously I know that's not the right attitude. 00:01:46.000 |
And so a lot of times it just comes down to two factors. 00:01:51.000 |
You know, I need strength and I need courage. 00:01:54.000 |
And that's why Joshua 1, 1 through 9 stands out to me, 00:01:57.000 |
because this is a passage that if you want strength and you want courage, 00:02:02.000 |
if you want conviction for those two things, this is the passage that you need to go to, 00:02:06.000 |
to study from and to really have that marinate in your heart. 00:02:11.000 |
And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at Joshua 1, 1 through 9 this morning. 00:02:14.000 |
And I just want to emphasize three aspects of what strength and courage truly is. 00:02:21.000 |
Okay. Three aspects. And so we'll read the text and then and then we'll begin our study. 00:02:30.000 |
After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 00:02:39.000 |
Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 00:02:48.000 |
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 00:02:54.000 |
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, 00:03:00.000 |
all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 00:03:06.000 |
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:03:10.000 |
Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:03:17.000 |
Be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the lamb that I swore to their fathers to give them. 00:03:24.000 |
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. 00:03:32.000 |
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 00:03:38.000 |
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, 00:03:43.000 |
so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 00:03:47.000 |
For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. 00:03:51.000 |
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. 00:03:58.000 |
For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Let's pray. 00:04:02.000 |
Heavenly Father, we want to come to your word in a full submission, 00:04:12.000 |
desiring, Lord God, as you have commanded Joshua, to meditate upon your word. 00:04:18.000 |
And as we cover this topic of what true strength and courage is, 00:04:25.000 |
help us, Lord God, to have an open mind and open hearts to hear. 00:04:30.000 |
Help us, Lord God, that if perhaps we're going through transitions in our lives, 00:04:35.000 |
especially with the new year coming, to really take hold of what you have commanded your people to, 00:04:42.000 |
what you have commanded your people to respond to when there are new transitions, 00:04:49.000 |
And so, God, we ask for your blessing upon this time. 00:04:55.000 |
Alright, so again, we want to emphasize three aspects of strength and courage, 00:05:02.000 |
And so the first aspect that I want us to look at is strength and courage. 00:05:06.000 |
True strength and courage highlights humility. 00:05:09.000 |
True strength and courage highlights humility. 00:05:12.000 |
And we find that in the first five verses in Joshua chapter 1. 00:05:16.000 |
Now, you have to know, you kind of have to take a step back and look at Israel's history at this point. 00:05:25.000 |
The people themselves are in the midst of transitions, right? 00:05:29.000 |
If you guys remember that the people that comprised of the nation of Israel in the time of Joshua 00:05:37.000 |
are not the same people that left Egypt so many years back. 00:05:43.000 |
There was a shift in Numbers 14 where the first generation of Israelites, 00:05:49.000 |
they were about to go into the promised land. 00:05:53.000 |
The 12 spies came back and they gave like this really negative report like, 00:06:00.000 |
But the people that are living in this land are really strong and we're going to get destroyed by them." 00:06:06.000 |
And because of their unbelief and because of their unwillingness to go forward 00:06:10.000 |
in spite of God's promises to them, God says, 00:06:14.000 |
"This generation of Israelites will never enter the promised land." 00:06:19.000 |
And so that led into the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness 00:06:23.000 |
where within those 40 years, the first generation of Israelites had to pass away. 00:06:29.000 |
And so here we have in Joshua, this new generation of Israelites 00:06:34.000 |
who have experienced what they've seen in the 40 years of wilderness, wandering there. 00:06:41.000 |
And they're about to enter into this promised land. 00:06:44.000 |
