Joshua - God's Promises Fulfilled // 26 April 2026

Scott Wellard

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Let's not just sing that here on a Sunday, right? I think there's a world out there that needs to hear from you the reality of what you're singing. That needs to hear exactly how great is our God. And if you're singing that, then you know that. And if you know that, then you need to share that. Amen. We are looking at the book of Joshua for the next eight sermons over the next four weeks. But as I was preparing for this over the last couple of weeks, I found myself just continuing to like have in my mind these two things that Paul said in his letters to the early church. And I think that they frame how we're meant to look at Joshua. And the first thing is it is for freedom that Jesus has set us free. So stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. Because, and this is the second thing, through Jesus, God has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings. So I think we need to hold those two statements in our hearts as we look at Joshua. Because I think a Joshua is a reminder for all of us to step into the freedom and the spiritual blessings that God has for us. But today is really important. Because if we're going to look at Joshua and him leading God's people and taking the promised land, then it's really crucial that we understand where his people have been and where God wants to take them. So that's what today is. We're going to understand the story before the story. So the story we're looking at over the next seven sermons, we'll understand because we understand the story before the story. So we're going to go a little further back than Joshua right now. I'm going to take us back to Exodus 1. Let me just read it to you. So we can understand where the Israelites are coming from, where God's people have been. And if we look at Exodus 1, it says, The Egyptian king put slave masters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. And they built Pithome and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields, and in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked then ruthlessly. So things have turned dramatically for the Israelites. So what you need to understand is several hundred years before this moment, Jacob brought his ancestors out of the land up to Egypt because of a famine, and God had put Joseph in favor with Pharaoh, so God's people began to live in Egypt amongst the Egyptians. And things went well for a while, but then we have a change of regime in Egypt, and this new Pharaoh, who's distant from any connection to Joseph, suddenly becomes scared because how big the Israelites are getting in number and says, right, we've got to turn this around. We're going to oppress them. We're going to enslave them. So at this moment, we now see that God's people are in Egypt and they are oppressed and they are enslaved, and they cry out to God for deliverance. And when you cry out to God, God hears you. God hears his people. And so this is where Moses enters the story. Moses, an Israelite child, saved and raised by Pharaoh's daughter, at this point in the story, now living in exile outside of Egypt, tending to his father-in-law flock, when he suddenly sees a burning bush. What's unique is the bush is on fire, but it's not burning up. So he obviously has to go and check that out. So he walks over to this burning bush and he hears a voice, and the voice says, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I've seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, so now go. I am sending you, Moses, to Pharaoh, to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. So if you've ever been to Sunday school, you probably know this story well. Moses works, God works through Moses and Aaron to persuade the Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Now the Pharaoh is stubborn and has a hard heart, so that persuasion takes twelve very nasty plagues. But Pharaoh eventually lets the Israelites go. Now we always we always go straight from that moment to the Red Sea, but we miss this little bit in the middle, which is really interesting, is God doesn't lead the Israelites on the most direct route out of Egypt. He doesn't take them the shortest way. God says that if I take them that way, they will face war and challenge, and they might change their mind and return to Egypt. So he knows how fragile the Israelites are, and he knows their spiritual immaturity, so he takes them the long route around the desert to the Red Sea to avoid challenge. But as they approach the Red Sea, we know the story. Pharaoh's heart hardens, and he comes marching out of Egypt with his soldiers after them. And so now they're facing the Red Sea, and Moses says, Do not be afraid, because what happens here today will glorify God. And the other nations will know that you are God's people because of what he does for you in this moment. And so as the armies are approaching, it says that Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with the strong east wind and turned it into a dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through to sea on dry land with a wall of water to their right, right? And a wall of water to their left. And then as they come out of Egypt onto the other side, Pharaoh's armies followed him in, and it says that God turns the waves to roll back over them and wipe out their army with no survivors. So you have God's people delivered now, out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of oppression, with their oppressors washed away. And it says right there on the shore, they praised and worshipped God, singing, The Lord reigns forever and ever. And wouldn't that be a great way to say then they lived happily ever after? But it's but it's not what happened. Because of that immaturity we've already mentioned. They might have been out of Egypt, but they hadn't regained themselves yet. They hadn't regained that true identity as God's people. They