Morning, everyone.
Before I start, I just have an initial opening verse, and then we’ll open the time with prayer. My opening verse is Joshua 24:29-31.
It came about after all these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old.
And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel.
Lord, thank You for the testimony of Your people throughout the ages. Thank You for the testimony of Joshua. Lord, thank You that this does not need to be the testimony of the past. Lord, thank You that You call each of us to be Joshuas today.
Lord, I ask that You would anoint this time, both me and my brother Ryan. Lord, would You fill us with Your Spirit during this time. In Your name, amen.
Amen.
So, in case you couldn’t tell, I’m going to share about Joshua. Not this Joshua. Although, for those who don’t know, Joshua’s middle name is Joshua, and my first name is Caleb. So my parents had a thing or two going on for that one.
But when I was asked to share a couple of months back, the life of Joshua had been on my heart. What really was on my heart was these final verses at the end of Joshua’s life.
It is this picture: Joshua was one hundred and ten. He had lived a long life. Spoiler: there are three stages of his life, but he was faithful to the Lord through all of them.
As I was thinking and meditating, I thought my title and focus would be, “Joshua Was Faithful to the Lord.” But the more I read his story, the more I read what the Lord had done, I realized that the Lord was faithful to Joshua.
That is what I want to focus on. As we go through a couple of sections of Joshua’s life, there are some cool lessons that I learned, and I am hoping this morning to appropriately relay these lessons to you, to be a blessing to the Lord.
Joshua’s life is broken up into three sections. The Lord uses Joshua in very different and unexpected ways in all three sections of his life:
Starting with Joshua in his youth—and I apologize in advance—there are lots of verses and lots of references. But I found that if I read verses and let the Lord and the living Word speak, then I do not need to use my earthly words, because the Lord has already done the speaking for me.
We will start with Exodus 17:8-10.
Then the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.
And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men and go out and fight Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.”
So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
I am sure you are all very familiar with the story, and I am sure you remember that it was Moses who had to raise his hands for Joshua to be victorious.
What spoke to me during this time is that Joshua was a young man. In theory, he was somewhere between twenty and thirty, although I think the more you look into it, the more you realize no one knows. But he is considered a young man.
During this young-man stage, he did not quite have this relationship with the Lord yet. He did not quite have this faith himself. However, praise God that Moses had faith in the Lord.
Joshua, as a young man, could look to Moses and see, “I see Moses’ faith. I do not have that faith, but I want that faith. I will trust Moses, and I will trust the Lord.”
In trusting the Lord, Joshua was able to have faith as well. It is such a beautiful thing, and such a reminder to us today.
Joshua is only Joshua because of Moses. I know I, for one, want to think of myself as a Joshua. But if I am Moses, am I neglecting Joshua? Am I neglecting to share the Word of the Lord with those younger than me? Am I investing in the next generation, or am I trying to be Joshua?
Think about investing. I guess that is the word.
Then, going into the next part—and this is the other beauty of it—Exodus 17:13-14.
So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
In the same situation, Joshua heard the voice of the Lord through Moses. It is such a wonderful picture of Joshua as a young man choosing to listen to Moses.
There are two parts here that I have found. There is a responsibility for Moses—maybe for some of the older saints, the saints with experience and faith of their own. It is our responsibility to show that faith to the next generation.
Then, as Joshua, as a young man, it is our responsibility to listen. We need both things in order for the Lord to be revealed and glorified.
Another lesson from his youth—and this is kind of the coolest; I think it is so cool—is Exodus 33:7, 9, and 11.
Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the tent of meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances of their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.
As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance of their tent.
The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua, son of Nun, did not leave the tent.
I guess the point here is that Joshua did not waste his time as a youth.
It is so easy for me, and it is so easy for each of us, to dwell in our own tents and look afar and say, “The Lord is doing a great work over there, but I am invested in my own tent.”
I care about my own career, my own family, my own future, my own social status—all these things. It is so easy to get bogged down because there are so many things in our own tent.
But praise God that Joshua, a young man, did not leave the tent of the Lord.
It is a reminder for us, for me, and for every one of us: we are called to the tent. We all have access, which is a beautiful, wonderful thing. Are we using it? Are we wasting our youth? Am I wasting my youth?
But praise God that Joshua was faithful to the Lord, and praise God that the Lord was faithful to Joshua.
Moving on to what I call Joshua as a middle-aged man—Joshua in his prime. This was when he and Caleb—again, me and Caleb—went to spy out the land.
Numbers 14:5-9 comes right after ten of the twelve spies grumbled and gave a false report: though the Promised Land is dangerous, we cannot do it.
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.
And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes.
And they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.
Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection is gone from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
When I was reading this, Joshua was roughly in his early forties at the time. That is the prime. That is perfect.
When I was a kid, that is how I used to think of Joshua entering the Promised Land. Joshua was in his prime. Joshua did so many things; he was victorious over everything. He set his heart against it, which is beautiful and wonderful.
But the Lord did not use Joshua in his prime to enter the Promised Land.
