More Heart | New Normal - #2 | John Lindell

[Music] well i'm excited about this new series as we've jumped into a new normal and uh we're studying the book of joshua if you're new this morning because i believe this god wants to lead us into a new time a new place a new experience of his blessing a new experience of his power a new experience of his promise in our lives and we're learning lessons from the book of joshua we started last week we were looking at joshua chapter one and verses 1 through 9 and we're going to return there again today last time we talked about strength how you and i can be strong in the lord and in the power of his might the importance of that and today i want to talk to you about courage the lord knew that in order to enter a new normal a new time the nation of israel would have to be people of courage in order for them to be people of courage their leadership would also have to be courageous over and over again then god's call to joshua is to be strong and courageous which tells us something he probably doesn't necessarily fill up to the challenge of succeeding moses who would many times what happens is god sets his hand on us god wants to do something in our life and what happens is we don't feel we're up to the challenge it's in those moments that our confidence has to be not in our self but in the god who is able to work but he asks us to summon within our heart strength and courage a commitment to do what he asks us to do you read through the story of joshua actually at the start in deuteronomy 31 moses summons joshua and said to him in the sight of all israel be strong and courageous he says again a few verses later the lord commissioned him be strong and courageous for you shall bring the people of israel into the land that i swore to give them i will be with you let me just say this in order for you and i to walk by faith we talked about epic faith that requires both spiritual strength which god pours into us as we cooperate with his work in our life but it also requires courage to believe what you can't see requires courage to believe that god has something more for you than is clearly in front of you that god can bring you that god can change your life that god can change your family that god can change your finances that god can change your situation your circumstance that in one year two years five years that your life can be different that requires a response of courage on you're in my part for joshua it's going to require courage to believe israel is going to be able to enter a land filled with seven nations stronger and more powerful than they are it'd be enough if there was one nation there's seven god can say all he wants to say to us but at some point if you and i are going to experience what god wants to do in our life it requires a response of courageous faith of saying i'm in i believe i accept it i can't see it i can't understand it i don't know how god's going to do it but god if you say that's what's going to happen i believe and i'm courageous enough that i'll not only think it in my heart or treasured in my heart but i'll speak it with my lips should come to joshua chapter one god says again be strong and courageous later he says in verse 9 have i not commanded you be strong and courageous the people hear it so much that by the end of the chapter they're saying to joshua in verses 17 and 18 we'll follow you but like god said and like moses said joshua we need you to be strong and courageous when we think about courage we're not talking about somebody who doesn't have to confront their fears really what what courage has to do at its heart in the in the hebrew word it's the word amats it has to do with being alert physically mentally in other words you're fully engaged it's the idea that you're bold it's the idea that that you're firm it's the idea that nobody's going to push you around the enemy can push on you but you're standing firm people can push on you but you're standing firm you're bold you're bold enough to say i believe in the invisible i believe in what can't be put in a test tube what can't be measured with the yardstick i believe in it because god has said it this is courage it's the courage of faith in miriam's dictionary it defines courage as mental or moral strength to venture persevere and withstand danger fear or difficulty our old english word courage isn't from an anglo-saxon word or an anglo-french word that means more heart in other words a person who's courageous has heart they're wholehearted they're full on without reservation they're saying god you have all of me and all that you want to do in my life it's game on for me i want to ask you today is that where you're at without knowing exactly where god will take you without knowing exactly what god will ask of you without knowing all the details are you willing to say god i'm in i'm on you have all of me that's where courage starts and until we come to a place that says i'm abandoning my life to your purposes and your will and the direction of your spirit in my life courage will be very hard to come by so it's a it's a matter it starts in the heart entering a new normal requires more heart requires more heart to embrace the new priorities that are a part of that it requires more heart to fight the battles that are part of that it requires more heart to be able to engage in the activities that are a part of that epic faith wholehearted or that that bold faith requires courage so as we think of courage i want to i want to talk about courage relative to three areas number one courage and convictions there was ever a day that our world needed courageous christians it's today we're living in a day where our society our culture is jettisoning the judeo-christian ethic at a at a pace that is unseen in the history of our country as we're