Prepare To Enter The Promised Land

Uh, today, this is what's going to happen. We're going to go into Joshua chapter 1. God is going to prepare you and I to enter into the promised land. And we're going there. You want to go to the promised land? Okay. There's two promised lands, right? Very similar to Joshua chapter 1. We have the promised land that is here on earth, right? We also have the eternal promised land. Uh, right now, we're going to look at the promised land that is here on earth. And then at the end, we're going to remember the eternal promised land of of heaven.

Uh, but regarding this eternal promised land, it's Joshua chapter 1. We're going to prepare to enter into it. I'll tell you how this, how this, how this message came about. Pastor Lane, uh, passed away May 27th, Friday. And, uh, I was very heavy-hearted. You know, Dom, uh, Stewart taught for me May 29th, Sunday morning. You saw me break down in front of you all three services. All right. I had a very hard time, as you know, and I'm sure many of you did too, who knew Pastor Lane, and it was difficult. Uh, I have never been to that depth of grief before, and God, I knew I needed God. I was not in a place. I couldn't even get my mind wrapped around anything. I didn't want to talk to people. I didn't want to see people. I was so blessed. The, the biggest blessings that came were the text messages and the emails that came in that said, "I'm praying for you. We love you." Let me tell you, I've never felt love like that before. And I want you to know I love you guys so much for that. Even for those of you who didn't actually send me a text because you don't have my number, the prayers that you guys sent up and the care and the unity. Awesome.

Uh, yesterday we had Pastor Lane's memorial service. Um, Lane is in heaven. We're not, right? So, any, I was very heavy-hearted. It came around to Monday morning after Pastor Lane passed away, and and I done, you know, I'm just done. Every time I was alone, I break down. And Jackie, my faithful wife, does her devotions every day, and she comes up to me. She says, "You know, I read this this morning. You need this." She goes, "God's telling me you need this." And she sat down. I couldn't read. You ever been there where you just can't even read? I was there. And, uh, and so we sat down on the couch, and she began to read this, read this chapter right here. And I went, "Wow, this is God. God is speaking to me. God is lifting me up out of this pit that I'm in." After 3 days or so, and and it was, it's, you know, I'm still kind of being raised. You know how grief goes, right? And God had showed me this. Here's the thing on Joshua chapter 1. This is where we're going. Opens up. Moses is dead. Um, Joshua, put on your big boy boots. You are going into the promised land. Moses didn't make it into the promised land. You're going. The people of Israel are going with you. Those who don't go with you, they're dead. You're going to see that at the end, don't worry. But, um, uh, but it is, this is, it's a very real passage. The application is it fits me and it fits this church like a glove. It was to Joshua and the Israelites back then. The application is for us today. So, you ready? We're going to prepare to enter the promised land.

Joshua 1, verse one. Look at this. "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying," Look at this. Verse two. "Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel." Let's stop here for a few minutes. We have four main points this morning. You ready? First one is this. We're reading about it right here. Number one, it is a new normal. What's the new normal? Verse two, "Moses, my servant, is dead." One author wrote, "There are days and then there are days that define the rest of your life. Some follow a predictable path like the middle aisle of a church on your wedding day. Others are unpredictable, life-changing. In a split second, life is changed. You will never be the same again. The bridge to the past is forever destroyed, and the future rushes in like a flood. It's a new day. It's a new normal." That's where the people of Israel were. Moses is dead. It's a new normal. That's where I found myself leading this church. In a split second, life forever changed. The bridge to the past is burned. The future rushing in like a flood. It's a new day. It's a new normal. This is the message to Joshua and Israel. But God had this planned from the beginning that Moses was going to die. He would take him home before the people of Israel, and Moses would enter the promised land. Wow. God had it planned. However, for Joshua and Israel, it wasn't what they had planned. They thought Moses was going with them. In Numbers 12:3 about Moses and his meekness, the Bible says there's nobody on earth that was like Moses. He was irreplaceable in that sense. You and I all have people in our lives that are irreplaceable. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children. Irreplaceable. And if you have lost them, you feel it and you know it. And you know for the rest of your life that person will never walk through that door again. You know for the rest of your life, yes, there are wonderful people, but that is a void. This is where Israel is. But here's the thing. God is not going to let Joshua nor the people of Israel wallow in sorrow over the departure of Moses.

