Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Moses couldn't do it. I can't.
He's Moses. I can't. I just can't. I can't do it.
You ever say that? I can't get through the next week. I can't get through this night. I can't get through the next. I can't. I can't.
I mean, it happens to the best of us. Remember when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and he spent 40 years, you know, as a sheep herder? And God tells him what he wants him to do. Go back to Egypt and deliver the people.
And five different times Moses said what? I can't. I'm not eloquent. They won't listen to me.
I don't know. What am I going to do? See, that's what ends up happening. When you live by the words I can't, I can guarantee something. You'll never leave the wilderness.
Not ever. You'll be saved, but you won't leave the wilderness. You'll spend your whole life there. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Medary, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.
Listen to these words. These are words written in the book of Joshua chapter 21. So the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give their fathers, and they possessed it and they lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers, and not one of their enemies stood before them. He says the Lord gave them their enemies into their hand and not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed.
Every one of them came to pass. Now those words are written after Israel had spent 400 years in slavery and 40 years wandering in the wilderness. And then these words are written and in seven years time they conquered seven different nations.
They defeated 31 kings and they grabbed 10,000 square miles of land. Seven years of unimaginable success and blessing. Now I'd like you to think about your life up till now. All the struggles, all the failures, the heartbreak and the disappointment. Wouldn't you like these words written to you? That wouldn't you like these words to describe what your life is going to be like in the next seven years? All you're going to have is blessing. You're going to have rest on every side. There's nothing that can slow you down or stop you at all.
Wouldn't you like that to be your words? Now, I know that you're not facing Jericho. But all of us face what seems to be insurmountable obstacles in our lives. You're not being stalked by the Canaanites. But for many of us, we're being stalked by disease or divorce or disappointment. For some of you, the challenges just seem too great in your life. And for others, I think you've just run out of fight. You've just sort of reconciled to the fact that your life's not going to get a lot better.
But that's not true. The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament, he likens the Christian life. To the exodus generation and the land that went from the 40 years in the wilderness into the promised land. He warns his readers and us that many of us end up spending our whole life as a believer saved because we're under the Passover lamb in Egypt. But we end up spending our whole life just wandering around in the wilderness. And we never enter the promised land, a land for Israel that was flowing with milk and honey. A land that Jesus said for us is a life of joy and hope, peace, no matter what the circumstances.
And we never seem to really arrive at those things. I think there's a lot we can learn from the exodus generation and from the book of Joshua. And so I want to start a new series today called Lessons from Joshua. And I invite you to open your Bibles to Joshua Chapter one, Joshua Chapter one.
And the first thing I want to say today is this. God wants all of his children to live in the promised land. Every one of us. God wants each and every one of us who will put our faith in Jesus Christ in his finished work. To live what Jesus called the abundant life, a life full of joy and hope. That's his desire for us.
Unfortunately, it's not the reality for many of us. Notice the circumstances. Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant. The first thing you find out is Moses is dead.
Now, we know it and they knew it even more than we do. There's no one like Moses. There is nothing like Moses at all. Moses meant more to his people than Napoleon meant to the French. Then Alexander the Great meant to the Greeks.
To Queen Victoria meant to the English. Moses meant everything to these people. And he's dead. To lose Moses is to lose everything. And that's where we start the book. And so God then wants to respond and talk to Joshua.
And it's kind of surprising what he says. The next verse. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, rise across the Jordan, you and your people, to the land that I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
And every place on which your sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I have spoken to Moses. Notice what God didn't say. Moses is dead.
You poor people. You've got to grieve that. I mean, Moses is dead.
Now, what are you going to do? You see, Moses is dead. Maybe you need to retreat. Maybe you need to reorganize.
Maybe you need to spend another 40 years getting ready. Because Moses is dead. Now, that's not what he says at all. God says to Joshua, OK, Moses is dead. Now, rise across the Jordan, take the land. That's simple.
That's straightforward. Go and take the land. Now, what's interesting about that is, is that you wonder, like, are you sure? But notice what God says in these verses. He said, the land to which, in verse 2, I am giving them, and in verse 3, he says, I have given it to you. I've already done it.
Now, go get them. Now, please understand, the land is no easy place to go. It's full of ites. There are ites everywhere. There are Amorites and Jebusites and Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites.
There are ites everywhere. And they are a cesspool of evil. They're probably as evil a culture that ever existed. And they're warlike. You see, and they're warlike.
