Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the significance of entering a new year with strength and courage, drawing from Joshua 1:7. He reflects on the challenges faced by Joshua as he leads a disgruntled people into the Promised Land, paralleling this with the current state of America and the need for a spiritual rebirth. Ravenhill warns against complacency and the dangers of unbelief, urging listeners to rely on God's promises and guidance as they navigate the uncertainties ahead. He encourages a deep commitment to God's word and the importance of obedience in overcoming obstacles. Ultimately, he calls for a new generation of leaders, like Joshua, to rise and guide their families and communities in faith.

This week I thought we'd think about some of the things ahead of us and take a word out of Joshua, the book of Joshua, the first chapter. A very well-known verse, verse 7. Only be thou strong and very courageous. I sometimes wonder why we make so much fuss about going into a new year, because every day is just as new as New Year's Day. It's, I suppose, the fact that we kind of think we're leaving a lot of old stuff behind us and starting out into new opportunities, but again, every day brings us new opportunities. It's a little different in America this year, isn't it, because we're not only stepping into a new year, we're stepping into a new century. And there's no question about it, there'll be an awful lot of emphasis, and rightly so, placed on the origin of this nation, its marvelous freedoms and how they were gotten and so forth and so on. I'm not too sure there'll be as much emphasis laid on how we lost them or how we're losing them, or how we've deteriorated. There are some things that are frightening without being scary, in the sense that you need somebody like Hitchcock to get ghosts flying all over the place and beating tin cans and scaring people to death. It seems to me that a great emphasis needs to be made by us and others on the fact that we need a new birth as a nation. If we don't have a new birth, we're going to die very soon, as I've told you more than once, that I do not believe that there is a nation in the world big enough to break America, not even Russia or China. America will not be killed. If she dies, it will be by suicide, it will be by her own hand. I say there are some things that are scaring. A friend reminded me of two of them. And you know that just in the past few weeks, that liberal, smart, young, I think he's the smartest governor in America, I mean, youngest governor in America, the governor of California, they passed legislation there that children of 12 years of age and under can be sent to the doctor from school to be checked for VD without the parents knowing and the school doesn't have to tell. That's a pretty disastrous thing, isn't it? In the Ohio schools, those who object to Christian schools, particularly to one school, those who opposed it said that children will be far better taken away from their parents than put in institutions of, wards of the state, rather than listen to all that stuff in Christian schools. Now this is not from Russia, it's in America, it's in a statement my friend here had let me read last night. And I say again that to me those things are terribly scary. It's suggested even that young children might be allowed to go and see, well let's put it in one word, get the pill even if they're under 14 years of age without their parents knowing. Well, this is about the best way you can pull a nation down, isn't it? We've legislated for evil in so many ways. And so I think this is very applicable, I think it is to me anyhow, only be thou, it's very personal, only be thou strong and be very courageous. Now I think this is one of the most challenging stories, you know, very often we hear people say, you know what I need, I need a change. Well I don't doubt that, but I think very often we, when we say we need a change, what we really need is a challenge. Somebody visited an old saint, I think it was Samuel Rutherford, he was on the, on what they call the Bath Rock in Scotland. It's a way out in the ocean, it's not very large. I doubt if it's any larger than this section of the house, it has a great power, and they imprisoned him there because he wouldn't bow to the system of the day. The state system of religion. And when a friend went to see him one day, he asked how he was. After all, it was a lousy prison, water running down the walls, it was cold, the wind howled round it, he had only a plank to lie on and a blanket. And they asked the old man, how are you? He said, things are not very good, I should think they're not. Oh no, he said, I don't, the prison doesn't bother me. The slime on the wall, he said, when you're not here they shine like rubies. Those stones shine like rubies when, he meant with the presence of God. And he said, the thing that troubles me, he's in prison now and he's old and frail and weak, and he said, the thing that troubles me is this. Since I came in here, God has presented me with no challenges. Isn't that something? You know, if he presents us with a challenge, we get upset. They were upset when they didn't get presented with challenges. God is not giving me any new revelation, giving me any new burden. Now here this young man, Joshua, is a very remarkable character. You've got problems, everybody has. Would you like his problem? It isn't possible to estimate how many people there were in the family of the children of Israel at this time. It's been said that there were only a million and some have stretched it and said there were five million there. Would you like to look after five million people? I'll tell you, I wouldn't for one. And particularly five million people like this, they were disappointed, dissatisfied, disgruntled, disobedient. You see, they had known much, a great deal indeed, of the blessing of God. And uh, and yet they did like everybody else, they forgot their blessings. We think sometimes, don't we, count your many blessings. Well it's not possible to count your blessings, is it? Name them one by one, we can't even name them dozen by dozen, never mind name them one by one. But, these people have been brought out of Egypt, which to me is a type of