Well, we're up to Joshua chapter 13, and I'll read the first seven verses. Now Joshua was old, advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, you are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that remains, all the territory of the Philistines and all that of the Geshurites from Sihur, which is east of Egypt as far as the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite. The five lords of the Philistines, the Gazites, the Ashtodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, the Ekronites, also the Avites. From the south all the land of the Canaanites and Meara that belongs to the Sidonians as far as Afec to the border of the Amorites. The land of the Gebelites and all Lebanon toward the sunrise from Baal God below Mount Hermon as far as the entrance to Hamoth. all the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon as far as the brook Mishparoth, and all the Sidonians, them I will drive out from before the children of Israel, only divide it by lot to Israel as an inheritance as I have commanded you. Now therefore divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would anoint my lips as I seek to give an exposition, interpretation of it, and that each one of us would be edified by it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, last week we looked at the importance of planning. But frequently what happens is when we start planning and we start seeing all of the things that we need to deal with and put into a schedule, we can become overwhelmed and discouraged. It just seems like it is too much. And I think this passage has at least some of the high-level principles that can help those of us who tend to get discouraged in that way, especially when you're looking at the big picture plan that the Lord has for planet Earth. What do you do when you have an overwhelming to-do list? What do you do when you look at all of the land that is yet to be conquered and you find discouragement creeping in? Well, first, you don't deny your limitations. That would be unrealistic. Verse 1 begins by saying, Now Joshua was old, advanced in years, And then God is going to remind him that he is old and advanced in years. Why? Why does he remind him of the obvious? Well, I think in part it may be because driven people tend to forget their limits and they push themselves too far. And we see this all the time. My wife's mom has fallen four times in the last few weeks and broken different bones. And in part, it's because she still thinks she's young. She pushes herself quite far. And I appreciate her ambition and energy. But we do need to know our limits and not get discouraged over the fact that we can't do what we once used to do. I have to remind myself of that fact. So how old was Joshua? He died at the age of 110 at the end of this book. And so some people say that right here he could have been maybe around 90, and others say, no, no, no. If you look at some of the hints in the rest of this book, there's not a lot of time that goes on. He may have been closer to 110. I'm not sure that we can define that entirely. But what we can be sure of is God knows the natural process of aging and limitations. He recognizes that and he does not expect older people to do everything that the younger people would do. Even if you're not old, the same principle applies to all of us. And I'm including the us in me, since I don't consider myself old yet. I don't think Gary considers himself old yet. It's good to recognize, even as youngsters, it's good to recognize our limitations. And if you are getting discouraged because you can't do what X, Y, Z people can do, You just need to realize that may be a little bit unrealistic. God has deliberately made us with our strengths and our weaknesses, and our very weaknesses, I think, are for our good. And so we all have them. The second thing that I see in verse 1 is that Joshua puts first things first by listening to God. Our weaknesses should drive us back to the Lord to make sure that we are aligned with what He wants us to do, and this is especially important. for those of us who are people pleasers and have to fight against that tendency. The next phrase says, and the Lord said to him. And so this is a very simple point. When you look at your to-do list and you become overwhelmed with it, just look to the Lord, okay? Go to him. When you're feeling feeble, when you see your inadequacy, look up from your to-do list to the Lord. Look up from your inadequacies. Put first things first. And even a short prayer will sometimes put perspective on the things that you are overwhelmed with. I think Joshua always did this. His whole life was devoted to serving the Lord. And by the way, you don't have to be a pastor to serve the Lord. That's a misconception some people have. He was a general of an army, and he served the Lord in that army. He put God first in that army. And so if we take seriously Paul's admonition that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God, then Really, everything we do can be seen as a service to the Lord. And when you take your cues from God on everything you do, it helps, it's easier to avoid discouragement. During the early days of the Salvation Army, which particularly ministered to the down and outers, William Booth and his associates were repeatedly slandered by the media, and sometimes even by church officials and a couple of government