Alright, I'm going to give you a bit of a background first because chapter 7 is all
about a defeat of God's people at a place called AI.
So before that, God had promised all the people that they're going to have a land, they're
going to have the promised land to go in, they're going to have to go in and conquer
it.
And in the beginning of that passage in chapter 1 naturally of Joshua, God said, be strong
and be courageous because everything that he was going to face, every challenge, every
circumstance, every king, every giant was going to need courage and strength to be defeated.
And the first place that they destroyed or had victory over I believe was the place of
Jericho.
And God said, go up, He said, I've given you the land and He said in chapter 6 in verse
2, He said, the Lord said to Joshua, see I've given Jericho into your hand, it's king in
the mighty Man of Allah.
So they went up and they conquered Jericho, they marched around seven times, you know
the story well and the walls of Jericho fell and they conquered but previously to Jericho
they had said, God had said to the people, there are certain things in that land that
you're not to touch, accursed things.
God said, don't touch them.
Anyway, a man by the name of Achan, I preached on this a number of months ago, took what
he wasn't valid or allowed or permitted to take and the result of that in chapter 7 was
a defeat in the next place that they were to conquer which was Ai.
And reading in verse 5, this is when the men came up to spy out the land and then men were
given to go down to this place at Ai and in verse 5 it says, the men of Ai struck down
about 36 men for they chased them from before the gates as far as Shibarim and struck them
down on the descent.
Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord
until evening, he and the elders of Israel and they put dust on their heads.
And Joshua said, alas Lord God why have you brought these people over the Jordan at all
to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us?
All that we would have been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan.
O Lord what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and
cut off your name from the earth.
Then what will you do for your great name?
Verse 10, so the Lord said to Joshua, get up, why do you lie thus on your face?
Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them for they've
taken, they've even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived and
they've also put it among their own stuff.
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their
backs before their enemies because they have become doomed to destruction.
Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed thing, the accursed
from among you.
Get up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow because thus says
the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst O Israel.
You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among
you.
And my message today is, there's a lyric in a particular song, it's, by your spirit I
will rise from the ashes of defeat.
And it's a real powerful lyric because although God had given the land to Joshua and the people,
although God was with them, they still faced giants, they still faced discouragement and
they still faced defeat.
And for you and I today, you know, often people speak to people they're surprised or they're
shocked that they've come under some sort of attack or they've, you know, they've fallen
in some way.
But you know, we have enemies to defeat and there's things that are going to come up against
us that we actually have to endure, things that we have to overcome, there's tribulations,
there's pressures, there's suffering, this is all part of the kingdom that we walk in.
And so don't be surprised that at times you will be discouraged and you will be defeated.
And Joshua in this place, he's on his face in verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, get
up, why do you lie thus on your face?
So he had, 36 men, his men had been defeated before him, although God had given him a promise,
really did he know that it was because of one man's sin that the defeat took place.
But this discouragement, this was a bitter disappointment that Joshua suffered.
And he is in that place on his face asking God why.
And there are times in our lives where we are going to be in that place too, where we
are downtrodden, we are discouraged and we're dismayed.
And that's a part of life.
But what we choose to do in those times is going to be the difference between us rising
up or being remaining rather defeated.
And God said to him, get up.
He didn't speak to his disappointment, he didn't speak to what he was saying, but he
just said get up.
And you see whenever we come into that place where we face a challenging situation, where
we may feel like we are discouraged or dismayed, we have a choice because in that place, Joshua
decided in verse 7 to speak out, he decided to prophesy negatively.
He said, alas Lord God, why have you brought these people over the Jordan at all to deliver
us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us, all that we would have been content and
dwell on the other side of the Jordan.
So he completely forgot all that he'd not only see God do through Canaan, but he also
forgot the promises that God had made to him.
In chapter 1, I'll look at that later, but he said that he would be with God, he would
be with Joshua rather.
And he makes the same promise to us in the end of Matthew 28.
Jesus said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
But it's so important that when we come, we're facing something of a challenging situation
that we actually don't fall into despondency, we don't fall into dismay.
And I want to tell you what dismay means.
Dismay comes in, it's, dismay is a bit like discouragement.