hadn't learnt to again live as God's people. And so they moved with this spiritual immaturity. And so it's not long after this big moment of praise and celebration, look how good God is, that they become thirsty and hungry and begin to grumble. At first they they complain, what will we drink? And then God provides miraculously for them. But then they complain, what will we eat? And listen to the complaint. Any parent will understand this complaint. If we had only died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But you have brought us into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. They get a little hungry, and suddenly they want to go back to that oppression that they cried to God to deliver them from. What's going on there? You see, this continues to happen. They continue this pattern of grumbling, complaining, crying out, you've let us down, you've abandoned us, you've brought us out here to die. We would have been better off as slaves. And then God continuously to moves and move for them and provide for them miraculously. But then they'll grumble again. See, I think the Israelites are a great case study for spiritual immaturity. However, interesting enough, psychologists would say they're a good case study for what is known as slave mentality. So let's have a look. What I would call spiritual immaturity, I would say their first immaturity is they are driven by their fleshy desires. You see, these people who cried out to be freed from slavery the minute they get hungry, the minute they get thirsty, suddenly want to be slaves again. But the psychologists would call that learned helplessness. Learned helplessness. They had no control over their circumstances when they were oppressed, so they haven't developed the ability and the resilience now to take control of their situation. So they long to go back to that dependency. The second bit of immaturity is how easily they are defeated. We see that because God avoids taking them the shortest route because he knows the slightest bit of challenge will make them want to turn around. But the psychologists would call that comfort zone dependence. See fearing change or risk, prioritizing temporary safety and avoiding the hard work needed for personal success. And then the final bit of immaturity I would point out is their inability to get along. They're constantly quarreling, complaining, and grumbling and questioning leadership. At one point, they actually say, Let's find a new leader who will take us back to Egypt. And the psychologists would call this externalizing responsibility, constantly blaming others, fate or society, for personal problems rather than taking ownership of one's life. Whether it's what we call spiritual immaturity or what the psychologists call slave mentality, when you are enslaved by something, you are not moving in courage, you are not moving rationally, and you're not moving in strength. And you can be enslaved by a lot of things and a lot of addictions. But see, what had happened here is way before this. God had established his people through Abraham, he had given them an identity. He had said, You are my chosen, distinct nation. You are set apart to bring a blessing to the world. But then they spent 400 years in Egypt. And so this identity now needed to be re-established. So God brings the Israelites to Mount Sinai and He parks them at the bottom. And Moses goes up to the top of the mountain, and God through Moses establishes this identity again. I am your God, you are my people, and I'm going to show you how to live as my people. I'm going to give you the Ten Commandments. I'm going to establish the Ark and the Tabernacle, and you're going to know how to live as my people again. And so the identity's been re-established. The guidelines have been reaffirmed. You are now out of that utter environment. You are in this environment with me, and this is the boundary. But we're not staying here. I'm taking you into the land that I have for you, the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, where I will dwell with you. So just go and send 12 spies out into the land. And so Moses gathers the 12 spies, he sends them out into the land, and guess what? They come back and they report, it's everything God promised it to be. Why? Because God is a God that keeps his promises. Come on. Is God a God that keeps his promises? Well, that's probably something we mention when we say, How great is our God? So God is a God that keeps his promises, and like this man, this land is fertile. It is truly a land flowing with milk and honey. But ten of those twelve spies report, we are not strong enough to take on the people that inhabit the land. But Joshua and Caleb say, no, if God wants us in this land, if God is leading us, then we don't have to worry about that. We just have to go. But guess what? The people don't believe Joshua and Caleb. Instead, they believe the other spies that made it sound like these giants were so big that we cannot overcome them. And they're scared and they won't go. And they said that's an act of unbelief and rebellion that then delayed them going into the promised land for 38 years. A whole generation. God decided that people would wait until this disobedient generation had passed to go into the promised land. So do we understand this story so far? God's people found themselves oppressed. They cried out to God. God acted in a miraculous way. He delivered them from their oppression. He then promised that he re-established his identity with them, the covenant with them, the promise with them, and he said, This is where I'm going to take you. But again and again, they fell short of the expectation and gave over to fear instead of faith. See, I've heard this so much, and I always think of that, the Israelites wandering around the desert for 38 years as a punishment. You know, they just moped around Israel for 38 years because they were being punished, and then once that generation finally had enough of a punishment, then