officials. And when his son Bramwell brought a newspaper with the most recent criticism in it, General Booth replied, Bramwell, 50 years hence, it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us. It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God. In other words, when you do the dishes and the laundry for the Lord, what others think of you, or even what they don't think of you, or don't even recognize that you are doing, does not matter as much as the fact that you are doing this as unto the Lord, and you're receiving His favor. When you're talking to a legislator, trying to convince him to take a stance on abolishing abortion from conception, and you're not successful, it's just like you can't get through to him, realize that his conversion or his change of mind is not nearly as important as your receiving God's well done, thou good and faithful servant. Indeed, listening more to God's voice than you do to culture's voice, I think will enable you to persevere through all the opposition. This is not just theory, God continues to guide his people. The third thing that I see here is that God himself knew that there would be far more work than one generation would be able to do. Now, we've already mentioned this two or three times previously, but I think it's good to be reminded, especially when we get discouraged. Verse 1 goes on, you are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. And then he goes on to list the territories left, some of which would not be taken for another 400 years. You know, the time of David. Talk about a long-term vision. But it was because Joshua did not let this big vision die that he inspired others to carry on a God-sized vision in the rest of this book. When D.L. Moody was dying, his sons gathered around his bed, and he told them, if God be your partner, make your plans large. I love that. If God be your partner, make your plans large. And when your plans are way larger than anything that you can do, yes, you're going to be involved in the accomplishing of those goals, but you're gonna realize it's not entirely up to you. Obviously, God works through you, and there's others in God's Israel that are going to be helping with that vision as well. By the way, it's very easy for us to lose that big vision when we become overwhelmed. but it's maintaining a big vision and passing on a great vision that keeps the church advancing. When William Burns was a young boy, he went to Glasgow to visit the city, first time he'd been there with his mother. Somehow they got separated and his mom just was frantically looking everywhere for him, finally found him in a little alley, sitting down, sobbing his heart out, and she asked him, what ails you? And he said, the thought of these Christless feet on the way to hell breaks my heart. Even as a kid, he was gripped by a vision that the Lord had put on him from a very young time. And he couldn't do much about that vision other than praying it and sharing the gospel occasionally as he had opportunity. But because that vision never died in him, it spurred him on to become what eventually people describe as one of the greatest revivalist preachers in Scotland. Now, most of you probably are not going to become revivalist preachers, but I can guarantee you, every one of you has been called with a vision that is bigger than you. Every one of us. It's something you cannot accomplish in your own strength. It's guaranteed. We've got to make sure that we do not allow our inadequacies, our inabilities, our discouragements to reduce to ashes the calling that God has given, the vision that he's placed upon our hearts. It's very easy for that to happen. There are ups and downs in our lives. There are ups and downs in history. We certainly seem to be entering into a down period. In American history, well actually throughout the West, that ought not to discourage us in the least because even God's withdrawing of his hand many times is one of the means that he uses to advance his cause. You cannot change hearts, but as D.L. Moody said, if God be your partner, make your plans large. God is honored by that. The next thing that I see here is that even though Joshua himself could not do much more active fighting, God wanted him thinking about the details of the future work. Verse 2 says, this is the land that yet remains. And then he gives the details. Now, if God, think about that. If God did not intend for Joshua to be the one that's going to be conquering those lands that he is listing, why is he going into all of these details? And I can think of two reasons. First of all, it enabled Joshua to pray these promises into their future existence. And I think we need to be praying big. big hearted prayers that go even beyond our lifetime about laying claim to the things that God has promised in his word. And in the second, it cast a vision for the future generation about the work that they had. Both of those reminded him, hey, the whole burden is not on your shoulders. But it also shows future generations that he cares about them. He's cheering them on, so to speak. And so what are some practical ways that we can take an interest in the land that is yet to be conquered by future generations? or another way of asking it is, what are some ways that we can hear God's heart for the nations? And I'll share two ideas. One's on a global level. The other is on a family level. On the