Sermon Transcript

Today I want you to open your Bible to…wait for it…the Table of Contents! We’re going to need a road map. As you’re finding your way there, I just want to give you the big idea of what’s going on. It’s a very special day here at Harvest! We are kicking off a brand-new series that will take us all the way to the days when it’s warm. All the way through winter, all the way through spring!

The series we’re starting is entitled Onward: Don’t Stop Now! It is a verse-by-verse march through the twenty-four chapters of the book of Joshua, the sixth book in our Bible. We’ve even got some visual effects to help you with what we’re going for in the book of Joshua.

I’m going to give you the big idea right at the beginning. If you condensed everything the book of Joshua had to say to us in 2016, I believe it would be this statement: “The direction of the Christian life is onward!” That’s what we’re going to learn from the book of Joshua. We’ll have a lot to say about that, but that’s where we’re going.

It’s a good time, every time we open a new series, to remind you of some foundational principles that we believe here at Harvest Bible Chapel, particularly related to this Book we hold in our hands—our Bibles. Around here, we believe in the inspiration, the inerrancy, the authority and sufficiency of the Scripture.

The Book we hold in our hands is a book written by God. The reason we know that is because of this verse in “two” Timothy. See what I did there? If you have no idea what’s going on right now, just ask later.

In 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, we read this about our Bibles: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable…” for four things. “For teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God” and the woman of God “may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Do you have some good work you want to get done? Then you need to be equipped with the Word of God.

Around here, what we believe about this Book is that a God who exists outside of time and space has spoken into our time and space and given us a self-disclosure of who he is, of his will and his ways for us. And so when we come to the Scripture, we say this: “We give the Bible the right to determine what we believe and how we are to behave.” That is our commitment to the authority of Scripture in our lives.

Now, for some of you, I realize you’re not quite there yet. Maybe you’re curious, maybe someone drug you to church this morning, and you’re like, “Come on! That book was written by a bunch of men!” Well, that’s the reason we open it up, and as we read God’s Word it does something in our hearts that no words of men can do. So we’re here to look at what God has to say to us—in a particular place over the next seventeen weeks—in a book called Joshua.

I’ve had you open to the Table of Contents, and I want you to notice. Do you see there are two sections in your Bible? They are called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The book of Joshua is found in the Old Testament.

But before we read something from the Old Testament, there is a verse in the New Testament that acts as a key to insert into the “lock” of Joshua, that will unlock the lock. It is this verse, found in 1 Corinthians 10:11.

Why do we study the Old Testament books and stories and history that was written to ancient Israel thousands of years ago? Because of this verse. The writer of 1 Corinthians says, “Now these things…” These things that were written so long ago “happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” So, the writer of 1 Corinthians understood the value of the Old Testament.

When we study the Old Testament, and even this book of Joshua, we’re not studying it for information. There is a lot of history, there is a lot of geography in this book. We’re going to look at some of that. But understand, what we’re looking for is not information. What we are looking for is instruction. It was written down for us.

Not everything that happened thousands of years ago was written down, but God, in His sovereignty, allowed some things to be written down for our instruction in 2016. That’s why we’re going to dive into this book.

When we dive into Joshua we’re looking for instruction on how to live in right relationship with God. We’re looking for instruction on how to please God; we’re looking for instruction on how to live the life God intended me to live in the place he intended me to live—and have everything that he has for me available. How do I get access to all that God wants for me, to live? That’s what we’re going to learn in the book of Joshua.

Now, my Table of Contents, when I open my Bible—I need a little cheat sheet. I went to public school. I need a little help, and I’ve just kind of scribbled around in the Old Testament, because I need to know kind of what I can expect when I open to certain parts of the Bible.

The first five books of the Bible is known as “the Law”. The Hebrew term is the Torah, and those five books were written by the man named Moses. Now, Joshua is the sixth book and Joshua was not written by Moses. Do you know why? Because Moses was dead, and Moses was not a good writer when he was dead, so he didn’t get around to the book of Joshua. This book picks up right after the death of Moses.

This morning, I was really planning on opening up to Joshua 1 and starting our journey through this book, but I realized, there is so much backstory that we need to understand about the first five books that we’re not going to understand the first thing about Joshua until we look at the backstory. So, indulge me a little bit—I need to take a little time to do a quick Old Testament survey through the first five books of the Bible, okay?