the world, and they've been delivered from Pharaoh who is a type of the devil. God had promised he would bring them out of that land into this land, which God said, as you remember, was a land flowing with milk and honey. They came to a bend in the road, a place called Kadesh Barnea. Well it wasn't Egypt, it wasn't a promised land, but they didn't have to get up in the morning with the crack of a whip. They didn't have to work with their shirts off until their backs were baked like the clay that they were handling. There was no fear of anybody round about, and so instead of being a stepping stone into the land, it was a stumbling block. Instead of being a gateway to the promised land, it became a goal. They settled down, they were satisfied. Well, not only that, but you see, let me find a scripture here. There's a scripture where it says that they asked the Lord. Let me have a minute, Joshua. Oh, numbers, number 14. In number 13, there had been that tremendous experience where those men went and spied out the promised land. Now, you think of the difficulties this man has. He's a fairly young man compared with the age of the day, and Joshua again has inherited what you might say a can of worms or a bundle of fishhooks. People who are disgruntled, dissatisfied, disappointed, distressed, disobedient. You can't say a good thing about them. That's their history behind. What is there ahead? He doesn't know. He's going into a land of promise. Just as like you and I are going into the new year. To me, only idiots go gazing into glass balls and trying to find out what the future says or read the horoscopes. I think that's a good name. I always divide it and say, horror what scope they've got. And they go to witches and spiritists trying to find out about the unknown tomorrow. Now, your year and my year, whether you're a miner or a millionaire, the future's uncharted. It's bad enough when you have to do it by yourself or with a family, but when you have a million or two or three million people behind you, all in a state of turmoil, restlessness, bitterness, striving not merely against their leader, but striving against God. And then a little later Joshua says that he's going into a land, he leaves a record, there are 31 kings ahead of him. And he's going to fight with every one of them. 31 kings. Kind of suggests to me that, like you've got 31 days in the month usually, you've got a king, you've got an adversary for every day in the month. Somebody has given them names, I don't think scripturally you can do it, but there's a king of the Amorites, king of the Hittites, king of the Perigrates, king of the Jebusites. All right, one is the king of pride, the other is the king of selfishness, the other is the king of laziness, the other is the king of covetousness. And one of them attacks you one day and another one attacks you another day. And I think sometimes we've kind of presented the spiritual life as easy street, where all you do is just get saved and then you kind of relax and everything's going to go easy from now until you get inside the Promised Land. When after all it was very difficult and very different. Well the spies went, you remember, and they came back with a bad report. Oh listen, we'd better quit. I mean the walls reached to heaven and the sons of Enoch are there, the dwarfs are six feet six and the big fellas are about eight feet, and we were like grasshoppers in their sight and they were like grasshoppers in our sight. And everybody was distressed. But you know God is a very just God. He gave them forty days to search that land. Forty is, as you know, a period of, a figure that suggests probation and testing. They had forty days. Do you know what punishment they got? They got a year's punishment for every day they failed God. They got forty years in the wilderness. God measured it out. He says you'll get a year for every day that you were disobedient, according to the revelation I gave you. So here they are, ahead of them, they have a country they don't know a thing about, except the promise of God, which they got confused about. The walls reached to heaven, the sons of Enoch were there, and there were thirty-one kings to fight, and they licked every one of them when they did what God wanted them to. They only failed when they got to a place where one man spoiled the whole thing. He got coveting gold and silver and beautiful clothes, and he stole a wedge of gold and hid it in the ground, and he took a Babylonish garment and so forth and so on. The holiness people make a lot out of that. You're not to love beautiful dresses. They don't say too much about loving gold. But anyhow, you're not supposed to love the gold and hide it away, or get lovely clothes. That's not the right thing, they say. But you see, it is a type of the land into which you and I go spiritually. If you come out of the world and the flesh and the devil, if you're a born-again Christian now, and you want God to lead you into the promised land, well, remember this, you're going to have some battles. Listen to these people, that after they heard the report, two men of course came up and said, listen, you don't know anything about them. You know, in essence they say, if God is for us, who can be against us? I wish I could digest that. I've been trying to do it for 50 years and it still sticks in my throat somehow. If God is for me, if everybody in the world and hell itself is against me, you're not going to bow me over. You see, if God is for you, it doesn't matter who's against you. And if God is against you, it doesn't matter who's for you. It doesn't mean everybody's going to pat you on the back. They may kick you a little lower down, but they're not going to pat you on the back, I'll assure you of that. Now it says that after they heard the report, they stayed up all night and cried and they wept. Do you know what they said? In the 14th of Numbers and chapter 2, it says all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt, would to God we died in this wilderness. Do you think God doesn't hear you when you grumble as well as when you praise him? What did they say? Why did we die in the wilderness? Well, you just jump down to verse 32 and see what the Lord says. But as for you, your