Cultivating a Courageous Spirit

well I threw a party a couple weeks ago uh which if you didn't get an invite it was a very exclusive uh invite uh it was just two people uh me and God and it was a pity party so it's probably for the best that you weren't there uh but really it was just my normal devotional time but I like to journal and just be honest about what's in my heart and I was telling God I was frustrated uh because as a leader uh here at the church and in life I was trying to accomplish some things that I knew were good and would be beneficial but there was just so much hassle trying to get there and I was just being honest with the Lord like why is this so hard why is there so much irritation and opposition to doing something good I'm trying to get us someplace we're meant to be why is there all this friction and I just felt frustration and had to voice that to him which I imagine I'm not the only person who's ever been in a place like that that she goes there's just a lot of friction I'm trying to get to a place that's good why is life like this and some of you go Ben that's my uh commute every day uh to work you're like I'm just I'm trying to get right there just can you get your whole situation over there just let me get there and some of you that's your commute or some of you feel that at work you're like you know what I'm just trying to get this deal done it's a good deal for everybody I'm just trying to get these papers signed I'm just trying to get this building built I'm just trying to get a meeting scheduled can we just at least get a meeting and some of you realize why is life so frustrating sometimes and the reality is If we're honest for many of us an excessive amount of friction and frustration can become futility well then just forget it is any good coming my way and if we're not careful we can get discouraged and I mentioned that because it was interesting for me in that moment where I was just processing with the Lord just trying to be honest with him uh I was devotionally in the Book of Joshua the passage we just read and it was funny because if you don't know who Joshua is or where it fits in the biblical narrative uh in the in the first book of the Bible Genesis when Humanity breaks Faith with God everything breaks the world's no longer as it should be but right away God creates a solution in Genesis 12 he picks one man named Abraham and tells Abraham move to the Strategic piece of real estate I'm going to bless you and then from your seed one of your descendants I Will Bless every family on the Earth so Genesis Abraham moves to the Strategic piece of land and there he buys a little bit of the real estate has a kid and that's really much of the Book of Genesis and and a couple Generations down from Abraham uh there's a famine and so his descendants have to move to Egypt uh to survive and when the next book The Bible starts Exodus it's been a long time and and the people the children of Abraham have become enslaved in Egypt and so God raises up Moses to set his people free and Moses leads the people out of slavery leads them across the Wilderness back into the promised land called that because it was promised to Abraham I'm going to put you in this land and bless you and then from your descendants will become one who will bless the whole world and Moses doesn't get to take him into the promised land he leads them right up into the river he can see it and then it's like okay y'all go ahead I'm gonna go die in the wilderness and he does and so it's Joshua his Protege that leads him in so the Book of Joshua is exciting at the beginning because it's just battle after battle they show up and there's now Canaanites living in the land which we won't go into details on this but they were into some very dark things and uh there's all this conflict between uh the nation of Israel and Canaanites and so the beginning of the book of Joshua's all battles and fights and Intrigue and crazy stuff and then by the end of it they're successful they move back into the promised land and so the back half of Joshua is uh really just a series of allotments of real estate to the 12 tribes of Abraham and uh it reads about as exciting as that sounds uh and so some of you maybe like reading real estate agreements right for most of us it can be a little brutal and so back to my pity party I was telling God like I'm trying to get something solved I'm trying to get some perspective I'm trying to move things along and I'm about to read the Bible and what I'm in the real estate section of Joshua and I opened that part and I read this little paragraph from chapter 17 I read to you and I just felt like I could sense the Lord's laughter because he was like yes tucked into the real estate section of Joshua is this part about a group of people throwing a pity party and in that moment what we get and why this matters to us is what you see in this section it's a secret it's how to encourage a courageous heart in a discouraging day that's what this passage is about how to encourage a discouraged heart that it would be a courageous heart right that's the idea and and I use those words on purpose because Kerr in Latin is the word heart and if we're not careful for many of us we get disheartened your heart is the driver of action and if you get disheartened you start to believe nothing I do is going to make a difference I won't necessarily accomplish anything good I don't see good in the future and I think this matters to us is because discouragement and despair is having its day right now in America we live in a day of discouragement uh Gene Twinkie is a researcher psychologist she just released her latest book Generations filled with statistical data about the generations that are live in America today and she points out among many things the alarming amount of Despair rampant in