Joshua Chapter 23:1-16

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is the Senior Pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As a Christian, you are not alone. Pastor David encourages us with this important truth as he continues in the book of Joshua chapter 23. But first, do you ever feel like God is cutting away parts of you like a gardener pruning a tree?

Well, I hope you said yes to this question because it means God is shaping you so that you can bear even more fruit in your life. We want to help you embrace God's pruning in your life by sending you Pastor David Magee's three-part audio series, Abiding in Christ, Keys to a Fruitful Life. It's our way of saying thank you for your gift to help share the truth of Scripture with more people around the world through Cross the Bridge. So get your copy of Abiding in Christ when you give today at crossthebridge.com and discover how you can bear more fruit for God's kingdom.

Now here's David Magee with part three of his teaching, You Are Not Alone. We find ourselves in the last two chapters of the book of Joshua and this begins the farewell address of Joshua. It's this chapter in the next or the farewell address and so Joshua 23 verse 1 says, Now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old, advanced in age and Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, for their officers and said to them, I am old advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you for the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. Verse 4, See I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward and the Lord your God will expel them before you and drive them out of your sight so you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. And lest you go among these nations these who remain among you you shall not make mention of the name of their gods nor cause anyone to swear by them you shall not serve them nor bow down to them but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations but as for you no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you. Again we were reminded that the Lord is fighting for him and you know what a lot of times we can read this and we go oh isn't that that that's great you know the Lord really blessed him back then.

Wait a minute now what do you mean blessed him back then? We could go through some modern history we could talk about the war of 1967 we could talk about the Yom Kippur war in in 73. Amazing things happened we can talk about the war that five nations declared on Israel the day that it became a nation. They didn't have an army they didn't have a military and five nations equipped and backed with Russian technology declared war on this little nation and Israel won. That doesn't make any sense. In the Yom Kippur war almost the same scenario they were invaded by these nations again equipped with all this technology and within the first 24 hours they had wiped out I think 117 fighter planes and not one Israeli jet had been taken out.

117 to zero. I'm thinking God's still with them. There's a little nation about the size of New Jersey that is the sixth most powerful nation in the world. That nation is Israel. Again that doesn't make any sense but in God's economy God's favor is still upon him and and the amazing thing is you can go oh you can oh that's that's cool that's great that's great that God is still blessing Israel. He took him out of Egypt against the most powerful man in the world he took him across the desert and he fought all these people the Canaanites and they had a lot of military technology.

I won't go into that but these guys were fighters and they got well southern expression they got whooped and so then they have all this land and now they're back in the land and you can look at that go praise God I'm glad God is with Israel. No the point is God is with you. The same God that did all this stuff is on your side. He's fighting for you. He's fighting with you and yet at some point you somehow think you're somehow think you're fighting by yourself. That's a lie.