It's not like these Israelites had training to fight battles or, you know, 00:06:57.000 |
But more importantly, I think the greater transition that's taking place here is the leadership. 00:07:02.000 |
If you guys go back to Deuteronomy chapter 34, I mean, it details Moses' death. 00:07:09.000 |
And we all know Moses is a central figure in the Old Testament, 00:07:15.000 |
He's the one that led Israel, a young nation, out of the nation of Egypt 00:07:20.000 |
into Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. 00:07:24.000 |
It is Moses that led them from Mount Sinai to get to the promised land in Numbers chapter 13. 00:07:30.000 |
And it's Moses that had to lead the nation of Israel into the wilderness to wander for 40 years. 00:07:36.000 |
And so Israel's attachment to Moses was pretty strong. 00:07:40.000 |
He was the only leader that they've ever known or ever talked to. 00:07:48.000 |
And Joshua is the one that's left to take the reins. 00:07:52.000 |
And so if you look at it from a human perspective, 00:07:57.000 |
oh yeah, there's a lot of reasons for the nation of Israel and for Joshua to feel very unsettled, 00:08:06.000 |
These changes, these transitions seem to be coming so quick. 00:08:14.000 |
yeah, you might think that Joshua and the nation of Israel are feeling very overwhelmed at this point. 00:08:23.000 |
What is the heart motive that Joshua and the nation of Israel is supposed to have 00:08:27.000 |
during this great transition in their history? 00:08:34.000 |
And the reason why I say that is because look at Moses in verse 1. 00:08:39.000 |
"After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord." 00:08:47.000 |
God's description of Moses is the key to unlock, 00:08:51.000 |
unlocking the motivation that Joshua is supposed to have as the new leader of Israel. 00:08:57.000 |
Again, while we may get caught up in looking at Moses and thinking that he is this great leader 00:09:04.000 |
that led thousands of people out of one nation and was their spiritual leader and whatnot, 00:09:10.000 |
the higher identity or the more prominent identity that we need to ascribe to Moses 00:09:22.000 |
Again, it's emphasized again in verses 13 and 15 of Joshua chapter 1. 00:09:27.000 |
And again, the image of a servant isn't really positive. 00:09:32.000 |
You know, a lot of times when you think of a servant, you think of someone who is weak or lacks power and control. 00:09:39.000 |
But if you've read your Bible and if you're aware of the scriptures, 00:09:43.000 |
you know that the image of a servant, especially when it's connected to God, 00:09:47.000 |
is something that contains a lot of strength and a lot of courage. 00:09:54.000 |
If you just look at the introduction of every New Testament epistle, right, 00:10:02.000 |
you'll notice that they always introduce themselves as a servant of Christ or the servant of God. 00:10:10.000 |
Now, if you take the negative connotation of the word servant and apply it to them, 00:10:16.000 |
you wouldn't think of Paul, Peter, and John or any other writer of, or any other author of scripture 00:10:22.000 |
as being weak or lacking a power or control. Right? 00:10:27.000 |
I mean, Paul himself is someone who is convicted, 00:10:30.000 |
someone who exudes strength and courage even in the midst of persecution. 00:10:41.000 |
And I know there's a lot of characteristics that comes with describing who, like what is a servant. 00:10:47.000 |
But the one characteristic I want us to highlight this morning is the servant's humility. 00:10:52.000 |
Someone who desires to be humble before their master. 00:10:59.000 |
A summarized phrase for humility could go something like this, 00:11:06.000 |
Yeah, I know. I took that from John the Baptist. 00:11:14.000 |
A servant of the Lord will exhibit this type of humility, 00:11:17.000 |
wanting their whole life not to be about themselves, 00:11:21.000 |
but to make more of their master, to make more of their Lord and Savior. 00:11:27.000 |
Again, using Moses as an example here, his whole life was marked by leading. 00:11:39.000 |
it describes Moses being humble, as being very meek out of all the people in the land. 00:11:49.000 |
A better example would be the better Moses in Jesus. 00:11:54.000 |
Even Christ himself, he's described as a servant, right? 00:11:58.000 |
In the book of Isaiah, there are four servant songs, 00:12:01.000 |
and all those servant songs describe who Jesus is. 00:12:08.000 |
"For even the Son of Man came not to be served, 00:12:11.000 |
