Heroes of the Faith Pt. 5: Be Strong and Courageous

Joshua 1:6-9 NLT - 6 "Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and verycourageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command--be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

1. The Promise

• The promise rarely discloses the hardship we might face.

1Corinthians 13:9-12 ESV - 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

2. Don’t Deviate!

Romans 5:2-5 ESV - 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

• We catch ourselves outside of the will of God because we have failed to follow His instructions!

3. Do not be discouraged!

Joshua 1:9 This is my command--be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

• The repeated command emphasized that God was with him!

Isaiah 55:8 ESV - 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

2Corinthians 4:7-10 ESV - 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

• We will be persecuted but we will NOT be forsaken!