America beginning in 2012 particularly among young people and there's a lot to say about it we won't do here but I put the stat up here there's a a long form study she quotes where middle school and high school kids are asked to comment on these statements in a shocking number of them agree with the statements I can't do anything right I do not enjoy my life my life is not useful that in a digital media day many young people the way they're interacting with one another is sowing into their hearts discouragement my life's not useful I don't enjoy my life they don't see good they are discouraged as a point of research I listened to post Malone's new album uh this week so this I study to help you people and uh first song on his new album he says I don't understand why you like me so much because I don't like myself that's how he leads out I don't like me Olivia Rodrigo says I'm so insecure I think that I'll die before I drink I'm not cool and I'm not smart I can't even parallel park which in this town that's tough but our statisticians and our songwriters are screaming to us what I think many of us know we live in a discouraged day and what we have in this passage is a way to get your heart back how do I encourage a courageous heart in the midst of a discouraged day the people of Jesus need a heart filled with courage and so I want to show you this passage we'll walk through it together and I want to give you four ways to encourage a courageous heart in a discouraging day so to begin let's start in verse 14. to set the stage it says the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua Abraham's descendants there were 12 tribes and Joseph was one of them and Joseph was actually so blessed they blessed both of his kids ephraimon manasa they're all the children of Joseph and when it comes time to get their allotment and their portion of the land they have an issue with it and so in verse 14 it says the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying why have you given me but one lot and one portion is an inheritance although I'm a numerous people since all along the Lord has blessed me they say what every young leader says I'm blessed give me more it's the heart cry of every young leader right many of you if you're honest you've experienced this you uh maybe spoke for the first time and it went well or uh you led something and people actually followed or you made a decision and it actually paid off you did something in your job that produced good and what happened to it all right I'm stepping into my own here's the moment here it comes and you're like okay I'm blessed I'm I'm big I'm being used somebody get out of my way somebody help me somebody give me some more real estate make space the king is here right that's the kind of mentality they're saying we're numerous up until this point God's blessed us why are you holding us back by just giving us one inheritance we want more and what's what's weird about the way they're talking about this is they want more land but the way they talk to Joshua has this bizarre mix of entitlement and victimization we've been blessed by God we're big but you're holding us back so I'm entitled and a victim all at once right and what's interesting about this passage is they're questioning not just Joshua but even God I mean the way that it's written it it could be translated until now Yahweh has blessed us we're big and up until this point you always blessed us but you're holding me back they see their situation I wish I had more and I don't get it and if they're trying to figure out why am I not where I want to be why don't I have the space I want to make they look around and rather than looking within they look out and say it's your fault somebody is cheating me right and it's interesting Joshua responds and about the facts he does not disagree and verse 15 it says and Joshua said to them if you are a numerous people go up by yourselves to the forest and they're clear ground for yourselves in the land of the paradise and refaim since the Hill Country of Ephraim is too narrow for you he says okay big and blessed you want some more room cut down some trees you two cramped cut open some space and so he doesn't hold him back he says no one's in your way you want more space make more space right and what's fascinating about that is I don't know if that crossed their mind and so here's lesson one of how do you get encouragement in a discouraging day number one is I'd say this when you identify problems cultivate Solutions not cynicism cultivate Solutions not cynicism all right one amen all right here we go what do I mean by that well I've discovered in my experience with young leaders leadership often presents itself as the identification of problems that's how leadership often surfaces in someone's heart they're a part of an organization they're serving somewhere they're working at an office and they go I think that could work better I think that would have been a better solution to that problem you know I think this workaround would get us there faster you start to see problems and you'd say there's a better way to do this or this should work better and this should do that and and at that moment that that's good that's the budding of leadership in here Joshua doesn't shame them for identifying a problem there's a lot of us in a little bit of room yeah that's a problem he'll affirm that later but here's the interesting fragile moment at that moment you have a choice am I going to cultivate cynicism or am I going to cultivate a Solutions orientation they go hey we got a problem it's too narrow and they don't even see the option of cutting down trees they just go Joshua's cheating us and they see their external problems rather than externally looking for Solutions and what's so dangerous about that is is if you cultivate that cynicism you