Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ

Series: Joshua and Judges

Service: Wed Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Series: N/A

Service: Praise and Preaching Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Summary: Living with Certainty in an Uncertain World

Sermon Date: February 9, 2025
Series Theme: Finding Stability Through God

Opening Praise

The message opens with two foundational praises:

1. Praise God for being a stabilizing influence we can always count on.
2. Praise God for giving us stabilizing instructions that we can pass down to our children and grandchildren.

These praises set the tone for the main theme: Even when the world around us feels unstable, God provides both Himself and His Word as reliable anchors to help us live with certainty.

The Problem: Life Is Inherently Uncertain

The sermon highlights that uncertainty is a shared human experience:

• The last few years have reminded us how unpredictable life is—especially since COVID-19, with events like global pandemics, inflation, unstable elections, wars, artificial intelligence anxiety, hurricanes, and wildfires.
• The uncertainty isn’t just external. People worry about their finances, health, careers, and relationships.
• Despite how bad it may seem now, this is not the most uncertain time in human history. Life has been uncertain since the fall in the Garden of Eden.

Two biblical references remind us that suffering and temptation are universal:

• 1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation is unique to you; all are common to mankind.
• 1 Peter 5:9 – The same sufferings are experienced by believers all over the world.

Examples from Scripture: Certainty Amid Chaos

The sermon walks through multiple biblical characters whose lives were marked by uncertainty, helping us relate to their situations and learn from their responses:

1. Abraham (Genesis 12:1)

• God called Abraham to leave everything familiar and go to a place He would later reveal.
• Abraham obeyed, stepping into the unknown—a literal and figurative journey of faith.
• He faced famine, made mistakes (e.g., lying in Egypt), and dealt with internal family tension.
  Despite all this, Abraham trusted God's long-term plan.

2. Joseph (Genesis 37)

• One day, Joseph was wearing a colorful robe; the next, he was thrown into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery, and carted off to Egypt.
• For 13 years, he endured injustice, imprisonment, and betrayal.
• Yet through it all, God was working behind the scenes to elevate Joseph at the right time.

3. The Israelites During the Judges (Judges 2:14–18)

• Words like despoiled, distressed, plundered, oppressed, and harassed describe the Israelites' experience when they disobeyed God.
• Their chaos was self-inflicted; they lived in confusion because they rejected God's laws.
• This reminds us that turning from God’s instruction adds to our instability.

4. David

• David was anointed king but spent years running from Saul.
• In Psalm 13 and Psalm 22, David cries out in sorrow, fear, and spiritual depression.
• He openly expresses emotions like anxiety and despair, yet always returns to trust in God.

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” – Psalm 13:1
“Why are you so far from helping me?” – Psalm 22:1

5. Early Christians

• Many lost their homes, were persecuted, imprisoned, or killed for their faith.
• Despite instability, they clung to hope in Christ and the promise of eternal life.

The Impact of Chaos on Our Lives

• Chaos and uncertainty are not just spiritual—they affect mental, emotional, and physical health.
• Over 40 million Americans (19%) suffer from anxiety disorders.
• Young adults (18–25) experience the highest levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
• The COVID pandemic led to a 25% global increase in anxiety and depression.

These stats underscore why a solid spiritual foundation is more critical now than ever.

The Solution: Jesus Gives Us a Rock to Build On

The sermon pivots to a practical solution based on Jesus’ conclusion in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock...” – Matthew 7:24–27

Jesus offers a clear path:

• Hear His words.
• Obey His commands.
• Build your life on Him, not the shifting sand of culture, emotions, or human wisdom.

This approach results in spiritual resilience. Even when storms come, your foundation holds.

Object Lesson: The Jenga Tower

A Jenga tower was used as a metaphor:

• Each block represents a command of God.
• As long as all the blocks stay in place, the tower is stable.
• But when you remove or ignore even one command, you weaken the structure.
• Eventually, enough missing blocks will cause everything to collapse.

This visual emphasizes the danger of “cherry-picking” God's instructions. A strong life demands full obedience.

Practical Applications: How to Cultivate Certainty

Here are some takeaways to live with stability in uncertain times:

1. Hear and Do the Word of God

• Stability begins with learning and obeying Jesus' teachings.
• It’s not about being smarter—just humble enough to follow God's wisdom.
• God’s instructions are designed for our good (Deuteronomy 6:24).

2. Pass Down God's Word

• Teach your children and grandchildren God’s principles.
• Create lasting traditions and object lessons—like writing verses on Jenga blocks and using them in family devotionals.

3. Meditate on God’s Unchanging Nature

• Malachi 3:6 – “I the Lord do not change.”
• Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
• God Himself is our stabilizing force, even more than His rules.

4. Use Prayer to Cast Your Anxiety on God

• 1 Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
• Philippians 4:6–7 – “Be anxious for nothing… and the peace of God… will guard your hearts.”

These verses remind us that God wants to carry our burdens and replace them with His peace.

5. Focus on the Eternal, Not the Temporary

“Our light affliction… is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16–18

• Earthly chaos is temporary.
• Heaven is eternal and unchanging.
• Think more often about heaven, and it will shrink your earthly anxieties.

6. Use Daily Bible Reading and Psalms to Anchor Your Spirit

• Especially David's psalms, which are honest about pain but always end in hope.
• They model how to express emotion while still affirming trust in God.

7. Memorize and Meditate on Scripture

• Choose a favorite stabilizing verse (e.g., Philippians 4:6–7).
• Write it down, memorize it, post it on your mirror or fridge.
• Use it as your anchor during chaos.

8. God Is Our Refuge and Rock

“He only is my rock and my salvation; I shall not be moved.” – Psalm 62:6

• God is the refuge we run to when life breaks down.
• Like the cities of refuge in the Old Testament, God offers safety to those in trouble.

Final Encouragement

The sermon closes with a heartfelt invitation:

• If you're not yet part of God’s family, become one today.
• He wants to adopt you, protect you, and give you stability.
• In a world where everything changes, God never will.
• Life can be filled with storms, but you can live with peace when you're built on the rock.

Complete Transcript

02-09-25-AM

All right, we're going to start this morning off with a couple of statements of praise. You're welcome to say amen after these statements. Praise God for being a stabilizing influence in our lives that we can always count on.

And praise God for giving us stabilizing instructions that we can pass down to our kids and grandkids to make their lives stable. God is such a great God that gives us so many ways that we can have a certain life in an uncertain world. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

How can we have a life of certainty even though everything around us seems so uncertain all the time? If you're visiting with us, we're glad that you are here and a part of our assembly here at the Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ. We have sort of a stabilizing visual that we use to illustrate what we are trying to do here. First of all, we want to worship God.

We want to study his word. We want to love one another and we want to reach out to people who don't have that proper relationship with God. So hopefully this lesson will be beneficial as we go over and look at the uncertain world and how we can live a certain life in it.

If you think about it, the last five years has been filled with uncertainty. I was thinking about this this week. March of 2000, Shelly and I drove down from Columbus, Indiana to Bowling Green, Kentucky and we went to watch a baseball game there at Western Kentucky.

They played Purdue. We watched that game with our oldest daughter. You know, free travel.

We went out to eat. We had a good time at a baseball game and they played one more game the next day and they had one more game early in the week and that was it for baseball. We didn't really know at that particular moment as we sat there watching that baseball game that things were really going to take a turn and make life so much more uncertain than it had been for the previous years for us.

There's also uncertainty that follows almost every election. Regardless of what side there is, there's always these questions. What's going to happen when this person takes over? Is this world leader going to get along with that world leader? Is there going to be unity between the people in the House and the people in the Senate and the President? There's just uncertainty that goes along with that.

And oftentimes, whether it be the uncertainty caused by COVID or elections, then there's uncertainty when it comes to our financial situation. When inflation starts to rise, we start thinking, am I going to be able to pay all my bills? Am I going to be able to pay my rent on time or buy the groceries that I need? It just adds more uncertainty to our lives. And then when other nations start to fight, whether we're involved or not, it adds more uncertainty.

Russia and Ukraine begin to fight. That adds uncertainty to them for sure. And it also gives us a sense of uncertainty.

What's going to happen over there? What's our part in this? What's going to be the outcome of this? You have the idea that what happened with Israel and Hamas. Again, uncertainty. It just makes things more difficult when we live in a life of uncertainty.

Some people are worried about artificial intelligence. Is it going to take over my job? What's going to happen? Is it going to take over the world? Uncertainty is not good. Then you have all these hurricanes that we've had, right? And what happened in Georgia and North Carolina.

These terrible... You talk about their life went from a certain degree of certainty to their houses being demolished, and now they live in total uncertainty. What about the wildfires in California? That not only do you have these fires that are taking place, but then you have the heat and the wind that just made these fires just go crazy. These poor people, their life was certain.

They had a house. A lot of them were probably paid for. And the next thing you know, they have nothing.

All their childhood memories are gone, everything. And the point that I want to make from that is just that we understand life is uncertain. And sometimes I think that we feel that we're living through the most uncertain time ever.

You know, where we are in the world somehow is the worst the world has ever been. There's never been this level of uncertainty ever in the history of the world. That's just simply not true.

Life has always been uncertain. Since sin entered the world and Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, uncertainty is the norm. And I bring that up because sometimes it's good for us to know what we're going through is not new.

People have gone through it before. And with God's help, these people have overcome uncertainty. And I want to point out two verses to you that show that this is important.

Because sometimes when we're going through suffering, the last thing we want is for someone to tell you, well, there are other people that had it worse than you. You know, we want to just know, no, we've had it worse than anybody has ever had it. But look at 1 Corinthians 10.

This is not in your outline. Let me just read it to you. It says, Right? Temptation is common.

If you're suffering through temptation, guess what? So am I. And so is everybody else in this room. And so is everybody who's ever lived in the history of the world has suffered through temptation. And then in 1 Peter chapter 5, but Brian referenced this verse earlier in the Lord's Supper talk.

It says, And here is the phrase I want you to focus on in relationship to everybody goes through this. Knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. So if you're going through suffering, understand that other people are going through suffering all over the world because they're trying to do the right thing.

And so I want to take you through a few not obscure characters in the Bible who had lives that were filled with a certain degree of uncertainty, a certain degree of chaos. The first is Abraham. For some reason, it says Genesis chapter 12 and verse 7. It's Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1. It says, That's uncertainty.

When God says you just go somewhere where I'm going to tell you and that's where you're going to live. Abraham left what he was comfortable with, left what he knew, left certainty, and he went to a life not knowing where he was going. He went to a life of uncertainty.

And not long after he gets there, there's the famine in the land. That's uncertainty. Where am I going to get food? And so what he does is he goes down to Egypt.

When he gets down to Egypt, he adds uncertainty to his life and other people's lives by not following God's commands and lying. And so he's living with more uncertainty. He doesn't know if Pharaoh is going to kill him, how this is going to work out.

Pharaoh is living with uncertainty. There's just uncertainty going around. And then when he gets back to the promised land and these promises that God gives him, he doesn't know how this is going to work out.