You'll be discouraged and then you'll fall into dismay.
Dismay comes in when you consider your own resources and you look within and decide that
you are not strong enough.
That's when dismay comes, when you're looking like Joshua did in the natural, looking at
the circumstances that you're faced with and you think it's just too much.
I don't have the strength or the resources to deal with this, but God doesn't expect
us to.
He's given us His Holy Spirit, He's given us His promise like He did to Joshua, He gave
Him the promises.
And what we have today is such an importance on the words that we speak.
When we're faced with challenges that we don't actually speak out in the negative and go,
I just can't do it anymore.
Or this thing's too hard or this child's too difficult.
And you just speak out in the flesh what your natural eye sees because that sows unbelief,
that sows into your heart doubt.
And the Bible says in Proverbs that death and life are in the power of the tongue and
those who love it will eat of its fruit.
So you've got an opportunity to speak life or you've got an opportunity to speak death.
And it's your choice.
Now, you might say, well, it is difficult what I'm going through.
It is challenging.
I am suffering.
I do have this pain or I am waiting for God to do this and I'm not seeing it.
I am facing this challenging situation.
That is the truth.
You are.
But see, that is a reality.
But there's a greater reality that God expects us to walk into.
In Romans, in Romans chapter four, he says, I think it's in Romans chapter four, he says
that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though
they did.
See, God expects us to speak words of faith.
He wants to affirm and give us words to speak over our lives for our present day situation.
There's an ultimate reality.
There's a greater reality than what we're facing right now.
Like I said, God says that where there is death, He'll give us life.
Where there seems to be hopelessness, He wants to give us hope.
He wants to give us hope in those challenging situations because for Joshua, he had the
promise and in chapter one, verse nine, he says, God says to Joshua, have I not commanded
you be strong and of good courage and do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your
God is with you wherever you go.
So we have the same promise in Matthew 28 that God will never leave us nor forsake us.
And that is so important for us to know that in what I just read out, that's the most,
one of the most repeated commandments that we not be afraid.
But he says, be strong and of good courage.
Do not be afraid nor dismayed.
So we don't actually have the right to be dismayed because God has given us this ability
to overcome.
The Bible says that we are overcomers.
It says in Romans 837, yet in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us, through Him.
That word conquerors means you can say overcomer.
So we, you and I as Christians are more than overcomers through Him who loved us.
So what does that mean?
Well John 1633 says, these things I've spoken to you, this is Jesus words, that in me you
may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation or pressure, but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world.
So if Jesus has overcome the world and you and I are in Him, then we too have overcome
the world.
So we have the Holy Spirit in us.
He was given to us to help us, to strengthen us in the time of need.
He's the one who wants to lead us through every situation, every challenge that we're
faced with.
But we've got to yield to that and we've actually got to make a decision whether or not we want
to wait and let God strengthen us.
Because when we don't, we can be in that place where I can't do this, I can't fix this,
this is not working.
It could be in ministry, it could be an expression of your mouth or your thoughts regarding you
being a husband or father, a wife or a mother, that this is just too difficult, I can't do
this, I'm not living up to what God's called me to do.
But you see, just as God gave Joshua that promise that He still gives us today that
we can stand on, we can actually stand firm in what God has promised for us.
Because the basis for Joshua being strong and courageous, if you look in chapter 1,
he said, at the start of Joshua, he says, I am with you Joshua, Moses is gone, I'm going
to be with you now.
And he says in Joshua chapter 1 verse 5, he says, no man shall be able to stand before
you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses so I will be with you, I will not leave
you nor forsake you.
Be strong and of good courage, for these people you shall divide as an inheritance of land
which I swore to their fathers to give them, 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 wherever you go.
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.
So the basis of God's command to Joshua to be strong, to be courageous was the basis
of knowledge because he says to him in verse 8 to meditate, to meditate on it.
So knowing on the basis that God is with us, the basis that God is with us, that is the
basis for which we have strength and courage because he says to Joshua, I will not leave
you nor forsake you.
So that is the basis for us today, that we have a trust in him that he won't leave us
nor forsake us but also that he has the promises like he does to, like we do today.
He says to Joshua that you are to meditate in it, you are to meditate in the book.