realize you will learn helplessness I'm a victim people are holding me back they're not giving me what I deserve I can't get ahead because somebody else is cheating me right but here's the difference as a leader what you realize is um if someone says to you will you come up with a solution you realize that's actually much harder and then you realize oh identifying problems actually takes no great skill it's coming up with Solutions that's infinitely harder right and that's where real leadership grows it's going no I I need to figure out with the amount of influence I have what can I do to affect change with the influence God's given me what could I do to make this place better what could I do to serve better that Solutions orientation gives you hope because you maintain a sense of agency but if you just become a Critic um you'll learn helplessness attention there was a study back in the 1970s uh Martin Seligman did on dogs which I'm not sure they probably don't do these anymore uh he was shocking dogs and what he did was basically uh they they took two groups of dogs and they put them in these harnesses and the harnesses would administer electric shocks and the first group of dogs they would shock them but there was a lever in the room and when they hit the lever it would turn the shocks off so they dogs figured that out second group they got hit with these shocks but when they hit the lever it didn't work so no matter what they did you still got shocked then they took those two groups of dogs and put them in a different scenario one where half of a floor would shock you and the other half would not and the first group that had agency to stop the shocks as soon as they got shot they're like no sir and they've realized oh if we move over here it solved over here they had a Solutions orientation let me move problem solved the other group that before had learned no matter what we do we're getting shocked when they started getting shocked by the floor they just stayed there and just kept getting hit and he coined a frame these dogs have learned helplessness they've started to internalize there's no Agency for me I can't do good and if you cultivate a cynicism beware that you don't learn helplessness now let me let me clarify in this too some of you you may be more victimized when you were younger and you were helpless in a situation where someone had power over you didn't didn't care for you and I'm not saying well you just need to change your attitude have a Solutions orientation like uh there are places in life where you go I didn't have agency in this moment and I got hurt here right and and honoring Jesus does not require making your sin stupid shoulders we can have sin stand in its full height and say what happened to you was horrible and excusable it was awful but the good news of the Gospel is where sin abounds Grace abounds more and God can move in power and set us free some from very dark things and very hard things and what happens once you get out of an abusive environment a difficult environment what's so important is to remember when I'm free from that by the grace of God I have agency I don't have to learn because I was helpless back then doesn't mean I'm helpless now because I was hurt by then doesn't mean I'm always going to be hurt that doesn't have to Define my destiny I can make good choices I can make healthy decisions I can make a difference in the world I can move forward and so in the midst of difficulty when you identify problems you don't have to pretend like they're not problems but never in that moment lose your sense of god-given agency I'm not going to become a cynic I'm going to get a Solutions orientation Helen Keller said it this way she said the world is full of suffering but it's also full of overcoming it so she knew what suffering was but she didn't give up hope but she found a way through it to a Solutions orientation that's the first thing I'll say it's interesting as you move on they said the hill country's not enough for or he said you know cut the trees down and then in verse 16 they respond verse 16 the people of Joseph said the Hill Country is not enough for us yeah he just said that Joshua just told them yeah the hill country's not enough room and they're like yeah the hill country's not enough room he's like right it's interesting one way you could translate the way they're saying this is it's not available that they looked at the trees on the Hills they're like I don't know it's not available there's not enough room and there's also chariots so it's interesting they could just be explaining facts because they said two true things and Joshua will from there true there are trees on the hills and there are chariots in the plains that's true but it's the introduction of that word yet that you make it realize oh they're not just giving him information they're whining well we want more room but there's trees in the mountains and chariots in the plane you go okay what they're saying is we can't do it or we shouldn't have to or I don't want to and what they're saying is I wanted the inheritance we without the irritation I wanted the blessing of God but I didn't want the road there to be bumpy right I didn't want the promise to come with pain and so Point number two that will give you courage in a discouraging day is to remember life is hard good things are hard and hard things can be good things are hard and hard things can be good that's the way life Works The Inheritance has irritants it does and yet that doesn't mean God is not good it means that we're not home yet that the world is not as as it should be the world is a broken place and yet God can move in our lives even in the midst of the Brokenness and so it's okay to acknowledge we live in a broken world but we need not live in despair we go yeah the world's broken and yet God can