Maybe it's going to be Eleazar. Maybe it's going to be Ishmael. Let them be my heir.

And once Isaac is born, what does he have to do at the end of his life? He has to send all of his other sons away. So what? So that Isaac could have stability. In other words, if all these other sons are here, they're going to try to take all the possessions.

And so I have to send them away. Abraham's life was uncertain, as is our life sometimes. But it's just not Abraham.

What about Joseph? Could you imagine living the life of Joseph? In Genesis chapter 27 and verse 23, it says, So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty, for there was no water in it.

And then they sat down to eat a meal. Their life seemed certain to them, while Joseph's life suddenly seemed very uncertain to him. Then the Midianite traders passed by.

So the brothers pulled Joseph up, lifted him out of the pit, sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. And they took him to Egypt. So in just a few hours, think about this, in just a few hours, just a few moments, Joseph's world of certainty turned into a world of chaos.

And he lived a life filled with turmoil for 13 years, from the time he was 17 to the time he was 30. Those of us who are past 30 understand, that's some prime real estate of years right there, right? I mean, you think about this, from the time you're 17 to the time you're 30, you're strong, you have energy, your brain is functioning on all cylinders, you're learning all kinds of stuff, and you have all kinds of confidence, and you think you can take the world, and all these wonderful things are happening. He spent those very important years of his life living uncertain exactly what was going to happen next.

So I think that's important. And I was thinking about this also as I was preparing the lesson. Some of our young people have lived a big portion of their life in more uncertainty than I lived in those same years of my life, and a lot of you lived in your life, right? If you can not just go back five years, if you go back to 2001, 9-11 and 2001, that sort of changed some things, right? That made a lot of things more uncertain all around.

And then you have 2008 with a big economic issue. My oldest son was born in 2000. My oldest daughter was born in 98.

That's their whole life. Has been more chaotic than my childhood was in a lot of ways, and sometimes more chaotic than your childhood was. Think of Joseph.

Those huge moments of his life, those prime years, turmoil, chaos. He lived it. And we're not going to read Judges 2, 14 through 18 partly for time's sake, partly because this is Brian.

He's going to cover this on Wednesday night. But I do want you to just look at the words that I have highlighted there, and we're going to use some of these words in the blank. Look at verse 14.

It says, So he delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them. Does despoiled sound like chaotic? Yes, despoiled. It's not a word that we use very often.

And then in verse 15, distressed. Verse 16, plundered. And end of verse 18, oppressed them and harassed them.

So why I want to put this verse here is because we're going to study a very chaotic time in Israel's history. And the reason for their chaos is they're not doing what God tells them to do. And God doesn't shield them of the chaos of their own bad choices.

He allows that chaos to come to teach them a lesson to bring them back to him. So during the time of the judges, the children of Israel were despoiled, distressed, plundered, oppressed, and harassed. That sounds like chaos.

And to be honest with you, I'll have to tell you, that's probably worse than my life. I don't look at my life and say, hey, my life is despoiled. You know, my life is I'm distressed or I've been plundered or I'm oppressed, I'm harassed.

So they lived through some very, very difficult time. And I wanted to share with you what that word despoiled means since it's not a word that we use very often. It means to be stripped of belongings, possession, or value.

So not only are your things taken away, the value of who you are as a person is now gone because you have no identity left. Everything has been taken from you and you have nothing. A synonym is pillaged.

That's a word that we might use more often, but we still don't use that very often. And it's not just Abraham and Joseph and the period of the judges. David lived an uncertain life.

Esther, we're going to talk about her in two weeks, she lived an uncertain life. The early Christians lived in fear of losing their possessions and being persecuted and killed. What

happens to people who live in chaos? What happens to people who live with an unstable foundation? You know people like this.

We all know people like this, right? How are you even surviving? I mean, your life is total chaos. If I had to live your life, a lot of bad things would happen. Well, uncertainty produces anxiety and it produces stress.

Both are bad for our mental, emotional, and physical health. And most importantly, they're bad for our spiritual health. Over 40 million adults in the U.S., that's 19.1%, have an anxiety disorder.

That's not people who just are anxious sometimes. We're all anxious sometimes over certain things that happen in our life. But this is basically almost one out of every five people we meet have some kind of an anxiety disorder where it really does affect how they live on a regular basis.

In 2024, 43% of adults say they feel more anxious than they did the previous year. That's up for 37% in 2023. And 32% from 2022.

Young adults aged 18 to 25 in the U.S. are facing higher levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness compared to other age groups. And then the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a 25% increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. I don't think that comes as a surprise to any of us, that anxiety is on the rise and depression is on the rise and how we live a more unstable life than ever before.

So what I want to do is just share with you two verses from David. I told you David lived a life of chaos for a large part of it, at least a good chunk of his life. From the time he was told he was going to be king until he actually became king, he was running for his life from King Saul, right? That's chaotic.

I've never had to run for my life. Has anybody here ever had to run for their life? Don't answer that question. And hopefully nobody has had to run for their life, especially not for years and years and years.

But look at Psalm 13 and verse 1. David expresses chaos in his life. He says, How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? And then Psalm 22, 1 and 2, he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning, O my God, I cry out in the daytime, but you do not hear, and in the night season, and you are not silent, and I'm not silent. So David had sorrow in his heart every day.

That sounds like depression to me, right? Or at least a sense of not knowing what's going on, to have this sorrow in your heart every day that led to words of groaning. Anxiety, sorrow, and fear are not new in this world. They've been around for a long time.

Now, we'll circle back to David at the end and part of our practical application for us. But I wanted to spend the bulk of our time this morning talking about the solution. So what are the solutions to living in a world of chaos? I want to take you to the very end of the most amazing sermon anyone has ever delivered or anyone has ever heard.

It is the Sermon on the Mount. The concluding remarks to the Sermon on the Mount start to give us some insight in how you and I can live with certainty in an uncertain world. So Jesus says this in Matthew 7 and verse 24.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was his fall. I mean, that's the favorite part of the kid's song, right? And it fell. They're like clapping together to let you know that that house that was built on the foolish sand fell.

And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. So one of the things that amazed people about the teaching of Jesus is it wasn't overly complex. So you want to know how to live with certainty in an uncertain world, Jesus says this.

Listen to what I have to say and do that. And if you listen to what I have to say and live according to those principles, you will have some stability. So regardless of what the world says is acceptable, determine to keep, hear and keep Jesus' commands.

And I do want to pause here briefly because in this room are many people who are not smarter than anyone else. Sorry to tell you guys this. This isn't going to be an insult.

You're not just more brilliant than everybody else in the world. What you have decided to do is follow this passage. You've just simply decided Jesus knows better than me.

I'm going to listen to what he has to say and I'm going to do it. And there are so many stable lives in this room based upon doing that one thing. Not following God's rules, as we'll see in the book of Judges, causes chaos.

God tells his people, I want you to keep my laws because the laws I give you are for your good. And that's what he tells us. They're for our good.

So we need to learn to keep them. And then we need to make sure that we are passing these God-given teachings down to our kids and grandchildren so that they will have the consistency in the life that they need. Now here's what I want to do.

I know this has gotten a few of your attention because you already said it has. So what I want us to think about just for a second. I want us to think about this Jenga set being the commands of God.

And if they're all the way God has put them and they're all established like this, it's pretty steady. I really didn't worry too much about Jeff knocking it over. I mean, he could have.

He would have had to have been pretty clumsy to do that. He would have had to be singing with this hand or something. But I wasn't worried.

I mean, you could hit it. But as you, in your life, when you decide, and I don't know that I've ever played this game, to be honest with you. I went and bought it this morning.

I know you're not supposed to touch it with both hands. I know that's one of the rules. I did look at the rules.

But as you decide in your life, that one looks like it's easy, that you are going to, that was probably not the best move, that you are going to start taking out just one of God's laws. It's still going to be stable. You know, my life's still going to be pretty consistent, right? If I just take out one of God's laws and just discard one of his laws, right? That's okay.

That's not going to cause any chaos. But as you can imagine, and I'm not going to play this whole game, but as you can imagine, and you're only supposed to be able to touch it with one hand at a time. So I can already tell you, I stink at this game.

Oh, all right. So the point is, what is going to happen to my life eventually if I just decide I'm going to do it my way and not do it God's way? I'm not going to have a stable life. And whose fault is that going to be? It's really going to be my fault because I've made choices to ignore the plain teachings of God and Jesus who are giving me those teachings so that I will have a certain life in an uncertain world.

Uncertain world because God has not said, hey, you know what I'm going to do for you? I'm going to make sure that everything in your life, everything you're around is always going to be certain for you so you have a stable life. He says, no, I am going to help you by giving you instructions so even in the middle of chaos, you can still have a stable life. And what an incredible witness that is to the power of God in the world when they see your life, when they see that you've been married 50 years and that your parents were married 50 years and you were following God's laws.

You treat your wife the way that you're supposed to. You're honest. You work hard.

You do all these things. And they look at you and say, man, Dave, how's your life always so, seems so put together? And Dave's not going to say, it's because I'm smarter than the rest of you. He's going to say, it's because I follow the principles in the Bible.

And if you do it too, your life can have a little more stability to it. So that's the first thing that each of us can start doing immediately to bring stability back to our life is go back to the teachings of Jesus, hear them and do them. But it's not just the teachings that are important.

Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6 says this, for I am the Lord. I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed.

Oh sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. And then we find out in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Do not be carried away about with various and strange doctrines for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. So what do we learn from this? It's not just the laws of God that are unchanging and provide stability. God himself gives us stability.

So we need to meditate on the unchanging nature of God and his son. When we're talking about spiritual disciplines, what was one of the, you know, keeping the tea bags in there longer. One of the things in tea, keeping the tea bags in the water longer, the tea gets stronger.

So if we meditate on God more and on his word, our faith is going to get stronger. And if our faith gets stronger, what's that going to do to the stability of our life? It's going to make that more stable and we're going to be able to handle the uncertainty of life in a certain way because we know that God is not going to forsake us. We know that God is our one stabilizing force that we can always turn to.

Can you imagine if you didn't have that? How chaotic would your life be if you didn't have the stable relationship with God that you have? And so what a great joy it should be for us to share that with other people. I want you to know the God that gives me stability in my life through all the chaos. I'm not worried about necessarily who wins elections or what the economy is doing or what's happening here, what's happening there because God's in control and I serve him.

And I know he promised me that I'm never going to go hungry. As long as I'm righteous, I'm following after him, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things like food, clothing, shelter is going to be provided for me. I can be more stable in my life because of that.

Psalm 62. Again, I put the whole verses there sometimes for you to have context to go back to and look at later. Here's what I want you to look at in Psalm 62.

Verse two, he only is my rock. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.

Verse five, my soul waits silently for God alone for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense.

I shall not be moved. Verse seven, and God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.

In verse eight, God is a refuge for us. In verse 11, that power belongs to God. Oh Lord belongs mercy.

Remember that God is your rock and you can always go back to him for that stabilizing place in your life. He is our place of rest. He is our refuge.