The first verse of the Bible goes like this: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  And pretty soon, we find out that he created a man named Adam. Then he created a woman—an upgrade of Men 2.0 – Women. And they were in covenant relationship—one man, one woman for one lifetime—all for the glory of God. Yet, they blew it. They disobeyed God. They wanted to be God, so the first five chapters of our Bible is this tragic story how paradise was lost.

Then we get to chapter 6 of Genesis and we find that God moves onward to another guy—named Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Then for about six chapters in the book, there’s this tragic story of how there was “only evil on the earth continually.” And God saved Noah and his family, and they get out of the ark, and we open up our Bibles to Genesis chapter 12. That’s where I want you to go right now.

I want you to turn with me, because I want you to mark it up and see where we’re going. What you’re going to see, as we go through this quick survey, is that everything is “onward!” The direction of the Christian life is onward! So, God moves onward—past Adam—he moves onward to Noah, he moves onward to this guy in Genesis 12.

And this is what God says to this guy named Abram. “Now the Lord said to Abram…” which, in and of itself, is remarkable! Don’t move too fast past the understanding that we have a God who speaks. He communicates, he reveals himself to unworthy sinners like you and me and a guy named Abram.

God steps in redemptively, and graciously, and tells Abram how we’re going to move onward. “Go…” Do you detect any forward movement in that statement? “…From your country and your kindred and your father’s house…” All the things that were familiar to him. “…To the land that I will show you.” Just underline that word “land” there. You’re going to see it’s a recurring theme as we lead up to Joshua and get into Joshua. It’s very important that you understand something about the land.

This was the first promise that God made about this particular land. We’re going to find out we refer to it as the “Promised Land.” We’re going to find out later, as well, it’s the land of promised rest. But it’s this reference to land.

Notice, Abraham was probably wondering like, “Lord, what address do I punch into the GPS to actually get there? You weren’t real specific. You said, ‘It’s a land that I will show you.’”  Abraham didn’t even know where he was going, but he needed to obey the first command, “Go—onward—I’ve got something for you.”

 Scripture goes on: “And I will make of you a great nation. . .” How do you do that, by the way? You have babies! This is the story that leads us all through Genesis—about the family and the legacy of Abraham. The passage says, “. . .and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

Isn’t that a great principle? We are blessed to be a blessing. We’re not just blessed to enjoy and consume the blessing of God. We’re blessed to be a blessing, and that’s what God wanted to do in Abraham’s life – to move him onward so that he could be blessed and he could be a blessing. God wants to do the same thing for us. So, we see Genesis, we see the story of Abraham’s family—it plays itself out through the fifty chapters of the first book in our Bible.

We get to the very end of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, and this is what happens: this great nation, that had been grown from Abraham’s legacy, falls onto—and under attack by—another nation. That nation was Egypt. Didn’t know God, worshipped foreign and false gods (misdirected worship in Egypt) and Egypt enslaves the family of God known as “Israel.” That’s how the book of Genesis ends.

And so we move—onward—into the second book of the Bible and we’re introduced to a new hero. His name is Moses. God comes and speaks to Moses. In Exodus 3:6-8, this is what God says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” It’s almost as if God’s saying, “Hey! Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—important, not ultimate. What is ultimate is God.” It’s almost as if what God is saying is, “Next! Next! Next!”

God can use anyone but he doesn’t need anyone. It’s all about God and His plan. He’s moving onward through succeeding generations. And Moses, in response to what God had said, did something very wise when you are confronted with a holy God!—he hid his face—for he was afraid to look at God. It’s a picture of a humble heart that worships, understanding, “God is holy, I am not! I am in danger of being incinerated right now if it was not for the grace of God to shield me from His holiness.” So, Moses had right relationship with God.

Then Scripture goes on and says, “Then the Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings. . .’” Interestingly, the principle here is God hears our prayers! No matter what you are enslaved by, no matter what is causing your suffering, no matter how bad your boss—God hears our suffering.

And in response, this is what God does. He says, “I have come down…” Bam! Aren’t you grateful for a God who would come down to where we are in our captivity, in our slavery, in our suffering? “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land. . .”  There’s the land again.

And he describes it “as a land flowing with milk and honey,” and Krispy Kreme donuts! Sorry I editorialized a little bit there, but if you want to get me somewhere, just tell me there’s some Krispy Kreme donuts and I’m motivated to be there!