still do Mighty things in it yeah this inheritance has irritants but God can still use us to make a way and so there's something about that real realism that's comforting it's interesting I have a professor uh he was my Greek Professor years ago that was a a quirky guy very very particular person like we mentioned the book of Ephesians uh the other week that is six chapters he wrote a commentary on Ephesians that's a thousand Pages a thousand pages on six chapters he's a very exacting man there is a story uh uh Pros told me where he came to pick him up at his house and waited downstairs for 45 minutes and when Dr honer finally came downstairs he was like what took you so long and he was walking out of his bedroom to come downstairs and as he did it he noticed that on their bookshelf the screws the Phillip head screws weren't all aligned so that the crosses were in the same direction and he was such an obsessive person he had to get each screw to line up to look and he ended up being 45 minutes late for this dinner that's the kind of man Dr honer was now imagine that man in a marriage counseling session when I got prepared to hear this story I was like I already love it I already love it Kayla tell me the story and this couple came in and they're bickering they're fighting they don't like it and Doctor owner in this moment is listening to the big of his husband and wife saying all the things they're doing wrong and he stops them for a minute and he was like well um uh okay uh he looks at the husband he's like so let's uh make a list of uh all her flaws and he gets out of whiteboard in a marker and starts asking him like is he a bad listener okay all right bad listener okay it doesn't encourage you enough okay not an encourager doesn't cook as well okay can't could okay let's keep going what just all of them what are all her and she's sitting over there going like what is that what kind of session is this and this guy's like well uh she also doesn't respect me you know and so he's like all right and just let the guy burn it all out let's fill the board with all of her flaws and then when they had exhausted them all Professor Hunter goes okay um let's try to exchange her flaws for some other flaws so um not listening uh would you rather her be a a compulsive gambler or uh given to fits of anger and the guy's like no no I don't want that oh okay would you rather her uh steal commit commit crimes would you rather and he's like what no and on he kept trying meticulously through everyone to exchange flaws and the guy wasn't willing to exchange any and so finally as the session came to the end Dr Hunter was like oh so you don't want her to have different flaws you want her to have no flaws you just wanted to be perfect yeah there aren't any of those around are you one no we're not perfect we're all flawed and when you understand that and you realize that you go but it can still be good it can still be good so life is hard this side of Heaven it is there is a day by the grace of Jesus Christ where he will wipe away every tear there is a day where there is hope in a future it's coming but we're not home yet we're not home yet and when you realize that it actually kind of weirdly makes things okay I'll tell you for for us a little secret of how I deal with a lot of the frustrations in life I found humor as a pathway to hope there's something about laughter that can dispel sadness and so Don and I do this all the time when the kids are making us crazy when they just don't respect my authority and things that I wish they would do different I'll look over at Donna and we've got in the habit of saying like someone needs to raise these kids and what that does it helps is like oh yeah are we expecting to be perfect no that's the job of being a parent is you got to raise the kids so yeah they're imperfect but that's the job and we signed up for it we like them okay we do that in Ministry when we're talking about leadership decisions or pastoral conundrums trying to figure out how to serve you all best there comes times where it's really hard in the decision making is hard and so look at my stuff and be like oh this ministry would be easy if it weren't for people and the joke there is yeah we're in the people business that's what we do right uh I do this every Sunday on my way home from work if you're wondering what does a pastor think about on his way home for me as I'm driving home I think about the sermon I just preached and I go like this I wish I would have said that better I wish I would have made that rhyme I wish I would have made that a little tighter I wish I would not have said that and on and on I pick apart the sermon and over analyzation tends to lead to depression and so when I realized that I do in that moment is suddenly and I did this without even thinking about it I started imagining myself in an interview where someone was asking me what do you wish you would have done better in the storm you're like well Bob we've got a little crazy up there you know when I started giving him all the things that I didn't go wrong and I'll list like 10 things that I wish were better and it'll go well you know we're our own worst critic and then I thought yeah but what if I'm not and then I just imagined somebody who really hates me like is a way bigger critic of me than me I mean he just sits at home and just fumes down in the basement listening to every message just a bile in his throat just hateful has a board with all my misstatements tethered together with red yarn connecting them trying to prove that I'm a heretic some guy that's just sits all day long and thinks about Ben Stewart's destruction I imagine that guy and then I imagine me meeting that guy and I tell him hey bro take it easy you know what you saw it there a man doing his best okay I wanted it to be better too okay but