That's very clear. And he says, yeah, they're so despicable that for over 800 years, they have sacrificed, not dedicated babies, they sacrificed babies to their gods. That's who these people are. Remember, 40 years earlier, they sent the 12 spies into the land. Two of them came back, Joshua and Caleb, and they said, let's go get it. And the other 10 said, no, we can't take it.
You see, we can't take it. They're way too warlike. They have iron chariots.
In fact, they used hyperbole and they said, we're like grasshoppers compared to them. There are giants in the land. You can't go in there and take that land. And so the people didn't.
And they spent 40 years just wandering around in the wilderness. Now, Joshua faces a temptation here and it's a temptation you and I face and we often fail. Joshua faces the temptation here to say two words. I can't. I can't. You see, look, if Moses couldn't do it, I can't.
He's Moses. I can't. I just can't. I can't do it.
You ever say that? I can't get through the next week. I can't get through this night. I can't get through the next. I can't. I can't.
I mean, it happens to the best of us. Remember when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and he spent 40 years, you know, as a sheep herder. And God tells him what he wants him to do, go back to Egypt and deliver the people.
And five different times, Moses said, what? I can't. I'm not eloquent. They won't listen to me. I don't know what am I going to do? See, that's what ends up happening when you live by the words, I can't. I can guarantee something. You'll never leave the wilderness.
Not ever. You'll be saved. But you won't leave the wilderness.
You'll spend your whole life there. And so Joshua has to face that. He doesn't use the excuse that Moses is dead.
He doesn't say, look, you have no idea. My people don't know how to fight. We have two million people, about six hundred and ten thousand men. We don't know how to fight. We've never fought anybody. These guys are warlike tribes.
What can we do against them? He never says that. He also never makes the excuse that these people would just make mincemeat of mine.
Why? Well, my people have to go and die for no reason at all. But God said, I'm giving them the land.
Notice what God didn't say. I might give you the land. If you go and fight hard, it might work out for you. He doesn't say no. First thing you have to do, by the way, is you have to earn the right.
Or you have to prove you're worthy. God never says any of that. God says, I'm giving it to you.
It's a done deal from God's point of view. The land is yours. The inheritance. And that's a favorite word in Joshua. It's yours.
I'm giving it to you. Now, what's interesting about that is, is that we would say, but but that's them. Not so fast because he says the same thing to us. Go with me now. You can hold your place in Joshua, but go with me to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. Verse 35.
And here's God talking to you and me through the apostle Paul in the church. And the question asked in Romans eight is this. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword, which is even death? Is there anything that could separate us from that?
No. But notice in verse 37, he said, in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who has loved us. If you go to church every week. You see, if you have some kind of ministry, if you pray four times a day.
No, it's not contingent on you. Paul said we overwhelmingly conquer. He's talking about you. Do you feel that?
Is that how you feel? You see, it's an interesting thing. I've said this over and over again just to try to encourage you.
But I read the end of the book. You win. All right, you win.
You're guaranteed to win. But he says, look, we overwhelmingly conquer. And just like with them, look at verses 16 and 17 of the same chapter. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. You're an heir of God.
You're not just a child of God. You're an heir. And guess what you inherit? Everything that Jesus inherits. Everything the Son of God inherits.
And what does he inherit? Everything. That's you. Do you feel like that? Because that's the truth. You see, that's the truth. You overwhelmingly conquer your joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Go with me now to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3.
Paul says this. He said, Blessed be the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then these words, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Notice the word blessed.
It's past tense. The moment you became a Christian. He says he has blessed us with what? Well, it says right here, every spiritual blessing that exists in the heavenly places.
That you and me, he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Now, if you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven, how nonsensical does it seem to you that you say, I can't. I can't. I can't get through another day. I can't. I can't. I can't deal with this anxiety and stress. I can't.
Really? You have every. What do you need? You know what that verse says what you need?
Nothing. It's all provided. God says, I provided it all for you. In fact, if you look down to verse 11, it says, also, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. We have an inheritance.
Israel had the inheritance of the promised land. You and I have the inheritance of the abundant life living in the promised land. He said, it's yours. I've given it to you. He says to them, and he says to us, you have to take what is yours. You just have to take what's yours.
I've given it to you to take it. You see, when you live the Christian life, you don't fight for victory. You fight from victory. The battle is already won. The Lord is already the victor.