watching everything rapidly turn it's time for christians to be courageous not in an unkind not in an abrasive way but in a godly bold clear-minded firm way to stand up for righteousness to be able to to articulate what's valuable to us we need courage to do that a courageous person has to have convictions but it's impossible to have the courage of your convictions if you don't have any convictions let me ask you what are you convinced of what's really important to you at the core of your being what really matters to you what are you given to because your behavior and your time and your attention will flow to those areas for example i mean as a pastor and i just use this illustrationally there are some things i'm very committed to personally as a pastor number one i believe prayer is the difference in much of what we see god do that if we pray anything is possible that god delights to do big things i just believe that with all of my heart i've done this now too long i've watched god do too much to believe any different when you and i pray it makes a difference the reason why james river is what it is is because of the prayer meeting straight up take the prayer meeting out it's a different church take the prayer meeting out you'd watch this place turn there's a momentum it has but once that momentum had dissipated you'd watch this become a different church overnight prayer makes a difference when the church prays it makes a difference when i pray it makes a difference prayer makes a massive massive difference in our lives i'm convinced of that because of that we give time as a church to that i give time in my own life to that i'm convinced that the word of god rightly divided under the anointing of the holy spirit will change people's lives what changes people's lives are not my opinions what changes people's lives is not my clever presentation what changes people's lives is the word of god under the anointing of the holy spirit that that transforms people the bible says we are transformed by the living and the enduring word of god that's a conviction that is why every week you can count on open your bibles too is where i roll it's how i work it's what i think it's all that really matters to me relative to the word that people hear a reason verse by verse explanation of scripture and it can transform them i'm amazed at the power of god to transform people when you're when you're speaking about the craziest kinds of topics for example i remember first corinthians speaking about women wearing head coverings and that morning uh 50 people getting saved i mean i was like what in the world but it's the power of the word of god i believe the first step in discipleship for the for the christian is water baptism i just believe that i believe that if people aren't baptized right away it works against their their spiritual formation and ingrains in them an obedience optional discipleship which is no discipleship at all i believe many people are anemic in their walk or experiencing much less in their walk with god than they would have if they would have gotten baptized right away and that once somebody is baptized it makes a massive difference in god's working and moving in their life it's a conviction i have can you see how those shape what we do at james river what are your convictions what do you firmly believe i believe the word of god is true when it comes to a personal level let me just say this i i when i was raising when our kids were at home i believe this to be true that love is not enough to transform your children's lives too many parents think because they love their children they have influence with their children that's not true time plus love equals influence you got to be there you got to be there with your kids and that doesn't start when they can do what you're interested with it starts when they're little you've got to be around i remember in the early days and when our kids were growing up and a lot of invitations were coming and i frankly turned down almost all of them because i felt my kids needed to see me at the dinner table that it didn't matter how many conferences i was at if my kids didn't grow up to love god really nothing else matters that's a conviction that i have what are your convictions what do you believe to be true it will affect how you live number two and i would just say before we go to number two it'd be good for you really for every single person to sit down and write what do i believe to be true what is what is and and there's a lot of things we can say are true but what am i really convinced of what do i really have in my heart as a conviction and maybe you've not thought about that but it's critically important because it will affect how you do marriage how you do family how you do your job how you do church i let me give you one other one other um conviction relative to the church that god wants us to be lovers of his church that he passionately loves his church he passionately loves his church and he wants his people to be lovers of his church i talked about that in staff chapel a couple weeks ago we had a great time a lot of fun with that number two courage and conversation do you speak courageous words let me ask you this do your words encourage or discourage because at the heart of encouragement is courage in other words when you're an encourager you're giving people courage when you're a discourager you're taking away people's courage what kind of of speaker are you do your words give people courage do you realize that every conversation we have is either going to build up the people around us or it's going to tear down the people around us it's very interesting i was reading in deuteronomy chapter 20. very interesting passage when you go out to war against your enemies and see your hor see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own