How to Live Well
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
ILLUST - secret to a good life
Maybe you’ve heard about this research: It’s the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has followed more than 700 men — and now, in some cases, their families — from the late 1930s until today. Good relationships is the key.
Fortune Magazine:
Positive Thinking
Work-Life balance
Accept imperfections
Live in the moment
READ Joshua 23
This is the first of two final speeches Joshua gave to Israel
There are several final speeches in the Bible:
Jacob - Genesis 49:1
Joseph - Gen 50:24
Moses - Deuteronomy 31
6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” 7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
David - 1 Chronicles 29:10
Jesus - John 14-17
Joshua - Joshua 23-24
Joshua 23 (ESV)
1 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years.
A long time afterward:
Probably more than 25years since Israel crossed the Jordan until they are experiencing rest
Joshua was old - around 110 years old
29 After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old.
Let’s say Joshua was close in age to Caleb:
7 I (Caleb) was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.
+ 40 years wandering
= Joshua over 80 when he begins to fight in the Promised Land
Now about 110 = 30ish years in Promised Land
He knows his ministry is over
Joshua is essentially saying, “you have seen how I have led us to follow God and how God has come through and saved.”
the question for us is, can you and I say the same? If these were our last moments, could we gather our family and friends, remind them of what God has done, and call them to live faithfully?
He is handing over the ministry to others (the work is not done yet)
*How are you thinking about, planning for, and serving the generation to come that they might carry on the faith and ministry God started in you?
I pray today is not the day any of us are giving our last words, but we never know. It was a Sunday exactly a year ago that I drove out to PA following the service to be with my dad in his last moments.
You know who made me the man I am today? Jesus
You know who showed me the faith and a faithful life so I would know Jesus? My parents
if we do not evangelize the next generation, someone or something else will - only it will not be to the True gospel of Jesus but to a false gospel
Satan is not indifferent to the spiritual lives of our children and so neither should we be!
We must want our kids to know Jesus more than satan wants them to NOT
Caveat - each must come to faith individually - parents, you job is to teach and lead about jesus not bear guilt if your children do not choose Jesus.
You are to leave a heritage of faith, but none have faith by heritage!
words are great - lives are better.
ILLUST - i learned it from watching you, dad!
Joshua is preparing the Israelites to live in the Promised Land. He wants them to live out all that God has promised for them.
The ways that Joshua gave to Israel for them to live in the Promised Land is the same for how we can live out the promises of God
Remember God’s faithfulness.
Remember God’s faithfulness.
3 And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. 4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west.
“Have seen, has done, has fought”
Of all the things that Joshua could say in these his last words, he chooses to remind them of what God has done. God and God’s mission are central to life.
I am sure there were many difficult, distracting, and daily things that could have pulled Joshua away
Joshua points out that GOD is faithful.
Notice how many times the phrase the “Lord your God.” Four times in 3-5
It wasn’t Joshua who fought the nations
Israel didn’t defeat the nations by their own power
God is the one who promised
God is the one enabling the promise!
Joshua also points out that God is FAITHFUL.
For Joshua:
Red Sea
Defeating the Amalekites
Jericho
Ai
Five Kings against Gibeon
If this doesn’t show the Israelites that God fighting for them and their victory and he is faithful to give them all that he promised, I’m not sure what will. God has never let them down.
If we want to live well and lead others to live well, we need to remember God is faithful.
Same is true for us!
*Do you remember God’s faithfulness? Do you point out God’s faithfulness to the next generation?
God’s work IN you is not just FOR you.
Remind yourself of God’s promises
Remind yourself of God’s promises
5 The Lord your God WILL push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you SHALL possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.
Verse 5 there is a shift in verbs from the past tense to the future tense. The reality is the work is not yet done. There is rest but not retirement.
They were already in the Promised Land but not yet living out all of the promises of God.
This is like us - we are living in the “Already but not yet.”
Jesus has done the initial work - but we are not yet living in the fulness of the promises of God. We will one day when Jesus returns.
How does this apply to my life today?
Reminding yourself of God’s promises while remembering his faithfulness means that though the promises are not yet fulfilled, neither are they empty
Remember these passages occur over 25+ years. I am sure there were hard days. I am sure there were days the Israelites wondered if make it.
Joshua needed to believe it for himself even as he is passing it along to the next generation.
*God will complete the work he started in you. God will bring you to the Promised Land. You will experience the fullness of God’s promises at some point.
Joshua knows they need to remember God’s faithfulness while they are fighting and while they are resting.
Stay Fully Devoted
Stay Fully Devoted
6 Therefore, be very strong to keep (shamar) and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. 9 For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. 10 One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. 11 Be very careful (shamar), therefore, to love the Lord your God.
Watch that comfort doesn’t lead to complacency which could lead to compromise.
Be Strong to do God’s Word
Be Strong to do God’s Word
This is the same word used as they started out on the mission that God leading them on.
It is interesting that in a land with new ideas, they are to be strong to keep and do God’s Word.
So that. . .
