Dr.  Ronald Powell      

Reaching For Canaan - Part 1

Our Text: Joshua 1:1-9

Intro: 

We are engaged in warfare with a spiritual enemy who is far more powerful than we are, Eph. 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  

In our own strength, we cannot defeat our enemies! The good new is this: our enemies are nowhere near as powerful as our God. 1 John 4:4 b, "...because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."   

Thus, even in the midst of our battles, there is always hope for victory. Rom. 8:31, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. 8:37, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."  

In fact, the Bible tells us that we are the recipients of victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." While we are engaged in the battle with evil, there is the expectation that we can and will walk in victory in our lives. For me, this is what the book of Joshua represents.  

As this book opens Moses, the great leader of Israel has died and a new leader named Joshua has been appointed to lead the nation of Israel into Canaan. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel is about to take possession of the land God promised Abraham many centuries earlier. Gen. 12:7, "And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him."

This book is about the battles Israel faced in order to claim that promise from God. Joshua is a book about warfare, painful defeats, suffering and great victories. It is a book that has much to teach the modern Christian much about obtaining spiritual victory in our lives.   

We like to sing songs about Canaan Land and we seem to have the idea that Canaan Land refers to Heaven. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When we get to Heaven, there will be no more wars, there will be no more enemies, there will be no more suffering or death, there will be no more sin. All of these are present in the book of Joshua and are dealt with in its pages. No, Canaan Land is not Heaven.  

It is a picture of the victorious Christian that is available to every child of God, and every church today! It is a picture of victory in the midst of struggle.  

Today, I am beginning a series of sermons that will move us through the book of Joshua. As we journey through this powerful, special book I want to take the time to visit a few mountaintop vistas that we find along the way. I am entitling this series, The Dawning Of A New Day.  

My goal in preaching it is help you to stop wandering around in the wilderness and to enter into your Canaan Land of spiritual victory. It is my desire to help our church move past the pain and problems of the past into the peace and power of the Lord's rest. It is my prayer that, through the preaching of the Word of God, we will witness The Dawning Of A New Day in our lives as individuals and in our church.

 This first chapter serves as something of an introduction to the book. From these verses, I want to preach on the thought, Canaan Land Is Just In Sight. As I do, I would like for you to listen carefully to what the Lord has to say to Joshua concerning the land of Canaan and about how to claim it. These verses will help us to understand what it takes to go from wandering around in a wilderness of defeat to living in a land of victory. There are some truths here that we need to understand today as we look at the thought, Canaan Land Is Just In Sight.  

I. v. 1-9 GOD'S COMMAND

A. v. 1-4 A Call To Claim The Land - In these verses, Joshua is reminded that the Lord has already given the land of Canaan to the children of Israel. Moses, the man of God is dead, but the work of God goes on. Never think for a minute that god can't make it without you. Joshua is commanded to lead the people into Canaan to claim the land that they had been promised by the Lord.   

Ill. The land was given to them back in Gen. 12:7 and the promises were reaffirmed to every succeeding generation of the nation of Israel. The land was indeed their land! There was no need for them to continue wandering around in the wilderness. They had a land; all they had to do was claim it!  

Ill. I look around me and I see Christians who are defeated; who struggle with sins; and who for all intents and purposes are wandering around in a spiritual wilderness. It does not have to be that way! God has a place of victory and He has promised us that we can live in that place of peace and blessing. 

•       "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place," 2 Cor. 2:14.
•       "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," Rom. 8:37.
•       "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. 15:57. 

I believe with all my heart that God did not save you to see you defeated! Most of the time, we are defeated because we refuse to walk in victory! I believe there is a place of conquest for every child of God today that we can claim for our own and these next few verses tell us what we need to remember as we set out to claim our Canaan.  

By the way, the land God gave to Israel was about 300,000 square miles. They only claimed about 30,000 square miles of that. Of course, they were not limited to the 300,000. They were given as much as they were willing to claim, v. 3. The extent of their victory was only limited by their faith! The same is true with us! 

•       Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
•       1 John 5:14-15, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." 

B. v. 5-6, 9 A Call To Have Confidence In The Lord - Joshua is reminded of some very precious promises in these verses. Notice what God promised him:

1. v. 5 The promise of victory over every enemy.

