“What We Learned At Family Bible Week”
July 23, 2006
Joshua 1:6-9
We will return, Lord-willing, to our study of Hosea next week, but we just had a very big week of ministry, and I thought it would be a good idea to do a post-game analysis of “What We Learned at Family Bible Week.”
And before we do that, I want to start by saying two things: I am very proud of you and thank you.
As your pastor, I am so proud of you for putting together and putting on such a quality ministry as Family Bible Week this last week. I talk with a lot of pastors, some of much bigger churches than ours, and most of the time when they hear what kind of ministry you folks have done the last 5 years, they are amazed (and some of them jealous!). God has been at work among us, and as your pastor, I am very proud of you.
And thank you. Thank you for serving the Savior by serving His Body and the community around us. Thank you to those of you who gave for the missions fund. That was a very big goal, and you have been very generous. Thank you for those of you who taught and led a small group and organized and passed out food and set things up and played an instrument and carried out the trash. Thank you. You know who you are and so does God. And He is pleased with faith-filled service. And glorified by it, too. Thank you.
The theme verse for Family Bible Week this year was taken from the first chapter of Joshua. Joshua 1:9. And today, I want to center on it and a few verses that came before it. Joshua 1:6-9.
The book of Joshua tells the story of the people of Israel leaving the wilderness wanderings and conquering the Promised Land.
In God’s discipline, they have wandered for 40 years in the desert, until an entire generation died, including Moses. And now, God has raised up a new leader, Joshua, to take his people into the Promised Land.
Chapter 1 is all about getting Joshua ready for this task.
“After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them–to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. [The Promised Land.] Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates– all the Hittite country–to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Sounds like Hebrews 13 doesn’t it? Here are our key verses for today. V.6
“‘Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.’”
And here is Joshua’s response. Obedience. V.10
“So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, 'Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.'’ [Verses 12-15 are special instructions that are reminder of previous promises. We’ll skip those today and hear the response of the people in v.16.] Then they answered Joshua, ‘Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!’”
What We Learned at Family Bible Week. Just two points this morning:
#1. LEARN, LOVE, AND LIVE THE BIBLE.
We saw last week in Psalm One that the destination of the path of the righteous is blessing. And the path of the righteous is not going along with crowd and loving the the words of God.
We see the same thing here in Joshua 1. Look at verse 6-8. God is speaking to Joshua.
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
The word “law” in v.7 and v.8 is the same word as “law” in Psalm 1 last week: Torah. It stood for the first 5 books of the Bible. God’s Word.
It isn’t just rules but all that God has said in His Word up to this point.
God wants Joshua to remember, meditate on, and obey His Word.
All week long at Family Bible Week, we stressed the importance of the Bible.
All of the kids’ classes came out of the Bible. And the adult class learned about studying the Bible for ourselves: observation, interpretation, application.
Why? Because God puts such a premium on His Word!
In principle, what He said to Joshua applies to us.
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
Now, that doesn’t mean don’t ever talk about the Bible. “Don’t let it depart from your mouth.” It means, don’t ever stop talking about the Bible!
Don’t let it depart from being something your mouth talks about!
And meditate on it day and night.
Those are the same Hebrew words that were in Psalm 1 last week.
Chew the cud. Put a pinch of Bible between your cheek and gum and suck on it all day long.
Get the Bible inside of you. Learn it. Love it.
And live it.
Notice that he stresses application.
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
It’s almost worthless if it is not acted upon.
Just do it.
James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22). That’s what God was saying to Joshua.
And He promises him something, too: blessing.
Learn, Love, and Live the Bible and Be Blessed.
V.7 “Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
Notice that the blessing comes with obedience.
With obedience comes blessing.
Not that it earns blessing. Blessing is all of grace. But blessing accords with obedience because that’s the way God has set up His world.
This principle runs through the Bible. We saw it last week with the picture of the sturdy tree that stands against the storms and yields fruit in season and out of season. That’s a picture of the blessed life.
We learned at Family Bible Week to Learn, Love, and Live the Bible, and Be Blessed.
One key thing that we talked about in the adult class it the need for follow-up and an implementation plan for Bible study.
Change hasn’t happened until change has happened.
It’s not good enough to say that we want to love and live the Bible. We need to actually do it.
What is your plan?
A number of people in the adult class said things like this, “I plan to put what I’ve learned into action as I read the Word almost every night before going to sleep.” And, “I’m going to spend more time applying the ways we used this week in my Bible reading and thinking more on the application areas.” And, “I’m going to attempt to be more disciplined in my Bible reading, study, and prayer.” And, “I’m going to take memorizing Scripture a little more seriously now.”
That’s awesome! And if that happens in our lives, Family Bible Week will have been a huge success.
Learn, Love, and Live the Bible, and Be Blessed.
#2. The second thing that we learned at Family Bible Week was to BE COURAGEOUS.
