We’ve been considering Joshua.
He was leading Israel to take hold of their inheritance. The promised land. They miraculously crossed the Jordan, re-consecrated themselves.
Then unexpectedly, while Josh was considering how to take the city of Jericho, Joshua encountered the Lord and Joshua’s response was to worship. We can know how important worship is, we can have heard it many times, but we need to live it. We live in a world that is increasingly about experience. Don’t knock it. God is to be experienced! Xianity is not merely about knowledge and information.
So they had entered into the land this was a land to be conquered. A land of strongholds like Jericho and a land of blessing,
Two aspects of how we apply this – primarily we have a land to inherit in terms of our own personal experience of God and his provision. But also prophetically we also have a land to inherit together as a church in terms of our town, our neighbourhood.
- The battle belongs to the Lord – are you battling with things? It’s his battle.
- The importance of encountering the Lord in worship
- The importance of holiness – we stand on holy ground, we live holy lives by grace. We ask am I holy enough to worship. For Josh he worshipped and then he was told to take his shoes off.
- God can do remarkable things that are beyond our resources and experience. They had no city taking experience.
Then last time I looked at that episode where Jesus could do no mighty works because of unbelief. We also live in a culture of unbelief but we can actually change the spiritual atmosphere. Worship. Payer. Action. Homeless = taking the land, changing the culture.
Now I want to take a step back and look at Abraham. Joshua was taking the people into the promised land but the first promises about inheriting the land came to Abraham.
My inspiration comes from Facebook! Judy tagged me in it. It was a quote from the bible.
Hebrews 11:8
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God
Judy tagged me in this because she knew it was a verse of significance for me. When we were considering moving from where we lived in Croydon – this was the verse that I felt God spoke to me – a sense of setting out not knowing why and not knowing where we were going. So irresponsible! So we had friends moving to Cumbria who said there were great opportunities to build church and see God’s kingdom come and felt this seemed as likely as anything.
We moved to Cockermouth but didn’t really see why. Then we felt we should join Hope church. Felt God was saying it but not sure really. 6 months. But again it didn’t seem obvious why. A bit like Abraham’s journey. Set out went on a few sidetracks. But God was fulfilling his plan. But God was moving us into place like a piece of jigsaw. Now it seems obvious that it was in god’s plan.
Now this is what I saw when Judy brought this verse to my attention via Facebook
..called to go to a place that was his inheritance, even though he didn’t know where he was going.
The impact on me when I saw this recently was the word “inheritance”. – Workington is my inheritance, along with you. Not just this is where the Lord has called me to be (which was how I had seen it) But this is the promised land for me and Judy. This is the place god has called us to possess and to receive his provision. And the same is true for you as part of this church.
So this is very particular to me. But we all need to have that sense of calling, of purpose, of mission. I’ve shared my story. Others have different stories. Others like Emma have lived here all there life and have a sense of god’s call and purpose for them in our town. Nicola was all ready to move and then god spoke. David expectation that god is going to do something. All part of God’s jigsaw.
Mordecai to Queen Esther – the Jews were all to be killed and she has the opportunity to intervene and her uncle Mordecai says “who knows but that you were born for such a time as this?” Every one of us is an influencer. Everyone can make a difference. Everyone has a “such a time as this”
So do you feel that this is your inheritance? You are not here to make up the numbers.
We sing that song – “for our inheritance give us the lost.”
So what else does this verse say?
He was in the promised land but as a stranger. He belonged but didn’t belong. We live with that tension.
Our citizenship is first and foremost in heaven Philippians 3:20. In a sense he never belonged. God’s purpose is bigger than a piece of land or territory. Abraham was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder were God. Not an earthly city but a heavenly one.
Somehow he glimpsed something beyond a physical city. Like looking at the fells. You can’t see where one ends and another starts. Prophets sometimes seeing something that was to be fulfilled in their time right in front of them but also has multiple applications like looking at hills away into the distance.
Revelation 21 –
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them”
So we need to know our calling to possess the land, overcome strongholds, that this town is our inheritance but to know that ultimately there is something magnificent something that we can only glimpse. That everything we have and possess now is but a foretaste of the glory that is to come.