Instead, what do we read? Number two, we read that God gives them a certain promise. "Joshua, I want you to look forward to where I'm taking you. This is where we are going, Joshua. We are going forward. We are going to go into the promised land. And Joshua, I know you ain't feeling it today. And I know, Joshua, you probably are not excited about it at all, but I'm going to show you where we are going." Verse two again. "Moses, my servant, is dead," says God. "Now therefore arise, put on your big boy boots, Joshua, get up, dry your tears. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel." Verse three. "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, who are the Hittites, enemies, and to the great sea, the great sea is the Mediterranean Sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." Wow. Up to Lebanon, out to the great river Euphrates, all the way to the west where the sun sets, of the, the, the Mediterranean Sea, the great sea. You're going to go through the wilderness, and and there's going to be the Hittites, the enemies, but Joshua, I'm giving you the land. It's going to be great. This is the promised land. Pastor Lane is gone. God has called him home. He's in heaven. We're not. And while he was on here, here on earth, so much of what he was working hard for, he did not get to see. Uh, I had a meeting with the, the pastors, uh, the Monday morning after Lane passed away. My wife had just given me this passage, uh, an hour or two before. I read it, and I said, "I've got to share this with the guys." And, um, we noticed some things as we're going through it. Pastor Lane didn't get to enter into the, the promised land of ministry and the things he was working on. Let, let me explain that to you. The, uh, outreaches of of TV and radio were really starting to go. And it wasn't just that. We were just getting ready to set in concrete a one, four, another 412 church plant with the possibility of two, and and that was exciting. We were so close. This is going to be great. I'll tell you this much. What the enemy means for evil, God means for good. The opportunities to support things in this valley from police to the down and out to clean up to whatever we're after, years of trying to make the breakthrough, um, finally starting to go. In fact, yesterday, if you were here at the memorial service, Pastor Lane's family was presented by the city of Santa, this fantastic award. Man, it was so cool for the work that we have begun because of his drive, that he would take my vision and make it work. He was the engine that pushed the things that would go out to the four corners of this earth, and they have gone out. Uh, we were very excited May 27th, Friday evening, he passed away. He went to heaven, right? Uh, we had talked about that Sunday, May 29th, and we were going to do this announcement, him and I. It was about a 15-minute announcement. The whole service was custom-designed to present some things to you guys that we knew were going to be the, one of the neatest things that you've ever seen. As we were looking at some of the fruit, and, uh, obviously that didn't happen. Pastor Lane went to heaven before we made it to that Sunday. He wanted to see it, and together we wanted to present these things to you and go, "Look at this." And so next week, we're going to do it next Sunday. Uh, Pastor Lane's not here, but I'm bringing my giant with me. And so that's going to be next Sunday, and you're going to love it. It's going to be fantastic. But one of the things Pastor Lane was working on, and and probably the most excited about, was this. You ready for this? This is crazy. Uh, this is, this book. Uh, it's my first book out, right? So here's what happened. It's called "American in the New World Order." Now, watch it. The title of the book, you see the title. I mean, the author is Thomas J. Hughes. That's my real name. On his channel, has me listed as Howard Hughes because the guy who owns his channel wanted to do that. But whatever. So, Pastor Lane had worked on this book and worked hard, and and, uh, Craig and I were getting ready to go record his channel May 26th, Thursday, the day before Lane passed away, just before we're going down to do his channel in Orange County. Um, he calls me into his office, and he says, "Hey, I want you to see this." He was really excited. He pulls up my book on Amazon. It just went online that morning. We left at 10:00 in the morning. Just went online that morning. He pulls up my book on Amazon, and and I see this in his office, and he's all excited. And then he does, he shows me this. Check this out. You guys ready for this? Can you see this right here? There's five stars, right? I'm going to tell you what this says. Some of you already figured it out. This is what it says. "Outstanding and compelling reality presented cover to cover. I can't see this without going like this. Uh, an extremely well-written, a must-read to know where we are headed." Pastor Lane wrote that. Here's what I think was so funny. It's Thursday morning, you've got to see the book. And he was so, he, he calls when he calls me in his office, he goes, "You've already got a five-star rating and comment." And, uh, and I look at, we, we had both read the book many times before it went to print, right? To make corrections and things, but that's how he was. The first delivery of the books didn't come till Saturday. And I was heartbroken because he, he, it was his baby. I just did this, and he went and did everything behind the scenes to make it happen. He was so excited, he never got to actually get a physical book. He got to put that on the internet, which is humorous, but, uh, in a very real sense, as the application applies here, he didn't get to enter into the promised land of any of those things.