That's a lie. You're never fighting by yourself. Next life lesson is you are not alone. God is with you. Verse 11 therefore take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Take heed careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. This is saying guard your love for the Lord and that's just that's not just here that's a concept throughout the Bible. If you remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 22 37 Jesus said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. See Jesus took that first part you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and with all your mind and if you remember in the passage in Deuteronomy he starts with hero Israel which is Shema in the Hebrew so whenever you hear the word Shema that's the Hebrew word for this prayer. As a matter of fact if you if you go out here it used to be the main entryway into the offices up here you'll notice a little silver thing a little silver tube you may have walked past and thought what in the world is that that's called a mezuzah but mezuzah is the Hebrew word for doorway inside that mezuzah is the Shema written in Hebrew to remind us to love the Lord our God with all our heart all our mind and all our soul. It's important and then Jesus takes that and Jesus goes well that's not hard enough I'm gonna lift the bar here a little bit and love your neighbor as yourself just in case we thought we could hit coast with the other thing but let me ask you what does that look like I mean it's easy to sit in a middle of worship service go yeah I'm doing that I'm loving the Lord my God with all my heart all my mind all my soul what is that what's that look like there's a couple real practical things you can look at little life inventories if you will we're told first John chapter 4 verse 20 says if someone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen so you want to do a little inventory of how you're loving God how are you loving your brothers and sisters if you're not loving your brothers and sisters then you're struggling in your love for God and an amazing thing happens as you love the Lord the Lord gives you a love for other people the Lord will do that so that's one inventory how are you loving other people first John chapter 5 verse 2 says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments that's in the new testament and it's telling us if we love God we're going to keep his commandments does that mean you never mess up no but it means that you're following the Lord and you are trying to keep his commandments that's what that means so there's another life inventory am I obeying God am I obedient in the things that I know to do and that's a hard attitude there Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12 kind of parallel passage and it says now Israel what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so we keep coming back to that word all you know what the word all means in Hebrew means all that's right so all with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul this verse mentions four things number one to fear or give reverence to the Lord mentions fear the Lord I've heard this put it's a healthy respect for the Lord it's a it's a reverence it's a it's an awe a we it's an awe of God to fear the Lord second thing was to walk in his ways to walk in his ways we've been talking about that tonight to follow the Lord to hear his word to apply it and begin to walk in it the third thing it says again to love him again this test of loving him as being obedient and loving others loving God loving others and being obedient being obedient to what the Lord says because let's be honest you know it can you can say you you love anybody yeah I love you man yeah I mean you can say that but do you see with the Lord it there's a commitment there I heard about a bumper sticker that said um tithe if you love Jesus anybody can honk I didn't order any or anything for the church but I thought that's kind of cool you know because I mean what's the commitment honk I love Jesus yeah I love Jesus I have a really big commitment beeping that horn wasn't it but if you do love the Lord you should be following him and being obedient and the fourth thing was and guess we're back to this service thing because God keeps talking about it the fourth thing is to serve the Lord this is something we're all supposed to do and what happens here is we give you the opportunity and we'll train you in the ability to serve the Lord and that's an opportunity that we all have to make a difference in somebody else's life and we talked about loving one another do you realize that in serving here do you realize that you would be serving people that are already serving you see if you're not serving here right now there's a whole lot of people that are serving you and you're accepting that service without doing anything in return that's that's not Christ-like so serving is a way of expressing that love you're listening to pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge he'll be back with more powerful insight from God's Word in just a moment but first what does it mean when God prunes away at parts of your life is he angry at you have you done something wrong far from it Jesus teaches in John 15 that God lovingly removes things from your life so that you can grow into the person he created you to be and bear more fruit for Christ we want to help you do that by sending you abiding in Christ keys to a fruitful life a three-part audio series from pastor David McGee on what it means to be pruned by God and how you can embrace the process this encouraging resource is our way of thanking you for your gift to help reach more people with the powerful truth of the gospel through Cross the Bridge so go to cross the bridge.com today and request your copy of this series now back to today's message verse 12 or else if you indeed if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations them that remain among you and make marriages with them and go into them and they to you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from among you but they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns and your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you see there's a concept in here and we need to be we need to be clear on something because there's some confusion in the body of Christ about this we don't take our enemies and pick up their doctrine we don't take enemies of the faith and go oh you know that's a good point I never thought about you you don't do that you pray for your enemies you even love your enemies but be very careful of being won over to a different philosophy or a different or a different truth than you receive from the word of God see there's great compromise going on in the body of Christ today compromise where I don't get it and may I never get it I don't understand how some people can meet with other unchristian people and call it fellowship you can't do that there's a huge movement right in this area of all this interfaith stuff it's not biblical guys now I talk about our jewish roots but I talk about it in terms of scripture and and to go to heaven let me let me be real clear to go to heaven you have to accept Jesus as the messiah there's a line drawn and and here God is reminding there is a line drawn between you and these people these people worship idols they don't worship the God of Israel and we need to remember that have compassion on them you bet you have prayers for them you bet you love them yes understanding yes borrowing their doctrine or their theology absolutely not because what we can do is water the message down to the point that it's no longer has any meaning it's no longer relevant and when the church loses its message of hope and salvation we got nothing we got nothing we have nothing to offer the world at that point and Jesus wants us to proclaim him claim him not watered down here's what's going on in the world today is we're going okay well let's water it down let's let's put it in a palatable form let's put it in a form that tastes good and let's not talk about sin and hell and death and all this thing let's let's become actually we've thought it's a mature spiritual thing to be tolerant now tolerant people use that word like it's a good thing oh he's tolerant oh don't be anti-tolerant you should be tolerant of the beliefs of you know I understand them but tolerant of them you're asking me to be okay with the fact that somebody else is going to hell I can't do that how did Jesus feel about tolerance I don't know why don't you ask the money changers I think if you ask them to go he's not very tolerant tall he's he's pretty he's pretty one-sided and never minded in this whole thing you betcha you betcha and you know what I'm following Jesus I am following Jesus and I want to see people one in the kingdom you don't know the burden I have you don't know the burden I have but you know and if you're not following Jesus and you're in here