We've looked at the city of refuge recently, right? And how if somebody committed a crime, they killed somebody accidentally, they could go to these cities and they were protected as long as it was true it was an accident. They didn't hate the person ahead of time, just something happened, they killed somebody and they can have protection, safety there. Well, for us, there's no cities to go to for that.

We go to God. He is the one that we go to for that kind of safety. First Peter chapter five in verse six says this, Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you.

Philippians chapter four in verse six says, Be anxious for nothing, be anxious for nothing, that in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That sounds like some security to me. That sounds like I can live a calm life even when everything else is going around me because what God has said, you know what? All your anxieties, Duane, all your worries, all your cares, all your concerns, bring them to me.

Tell me about them. And I'm big enough to take care of those for you. Cast your care on God and let him take your anxieties and replace them with his peace.

That's what we need. So if we have a relationship with God, we have this incredible blessing of prayer that we can say, God, I'm really worried about this. And I know intellectually I probably shouldn't be.

And I know, you know, if I had the faith maybe that I need to have, I wouldn't, but I don't have the faith. Give me more faith. Give me more trust that you can take these anxieties away from me and help me overcome these.

And then there's another thing we can do. 2 Corinthians 4 in verse 16. It says, therefore we do not lose heart.

Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

So how are we going to overcome all this chaos? Focus on the eternal, perfect reward instead of the imperfect, always changing afflictions that we face on earth. So just think about this. If we were to say, hey, don't think about the chaos on this earth.

Think about the stability that is in heaven. And that the one in heaven reigns over heaven and earth. And there is no changing in him.

Many of you have said, and I just want to bring back, we'll bring Adam back here for a few minutes. And Adam is going to tell you, think about heaven more often. And if you think about heaven more often, you'll be less anxious about what's happening now because chaos is temporary.

Anxieties are temporary. There's no chaos in heaven. There's no anxiety in heaven.

There's no depression in heaven. And so if we take time to think about, you know what, regardless of what I'm going through, and it might be bad, it might be hard, it might be a true struggle for us, and I do not ever want to underestimate the chaos that we go through

or the anxiety that we feel. But sometimes saying, you know what, no matter what it is, I know it's temporary, and I can handle it temporarily knowing I have something eternal in heaven waiting for me, where there is no chaos, and there is nothing bad.

I can take this for a season, right? Because I know that God has something better for me. So here's a couple things that you can think about by way of practical application. The first one goes back to our game here, and David and the daily Bible reading.

Please do the daily Bible reading, not just the reading, but listen to Brian's recordings because what you're going to find in that is you're going to find several people, but primarily David, that will tell you his life was chaotic, and he will just tell God, God, my life is a mess right now. My enemies are pursuing me. They're chasing me.

I don't know what to do. I feel really down about this. This is awful.

This is terrible. But you'll also notice where he always ends up. He always ends up recognizing, regardless of what life is like for me right now in the moment, I know you're my rock, and I know your promises are true, and you are faithful to your promises.

So if you do that daily Bible reading and listen to those recordings that Brian is doing over and over and over for this year, you're going to see this play out in David's life and other people's lives and how they overcame it by their faith and trust in God and how we can overcome it by our faith and trust in God. And the other suggestion that I want to make going along with this, I didn't buy stock in this company or anything, but if everybody were to go out and buy one of these games and then on every block, maybe have your kids participate with this, write down a Bible verse or God's instructions. And then as you play the game and somebody pulls one out and puts it on top, when it all comes crashing down, and you see how, you can make the point, see how unstable life is when we're not following these principles that are here? When it all comes crumbling down, you can take whatever verse is on the particular last one that was taken out, you can open your Bible up to it and read it and say, this is what God said in this verse, and that's why, how does this verse bring stability to our life? And you can just keep playing over and over.

It could be like a huge family thing that your grandkids one day come to your house and they have their dad wrote this when he was eight years old, this particular verse, you can tell the handwriting, and they can play the game too. And I think it could be a very helpful thing to teach our kids, look, when you do what God says, your life's going to be stable. When you're following what God wants, there's still going to be chaos around you, but your life can be stable.

As soon as you start taking out anything God says and casting it aside, you're adding a certain level of uncertainty and confusion to your life unnecessarily, and remind them to continue to go back and do what God says. And it's not just your kids. I need that reminder too, don't you? I need the reminder.

You know, Duane, you can't just pick and choose to do what God says, what you like and what you don't like. It's total surrender. It's total obedience to him that really makes sense to us.

The other thing that I want you to do, and again, if all you do is buy the game, write Bible verses on there, and that is a lasting game that you play, this lesson will have been very, very helpful, I think, to at least a few of you. But memorize a passage that reminds you of God's unchanging character. It can be the Philippians 4 passage that is in your outline.

It says, Most of you probably have 75% of that memorized already. Just memorize that verse. So when things become chaotic in your life, and you're looking around saying, look, there's a lot of bad things happening, quote the verse to yourself.

That was another one of the spiritual disciplines, if you remember, memorizing Scripture. Not only meditating on Scripture, but if you memorize Scripture, then you can meditate on it that much easier. So we're bringing that back into it as well.

And if the only thing that you do is take the picture in the bulletin, color that picture, read that verse, and post it on your refrigerator so that you see that verse, or on your mirror, you see that verse and you're reminded, I am about to go out into a world full of chaos. I have a stabilizing force in my life, and it's God and his word. And I'm gonna focus on that today instead of the chaos that's all around me.

God is so awesome that he gives us things that will stabilize our lives and help us live with certainty in an uncertain world. And if you're not part of his family, you need to be, because if you're his family, he adopts you as one of his, and he loves you like way better than your parents ever loved you, or even more than you love your kids. You think you love your kids like way better than, let me think, you think you love your kids more than I love my kids.

Doesn't everybody think that? Oh, nobody loves their kids as much as I do. Well, I don't know about that. I can tell you this.

God loves your kids more than you love your kids. And God loves you more than you can even muster to love your own kids, because God is love. And he wants to extend his love to everyone.

So if you wanna become a child of God, we wanna help. And if we can help, just let us know, either now as we sing this song, or talk to us afterwards, and we'll just help you on your journey to having a life that is certain, even though we're living in an uncertain world. So if you need to, you can come as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Lord’s Supper Service

Type: Lord's Supper Talk

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Series: Joshua and Judges

Service: Sun Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Series: Joshua and Judges

Service: Wed Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Series: Joshua and Judges

Service: Sun Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Summary

Bible Story Sunday - Joshua 12-14
Date: February 2, 2025

Today, we are studying Joshua chapters 12 through 14. Before we begin, let’s open with a word of prayer.

As the Israelites enter the Promised Land, they divide the territory through reconnaissance and lot casting, similar to how we plan and distribute teaching responsibilities. Joshua 12 lists all the kings defeated by Israel, which can seem tedious but serves as a testimony to God's faithfulness.

Joshua 12 recounts the victories over Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Their stories are frequently referenced throughout the Bible as a reminder of God’s power. Deuteronomy 2-3 reiterates these conquests, reinforcing God's promise and instilling confidence in His people.

In Joshua 12:7-24, we see a list of 31 defeated kings. This list serves several purposes:

1. A Testimony to God's Faithfulness – As Tim Welsh noted, Joshua 21:45 states: "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass."

2. A Reminder of Divine Power – Dwayne Gandy emphasized that the victories were due to God's strength, not Israel’s.

3. A Lesson for Future Generations – Herb Hinely pointed out that the list serves as a historical record, reinforcing the necessity of remaining faithful to God.

Joshua 13:1 states: "There remains very much land yet to be possessed." Why did God leave some land unconquered?

• Faith Development – Phil Story noted that God allows faith to grow over time rather than granting immediate success.

• Avoiding Complacency – Emory Van Cleef pointed out that ongoing challenges kept Israel committed to God's command.

• Generational Responsibility – Patrick Dooley observed that each generation must continue God’s work rather than relying on one leader.

• Practical Considerations – Brian Messerli referenced Deuteronomy 7:22, where God warns that taking the land too quickly would lead to wild animals overrunning it.

Caleb, one of the two faithful spies (along with Joshua), reminds Joshua of the promise made to him 45 years earlier. At 85 years old, Caleb still has the strength and courage to claim his inheritance, requesting the very land inhabited by giants.

• A Lesson in Patience – Tim Welsh shared how trials require patience and faith.

• Trusting in God's Timing – Dwayne Gandy acknowledged that waiting for God’s plan is often difficult but necessary.

• Generational Blessings – Caleb’s faithfulness benefited not only himself but future generations, exemplifying long-term spiritual investment.

The study of Joshua 12-14 reinforces essential spiritual truths:

• God keeps His promises – Every victory was achieved through His power.

• Faith requires perseverance – Like Caleb, we must remain faithful even when fulfillment is delayed.

• God's plan unfolds gradually – The unfinished conquest teaches patience, responsibility, and reliance on God’s wisdom.

May this study encourage us to trust in God's promises and remain steadfast in faith, knowing that His plan is always for our good. Amen.

Transcript

Joshua 12-14

All right, it's time for us to begin our Bible study. Today we are studying Joshua chapters 12 through 14, Joshua chapter 12 through 14. But before we get into our study, let's go ahead and bow for a word of prayer.

So one of the things they do when they're going into the promised land is they send out some spies to go divide up the land. All of you go, divide up the land, bring back the map, and we'll cast lots to know who gets what. Well, when Brian and I come up with how we are going to divide up a class, we have all them laid out there, and we just don't know who's going to be teaching what at the beginning of the quarter, and then we start putting the schedule in place. And when it comes to Joshua chapter 12, all the way through to before Joshua gives his incredible speech, we're like, oh that's the one, if you got that lot, you got the raw end of the stick, right? You got to cover all of that, where it's just saying, this nation took this property, and this one took this property, and this person took this property.

How am I going to make a class out of all of those things? Especially when a picture, you know, paints a thousand words. Sometimes a map can just be put up there. You will ess exactly the land each tribe received.

You don't have to read all the text to understand the division of the land, but we're going to do our best. Hopefully if you guys had a chance to look over the questions, you'll have some good things to comment about what kind of things we can draw out from this. When it does come time for you to share your insights with the rest of the class, we ask that you raise your hand and a microphone will be brought around to you.

When you get the microphone, please speak directly into the microphone. Don't wave it around, because we all want to know what you have to say, because I'm sure it's going to be brilliant. And the people at home who aren't here, want to hear what you have to say.

And if somebody goes back and listens to this years from now, there won't be all that dead air, because they'll hear exactly what you're saying, and the whole class will make a lot more sense.

Before we get into actual Joshua chapter 12 through 14, let's just bring us up a little bit to date. You have the central campaign that is described in Joshua chapter 6 through 9. They cross the Jordan River, and they camp out there at Gilgal, and they take Jericho.

After they take Jericho, they go to Ai. And remember that when they went to Ai, they had that setback, because Achan took things that he wasn't supposed to take. Thirty-six men died as a result of that.