We don't fight for victory. We fight from it. Think of what the scriptures say. You're a new creature in Christ. It says, how much of my past is gone?
All the old things have passed away. You're a new creature in Christ. Paul even said, look, we can rejoice in tribulation. Even in the worst times, James said, consider all joy, my brethren, when various trials come your way. Is that your experience?
You see, is that really what you do? As long as you live in the wilderness, your life's going to be a struggle. But if you live in the promised land, you're going to be blessed because your life's going to be marked by faith and trust.
You see, that's the problem. Back to Joshua. He alludes to it in verse three when he said, I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses. He said, Joshua, I'm not telling you anything new. Forty years ago, I spoke the same words to Moses and these people. It's yours.
Go get it. And they didn't. They couldn't do it at all. They simply said, we can't we can't do this.
He doesn't want to be that way. And they ended up struggling in the wilderness for 40 years. The reason this message is so important is if we're a typical average church, the majority of you are living your lives in the wilderness. So much so, last week I was doing with a survey that was done from a church in Chicago and I said it was they had about 12 percent. But this week I find another survey done in 2007 by the Reveal Research Project. And they started out and said, we're looking for Joshua's. That's what they wanted to find out. And they wanted to know the percentage of evangelicals that go to church that are actually live out the idea of loving the Lord our God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and their neighbors themselves, living in the promised land. And here's what they decided after they surveyed hundreds of thousands of Christians around our country. Eleven percent of all the people that last week was 12 percent. These figures don't lie. Eleven percent.
Wow. Not nearly nine out of every 10 believers live their whole life in the wilderness. No joy.
Unless the circumstances give it to you. You see, no hope, no peace, unless the circumstances give it to you, just like an unbeliever. The same thing. Eleven percent. Now, just imagine, by the way, if a high school graduated 11 percent of their students, what would you call that school? If it graduated, 11 percent of our students graduate. Well, what about if a hospital only healed 11 percent of the patients and the other 89 percent died that went there? Would you go there? What if your favorite baseball football team only won 11 percent of their games? Would you consider that a success? Those that number describes us.
Eleven percent. Now, we know God wants all of us to live in the promised land, and yet we don't. Now, I do believe this. One of the problems is the way we view conversion. I think a lot of us view conversion, I'll use a car wash analogy. A lot of us view ourselves as a very filthy, dirty old clunker. And then you go into the car wash, you receive Jesus Christ in his finished work on the cross, and you're forgiven your sins, and you come out of the car wash a clean clunker.
You went in a dirty clunker, you come out a clean clunker. But that's not what the word of God says. The word of God says you come out a new creature. The word of God says you don't come out just with your sins forgiven, you come out with the presence of God in your life. You come out with the Holy Spirit indwelling you, the word of God guiding you, your brothers and sisters in Christ supporting you. That's what you come out with.
But you end up living your whole life in the wilderness as a clunker. How often do we say, you know something, I'm a child of God, and I'm more than a conqueror. Bring life on. Boy, I wish you said that more.
You know what I hear? I can't. I'm a victim. There's people around me that make me miserable.
If you knew my boss, it's just so terrible. No one deserves the neighbors I have. That's how we live. When you make statements like that, you have decided you wanted to spend your whole life in the wilderness. That's what he says. Now, he goes on. He tells him what he's given him.
Verse four, from the wilderness in this Lebanon, he said, even as far as the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you. All the days of your life, just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail or forsake you. This is God talking.
You got it. You see, it's interesting. Now, the question is, that's God's part. He said, I'll do it all. What's your part? This is where God comes in. Here's what God says. Here's your part. Verse six, be strong and courageous.
He said, for you should give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. There it is. That's the fine print.
That's why my life's such a mess. You see, I got it. God said, I have to be strong and courageous.
You're misunderstanding it. You see, God says, be strong and courageous. Okay, Bill, I'm going to muster up the strength. I'm going to be a better man.
Don't waste your time thinking like that. You see, it's not you. It wasn't you that saved you, and it's not you that keeps you.
It's him. You see, what do you mean he says be strong and courageous? Okay, this is what God's going to say. You know what I want you to be strong and courageous? You know what kind of courage I need you to have? You need to believe me when I tell you something.
That takes courage. When I tell you something, you need to believe me. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.
At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .
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