We all know the story: Israel sinned against the Lord, and because of that they had to wander in the desert for forty years.
In reading it, I was thinking, “Joshua wasted his prime.” In man’s eyes, in man’s thoughts, Joshua wasted his prime.
Yet he learned two things. He learned that the Lord delights in us, which is powerful and so important. Joshua was not bitter toward the Lord. Joshua was not bitter toward what the Lord had promised them or what the Lord had given him.
He was faithful. He continued to hold fast in his faith.
Another thing that happened was that Joshua experienced a lot of things while the Israelites wandered in the desert. To name a few—although there are forty years’ worth of stories—Korah’s rebellion, the sin at Peor, and the bronze serpent.
Joshua was there for all of them. He may not necessarily have been mentioned, but he is referenced later in Scripture. We know he was alive when they entered the desert, and he was alive when they left the desert, so he was there and experienced it.
The picture I saw here was that sometimes, and more often than not, the Lord uses our prime to support and benefit others.
I can be so caught up, and each of us can be so caught up: “Lord, this is the prime. I am fresh. I feel like I have a good relationship with You. Lord, I want to be used. I want to be a vessel for You. I want to do these great things.”
Yet the Lord may quietly put it in our hearts: “Have you reached out to your brother or sister? Have you reached out to the saints? Have you not focused on your own prime and your own good deeds, and have you paused to reach out to those around you?”
I know I am guilty of it. I am sure we are all guilty of it.
But the Lord used Joshua’s prime to be there for others. It is such a testimony of Joshua—again, the testimony of Joshua’s faithfulness to the Lord—not to be bitter or disdainful of what the Lord had done, but instead to be faithful and continue serving Him through those forty years.
Another lesson: Numbers 27:15-18.
Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “May the Lord, the God of the spirits of humanity, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”
So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hands on him.”
During the peak of Joshua’s life, his best years—forty years in which he would have been the best captain, the best military leader—he did not conquer anything. He did not do any great deeds. He did not topple the walls of Jericho.
But it says here, “A man in whom is the Spirit.”
Is that our focus? Is that my focus? Is that each of our focus in the prime of life? Are we focused on victories? Are we focused on worldly success? Are we focused on religious success? Or are we being full of the Spirit?
That is what the Lord calls from us.
The blessing and wonderful thing of it is this: if we have forty years of prime and we do not conquer anything, if we are no one special, but we are full of the Spirit, not a moment is wasted.
It has become my prayer, and I hope it will be all of our prayer: are we focused on being full of the Spirit? Are we focused on what the Lord has for us? Are we focused on the Lord using our prime days?
When I say “prime days,” I mean good days—days when we are walking with the Lord, when we have a good, strong relationship with Him, when we are protecting ourselves from sin, and all these things.
Are we using it? Are we taking advantage of it? The Lord gives us our prime to support those who are not at their prime.
It is so easy for me to end my night saying, “Thank You, Lord, that You have blessed me and done so many wonderful things for me,” and that is it.
But the Lord only makes you strong so that you can support those who are weak. May we all remember that, and may the Lord remind us to be full of His Spirit.
Lastly, the last section: Joshua in the Promised Land—an older man.
Basic math: he is at least eighty, a little beyond that.
Joshua was an older man. Joshua was past his prime. In man’s eyes, he was past his prime. In man’s eyes, he must have been thinking, “Man, that is it. I do not have my youthful strength. I do not have my youthful fervor, my youthful energy.”
When I say youthful, I do not really mean physically. I mean spiritually. I mean, “Man, the Lord did wonderful things at the 2022 CFC conference, and that was strong. But now it is 2025, and it is rough.”
But the Lord meets Joshua.
Joshua 1:1-11 is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture.
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, saying, “Moses My servant is dead; so now arise, cross the Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the 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 one will be able to oppose you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not desert you nor forsake you.
Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may achieve success wherever you go.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will achieve success.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
As we all know, when the Lord says something, it is because the people hearing it are not thinking it and are not feeling it.
Here is Joshua, past his prime, potentially in his early eighties. The Lord is encouraging him because Joshua has run out. I think, similarly to Moses, Joshua had run out of his physical confidence. He had run out of his earthly confidence in himself.
“Lord, I am eighty. I am past my prime. I cannot do it anymore.”
But the Lord met Joshua and said, “You have come to the end of your physical confidence. Now I can fill you with My heavenly confidence.”
That is something we all need to meet, because we all have our earthly confidence. I have confidence in the strength of my youth, in my success, and in all these things. But the Lord calls us to run out of our earthly confidence and to be filled with His heavenly confidence.
Praise God that Joshua took hold of that and embraced, in faith, that the Lord would give him the victory all the same.
When we let go of our earthly confidence, the Lord has room to fill us with heavenly confidence and trust in Him.
Once we have been emptied of our earthly confidence, the Lord’s encouragement to Joshua is the same as our encouragement today: be strong and courageous.