God was holding out to them something that was the ultimate pleasure, the place where God wanted to provide and protect them, in this place. But they were going to need to go onward from where they were to where God had promised they should be.

So, we go through the book of Exodus, and God does deliver them out of Egypt. They cross the Red Sea and they land in the wilderness. What should have been a few weeks’ journey to this Promised Land turned into a forty-year ordeal. Do you know why? Because of this: they started grumbling, they started complaining, they started criticizing the leader. God said, “Okay, alright. I’m putting you in time-out…for a whole generation!”

“Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb. . .” We’re going to learn about Caleb a little later in the book of Joshua. Caleb was a guy who had a whole heart for God. The passage continues, “’He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’’ Moses goes on. He’s speaking and he’s telling the people, he’s not going to get to the land either. “Even with me [Moses] the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there.’”

So, Moses received the promise but he didn’t receive the land. That generation of Israel received the promise but they didn’t receive the land. They’re waiting, and God was saying, “You know what? Nobody of this generation under forty years old is going to get to see the land. Your kids are going to get it, but you’re not going to get it. You forfeited it because of your disobedience!”

There’s one other guy who’s going to get to see the land, and we’re introduced to him in Deuteronomy 1:38—Joshua. Joshua, the son of Nun. Can you imagine being little Joshua, talking to your friends? They’re talking about their dads, and somebody says, “Joshua, what’s your dad’s name?” And Joshua says, “I’m the son of Nun.” “Oh, that’s so unfortunate—you don’t have a father!” “No, his name is Nun.” . . .he’d have to spell it out. Anyway, it was very confusing back in the day.

So, “Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter.” God gives Moses a charge to multiply leadership and he says this to Moses, “Encourage him…”  because he’s going to need it! “…For he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” By the way, next week’s message is all about how Moses encouraged Joshua and multiplied leadership so that the next generation would have a great leader.

We’re introduced to this guy named Joshua, and we finally get—in our Bibles—to the book of Joshua. Please open your Bibles to the first chapter of Joshua—the sixth book in the Bible. We’re introduced to Joshua as this great leader. We finally get onward to Joshua. Let me give you a little idea of what they’re facing.

Here’s a crude map. I want you to imagine yourself as one of these people about to go into this land. Maybe you were born in Egypt. Your mom and your dad took you over the Red Sea and you wandered around for forty years in the wilderness, and you’re one of this next generation that is actually going to get to go over into the Promised Land.

You start noticing that that generation above you starts dying of old age and other things, and you start to get excited. You think, “God said we couldn’t go in until that generation was gone!” So, there’s this last remaining guy, and you’re going by to check on him. You go by and say, “How you feeling today?” “I feel great!” You go by a couple weeks later and he says, “I’ve got a little cough!” “Really!? We’re almost there!”

What’s happening is, we come to the first chapter of the book of Joshua, and this is the journey that they had taken. They had come through the Red Sea and they’d come through the wilderness, finally, and they are standing as the next generation of God’s people—recipients of the Promised Land—and they’re standing on the east side of the Promised Land, about to cross over (that very accurate picture of) the Jordan River. The Jordan River was the boundary, and they’re about to step over. They were going to have to go over the Jordan River and the entire nation is standing there. And that is the way the book of Joshua begins.

Now, that’s the end of the history—that’s the end of the geography. If you think I told you all of that so you can become a Bible fat-head and get some information in your head, you missed the point. We’re looking, not for information, we are looking for instruction. Because what we need to understand is that Joshua is not just about ancient Israel. Joshua is about me, and it’s about you.

And the reason we know that is because of a commentary that the writer of Hebrews gives us on the book of Joshua. I don’t have time to unpack all of it, but I want to introduce it to you. We’re going to look at it more as we go through this series. I want you to see this from Hebrews.

If you’ve got your Bible, open it to Hebrews 4. Verse 1 says this, “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” Do you see what this verse says? The promise still stands! There was a promise of land that was given to ancient Israel, but there is a promise that still stands for a place that God wants us today, in 2016, to enter.