global level, regarding the land yet to be conquered by the gospel. There are a lot of missions, resources out there that can help encourage us, stir up our faith, stir up our prayers. Last time somebody, I've actually had different people, you mentioned a resource and then you didn't tell us what it was. Okay, this is what it was. It's Operation World. and it's by Patrick Johnston, and you go through this book, it just goes through country after country, and it gives all kinds of statistics on what the geography is like, and what kind of nationalities are in there, how many languages, what are the literacy rates? You know, this is going to make a big difference on what kind of mission activity you're going to engage in. Can they read? Can they not read? What's the economy like? What religions are there? There's so many helpful facts, and I think it's a fantastic basis for both prayer and missions. This one's a little bit dated. There's a couple more that are different labels from the same organization that I can tell you about as well. But the point is, no one person, no one church, no one denomination is going to be able to fulfill the Great Commission. Okay? The whole church over many generations is going to need to be doing this, and to me this is so encouraging that you've got people like this, and there's actually just a stack of books like this, that have been doing exactly what Joshua's doing. They're looking at the lay of the land, and they're looking, they're doing research, And they're trying to pass on to the next generation, there is a lot of land that is yet to be taken by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when I read stuff like that, it encourages me that the Lord's hand is all over the place. It's not just in our denomination. He is raising up all kinds of people. Now, on a smaller scale, we can do the same thing with our children. We can learn about the callings of our children so that we can better pray God's blessing into their lives. We can take an interest in their homeschooling, maybe even help out sometimes, in their ministry, their business, their involvement in culture. The next point encourages us to think about leadership succession. Giving this information to the next generation was a part of the leadership training that he had been actually doing for several years. There were plenty of men who would be able to carry on the torch, that vision that we talked about last week. And it was this vision that drove more conquests in the next chapters. And actually, it matured them. He's pushing them into leadership positions that is going to enable them to transition as the older generation dies off. Now, even though Gary and I are really not that old, I'm 68, I won't tell you how old Gary is. He's not much older. We have been working diligently on raising up leaders to carry on the torch in the next generation. And so I would encourage you to pray that God would make us to be effective in this. When you get to our age, you start thinking seriously about who is going to take your place. Now, both Gary and I hope to be in the saddle for many years to come, but whether or not that is true, we must be raising up leaders, the right leaders. And Gary and I have in no way lowered the standard or lowered the vision that God has laid on our hearts. You know, there's a series of sermons called the Foundation Series that captures the vision of our church, I think, rather well. That continues to drive us. And our vision is impossibly big. It's a Post Mill vision. Well, so is Joshua's. And he illustrates the next point, which says, never lower the high calling of God's all statements. Let's read verses two through six again, emphasizing how big this vision really was. This is the land that yet remains all the territory of the Philistines and all that of the Geshurites, from Sihur, which is east of Egypt, as far as the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite, the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazites, the Ashtodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, the Ekronites, also the Avites, And from the south, all the land of the Canaanites and Meara that belongs to the Sidonians as far as Aphic to the border of the Amorites, the land of the Gabalites, and all Lebanon toward the sunrise from Baal God below Mount Hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath. All the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon as far as the Mishbaroth. Now we do see hints later on in this book, and we for sure see hints in the book of Judges, that Israel was tempted to reduce this commission to something that was more manageable and more realistic, you know, from a human perspective, more achievable. And God rebuked them. He rebuked them for taking the all out of this mandate that he had given to them. And I believe that the Lord's rebuke rests upon the modern church, which has, in many ways, to a great degree, reduced the alls in the Great Commission, and as a result has reduced its greatness. Let me read you the Great Commission so you can see. This is as great, actually it's greater than the commission given to Joshua. This is Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age. Amen. Now, because Christians just can't conceive of a totally Christianized country, they fudge on every single one of those alls on the Great Commission. What do I mean by