This was the main theme of the kids’ classes. And they were reminded of Joshua 1:9.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
That’s God talking to Joshua.
He had a lot to be scared of. There were giants in the land. The people who lived in Canaan weren’t going to be happy that Joshua and the Israelites wanted to come in and set up shop.
But God wouldn’t allow Joshua to be afraid. Did you see how many times the command “be strong and courageous” appeared in chapter 1?
V.6, V.7, V.9.
And then the people chime in and say it, too, in verse 18. “Only be strong and courageous.”
That’s what Joshua needed to do.
And the same is true for us in the New Covenant, as well.
The New Testament is full of commands for us to be bold in sharing our faith and courageous in standing up for what is right.
For example, 1 Corinthians 16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.”
In the Upper Room, what the adult class studied, we saw that Jesus expected life to be hard for His disciples, but regardless, they were to testify to the gospel of Christ.
Jesus ended His teaching in the Upper Room by saying, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! [NASB: take courage!] I have overcome the world.”
We Learned at Family Bible Week That We Need to Be Courageous.
Are you ready to be courageous?
Courageous on the job?
Courageous when school starts again?
Courageous at your family picnic?
Courageous in the face of ridicule?
Courageous at West Branch Community Days?
Jesus is calling us to follow Him, and that takes courage.
But we also learned that whenever He asks us to do something, He offers us all of the promises we’ll ever need to do it.
Notice how Joshua could be courageous: God was with Him. V.9
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
He will be with us to very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39).
He will not leave or forsake His children (Hebrews 13:5)!
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
One of you said this week, “I was reminded of the level of courage it takes to live in the world as a follower of Christ. However, knowing that He has overcome the world and that He prays for us as He had for his disciples brings me comfort when times are hard.” Another one of you said, “I was reminded to persevere. I’ve been very backward about sharing my faith because of rejection, but I’m going to push through it and try.” Another one said, “I was reminded that it doesn’t matter what people might say or think about us...but that Jesus Christ is proclaimed and glorified.” And one of you said, “I have prayed this week for the Lord to help me be light for Him and to not be ashamed of Him and of being a child of God. I’ve committed myself to sharing His word with unbelievers and to be light to others.”
That’s being courageous, and we need lots of it.
What are you facing tomorrow?
Are you ready to stand up for Christ no matter what?
I’ll bet you aren’t facing a mean looking nation of Canaanites like Joshua was.
But the same God that promised to be with Joshua, Has promised to go out with you wherever you will go.
Be courageous in Jesus’ Name.
July 23, 2006
Joshua 1:6-9
We will return, Lord-willing, to our study of Hosea next week, but we just had a very big week of ministry, and I thought it would be a good idea to do a post-game analysis of “What We Learned at Family Bible Week.”
And before we do that, I want to start by saying two things: I am very proud of you and thank you.
As your pastor, I am so proud of you for putting together and putting on such a quality ministry as Family Bible Week this last week. I talk with a lot of pastors, some of much bigger churches than ours, and most of the time when they hear what kind of ministry you folks have done the last 5 years, they are amazed (and some of them jealous!). God has been at work among us, and as your pastor, I am very proud of you.
And thank you. Thank you for serving the Savior by serving His Body and the community around us. Thank you to those of you who gave for the missions fund. That was a very big goal, and you have been very generous. Thank you for those of you who taught and led a small group and organized and passed out food and set things up and played an instrument and carried out the trash. Thank you. You know who you are and so does God. And He is pleased with faith-filled service. And glorified by it, too. Thank you.
The theme verse for Family Bible Week this year was taken from the first chapter of Joshua. Joshua 1:9. And today, I want to center on it and a few verses that came before it. Joshua 1:6-9.
The book of Joshua tells the story of the people of Israel leaving the wilderness wanderings and conquering the Promised Land.
In God’s discipline, they have wandered for 40 years in the desert, until an entire generation died, including Moses. And now, God has raised up a new leader, Joshua, to take his people into the Promised Land.
Chapter 1 is all about getting Joshua ready for this task.
“After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them–to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. [The Promised Land.] Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates– all the Hittite country–to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Sounds like Hebrews 13 doesn’t it? Here are our key verses for today. V.6
“‘Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.’”
And here is Joshua’s response. Obedience. V.10
“So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, 'Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.'’ [Verses 12-15 are special instructions that are reminder of previous promises. We’ll skip those today and hear the response of the people in v.16.] Then they answered Joshua, ‘Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!’”
What We Learned at Family Bible Week. Just two points this morning:
#1. LEARN, LOVE, AND LIVE THE BIBLE.
We saw last week in Psalm One that the destination of the path of the righteous is blessing. And the path of the righteous is not going along with crowd and loving the the words of God.
We see the same thing here in Joshua 1. Look at verse 6-8. God is speaking to Joshua.
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
The word “law” in v.7 and v.8 is the same word as “law” in Psalm 1 last week: Torah. It stood for the first 5 books of the Bible. God’s Word.
