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Well, you've all been in a series titled Heroes, and uh these are people of great faith that uh are listed in Hebrews chapter 11. So you want to read about them, you can uh read there. But I I I think it's important as I was preparing for this, as I'm reading through Hebrews 11, I think it's important for us to know that none of these people that we read about were perfect. All of them had flaws. And so this is helpful, at least for me, because if you've ever made mistakes, if you've ever had doubts or fears or problems or struggles, it doesn't disqualify you from being a person of faith. That I don't know, but that helps me. That means that we can all get better. So for the last few weeks, you've all been uh learning about the faith of people like Noah and Abraham, Joseph, and last week you looked at Moses, and today my assignment is talking to you about Joshua. Now, Joshua in the Spanish Bible is Josue. Now, I didn't choose this topic, I didn't choose uh Joshua. It's just a coincidence that that was scheduled for today. But if you have your Bibles, will you please open them to Joshua chapter uh one? Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible, so it's close to the beginning of the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, I think you can find uh one underneath some of the chairs in front of you. But just to get an idea of who Joshua was and the assignment that God gave him, I want to read the first few verses of Joshua. Joshua is a large book, so we don't have time to go over all of it, but I thought these first nine verses describe who Joshua is. Joshua chapter 1, verse 1 through 9. The word of God says, After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' aide, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I'm about to give them to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river of the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. So we learn from this that Joshua is Moses' successor. Moses has been leading God's people, Israel, for the last 40 years. God, if you remember, God delivered the people of Israel, the Israelites, from slavery in Egypt, and they are trying to get somewhere. Does anyone remember? Does anyone know where they're going? Anyone here? To the promised land, right? They are going somewhere. They're going to Canaan. This is a promise that God made to Abraham hundreds of years before. And when Moses dies, God chooses Joshua to lead Abraham's descendants into the promised land. Now let me ask you, out of the verses that we just read, did anything stand out? Did anything just pop out? As we read. One of the things that God kept repeating to Joshua was be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Thank you. If you're taking notes in your bulletin, you uh you'll find a fill-in-the-blank there. And uh I want to start by just sharing with you the main idea for today. You Hebrews 11 is all about faith, it's all about having faith. And what does it mean to have faith? Well, the main idea for today is that faith in God means living with courage. Part of what it means to have a strong faith is just to live your life with courage, to not be afraid when life is hard or when you come up against difficult circumstances. You see, God had to be constantly reminding Joshua, be strong and courageous. Now, why did he have to do this? Well, it's because even heroes need to be reminded. In fact, I read somewhere where this command or a version of this command, you know, do not be afraid, fear not, be courageous. I will be with you. It's repeated in the Bible something like over 300 times. Now, I didn't take the time to count it, but I do know that it is a constant theme in the Bible. And I believe that we all need to hear this word. I believe that God needs to remind us each and every day that He is with us, that we do not have to be afraid. I believe that it's important to God that we live by faith and that we live bold and courageous lives for him. Listen again to God's words to Joshua in verse 9 when He says, when He says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. You see, you don't have to try harder to be courageous. You just have to believe the simple truth. The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. See, Joshua's assignment is pretty daunting. To lead God's people, by this time it's estimated that there were a couple of million people, a couple of million descendants of Abraham, to lead God's people and then go and conquer the promised land, one city and one battle at a time. And one of these battles is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. That's where we get uh the message for today, Hebrews 11, 30 and 31, we where the writer of Hebrews says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the army had marched around them for seven days. By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. So we know that Joshua is installed as a new leader, and the Israelites they find themselves at the border of the promised land, and it's it's a very daunting thing that they're about to do. Once they cross that border, the first city that they will encounter is Jericho. Now, Jericho was a well-fortified city with some high walls that kept enemies from attacking. They had a strong army, they had a king, they were very well armed. And so Joshua, what he does before they cross the border, they send spies, he sends spies to scout the land, to scout the city. And these spies go into Jericho, into a brothel or a bar, because that's where you find information, right? If you want to know about things going on in that town, that's where you find it. And this brothel is Rahab's house, or as the Bible describes her, the prostitute Rahab. And all of this is in Joshua chapter 2, so I encourage you to read that. I don't know if that's in the reading for this week, but yeah, it is. So read uh chapter 2. It's all about that. The king of Jericho gets word that there are spies in the city, but Rahab hides these Israelite spies from the king and his soldiers. That night Rahab makes a deal with the spies. She's heard about the mighty works of God as God has led his people through the desert. And