And Joshua and all the children of Israel go before the Ark of the Covenant. They get down on their faces, put their face to the ground, and oh, why did this happen? Why did this happen? And then God finally has to say, why do you think it happened? You just read the curses and the blessings to them, and I told you that if you do what I say, good things are going to happen. If you don't do what I say, bad things are going to be happening.

Since bad things are happening, you probably should have recognized this, because there's sin in the camp, and that's what there is. And so Joshua, when he realizes this, he does get up. He takes care of the sin in the camp, and so God gives him another battle plan about sneaking a group behind Ai, and then draw them out of the city.

They'll think they're going to have victory again, and then the ambush squad goes behind, starts burning the city, and when they do, the soldiers turn around. They see their cities on fire, and it's just total panic at that point, and God's people are able to win. They go down and reestablish the covenant, you know, at the mountains where they're saying the blessings and the cursing.

They have to say amen to the curses, right? Cursed is the person who does this, amen. Cursed is the person who does this, amen. They're agreeing to these curses, that if I do these things, I should be cursed because of that.

Well, they make that terrible treaty with the Gibeonites, and then the people decide, since they can't fight the children of Israel, they're gonna go attack the Gibeonites for making this pledge with the Israelites, and Joshua is left to defend the Gibeonites. And that's really where the start of the southern campaign, where they go and defeat those five kings who come in together, sort of a divide-and-conquer by the central campaign, and now when they're doing the southern campaign, they have these five kings, Adonizedek or Adonizedek, however you want to pronounce his name, is the king of Jerusalem. He's one of those five that dies in battle along with several other kings, and they go and take these cities in a very methodical way, and then they have the northern campaign that Brian talked about, where again, an alliance of people, I mean there were really a couple options that they had.

One is to fight, and the best option there, if you choose to fight the children of Israel, the best option would be get as many people as you can help you, and that's what they do. The other option was just, you can't just give in because God's already said kill them all. You could run, or you could do what the Gibeonites did, deceive, make a treaty by deceiving them, but this northern campaign, before it happens, God says, hey, I'm gonna be with you, I'm gonna help you, don't worry about it, and so Joshua has this great victory up there.

They burn the major city up there, they hamstrung the horses and all the good things, so God is just putting his stamp of approval, I'm with you, I'm going to go before you, I'm gonna help you conquer all of these different cities. So that brings us to Joshua chapter 12. Let's go ahead and turn to Joshua chapter 12.

We're not going to read all of this. Hopefully you have the questions ahead of time, and you've had a chance to read all of this, and you've had a chance to give some thoughts to this. So to pick out some of the highlights in Joshua chapter 12, it talks about what Moses was able to accomplish on the east side of the Jordan River.

So if you look at verse 2, it says, one king was Sion, king of the Amorites. That was one king that Moses was able to conquer. You drop down to verse 4, it says the other king was Og, king of Bashan.

And you drop down to verse 6, it says, these Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel had conquered, and Moses, the servant of the Lord, have given it as a possession to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. So the first six verses, he lists two kings that Moses had conquered on the east side of the Jordan River. And I think it's interesting, because if you look at how many times the story of David is retold in the Bible, compared to how many times the story of Sion and Og are retold in the Bible, you would think the story of David has to be told a lot more than these two kings.

We don't even know much about them, right? If I were to randomly ask you five years from now, tell me the story of Sion and Og, you might be like, uh, I think I've heard them before. You know, it's sort of, it's brought back over, and over, and over in the Bible. It's gonna come back up in the Book of Judges.

They're going to come back up 400 years later. These stories are being told, and people are being reminded what happened here. There's a couple important points for us to bring out of these stories, just by review as we go.

Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 2, Deuteronomy chapter 2. What has happened is, it's been 38 years since they were told they were going to have to wonder the wilderness for 40 years. At 38 years, all the men have died off, and so now God is telling Moses, it's time. And so he's giving them, him a plan of where he's going to go next and what he's supposed to do.

And there's three groups of people that must pass by, and he can't fight against the Edomites. Why can't he fight against the Edomites? Those are Esau's descendants that God told Esau, this is your land. God gave that land to Esau, and so that's not land I'm giving you.

That's not the Canaanite land. That's not part of this. Who are the Ammonites and the Moabites? Because they can't fight against them either.

Lot’s descendants. Okay, so those are lots of descendants. You can't fight those people.

Now the Amorites, he says, yeah, Amorites, you can fight against them. I'm gonna help you fight against them and take over their particular land. And so that's sort of what is going on here.

So I'm going to read verse 25 of Deuteronomy chapter 2, because I think this is a very powerful passage. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. I've made this statement before, and you'll probably hear me make it again.

I think some of the reason, maybe not the bulk of the reason, why God does things the way that he does them is for the powerful effect of the story it creates. He could have done it a thousand different ways. He could have done the Red Sea crossing a thousand different ways.

He could have done all the plagues a whole bunch of different ways. He could just take in Canaanites and just wipe them off the face of the earth and let that be an empty group land. But he doesn't do that, because he wanted them to have a reputation, because he wanted himself to have a reputation as the God of his people.

So the whole world would know. In Deuteronomy chapter 3, it sort of details what they do. And they take over Bashan where Og is.

And you drop down at the very end of this, verse 7, it says, “But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as booty for ourselves.”  Remember, one of the reasons we have these five, the audience primarily, or first, are the people that are going into the land. And  he's recounting, look at what happened.

And this, what happened is going to make them fearful, but it should give you a little courage as well. And in verse 11 of Deuteronomy 3, For only Og, king of Bashan, remained in the rim of the giants. He was nine cubits, his bed was nine cubits long and four cubits wide.

So he was huge. That story is going to come up again.

I'm not going to get too much into it now, because it's going to come back again in Jephthah's story after Gideon. In Joshua chapter 12, verses 7 through 24, there's a list of the cities that Joshua conquers, and there are 31 in all.

So that leads us to our first question here, and that is, what is the significance of listing the defeated kings in Joshua chapter 12? How does this reinforce God's promise to Israel? Remember, the original audience are the people that are going into the land. What did they learn? What was helpful to them? But what's helpful to us as well? Raise your hand if you have a comment. Tim is going to be our first commentator.

Tim Welsh

So I'm going to jump out of chapter 12 and into chapter 21, just reverse those two numbers. What's said at the end there is, in verse 45, it's not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass.

And God's being very distinct here. He's demonstrating His faithfulness in these passages. He's demonstrating His power.

The promises certainly come into this, what He made to Abraham, what He made to Moses. This reminds us, though, of the victory that God's providing them. And who's behind all of this? And it's a reminder for us today, too.

I mean, we can look at this and gather some of the same information about how we live our lives. Yes, very good. Very good.

Dwayne Gandy

I mean, the verse that he references, obviously, we're going to get to later. But that's the key thing here, as far as big picture as well, that, hey, God is faithful. He's fulfilled the promise.

Herb Hinely

And this is sort of a way of doing that. Perfect. Well done, Tim.

I'm just going to build on that. This is God saying, I promised. I delivered.

I told you this would happen. You did these things through my power. You were successful because I was with you.

And so there's that relationship. You're with me, and we, you know, you win. If you're against me, look what happened at Ai.

Same thing. This is God saying, we, you can be strong with me, and I will be with you, and good things will happen. And if you're not, then other things will happen.

And he's telling them to encourage them to keep doing what they're doing, I believe. Am I right about that? Yeah, absolutely. To keep on, because there's more to conquer.

They're not done yet. They're not done. And then there needs to be unity.

And I know that's coming up with the tribes over on the east side of the Jordan, but there needs to be unity. We did this for your people. You did this.

We did this together with my help. And you're powerful, and I'm powerful, more powerful than these kings. So the emphasis is, we're working in partnership here, and I said this was going to happen, and it did happen.

He told Joshua, don't worry, I'm going to deliver them to your hand, and I did it. I told him I was going to deliver them. I did it.

I did it. I did it. I did it.

Joe Rimmer

When they were in Egypt, they were slaves. And when they come into the land, they're victors.

Okay, very good. And so I think there, they're saying, hey, you know, we stay with God. You know, kind of like Herb said, in the future, we stay with God, things are good.

And so I think that would be very encouraging to them, just looking back on the 31 that's listed there. Wow, look at what we've accomplished, not we by ourselves, but with God, look what we've accomplished. We went from slavery to victors.

When we leave sin for us, when we leave sin, we can be victors in Christ. Very good. Very good.

Brian Messerli

Yeah, one of the things, you know, we see is that the role of kings is to co-rule with God and to manage the land. You see that all the way back in Genesis 1, where Adam and Eve are made in God's image, and they're like royal co-rulers over creation. And these kings in Joshua 12 have completely mismanaged God's land.

They have been horrible rulers, not representing God's image in rulership at all, but the rulership of evil and false gods. And so this would stand sort of as a memorial to, here's what happens when you don't partner with God in your rulership. And now Israel needs to be God's partner and rule in His image, like they were always meant to.

Dwayne Gandy

So it presents both sides of the equation, right? If you're with God, this is what's going to happen. If you're not with God and don't rule the way you're supposed to, this is what's going to happen. And it gives a stark contrast of those two.

A lot of times, I don't know about you, knowing the right thing to do is not that difficult sometimes, all right? We know to be on God's side, right? We know that that's the answer, to trust Him, to have faith in Him, but sometimes we don't always do that. So these reminders are helpful to them. We're helpful to them and helpful to us as well.

Daniel Fritz

So I think we like the significance for us today is it also sets up a pattern of success for what's behind when you're with God. So when we're choosing a side and we're trying to present the Bible, we're trying to present the successes that you have through God. And I think this is one of the ways that you're showing the success you have through following Him and the failures you will have through not following Him.

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah, very good, very good. There's another thing that I think is at play here. One is there's power and just an overwhelmingly strong list.

You know, sometimes when I'm looking for something in the Bible, I might look, I want to know all the times where this happens, or all the times where this word is used, whatever the case may be, and sometimes I'm just overwhelmed with how off that is. So I think there is power in listing all 31. He could have just said, hey, 31 Kings, done, because you listen to me.

There's something listening to that, the name, and then the repeating of one. You know, I've read, I listened to this read in one of those Bibles that have the drama type reading, and it was just powerful. I mean, they would say the King's name, one, another King's name, one, another King's name, one, and it's over, one, one, one, and it puts it instead of just God did a lot, God did a lot, but He did it one person, one kingdom at a time.

And I think there's power to that. And I think that happened to me last Lord's Supper talk I did when I was talking, looking at all the verses that talk about the body of Christ. I didn't expect there to be that many, because I focus on the blood, right? That's sort of my focus when I come to Lord's Supper is more about the blood, but when I started talking about how often the body of Christ is referenced in the Bible, and I looked at all those verses together, and I read all those to you a couple weeks ago, I was hoping that that would be impactful, even though maybe you could have just read one or two of those, because the quantity stands as a major emphasis to me, to read all of those things.