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." 00:12:18.000 |
Being humble before the Lord is not a bad thing. 00:12:24.000 |
Christ had to humble himself by putting on human flesh in order to redeem mankind. 00:12:29.000 |
We need to understand that humility plays a role 00:12:33.000 |
in exhibiting true strength and true courage in the Christian faith. 00:12:38.000 |
Everything that this world tries to inform us of what is strong and what is courageous 00:12:43.000 |
is always tainted with a sense of pride and entitlement. 00:12:49.000 |
There's always a sense of pride and entitlement 00:12:51.000 |
whenever this depiction that the world gives of strength and courage comes up. 00:12:59.000 |
true strength and courage stems from a heart that desires to be humble, 00:13:09.000 |
It's a heart that acknowledges a need for God in your darkest period of life. 00:13:14.000 |
It is a heart that cries out to God for assistance in time of need. 00:13:19.000 |
It begins with a heart of prayer that seeks God 00:13:22.000 |
and understands that every bit of action in your life needs His grace and mercy. 00:13:31.000 |
Psalm chapter 69, if you guys would turn there with me. 00:13:37.000 |
And if you're to ask me like out on the side, 00:13:39.000 |
like what are you going through your devos through? 00:13:41.000 |
I've been going through the Psalms and it's been a really good study 00:13:46.000 |
and just understanding about, you know, these poems and these Psalms 00:13:53.000 |
And Psalm 69 sticks out to me for various reasons. 00:14:01.000 |
And obviously if you just take a quick glance at the Psalm, 00:14:08.000 |
He says, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 00:14:12.000 |
I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold. 00:14:15.000 |
I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me. 00:14:18.000 |
I am weary with my crying out. My throat is parched. 00:14:25.000 |
Just reading the first three verses alone kind of informs us that David 00:14:38.000 |
There's no foothold for you to kind of push off, you know, 00:14:43.000 |
You're just kind of suspended in the water and you just don't know 00:14:50.000 |
And so clearly David is going through some intense stress and intense burdens. 00:14:58.000 |
And you would think that his response to the Lord would be, "Hurry up, God. 00:15:02.000 |
Can you hurry up and answer my prayer because right now I am desperate for you." 00:15:11.000 |
David writes, "But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. 00:15:18.000 |
At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, 00:15:28.000 |
David's response in verse 13 exudes true strength and courage 00:15:37.000 |
He understands that the situation he's in is troublesome. 00:15:41.000 |
He understands that his prayers are being heard by God. 00:15:44.000 |
But only God will answer his prayers in accordance to God's time, 00:15:49.000 |
according to, as David says, his acceptable time. 00:15:54.000 |
Instead of trying to pump himself up to overcome his situations, 00:16:02.000 |
David chooses to humble himself and to yield to the sovereignty of God. 00:16:08.000 |
That is true strength and courage in the midst of trying times. 00:16:15.000 |
And I'm sure as we as individuals continue to grow and experience more in this life, 00:16:22.000 |
we're going to find that the solutions to our problems and sometimes the obstacles that come 00:16:28.000 |
are not going to be our willpower or it's not going to be our problem-solving abilities. 00:16:33.000 |
Rather, the answer is going to come through humbling ourselves before the Lord, 00:16:43.000 |
I remember when I was going to seminary that seminary is tough. 00:16:51.000 |
There's a lot of studying to do. A lot of the drive itself was killer. 00:16:57.000 |
When Pastor Peter talks about me, he always says that I'm a workhorse. 00:17:11.000 |
But when I was in seminary, I really felt that that gift that God has given me, 00:17:16.000 |
this ability to try to get stuff done, this willpower, 00:17:20.000 |
was not being used in a manner that would glorify God the most. 00:17:25.000 |
I remember hitting a wall my fourth year in seminary, 00:17:29.000 |
where I was just utterly, utterly slammed with work. 00:17:33.000 |
I just felt like I couldn't stay up as late as I could have. 00:17:37.000 |
I couldn't put forth the effort that I used to put when I was younger. 00:17:51.000 |
I think part of the reason why I'm in this funk is because I've grown proud 00:17:59.000 |