tonight the only thing that's holding you back is you it's not your goodness it's not that you got to be so good for so long so you can follow no Jesus is even tonight saying to you you know what you can follow me you can follow me well I've done stuff wrong Jesus died for those wrongs he died for those sins and he wants to lead you he wants you to follow him and it's interesting in this chapter Joshua reminds them of what God has done reminds them of what God has said then of what God would do if they didn't listen that's an important three things what God has done what God has said and what will happen if they didn't listen now very often guys we start out with number three and talking to people here's what's going to happen if you don't listen to God oh start out with what God has done because God has loved them so much that he gave his son for them he loves them so much that he wrote a book to them a love letter asking them to come follow him now certainly if somebody disregards those things and and as arrogant and as prideful then you probably should tell them what's going to happen in their arrogance and their pride if they keep rejecting the Lord verse 14 behold this day I'm going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you all have come to pass for you not one word of them has failed you realize we're going to say that one day when we're in heaven we're going to say you know what every promise he gave us was true everything that he said would happen has happened we're going to look at end times events through that scope one day and say you know what it went down exactly the way he said it was going to go down the world made war against him and he came out and he won now one word of them has failed verse 15 therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you so the Lord will bring upon you all harm harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you understand the giving of the land and you need to be clear on this was unconditional it was unconditional I'm not especially the time's getting away with I'm not going to go into all the promises of that God gave to Israel concerning the land but he gave them the land unconditionally okay their enjoyment of it their blessing in it was conditional upon their obedience see that's what happened when you see the Babylonian captivity or the Assyrian captivity when they were taken out of the land because them staying in the land and being blessed by that friend was conditional and I think we can relate to it because I believe Jesus is offered to us for forgiveness is unconditional God doesn't wake up one morning going I'm having a bad day I don't feel good about you anymore I'm not going to forgive you it's an unconditional promise and we can do stupid things and we can do bad things but that forgiveness is still available but walking in the blessings friend that is conditional you can't walk in disobedience and expect God to bless that he loves you too much he loves you you know one of my kids are smaller and they want to play in the middle of the road I didn't say oh I love you so much you just play in the middle of the road God bless you I didn't do that I said you know what get out of the road or I will spank you that's what God says to some of us sometimes isn't it get out of the road there's a truck coming get out of the road I'm not going to look at you and smile get out of the road I want to bless you the truck also wants to bless you in a different way step out of the road and of course some of us I've been stubborn and rebellion oh no I'm not getting out of the road you know God hit me with a truck what happened I don't understand no God gave me the warning about the truck he gave me the warning about the truck in verse 16 he says when you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he has given you seven times joshua mentions the idolatrous people as a warning the sad thing is in the book of judges we're going to find out they didn't listen we're going to find out that the idolatrous people that they were warned about will end up being that thorn in their side because they didn't listen the Lord let them decide the Lord allowed them to make the decision to hear the warning or to not hear the warning and the Lord gives us the same situation he loves you enough tonight to say look here's what's messed up here's a world that's not following God don't follow him here's the way you follow me and he gives to you the decision and friend I don't wish upon anybody for them to reap the things that disobedience brings them I do not wish that upon anybody in here but I can't make that decision for you you have to make the decision to follow the Lord you have to make the decision even as this whole chapter the the three points of sticking to the word stick to the word be separate from those who don't follow the Lord and love and cling and follow the Lord if you do those three things you'll be blessed you will be blessed you will be I know prosperity is an overused word and even an abused word but if you do these things you will be blessed and you will prosper there's no doubt in my mind about it now look at the life of Joshua think back with me for just a moment he was a slave in Egypt never heard of the promised land maybe hoping for a deliverer maybe even praying for a deliverer and God took him from that all the way through the desert for 40 years and places him in the promised land being victorious and the whole time Joshua was being obedient I want to be like Joshua Joshua at the end of his life looks back and goes yeah yeah look what God did that's what I want that's what I want in my life to look back and go yeah yeah look look what God did and I think that you guys want the same thing I think you want to get to that day and you want to hear well done thou good and faithful servant but it requires your obedience and Joshua in this chapter he tells us how he tells us how to do it the the secret if you will of being able to get to the end of your life and looking back and going yeah or about the you know the the story that I shared about William Borden when he died at a young age just walking away from the the fortune the family fortune walking away and them finding a note under his pillow said no reserves no retreats no regrets that's what I want in my life that's what I want for you if you had to stand before the Lord today could you stand there and say you know what God I made a difference in the lives of people if you can't right now with assurance say that then something's got to change not tomorrow not next week something's got to change tonight in your heart to say you know what the Lord I do want to make a difference I want to love you more and I want to love other people more and I want to serve other people and I want to follow you you probably need to make that decision often I can't sit here tonight and go well you know I six years ago I made a decision to follow the Lord no no no no no every morning when I wake up I make a decision to follow the Lord I make a decision to love the Lord to follow the Lord to love other people friend do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven you can know right now I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him please pray this prayer with me out loud right now dear Jesus I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things I have sinned and I'm sorry please forgive me of all those things please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name amen friend if you prayed that prayer according to the bible you've been forgiven you've been born again so congratulations friend you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make god bless you if you prayed that prayer with David for the first time we'd love to hear from you you can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ do you feel like you're bearing fruit for Christ yet God keeps pruning away at your life and you're not sure why if so we'd love to send you pastor David McGee's series abiding in Christ keys to a fruitful life this encouraging resource shares from Jesus's own words as found in John 15 where he teaches that God's pruning is a sign that he is pleased with you and wants to prepare you to bear even more fruit for his kingdom this series is our way of thanking you for your gift today to help share the gospel with thousands around the world who need to hear God's word in clear straightforward language so visit cross the bridge.com today to request your copy of abiding in Christ when you give you know each day comes with its share of stresses so what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the lord visit cross the bridge.com and sign up now for David McGee's email devotionals each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of David McGee it's easy and it's free sign up today at cross the bridge.com and be sure to join us next time on cross the bridge as we continue in the book of Joshua we'll see you then