carcasses shall fall this day in the wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredoms until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. Verse 34, after the number of days in which we search the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall we bear your iniquity even forty years. Now, that's the kind of folk that he inherited. They grumbled against God. Look at verse 4 of chapter 14 if your Bible's open there. They said one to another, let us make a captain and return to Egypt. Hmm? You'd say you're insane. That's like somebody who came out of Buchenwald or Dachau in the days of Hitler saying, well, I got to America and I didn't like the barbecue. Let me go back to Hitler. You'd say you're insane, you're mad. Is it less mad for them to say, well, let's make a captain. You see, it's very beautiful in this chapter, the first chapter of Joshua. It says, the Lord spake unto Joshua, if I could covet one thing for you, whether you're visitors to our class, and particularly to my own class, for 1976 it would be this, that if not every day, at least once a week, you can say, the Lord spake unto me. I believe that's the greatest arm of this side of eternity. Now, I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm over forty now, and you're not as ambitious when you get over forty. Excuse me. But when you get over forty, you're not quite as ambitious. A lot of my ambitions are withered, but you know, I'm still ambitious to hear the voice of God. The God that spake unto Moses spake unto Joshua. But wait a minute, be very careful you hear what he says. You remember in Exodus 14, the Lord said to Moses, take your rod and smite the rock. And he smote it. A bit later on, he says to him, speak to the rock. Well, I mean, God's not too particular, is he? After all, it says he took that rod, that marvellous rod that he had, and he smote the rock, and a fountain came out of it. He smote the waters and they parted. He smote the dust and lice, and lice came out of it. Well, you know what the Lord wants. I mean, after all, what do you think he gave me this for? This is my magic wand. Every time I touch anything. See, split rocks, divide seas, make lice come. This is what the Lord means. The Lord said to him, speak to the rock. He smote the rock. What happened? He got 40 years in jail. The Lord said, you're not going into the land. For what? Because I told you to speak to the rock. That's my way. You don't always do it your way. I heard pastors say, say, how did you get so-and-so to... Oh, listen, let me tell you. Wait a minute, get a bit of paper. Let me... Yeah, go on, tell me. And you got so-and-so to come, and so-and-so was the singer, and on the Tuesday night, you had the youth meeting, and the Wednesday night, the old folk, and Thursday night, somebody spoke in African violets, and Friday night, something... Oh, boy, I'm going to try that. I mean, if it doubled your congregation, I'm going to try it. And right away, we start adopting formulas. It must be done this way. It must not be done that way. It must be done God's way. If he says, speak to the rock, well, Lord, he's got no ears, has he? No, no, no, he's got no ears. As a matter of fact, neither had that valley full of dry bones that the man of God spoke to. And somebody said, it may be difficult to do the difficult, it takes a bit longer to do the impossible. And there are some things not too ridiculous, but when you say to a valley full of dry bones, you're going to get up and walk, well, everybody says, he's nuts, he's nuts. Speak to the rock? Well, everybody knows this is my symbol. I mean, I've divided the sea, I've struck the waters, I've struck the dust, and I do everything with this. And the Lord said, well, leave it alone and do something else. Speak to the rock. He didn't do it. All right, the difficulties against him, to me, were mountainous. The history of this people, why he had been with Moses in so many extreme situations, he'd seen them rebel against Moses, and I didn't discover, you discovered this before, I discovered this week, and in meditating on this, that God called Moses a prophet, and he called Joshua a servant. Well, Lord, can a servant do what a prophet can't do? Yes, sir, he can do ten times as much if he obeys God. Isn't the label, again, it's obedience that God loves, first hand obey, there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, there's no other way to succeed, except in the complete obedience to the known will of God. Caleb was the only partner that he had. Isn't it rather terrifying if you say even a million people came out of Egypt, but only two of them entered the promised land? Caleb and Joshua. Do you think that's the proportion of people on earth today that really entered into the land of rest and fullness and holiness? Two out of a million? It's not a very big percentage, is it, really? And yet Caleb says, when everybody's upset, he's still the crowd, and he told them, listen, don't you worry about it, we're well able to go up and possess the land. Now what does God say about this man Joshua? He's a very wonderful character. After all, the minority vote was right in the case of the men who went into the land. Some of them said, the majority said we can't take it, the minority said we can. The voice of the majority isn't always right. All they have to do is look at Washington and see who got in. But God has strange ways of training his men. I mean, after all, Joshua is no novice. He's not a rookie. He certainly is not elected by the crowd. They're not asked to vote on him at all. And I can imagine him saying, well, let me think of this a minute. I mean, after all, God wouldn't let Moses bring the children of Israel into the family. I'm going to take over the job. I'm going to be king of the tribe. The only thing, he must have had some turmoil. Well, of course, all the stories are told inside this book, either fortunately or unfortunately. But let me tell you this, that God's callings are God's enablings. If God calls you to a task, if he tells you to get on a boat and go up the Amazon and stay with some Indians till you die, go do it. One of the greatest men in the British Army, Royal Air Force in World War I, a man called Fenton Hall, stood six