I remember confessing that before God and seeking His forgiveness. 00:18:03.000 |
I remember ever since that fourth year, I decided to say, 00:18:07.000 |
"Whatever someone asks me for prayer requests," 00:18:11.000 |
because we pray for each other at seminary. I think that's a good thing. 00:18:16.000 |
One of my prayer requests that I would say to them is, 00:18:19.000 |
"Pray that everything that I do in seminary is an act of worship to God, 00:18:23.000 |
that it's not just simply about getting stuff done, 00:18:26.000 |
but to really have that humble perspective that everything matters before Him." 00:18:31.000 |
That changed everything in seminary. It really did. 00:18:35.000 |
Even when Haddon was born and I had to juggle all those things, 00:18:40.000 |
the last year and a half that I was in seminary was such a testament 00:18:47.000 |
I can't imagine getting through that without relying upon Him, 00:18:56.000 |
We need to understand that true strength and courage is going to come 00:19:04.000 |
The second aspect of true strength and courage is this. 00:19:08.000 |
True strength and courage derives from believing His promises and His Word. 00:19:16.000 |
"Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause these people to inherit the land 00:19:21.000 |
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law 00:19:27.000 |
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, 00:19:30.000 |
that you may have good success wherever you go. 00:19:33.000 |
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, 00:19:38.000 |
so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 00:19:48.000 |
So after God commands Joshua to take Israel into the promised land, 00:19:53.000 |
God uses this phrase to be strong and courageous twice in verses 6 through 8. 00:20:00.000 |
The repetition of this phrase implies importance to what God is saying. 00:20:05.000 |
And in the Hebrew, this phrase is actually an imperative. 00:20:12.000 |
There is no other option for Joshua at this point. 00:20:19.000 |
There is no room for cowardness or fear as he leads Israel into conquest. 00:20:26.000 |
And thank God that he didn't just simply tell Joshua to be strong and courageous, 00:20:35.000 |
And he gives him two sources to draw from in order to be strong and courageous. 00:20:42.000 |
And the first source that he lists off for Joshua is God's promises. 00:20:52.000 |
Joshua is to be strong and courageous because God's told him, 00:20:56.000 |
"Through you, Israel is going to inherit the land." 00:20:59.000 |
Again, if you've been at Berean for a period of time, 00:21:02.000 |
you know that the land is pretty significant in Israel's history. 00:21:06.000 |
This is, in one sense, already promised to them ever since Abraham in Genesis 12. 00:21:14.000 |
And so this nation of Israel has been waiting for several centuries, 00:21:21.000 |
waiting to attain this land once and for all. 00:21:26.000 |
And in the midst of waiting, they've endured slavery. 00:21:33.000 |
In the midst of waiting, they were able to experience God's grace and mercy in their lives as they traveled. 00:21:41.000 |
And so when there's a promise made by God, and he's making that pretty clear in verse 6, 00:21:52.000 |
And if you go through Scripture, you know that God has an excellent track record of keeping his promises, 00:21:57.000 |
especially when they're listed out in Scripture. 00:22:02.000 |
We just celebrated Christmas a few days ago, right? 00:22:05.000 |
And I know we're celebrating that it's the birth of Christ, 00:22:08.000 |
and it's the beginning of God's redemption plan for the lost. 00:22:18.000 |
God promised that Jesus would come in Genesis chapter 3. 00:22:22.000 |
God promised that Jesus was going to come in Isaiah chapter 9. 00:22:26.000 |
And so while we're celebrating his birth, we're also celebrating that, man, God keeps his promises. 00:22:36.000 |
And think about all the promises that hasn't been fulfilled yet, that we look forward to, right? 00:22:42.000 |
Think about the promise of the resurrected body, right? 00:22:45.000 |
I mean, one of these days, you know, we're all going to pass away. 00:22:49.000 |
And if we're believers in Christ, and we believe that we will be resurrected with new bodies, 00:22:55.000 |
bodies that won't be tainted by sin, bodies that will last for eternity. 00:23:04.000 |
I mean, I'm looking forward to looking like, what am I going to look like in my new heavenly body? 00:23:07.000 |
