Promise and Conquest

The sixth in a series of sermons
The Word First: A Journey Through the Bible
Dr. James Flamming, Pastor, 
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
December 1, 2002

Text: Joshua 1:1-9

“After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun . . . “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 them.” (Joshua 1:1,2)

If I could give you an early Christmas gift this advent season, I would give you the gift of knowing how to fulfill God’s promise for your life.

Life gets its energy when it lives with God’s promise. It pulsates with life when that promise is fulfilled.

I believe we can learn the steps that lead us to God’s promise for our lives Joshua in the Old Testament.

You say, “Joshua? At Christmas time?”

Well, it is not as inappropriate as you think. See, Joshua and Jesus are the same name. Joshua is the way you pronounce it in Hebrew. Jesus is how you say it in Greek. But they are the same name. Mary would have called Jesus, Joshua, when he was growing up. So learning from the first Joshua is quite appropriate at Christmas time.

Louis Armstrong, the great jazz trumpet player, said of jazz, “I know it when I hear it, but I can’t tell you what it is.” Well, Joshua went one better than Louis Armstrong when it came to promise. He not only knew it when he heard it, but he can tell us what it is and how to fulfill it. My purpose this morning is to show you the steps Joshua took to turn God’s Promise into fulfillment.

But first, notice the difference between Joshua and Jesus. For Joshua, the Promised Land was geographical. For Jesus, the Promised Land was the land of the heart, the territory of the soul. Jesus took things and made them personal and spiritual rather than geographical. He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Again he said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” For the ancient Israelites the promise was about a special territory. For the Christian, the promise resides inside the soul. In the Old Testament the Promised Land is about Real Estate. In the New Testament the Promised Land is an Eternal State of the soul.

But the steps that allow us to climb from promise to fulfillment, from vision to victory, are the same, Old Testament and New Testament.

Here they are.

Lets let Joshua teach us how to turn promise into victory.

1. Identify Your Promised Land

First you have to identify your Land of Promise.

God was specific about the territory of promise. “Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates to the Great Sea on the west.” (Joshua 1:5) Sometimes these boundaries are identified in the Bible as from Dan to Beersheba. Dan was like a county seat town to the north near the foot hills of Mt. Hermon. Beersheba was like a county seat town to the south on the very edge of the desert. To the east was the Euphrates River and to the West the Mediterranean Sea. God was very specific you see. The Promised Land was an identifiable piece of Real Estate.

I believe God has a specific land of promise within each of our souls. Not a piece of real estate, but a slice of eternal joy. For there is nothing more life giving than to know why you are hear and experience the thrill of fulfilling his promise in your soul. There is, I say, a Promised Land within the soul which results not in a daily grind, but a dream to be discovered and lived out.

You ask me, “How can I find my Promised Land? Your promised land is

• the dream that gets you excited, or

• It is the spiritual gift you’ve just discovered, or

• It is the call to service that keeps sounding in your spiritual ears, or

• It is to know the Lord Jesus and revel in your relationship with Him.

• It is the promise that makes tomorrow worth dreaming about.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once spoke of those who go to their graves with their music still within them. Most of the time it has nothing to do with a vocational change. It has to do with hearing the spiritual music that is within you, the call that points the way within your present situation.

Rule One: Identify and Celebrate the Promise that is within you.

2. You have to push out the old to make room for the new.

The Promised Land doesn’t just happen. Something has to change. Something has to go. Something has to be moved. In verse 4 you have that interesting description of the Promised Land. The Bible says, it was Hittite country.

We all have a Hittite country within ourselves. Sometimes it is an attitude that needs to go, or a habit, or a lack of trust, or a fear, and sometimes a simple unwillingness to change. Are you hanging out in the Hittite country of your soul? The Hittite country has to go if you are going to make room for the Promised Land.

Jesus once spoke of the impossibility of pouring new wine in old wineskins. For Joshua and his people, this meant forcibly taking the land of promise. The most famous of these battles was Jericho when the walls came tumbling down. Remember the spiritual, “Joshua ‘fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho; Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a tumbling down.” 

Well, what Hittite walls need to tumble down for you?

One of the Hittite walls is called, “I’m already too busy.” People say, “Gee, I’d love to get involved, but who’s got the time? I have a spouse, job, children, and financial commitments. How on earth can you expect me to add anything?”

When you get to the Promised Land you don’t need to add anything. You need to subtract something. The only way to find time for a promise is to steal it from the Hittite country, whatever that means for you. Henry David Thoreau put it bluntly: “It isn’t enough to be busy. Ants are busy.” So the question is, is our busyness in the land of Promise or in the land of the Hittites? 

Take a first step, a baby step, in moving something out of Hittite country. The Christmas story reminds us that even if the inn is full, the stable will do for a beginning. In spiritual matters, our Lord will begin with whatever soul space is available.

Rule Two: You have to push out the old to make room for the new.

3. You Have to Move in and Take Over

That Promised Land within your soul will never be truly yours until you choose to move in and make it your own. Jesus said,  “If my words take residence in you, and you take residence in me, you shall ask and it shall happen.”

Well, on the day God said to Joshua, “get this people ready to go into the promised land,” it was God’s way of saying, “Joshua, it is time for you to take control.”

in my mind Joshua called together all of the negative attitudes that had followed them from Egypt. He huddled with all of the negative emotions that had kept them from the land of promise.

He looked them straight in the eye. To Mr. Fear he said:

• Mister Fear, come pitch your tent right here on Mt. Nebo. Don’t follow us. We are going to leave you on this side of the river. You’ve been with us long enough. You are bad company Mr. Fear. You upset everyone you camp with. And you talk in your sleep. You wake up the whole camp. We are going ahead without you. Stay!

• He said to Mr. Potential, “Mr. Potential, I’ve heard about you ever since we left Egypt. Think of our potential, they say.  But you are like a bad cold. Go get lost. We’ve lived with potential long enough. We are ready for the Promised Land.”

• He said to Mr. Put-It-Off, “Man, we’re tired of carrying your bags. You’ve made us wander around for forty years. We are tired of your procrastination. We are going to cross that Jordan River. We are going to do it, yes we are. We are going to settle in our land of promise.  Mr. Put-It-Off, you just sit here and watch because we are on the way to the Promised Land that God has given to us.”

And then I picture Joshua addressing them all and saying, you demons who thrive on souls without promise, listen to this Promise God has given to me and I give to all who follow after me: “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.” (Joshua 1:9)

Rule Three: You Have to Move in and Take Over .

4. You Need God as Your Partner.

“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5)

Don Shelby wrote of a nightly event in his house that speaks to my heart.  Don wrote:

When bedtime came for the little lad in our house, there was an unforgettable ritual he would invite us to share in. Coming to my chair, he would climb up on my lap. Turning his face to mine, with a look of simple trust, he would say in a tone brushed with sleepiness, “Daddy, walk my hand to bed.”

Don continued: “That is my constant prayer as I try to make the most of my life. Dear God, please walk my hand to this task, through this sorrow, through this fear. And somewhere in the tomorrows, when the great sleep comes for me, I will remember my little boy’s words and pray, “Dear God, walk my hand to bed.” (quoted by James W. Moore, The Top Ten List for Christians, p. 91)

God needed Joshua to walk his people into the Promised Land. Joshua needed God to walk his hands into the promised. What a partnership!

It was on that night the hands of Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it and said, “This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.” And he took the cup and said, “This is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. This do in remembrance of me.” Thus he began his partnership with us that last until this day.

As we take communion this day, you and the Lord deal with the land of promise in your heart, your purpose for being here, your life in Him.

© 2002 James Flamming