feet four in his stocking feet. He was the Babe Ruth of cricket. He was the champion tennis player. He was a boxer indeed. Fantastic guy. Smart officer in the British Army. Got a four-figure pension retirement fee when he came out of the army, which was colossal. He just endorsed it and threw it away to missions. And he went up the Amazon and lived three weeks. Isn't that a way? Brilliant man that could have stayed in the Church of England and become maybe the Archbishop of Canterbury or could have had some other distinguished position teaching others. And he went up the Amazon as far as a boat would take him. Then he rented a canoe and he got a fellow to paddle him up into a side river on the Orinoco and a branch off the Orinoco into nowhere and lived about three weeks. And people say it was ignorance. You know in the trees at the hollow there they accumulate water. Well the Indians go poison the water so the animals will drink and die. And he was gagging for water and he went and drank a water that was poison. And the only thing they knew is he had a little boy with him, a young boy, I don't know if he was very early teens, that led the fellow through the swamps and led him through the jungle and did some interpreting for him. And he was able to tell the little boy about the Lord Jesus. And that little guy was the only communication after Fenton Hall died. And yet he blazed the way. I suggest to you that part of the reason that our Paul is down in Paraguay this afternoon is because he stocked himself in the life of Fenton Hall. I still have that copy on my shelf. I wouldn't sell it for a hundred dollars. Probably for a thousand. And I'll sell you it and send the money to missions. But Paul used to read that. Oh I'm glad. I hope someday when we get our little nearly fed shack church down there I'd like to see a map there's a map of South America which actually is an Indian. And the tail of South America down at Tierra del Fuego there those are chains on the back of an Indian there he is staggering under a load of superstition and darkness and witchcraft. That was burned into my mind then as a little boy. We had another waterfall like Niagara but instead of water it was peopled by the million. And there was a dark chasm with a flame hell and millions are pouring into a lost eternity. What are you doing about it? Glad I wasn't raised in a church that had a softball team because the preachers had a soft head. Or some soft deacon. Glad I was raised on blood and sweat and tears and that. My only purpose in being in the world was to invest my life with Jesus Christ otherwise I told you I think the day I was born I can't remember my mind was very dazed at the time that the day I was born my mother laid a hand on me in bed and said make this boy an evangelist and don't let him live. That was a hazard. I'm glad I lived. I'm glad my mother lived to see me become an evangelist. But I'm saying that to say this again do in this year ahead since we're going into the most fateful year in American history. It's a new year it's a new century there's going to be a new president possibly there's corruption on every hand from A to Z it's already penetrating your children you'll need to be the smartest men and women on earth you godly fathers and mothers to cover those kids with the blood and pray them through the hell they're going to go through in school. When you talk about 12 year old having ED why do you think in the world they got it? When you talk about kids being allowed to go for pills 9 to 10 years of age and not revealing it to the parents what kind of a system are we in? We're up against tremendous difficulties and what we need is a Joshua in every home and a Joshua in every church and we could do with a few in the White House as well as God's house or at least one if we could get one. But you see the odds are so loaded against this man and I think that he must have felt well this is a big thing but I say to you and I say it on the authority of God's word though it isn't even in Proverbs it's my Proverbs but it's in that God's God's callings are God's enabling God's promises are God's provisions and I mean it when I say God would rather let a star fall out of heaven onto the earth and crush part of the earth than he'd fail to keep a promise if you keep the other side of the bargain and therefore we need to know the word of God. Now God called this man he says only be only the only thing you want only be strong and very courageous well then how do you find courage well listen to his word to him reading in that same verse Joshua 1 7 only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law that's the command this is the caution turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper with us wherever thou goest go down to verse 9 have not I commanded thee go down to verse 10 then Joshua commanded why because he could stand there and say listen I've obeyed everything God told me now you get up and go like I did after all example is greater than precept any time listen you're asking us to do a big thing go into this land God asked me to do a big thing and I turned it over in my mind and said the prophet Moses the man that God spoke to yeah God is love I know that but you know God doesn't like sloppy retarded children spiritually either if you miss God's will the first time he may give you a second chance but let me tell you something it'll be harder the second time than it was the first do you know why because when he called Moses up on the mount and he said to him you come up here and I will give thee tablets of stone and God gave him the stone he came down the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel the anger of Moses was kindled against Israel the anger of God was kindled against Moses the anger of Moses was kindled against Israel so coming down the hill he smashed the stones in anger that was something God gave him the first two stones I mean not just the second time when he went the Lord said you cut out two stones go and sweat and grind and you cut them out yourself and then I'll write on them again but I'm not making it easy the second time as I did the first you've got to eat this with bitter herbs you're going to be tried in this situation the Lord