Am I still going to have this scar on my forehead? 00:23:16.000 |
What about the promise of salvation being complete, right? 00:23:21.000 |
If you're a believer in this room right now, you know that you're in the process of sanctification, right? 00:23:26.000 |
Meaning, you're in the process of being made more like Christ. 00:23:29.000 |
God reveals sin in your life, and you confess it, and you're repentant over that. 00:23:35.000 |
I mean, he promises us that one day, my salvation will be complete. 00:23:41.000 |
You will no longer have this sin nature in you. 00:23:48.000 |
Which leads me to a third promise, no more sin and no more death. 00:23:54.000 |
I mean, that's the promise for me that I'm looking forward to seeing, right? 00:24:11.000 |
That is a promise that God hasn't fulfilled yet, but he will keep that promise in the very end. 00:24:17.000 |
And when you consider all these promises, and what I presented to you is not the full load. 00:24:25.000 |
But when you consider these promises, it gives us strength and courage to persevere in our present life. 00:24:35.000 |
The second source that God gives Joshua to draw from, to draw true strength and courage from, is his word. 00:24:48.000 |
And what makes God stand out from all the other false gods in this world is his clarity. 00:24:53.000 |
He clearly communicates what his desire is and what his will is for his people. 00:24:59.000 |
Again, in my experience, when I'm given clear instructions in what to do, I can perform that task with much more confidence, right? 00:25:07.000 |
I think about this time where Jen was at work, I was at home with Hadden, and I opened the refrigerator for lunch, right? 00:25:16.000 |
And so I noticed that there was nothing in the fridge for Hadden. 00:25:19.000 |
And so I'm kind of wondering, hmm, like what's going to happen, you know? 00:25:23.000 |
He doesn't like the baby food, so I'm like, I don't want to give him that. 00:25:27.000 |
So I'm like wondering, what am I supposed to feed him? 00:25:29.000 |
And so I remember texting Jen, and I say, Jen, there's nothing in the fridge for Hadden. 00:25:39.000 |
And so Jen very graciously gave me instructions. 00:25:45.000 |
She gave me instructions on how to make this rice porridge that Hadden likes. 00:25:49.000 |
And now, again, like I have a big fear of the kitchen and cooking in any sense, shape and form. 00:25:55.000 |
In China, I think I almost burned down our apartment because I mixed some water and grease and fire, and it was not pretty. 00:26:02.000 |
So I was kind of afraid, but Jen gave me very detailed instructions on how to make this porridge. 00:26:15.000 |
I was just like, okay, get one scoop of rice, put it in the bowl, put it in the pot, let it boil with water for a few minutes, 00:26:23.000 |
and then pour a little soy sauce and put a little this and that, and just stir it for five or ten minutes. 00:26:30.000 |
Wait for it to cool down and then insert a spoon into the porridge and put it into Hadden's mouth. 00:26:42.000 |
But I use that illustration to tell us, like, when we are given instructions from God, it is clear what we're supposed to do. 00:26:50.000 |
And we can perform that with confidence because this is exactly what he wants. 00:26:55.000 |
Because Joshua had the word of God, he has tremendous confidence in leading Israel into the promised land. 00:27:04.000 |
If you go a little bit further into Joshua, in Joshua chapter 6 and 7, Joshua is hit with crossroads immediately that tests whether or not Joshua will obey God's commands completely. 00:27:17.000 |
In Joshua chapter 6, it's the battle of Jericho, right? 00:27:24.000 |
The battle of Jericho is where God instructs Israel to walk around the walls of Jericho once every day for six days, 00:27:32.000 |
and on the seventh day to walk around the walls of Jericho seven times, right? 00:27:36.000 |
And at the seventh time, blow their horns, and then the walls are supposed to fall down. 00:27:41.000 |
If you were a skeptic back then, you probably think, "Is that really going to work?" 00:27:46.000 |
Well, Joshua had the opportunity to either obey or disobey, and he chose to obey. 00:27:54.000 |
In Joshua chapter 6, the walls of Jericho falls down and they're able to conquer the city. 00:28:01.000 |
As it says in chapter 6 verse 27, "So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land." 00:28:07.000 |
Joshua chapter 7 is another time where he had to face whether to obey or disobey God's law. 00:28:14.000 |