I was doing my best and I was faithful to the text I think I honored Jesus I think it helps some people so just take it easy bro and what's happening by the time I get home that's positive self-talk right I just needed a weird story to get there and uh so that's what I do to realize hey man life is hard yes I wish every sermon ushered in the Kingdom but they don't and so life is hard but it's also filled with overcoming it right and so I realize life's hard and good things can be hard that can be true and hard things can be good right and that's important to keep in mind and so they're unhappy because they see the irritations of the trees and the opposition of the Canaanites and here Joshua presses in to respond to them in verse 17 and it takes a solemn tone it's almost like when your mama uses your full name you're like okay you see Joshua was okay with the back and forth and now he's going to stamp this conversation to a close in verse 17. then Joshua said to the house of Joseph to Ephraim and Manasseh those are Joseph's kids you are a numerous people I affirm that and you have great power and you won't have one allotment only he agrees with all the facts but the Hill Country shall be yours for though it's a forest you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders for you'll drive out the Canaanites though they have Chariots of iron and though they are strong what's interesting is they agree on all the facts we're big we're strong there are trees and there are Canaanites he said yes and big and strong you'll cut down the trees and clear out the Canaanites go do it right and what's fascinating about that is they have the same facts but totally different perspective that's what I'm trying to encourage us with what they see is irritation and opposition what he sees is provision and opportunity there's all these trees yeah cut them down they make for great firewood and you can build your house with them hey they got Chariots of iron yes and God said when he led us into the land I will get Glory when I use you to drive out the kingdom that you've got an opportunity for Glory how much better will be the win when they had Chariots of iron and you just went walking out there in one anyway it'll be the proof that you have a God who Reigns over Israel and so they just see irritation they see opposition and they think too big an obstacle and he says no I see provision and I see opportunity so let's go it's all about how you choose to see that's Point number three in irritation see provision in opposition it's the opportunity God loves that he loves to bless us through what initially doesn't look like a blessing he does so one of the first Ministries I ever read uh LED was a college Ministry on the campus of Texas A M named Breakaway Farmers fight hullabaloo and uh I remember when we got there we met in the basketball arena the previous director had grown this thing students met a basketball arena to worship every Tuesday night it's amazing when I showed up there I was like man I just got to make sure I don't wreck this thing and I remember it wasn't long into my tenure there that they got new management over that Arena and the new management came and said hey I noticed y'all aren't paying near enough I'm gonna triple your rent and I remember thinking you you just killed us we don't have the money for that we won't be able to meet here we won't be able to meet at all I'm going to be the guy who wrecked this thing I became captain of the Titanic like thank you sir let's go I was like it's a personal nightmare I'm gonna be a cautionary tale I started doing all that and then after all that freak out of discouragement I started to go well what's the solutions orientation if we can't meet there is there anywhere else we can meet and I literally got on Google Earth it was just sort of scanning the city and I was like you know there's a lot of chairs in the football stadium but that was scary I'm like because that's even more seats than if nobody shows up it's going to feel really bad in there but we went for it and ministered to more students than we ever had in breakaway's history and then we moved to the field next door in the center of campus and reached double the number of students we were reaching and the worship of our students could be heard over two miles away because we got some big speakers that night and I looked at that and I thought we got to reach more students than ever preach the gospel to more human beings than ever and we would not have been there without this opposition this opposition created the opportunity God seems to love to do that right I remember for me I got uh invited to write a book it was very exciting like it got was anyone with a book deal like oh my gosh I can write a book there's a book on sanctification the spiritual life I've always wanted to write and so when I was at Breakaway I cleared a whole summer to write a book on how to walk with God a sanctification book and I spent months staring at an empty screen I just couldn't do it and I wanted to so bad and I remember one day as a mental break I thought you know what I'm just going to think about something else and thought crossed my mind if you were to write a book on dating how would you do it and within five minutes I sketched out an entire uh outline of a book on how to human beings move from singleness to dating to engagement to marriage and as soon as I wrote it all out the complete table of contents I went oh no I'm trying to write this book and what's in my mind is this book but I don't want to be the dating guy and dating is a Minefield I don't want to go skipping through that Minefield people are going to get upset and I got real scared I was like I already committed to write this I don't want to do this but I felt like this was all that was in my head this is the only book I