On the Threshold // It's Time to Take the Promised Land, Part 5

When you’re on the threshold of something good, maybe something God’s promised you, the truth is, you expect it to be all sweetness and light, and yet too often, right then, it’s like all hell breaks loose.

Have you ever stood on the threshold of something good, something fantastic? The promise of a promotion or the promise of a pay increase or you've just fallen pregnant or your wife has and in not too many months there'll be a new life in your family or there's a great holiday coming up or a new home or peace where there was conflict.

You stand there and you think 'This is going to be fantastic, I just can't wait' and then, all of a sudden it's like all hell breaks loose. Everything and everyone kind of comes after you with a pick axe at work and at home and in your heart and in your head there's turmoil. 'Hang on a minute, I'm about to step over into this promise Land, isn’t supposed to be fantastic? What is going on?' I think we've all been there right? And so has God and today we're going to look at His specific word that He wants to speak right into that situation.

This week on the program we've been looking at the whole Promised Land thing, you know Abraham was promised this land that we now know as Israel, this land centuries before Israel ultimately crossed through the Jordan into that Promised Land and it started with this beautiful promise of God to Abraham that you can read in Genesis chapter 13, verse 14:

The Lord said to Abraham after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from a place where you are. Look north and south and east and west for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth your offspring also can be counted.

Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of this land for I will give it to you. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre which are at Hebron and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Abraham was into his "70's", he was childless, he and Sarah couldn't conceive and God comes along with this stunning and incredible, almost impossible promise and then he takes Abraham on a long journey and in fact Abrahams descendants who became the nation of Israel, go on this long and winding road through, through slavery in Egypt, through death of most of the nation in the desert and finally centuries later they get to the end of that long journey. Israel is standing on one side of the Jordan River about to cross into this land that God had promised Abraham and just at that point their leader Moses, dies and God comes along with his successor, Joshua. He gives Joshua some godly advice, in fact it's more than advice, it's an admonition. Now we're going to have a read of this because it's really powerful stuff, it comes in Joshua chapter 1 beginning at verse 1, have a listen:

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' aid. "Moses my servant is dead, now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land that I'm about to give them, to the Israelites.

I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised to Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the great sea on your west. No-one will be able to stand up 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 that I swore to their forefathers to give them.

Be strong and very courageous, be careful to obey all the laws my servant Moses gave you, don't turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful where ever you go. Do not let the book of this law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it then you'll be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Don't be terrified; don't be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go.

Now that sounds really encouraging but just, let’s just put ourselves in Joshua's shoes. Moses is dead; fantastic. The tried and proven leader is gone, okay it's handed over to Joshua, Joshua's been Moses aid but gee, what a rotten timing and then God repeats His promise, "This is the land I have given you.

This is the land I promised to Abraham and all your forefathers and no-one will be able to stand against you." Oops, that's not good, that's not good at all. I mean all these different tribes and nations are already in the land, they're not going to invite Israel in to take their land and say, "Oh, God said you could have it, sure, go ahead, take it all."

That's not likely, there's going to be opposition when they cross over the Jordan River and go and take the Promised Land and then God says, "I'll never leave you or forsake you." Whoa, what's God saying? This is going to be really bad and three times God talks about courage, He says, "Be strong and courageous. Be strong and very courageous. Be strong and courageous and don't be terrified, don't be discouraged." Mmm, that doesn't bode well.

I mean, you are Joshua, you were there 40 years ago when you saw Moses lead the nation through the Red Sea and the whole of the Egyptian army, that mighty army was drowned. You were there up on that hill up on the other side of the Red Sea and you were part of that euphoria, "Bring it on, the Promised Land, we've won, God’s taken us here, here we come!" And then 40 years in the desert.

"Surely it must over now God? I mean we're days away from crossing over into the Promised Land and now, now God’s setting me up, preparing me for a tough time. He talks about battles and wars and not being terrified and this is life and death stuff, this is, this isn't what I expected of the Promised land, it's not what I expected at all."

That's why I've called this week’s series, "It's Time to Take the Promised Land". The Promised Land doesn't get delivered to our front door like a pizza. God’s promise, a land flowing with milk and honey is wonderful and God’s reality is that there are battles along the way and we have to take the Promised Land.

It's the same today; you know what I've noticed? The rest of the world doesn't want me to have God’s peace and God’s joy. The rest of the world doesn't want me to live in God’s promises. Every time God is about to do something amazing in my life, all hell breaks loose.

The devil doesn't want me to live in the Promised Land and recently, these programs that you're listening to now, we were negotiating with a network of over 300 stations across the U.S.A. It was a period of a few months negotiating and talking and it was a huge step forward in reaching so many more people.

I knew years before that we would come to this point, it was something that God had put on my heart but the stuff that happened in those months leading up, it's like the devil opened the doors of hell and threw everything he could at me and during that time, the Lord taught me and held me and stopped me from grumbling and changed me and I had to learn to trust more and believe more and withstand more and above all not give up but keep going.

Joshua could have sat on his side of the Jordan River, heard what God was saying and thought, "nah, I'm out of here." He didn't, he believed in God’s promises, he crossed over and went about taking the Promised Land battle after battle. He knew it was time to take the Promised Land.