commanded Moses the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses but you see Moses had counseled this young man let me go back into the previous chapter as we finish the book of Deuteronomy there in the last chapter, verse 9 Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands upon him wouldn't that be something? I remember an old bearded man in England I was in a meeting, I don't think I was fourteen years of age and this old man was a wonderful saint of God and the church was almost empty and the old man came up behind me and then he walked in front of me he stopped me, I couldn't get down the aisle he wasn't stopped this way but he was very bored and he put his hands on my head and prayed for me that God would anoint me I've never forgotten it I can almost feel his fingers in my hair even to this day you see this man again is no rookie he isn't appointed by the crowd he's God's selection and usually God's selection is the very opposite of man's selection he's going to give them a man who's been tested and tried in the fire you know one of his great tests? the test of patience read the story for yourself when you get home without quoting all the scriptures but you remember when Moses went on the mount and he was there for forty days and forty nights who went up with him? Joshua what happened down in the valley? Aaron the priest what did he do? well he took the opinion of the people you know I think I think Moses died he was getting old I think he died let's start it, let's do it our way and they made a golden calf isn't it amazing that God did not censor Israel for making a golden calf? he censored them but not in the way I'm thinking of he didn't censor them for being naked because even after they made the golden calf they stripped and they danced around naked around that calf and they had a tremendous exhibition a sex orgy maybe and yet it wasn't because they made a golden calf it wasn't because they stripped in the nakedness and vileness that God punished them why did he punish them? he punished them, why didn't they enter the promised land? not because they made an image not because they served strange God not because they were naked not because they got married to other people he did not allow them to enter in because of unbelief that's the most crippling thing didn't God say concerning Israel I'll put no diseases upon them? and I say that they were a discredited, disappointed, dissatisfied, diseased people diseased with what? diseased with the greatest disease in the world, unbelief they entered not in because of unbelief it's too much, it's too big the enemies would scare you to death the walls are too high there are 31 kings we don't even have a trained army I mean the man that we've looked to so long Moses is dead this younger fellow Joshua I mean he's untried there's a hymn that says something about blind unbelief is sure to err and scam his work in vain God is his own interpreter there are times when God will speak to you and you can run from here to kingdom come if you like and you'll never find the answer till God himself gives it to you he's the interpreter of what he says there are times when you can interpret things generally or this happens because of that or God's going to do this or God's going to do there are times when God will speak into your heart like he did into the heart of Mary and I guarantee I would make a guess there haven't been 10 sermons on Mary carrying that secret in her heart in all the pulpits in America during Christmas a young pregnant woman that has to explain to her boyfriend that Nancy's going to marry why she is pregnant how is it all happening and so forth and so on she carried the secret you and I have to carry secrets in our hearts if we are going to follow the Lord and so Joshua is the man that the word of God says he was only be thou strong and of good courage in the 14th of Numbers again after these people have rebelled and cried and wept and said couldn't we have died in Egypt of course they did couldn't we die in the wilderness yes the Lord answered prayer on verse 34 there are only 32 verses because we are going to die in the wilderness and everybody else with you you know unbelief is one of the most contagious things there is around I think a terrible thing the people who were disobedient verse 4 said they said to one another let us make a captain and let us return to Egypt and Moses and Aaron fell on their faces verse 6 and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh which were of them that searched the land rent their clothes and a little later verse 10 of verse 9 it says that they rebelled against the Lord verse 10 says that all the congregation bade them stone them with stones who were these people let me remind you on verse 22 in the same chapter because all those men God says which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and they have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice could you think of a people like that isn't this a monument to their ingratitude these are the people who have seen all the miracles they saw bread come from heaven every day they saw water come out of a rock they looked at their shoes that didn't wear out they had every conceivable miracle and yet despite all those miracles that didn't happen once a week or once a year but they happened every day year in and year out and yet they pushed God out of the way and said we'll go our own way verse 30 says doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I swear unto you to make you dwell therein save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun Joshua and Caleb that reminded me of the scripture again that says if two of you shall agree as touching anything in my name after all there are only two of them the whole other million of them perish now what has God said let me rush through this here now in this first chapter again of Joshua in verse 1 notice the people Moses my servant is dead verse 2 now therefore arise go over this Jordan bow and all this people unto the land which I do give them that's the people this people verse 2 in verse 3 the place every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you as I said to Moses verse 5 the promise that there shall not any