So you are to know the Word of God, you are to know the Word of God and you are to do
it.
In verse 8 he says, 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.
So the first basis is knowing that God is with you, the second basis is knowing and
trusting in the promises of God.
So when we are in that place, maybe we are on our face, before we can get up as God commanded
Joshua twice to do, before we can rise ourselves up we've got to actually know the promises
of God.
We are in that place of defeat, maybe we are in that place of dismay, we are in that place
of discouragement where we can't actually see the future going forward but we actually
get in that place and we stand on the promises of God.
We actually start to, instead of speaking out negatively, instead of speaking out what
we just see in the natural and just go, oh it's all hopeless, I'm never going to win
at anything, I'm never going to be doing anything.
We actually start speaking the Word and the promises of God over your life, over your
circumstances.
Psalm 55 verse 22, I repeat this one regularly because I love it, it says, Cast your burden
on the Lord and he shall sustain you, he shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
So you are in a place and you've got the heaviness and stress of work, you've got family pressures,
maybe you've got ministry pressures as well, it's all getting too much, in the natural
world it just seems too much and you go, no, I'm not even going to begin to think that
or let alone speak that, I'm going to reject that and I'm going to stand on your faithfulness
Lord, your promise says that if I cast my burden on the Lord that you will sustain me
and you will never allow the righteous to be moved.
So I'm going to stand on that promise, I'm going to stand on the promise of Matthew 28
that you said you would never leave me nor forsake me.
I may feel like I'm alone right now but Lord you promised that you would never leave me
nor forsake me.
I'm going to stand on your faithfulness, I'm going to stand on your promises that you are
going to pull me out of this place that I'm in and it's going to be by faith, it's going
to be by faith that you do that because there's another instance, see Joshua had a victory
in Jericho but the next one became a defeat and we too in the Christian life are going
to have victories but we're also going to have defeats, we're going to have mountaintop
victories, we're going to have valleys and in 1 Kings 19 this is a time when Elijah had
a great victory, God had used him mightily to destroy the altar of Baal, all the prophets
had been shown up that their God was false and there was a mighty move of God in that
place and straight after that, that's the context but the king of that place, Ahab,
told his wife Jezebel all that Elijah had done and it says that Elijah ran for his life
in verse 3 and when he saw that he arose and ran for his life and went to Bathsheba which
belongs to Judah and left his servant there but he himself went a day's journey into the
wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed there that he might die
and said, it is enough, now Lord take my life from me no better than my father's. Then as
he lay and slept under a broom tree suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise
and eat. See this man Elijah he just had that great victory, the next day or shortly after
he's in a place and he's running for his life into the wilderness and often we can do the
same thing when we're challenged with something and we haven't drawn on God, we haven't stand
firm on his promises, we don't know the promises let alone stand on them that we can actually
flee like Jonah did, like Elijah did, he ran for his life into the wilderness and that
discouragement that he was facing it turned into self-pity and then it turned into hopelessness
because he said, I might die and said it is enough, now Lord take my life from me no better
than my father's. So this man was incredibly destroyed by that word but God raised him
up, God raised him up after that, he fed him and he still had a purpose for him and see
we can, like this man Elijah, we can take refuge when we don't know how to handle situations,
we can take refuge in sleep like Jonah did, he took refuge in sleep, we can take refuge
in food because we just don't know how to deal with it, we just want to numb our senses,
you take refuge in drugs, you can even take refuge in movies, just binge watching movies
just to numb your mind so you don't have to think about what you're challenged with but
today I want to give you what God says because you know we can't do it in our own strength,
it is only through the strength and the courage that God will give you and I that we can actually
walk through every obstacle and every challenge in life that we will too become overcomers
because you and I are overcomers, you may not feel like you're an overcomer but you
are, God said to Joshua, be strong, you might say, I don't feel strong, he didn't say feel
strong he said be strong because it's all by faith, we don't walk by emotions, we don't
walk by feeling, we walk by faith, we walk by faith.
Jesus said in 1 John 5, 4 regarding our faith and overcoming, he said for whatever is born
of God, this is 1 John 5, 4, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, we are,
that's you and I, we are born of God, we are sons and daughters and this is the victory
that has overcome the world, our faith.