the next generation can come. But I don't think we're meant to overlook the fact that it took a generation to take the promised land. I don't think we're meant to just simplistically go, well, they failed, now they're punished. I think God was doing something in those 38 years. You see, part of what separated God's people from the rest of the world is living according to his expectations. So the customs, the law, living as God's people is what separated them. And in Egypt, for 400 years, because they'd given themselves to that custom, because they were oppressed, we have a generation now that doesn't know how to live as God's people. And living as God's people is essential to be able to have the faith required to take the promised land, to be able to step into that land and believe that even though these are giants in front of us, God is going to deliver us. What you have is a generation described by professionals that have learned helplessness, excessive conformity, comfort zone dependency, and a negative self-view. They had the identity restored, they had the laws, they had the tabernacle, they were learning to live as God's people, which means what happens is there's a generation under them that is coming up under a generation that is learning to live as God's people, which means they have a different example, which means they're the generation under Moses under Joshua that can rise up and take the promised land. See, there's this generational thing that's happening. That generational that was condemned, that generation that was condemned, the wander, is learning to live as God's people and setting a different spiritual inheritance to the generation under them. God is resetting something in the wilderness. You know, in John 8, 34 to 36 it says, Jesus taught, very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the son sets you free, you are free indeed. See, this story should mean something to all of us, because if we're not living for Jesus, we're enslaved to everything else. We're enslaved to how we were molded and shaped by the world before we knew Jesus. Our identity is formed by the world, not Jesus. And only Jesus can free us, only Jesus can reset that identity. You know what? This generational thing is really important, looking at it like this, understanding that for 38 years that generation was living as God's people, and another generation was raising up because generational blessing is real. There's a lot of examples of generational blessing in this building. I can speak to the ones I know firsthand. I've been married to Rachel for a very long time. She is third generation. Her parents are pastors and sold out. Her great-grandmother, who still lives today and sends me Christian stuff every day and is praying for us, is sold out. Oh, it's our kids' great-grandmother. It's your grandma. Well, I don't know. But that's a there's a third-generational blessing of generations before her living as God's people, living in that assurance, living in that blessing. And so what I noticed early in our marriage is Rachel would move in a faith that I couldn't understand, would move in a security and a certainty that I didn't know. Because she had grown up in an environment where two generations above her moved in that. She had grown up where it was normal to believe that God is going to live up to his promises. It was normal to believe God is going to do what he said he's going to do. There is a generational blessing there. If there is a generation ahead of you following Jesus, they are building a stronger foundation in you as you build that foundation in your children. Now, what's hard is there's probably people in this room who are first generation in their family. You are resetting the narrative and the story for your family moving forward, but you are the first generation following Jesus. Which means you don't get that same multi-generational blessing, do you? You don't get that experience. Well, actually, not in your immediate family. But when you come to faith, you are adopted into the body of Christ. Now, in your immediate family, you might not have that generational blessing, but here in this family, you are a part of that generational blessing. Because you might be the first generation in your family, but you're not the first generation in this room. You are not the first generation in this room. One church is generational, amen? You know, I was I was cheeky the other week. I made a joke where I called David Wade granddad. And that wasn't fair because that understand that undersells the truth that he is a spiritual father to me. Because he's gone before me, because he'll give time to me, that he'll input in my life. There's others like that in the room. I can't name them all, but Marcus is another example of that. And then when I'm here on a Tuesday and Sheila and her girls come in for their ladies' group, and their hymns start to make it to my office, these hymns they've been singing for longer than I've been alive. I sit there and I hear that sound and I remember that I stand in strength because this place is covered in generational prayer, generational strength, generational experience. And that is something we can't not take advantage of, that we can't look lightly at. I think we need to appreciate the fact that one church is generational for a minute, don't you? So I want to do something right now. Because 38 years is kind of a sweet number, let's just put two on it. If you've been following Jesus for 40 or more years, I want you to stand up. If you've been following Jesus for 40 or more years, I want you to stand up. Can we just appreciate this for a moment? Come on. If you're sitting down, look around. That's your mentors. This is who's praying for you. This is who's encouraging you. These are the shoulders we're standing on. This is the generational blessing that is possible because of those who have gone before us. We are not on our own, we are one family, and one family is blessed by those who