It isn’t just rules but all that God has said in His Word up to this point.
God wants Joshua to remember, meditate on, and obey His Word.
All week long at Family Bible Week, we stressed the importance of the Bible.
All of the kids’ classes came out of the Bible. And the adult class learned about studying the Bible for ourselves: observation, interpretation, application.
Why? Because God puts such a premium on His Word!
In principle, what He said to Joshua applies to us.
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
Now, that doesn’t mean don’t ever talk about the Bible. “Don’t let it depart from your mouth.” It means, don’t ever stop talking about the Bible!
Don’t let it depart from being something your mouth talks about!
And meditate on it day and night.
Those are the same Hebrew words that were in Psalm 1 last week.
Chew the cud. Put a pinch of Bible between your cheek and gum and suck on it all day long.
Get the Bible inside of you. Learn it. Love it.
And live it.
Notice that he stresses application.
“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
It’s almost worthless if it is not acted upon.
Just do it.
James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22). That’s what God was saying to Joshua.
And He promises him something, too: blessing.
Learn, Love, and Live the Bible and Be Blessed.
V.7 “Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
Notice that the blessing comes with obedience.
With obedience comes blessing.
Not that it earns blessing. Blessing is all of grace. But blessing accords with obedience because that’s the way God has set up His world.
This principle runs through the Bible. We saw it last week with the picture of the sturdy tree that stands against the storms and yields fruit in season and out of season. That’s a picture of the blessed life.
We learned at Family Bible Week to Learn, Love, and Live the Bible, and Be Blessed.
One key thing that we talked about in the adult class it the need for follow-up and an implementation plan for Bible study.
Change hasn’t happened until change has happened.
It’s not good enough to say that we want to love and live the Bible. We need to actually do it.
What is your plan?
A number of people in the adult class said things like this, “I plan to put what I’ve learned into action as I read the Word almost every night before going to sleep.” And, “I’m going to spend more time applying the ways we used this week in my Bible reading and thinking more on the application areas.” And, “I’m going to attempt to be more disciplined in my Bible reading, study, and prayer.” And, “I’m going to take memorizing Scripture a little more seriously now.”
That’s awesome! And if that happens in our lives, Family Bible Week will have been a huge success.
Learn, Love, and Live the Bible, and Be Blessed.
#2. The second thing that we learned at Family Bible Week was to BE COURAGEOUS.
This was the main theme of the kids’ classes. And they were reminded of Joshua 1:9.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
That’s God talking to Joshua.
He had a lot to be scared of. There were giants in the land. The people who lived in Canaan weren’t going to be happy that Joshua and the Israelites wanted to come in and set up shop.
But God wouldn’t allow Joshua to be afraid. Did you see how many times the command “be strong and courageous” appeared in chapter 1?
V.6, V.7, V.9.
And then the people chime in and say it, too, in verse 18. “Only be strong and courageous.”
That’s what Joshua needed to do.
And the same is true for us in the New Covenant, as well.
The New Testament is full of commands for us to be bold in sharing our faith and courageous in standing up for what is right.
For example, 1 Corinthians 16:13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.”
In the Upper Room, what the adult class studied, we saw that Jesus expected life to be hard for His disciples, but regardless, they were to testify to the gospel of Christ.
Jesus ended His teaching in the Upper Room by saying, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! [NASB: take courage!] I have overcome the world.”
We Learned at Family Bible Week That We Need to Be Courageous.
Are you ready to be courageous?
Courageous on the job?
Courageous when school starts again?
Courageous at your family picnic?
Courageous in the face of ridicule?
Courageous at West Branch Community Days?
Jesus is calling us to follow Him, and that takes courage.
But we also learned that whenever He asks us to do something, He offers us all of the promises we’ll ever need to do it.
Notice how Joshua could be courageous: God was with Him. V.9
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
He will be with us to very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39).
He will not leave or forsake His children (Hebrews 13:5)!
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
One of you said this week, “I was reminded of the level of courage it takes to live in the world as a follower of Christ. However, knowing that He has overcome the world and that He prays for us as He had for his disciples brings me comfort when times are hard.” Another one of you said, “I was reminded to persevere. I’ve been very backward about sharing my faith because of rejection, but I’m going to push through it and try.” Another one said, “I was reminded that it doesn’t matter what people might say or think about us...but that Jesus Christ is proclaimed and glorified.” And one of you said, “I have prayed this week for the Lord to help me be light for Him and to not be ashamed of Him and of being a child of God. I’ve committed myself to sharing His word with unbelievers and to be light to others.”
That’s being courageous, and we need lots of it.
What are you facing tomorrow?
Are you ready to stand up for Christ no matter what?
I’ll bet you aren’t facing a mean looking nation of Canaanites like Joshua was.
But the same God that promised to be with Joshua, Has promised to go out with you wherever you will go.
Be courageous in Jesus’ Name.
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