you shall not be afraid of them for the lord your god is with you you could be outnumbered but if god is with you you don't have to worry isn't that good news you might feel outnumbered today but god is with you you don't have to worry it says this and when you draw near to the battle the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and she'll say to them hear o israel today you're drawing near for battle against your enemies let not your heart faith do not fear or panic or be in dread of them for the lord your god is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you the victory now here you've got the priest and he's coming out and he's saying listen we don't have to be afraid there may be more of them but god is with us and god's going to fight for us and god's going to help us and god's going to go before us and it's going to be awesome and everybody said hallelujah it's so great then watch what happens and the officers shall then speak further to the people and say is there any man who is fearful and faint-hearted let him go back to his house lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own how's that going to happen by what he says i want you to think about this for just a moment because sometimes people think well i don't i don't really matter i don't have any position i'm not this i'm not that listen he's not an officer he's just an enlisted man but if he speaks discouraging words it will discourage an entire army you may feel like oh i'm i don't know that many people listen there's a ripple effect to your words that even when there's a word from god that he's gonna give victory that you could actually by speaking discouragement and doubt and fear steal a victory from god's people i'd be very careful i'd be very careful i'm i'm not saying listen i'm just saying i'd be very careful about tearing down the church i'd be very careful about about speaking disparaging words disheartening people from believing in god and seeking god and believing the best is yet to come i'll be very careful about saying oh i hate it when they say that all the time or i wouldn't yeah i'd be very careful about that lest you diminish the victory god is giving his people and all because you think you have no influence your words themselves have great power the power of life and death is in the tongue how powerful is that regardless of whose tongue is moving it's very interesting in the gospel story there's an interesting story in the gospel because when you read the the story of the feeding of the five thousand it's in all four gospels john tells us at the start of the day and when you understand the chronology the synoptic gospels matthew mark and luke they tell us what happens at the end of the day john tells us what happens at the start of the day at the start of the day jesus says to philip he says philip where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat and philip answered him 200 denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little so philip philip apparently is the quartermaster he's the number cruncher he's the accountant and i've met accountants of great faith but i i mean it takes a lot of extra faith to be uh a person of great faith when you're an accountant i mean it just does because people sometimes have have a lot more confidence in the numbers than they do in the god behind the numbers i i mean again i know accountants with great faith but i also know sometimes people get too caught up in what they see rather than what god says so here's here's philip and he says listen i've done the math and it can't be done watch what happens at the end of the day and when it grew late his disciples came to him and said the hour is late send them away but he answered them you give them something to eat here's what they say should we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to they're like we don't have 200 denarii i mean philip's been saying it all day and now they're believing it you see what you and i say has a huge effect on what happens in people's thinking you can think it's not any big deal it's just your opinion but your opinion has the power to either create an atmosphere of encouragement and faith or to create an atmosphere of discouragement and fear it's very interesting to watch that another example would be numbers chapter 13. here you have the spies and what you have is they're coming back and and here's their report the land flows with milk and honey but the people living there are powerful their towns are large and fortified we even saw giants there the descendants of anak the amalekites live in the negev and the hittites shepherd sites and amorites live in the hill country the canaanites live along the coast of the mediterranean sea now watch this but caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before moses let's go at once and take the land we can certainly conquer it but the other men who explored the land with him disagreed we can't go up against them they're stronger than we are then the whole community began weeping aloud and they complain they're they're in it all night remember the word courage means wholehearted look at it in numbers 14. it says this but because my servant caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly i'll bring him into the land listen ten men come back and bring a bad report moses faith burns with fi face burns with the the glory of god moses can strike a rock and a river gushes out a river that waters two million people moses can lift his hands up and quail come down in the camp and feed two million people moses can do all kinds of things but even though moses is hearing directly from god even though he speaks the lord face to face as a man talks with his friend even though there's a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day