Um, but for you and me, God says, "I'm going to take you there." Moses is dead. Joshua, rise up. You and the people are going to the promised land. I am going to expand the borders. And man, it is going to be awesome. You're going to go to the river Euphrates. You're going to go to the Mediterranean Sea. You're going to go to Lebanon. You're going to go down south. Listen, I look at this. Understand this. All these things started to happen, right? Uh, this church, in a weird sense, because of technology and because of your faithfulness and the outpouring of your love and your grace and your help, um, we reach literally, um, we reach the Iraq, we reach the great river Euphrates, we reach Iran, we reach Pakistan. Some of the most followers we have are in Pakistan. It's Muslims that are being saved. The, the, the weekly TV program. The, the weekly TV program has, uh, the very first month, I think I mentioned this last week, 2.7 million viewers. Um, Pastor Lane was the one driving that to get it on the TV. And, uh, the starting today. Understand this. Tell your friends this. The Heaven series starts. It's going to, it's going to be running for 20 weeks. There's 20 different programs. Tell your friends. You want to know what? Do you, do you know anybody that needs hope? Man, anybody know anybody? You, you, I know people need hope, too. Apparently, it's just you and I that understand it. No, we all know people. We need hope, right? And I look at this and I go, "Wow, we are reaching into the, the, the world with the hope of heaven." Tell your friends hischannel.com, watch the Heaven series. They can do video on demand, and, uh, each week a different episode. Um, I look at this, I go, "Man, this is, this is nuts." But this is what we are. This is what we're doing. And God says, "This is what it's not going to stop. You are going into the promised land."

What does God give them next? Notice number three. It's a word of exhortation. Verse four again. Look at it. Uh, "from the wilderness and Lebanon as far as the great river." So you go, you're going up north. You're going to the great river, the river Euphrates, to the east, the land of the Hittites, the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your, uh, territory." Listen, you're going to, this is what's going to happen, Joshua. And this is application for you and me. You're going to go out there. You are going to go into the area of the wilderness. While you were in this world, I don't like going in the wilderness. You're going to go into the area where the Hittites are, up the banks of the river. That's where the enemy of your soul is waiting for you, and he wants to take you out. There will be trials on the way, but I'm taking you to the promised land. There will be difficulties on the way, and I'm taking you to the promised land. Don't believe the person that tells you you're not going to have any difficulties in your Christian life. That's nuts. You will have challenges. If you are pressing forward for the Lord, you will have challenges. Uh, the, the stress is going to come. The moments are going to come when you're going to say, "Man, I want to quit. This wilderness is tough. That the Hittites are bugging me. I'm done. I quit." You know what God says? No. I have promised you something. I have promised that I am going to take you into the promised land. Rise up to the occasion. Put on your big boy boots. Dry your tears. Let's do this.

In verse five, God says, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you." Verse six, "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." I love that. "Be strong and of good courage." Verse seven says, "Be strong and very courageous." That word courage comes from the Hebrew word *abots*. It means be brave. Prove yourself superior. Exhibit strength. Often we know what to do. Sometimes we even know how to do it. You know what we don't have? We don't have the courage to follow through. We have perceived difficulties. We have real difficulties. There's complainers. There's challenges. There's, there's other things and pressures that get in the way, and we don't have the courage to press through. We are going through. We are going forward. We are going to march, and we are going to do what God has called us to do. We are going to go into the promised land. People are going to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from this church in the Hemet Valley all the way to the ends of the earth. There will be Muslims that are saved. There will be Jews that are saved. There will be people that are persecuted that are going to be saved. We are going to do this because God has called us to do this. And you have to be brave because sometimes it will be overwhelming. But verse nine says, "Do not be afraid, for the Lord is with you." We will march forward. We will do this. God has given us the promised land. And if it's not us, they'll raise up somebody else.

