Sermon: “Learning to Walk in Faith Together”
Authentic Community: #5 – Joshua
James 1:19-27, Joshua 1:1-9
The Importance of Developing Leaders
How do you know when you know when you have found a young leader worth developing? In 1754, a 22-year old army officer wrote his report of the battle he had been in two days before. It included the fascinating phrase, “I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound." Courage under fire, whether physical, or verbal, is the mark of a leader. It would be 22 years before the young colonel would be ready to lead a new nation into existence, but George Washington had begun his journey. Every enterprise needs to continually be developing new leaders. Those transition times are critical for the ongoing effectiveness of any enterprise, but especially so for Christians seeking to serve God in the world.
Our reading from the Old Testament is just such a critical time: (Read Joshua 1:1-9).
The First thing God says to Joshua is “Moses is Dead.” Moses had led Israel out from the cruel treatment of the Egyptian Pharaoh, through 40 years in the desert as the largest backpacking trip in human history. He had taught them the commands of God and how to live according to them. He was especially adept at hearing God and communicating God’s will to His people. But he wouldn’t live forever.
We learn also that Joshua was Moses’ Chief Assistant. Throughout the last episodes of the Jews’ wandering in the desert, wherever Moses is, Joshua is always nearby. He is watching, he is learning, and he is being prepared for future leadership.
From the outside, we might think that leaders have an easy job. The president gets to ride in a private airliner, and meet lots of interesting people, with command over thousands of staff and the entire Armed Forces. From the inside, it is a position of terrifying responsibility. You don’t know the challenges of leadership until you see them first hand. Joshua Learned how to lead by Sharing Moses’ Life.
I count it a great privilege to share the pulpit this morning with my good friend Greg Snell. Greg, with his wife Deb, are the Directors of Alumni Affairs and Development Directors for ICM’s work throughout Kenya. He recently wrote the article for Christianity Today magazine, “Developing Good Development”, which draws from his extensive experience in missions to identify what kind of help Western Churches can give that result in truly strengthening the rapidly growing African church.
Greg, how does Joshua’s path to leadership resonate with what you have seen work in Africa?
a) Notes from Greg’s illustration:

Developing leaders is an important part of what believers need to learn to do together. Joshua, this new leader, now has to help his people become characterized by Walking in Faith.
To the average Hebrew walking through the desert, they saw a need to find a home for themselves and for their children. God wanted this for them as well, but he was also interested in something on a more grand scale: you see, God was Fulfilling a 400-year-old Promise. Abraham Jacob and Joseph were not buried where they died: God had promised them that their people would live in the land we now know as Israel, so they had their descendants bring their bones to the final resting place Abraham had bought 400 years before.
Now they are about to enter into this fertile land, with vineyards, and cattle and alive with the blossoms that yield sweet honey. But as they look at it, Their Eyes Tell Them to Fear. The land is filled with wicked, violent people. How can they possibly over come them?
Over and over again in this passage, God tells Joshua to be strong and of good courage, that everywhere he walks, God will give them the land. A mutual friend of Greg’s and mine, Sally Manhard, used to lead support groups for people going through cancer. Her purpose, she said, was to help people face cancer with faith instead of fear. So here, the Lord, reminding Joshua and his people that he had promised them this land long ago, Tells Them to Trust.
Greg, how have you learned to trust God in unfamiliar situations?
b) Notes from Greg’s illustration:
Israel needed to raise up new leaders who learned by close observation—a discipleship model. They learned to walk by faith in the sense that they trusted God and rejected fear. But There is more to walking by faith. God gave Israel a Watchword for a New Land: “Keep my Commandments.”
Life is full of changes, but God is in the changes. Life never stays the same: there is potential and promise in the new situations that come our way. But there are also Dangers.
There were Dangers to Joshua. The peoples that they were displacing were rife with evil. They were brutally violent, abusive of women and infants, and gave very little care for the tender needs of children. God warned Joshua to warn Israel away from the practices that would be all around them. God called them, “Keep my commandments.”
In our New Testament reading, we see that there were also Dangers to James and his fellow believers. In their own generation—James is probably the oldest book in the New Testament—God had revealed himself in the coming of Jesus Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit. The indulgence of the Roman Empire had to be avoided. He said, “Put away the moral filth that is so prevalent.” God said, “Keep my Commandments.”
There is brutality around us, along with moral filth and an absolute worship of material things. 500 years from now, all cars will have rusted and all clothes will be dust. But human souls are made to last forever. The Dangers to Us, in our time, is that we will fail to offer a life that is distinctly different from the chaos into which our culture is falling. Children need to grow up in secure families, with a mother and a father active and involved. We buy cheap goods from nations that ignore the basic needs of their people by unsafe building practices and heartless response to the crises they face. The last commandment we received from our Lord is to make disciples for him who will help still others escape the destruction around us and gain an irrevocable citizenship in the Kingdom of God. If we love him, we will keep his commandments. The book will not depart from our mouth, or our hearts, or our hands.
Greg, any thoughts?
c) Notes from Greg’s illustration:
MAIN POINT: Discipleship – person-to-person training – is the most effective model for learning to keep the commandments and walk in faith. Each of us are to receive it from others and provide it for others.