He has won the victory. We do not need to be confident in our earthly selves, because the Lord has won the victory, and He will fill us with His confidence.
Joshua 4:21-24. This is when they crossed over the Jordan, and the Lord performed the same wonderful miracle that He had when the Israelites exited Egypt.
He said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’
For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.
The Lord your God did to the Jordan just as He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had crossed over.
He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
We see two wonderful things here—or I see two, and I am hoping that the Lord will encourage all of us in the same way.
Joshua knew to set the stones as a reminder. It is so beautiful and so wonderful, and so easy to forget.
Have we experienced this crossing of the Jordan, whether big or small? Has the Lord blessed you, provided for you, saved you, rescued you, healed you? Has the Lord done something wonderful in your life? Have you set the stones up?
I know I am guilty of it. I know I have not, many times. I cross over the Jordan and say, “Yep, thank You, Lord. This is between You and me,” and that is it.
But the Lord does not do works in our lives for our benefit alone. He does works in our lives to edify the saints, the youth, the next generation, and those older and younger than us.
Are we remembering to set these stones as a reminder, or are we taking it for granted? Are we forgetting it?
Another thing we see goes back to Joshua past his prime. He must have been pretty nervous. Here is Joshua again, past his prime, preparing to enter the Promised Land. He needs to cross the Jordan.
The Lord performed the same miracle that He did when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt. Praise God for that.
The God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt is the same God who brought them over the Jordan.
In the same way in our lives, going back to the 2021 CFC experience, the God who saved you when you were young or when you were old, the God who blessed you, provided for you, healed you, and captured your heart—the God of yesterday is the God of today.
Oftentimes, I know in my life, many, many times, the Lord performs the same miracle over and over and over again to remind us constantly, “I am the same.”
“You are forty years different. You are past your prime. You may not have the same walk you had when you were younger, but I am the same.”
The Lord was able to remind Joshua of that.
Joshua 6:16, 18, and 19. This is when they are conquering Jericho.
The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise, you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.
All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into His treasury.”
We know the story. A certain Israelite did not do that. A certain Israelite took some of the treasure—what I have come to understand as some of the blessings—and hid them in his own tent. He kept them for himself and stored up his own riches.
We know what happened. I will not go into the story, but they tried to conquer a city with only a couple of men in it, and they lost.
The reminder is this: have we returned the blessings of the Lord, the love of the Lord, and what He has given us, to His treasury?
I am the first one to be guilty of it. The Lord blesses me financially, and my first thought is, “Whew, I am blessed financially. I can depend on myself now.”
Or the Lord has blessed me with a free day, whatever it may be, and I am thinking, “Thank You for blessing me. I am going to use it for myself. I am going to waste it. I am not going to give that time back to the Lord.”
The Lord calls us. The Lord blesses us. The Lord gives us all these physical things of the world, but He asks that we return them to His treasury.
Are we returning them? Are we taking the blessings of the Lord and storing them for ourselves? Are we taking the blessing of time, family, money, and physical resources? They are blessings from the Lord. They are wonderful things. They are not bad things. But the Lord calls us to return them.
We see a picture of what happens when we take what the Lord has given us and store it for ourselves. We begin to trust in ourselves, trust in our chariots, trust in our horses: “No, we have got this. I have physical strength; therefore, I am strong.”
The Lord, by the grace of God, is very quick to remind us, “No. You are only strong in the strength I give you, and the blessings I give you are meant to be returned.”
As a reminder for each of us today, have we committed the blessings back to Him? How have we been blessed? Have we had a great victory? Has the Lord done a wonderful victory in our lives and given us wonderful things? Have we committed them back to the Lord?
May we all do so.
The last reminder: Joshua 24:14-15. This is basically when Joshua is on his deathbed.
“Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Going back to Joshua 24:31, when you turn to it, it is quick:
Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua, and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.
There is a point. There is a point in our lives. There is a purpose. We are not called to live a portion of our lives and then waste the rest.
Joshua was faithful to the Lord throughout his whole life—all one hundred and ten years of it. He was faithful as a young man. He was faithful in his prime. He was faithful as an old man.
As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
And the Lord was faithful to Joshua.
We are not called to be faithful to Him and serve Him for no purpose. The Lord has a purpose for His kingdom. The Lord has a purpose for the next generation. The Lord has a purpose for the older generation—for all of us.
Joshua was faithful, and the Lord was faithful to Joshua.
I just want to remind each of us, and this is my prayer back to the Lord: Lord, we need to be faithful. Would we be faithful, because the Lord will be faithful to us?
Lord, thank You for these many wonderful pictures and stories of faith in Joshua. Lord, thank You that this is not something in the past that cannot happen today.
Lord, thank You that You are the same God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Lord, thank You that You are the same God who allowed the Israelites to cross the Jordan. Thank You that You are the same God who loves us today.
Thank You that You love us. Thank You that You call us to be faithful.
Lord, I ask that in each of these situations, we would commit the wonderful things You have done for us back to You, that we may have faith in You and serve You. Amen.