man be able to stand against thee all the days of thy life the presence as I was with Moses so I will be with thee the power I will not fail thee or forsake thee the person thee it's something addressed to him personally and then he says in verse 6 be strong and of a good courage front of this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them that's the possession only be thou strong and be very courageous now where is he going to feed he's not going to feed with a bunch of miserable backslidden defeated unexpected people and so he says down in verse 8 this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night now step back into the previous verse 7 I was with Moses my servant as Moses thy servant commanded thee turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper with us soever thou doest in other words what is this book what is this book well what do you do when you go into another part of America you get a good road map all right isn't this what just what the word of God there is a road map from the city of destruction to the city of God meditating day and night don't turn to the right hand don't turn to the left hand you see again it seems to me that just as it's easy of course to sit in judgment over a man like this but God has given him every promise I will not fail thee I will not forsake thee I will strengthen thee you get the same thing repeated in Isaiah 41 fear not thou worm Jacob God never flatters us does he he flattens us but he doesn't flatter us worm Jacob well he starts by saying in verse 8 of Isaiah 41 but now Israel out my Israel he changed his name from Jacob to Israel he changed his name now from Israel back down not to Jacob but he goes still he says fear not thou worm Jacob and here is the promise he gives him fear not for I am with thee be not dismayed I am thy God I will strengthen thee I will help thee I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness well this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth as I have reminded you so often how much of the book of God did they have how much did Joshua have to go on he just had the immediate history of Israel now you and I have the full revelation of God in the language of the hymn our firmest foundation the question is what more can he say than to you he hath said to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled I say to you it's almost scary to me that that God has nothing more to say to mankind he said all that he's going to say now you and I are going into an unknown uncharted and I'll make a guess a very unattractive year from many standpoints economically and so forth some of us with private domestic situations that are difficult what are we going to do just put our chins up as the world says well put your chin out and go forward that's not the way we do it isn't it amazing God says listen I want to whisper this in your ear for a moment I know you're standing now between the past with all it's terrible history rebellious people they broke the heart of Moses I remember the time when I said come here Moses I want to tell you something tomorrow I'm going to rub them out like you're rubbing something off the wall and I'll make a greater nation out of you and Moses said you don't do that I don't want that honor and he prayed for them now you're going to take over the same rebellious bunch you don't have the experience I haven't talked with you the same but I'm going to do the same thing for you as I say Moses wanted to take his rod and do the same thing here he'd done there and God said don't do it God says I'm going to call you and make you the man I want you to be and what did he do well he gave him the same experience was there a burning bush no no you know some people wish that bush was still burning they'd have built a church over it and it'd be a shrine it costed five dollars to go in and look at it God isn't interested that much in miracles to that extent the burning bush the voice Moses he might have said you see it was just about there where the bush was well of course there isn't a bush but that big rock there oh that's the place where he met me there's no burning bush for Joshua but the same God came the captain of the host came the same command was given take off thy shoes from off thy feet the place whereon thou standest is holy ground you see God doesn't have to repeat anything he's so full of originality there aren't two Moses in the book there aren't two Joshua's and I'll tell you what they have the same character they have the same strength they have the same obedience Joshua rises to be one of the towering figures it's amazing to me and only God knows the answer but he's not even mentioned with all his faith he's not mentioned in the great chapter of faith Hebrews 11 and yet he dares to do the most ridiculous thing and this is the hard thing if you're going to be one of God's saints he'll ask you somewhere along the line to do a thing that'll make your tummy turn over you won't think you've got butterflies in there you think you've got a couple of Sherman tanks fighting it out do this Lord you ask yes the Lord says yeah yeah you told me so many times in the secret place my Jesus I love thee all you can ask where the whole realm of nature mine he says well you don't know me give me that ten bucks you've got or you don't have so many years give me this thing and he'll demand something that is seemingly ridiculous and impossible he asks the thing of Moses he asks the thing of Joshua Joshua there's only one way to take this city you get a bunch of people and walk around it every day and sing to God be the glory great things he has done and they look over the wall and say ha those clowns are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think they are going round again they are going round again I don't think they are going round again I don't think round again they are going round again I don't think I don't think they are going I don't think they are going round again I don't think round again I don't think they are going they are going spot of rain might come through the roof but oh man the blessing and glory of God was there and I have heard preacher after preacher after preacher after preacher say you know it's never been the