On February 19, 1519, the Spanish explorer Cortez set sail for Mexico with an entourage of 11 ships, 13 horses, 110 sailors, and 553 soldiers. The indigenous population upon his arrival was approximately 5 million. From a purely mathematical standpoint, the odds were stacked against them by a ratio of 7,541 to 1. Those aren't good numbers. Two previous expeditions had failed to even establish a settlement in the new world. Yet, Cortez conquered much of the South American continent. How did he do it? What Cortez is reported to have done after landing is an epic tale of mythic proportions. He issued an order that turned his mission into an all-or-nothing proposition. Here it is: Burn the ships. As the crew watched their fleet of ships burn and sink, they came to terms with the fact that retreat was not an option. We can't go that way. 7,541 to one that way, or we don't have a choice. Joshua chapter 1, burn the ships. You burn the ships of past failures, of past success and relying on that and resting in that. You burn the ship of past regrets and and habits and guilt. You burn the ship of "I can't do this." You rise up and you recognize the Lord is with you. Do not be afraid. Be strong and be of good courage.

Number four, we have a guarantee of prosperity. Verse seven, "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper." Look at that. "Wherever you go, now this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Wow. No, good success. Doesn't just say success. You know there's a difference between good success and bad success. Good success is anything that's done for the kingdom of God. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." This whole prosperity thing, you're going to have good success. This isn't about you becoming super rich and you've got a nice fancy go, uh, uh, Rolls-Royce with gold trim, and now you can get five beach houses. This is a guarantee that in all the work of the Lord that you set out to do, that if you keep his word and trust in his promises, you do not turn to the right, you do not turn to the left, you go forward. You say, "This is what God has told me. Therefore, I am going for it. He has promised me. I will be obedient to his word." He says, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to rock your world. You are going to experience prosperity in the things of God in a way that you never even imagined." So much so that God says he will see to it that in whatever you do, you will prosper. Listen, we're going to move forward, and we're going to see God do great and mighty things that we do not yet know. And right now, I'm going to give you four takeaways before we go to a time of communion. You ready? You write these down. Good.

Number one is this: Prepare yourselves. Prepare yourselves for what? Prepare yourselves to enter into the promised land. Look at verse 10. "Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 'Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare yourselves. Prepare for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.'" Understand this. If God is for you, it does not matter who or what is against you. Do you believe it? That's what this is about. Be strong. Be brave. Exhibit strength that's superior to the strength that you had before. Courage. Difficulties will come. Challenges may be daunting at times. But prepare your heart and prepare your mind and understand these things. Be prepared. My, my son is getting ready to play freshman football. Woo is right. So, I've been trying to prepare his mind for what's coming. I say, "Look, you're going to get hit." Well, my son plays Xbox. I tried to explain to him, "That's great, but it's a whole different ball game when some guy that weighs twice as much as you and bench presses 500 pounds hits you." And, uh, you, I keep warning him, and he, he needs to be prepared. You will be hit. You will be in the wilderness. The Hittites will come, and sometimes the hits will hurt. But remember what he said in verse 5. "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life." You're going to be hit. You're going to go into the wilderness. It's going to hurt. You're going to want to quit. You're going to want to surrender. Don't do it. No man, all the days of your life, can stand up against you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be prepared.