can write so I had to call the Publishers back I was very uh nervous I was like I know I said I would write this but this is what's in my mind they actually said that's probably better and I'm like really okay and so I wrote it and I delivered it as a sermon series a breakaway and it was my final series of breakaway it was my swan song to breakaways what I thought of it I just thought of it as this is my best advice how to navigate the tricky world of relationships I'm sorry good luck kids that's all I got I just kind of thought of it that way but we wrote the book and it came out and then through long story short we moved up here to launch a church I remember as we moved up here uh I was meeting with people strategically before we launched the church and uh someone connected me with the chief and staff of the senator and so I got a suit went to the Capitol sat down and I just asked them the big question uh how can I serve your people and I remember he went nobody knows how to date their relationships are a mess even the married ones so do you think you'll speak to that I was like and then here's the crazy thing before we even launched as a church I got a call from the chaplain of the Senate's office they asked if I would speak on dating and relationships at the Capitol so I showed up there bought a nicer suit showed up and when I got there he was like Hey we've had to move this meeting to three different rooms because we keep outgoing these rooms are you famous and I was like obviously not if you have to ask that question it kind of answers itself doesn't it I said uh it's the topic I assure you right but here's the funny thing one of my favorite features to listen to Growing Up When I Was Young he would always in these sermons go if I'm ever invited to the Capitol to speak this is my text and it was usually a text from like Revelation or Daniel you know real apocalyptic stuff and so I showed up there and I just couldn't get his head out of my mind I'm like if I am preach at the Capitol I'm gonna talk about dating right and uh I thought who knew that that was the doorway into the capitol that the fact that I was the last of my friends to get married and wrote a book I resisted writing turned out to be the way to get ready to launch a church in DC no one writes that story that wouldn't make sense well here's the key to leadership in DC you want to go and do a college Ministry in a little town and write a book on dating that's not a that's not a path that's not a thing people do but it's what God does because he just loves to make irritation into provision he loves to make hostility into opportunity and so for us I mean many of you know the story we when covet hit we were trying desperately to find a place to meet a place we could gather as restrictions were loosening but a lot of buildings just weren't ready to open so we called 50 different places for Easter we wanted to have an Easter Gathering and we wanted to Do It Outdoors so we were at the point we were calling parking lots Open Fields baseball fields anybody they all said no and we finally got to a place where I'm like I don't know who else to call and we got one email back from the National Park Service they told us no to this one little parking area we wanted to use but they said yes you can use the National Mall and it was like wait what I don't even know that we asked for that like I don't know that I'm ready for that like but we had like a day to decide and we were like uh I don't want to say no out of fear and we did Easter on the National Mall and thousands of people came and in a difficult day had the opportunity to worship and we preached the gospel in the center of the National Mall as far as you can we got noise complaints on Capitol Hill actually we use very big speakers and I remember in that moment thinking and we would not have been there if we didn't have the opposition that forced us and and so I've just realized over time when life's not working my way maybe God has a better way that doesn't mean I have to enjoy every pain or every uh discouragement but it I have come to a place of trust that what I see is irritation God sees his provision what I see often is hostility actually will become possibility and here's where we'll close because you hear that and some of you go well then that's sort of useful but this message isn't particularly Christian it just sounds like a pump up speech like make moves and make excuses like is that what you're saying like you got to get out there and hustle kids like is that what you're doing like what is this well no here's the last point and I think it's what's so important is point number four is Faith in a faithful God produces humble confidence and the Hope needed for a courageous spirit faith in a faithful God is what produces the humble confidence and the Hope needed for courageous Spirit see here's the interesting thing the children of Joseph are discouraged in this moment we just thought this would be easier it's not but God is still good and yet just a couple chapters before we read it I won't reread it there's a very different conversation that takes place with Caleb if you recall when the nation of Israel was first coming out to the borders of the promised land Moses sent 12 Spies into the land and and they came back and ten of them said hey the land is beautiful but there's Giants there they're going to kill us all run away and they're just like God has cheated us and they freak out there's only two people that don't to quote our text made the hearts of the people melt it was Joshua and Caleb yeah there's challenges but we got God With Us yeah there's difficulty but there's opportunity let's go the nation wouldn't go with them so God said well I'm going to get Glory I'll just do it with a different generation and so this generation will die in the wilderness