that? Well, I think you've seen it. I think you've seen it. Just take the first all of all authority. in heaven and on earth. You know, a lot of Christians, they have no problem believing he's got all authority in heaven. And they might verbally agree he's got all authority on earth, but the way that they act They're denying His authority on earth. For example, they exclude Christ from their political views and instead opt for natural law or conservative theory or other secular views. They exclude Christ's Word, the Scriptures, from their science. They exclude Christ from their entertainment. For example, if you ask them, hey, would you invite Jesus if He was here to watch this movie with you? Probably not. Why? Jesus is quite okay with relaxing. He's quite okay with doing things. But is his Lordship a part of what you engage in in entertainment? Some of them exclude Christ from their procreation or from their sports. See, if we've got a God-sized vision, we are not going to be satisfied until all human authority submits to the Lordship of Christ. All nations are discipled. And all Scripture is followed, and all of Christ's gracious presence and resources are claimed for all of the days. Anything less than an expectation of total victory for King Jesus does not do justice to the greatness of the Great Commission. It simply does not. The Great Commission has not yet been fulfilled, which means we've got a lot of work cut out to do. And by the way, when I say we've got a lot of work, we can't forget verse 20 of the Great Commission says that He will be with us all of the days, which includes today. This is a day, I think, right? So He is with us right now to enable us to do that. So don't get discouraged by the greatness of our task. Get excited. This is a task that our Almighty God is up to. He is the one, by the way, who was driving the Canaanites out, and then He was the one who was gifting them with the land. He is the one who can empower our witness to our neighbors and the teaching of our children. Okay, he does the judging, he does the converting. And just as the Great Commission promises the power of Christ's presence to be with us, take a look at the second half of verse six. It gives the same promise of God's presence with him. God says in verse six, them I will drive out from before the children of Israel. So yes, the children of Israel are involved in this warfare, but it was God who would bless their efforts, and it was God who would drive the remaining Canaanites out. It was because of this promise of Joshua's commission that he realized that this is a commission that's achievable, and it was achieved. by the time of David. Well, that's 10 generations later and people say, oh, that's so long. Well, God's got a post-mill perspective himself. You know, many generations. We don't need to worry about the timing, right? We don't need to worry about the timing, but let's certainly believe that the task is achievable. Paul prayed in Ephesians 1 that the church there would have their eyes opened, as he worded it, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come, And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." That's the kind of power, he says, can accompany us as we carry out the Great Commission. We cannot lower this idea of what God wants the church to do. So yes, the Great Commission is impossible for us, but it's not impossible for Christ working through us. And based on those promises, the last point makes sense. Claim the land by faith long before it is taken. When we really believe God's promises concerning the future, it will impact how we plan, how we act. We'll start preparing for the conquest. Just as a silly illustration, Robert and I were talking about our passions for writing, even for future generations, but also for people out there. But I've had several people say, Phil, why are you writing a book on biblical civics when no nation's ever going to take that seriously? And my response is, oh, there's four reasons why I'm writing this book. I love God's plans, and I want other people to love His plans. Secondly, nations today need the same rebukes of God's Word that the nations of the Bible times did. And this is a rebuke where they're not living up to God's standards. And thirdly, if you look over the last 2,000 years, you will see, time after time, when people set God's standard before kings, kings repented, and nation after nation became a Christian nation. Now, he used means, and that's what I'm trying to provide, is means, and I praise God he's raising up all kinds of other people all over the world who are providing these kinds of means as well. But then fourth, once those nations became Christian, they started implementing what theologians and pastors and others had been discovering in the Bible and had been writing about. Okay, so that's another reason. I want to write about as many foundational blueprints as I can so that when nations come to Christ, they can implement them. Now, in the past, Christians were successful in converting nations because they had a vision that was big enough to lay claim to the territories not yet conquered by the gospel. They did not let their vision be clouded by what other people said was possible and not possible. And there were lots of naysayers for every one of these. If you read their biographies, There were people saying, oh, you can't be doing that. That's