When I say “place,” I am not talking about a geographical location on the map. It’s not so much about a place of rest—it is about a Person where we find rest. His name is Jesus Christ. Interestingly, the Old Testament Hebrew name that was translated into the term “Joshua,” and the New Testament Greek name that’s translated into the word “Jesus”—same name. And so, as we read the book of Joshua, what we are looking for is how you and I can enter into this place of promise – this place of relief, this place of grace, this place of rest where our souls find satisfaction—where everything else leaves us restless.

Are you restless this morning? After the end of the nine-o’clock service, a senior from Notre Dame came up and said, “Would you pray for me? My heart is so anxious!” And I said, “What’s going on in your life?” Well, first of all she’s a senior at Notre Dame—that’s enough. And there’s this relationship that might be happening. . .and I’m like, “Okay, I can understand why you. . .and what’s going to happen after you graduate?” “I don’t quite know. . .” and there are some things that could cause restlessness.

Is there anybody else around here who is not a senior at Notre Dame, who is facing some things that would cause restlessness in your soul? Do you understand that the book of Joshua is for you, to go onward into a place of rest? And it is only in Jesus Christ—who has done all of the work, who has fulfilled all of the promise—where we can find the place where God meets us at the point of our restlessness.

In spite of all of the circumstances, we can rest, knowing God is fully in charge. The calm assurance that God has this, and that all of my pleasure, all of my enjoyment, all of my satisfaction will only be found in Him—not in a place but in a Person. The writer of Hebrews—look down in chapter 4 at verse 8. I want you to see it really quick: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.” In other words, it’s not about a place, it’s about a Person.

Continue in Hebrews 4:9-11: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” Do you see what this is saying? It’s incredible! “Strive” to “rest.” Work really hard; exhaust yourself—to find the place of rest.

So there’s a sense in which Jesus has already provided the rest that God has promised. There’s also sense that we have not yet – and never quite will until we are with Jesus in His Kingdom – experience the totality of all the rest God wants to give us. But in this day, remember, this is about me. There is a rest.

Here’s what he’s saying: If you’re restless, in some sense, somewhere in your soul, it is because of the same sort of disobedience that ancient Israel had, that kept them out of the Promised Land. So he says, “Be careful. Don’t let sinful disobedience keep you from the place God wants you to dwell!”

That is all just an introduction to help you understand. When we’re talking about land, we’re not talking about dirt—we’re not talking about somewhere in the Middle East over there. We’re talking about a place God wants us to live and to enjoy and to abide, even in 2016. So, I want to spend the rest of the time here applying all that truth, because I was thinking about you and me this week as I was putting this message together.

I was thinking, “Who cares about Joshua? Who should care? Who needs the message of Joshua? Who, in our church, needs to go on from where they are to where God wants them to be? So I thought about some guys. I want you to understand, I want you to grasp, what I mean every time I say:

 

The direction of the Christian life is onward.

 

Did you get that? Here’s what I mean by “onward.” And I’m going to ask you, “Do you have an onward orientation?” Because some of you do not, and you need to get it before we leave church today!

So here’s what I mean. . .

 

Onward is an attitude that continually propels forward movement and resists stagnation.

 

Who am I thinking about? I’m thinking about this guy. When I say that, I’m not seeing a face, I’m not thinking of a name—I’m thinking of a collection of hypothetical people—it could be a guy, it could be a girl, definitely some teenagers, definitely some people in my family, and at times definitely me.

So I’m thinking about this guy. Are you the guy that thinks that getting saved, being converted to Christ, becoming a Christian, is the finish line? Because if it is, you may have stepped over into the Promised Land of forgiveness and grace, and you are now in the family of God, and yet, you stopped—the day after you got saved.

If that’s you, um, the direction of the Christian life is onward. You need some forward movement! You need to take the next step, because God not only wants to justify you at a point in your life, God wants to begin a process of sanctification the rest of your life. Every day is an opportunity to get up and get going and get moving and enjoy the ride, so that you finish the day in a better place than you were when you woke up.

I took my family to Cedar Point this summer. How many of you have been to Cedar Point? Do you know? Do you know about the roller coasters? Okay, they have all different kinds of roller coasters. They have the old kind of traditional roller coaster where, you know, you get on and you strap yourself in, and then they send you out of the gate and around the first corner. . .and then you start the climb, right?

And there’s that awful, wicked sound—tick-a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a—and you think, “Is this ever going to end?” And then somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, “I’m hopin’ that keeps going, because if that ever stops, I’m thinkin’ I’m going real fast in the opposite direction!” Right?