the Young Generation will come and take the land and only two old people got to hang with the young ones Joshua and Caleb and here we saw Caleb's Spirit when he comes up he has an issue with his inheritance but when he comes up to Joshua it's a totally different conversation he says you remember when God called us he said you remember I spoke what was in my heart and my heart wholly followed the Lord the Lord promised to be with us and I agreed with him and though the people's heart melted God preserved my strength and he said and so I'm 85 and I'm as strong as I was back then and then he says so Joshua that piece of land where their hearts melted where the Giants were that's what the name Anakin means he says if I may I want that part give me the hill country with the Giants because it just might be the Lord will be with me and we'll get Glory there so he doesn't say but there's cheese but they're chariots he says no but there's a God in Israel and I'm going with him so give me the toughest Hill I wanted but notice he's not beating his chest he's not saying because my name's Caleb 85 I'm still alive [Music] he says the Lord promised us the Lord let us hear the Lord preserved me and then he says and maybe the Lord will be with me there's a humility to it I'm not going to presume God's going to make things work my way but I have a confidence that he's leading us in a good way he made a promise that he's working out this great story and I'm on for the ride he didn't promise an easy life but he promised us an adventure and I'm going with him he gets my whole heart and here's where this applies to us as we close it's interesting in Hebrew the original language this was written in there aren't any J's so Joshua is uh Yeshua same name we translate in a different way in the New Testament the Greek they translate Yeshua as yasu which we translate Jesus same name and what's interesting back here is they were following the hero Joshua who led them into the promised land this particular piece of real estate but it's still on planet Earth and the Earth's still broken but why was God doing this in the Old Testament it was so the Seed of Abraham Yeshua would show up at a giving time Jesus Christ and our Jesus did what their hero did back then Joshua LED them into the promised land and Jesus leads us he stepped onto that piece of soil why was that land so strategic because it's the only place on the planet that connects three major continents that God protected the most strategic piece of real estate to get his message out and then God at just the right time Romans tells us did not stand aloof from our pain what happened the Prince of Peace entered it he said I'm going to step into your suffering I'm going to step into your pain I'm not going to tell you to get over it I'm going to get underneath it and he who knew no sin became sin for us he said I'll take on your punishment I'll take on your guilt your condemnation your shame I will take on your difficulty and it will bury me And yet when Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice for us God took the Darkest Day in human history the death of the Son of God and he made it the instrument of our Redemption that his difficulty was our deliverance that he took our sin so we might have his righteousness that he took our alienation from God so that we might have a home and a future when God and so they didn't realize God is setting us up for this story but they played their part and when Jesus Christ came and we give our hearts holy to him he told his disciples in this world you will have trouble but take heart because I've overcome the world and so for us we don't have to beat our chest and try to find courage in our chest we find Courage by looking up at Christ saying you know what he's not calling me to do something he wasn't willing to do Joshua wasn't telling them to do something he didn't do Joshua LED them into that land and Jesus Christ is telling us to endure in a difficult day and not lose heart and he says if you want proof look at me that I entered into the cave of death and I entered into that cave and punched through the back and made it a tunnel so that that death is not the end but there's hope and light in a future because of the finished work of Jesus Christ and then Jesus stands at the end of the tunnel peers through to us and says okay your turn follow me you go but that cave looks dark super dark that looks like the Valley of the shadow of death yeah totally but there's hardship in there well there's trees and Canaanites yeah 100 yes but you will pass through the valley of The Shadow and find life on the other side and if God used my pain as an instrument for Redemption he will use your pain as an instrument for proclamation of a God who came to save you have purpose you have hope you have a future because of Jesus Christ so we don't have to look at our hearts we look up at his and we say I got faith in a faithful God he did what he said he would do and so I trust him that doesn't mean he'll give me everything I want but it means that he's good and he lets me be a part of the adventure so I'm not going to sink in cynicism I'm going to look at the solutions I'm going to look around and see the opposition is opportunity how can I serve you well here and I'm going to have humility but I'm going to have courage because I follow a king who made a way for me

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 12,962

Keywords: Passion, Passion City Church, Passion Sermons, Ben, Stuart, Washington DC, Passion DC, christian, sixsteps, (six), passion conference, passion church, passion music, passion, The Church, ben stuart, Jesus, Worship, Community, Growth, Challenges, Courage, Joshua, Leadership, Obstacles

Id: fo2a32HD6Fs

Length: 39min 28sec (2368 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2023