Cling to the Lord alone
Cling to the Lord alone
7 that you may not mix . . . 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.
“may not mix”
Oftentimes our problem is not the singular worship of a false god but syncretism with many different false gods.
ILLUST - cultural syncretism - nachos, The cuisine first emerged in the state of Texas, where Mexican and Anglo-American cultures met.
Mexican immigrants brought with them their traditional foods, such as tortillas, beans, and chili peppers. These ingredients were then combined with Anglo-American staples, such as beef, cheese, and sour cream, to create a new type of food.
God does not share his throne
no syncretism - mix God with other sources of power, provision, or pleasure that changes our worship from actually worshiping God.
Syncretism today:
Syncretism is letting the culture of the world around us to color our biblical worldview instead of allowing the story of the Bible rewrite our view of the world.
Specifically, the research identified 10 unbiblical views, drawn from nine worldviews other than the biblical worldview, that are becoming commonplace in our culture:
About half of all adults firmly believe that it is possible for a couple married on earth to be bonded to each other for eternity (influenced by Mormonism).
Nearly half of all adults claim that people are neither good nor bad when they are born, but become either good or bad on the basis of the decisions they make over the course of their life (influenced by Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Secular Humanism, and Animism).
Roughly one-third of all adults say they depend mostly on their reason and emotions to distinguish right from wrong (influenced by Secular Humanism, Postmodernism, and Satanism).
Approximately one-quarter of the adult population firmly believes a messiah has been promised and will make His initial visit to earth to save His people (influenced by Judaism).
One out of every four Americans says that nobody really knows for certain whether or higher power or God exists (influenced by Postmodernism).
One-fourth of adults also argue that the best indicator of a successful life is being a good person (influenced by Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and Mormonism).
One out of every five adults stated that scientific, verifiable proof is the only viable basis of truth (influenced by Secular Humanism).
One-fifth of adults also claim the universe came into existence in ways humans are unlikely to ever understand or discover (influenced by Postmodernism and Secular Humanism).
— “CRC Survey Shows Millions in U.S. Embrace Syncretism; ‘Mixing and Matching’ Beliefs Fuels Social Turbulence, Cultural Decay” (April 2024) https://www.arizonachristian.edu/2024/04/30/crc_millions-in-u-s-embrace-syncretism-mixing-and-matching-beliefs-fuels-social-turbulence-cultural-decay/
Joshua would ask: Why would you want to return (repent back to) gods who have already been defeated? You know they can’t save.
*Why do WE return to gods who have already been defeated?
“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.”
— Martin Luther
Verse 7
[Hess p5 - “In a series of four prohibitions, Joshua warns Israel to avoid other deities. These prohibitions are a as strong as possible” (lo)
DO NOT make mention of (remember) the names of their gods
DO NOT swear by them
DO NOT serve them
DO NOT bow down to them
INSTEAD
You SHALL cling to the Lord your God
Covenant language
“cling” = cleave
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
“Things that pull us apart are things that get between us in the space we allow between us”
You can’t expect the promises of God while clinging to another
think about how that might work for your marriage!
*What area of your life is there too much space? Where you are not clinging to God? If you are not careful, it will be the place that pulls you away from God.
Guard your love for God
Guard your love for God
11 Be very careful (shamar), therefore, to love the Lord your God.
Joshua could have given many other “to-dos” but he lists loving God.
How is someone “careful to love?”
What would it mean for me to say, “Men, be careful to love your wife?”
Obviously, it would be less about emotion and more about action.
Careful = guarding
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Keep = watch over
Guard (in 23:11) = guard
The faithfulness of God cuts both ways - for Israel, if they disobey, they will receive no special treatment.
12 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.
14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you,
16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
Conclusion
TODAY IS PALM SUNDAY. AND WHAT IT SHOWS US IS WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES.
Are you living faithful?
FAITHfull
Do you have faith? You can’t expect to live in the promises of God while not living with God.
The people in Joshua’s day could not expect to live in the Promised Land if they had never left Egypt!
They needed to recognize their inability to save themselves, place all their faith in their savior to save themselves and lead them into the full life in Gods promises
Same is true for us.
Have you ever placed your trust in Jesus? Today is the day to begin to live in the promises of God by trusting in Jesus as your savior
faithFULL
Are you who are in God’s promises living full of faith by clinging to God alone or are yoU leaving space for a functional god? God hasn’t moved fast enough and you’re not sure he’s going to come through, so you’ll move forward on your own.
THIS IS HOW YOU MISS MIRACLES
What if there were some who chose not to wait for God to part the Jordan but walked around? By the time they caught back up with the rest they would have heard of the miracles they had missed as they had made space between themselves and what God was doing. Clinging to God is going all in
Where in your your life do you need to close the space and draw closer to God, clinging to ONLY him? This is Fully devoted
How will you leave this to the next generation? If we only care about ourselves and this generation, either Christianity will fade away or Jesus will need to intervene apart from his stated plan before he left this earth.
it would need like crossing the Jordan and leaving the kids behind