I just thought about that sound as I was thinking about this guy. Your Christian life should be tick-a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a. . .but then I thought, at some point there’s some people—you crested the hill and you rode the momentum of that first hill. . .Maybe you went to youth camp and you got all fired up, or maybe you went to a Christian concert or maybe you went to church last weekend and the worship was so awesome, and you thought, “Oh, man, God’s doing so much in my life; God really is at work!”. . .and you crested the hill and you flew around the corner and you flipped upside-down, like, “This is so exciting! I’ve got to get other people to wait two hours to get on the ride to do that. This is so great!”

But then, at some point, what happens on the roller coaster? You come sliding to a stop back where you started, and you get off the ride. Some of you have done that, and what you don’t realize on the ride is, the ride only lasts like ninety-six seconds…even though you waited in line for two hours to get on it…and some of you had a really good first ninety-six seconds of your Christian life, but you stopped!

The message for you today is this: It is time for you to get moving onward again! Tick-a-tick-a-tick-a-tick-a. . .and you need to take your next step. So when we talk about “onward,” we’re talking about an attitude. We’re also talking about a disposition.

 

Onward is a disposition to move beyond the territory I now occupy

into the territory God has promised.

 

You know, those ancient Israelites, when they came out of Egypt. . .it was so much better in the wilderness than it was slavery, under Egypt! Some of them may have thought, “Man, this is an upgrade! This is really cool! We don’t have taskmasters, we don’t have to make bricks anymore, this is great! Can’t we just kind of live in the wilderness?” And that’s what contributed to them never seeing the land God wanted them to occupy.

I’m thinking of this guy who’s gotten really comfortable living in a place that’s an upgrade from where you were, but it is not the place of promise where God wants you to go. I’m thinking about people who have been Christians for years.

If you showed me your Bible this morning, it’s all marked up and it looks like a rainbow and you’ve got tear stains and bloodstains on it—you’ve studied it so much—and you’ve packed your head full of Bible knowledge. And you’ve been to Bible conferences and you’ve been to Christian concerts and your bookshelves are lined with journals, and you’ve got so much truth. And, here’s you—you know right, and by comparison, you do right. . .but you know you are not right! And yet you’re stuck, you’re stopped in your onward progress into the land where God wants you to go.

Andrea and I had a wonderful time this weekend! We’ve been married twenty-one years. We got away to Florida this weekend. I know, “Groan! Everybody groan!” We actually had conversations for three days that weren’t with a kid or about a kid! It had been weeks since that had happened. You know what? We found out we still love each other, and we signed up for another forty years. We’re going the distance! We’re going o the finish line. We had a wonderful time.

There’s something you need to know, that often happens in our marriage. Confession time for the pastor. We’ve been married twenty-one years. There’s a conversation that happens almost weekly. So, when we go somewhere, I typically drive—I like to drive and Andrea likes me to drive—so I get in the driver’s seat and we take off…and, inevitably, we will come to a stoplight.

And so, obediently, I stop. And my mind will get a little distracted sometimes and I’ll be thinking, “Is there a sermon illustration here I could use?” Or, “What was that Bible text I’m supposed to read?” or “What was that conversation I had with that kid?” or “What was that last text?” And at the stoplight, I’ll kind of get caught up.

Andrea has a very high sensitivity to the color green, and if there is any more than .75 seconds elapsed between the time the light turns green and the time my foot moves from the brake to the accelerator, I am going to hear about it! And the conversation is very sweet, but it just simply goes like this: “Are you gonna go?”

I’ve been married twenty-one years. Early in the marriage, that would start a fight. I would just look at Andrea like, “Honey, I got my license when I was sixteen, I got married when I was twenty-seven. That means, for eleven years I figured out how to get out of the intersection, okay? I am not still sitting in an intersection at the red light. Somehow, I got prompted—at some point—it might have been a horn from the guy in the back. But I don’t need the prompting, okay? We’ll get you there.”

This woman does not like to sit still long! The only time she sits still is about an hour in the morning when she’s meeting with Jesus, and we do not approach the “holy hill” at that point—that’s her time. The rest of the time she’s moving, she’s flying around, and she does not want to sit still!