she believes. She believes that God is with these people. She believes that God is going to give Canaan over to Israel. And because now she's helping the spies, she she makes a deal with them. That when the Israelites cross the border and they attack Jericho, that she and her father, her mother, brothers, sisters, and their families will be spared. She wants assurance of this. The spies agree that if she doesn't disclose the plans to anyone, that her life and her family's lives will be spared. But she wants assurance that they will keep their word. And that night she helps them escape the city by letting them down her window with this. The Bible describes a scarlet cord. Scarlet cord. I spent like two hours looking for a scarlet cord yesterday all over Flugerville. I wasted time. I could have spent more time studying. But uh anyway, my wife made a scarlet cord so I could show you today what that uh what that would be, right? So it's a rope, and the Bible's for a reason specific, gives us the color. You could have said just a cord, but it's a scarlet cord. They she lets them down the window. And so the spies tell her, when we come back, for us to keep uh uh our word so that you know you have assurance, tie this scarlet cord around your window, and no one in your house will be harmed. The spies then return to Joshua, they give him a full report, they tell him about this deal they've made. And so we're now gonna look at the battle in Jericho and the three things that it teaches us, because we're we're talking about faith. We're talking about faith is courage, is having the courage, living with courage. So I think this battle will teach us three lessons about what it means to live our faith with courage. So if you have your Bible, turn over to Joshua chapter 6. We're gonna read the first seven verses. Joshua 6, 1 through 7. Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men, do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams of horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with a priest blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound the long blast of the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout, then the wall of the city will clash, and the army will go up, everyone straight in. So Joshua, son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it. And he ordered the army, advance, march around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the Ark of the Lord. The first lesson I take from Joshua about what it means to live by faith is that faith gives me courage to take action. You see, faith is more than a mental belief. Having faith is not something you just think about. Having faith is something that you do, something that you live out. For many people, there's a just a big disconnect between saying they believe and actually having courage to take action on their beliefs. And if that's what faith is about, I believe this is the most dangerous kind of faith. When it's just a mental exercise. We deceive ourselves when there are no actions behind what we say we believe. In fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus, said this in James 1, verses 19 and 20. He says, You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that. And they shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? And so what we learn from Joshua is that faith requires bold actions. You see, the Israelites, they had to take a step of faith to cross the Jordan River into Canaan. Now, I've never been there, but I I've learned that the Jordan River is a large river. It's not like Slaughter Creek over here, right? Like you, this is like huge kind of river. And so God asked the Israelites to cross the Jordan to go into the land. Like, how are we gonna do this? He says, I want you to take a step. I want your leaders to take a step. And so the leaders, they the the priest and the leaders of Israel, they they step into the Jordan River, and then God parts the waters, just like he did at the Red Sea, and the Israelites cross over the Jordan on dry land. You see, but it it took courage to take that first step. You see, Joshua also had to step up and fight, take action to inherit the land that God had promised. You see, when God says, I will bless you, I will strengthen you, I will give you success, I will mend what's broken, it means you will need courage to take action and fight for it. And God says, I will be with you as you go through that battle, as you go through that struggle, as you fight. You see, Joshua had to fight all of his life for the land that God had promised. You see, God has also made you and me many promises. But it doesn't mean that life will be easy, does it? And you know, when God makes promises, um I think for some reason uh many believers in America, as believers, and I include myself in this, I think the main reason why so many believers in America get so easily disappointed in God and that they get weak in their faith is because we tend to believe that if God promises, then we expect things to be easy. But a life with God is anything but easy, isn't it? As we've learned from all these heroes in the faith. You know, it's not always easy to be in a marriage. It's not it's not easy to to raise kids, it's not easy to go to a difficult job day after day. But you know, God promises that that these are good things and that he will bless us and that he will be with us. It's not easy following Jesus, is it? But we walk by faith, and our faith requires us to always take actions when God speaks. It takes courage to take steps of action every day, courage to step up to serve our families, courage to be a single parent, courage to say I'm sorry, courage to say I was wrong, courage to tell the truth, courage to be honest at work, courage to right or wrong, courage to risk alienating your family and friends if you choose to follow God wholeheartedly, courage to make yourself vulnerable and be real with others. Um at the church that we're now attending, we're we're leading a small group, and um, so it's all new people uh that are just joining for the first time, and so we were talking about fears a couple of weeks ago, and you know it's amazing. I forget that even people are afraid to