Another thing I think He's doing here is He's elevating Joshua. He said He was going to do that. When the crossing of the Red Sea, I'm going to begin to elevate you in the mind of the children of Israel, especially, I mean, you have, well, how do people think about Moses? They thought very highly of Moses, right? And Moses is the prophet.

He's the one that brought us out of Egypt. I mean, they squabbled with him from time to time, but obviously, they knew that God spoke to Moses in a very special way, and Moses was a very special prophet, and Joshua's not going to supersede that or become a better prophet than Moses, but God has to let them know, I am with Joshua like I was with Moses. You need to treat him very special.

This list, you have two over here that Moses conquered, two of these. Now we have this list. Joshua has taken you through 31 of these kings and had these victories, and so you need to understand how important he is.

I'm just going to read a couple passages to you, and Joshua chapter one, verse seven, “Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all that the law which Moses my servant commanded you. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on a day and night, and you will have good success. God talking to Joshua.

And the Lord said to Joshua in chapter three, verse seven, this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Chapter four, verse 14, on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. And chapter six, in verse 27, so the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.

Chapter seven, in verse six, then Joshua tore his clothes and fell on the earth on his face down, and this is where God tells him to get up, and then he ends up saying, and then what does Moses, what does Joshua have to do? Some of the same things Moses did, interceding for the people. Let's get the sin out of the camp. Moses had to do that very often.

Chapter eight, in verse one, the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid or be dismayed. Take all the people who are with you and arise, go to Ai. See, I have given it into the hand, your hand, the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

Chapter 10, verse eight, and the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand. Not a man of them shall stand before you. And then he has that great miracle where the sun stands still.

So part of this is not only boom, you're with me, I think it's also you're with Joshua, because how long does this generation serve the Lord faithfully? We'll find out. I mean, specifically, the time frame is given to us. We can sing with the crowd over there, if you guys don't have an answer for me, and sway to the music.

As long as Joshua was alive and the people that lived under Joshua, the leaders that lived under Joshua. So did this work, God letting them know, I'm exalting you in the eyes of the people. It lasted, they knew that they were going to follow as long as Joshua was alive, and that lasted even longer than Joshua being alive.

All the people that were influenced by Joshua. Now when that paid off, then you have the book of the Judges, which we'll talk about next. All right, any thoughts or questions about that question before we move on? All right, well, let's go on to chapter 13 now.

Chapter 13, you never want to hear these words. I guess it's not bad to hear these words. Well, God speaking, Joshua, you are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.

And then it goes and lists the land that is yet to be possessed. So hopefully we can see all this. I have two different maps, they're really the same map, they're showing the same thing.

So, so far, this is, this darker green shade is the land that is somewhat under their control. You have what Moses gave them on this side. So you have the Moabites and the Ammonites, they didn't fight them, but you have all this area where they had on the east side of the Jordan River.

And then you have this area, which is on the west side of the Jordan River. But you see, there's also this very much of this land, this outline here is the land that was promised. All right, it goes all the way down here off this map.

But so this is the part of the land that is yet to be conquered. And you're old, so you're not going to see all of this land conquered. If you go down to verse six, it talks about all the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon, as far as the brook, and all the Sidonians, them I will drive out from before the children of Israel, only divide it by lot to Israel as an inheritance, as I commanded you.

Now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the twelve tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh." So he was getting old, and he was going to have to say, all right, we're going to send spies out, we're going to spy it all out, and then after it's spied out, we're going to divide it by lot. Now what would be the benefit of that, you think? I know that wasn't one of the questions. Sending representatives from all the tribes to go out and spy it out and come back with a detailed map of how it divides up into what seem to be equal parts.

Joe Rimmer

All right, Joe has something. I don't think it would be biased. I mean, you have all the tribes represented in the expedition and spying out the land, if you will.

Yeah, because I mean, it shows that we're all agreeing that this is fair. No matter what, where the lot falls, it's by chance or by God's design, whatever the case would be, we know that all the land has benefit. I think there's some good to that.

Just going back to my funny analogy I gave at the beginning, if I was always in charge of dividing up the class between Brian and I, and he always got the bad lessons, and I always got the good lessons, or vice versa, it might start getting a little suspicious. Hey, you looked at this, and you divided it up, so I'd get all the garbage. Not garbage, I shouldn't say that.

All the more difficult sections of Scripture, and you're getting all the easy section of Scripture. What's going on here? It just takes care of all that, because they all agree this is a fair division of the land. No matter what part of the land that we get, it's going to be beneficial, and we're going to know that there's no qualms about that.

So that leads us to our next question. I'll let you guys talk, because I've already messed up. Joshua 13 and verse 1 says that very much of the land remains to be possessed.

Why did God leave some of the land unconquered, and what lessons can we learn from this? All right, we got a couple, oh, we got three answers. Phil, I think you're going to be first.

Phil Story

I think in God's relationship to His people, He realizes how weak and afraid they are.

Even though they've had victories, they still struggle with their faith, and God wants to teach them faith is a growth process, not an instantaneous point in time. Okay, all right. So sort of giving them a chance to regroup a little bit, get to build their faith back up before they go conquer the rest of the land.

Emory Van Cleef

Building on what Phil said is it's growth, so that there's continual exercising or, you know, recommitting yourselves. Okay, we're going to conquer the land. We're not going to be at rest and then become, you know, relaxed and not always be after God's what He told us to do.

Dwayne Gandy

Okay, so even in this, maybe this little bit of moment of respite, He's reminding them what they have done, and here's the work left to do. So I think that's an important part. When you get to a point where there's sort of a phase one is done, it's good to regroup and talk about phase one, what we've been able to accomplish so far, but then to turn our attention to phase two, we're going to build on phase one with God's help.

Patrick Dooley

I was going to say, I think it's also, so it's not specific to one person. So, you know, Moses did this, Joshua was able to get to here, but then the next person is going to be responsible to bring it on. So it's kind of, it's bigger than just kind of what an individual can accomplish, just kind of reinforcing that each of these individuals, while doing great things, only did them because they were with God and God was with them.

And so Joshua was going to bring it to a point, but then it's going to have to be passed on to the next set of people to kind of finish the work and continue. All right, so it does show that no generation is, gets a free pass, right? You're going to have, Joshua's going to die. He's not going to have all this land divided up where you're going to conquer it.

Dwayne Gandy

You're going to have to keep doing it without Joshua, but you'll still have me. So no matter who, what leader I bring up, don't we see that all through the Bible? Are there going to be great leaders come after Joshua in the Old Testament? Yeah, there are going to be some bad ones. Yeah, but there's going to be some good ones who, when they serve God and are faithful to God, great things happen.

Tim Welsh

I was going to say that the generational perseverance that was just mentioned, as well as a faith and the trust in God's ability to do this. The truth is that on the practical application, I was saved when I was 13 years old.

And now that I'm advanced in years, I can tell you that it's a battle. It wasn't all solved when I was 13. And it continues on.

And that lesson is in here. It's never time to say, oh, I've arrived or I've stopped. So that perseverance is essential.

Israel had to keep pressing forward in faith, and so must I. I have to continue in the same way. That's the application for every one of us in this room.

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah, very good.

And we talked, those of us who were in the David class over here, we did talk about David killed the giant when he was younger, but later there are a group of giants that come because David, and David doesn't kill them. Other people kill them. And so we talked about sometimes as we get older, we have to make sure there's a younger generation to come up and do what God wants them to do, knowing that they're going to be fighting for God as well.

We have to be willing to give the reins up to the next generation sometimes. And that's sort of difficult for us to do.

Brian Messerli

Yeah, also Deuteronomy 7:22 says, the Lord your God will clear the way of these nations before you little by little.

You will not be able to put an end to them quickly for the wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. So there's just a practical thing where they can't manage it. They would overextend themselves.

And if they conquered the whole land, they wouldn't be able to put people in all of those areas to actually cultivate and keep the ground. And so it would just be overrun by wild beasts and it would just be terrible once they finally tried to move in. But this way, they leave people in the land.

The Canaanites are cultivating it for them. And then later when they go and take it, then everything's pre-made and ready for them. So maybe there's a lesson there in not overextending ourselves, recognizing our human limitations.

There's only so much we can do at a time for God, even if we may want to do everything.

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah, and in addition to that lesson is there's the idea that God is going to help do this. That God is so smart and so forward-thinking and there's no surprises to Him.

He figures out these things that we would never figure out on our own. Because you just say, hey, victory's yours. Go get it.

You might have all these very direct, egotistical men maybe that just, conquer, conquer and kill, conquer and kill, conquer and kill. And don't take the time to think, where's this going to leave us if we just keep doing this? God already took care of that for us. Brian read the passage there in Deuteronomy chapter 7. But look back at Exodus chapter 23.

Exodus chapter 23, you're going to have another passage that indicates something similar to this. This wasn't something that God just thought of at the spur of the moment, right? And He knew that He was only going to let them advance so far and take it over so, and have to pause because of this very thing. Exodus 23 and verse 29 says, “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive that out from before you until you have increased and you inherit the land.”

So not only would the wild beasts come in and overtake the property, they just, they're not big enough to have that much land yet. They would spread themselves too thin.

If you're trying to conquer all this like this, I mean, your younger ones have to grow up a little bit. You're going to have to have people to manage these cities, people to deal with all the, all the, how vulnerable are you if you go in and take the whole land at once but you don't have enough people to defend the land? You're going to be very vulnerable to people coming back and just taking that land back. God has everything thought of from the very beginning and I think that's another huge benefit to them being told ahead of time.

The plan is not going to be taking place in one year. The plan is going to be to take it little by little and this, these are the reasons why. One, if you take it too fast, the beasts are going to come in.

How, how long does it take your garden to over, become overgrown if you don't take care of it? About five minutes. Yeah, maybe a little longer, five minutes but yeah, what happens if you don't do anything to your garden for three or four years? How beneficial is that going to be? How much work is it? I have to start all over but as Brian pointed out, now these gardens are being kept up with by other people so that when they go and take the land, the land's been cultivated, it's been plowed up every year, the old stuff's gone into the ground to give the nutrients and now it's just all working and it's ready for you. It just shows God's goodness and His wisdom in doing this and letting Him know it and I think letting Him know ahead of time is huge here.

Just like Jesus did all the time. He told His apostles, this is what's going to happen so that when it does happen, you'll know I told you that and you'll know that I am who I say I am and you don't want to give people a big I told you so thing but sometimes they understand that they don't have to have this conversation, right? You don't have to, you tell your kids something, you do this, this is going to happen and then that happens good or bad. Hey, yeah, mom and dad told me that would happen.

That makes sense. I'm not surprised by that.

Joe Rimmer

You said something that reminded me of when I think you and Herb were teaching the grace class that there's so many things that we don't know how God operates.

We just don't and even if He explained, we wouldn't understand but there's some things through grace that He provides that information to us. Like you said ahead of time is wonderful that He would tell us or tell them particularly in this case how to do things. Yes, we're men, women, mankind and we're going to go mess up but He told us and that's the love and the grace that He shows us that He tells us ahead of time and He doesn't let us just stumble and say, you know, couldn't you guess that? You know, He tells us the things we need to know.