same since you entered a new building oh that's not true of us it won't be I guarantee you but because we don't have such a love I mean this isn't quite a shack but by the same token the Lord's gonna take us we're in his will okay but you know this is the great thing when somebody said to David Livingstone dying or that it is wise that it is children bitten with mosquitoes suffering with malaria couldn't get these supplies through couldn't get communications to the home base how do you keep your chin up well he said he gave me a promise the promise what was the promise the promise was I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and he said it's a promise of a gentleman with the truest character and the only thing that has kept me going is the fact he said my presence shall go with thee and I'll never leave thee nor forsake you know it's it it seems in a commercial world like this where in a minute one of those crazy typing machines will go over the sky or a jet will go through it and tomorrow morning somebody's worried about this that it seems that shall we put it in modern language it seems way out doesn't it to say that you might be praying in a room with a broken window or praying at your office desk or praying somewhere else and the very God who heard the cry of Elijah on Mount Carmel will hear your cry he doesn't delegate prayers to Gabriel even these days anybody else as I say the Lord says if you want to be strong and courageous feed yourself well feed yourself on God's word you remember that hymn that says take time to be holy speak off with Isla make friends of God's children then and it says a bit later and feed on his word I like that feed on his word I'm not much of a gourmet I've eaten all kinds of things some I wish I hadn't but I've eaten a lot of things here there and everywhere and they were very good we had a wonderful Christmas dinner I won't tell you where but it was great but you know I like to eat oh it doesn't worry me too much how much I eat I don't I don't think I eat too much except on days but I like to eat everybody does it's a God given appetite but you know there's nothing like feeding on God's word oh my you get hold of the word get your teeth into it and God says listen young fellow I want to tell you you look right back to Egypt you remember Moses he's a towering man sometimes I've thought I'd like a I like a monument him stick him in my garden about six feet high you know that one of Michelangelo's with his big long beard he's sitting sideways there oh he looks as strong as I could carry the whole world and you know we don't read the courage into those stories we've been taught about little Moses being in the bulrushes and doing this and that but you know what the only time you test a soldier as these men will tell you is when you're up with in the teeth of the enemy it's not when they're on dress parade and big shot comes and says you didn't polish that button because they don't polish them anymore now they'll all go crazy but in the old days he used to spit and polish and I've heard men saying when I was in the factory years back you remember so-and-so the sergeant used to come and say the back of your shoes you don't turn up tomorrow like that oh they walked the front they walked it back they checked every button you had but it was when they got in bloody trenches with the enemy at the head of you and the fellow next door who gets a bullet through his head and drops down dead you test men there and as you know it's true in the in the Christian life the test isn't in the meeting like this we enjoy it I hope but the test comes when I assimilate truth and it becomes part of my bloodstream God says to this man Moses get to the backside of the desert you're a brilliant man you're the greatest man in Egypt all right I'm gonna cool you down and then he says now go back go back where if he said take your wand and mark it over the city and let bugs fly or kill everybody in the city or kill all the young people and they'll bow at your feet it would have been one thing but the Lord said you go right back to the man you run away from Pharaoh hmm I never thought I've tried to think of it Moses walking over there to say Lord now I think I've got indigestion or something I'm not feeling so good could I put it in the Lord says you go right into that royal pallet why they could knock me down no no no no no my presence my presence my presence shall go with me wasn't it when Bruce the King of Scotland was hiding from the British and he was up in the hills amongst the heather and he was exhausted and so he shot into a hole a bit bigger than this taller than this but he went in and he knew the dragoons as they call them were coming up the hill he could see the scarlet coats and he hid in there and he kept peeping out and he could see them coming up and he heard the muttering one of them said look in that cave he must be there there's nowhere else to go up this hill he must be in there he must be in there soldiers panicking over there what do you mean he can't be in there there's a spider's web across the front he could have got him without breaking it one of the historians said a spider's web is stronger than a web of steel if God puts it there logic says it was a spider's web well the spider had just gone across once and back and that's all there was but it was safer than having a grill electrically operated the man says well he can't get in there he's too big a man to have got forget it you know there's an invisible mysterious presence of God my presence shall go with me right through 1976 how do you know it may not be a time of bereavement an accident on the other hand extreme success which is which can be just as dangerous I think so often of the old man in the Bible do you remember in the Old Testament who was he that said forget his name for the moment but he said give me neither poverty nor riches but feed me with food convenient for me he didn't want poverty because it had reproach he didn't want riches because he had responsibility he said Lord don't don't let me be with the poorest people and don't let me be keep me right in the middle of the road you know where it's nice and convenient give me neither poverty nor riches he might