ridiculous. You know, they, a lot of naysayers, but they accomplished the impossible because God loves to work through people of faith. Look at what St. Patrick did to Ireland. by God's grace. Look at what St. Columba did to Scotland by God's grace, and St. Augustine to England, and St. Boniface to Germany, and St. Ansgar to Scandinavia, and St. Cyril and Methodius to the Slavic nation. These were people who laid claim to the land by faith long before the land was even remotely taken. They claimed it for Christ. Now, the Christianization of the West didn't happen overnight, but within 300 years of the close of the canon, and this is really astonishing when you think about it, within 300 years of the close of the canon, the entire Roman Empire was at least nominally Christian. In other words, they were open to Christianity. They said, yeah, we're Christian nations. They weren't completely, but They were at least nominally Christianized. That's from total paganism that was anti-Christian to at least fairly Christianized. And God can do that again. But he has chosen to do that kind of advance through people of faith. And yes, even in 300 AD, there was, 370 AD, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done. But you can see what can happen when people have a big vision. But should God grant some nation repentance in our day, I wanna start preparing some blueprints for that nation, not just civics, every area of life being under Christ. And again, I praise God that he is raising up numerous scholars in Canada and Britain and many different areas that are writing along these lines. So next time you're overwhelmed, let me close things up here. Next time you're overwhelmed with a task that God has given you to do, Don't deny your limitations. God has placed you within the body, so you're not in this alone. And he has said, he's never gonna give you more than you can handle. So if you have more than you can handle, it's probably because God hasn't given it to you. And you need to start learning to say no to certain things. You know, Joshua was gonna have to start saying, no, I'm not gonna be doing that at my age, and passing that on to other people. Next, look to Jesus for his anointing on each and every task. Next, after you have done your best and you still cannot say that you are finished, just realize there's tomorrow and there's the day after, and that the world is not going to fall apart if you don't meet everybody else's expectations, okay? There will still be work waiting for you when you wake up tomorrow. So take it all in stride, try to break it down with the time that God has given to you, okay? Be realistic. Next, don't take on the next generation's work. But do take interest in it. Be convinced of the greatness of the Great Commission. Show interest in your children's callings, their plans, their homeschooling, their involvement in culture. Bless them. Bless their vision. Pray for them. Resource them. We need to be thinking way beyond our generation. Next, make sure you take the time to communicate the big vision to your children and help them to communicate that vision to their children. In other words, you're passing the torch. You're raising up leaders. It's leadership succession. Next, by refusing to lower the standards of God's all statements, it will force you to be looking to God's power, God's wisdom, God's grace, That will in turn convince you that we can do the impossible through God, and finally, begin claiming your possessions by faith. Now, the Name It and Claim It movement has A lot of people just shy away from claiming things by faith, and they have gone too far, but I think it's because they weren't biblical enough. They were rather man-centered. Have we gone too far in the opposite direction in not expecting the miraculous? I think absolutely, yes, we have. Take a simple thing like a conundrum that you're facing within your family, and you don't know what to do. I would say claim the promise given in James 1.5. which says you can claim a wisdom that is greater than your own. You can claim a wisdom you do not yet possess. So don't lower that promise. James 1 5 promises. If any of you lacks wisdom, any, did you get that? No exceptions. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. Don't call God a liar, making yourself an exception. He says, if you ask in faith, he will give you the wisdom. Let me assure you, I'm not going to go through all of the verses. But God will also resource you with everything and all of the tools that are needed to advance the calling that he has placed upon your life. So don't lower or diminish God's commission, God's calling upon you, and don't be overwhelmed by it. Look to the God of Joshua and keep pressing on. Amen. Father, I thank you for the challenges of your word, but I thank you that you also resource us with everything we need to fulfill those challenges. Forgive us for those times where we lower your standards, and as a result, we lower our access to your grace and your provision. Help us, Father, to live as a people of grace. Help us to cast off discouragement and being overwhelmed, and by faith, to receive day by day, step by step, everything we need for the now. I pray that you would bless this people with the vision of your calling upon them individually and bless them with the faith of Joshua. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.