Number two, arm yourselves. The verse 13, "Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, 'The Lord your God is giving you, look at this, rest, and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren, armed, right?'" You see that? "All your mighty men of valor and help them." You're going to lead them. You're going to lead the moms. You're going to lead their kids. You're going to be armed. You're going to be ready. You know the enemy is out there. And you're going to help them enter into the promised land. That's what I'm supposed to do with you and the, and the staff here. We are going into the promised land together. We are going, and people are going to know the Lord God of heaven that, that do not yet know him. Uh, you and I are in a battle. And the more you press forward to possess what God has called and ordained you to possess, the more attacks will come your way. If you know Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah said, "I'm going to rise up and build," the enemy said, "I am going to rise up and oppose." There will be attacks. There will be wilderness times, but be strong. Be of good courage. We're going into the promised land. How do we arm ourselves though? Bible tells us. Ephesians chapter 6. You know this passage, right? "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Look at this. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." I can tell you right now, in the last 12 months, I have experienced spiritual battles that I never experienced before. I did not know the different ways and the different weapons that the enemy can use against you. And let me tell you, it's been nuts. I appreciate your prayers so much. But I, but we are going to be strong. We are going to be courageous. We do recognize that we are in a spiritual battle. Do you? Right. Right. "No weapon formed against you can stand." Right. What else goes on and tells us this? "Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we have the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." Man, we're taking it everywhere we go. "Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." When those fiery darts come against you, you hold up that shield of faith. You believe in God's word. I believe in the promises of God. I'm going into the promised land. Do you believe it? Because this word is for you. This promise is for me. Don't turn to the left. Don't turn to the right. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go. We take up the shield of faith. We quench the fiery darts of the enemy. We take verse 17, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Aha. Which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. There you have it. You see the picture up there? You put on the armor. Let me tell you something. If you were at the memorial service yesterday, you heard this, but, uh, I'm going to tell you again. I have found that it's okay to grieve. You believe it? It's true. I have found it's okay to grieve. I've also found that it's okay to be angry, as long as the anger doesn't consume you and the anger is rightly directed. I can tell you this. I've never been as angry as I am now. I've never hurt as bad as I have been. I've never been as angry as I am now. And I'm angry. Do you know who I'm angry at? I'm angry at sin. I'm angry at death. I'm angry at the devil. I'm ticked off. Another word almost accidentally came out. This is a rally cry. I'm so angry at the devil. I'm not angry at God. Death and destruction and cancer and despair and discouragement comes in because of sin and death and the devil. And we are going to march into the promised land. We are going to prepare ourselves. We are going to arm ourselves. We will be strong. We will be courageous. God is going to do great and marvelous things that we do not yet know. We do not fight for victory. You and I, because of Christ, we fight from victory. You are not a loser. You are a winner because of what Christ has done. And no weapon formed against you will stand. We will march. We will press forward. We will be ready. We understand hurt will come. We understand pain will come. But it is the devil I'm angry at. It is sin and death I am angry at. Christ has come to right all that is wrong and to redeem anyone who would come to him, that they might be forever with him in heaven. And one day Jesus is coming back in the clouds, and he's going to do a whole do-over. He's wiping out, and he's going to throw the devil into the lake of fire forever and ever and ever. You want to know something? I'm happy about that.

What should we do? Number three, be decisive in joining the work that God is doing. In verse 16, the people answered Joshua. They said, "All that you command us to do, we will do." You see it? "We will do it." Uh, and wherever you, you send us, we will go. "Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses." I love that. Wherever you send us, Lord, we are going. We will be strong. We will be courageous. We will not turn to the left. We will not turn to the right. We will meditate upon his word. We will believe in his promises for this life, knowing that we have the next life. And in the meantime, we're going to the Euphrates and beyond. We are going to use whatever resources we can to reach this valley, to reach this country, to reach this world, that souls would be saved. You want to know what's going to happen? One day, we're going to get to heaven. We're going to go, "Wow. I knew Pastor Lane. I didn't know you from Nigeria, but now I get to meet you. I didn't know you from Pakistan and from Iraq and, and from Libya and, and from Lebanon and from Syria, but it's all our fruit." So, we will do this. We will not quit. I'm going to tell you right now, the enemy ain't going to win. We are going to go forward. But be careful in this, right? Because look at what verse 18 says. "Whoever rebels against your command, this command, and does not heed this, in all that you command him, shall be put to death." Wow. Here's why. Jesus said, "If you're not for me, you're against me." Understand this. God is in the business of saving souls. God is in the business of getting as many people into heaven as possible, not keeping people out. And God doesn't take it lightly when people get in the way, especially if they're in the church and they get in the way of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what's going on here.

This takes us to the last thing is this. The day of rest will come. Look at this again. Um, verse 13, the end of it. "The Lord your God has given you rest, and he's given you this land." Verse 15. "Until the Lord has given your brethren rest, and as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of this, of the land which the Lord your God is giving them, then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it." Wow. He's going to give you rest. He's going to give you a time to enjoy it. Woo! The time of rest is coming, but it's not today. One day Jesus will call us home, but until then, we will do as Jesus said, we will occupy. Luke chapter 19, we will occupy until Jesus comes. That word for occupy, it means to carry on in the business that you are called to. Jesus is talking about his business of doing his work, being his hands and feet, seeking to save souls, making disciples, and being a blessing to other people that they might know him. He also said in John chapter 9:4, NIV version, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work." Who's we? It's the Lord Jesus Christ working through us. We must be. Jesus doesn't say here's a suggestion, it's a good idea if you want to do it, it's okay. We must be about this while, while we have life. This is what I am going to be about my Father's work. Amen.