In Joshua chapter 7, I titled it "The Sin of Achan." 00:28:19.000 |
See, after they defeated Jericho, they went to another city called Ai, 00:28:25.000 |
and it's a lot smaller than Jericho, and yet Israel actually lost that battle. 00:28:29.000 |
And the reason why they lost that battle was because of sin. 00:28:34.000 |
And so there was this elaborate way of trying to draw out the sinner, 00:28:38.000 |
and finally Achan, this one man, confessed that, "Yeah, I sinned. I took some gold. 00:28:51.000 |
Does he show like, "It's okay. Just don't do it again, Achan." 00:28:55.000 |
Or do I just carry this, or do I have to follow God's law, which is to execute his family? 00:29:02.000 |
And you see in Joshua chapter 7 that no matter how hard the situation is, 00:29:12.000 |
And so we need to understand that God's promises and his word are a tremendous source 00:29:19.000 |
for strength and courage in the Christian life. 00:29:23.000 |
Now, if I could say something, we need to remember that God's promises and his word are inseparable. 00:29:35.000 |
And I know we're at a Bible-teaching church, and when you talk about Berean outside of Berean, 00:29:42.000 |
they always say, "Oh, that's a Bible-teaching church," right? 00:29:45.000 |
But the danger that we have here is that we may assume that we know the Bible. 00:29:51.000 |
We may assume that we know the Bible, and so we're satisfied with that assumption. 00:29:57.000 |
Assuming to know the word and not taking time to dive into it, 00:30:01.000 |
like what God commanded Joshua to do, to meditate upon it day and night, 00:30:06.000 |
will cause us to be separated from the promises of God. 00:30:10.000 |
And I don't mean that separation to be based upon knowledge. 00:30:20.000 |
But the separation that I'm talking about is your personal faith in his promises, 00:30:32.000 |
I mean, the question that you could just phrase this is, "Do you believe in his promises?" Right? 00:30:38.000 |
You know there's a difference between knowing and believing something, right? 00:30:45.000 |
I'll use a polarizing figure. I'll use Jeremy Lin as an example, right? 00:30:50.000 |
Some may know and might think that Jeremy Lin is the best point guard in the world, right? 00:31:00.000 |
They're just kind of on the sidelines, just kind of like, "Yeah, I think that." 00:31:04.000 |
But if you actually believe that Jeremy Lin is the greatest point guard in the world, 00:31:08.000 |
then you'll be the staunchest Jeremy Lin advocate wherever you go, right? 00:31:14.000 |
So knowing and believing is two separate things. 00:31:18.000 |
And that's the danger that we live in, especially in our church. 00:31:22.000 |
We cannot separate God's promises from his word. 00:31:29.000 |
2 Peter 1, if you guys could turn there really quick. 00:31:42.000 |
2 Peter 1, verses 5 through 8, kind of gives us a list of-- 00:31:48.000 |
Peter is writing to his audience and he's saying, "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith." 00:31:56.000 |
"Your faith with virtue, with knowledge, with self-control, with steadfastness, with godliness, with breadthly affection, and with love." 00:32:06.000 |
And then if you go down to the next paragraph in verses 9 through 15, Peter writes, 00:32:14.000 |
"Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 00:32:23.000 |
I think it right as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, 00:32:28.000 |
since I know that the putting off my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 00:32:33.000 |
And I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things." 00:32:40.000 |
Peter is acknowledging to his audience, "You already know this. 00:32:43.000 |
You already know that your faith needs to be supplemented by these lists of things. 00:32:52.000 |
And as Christians living in this day and age, 00:32:55.000 |
the source of our reminders of any of God's promises and any of His commands is going to be from His Word. 00:33:02.000 |
So we cannot separate God's promises from His Word. 00:33:06.000 |
We need to be in it day and night, meditating upon it. 00:33:10.000 |
The moment we stop reading His Word is the moment that the separation from God's promises begin. 00:33:18.000 |
And when that separation occurs, we will lose strength and courage over a period of time. 00:33:26.000 |
"Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, or in our situation, what we have read, lest we drift away from it." 00:33:36.000 |