2. v. 5 The promise of the presence and power of God.

3. v. 5 The promise of the faithfulness of God.

4. v. 6 The promise of absolute victory.

5. v. 6 The promise of God to keep His promises.  

What did Joshua have to do to make these things happen? Just one thing: Trust God! God was going to give Israel the victory. Joshua was merely the instrument that God had chosen to use to do it. These things were going to happen! For Joshua to be a part of it, all he had to do was have faith in God!  

Ill. May I remind you that the same promises God made to Joshua are in still valid for us today? You can still count on the Lord to do everything He promised Joshua He would do!  

1. He still gives victory over all our enemies - 1 John 5:4-5.

2. He is still ever-present, Heb. 13:5, and all-powerful - Matt. 28:18.

3. He is still faithful - Matt. 28:20.

4. He still gives absolute victory - 1 Cor. 15:57; Rev. 21:4, 27.

5. He still keeps His promises - Rom. 4:21.  

What do we have to do to see these things come to pass in our lives? Just one thing: Trust God! When we can learn to place our faith in God at all times in every situation, and then we will walk in victory in our lives. When everything else fails, faith will ever stand the test, Heb. 11:1 ! We will fail the Lord, but He will never fail the believer who has their faith in Him!  

C. v. 7-8 A Call To Carry Out The Law - The Lord tells Joshua that if he is to lead the people of God to rest in Canaan, then he must take heed to the Law of God. Remembering the Law is an essential step to entering our Canaan as well. Notice what the Lord to Joshua about the Law and how this applies to our lives today.  

1. v. 7 He was to keep the Law - He was to do everything the Law said to do, not turning from it the least little bit.  

2. v. 8 He was to meditate on the Law - Day and night, his mind was to be occupied with the Law. He was to love it and let it fill his heart and mind. This was in order that his life might be centered in the Law and therefore in the will of God!

3. v. 7, 8 He was to prosper by honoring the Law - God's promise to Joshua was that if he lived his life around the Law of God, God would prosper him in everything he did and that God would make him very successful.  

Ill. There is a lesson in this for us today. I thank the Lord that we are not under the Law today! I praise Him that we are under grace. Having said that, I would like to say that many in our day have concluded that since we are no longer under the Law, that they are free to do anything they please. I want to remind you that such an attitude is dangerous and is guaranteed to bring you to ruin! If you want to live in Christian victory today, you too must develop a love for the Word of God! Just as Joshua was commanded to honor the Law, we are commanded to honor the Book of God!

1. We are to feed on the Bible - 1 Pet. 2:2; Job 23:12.

2. We are to live by the Bible - Psa. 119:11; Psa. 1:1-3; Psa. 37:31; Psa. 119:97; Jer. 15:16. (Ill. Psa. 119:105)

3. We will be blessed when these things are true in our lives - Psa. 1:1-3!

Dear friends, do you have a time set aside each day when you go to the green pastures of the Word of God and feed therein? If not, your spiritual life will be weak and ineffective. If so, you are well on your way to claiming your Canaan and entering into your spiritual victory.  

D. v. 6a, 7a, 9a A Call To Courage In Leadership - In the midst of all these things the Lord calls Joshua to do, three times, God Himself, encourages Joshua to be "strong and courageous!" These words carry the idea of "standing firm and strong in the face of opposition." Joshua would need great courage to face the enemies of Israel and to lead the people to victory in the Promised Land. God's challenge to Joshua is for him to stand!  

Ill. There is just as great a need for people to stand for the Lord now as there was in the days Joshua! All around us, Christians are falling by the wayside. What we need is for God's children to be moved in the depths of their souls to stand up, renew their commitments to the Lord and say, "By God's help, I'll stand and not fall all the days of my life!"

We need people today who will take the lead in the churches and make their stand for the Lord. We need to remember the words of the Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 15:58. We need to stand, Eph. 6:10-17.  

It is high time that the church stopped serving as a doormat for the world and the devil. It is time we stood up and made our stand with the people of God and headed God's call to be brave and strong in these days, Rom. 13:11-14.  

We need men and women of courage, conviction and integrity.  

Ill. Are you standing for the Lord? Or, have you fallen out along the way?