give you either he could give you one give the other give us neither leave us where we are but here's an uncharted road ahead of us well that's true and it's not true because the good book says he goeth before his sheep so on I go not knowing I would not if I might I'd rather walk in the dark with God than walk alone in the light I'd rather walk by faith with him and go along by sight Joshua and Joshua says it's alright read the end of the story read how I lick those 31 Kings read how I got these people into the land oh just for unbelief if there's anything that will embarrass me at the judgment seat I'm sure it will be amongst other things unbelief I haven't believed him as I should I haven't been a too much a man of reckless faith I haven't been daring as I should be daring in God but he says listen here's a promise the seven of them read the chapter to you so I'll never leave thee I'll not forsake thee I will be with thee my presence shall go with me well if his presence is here what what's missing you know the further God got out of churches the more splashing they put on the outhouse stained glass windows fancy altars choir boys with pretty skirts on and carry golden crosses and come hula line at one entrance and always coming from the east and go out in the West and do everything according to the you know the beautiful dignity you know that's happened that wonderful Baptist preacher said he knew a lady that got tired of the church she was in and somebody said you should go down the street now and they have a procession comes in the choir comes in holding a cross and and then they move across to this pulpit to read the scripture and they move over there to do something else and and oh it was wonderful and oh she'd never seen it and she kept staring at everything that was going on and folk and she sits there but it's all new you know and she she enjoyed the the litany the whole thing going out the pastor said to her well we're so glad to have you hope you enjoy oh she said I thought your lethargy was wonderful well there's maybe too much lethargy around God says to you to me he's the God who stood with Moses he's a God who stood with Joshua is a God who let his son be kicked around and then finally he triumphed in the resurrection he's the God who stood by a man called Paul that went through a thousand tribulations and you know he said he said I want to tell you just just before I go that I've had to grip my hands every day I grab my teeth and say Lord that's about as much as I can take and tomorrow you're gonna ease it up aren't you you know he says it's ridiculous it's sheer nonsense what he says you know he says he says we glory in tribulation in necessities and in reproaches and if you and I were honest about it we'd run away from every one of them if we can who wants tribulation who wants necessities who wants reproaches depends which way you're looking whether you're looking on the level of the natural all the time or the level of the spiritual you know actually the only reason you're you and I are in the world I said this before let me say it in quick the only reason you're around in the world is this is a dressing room for eternity this is a place where God is helping me to come to maturity in the spirit and what I am as the tree falls it lies as you die so you'll be for all eternity what there'd be no maturity I doubt it a maturity of knowledge yes you're here to develop your character there's gonna be let me let me name everybody you're gonna rule over five cities or ten cities make make it very clear read it read it read it in the revelation to him that overcometh to him that overcometh to him that overcometh it's a zigzag course the curtains down on 1976 a year of challenge to our nation if I could pray for one thing I wouldn't pray once for the recovery of the dollar make some people much worse than they are to get more money to drink and go to the devil go to hell if I'd one prayer my prayer would be Lord give America a rebirth give England a rebirth in 1976 and the God who made Israel the God who built Joshua into a towering leader the man of God who says you read that word and put your feet on it and stand on the promises oh man alive Joshua had what first five books of Moses in the book of Joshua and that's the end you and I have got how many 66 2,000 years of history church history fascinating in part dries a desert in others you don't have an excuse brother sister a full revelation of God maybe your mission field is a family raise them for God don't don't let one day go in 1976 without getting the family together and praying don't just dwell on the history of how some men escaped from England twice in 35 years and somebody crossed the Delaware well that's beautiful but remain remind us we've gone to the peak and five years ago if you go in any country in the world and lift your head and be the proudest man on earth as an American you can't do that in many countries today I I I'm not saying the CIA should be defended they've done a lot of cut-up work but I think it's pure nonsense to wash all your dirty linen in public and let Russia and all the other guys in that embassy listening and take the details down and blast back at us the whole time we've enough burdens without making more you see God is gonna I say this that I believe in five years from now if unless there's a drastic change the bargaining power in the world will not be oil the bargaining power in the world will be food and America has more than any other nation in the world and she can make every nation bow beneath but if God is upon her he can be the greatest agent for revival in these days and this is my prayer I'm not going to pray for your riches I pray God will bless you I'm gonna pray that again the people that come here and these folk from dear folk we have from Baton Rouge I never miss praying for them day by day that God will make your home a spiritual tower you make you father's Joshua's to lead your family into the fullness of blessing Moses couldn't do it he could get them out of Egypt he couldn't get them in the promised land that God will make you a spiritual Joshua to lead your family into the riches and the fullness of the blessing of God there's nothing great on earth