And so, we cover two aspects of it, of what true strength and true courage is. 00:33:48.000 |
True strength and courage derives from believing in His promises and His Word. 00:33:55.000 |
The last aspect that I want to highlight this morning is this. 00:34:01.000 |
True strength and courage comes from being in God's presence. 00:34:09.000 |
"Have I not commanded you, 'Be strong and courageous. 00:34:14.000 |
Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'" 00:34:20.000 |
He commands him one more time, "Be strong and courageous, Joshua." 00:34:25.000 |
And he affirms this command by using the negative phrase, "Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed." 00:34:32.000 |
And this is the second time that the Lord assures Joshua that He is going to be with him. 00:34:40.000 |
In verse 5, it says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. 00:34:45.000 |
Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:34:53.000 |
Joshua is one of two Israelites from the first generation that's able to enter into the Promised Land. 00:35:00.000 |
And so, in Joshua's eyes, he saw the presence of God. 00:35:04.000 |
He saw the presence of God when he took Israel out of Egypt. 00:35:08.000 |
He saw the presence of God at Mount Sinai when Moses went up to receive the Ten Commandments. 00:35:14.000 |
Joshua saw the presence of God when he provided the manna and the quail for the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness. 00:35:21.000 |
He saw the presence of God when Moses struck the rock and water came down. 00:35:27.000 |
And so, Joshua, if there's anyone who understands the weightiness of having God's presence in the mist, 00:35:39.000 |
He understands the implications that are involved when God is with him. 00:35:49.000 |
I think there's a lot of components to it, but the one component that I want us to really focus on is this, relationship. 00:36:04.000 |
When you look at the life of Moses and Joshua, and two men who really are marked by the presence of God, 00:36:12.000 |
they had an intimate and deep relationship with the Lord. 00:36:17.000 |
In Joshua, the phrase, "The Lord said to Joshua," appears 17 times in this entire book. 00:36:24.000 |
This implies the closeness of their relationship. 00:36:29.000 |
He speaks to those that he has a relationship with. 00:36:32.000 |
Moses, in Deuteronomy 34, verse 10, he's described as someone whom the Lord knew face to face. 00:36:42.000 |
Again, the implication from that phrase, "face to face," implies intimacy. 00:36:54.000 |
And so, the question that we have to ask ourselves this morning, 00:36:59.000 |
if we want true strength and true courage with regards to our faith, 00:37:05.000 |
do we seek after the presence of God in our lives? 00:37:13.000 |
And as I was thinking about this question, it kind of led me to a book that I read a while ago. 00:37:26.000 |
And I remember just picking it up one summer while we were in China. 00:37:30.000 |
We were staying at someone's apartment, and I was reading through it, 00:37:33.000 |
and it really got my attention really fast, so I was trying to read it before I left. 00:37:38.000 |
Couldn't, so I had to order it and wait for it to come. 00:37:42.000 |
But it's a fictional novel that tracks the lives of these two friends. 00:37:46.000 |
This guy named Ben Fielding, who's an American, and this Chinese man named Lee Kuan. 00:37:52.000 |
And their paths kind of intersect in college, 00:37:55.000 |
and Ben Fielding was a Christian, Lee Kuan wasn't. 00:37:58.000 |
And so he was evangelizing to him, bringing him out to Bible studies and whatnot, 00:38:02.000 |
and eventually Lee Kuan confessed faith in Christ. 00:38:07.000 |
Because they were in college, they eventually graduated, 00:38:09.000 |
and so Lee Kuan went back to China, Ben Fielding continued to live his life in America. 00:38:13.000 |
And the story basically tracks their lives, their faith, 00:38:18.000 |
and Ben Fielding's faith was lukewarm, and Lee Kuan began to take his faith more seriously. 00:38:26.000 |
As I'm answering the question about, "Is the presence of God real in my life?" 00:38:33.000 |
In this story, there was a discussion that takes place between Ben Fielding and Lee Kuan. 00:38:45.000 |
There was this handcrafted chair that Lee Kuan had in his home. 00:38:50.000 |
And his home wasn't the best home, it wasn't well kept, 00:38:55.000 |
but this chair stood out because it was really nice. 00:38:59.000 |
And so Ben Fielding was like, "How come no one sits in that chair?" 00:39:05.000 |
