Intermediate Lesson One - Book of Joshua

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF JOSHUA

Church: Laodicea                                         6 of 39 lessons                                             Theme: Faith

Background Information:

ü  In the pre-church age, we learned that God is love, and we love because God first loved us.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of Joshua:

I can replace fear of the world with love because Jesus’ sacrifice teaches how faith works by love.

Essential Question:

Will I remember to replace my fear of the world with faith that works by love?

Will you make a profession of faith to remember how (1) the world uses fear as a reminder of how to love (2) Jesus made a sacrifice so we can overcome the fear of the world with perfect love. Perfect love gets rid of fear and the person who does not have perfect love lives in fear (1 John 4:16-18).

Book of Joshua

Have students read pages 2-7 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Does the world teach us that through our behaviors faith works by love? How does the world get us to build our foundation of faith on sinking sand instead of The Rock of Faith?

The world is trying to separate God from His creation with a worldview that teaches us to be lovers of self and to fear the worldview and not God. We need to know the truth to combat the enemy’s lies.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

When the world teaches us how to be a lover of self, we can look to the sacrifice that Jesus made to understand how we are to have perfect love that casts out fear and not have worldly love that works against us. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus addressed this issue saying, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus’ teachings on perfect love that casts out fear can be misunderstood because Satan, the father of lies, wants love to work against us with fear, so we will not remember how love can be a lifesaver. The sacrifice is how God “stirs up” and awakens us to remember how to love with behaviors that fear God and not the worldview. Fearing the world will stop us from being a servant to God. Fear is a reminder of how to love. Fear is a powerful emotion that can be used for or against us. Fear will help us choose if we will serve the Lord with love or if we are a lover of self.

In the book of Joshua, Joshua had the people make a public statement of faith where they chose if they would serve the Lord, the false gods of their fathers before the flood, or the false gods of the Amorites. Joshua made a profession of faith that he and his family would serve the living God. People in the Old Testament were asked to make a public profession to be a witness to their faith.

After the people all agreed to serve the living God, Joshua showed the people a stone under a tree and said to them the stone would be a witness against them if anyone denied God and served false gods. This is The Rock of Faith that we learned about from the previous five lessons. The Rock of Faith that Joshua showed the people is the rock on which people sacrificed on in the Old Testament. It is The Rock of Faith because people were saved by faith when they sacrificed to God. Through the miracles of God, the Israelites had faith that God would protect them from the people who were sacrificing to false gods. Now our profession of faith has eternal consequences that are heaven or hell.

Remember the Rock God Established:

Before Joshua had the people make a public statement about their faith, he told them to fear the Lord and not to fear the people who were serving false gods. As it is written in Joshua 1:9, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou go." God told the people who were sacrificing on The Rock of Faith with God’s commandments not to talk or be associated with the people who were sacrificing to false gods. The people serving false gods used fear as a way to distract the Israelites from remembering God’s miracles. The best way to deal with the behaviors of people who were sacrificing to false gods before Jesus made the sacrifice was for God to punish them. Now we have a message to live among the people who do not fear the Lord. We can do this because Jesus came as a servant leader who modeled how to live in the world without being a part of the world. The next thirty lessons teach us how to interact with people in the world who do not fear the Lord. Just as Joshua had the people make a public statement about their faith, we need to remember the miracles of God when we make a statement of faith, so we will build our foundation on The Rock of Faith and not sinking sand. This will lay a foundation that bears an inner witness to how faith works by love with grace.

Just as Joshua had the people choose if they wanted to say Amen to the living God, we can choose if we want to make a living sacrifice. The Chief Cornerstone now sits on The Rock of Faith, and we are lining our witness testimony up with the Chief Cornerstone. We are given a new heart of flesh and a new spirit not of fear but of love and sound mind. In Luke 11:5, the apostles questioned Jesus, “How can we increase our faith?” We can increase or decrease our faith with our living sacrifice because faith works by love. We can increase our faith with love for God and decrease our faith to be lukewarm with a worldview of how to love. Joshua said not to be afraid and this is still true today.

Laodicea: Faith in God can increase by loving as a servant who fears and obeys God.

Faith in God can decrease to lukewarm faith by being a lover of self who fears the world.

The next six churches uncover what lies beneath a person’s behaviors. The next 30 lessons teach us how we can increase or decrease our faith in God with our living sacrifice because now faith in God can be measured through love’s devotion to God or the worldview. With each church, God will “stir up” a believer’s heart to awaken and turn to him and away from the world.

Is being “stirred up” a way to awaken us to remember to fear the Lord and not the world?

Ephesus: Awaken to accept God’s grace with love or work for prosperity with worldly love

Smyrna: Awaken to share God’s mercy with love or celebrate pride with worldly love

Pergamos: Awaken to repent with love or believe lying vanities that tolerate worldly love

Thyatira: Awaken to new covenant faithful love or tolerate unfaithful worldly love

Sardis: Awaken to listen to the Holy Spirit in love or listen to the Jezebel spirit in worldly love

Philadelphia: Awaken to be sanctified by Jesus or blaspheme the Holy Spirit with worldly love

Decreasing our faith in God bears an inner witness of worldly love and is called lukewarm faith.

Activity:

In Appendix 6, Students make a profession of faith.

Conclusion:

Now we are to mix with the world without being a part of it, and we are to do it with selfless love.

Next Lesson:

The next thirty lessons teach us how to be saved by grace through faith. In looking at being saved by grace, we have to choose the right behavior and how we accept the spiritual gifts offered by God.