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah and even when we forget that He told us that, when it happens, we remember that He told us that and it just elevates Him again in our mind. Oh yeah, God did tell me that. Maybe I should listen to Him.

Maybe I should listen to Him next time when He tells me something. Another thing I think is important here. Is there some bit of tribal responsibility here? Because now each tribe is responsible for going out and clearing out their own land.

Sometimes they join forces with other tribes but if something is just handed to you on a silver platter and it's easy compared to if you have to put in some work for it and go out and clear it out, is there a difference in how you value that? I think there's a huge difference there. Now He's saying here's how we're going to divide a tribe. Your tribe needs to go finish the job.

All your brethren have helped you this far. Now you need to go finish the job in your territory. That's your land for the next multiple generations.

Make sure that you go take it. I think there's value in that as well. All right, Herb has something then we'll have to move on to our next point.

Herb Hinely

Is there also something going on here? They've been sojourners and wandering for 100 years, 300, 400 years, whatever. And now this is their first time as a people to have a land. They've got to go from wandering to farmers and to herders and to cattle ranchers or whatever.

Is that part of what's going on with God? He's letting them roll into this land one by one so they can understand the responsibilities and learn the skills they need in order to maintain it. Is that?

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah, there could be an element of that as well. And to go along with that, there's this case.

If you have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and you were a slave in Egypt, that's all you know. Your whole life is wandering. Anybody that's 40 years younger, that's all I know.

And then even if you were the ones that you're 60 and you spent 20 years of your life in Egypt and now you see houses and vineyards, what would be your tendency to do? That was mine. I made it. And you've got to fight that.

And I think God's fighting that as well. Don't just get complacent. You have more work to do.

They had experiences, herdsmen and that, gardening probably not. So they had to learn how to take care of these olive groves and these vineyards that they're inheriting that they didn't put work into.

Herb Hinely

And one more item on this, leaving the land unconquered, perhaps it's better for the people to see that it's through God's power.

They're the tools that God's using and He's using them and giving them His power to overcome. But it's not only one leader. It's not only Moses.

It's not only Joshua. It's not only Caleb. But it's different men and that way they're not, it's not, well, we don't have Moses anymore, Joshua.

So we can't do anything. Leader after leader comes along and it's still God is the common thing, not the person.

Dwayne Gandy

Yeah.

And so going into this particular category, now all these tribes are going to have to have their, develop their leadership to go into their tribes and conquer their land where Joshua's not doing it, being the leader for them. So it's this development category that takes place as well. All right.

There are a couple of things in several places in this text, and we'll get to this later, but in Joshua 13 in verse three, it says, “The children of Israel did not drive out all the inhabitants of their land.”

And then in verse 13, let's talk about the Levites for a second, just for a second, because it's going to come back later. Joshua 13, 13 owned to the tribe of Levi.

He had given no inheritance. The sacrifice of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance. As he said to them, verse 33, “But to the tribe of Levi, Moses had given no inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance as he has said to them.” And then in chapter 14 in verse four, we're going to have it again. “And they gave no part to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in with their common lands for their livestock and their property.”

Let's go ahead and go to question number three here. Question number three is Caleb's faith and request for Hebron stand out. It's in chapter 14, six through 15.

What does Caleb's example teach us about perseverance in faith and claiming God's promise? Who wants to just give me a brief summary of what took place? All right, Debbie, make it a one-minute summary of Caleb's response here. All right. Bonus points if it's less than a minute.

Debbie McCullum

Well, I said he claimed a 45-year-old promise and he received it because of his faith in God through Moses.

Dwayne Gandy

All right. Extra bonus points.

Back at the time when there were two spies, they said, we can take the land. One is Joshua.

He's leading him. The other is Caleb. Everybody else dies off.

And so Caleb now was told by Moses he's going to receive the promise. And so Caleb, when this is happening, he goes to Joshua. Hey, Joshua, remember me? You know, we were the two spies that had the good report.

Remember all those words that Moses gave to me on that particular occasion? And he starts explaining, I'm ready. How physically fit is he now? Are you as physically fit as you were 40 years ago? Can we all agree that that's probably not the case for most of us? So he's, I am though. I am ready.

And what part of the land does Caleb want?

Terry Petty – The mountain

Dwayne Gandy

Why? Who used to live there?

The giants.

All right. If you're going into a city where might makes right, power is the only thing that determines who dwells where.

Who's going to have the best land? The big guys, right? You know, the guys that say, hey, get out of here. You know, this is my table. You go sit over there with the other kids.

You know, I'm the big guy on campus here. And so that was where the giants would be. Caleb has all the courage in the world that says, you know what? I want the land the giants dwelt in.

Because all these other ten spies were saying, we can't take the giants. And I was saying, with God's help, we can take the giants. So that's the land that I want.

Does God give it to him? Yes. Let's just use the word deserve loosely. Does he deserve it? I think so, right? He was the one that had the courage and the faith to say, I can take giants with God's help.

Now that this promise is being fulfilled, who else would have claim to it? Who else could stand up and say, oh yeah, but my great granddad was one of the spies. And he said, we can't take it. Therefore, I didn't think I deserve to have it.

You just can't do it. He had the claim to that land and he goes in and gets it. So what do we, what can we learn from his faith on this particular occasion and his courage?

Tim Welsh

Many people will lose patience when waiting on God. And I think that when trials come your way, this story should encourage you to be patient. And the trials keep coming.

I'm in one right now. And the answer is still the same as it's always been. I have to be patient.

This is a season. This isn't forever. And you have to, you have to live your life that way.

This story kind of encourages you. This is an extreme example of that. And this can bring you that kind of encouragement.

Dwayne Gandy

Wait, one of the hardest things in the world to do, right? Wait on God to fulfill his promises to you. Be faithful while you wait. Have courage while you wait.

Don't give up on God. Whose timing is better? I've said this before, and an elder's wife at another church chastised me for this. I said, I don't like God's timing sometimes.

I'll just be honest with you. I don't like it. I want it on my time.

But what do I have to do? Wait. Remember the children of Israel, they didn't want to wait when they said you can't go in. They tried to make that attempt to go in for to no avail.

What would have happened if Caleb would have said, you know what, I'm going in 20 years early. Boom. He would have been squashed like a bug, right? He would have been, and this goes back to what we've been talking about.

Could Caleb take the land with no problem? With God's help, yes. The answer is absolutely. With God, can he do it? Yes.

By himself, can he do it? No. So a lot of this stuff that we're talking about right in this section of scripture that doesn't have a lot of interesting, cool stories maybe, is wait for God. With His help, you can do it.

Without His help, you cannot, even if you have to wait for 40 years. And even if you don't get to realize as much of that blessing as you want to realize, because if Joshua's getting old, what's happening to Caleb? He's getting old too. And so he does this for the next generation, to be that leader for the next.

Sometimes the blessings that we get in our life, closer to the end of our life, aren't really entitled to us. We get to enjoy them, but they're for the next generation, and we should be glad about that. That the other generation gets, the next generation gets to have blessings that we didn't get, because we waited for the Lord to help.

Series: N/A

Service: Praise and Preaching Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Hebrews 11:6 [I realize the rhyme in the title sounds a little corny, but 1) it’s only truly corny if you don’t realize it’s corny, so it’s actually not corny anymore because I realize it and 2) Even if it is, corny is memorable.  Hebrews was written to Christians who were suffering for their faith in Jesus, and this chapter is meant to inspire them by letting them know they’re not alone; men and women for centuries have suffered for their faith, and those who kept the faith were rewarded by God] - This was the sermon I intended to preach a couple weeks ago as a New Year’s lesson, but I got sick for 10 days, so even though it’s February now, I’m hitting the reset button and declaring this the official start to the New Year.  Typically, with a new year comes New Year’s resolutions, but most people find they don’t last, and I think that’s for two main reasons: 1) they’re often self powered, it’s all about my will power, my ability to buckle down and roll up my sleeves and after a while we just run out of steam.  2) They’re often self-motivated.  I want to lose weight so I can feel good about myself, I want to learn a new skill so I can have more self confidence, I want to grow my business so I can make more money.  And I’m not saying all New Year’s resolutions are like that, but many of them are, and so this year I want to challenge us instead to aim for more faith in 2025.  Because the more faith we have, the more God-powered our life will be where we’re trusting in His strength, not our own, and the more God-motivated our life will be so that whatever changes we make, it’ll all be to please Him.  This year, let’s develop more God-confidence, not self-confidence, so any resolutions we make will be by God’s power and for God’s pleasure.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God,” so this morning, I want to examine the text here in Hebrews 11 and see how faith gives us confidence in 3 crucial areas that’ll help us thrive in 2025.