join a group, and we're talking about these fears, and there's this man, and I kind of asked everyone, hey, we want ever we want to hear from everyone at least once, and so this man starts talking about his fears, and he says, My biggest fear is this one right here. He says, I'm glad you have the fan on in your living room because I'd be sweating right now. I was just so afraid. That was his first time. You see, there's there's no small fears, you know, there's no small fears, large fears. They're they're fears, and it takes courage to take to take steps of action every day. Courage to confess Jesus, courage to join that small group, courage to be baptized, courage to tell others about Jesus. See, having faith means you have courage to take action. And I believe God is calling all of us to have courage and take action in some part of our lives today. I don't know how God is speaking to you, I don't know how God is working in your life, but I know that he's asking all of us to have courage and step up. Number two, I learned from Joshua is that uh faith also gives us courage to stick with a plan. Many times it's hard to wait on God, isn't it? And when it's hard to wait on God, because you know God just moves at a slow pace. I don't know about you, but it's just a different pace than mine. But many times it's when it's hard to wait on him, it's it's we get tempted to change course, don't we? If his plan doesn't make sense to us, then we want to do things our own way. And in this story, God says to Joshua, Joshua, here's the plan. I will give Jericho into your hands, I will fight this battle for you. I want your priest to lead a march around the city, playing some pretty music with their horns in front of the ark. I want you to do this once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, playing music, and when you finish marching the seventh time around, and on the seventh day, command your army to shout as loud as they can, and the walls of Jericho will just come down, and the city will be yours. Now, this was a very specific plan, wasn't it? But if I was the leader, uh it would have been kind of hard to believe that that's the plan. I mean, there's enemies all around me. They're on top of the wall, ready to shoot their arrows down at me. And God says, Hey, I got this. All you have to do is play more pretty music and march around. I got this. Now, to win a military battle, this plan didn't make sense. But here's the thing I learned. Joshua trusted God and he stuck to the plan. The Bible says that God knows the plans he has for us. But many of those plans, they go against what makes sense to us. Many of those plans, they just like, I don't know about that, God. Many of those plans are counterculture, they go totally against what the majority of the population believe or think. For example, one of his plans for his people is that we we should never worry about money. And that we should always trust God that he will always provide, that he will always give you what you need. But so often we allow money to control us and we worry about money and we stress over it, and we try to keep as much of it as we can. If not, it will run out, won't it? And yet yet, God gives us this other plan. He says, Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to give it away. Give your first fruits to me. Give it away, use it for my purposes, use it to bless others. Trust me in this, and I will take care of you. But it's so hard for so many Christians to trust God with this plan, isn't it? Maybe not here, but I know in North Austin it is. To be first, you must be last. In other words, God's plan for every believer is to live a life of humility. Christians, I believe, should be the most humble people on the face of the earth, the most humble people at home, the most humble people at work, the most humble people wherever we go. That means you put the needs of your spouse first, your family, your boss, your co-workers, even your enemies before your own needs. Humble yourself and then wait on God to exalt you. Now that sounds nice. You can put that on a Hallmark card. But what kind of plan is that? It's a plan that the world and even some Christians reject. The world instead tells you the opposite. No, take care of yourself first. Love yourself first. Fight for your rights. Don't let others take advantage of you. You gotta promote yourself if you're going to get anywhere. World's plan, God's plan for you. Jesus also said, My plan for you is for you to be free. Free from sin, from bad habits, from relational tension, from anger, from worries, from fear, from loneliness. I want you to live as free people. And to have this freedom, it actually requires that you be tied to Jesus, that you be his servant, that you be his slave. In other words, Jesus is the master, and I'm no longer in control. Now that doesn't make a lot of sense to a lot of people, so we rebel against this plan. We don't trust this plan. And so many times we never experience the freedom that God promises. You see, it takes courage to stick with God's plan. And let me just say this word to you. In the coming days, there will be so much pressure from the people around you, from your friends, from your family, to not stick to God's plan. Because it's outdated, it doesn't make sense, it makes you unloving or judgmental. But we need to remember to keep loving people and to but stick to God's plan. That's when we need to remember God's words to Joshua in chapter 1, verse 7. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. You do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Stick with the plan. Don't stray, don't deviate. See, sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to just stick it out. God spoke to me volumes this week on this issue. Some of you may be struggling in a marriage and are tempted to walk out. Maybe some of you are dealing with a difficult situation and it would just be easier to run from it. But see, God works in ways that sometimes we can't see when we have the courage to stick it out. We must have the courage to stick with a plan, to be faithful to Jesus, to his church, to his mission, to his will for our lives that are written in Scripture. Number three, faith gives me courage to take God at His word. You see, faith is not possible unless you take God at His word. God made some big promises to Joshua. He said to him, I will give you every place where you set your foot to. That's a huge promise. He told him, I've delivered Jericho into your hands. You see, we need to remember God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. And you can always trust what he says. You can stake everything on it. See, the most courageous people that I've ever known, the ones with hero-like kind of faith, are those who just trust God with all their heart. And there is nothing too big or too scary or too serious that God can't handle. There is nothing more courageous to me than people who take God at his word. Lindsay and I, we have some friends who a couple of years ago they came back from a mission trip, and we were on a dinner with them, and but they came back from this mission trip and they were just completely heartbroken from their experience. And on this trip, they had served orphan children in this other country, another continent, and they were just overwhelmed that these kids were just stuck in this hopeless and cold place without much hope. They came back and I mean they just wanted to save every kid, every orphan. But they knew that wasn't possible. So what they decided to do is they like, let's let's do one. And so they decided to try and at least adopt one child, and so they took that on and they raised funds and they applied to adopt an orphan in the Ukraine, and uh they worked on it just tirelessly for about a year, and and one day last year they got a phone call saying, You have an appointment on Tuesday in Kiev, Ukraine. This was like a Thursday night when they got the call. And if you want a child, you have to be there at that appointment. At the same time that they got this phone call, uh, CNN starts reporting on the news that political and military unrest in the Ukraine, and they show pictures of people in the streets and of revolutions about to start, and Russia's about to invade, and all this is happening in the city that they're going to. And you know, in the news, the president of the Ukraine had to run and hide for his life, and people were protesting in the streets, and it was just chaos. So their friends and their family advised them that it wasn't a good idea to go. But you know what? They stuck to one of God's promises, and it was this one in Joshua. This uh verse became the rally cry for the next few months. Be strong and courageous. I will go with you wherever you go. And so they went. They trusted God. And so for the next six or seven months on and off, uh, it was it was a trial because they had to stay there if they wanted to, they had to go through an entire process. It wasn't just about picking up a kid, they had to sit there and wait for appointments and a lot of frustration, and uh they were away from their other three kids for such a long time. And last week uh they celebrated one year with their nine-year-old girl that they adopted. And I thought about this, I thought about them as I was preparing for this, but if there's one thing I could say about what faith is, it's this. It means you don't have to be afraid about anything, not because you need to make yourself strong, but simply because God promised that he would be with us and we can take him at his word. So no matter how hard life might be, or how impossible a situation might feel, or how lonely you might be, or how scary something might seem, if God is asking you to do it, you don't have to be afraid. You can take God at his word. See, Joshua took God at his word, he trusted his plan, and the walls of Jericho crumbled, the Israelites took the city, and no one was left alive. Oh, except for one. Rahab and her family. They were saved because she feared and believed God. The scarlet cord that she tied to her window was a sign that salvation had come to her house. I thought about this. There's a reason why the Bible is very specific and gives us the detail of even the color. A scarlet cord. You see, friends, you and I, we also need a scarlet cord. Bible says that there will be a day of judgment. There will be a day when Christ returns the first time he came to forgive sins, the Bible says, Hebrews says the next time he comes is to judge and to save those who have a scarlet cord. We have a scarlet cord. His name is Jesus. That if you bind yourself to him, if you bind your life to his, there is salvation for you. You see, Joshua was a courageous leader, but not a perfect leader. He was just a foreshadow or a glimpse into a bigger story. In fact, Joshua in the Hebrew name is the same name as Jesus in the Greek. Joshua or Jesus, it means the Lord is my salvation. You see, Jesus is our courageous leader. He's leading us somewhere. We're not just wandering in the desert aimlessly, he's leading us somewhere. Bible says Jesus Himself says he's preparing a home for us. He's leading us into our promised land, where one day we will be with him forever. He brought us freedom when he died on the cross, and he promises that those who believed in him will be saved, saved from eternal destruction and suffering. The scarlet cord was a foreshadow for us that we can only be saved by Christ's blood. But friends, it takes a lot of courage to believe that. It takes courage to believe that Jesus can save. I don't know where some of you are today. Some of you may be heartbroken, confused, disappointed, maybe afraid. Maybe some of you feel lonely and are wandering, are wondering where where is God? Let me just say, He's right there with you. That's all you need to know. That's all you need to trust. He's right there. One of the prayers that I hear from a lot of Christians is, God, please be with me. I think we need to change our prayer to God, help me believe that you are with me. You don't have to be afraid of anything in life, in struggles, in difficult circumstances. Jesus says, even one day when you face death, and last time I checked, the death rate was still about a hundred percent. When we come to that point, Jesus says, I've got that for you. You don't have to be afraid. He will always be there with you. Let's pray.