and even though he strikes a rock and even all those things are happening moses faith is not enough to bring people into the promised land if there are 10 men who are saying it can't be done i'm just saying there's there's got to be on the part of god's people the kind of courage that says i will speak words of faith and i will speak words that build others up and there has to be a recognition of the devastating nature of discouraging critical words that would cause us to say i want to be careful that i don't damage what god is going to do in a place where god is working so powerfully further let me just let me just add this and i just think it's a good reminder because i think as we're moving into what god has satan is going to fight that and how is he gonna fight it he's gonna fight it through the conversation of people the tongue is is one of his favorite weapons let me say this as well though i think we have to realize too we never know what's happening to people who are listening to us we i i think we air if we underestimate the power of an encouraging comment i i can't help every time i drive down south campbell i mean honestly anytime i'm driving down there and i go by i think of a conversation that i had in 1991 at the steak and shake over biscuits and gravy which you know biscuits ingredients they can shake good but i was there with somebody who was on the leadership team of james gibber and they had they had talked to me and and i'd done everything honestly to to i tried to get other people to come here uh when they'd asked me to come i was like uh i've got a friend called these i gave him several names and my friends would come and and so we came down to talk to them we met with them we saw what god was doing but honestly at the time because of the battle in kansas city and because i was just discouraged sometimes when you're discouraged it just frames your whole perception of everything and i saw what god was doing here and i really felt like you know if they ask us to come it's not going to be a good thing for them and the last thing i'd want to do is get in the way of what god was doing here so you know at our meeting with them i told them listen you know debbie's debbie's worn out and so i would just ask you to please don't ask her to do anything for nine months and honestly let me just tell you you know i don't have like a big vision for springfield if you need somebody who has a vision for springfield i'm not your guy and and uh you know i'm not lazy but you know i'm not the guy's going to come in and put the jumper cables on and get the thing really going uh you know i preach i visit people um and i if i'm you i'd pick somebody else i said all that and they were like you're just the guy we're looking for and i was like what in the world so the next morning i'm having biscuits and gravy with one of the leaders and i told him i said hey listen i just got to be honest with you i feel like a failure and i think it's a massive mistake for you guys to ask me to come and he looked at me and he said i don't think you're a failure i think we can be good for you and you can be good for us and i sure hope you come on that one statement my whole future changed [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you see you never know the battle somebody's fighting on the inside [Music] you never know what they're struggling with what they're thinking you never know how close they are to giving up at that time i was telling debbie i want to go back to law school but one guy over biscuits and gravy said two sentences that changed my life that gave me the courage to fight another day courage and conversation let's be known as people who lift one another up let's let's not judge people on the facade of what we see on the outside but let's ask god to give us the the faith the faithfulness and and the attitude i believe of the holy spirit he's the god of all encouragement that we would be the kind of of people that would speak words of life to the people we encounter amen [Music] now listen in terms of joshua if you're going to see god do big things it's going to require courage to speak them for some of you the miracle is going to come not just because you fill it or sense it in your heart but god's going to require something more of you he's going to require you to express it with your lips and that's going to take courage because at that point it's one thing to in your heart say i believe it it's another thing for any one of us to declare this is what we believe god is doing i mean this is for i think one of the beautiful things about vision sunday and one of the scary things about vision sunday you put out what you believe god is going to do and then you're like oh wow now now we've said it now we're we're in we're on we this thing going to have to happen because we said we said we're going to do it right think of this with joshua in joshua chapter 3 then joshua told the people purify yourselves for tomorrow the lord will do great wonders among you know what that we know it's going to happen the very next day the water of the jordan in flood stage is going to completely pile up and the priests are going to step in the water and they're going to be on dry ground and all the people are going to go across and i mean joshua joshua does not know exactly what's going to happen all he knows is god says tomorrow i'm going to do something so amazing so significant that he'd be remembered for all time in eternity but it takes great faith to say tomorrow god's going to do something amazing later he says this he tells israelites come and listen to what the lord your god says today you'll know that the living god is among you he will surely drive out the canaanites hittites hivites perizzites gurgashites amorites and jebusites ahead of you look the ark of the covenant