I thought of that when I was thinking of you! Are you going to get going? Are going to go? The light is green, the intersection is clear! God has created a lane for you to safely travel in, to get you to a better place than where you are. You don’t have to stay where you are! No matter where you are, God always has something else for you to reach onward, to grasp. Onward is a disposition. Onward is also an orientation.

 

Onward is an orientation toward God that seeks to close the distance between where I am and where God wants me to live.

 

And I’m thinking of this guy. I’m thinking of this guy who is living in the desert of sin. Maybe you’re like those ancient Israelites. You’re a grumbler, you’re a complainer, you’re discontent. You’re remembering how good it was before the Lord saved you—and the fun and the partying and that. And you’re like, “Man, I just wish I could go back and be with those people! Because walking with Jesus is a little hard, these days and I don’t want to go any further. I don’t want to go any further onward in my walk with God.”

And maybe God’s word for you today is that he is calling you onward out of sin into a life of obedience. He’s calling you out of anger—into a life, onward, to forgiveness. He’s calling you out of your anxiety—onward into a place of rest. He’s calling you out of a life that is self-absorbed—onward, into a life that is servant-hearted. I’m thinking of that guy—you’re stuck! You’re living addicted to sin.

Yesterday, I got the strangest text from my nineteen-year-old daughter, Brooke. I want to read it to you. ‘Cause she’s not here. You know the autocorrect thing on your texting? That will mess you up! This is what Brooke said. Brooke’s nineteen years old; she’s a freshman at Cedarville University, a Christian college, okay? You’ve heard these stories about what freshmen do when they get to their college, first time out of the house. So I get this group text from Brooke. She’s sending it to Andrea and me at the same time, and this is what it says: “You guys might already do this, but you should buy your keg at Sam’s Club, because they come in big bulk!”

My sweet, precious daughter! I send you to a Christian school and you…what!? So, Andrea texted back and she said, “Buy your what from Sam’s?” Brooke texted back and she said, “Ha ha—yeah—because you can buy a ton and it’s not that expensive!” She texted again, “I guess with me gone from the house, though, you probably don’t drink all that much.”

I’m like, “I didn’t know you were drinking when you were at the house!” So, Andrea’s deciphering what is going on, and she texts back, “K-cups, right? You earlier said, in your text, ‘kegs!’” So Brooke texts back, “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Yeah, K-cups!” Whew!

Just for the record, so the word doesn’t get out in the community, the pastor’s family has no use at the house for kegs, okay? But I was thinking of this guy in our church that does. And whether it is alcohol or sex or stuff, you have turned to that, and it’s promised to give you rest, and yet you wake up the next morning and you’re restless again—and you’re stuck. And God’s word to you today is you need to close the distance between where you’re living and where God wants you to live. You need to cross over out of the addiction, out of the pain and out of the restlessness into the place of rest. Onward is an orientation, but onward is also a direction.

 

Onward is a direction that faces forward no matter how long I’ve wandered or how far I’ve already come.

 

So I’m thinking of two guys, this time. I’m thinking about somebody that really has such distance in their relationship with God. Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re not even quite sure why you’re here—somebody drug you here, and you’re thinking, “This is so weird for me! You’re talking about this Bible that God wrote, and you’re talking about this land in ancient Israel, and I’m like, ‘What is all of that!?’ And even if I wanted to be right with God, and I wanted to do things his way, I’ve gone so far and wandered for so long…it just seems like such work to get back. . .”

You’re that guy! God’s message for you today is, “The place of rest is not out of reach. It’s a Promised Land that Jesus wants to provide. All it takes is the next step of faith, for you to get moving onward!”

And I’m thinking about the guy that’s the opposite of that guy, and do you know who that guy is? That guy is me! Because—I don’t know about you—but we’re six years into this journey of church planting—and things are going quite well! And we’ve come such a long way!

How many of you were with me, setting up chairs at the Northpoint Elementary School, praying that God would send somebody to sit in the chair? And—how many of you are still around today and you’re thinking, “I wonder if I’m going to find a seat at church today?” because we’ve come such a long way! And the temptation would be to think, “We don’t need to go any further!” Listen—the Christian, the church or the marriage that stops moving onward—starts dying.

I talk to pastors in churches almost weekly—and they’re dying. Not because there’s heresy, not because of a lack of leadership, but they’re dying because they have no vision to move onward into what’s next for them. May that never be Harvest Bible Chapel!