have gone before us. This is incredible. We are lucky because of this. And so we shouldn't have the same problems as the Israelites because we're not the first generation. We stand together. Thank you so much. Thank you. I love being in this church. I love being in this place. God restored his people, their identity, their relationship in the wilderness. And then what we see is a shift in the narrative when we get to Joshua. Because now Joshua is able to take his people to a place that's only possible when God's people are living as God's people. When God's people are living as God's people, then the next is possible. So who Joshua is an example of who we can all be. This shouldn't be seen as an example of just leadership. Joshua is an example for all of us. Something that is attainable for all of us. You know, see, we we'd say that Joshua was a man of faith with a servant heart, but it's sometimes you want to understand what's behind that maturity, what's behind that security. And if you look throughout Exodus and Numbers, you You'll see something continue to stand out about Joshua. Joshua was not just a warrior, he was a worshipper who knew how to be in the presence of God and also wanted to be in the presence of God. And I think if we're looking for what the secret is behind what forms and molds someone like Joshua, who is an example for all of us, I think it's it right there. So when Moses went to the top of the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, Joshua was halfway up that mountain worshiping and experiencing the edges of that presence. There was a tent outside of their camp whenever they set up camp, which was that Moses could go to and be in the presence of God. And it said that Joshua sat outside of that tent. Again and again you see examples of Joshua being close or in the presence of God. And I think that's something really important for us to take from this as we're about to look at all the examples of the next seven sermons, is it comes from that heart, that desire, that want, that need to be in the presence of God, to be a worshiper. And we gotta find that, we've got to keep that, we gotta fight for that, because that shifts everything. You see, the promised land, as we're gonna learn about, represents Christian life as it ought to be. There's conflict and victory, there's faith and obedience, there's spiritual riches and there's rest. But the book of Joshua illustrates how believers say goodbye to their old life and step into the full spiritual inheritance that God has for us. The promised land is described as a land of abundance. Well, Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life abundantly. The promised land is called a land of rest. Jesus says, All who are weary come to me and I will give you rest. You see, Joshua's name means Jesus. So as Joshua led his people into the promised land, Jesus leads us into a new life, into the full blessing and inheritance and promise that he has for us. But as I finish and I'll ask the band to come forward, if we're looking at the story before the story, there's one one more little frightening thing in the story before the story. And you can look at this in your own time. But if you go to Numbers 32, something really sad happens. You see, the Israelites were twelve tribes. Two and a half of those tribes come to Moses just before he transitions to Joshua, just before they take the promised land. After 38 years of living life as God's people are maturing and growing, these two and a half tribes come to Moses. On the cusp of taking the promise. On the cusp of stepping into that land of milk and honey. You know what those two and a half tribes ask for? They say, you know this land here in the wilderness where we're camped, where our livestock is? It's good enough. It's pretty good here. We could make a go of it here. So can this be our inheritance instead? They haven't stepped into his promise. They haven't seen the abundance of his land. They just go, you know what? Good enough is good enough. So we're not being a disobedient. Let us send our soldiers, let us send our warriors, let us help the rest of you conquer the land that he has promised us. Let us help the rest of you get there. Let us help the rest of you set up there. But when all is said and done, we'd like to come back here outside of his promise. Because it's good enough. Doesn't that sound awful? But you know, as I read that, I think and I wonder how many of us are settling for good enough? How many of us have gotten so far but gone, you know what? I'm okay now. How many of us have cried out in desperation? But then when God moves in a situation, we go back to a life that's way less than what we were living when we were desperate. You know, when we're desperate, we're praying, we're worshiping, we're reading, we want God to move. But you know, maybe when he moves and he acts for us, that he's meant to keep us in that lift of relationship, but we step right back in to how it was before it? How many of us are going, you know what, I'm trying to fit Jesus around everything else? Because that's good enough. But the promise is to fit everything else into Jesus, to bring it to his feet, to submit it to him, to let his sovereign reign reign over all of it. How many of us are settling for good enough when we're meant to be living life as God's people? You know, it was only just February that Sean asked us all as a congregation, is this it? Are we done enough now? Are we not moving anymore? Are we happy? Are we settled? Can we live with this? I'm reminded of that again as we look at this. We're not meant to settle for good enough, we're meant to live life as God's people. And when we live life as God's people, good enough is not good enough. It is for freedom that Jesus has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery, because through Jesus, God has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings. Why don't we praise and worship and let God's Spirit do the rest? Amen.