which belongs to the lord of the whole earth will lead you across the jordan river this this takes great faith to name out the nations and say they are so yesterday because god is giving you the land later he's going to say in chapter 6 i mean amazing joshua commanded the people shout for the lord has given you the city he he's going to tell them we're going to march around this thing and when we do we're all going to shout and when we shout the walls are falling down and we're all going to go up in it i mean that takes amazing faith to say that that takes courage you can believe all day long in your heart god's going to do it but it takes great courage to speak it with your lips but some things and here's the thing some things will only happen when you are bold enough to declare it that's why courage you've got to be strong in the lord and in the power of his might and you've got to have courage in your conversation and your convictions let me give you one last and we'll close courage and commitment courage and commitment courage comes by way of commitment it's something that god calls you and i to he can give strength to our heart and the good news is in grace god calls you to do it and then he enables you to do it but there has to be a willingness on our part to cooperate with the call of god relative to what he wants to do in our life you have to choose to be a person of courage otherwise how can god say to joshua in joshua 1 9 have i not commanded you be strong and courageous how can god command him to do it if joshua can't do it let me give you some things that will build courage in your life similar to strength training but different in some respects number one commit to obey god's word look at it in joshua 1 and verse 7 only be strong and very courageous in other words you need to have courage over the top being careful to do according to all the law that moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right hand or the left that you may have good success wherever you go there is something about when you and i begin to live in the word of god and obey the word of god and not be selective and say well i'll do this but i'm not going to do that i'm not sure about that i don't really feel like doing that i want to but when you and i say i'm gonna obey the word of god we're not talking about perfection we're talking about direction we're talking about the intent of the heart the desire of your life is to say i'm gonna be full on in my obedience to the lord will happen is it will result in a success in your life now yeah i'm amazed how many people commentators write about this and well success doesn't mean this it doesn't mean this how do they know i mean it says wherever you go that you may have success wherever you go that seems pretty all-encompassing but let's take the finance because that seems to be a lot of people just don't believe god wants to bless people financially i'm not saying everybody is going to be a millionaire i'm just saying just like you saw the cisco's testimony come on i mean it's true it works i've seen it i've seen it for for 37 years in ministry it just is what it is but let's let's set that to the side and say let me say this if you will obey the law and all that you do you'll be successful in your family you'll be successful in your relationships you'll be successful in your planning for the future you'll be successful in your in your work relationship i mean and what happens at work i'm just saying when you begin to when you begin to say i'm going to honor god and put him first jesus said seek first the kingdom of god in his righteousness which would be obeying the word and all these other things will be added unto you you take care of everything else and you can be sure he'd take care of everything else better than you could take every care of everything else but obedience to the word of god and a commitment to the word of god to say what it says i'm gonna do i'm gonna live in it because i love him i'm going to do it because he's so good and and watch what god will do number two commit to meditating on the word look at it again because we looked at it last time this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night we talked about how the hebrew word has to do with murmuring or mumbling but it also has to do with with the cow chewing its cut and what what a cut is is it's a part of the gastric chamber in a cow where it brings up the the things that's eaten the grass the alfalfa it brings it up and the and the grain and the cow chews on it again to extract all of the nutrients from that food the difference between this kind of meditation and eastern meditation or the meditation of other religions is simply that all of those want you to empty your mind god wants to fill your mind it's a massive difference their ideal is nothingness don't think about anything because that's where all your stress is god's idea is fullness of joy big difference god says you don't get peace by thinking about nothing he says you get peace by filling your mind with me you get joy by filling your mind with with him so what happens is you find yourself meditating on it you find yourself becoming conscious of the word of god and when you're conscious of the word of god what happens is you'll automatically because the word and the spirit work together you're going to have the spirit of god you're going to be conscious of the spirit of god and the will of god and that's going to give you courage because when you know you're walking according to the way of the lord and the hand of the lord is on you and you can sense his presence there's going to be a faith there's going to be a boldness there's going to be a courage in what you do number three commit to not living in fear have i not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be