You have all these people over at your house for church, but no one sits in that chair. 00:39:13.000 |
And so Lee Kuan would like, you know, throughout the story would like kind of tell them, 00:39:18.000 |
"You're not ready yet for the answer, you're not ready yet for the answer." 00:39:28.000 |
"But most important, this chair is a remembrance of Jesus' promise to always be with his children. 00:39:37.000 |
At every meal we have, we remember he is with us. 00:39:41.000 |
When we sit in the evening, when we go to sleep at night, 00:39:45.000 |
we remember he is there watching over us no matter what." 00:39:52.000 |
When I read that passage, what struck me so deeply was this man's faith. 00:39:59.000 |
That he actually believed that Christ's presence was in that chair. 00:40:06.000 |
That he believed that the reality of Christ's presence was much more real 00:40:12.000 |
than the air he breathed, the food he ate, the people he interacted with. 00:40:18.000 |
It's not enough to acknowledge that God's presence exists in this world. 00:40:24.000 |
As Christians, do we desire to actually believe the presence of God is more real 00:40:31.000 |
than what we see, feel, touch, or smell in this world? 00:40:41.000 |
I think of when we go to Acts chapter 7 and the account with Stephen and him being executed. 00:40:49.000 |
I was kind of reminded of this, that as he's about to be stoned in Acts chapter 7 verse 55, it says, 00:40:57.000 |
"But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God 00:41:05.000 |
And he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'" 00:41:13.000 |
I mean, at that moment, the presence of Christ was real to Stephen. He saw it. 00:41:20.000 |
Hebrews chapter 12 reminds us to fix our gaze upon Jesus. Not facts about Jesus, 00:41:27.000 |
not the doctrine of Jesus, but Jesus himself. 00:41:34.000 |
So the question that I'm asking myself and I want to ask you guys too is, 00:41:39.000 |
do you desire to see the presence of Christ being real in your life? 00:41:46.000 |
Psalm 105 verse 4 says, "Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his presence continually." 00:41:56.000 |
When the New Year rolls around, I don't know about you guys, 00:42:00.000 |
but I want the presence of Christ to be so real. 00:42:03.000 |
I want it to be more real than Jen and with Haddon. 00:42:13.000 |
Because when Haddon grows up, I don't want him to view Jesus as some sort of fairy tale 00:42:20.000 |
I want him to know that the presence of Christ is real. 00:42:27.000 |
As we conclude, I want us to look at these three observations again. 00:42:32.000 |
I want us to understand that these observations are interlinked. 00:42:37.000 |
You have humility, you have God's word, and you have the presence of God. 00:42:44.000 |
You can't be proud and still claim to be in the presence of God. 00:42:54.000 |
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 00:42:58.000 |
The absence of the word, when you're not in the word meditating on day and night, 00:43:03.000 |
you cannot remain humble and dependent upon God. 00:43:09.000 |
If there's an absence of the presence of God in your life, 00:43:12.000 |
it will surely create a divide when it comes to reading his word. 00:43:18.000 |
It becomes more academic than really an act of worship and devotion. 00:43:23.000 |
As we close this message, I really want you guys to consider those three aspects 00:43:29.000 |
and to look where are you strong in, where are you weak in. 00:43:35.000 |
Come before the Lord and say, "God, sometimes I don't think you're real." 00:43:40.000 |
Or, "Sometimes maybe I don't feel your presence." 00:43:48.000 |
maybe there's a need for us to wait quietly until the presence of God comes into our lives. 00:43:56.000 |
Or if you're a proud individual, maybe you need humility in your life. Pray for that. 00:44:02.000 |
Or if you need more time to study the word, ask God for that time. 00:44:07.000 |
But whatever it may be, as we just bow our heads for this moment, 00:44:13.000 |
really pray and ask God for help in one of those areas 00:44:22.000 |
There are going to be times coming up in the new year that you expect. 00:44:26.000 |
There will be times where it will be unexpected. 00:44:29.000 |
You know, blessings, tragedies, we don't know. 00:44:33.000 |
But what we do know is we need strength and we need courage no matter what. 00:44:37.000 |
And so take some time to pray as the Praise Team leads us in a time of response.