God has more, God has other places, God has other ministries, and God has a place for you. . .to step into the leadership, to step into the vision that God has put on our hearts. It’s a direction that faces forward, no matter how long or how far I’ve wandered—or how far I’ve already come. Onward is a direction, but onward is also a battle cry.

 

Onward is the battle cry of those who refuse to accept spiritual defeat no matter how fearsome the enemies.

This is what we’re going to learn about this Promised Land. There were giants in there, and the people were afraid to go in there, because they thought, “They’re just going to kill us!” Joshua is a violent book about warfare. In order to cross over by faith, they were immediately going to be engaged in battle with big, strong, ugly giants! And the spiritual life is a spiritual battle! Stepping over into the land God has for you means you’re going to have to fight!

I’m thinking of the guy who was K-O’d in his last spiritual battle, and he does not want to get off the mat, and he doesn’t want to get back in the ring, and he does not want to fight anymore, because he fears the enemies in front of him.

In case you haven’t heard, the culture is becoming more hostile toward people who identify themselves as Christians, and some of you are thinking, “You know what—I don’t want the hassle. I don’t want the fight! I don’t want to be rejected, I don’t want to be fired, I don’t want to be sued, I don’t want to be ridiculed, I don’t want to lose friends, I don’t want to lose a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It’s not worth it to me, so I am going to stay right here in my little safe zone—here in the wilderness—and I’m not going to step over into all those radical crazy people that are going to go in there and charge and get the place of rest. . .” because you’re afraid of the enemy!

Back in the ‘80’s, you know, kind of the Christian evangelical world was kind of categorized by this phrase, “the moral majority.” I don’t know if you look around and kind of size up the political candidates and think, “I don’t quite see anybody waving the flag for me. I’m not even quite sure anybody cares! As a matter of fact, they may be coming for me!” We may have to become an underground church, if we’re going to be faithful to the Lord, because the enemies of God are more hostile, bigger, stronger, more numerous and uglier than they have ever been!

Russell Moore says this: “We are no long a moral majority; we are now a prophetic minority.” Which means we continue to speak up, we continue to engage the culture, understanding that our ways are not popular and we can no longer rely on favorable political winds to keep us moving. Now we’re swimming upstream, but we will continue to move onward!

Andrea and I have this conversation that happens almost weekly, as I am driving and she is in the passenger seat. Andrea has a high sensitivity to red brake lights that are in front of us while I’m driving. So, we were down in Florida this past week, and it was time to drive the rental car back to the airport—get back on the plane—so I’m driving and Andrea’s in the passenger seat. She’s on the phone, counseling our “alcoholic” daughter and all of a sudden, I see Andrea do something she does quite well—she’s actually mastered the technique. She takes her right leg and flies it up and lands it on the dashboard—which is a signal to me that the SUV in front of us is stopping in our lane.

Now, the reason why I didn’t immediately stop is because I was trying to be a servant-hearted husband and turn the radio down so that she could speak to our “alcoholic” daughter. And, you know, it’s a rental, so you’re trying to figure out which knob does that—and it took me like an extra two seconds to find the right knob—and it was in those two seconds the car in front of us to stop. Fortunately, when her leg went up and hit the dashboard, it triggered to me that my leg should go up and find the brake on my side, and so I did that—and we stopped just a few inches before we collided with the SUV.

And I’ve often told her, “Honey, what if I actually hit the car and the air bag explodes? Your foot will be going through your face! It’s not a good technique.” But anyway, it works for her.

But I was thinking of this guy. You slammed on your brakes a long time ago because you saw danger in front of you. And you’ve never taken your foot off the brake and found the accelerator again, saying, “You know what? It’s time to start moving forward again. God has more for me, and it is time to move!” God is calling us forward! Onward is a battle cry.

And here is the last thing:

 

Onward is a Spirit-directed prompting, when facing opposition, to remember God’s promise and rely upon God’s grace.

 

No matter what the enemy, no matter what the opposition, Jesus has already won the fight! He has already defeated the enemy! The danger has already been subdued, and so we fight from a position of victory—and we fight, not in our own strength, but we fight remembering the battle belongs to the Lord. And we’re going to see that lesson played out in the book of Joshua.

Can I ask you as we close, are you moving onward, or have you gotten stuck in the wilderness? It’s time to remember: The direction of the Christian life is onward!