frightened and do not be dismayed now here's the difficulty for us is that we're bombarded with information 24 7. some of that information is meaningless some of that information is false some is corrupt some is a distraction and we have to be careful what we do with all of that information i would suggest that potentially a little less information would go a long way in helping people whether that's news which i think people you know for in the 40 days leading up to easter debbie and i said we're not going to watch we're not going to have any tv on at all we're not going to do any of that so we kind of took a news break for 40 days i found out after 40 days not a lot had changed i really hadn't missed much i felt way better i was way happier you know for a lot of people you're filling your mind with so many things that are working against you spiritually i'll put social media in that i'm not i'm not against it i don't think by and large it's good because i think it creates an unrealistic view everybody shows you what they want you to see which is usually their the the best of any given moment and creates this sense that everybody else has the perfect life except you which breeds discontent or certainly fills people with all kinds of trivia and then i think there's a whole lot of things on the internet that just frankly are not true and people google stuff and find stuff that that just is honestly wrong and are and it filled their mind with it and then what happens is they begin to get concerned and they begin to get worried and they begin to get anxious but underneath all of that is what fear and once a person is counseled by their fears faith is going to be an uphill battle because fear will always justify its existence in your life you'll always have a reason notice it's do not be frightened it's a choice we can make we we can choose you say how do i how do i overcome that i think it's right here in the verse and do not be dismayed for the lord your god is with you wherever you go when you and i become conscious of the presence of the lord that is with us and the promise of the lord that he will go from where we're at right now where we sense his presence to wherever we're going you're in his presence right now i can tell you that but he will go with you that's good news isn't it he will go with you when that becomes real to you fear has no place let me just encourage you if you're filled with fear what's the antidote to that it's to worship the lord you say what how does that help because god sits enthroned on the praises of his people so as soon as you start to worship you're bringing the presence of the lord into your situation if god sits enthroned on the praises of his people who do you think sits enthroned on fear if you're if you're if you're dominated by your fears and you're counseled by your fears what happens is and we can legitimize the fear we can say well i have a good reason to be afraid and satan is so happy to hear you say that better to remember he's with you better to be enthralled with his presence than to be overwhelmed by false news whatever else is out there that is causing fear in your heart praise the lord and his presence will fill your heart number four and finally close with this commit to believing god's promises listen for every single trial you ever face this is true true true true true true a thousand times true there's a promise from god for you a promise from his word for you god has promises listen here's what he says to joshua every place the soul of your foot will tread upon i've given you just as i promised to moses from the wilderness and he goes down and he just describes it just as i was with moses i will be with you i will not leave you or forsake you which incidentally jesus repeats that and says um i will never leave you and forsake you lord i'm with you always even unto the end of the age he's with you be strong and courageous for you shall cause his people to inherit the land god gives him a promise trafficking the promises of god for every single problem there is always going to be a promise god's going to give you i love what uh puritan thomas watson said he said this in a sermon that he preached on august 17 1662. trade much in the promises the promises are great supports to faith faith lives in a promise as the fish lives in the water the promises are both comforting and quickening in other words they'll energize your spirit to believe god the promises of god keep us from sinking when we come to the waters of affliction oh trade much in the promises there is no condition that you can be in but you have a promise that's true trade much in the promises of god there's no condition you can be in but that you have a promise god wants us to be people who are courageous get in the word of god meditate on the word speak words of life trade in the promises of god watch what god will do amen hey everybody thank you so much for joining james river church on our youtube channel our prayer is that you were encouraged and your faith was strengthened today and we want to let you know that we want to connect with all our online family you can just click the link next to me to connect to us we'd love to meet you and connect with you as well we'd love if you subscribe to the channel and press the bell for notifications i'll tell you what it's a great thing to do because we're always putting out great sermons new worship content and that helps you stay up to date with everything that's happening we hope you have a great day today and we'd love for you to join us live for our services every sunday and wednesday thank you again for watching and god bless

Channel: James River Church

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Id: s0MJosYZpeU

Length: 43min 58sec (2638 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021