1. Confident in God’s Existence

• Hebrews 11:6 - In order to please God, we must believe that He IS.  Interestingly, the proper name for God is Yahweh, which means, “I AM.”  In other words, His very name means, “God is.”  So faith means believing God is the eternal, self-existent, one true God who created all things.
• Hebrews 11:1 - Faith is the conviction of things not seen.  Some translations say “evidence or proof,” which sounds odd to our modern ears because if someone says, “Give me evidence God exists,” we wouldn’t use our faith as the evidence because that’s subjective.  Instead, we’d say, “Here’s all the evidence, and this is what my faith is based on.”  But for the Hebrew writer, he’s emphasizing the absolute CERTAINTY of our faith, that a Christian’s faith is SO strong it IS the proof of God’s existence to us.  In our modern day, we draw the distinction between knowing something for sure and having faith, but he doesn’t see it that way.  He sees faith AS knowing.
  • And of course that doesn’t mean it’s a blind faith, or that it’s totally subjective.     
  • Hebrews 11:3 - Even though we weren’t there at the beginning of creation, we can look around at all that’s been made and know there must have been a maker!
    • Hebrews 3:4 - If you’re driving with your kids through a neighborhood and you ask them, “Do you think someone built these houses or do you think they formed themselves over millions of years?”  They’re going to say, “They were built by someone,” even though they didn’t witness the houses being built and the designer is invisible to them.  Because even a child understands the difference between things that are formed naturally and things that are designed.  If you showed them a picture of this mountainside, they could accept that it was formed by natural processes over time.  But if you showed them this mountainside, they’d immediately say, “Now THAT was designed!”
      • In his book the Blind Watchmaker, the famous atheist Richard Dawkins gave this definition of biology.  “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose, but were not.”  He denies the existence of a builder, but he can’t deny things appear to have been built.  And interestingly, we don’t do that with any other area of life; when something appears built, the most logical conclusion is that there’s a builder, yet we throw that principle out the window when it comes to the Universe.  Which is astounding because the universe shows us things that appear built in a such a complex and mind-boggling way than even “fully evolved” humans can’t replicate this level of construction.
• Once a month I meet with our elementary students to talk about evidences for God’s existence, and we recently learned about bacterial flagellum.  We all have ecoli bacteria in our intestines, and we can’t see any of this with the naked eye, so it’s one of those unseen, invisible things Hebrews mentions.  But with modern technology, we’ve used electron microscopes to see that bacteria have a propulsion system called a flagellum.  It’s basically a motor with 40 separate parts that all work together in concert to propel the bacteria.  It spins anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 rpms in some systems, which is FAR beyond the capabilities of any modern man-made engines.  It can stop in one quarter of a turn, and immediately change directions, which is a marvel to scientists who struggle to understand how something like that is possible, and scientists explain the function of these motors using mechanical terms like bushings, rotor, stater, universal joint, drive shaft, particle counters, rate meters, gear boxes, and propellers.
  • I watched a TED talk by a scientist named Drew Berry and who studies what he calls the molecular machines in our bodies.  And he said these molecular machines are smaller than the wavelength of light so we have no way of seeing them.  But it inspired Dr. Berry to use computer animation to try to depict the molecular world inside of us.  And one of the clips was of the process of how DNA is constantly copied inside the body, and he said there are billions of these replicating machines performing these functions all day long in our bodies.  Here’s a clip of kinesin proteins, which is basically a cargo transport system inside of us, the logistics of which are vastly more complex than any modern package delivery system like UPS or Fedex.
    • And what I thought was so interesting is that every time he would show a clip, the audience would clap, but they were clapping for HIM, because it was a huge accomplishment just for him to design and create the computer animation to give us a picture of what’s going on inside our bodies.  And I’m fine with applauding him for that, I think it’s great that he made these so we can have some idea of what these unseen processes look like, but what the audience REALLY should be doing is applauding God, the one who created, not just the computer animation of the molecular machines, but who actually created the molecular machines themselves that are more complex than anything we’ve been able to replicate as humans.  Computer programmers know that kinesin proteins are operating based on code, but it’s so complex they have no idea how it works.  God is the one who deserves the applause!
• There are so many things in this world that are invisible to us because they’re too far away to see, in both directions.  Some things are so far we can’t see them with a microscope, and others are so far we can’t see them with a telescope.
  • There are so many things that are unseen to us, yet we know they exist because we see their effects in the world.  I can’t see wind, but I can see the trees blowing.  I can’t see love, but I can see it in every great story, I can’t see human consciousness, but we know it’s there because of our self-awareness, I can’t see gravity or oxygen or math or logic, but I know it’s there, I can’t see the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in my body, but I know it’s keeping me alive.  By the way, the earth is only 25,000 miles in circumference, so if you were to lay out all the blood vessels in your body end to end, it would stretch more than two times around the earth!  It amazes me that atheists scoff at Christians for having faith, when in reality it takes far MORE faith to think all this just happened by accident.
    • Romans 1:19-20 - We may not be able to see God or the spiritual realm, but Paul’s saying God has been seen clearly by His effects in the world!  We can see His invisible attributes in the brilliance of His creation!  And as icing on the cake, God also made Himself seen and effected the world in a dramatic and visible way by stepping into history in His dealings with Israel, and the existence of that nation can only be explained by their encounters with God, which we can also read about in the Bible, which God made sure was the most well preserved book in all of history, and then ultimately He sent Jesus who could say this…
      • John 14:8-9 - The unseen Father was seen in His Son.  If you want to thrive in 2025, be confident in God’s existence, and realize God has given us everything we need to be confident, even the blood of His Son on the cross.  When you have faith in the unseen realm, it puts everything that happens in the seen realm in proper perspective, because the seen realm is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.  So many resolutions are focused on the seen; but as Christians ours, by faith, should be focused on the unseen because we know with certainty that God is.
        • 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 [Paul was suffering greatly for his faith, but said this…]

2.  Confident in God’s Approval

• Hebrews 11:6 - The fact that it’s impossible to please God without faith means that with faith, it’s possible TO please God.
• Hebrews 11:2 - The phrase “men of old” just means the ancients, so it includes women too, and it says by faith they gained approval from God.  Other translations read that they were commended or that they obtained a good testimony, which means good things were written about them in Scripture.  This whole chapter is filled with the good testimony written about them because they pleased God and gained His approval!
  • Hebrews 11:5 - I just have to say, the idea that we can please God is one of the most astounding concepts in the world, and it can actually be a sensitive subject because another one of those invisible things in life we can’t see, but we all know is real, is that we all have a deep inner longing for the approval of our parents, especially our fathers.  And some people grow up with fathers who can never be pleased, and no matter what they do, it’s never good enough, and it crushes their heart.
    • The movie October Sky was based on a true story.  Homer Hickam was a young man in a coal mining town with a passion for becoming a rocket scientist, but throughout the film, his father is so hard on him because he thinks his dream is ridiculous and that he should be a coal miner like his old man.  Every time Homer achieved something in science, his father gave him the cold shoulder and it crushed his heart because he knew his Dad was embarrassed by him.  But Homer sticks with it and starts entering science fairs, and he became so well recognized for his achievements he was awarded with a scholarship to Virginia Tech, and was invited to meet with a representative from NASA.  And in the final scene of the movie, the whole town is gathered to watch Homer launch a rocket, and when he looks into the crowd, he sees his Dad there.  He invites his dad to be the one to push the launch button, they launch it together, and then his father slowly reaches up, puts his arm around his son, and gives him the look of pride and approval he had longed for his whole life.    
• This is what all of us long for, and if it’s true that sometimes earthly fathers are hard to please, how much harder should it be to please our Heavenly Father who is absolutely perfect, sinless, and holy?  It’s hard enough to feel like we’re living up to the expectations of our parents, but how in the world are we supposed to live up to God’s expectations?
  • Well, the Bible tells us there are only two ways to please God.
    • 1) Moral perfection.
      • If we want to please God using this method, we must never sin.  We must never say, do, or THINK anything wrong at any point in our life.  In the Bible, this is called righteousness according to law, and the only way to achieve it is to never break any of God’s laws ever.
        • And truthfully that’s what God deserves.  He should have every right to expect moral perfection from us, He is worthy of that kind of obedience.  But the reality is, none of us have lived up to that standard.  None of us are pleasing to God or have God’s approval based on moral perfection or righteousness according to law.   
        • Romans 3:23 - And sadly, some Christians try to use this failed method to gain God’s approval, and either they’re miserable because they constantly feel like nothing they ever do is good enough to please God.  Or they’re prideful like the Pharisees and think, “I’m not perfect, but I’m better than others because I keep more laws than most.”
          • No, there’s only ever been one person who pleased God with His moral perfection, and that was God’s Son Jesus.
          • John 8:29 - None of us can say this, and God knew that, so in His grace He gave us the gift of another method to gain His approval.
      • 2) Faith
        • Instead of demanding moral perfection of us, He simply asks for our trust. Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty we owed God for our lawbreaking, and He also fulfilled the requirement of righteousness according to law on our behalf by living a morally perfect life, and now because of it, we don’t have to in order to please God.  Jesus made pleasing God actually possible for us.
          • “Faith is living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” - Martin Luther
            • We can’t stake our life on our law-keeping ability, that’s for sure.  But we can stake our life a thousand times on God’s grace and know because of it, we can be pleasing to God by faith.  One writer observed that the problem with Adam and Eve in the Garden wasn’t just a lack of moral perfection, but a lack of faith in God.  They didn’t trust Him.  And so God’s solution was to send Jesus to handle the moral perfection part that we could not, and then leave us with the part we CAN handle which is to let Jesus’ sacrifice restore our faith and trust in God once again.  Now, of course our faith has to be active because real trust must be demonstrated.  Faith without demonstration is fake!
            • James 2:18 - Imagine someone wants to do one of those trust falls with you, and they ask, “Do you trust me?”  And you say, “Oh yea of course I trust you.”  But when they say, “Okay, fall back,” you go, “Nuh uh.”  That’s fake trust.  It’s not real trust unless you’re willing to put yourself in a position where you have to trust them.  And the same is true with God.  That’s what pleases God most, is when we’re willing to follow His ways and step out in faith that He’ll catch us and take care of us, even when we can’t always see where the path is leading.  Which is why Hebrews 11 is filled with action words!
              • v. 4 - Abel offered a sacrifice.  v. 7 - Noah built an ark.  v. 8 - Abraham obeyed and went out.  Etc. None of the men and women in this list were morally perfect, but they were willing to say, “I trust God and I’m going to spend my life demonstrating my trust in Him.”  That is what pleases God.
        • So Jesus shares with us an October Sky-like ending we can all experience if we live by faith in God.  In the Parable of the Talents, the master leaves his servant in charge of his funds, and while he wasn’t morally perfect, he was faithful and did his best with what he had, and so…
          • • • Matthew 25:21 - One of the best ways to thrive this year is to know your Heavenly Father is proud of you and pleased with you for your faith, and for resolving to grow even more in faith this year.
                • Psalm 149:4

3.  Confident in God’s Promises

• Hebrews 11:6 - Faith means trusting God rewards the faithful.  And honestly, it’s rewarding enough just to know we can please God and have His approval, but God goes above and beyond and gives us what Peter will later call, “precious and magnificent promises.”  And Hebrews 11 is a list of people who were rewarded by the promises of God.
  • Hebrews 11:33 - There are 7,487 promises in the Bible!  There are about 31,000 verses in the Bible, which means 1 quarter of the Bible is just promises God makes to mankind.  It would take us the rest of our lives to go through them all, so let me just break them into three basic categories.
    • A) Healing from the past.
      • Hebrews 11:21 - Jacob a born deceiver.  He spent a great deal of his life conniving and stealing the blessings of God by his own cleverness, yet over time God broke Jacob down and taught him how to prevail by God’s strength, and by the end of his life, he had left his deceiving past behind and found forgiveness and healing by faith in God.
      • Hebrews 11:31 - When we first met Rahab, she was a prostitute, but when she came to know the God of Israel, by faith in God’s promises she left that life behind.
    • B) Help in the present
      • Hebrews 11:33 - When it says, “Shut the mouths of lions,” one of the people this refers to was Daniel, who was thrown into a den of lions, yet God helped him and kept him safe.
      • The truth is, everyone in Hebrews 11 endured incredible amounts of suffering.  They were hated, mocked, persecuted, and many of them even KILLED for their faith.
        • Hebrews 11:36-38 - Yet the truth is, God was with them the whole time because He promises no matter what we’re going through…
          • Hebrews 13:5-6 - God promises to be there with us through every fear and every pain and every trial, and what’s more, He promises us…
    • C) Hope for the future
      • Hebrews 11:35 - These men and women were willing to be killed because they had so much faith in the future resurrection!
      • Hebrews 11:1 - “Assurance of things hoped for!”  The substance of things not seen.  It’s as if the future is so clear and certain, it’s substantive and real.
      • Hebrews 11:7 - Noah spent 120 years building a massive ark because he believed God would save Him from the future flood.
        • Hebrews 11:9-10, 13 - The point is, they didn’t receive ALL of God’s promises in this present life, but they were living by faith in His future promises of a Heavenly city, and that’s what gave them the hope to keep going when all hope seemed lost.
          • Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward is to finally see what you believe.”
          • One way to define faith is trusting in God so much it’s as if you’ve seen the future.  We saw that back in 11:13, “Welcomed them from a distance.”  If you’ve ever seen a movie or read a book where the main character sees the future, it makes them act differently than everyone else around them, and other people think they’re crazy!  If they know it’s going to rain, they bring an umbrella when no one else has one, or they build an ark like Noah, and people say, “What a weirdo, why do you have an umbrella and why are you building an ark?”  If they’ve seen that the president’s going to be assassinated, they’re calling the authorities and trying to warn them, but the authorities don’t believe them and they think it’s just some lunatic, then when the president gets shot, everyone realizes he was right!  When it starts raining, everyone realizes they were right!That’s what it’s like to be Christians.  We have insider information by the promises of God, we have SO much faith in the future hope of Heaven, we act different from the rest of the world!  We’re not filled with worry and anxiety, we obey God and live counter-culturally even when His way is kind of weird compared to the way everyone else lives, and even in death, we’re not overcome with panic or despair, because we have so much God-confidence that He’ll fulfill everyone of His promises.  And if the world looks at us like we’re crazy, and even hates us for it and persecutes us, then we can know we’re not alone because we’re joining the list of the ancients in Hebrews 11 who pleased God by faith and who became inheritors of His promises.
• One final quote I saw the other day:  “Faith and fear both demand we believe in something we cannot see.  The choice is ours.”  The future is another one of those invisible things we cannot see.  We have no idea what’s going to happen for the rest of 2025, and we can either let fear of the unseen future paralyze us, or faith in the unseen God propel us forward in confident hope that God exists, that He can be pleased, and that He’ll take care of us like He promised.  If we can start off the year with a firm commitment to increase our faith, we will thrive in 2025, no matter what comes our way.

Series: N/A

Service: Lord’s Supper Service

Type: Lord's Supper Talk

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Pilate Gave Sentence

If you'd like to follow along, turn to Luke 23, where we will begin our focus on Jesus during this time of reflection. As we participate in this memorial, we remember His sacrifice and what it means for us today.

Luke 23:23-25 says:

"But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will."

This passage is a powerful reminder of the miscarriage of justice that took place when Jesus was condemned. Pilate, though hesitant, ultimately gave in to the demands of the crowd. This was not how justice was supposed to work.

In our modern legal system, particularly in the United States, there are safeguards designed to protect the accused. For example:

• If accused of a federal felony, the Fifth Amendment requires a grand jury indictment before trial.

• Law enforcement must gather sufficient evidence before prosecution.

• A jury must deliberate and reach a fair verdict before sentencing.

These steps exist to prevent wrongful convictions. However, in Jesus' case, there was no such protection. Pilate himself was supposed to serve as a safeguard, but he failed.

John 18:28-40 provides a more detailed account of Jesus' trial before Pilate:

• Pilate asks, "What accusation do you bring against this man?" (v. 29)

• The Jewish leaders respond, "If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you." (v. 30)

• Pilate investigates and finds no fault in Jesus (v. 38).

Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. In fact, he made multiple attempts to release Him:

1. He sent Jesus to Herod, who also found no guilt in Him (Luke 23:6-12).

2. He proposed releasing Him as part of the Passover custom (John 18:39).

3. He had Jesus scourged, hoping it would satisfy the crowd (John 19:1-4).

Yet, the religious leaders and the crowd demanded crucifixion. Pilate, though reluctant, ultimately succumbed to their pressure.

Imagine if our courts functioned this way today:

• A jury declares a man not guilty.

• The prosecution demands a different verdict.

• The judge overrules the jury and sentences the innocent man to death.

That is exactly what happened to Jesus. Luke 23:23-25 records that Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent yet still sentenced Him to death.

While the injustice of Jesus' trial is undeniable, we recognize that His death served a greater purpose. Jesus was not just an innocent man wrongfully executed; He was the sinless Son of God who bore the punishment for our sins.

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." — 2 Corinthians 5:21

When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we remember that:

• Jesus took our place.

• His death paid for our sins.

• His resurrection gives us hope.

On Judgment Day, there will be no false accusations against those covered by the blood of Christ. Satan cannot bring charges against us because we have already been pardoned. We have been declared not guilty—not by Pilate, but by God Himself.

Let us reflect on the innocent One who paid for our guilty verdict and give thanks for the grace that has set us free.

Series: Joshua and Judges

Service: Sun Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Series: Lord's Supper Talk

Service: Lord’s Supper Service

Type: Lord's Supper Talk

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Luke 12:13-14 [This morning, I want us to think about how the Lord’s Supper is a re-centering meal because sometimes the difficulties and distractions of life can knock us off center and skew our priorities so we forget what’s most important.  The Lord’s Supper reminds us every week of what truly matters most, and it can kind of smack us in love and snap us out of our focus on, not just the wrong things, but also the less important things.  And I’d like us to look at a couple sections in Luke 12 because it shows us how re-centering it is to be in the presence of Jesus.] - His question to Jesus is SO absurd and would be funny if it weren’t such a sad reflection of his heart.  Just imagine if you had the opportunity to meet Jesus in person, the Creator of the Universe in the flesh, what would be the most pressing issue in your life that you would ask Him to help you with?

For this man, standing in the presence of God Himself, his most pressing issue is for Jesus to settle a petty sibling dispute about money.  Now, what’s interesting is he’s asking Jesus to be their mediator.  He’s saying, “We’ve got a problem in our relationship and my brother is hoarding all the land and money to himself and I need you to step in and do something about this.”  And of course, that’s ironic because Jesus WAS appointed by God to be our mediator.   

But Jesus is trying to get them to see, this is NOT the problem He came to mediate because there’s a much more serious and pressing problem that needs mediation than our concerns about money.  1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, and that’s the man Christ Jesus.”  This guy wants Jesus to be the mediator between man and man, he wants Him to fix his temporal relationships and the problems that seem most pressing to MAN.  Yet Jesus came to be the mediator between GOD and man, to fix our eternal relationship with Him, and to fix the problems that are most pressing to GOD.

It’s hard to think of a perfect analogy, but imagine this illustration.  Let’s say your marriage is in absolute shambles and you’re on the brink of divorce but you know that’s not what God wants and so you agree, “We have to go see a marriage counselor,” and so you get to the counselor’s office and the counselor asks you to describe the problems you’re having, and you say, “Look, I’ve just really been frustrated because my favorite football team keeps losing.  What do you think would be the best strategy for the coach to turn things around this season?”

The counselor would be stunned at the question because 1) that’s not what a marriage counselor is there for, it’s not their job to give their opinion about sports and 2) that’s not important!  There’s a much more pressing issue — you’re marriage and life are crumbling all around you, and all you can think about is sports?

Likewise, Jesus came to be our mediator and the marriage counselor between us and God because our relationship was in shambles because of our sin, yet when Jesus comes, this guy in Luke 12 says, “Hey, how do you think I can get this money from my brother?”  Not only is that NOT Jesus’ job, this guy is completely missing the real problem in his life, and it’s not that he doesn’t have money, it’s that he doesn’t have God.  So Jesus tells this brilliant parable to try to re-center this man on what matters most.

Luke 12:15-21 - The man in this parable had all the money he could ever want, yet in the end he found out it how unimportant it all was.  Yet he made money the center of his life, the central pursuit and goal, and was able to use that money to have extravagant meals, to eat, drink, and be merry.  Yet ultimately his merriment was based on an shaky foundation because money is temporary and you can take any of it with you when you die, so when it was all over there were no more meals and there was no more joy because He did not make God the center of His life.  It reminds me of Ecclesiastes 2:25, “For who can eat or have enjoyment without God?”  From my earlier analogy, it would be like if the husband’s football team started winning every game and even won the Super Bowl, it would give him some enjoyment yes, but it would be meaningless if he ended up divorced and lost his wife and kids.  What does football matter in the end when you’re left with nothing?  Likewise, what does money matter in the end if we lose our soul?

And herein lies the beauty of the Lord’s Supper.  When we eat this meal every week, we can have true enjoyment, we CAN eat, drink, and be merry at this meal because this meal is a reminder that we’ve been made right with God and our relationship has been healed through our Mediator Jesus Christ.  It re-centers us by reminding us Jesus died to store up treasures for us in Heaven, the only treasures that ultimately matter in the end.  And as we’re partaking of the Lord’s Supper, we ARE in the presence of Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of our souls, and it’s helpful to ask ourselves, “What have I been thinking about and worrying about all week as the most pressing, most important thing in the world?  What am I thinking as I actually partake of the Lord’s Supper?  Is it money?  Is it sports?  Is it school?  Is it work?”  It’s not that those things don’t matter at all, but the Lord’s Supper reminds us they should not consume all of our thoughts, because the most important thing is our relationship with God and setting our minds on His interests over our own.

And here’s the second half I want us to consider.  When we know our relationship with God is right in Christ, it sets us free from worry and anxiety over the less important things in life, like money, and food and clothing and health and all of our other temporary problems.  It’s why Jesus follows up with this section…

Luke 12:22-34 - This section reads almost the same as Matthew’s version, until you get to v. 32 where Luke gives us an added detail we don’t find in Matthew.  Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus telling us to seek God’s kingdom first, to make God’s kingdom the central focus of our life.  But Luke adds this really powerful point in v. 32 that God loves us so much He has gladly given us the kingdom.  I understand this passage isn’t about the Lord’s Supper, but isn’t the Lord’s Supper a weekly reminder of the truth in this verse?  God loves us so much He gladly invited us into His eternal Heavenly kingdom even though it cost Him the blood of His Son.  The Lord’s Supper reminds us what it cost God to give us this kingdom, which again re-centers us on what’s most important.  Notice, He doesn’t say, God has chosen to gladly give you more money.  No, He’s chosen to give us something far more important than money or any other temporal concern, and that is a right relationship with Him and an exalted position in His kingdom that never ends!

That sets us free from worry about the lesser concerns because if God was willing to give us the kingdom even though it cost Him His Son, how much more willing will God be to meet our lesser, basic earthly needs like food, clothing, and shelter?  In fact, Luke adds another verse we don’t see in Matthew, and that’s in v. 33.  And if you think about it, the Lord’s Supper not only helps us not to worry about making more money and getting more earthly stuff, it re-centers us on Jesus who gave UP His money and all of His earthly stuff to save us and gladly give us the kingdom, which then inspires us to start thinking, not about how much more we can get like the guy earlier in Luke 12, but how much more we can give like Jesus.

When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we’re in the presence of Jesus and that should have a tremendous re-centering effect on our hearts and minds.  It’s hard to think about making more money when we’re eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus who died without any.  It’s hard to think about earthly concerns when Jesus’ only earthly concern was our salvation.  It’s hard to be filled with worry and anxiety about our life, when Jesus gave His life to give us an eternal kingdom.  So I don’t know what’s been on our minds this week, maybe the concerns of this world have been eating away at us.  If so, let’s allow this time with our Lord to re-center us on what’s most important, and inspire us to make Jesus our heart’s true treasure, as we are His.