He who overcomes the world, who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God.
So we have great promises that God's given us, we have this word but not only that in
Psalm 27 we actually have the way in which we can walk this out.
In Psalm 27 verse 13, this is the Psalm of David, he said, he began with I would have
lost heart, see we feel like we are being consumed if we don't believe, that's just
so important that we believe, we have the faith.
He said, I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living and he goes on to say, wait on the Lord, be of
good courage and he will strengthen your heart, wait I say on the Lord.
So in that place like David, he said I would have lost heart, he didn't, his remedy was
unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
See God has been so good to us, God has given us not only His Holy Spirit, He's given us
His Word, He's given us His Holy Spirit to speak rema words that we have, we can have
personally, daily, see the goodness of the Lord, the mercy of God will keep us, the goodness
of God is His strength, the goodness of God is to lift us up when we are down in that
pit just like David and he said wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord.
See what we were doing here in worship, that's a beautiful picture of just waiting and worship
and praise, we were just waiting and God's Spirit, His presence was so manifest and we
were just waiting on the Lord, that's what we do at home, waiting because in that place,
in His presence, that's when we are strengthened, that's when we are strengthened and we so
need to be strengthened and we so need to be encouraged.
Where does it come from?
Where does our courage come from?
It's taken courage in knowing that we can trust in God.
That sounds pretty straightforward but we take courage that God will strengthen our
heart, again it's by faith that we come into all that God has given us, all that He's promised
us.
See we don't have to be like Joshua, we can actually walk victoriously, we can walk completely
victoriously regardless of what we are faced with, whatever challenges that come our way,
it might be something in your personal life that no one else knows about but you see when
we actually give it to the Lord and we actually wait on the Lord, we stand on His promises,
they are yes and amen, He then comes in, the Bible says that He arms us with strength and
makes our way perfect, see these are some of the promises that we can stand on, that
we can actually by faith receive instead of speaking words of unbelief, instead of speaking
words of doubt, instead of speaking words of failure, we can say it is well, it is well,
if I'm going through something I just don't choose to speak it out, I just, and I'm not
joking I say it is well, just like I think it's, I forget her name, one of the widows
or in 1 Kings 2, 9, that one, Shunammite woman, it is well, she was suffering horrifically,
how are you?
She said it is well, it is well, that should be the affirming words of our lips because
that is what hope is, it is well, maybe we're facing a challenging situation but it is well,
and you know we are, as Christians we are to put on, the Bible says in what Thessalonians,
as a helmet our salvation, put on as a helmet our salvation, which means our hope or our
salvation it stands or falls with hope and having hope is being optimistic, see being
a pessimist, being a pessimist is a denial of your faith, we don't have the right to be
pessimistic, we have a Jesus who's risen, we have the Holy Spirit who is not only in
us but is with us and upon us, we have the faithfulness of God, we have the promises
of God, there is no chance that we can stand in a place where we are pessimistic because
that completely denials all that Jesus has done, see the Bible says our hope is like
an anchor, when we choose to focus on Jesus instead of our circumstances, He is our hope,
that hope like that anchor that passes through like a boat passes through the anchor, it
goes through the water, that water represents like the world, it's like an unstable element
that it hits rock bottom, it hits the rock, who's the rock? It's Jesus, so although the
boat on the surface might be moving, it's anchored in, that is the hope we have, it's
in Jesus Christ and He says I have overcome the world, you and I have overcome the world
because we are in Him and I think that's good news because we have to guard our minds, we
have to affirm what is true from the Word of God, we cannot afford to speak out what
we see in the natural, in our circumstances, if you're going through something you need
to share that with someone that's fine but you just don't prophesy over your life because
like I said death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it shall
eat of its fruit. So I want to encourage you today that just as God raised up Joshua, just
as He continued to use him despite what happened, that today you can actually be encouraged
that whatever you're facing you don't actually have to receive it, you don't actually have
to be in that place of dismay, despondency, you don't have to rely on your own strength
or your own wisdom or your own resources, you can actually stand on the faithfulness
of God like Joshua did, you can actually rise above your circumstances because you can overcome,
you can overcome every challenge you're facing with, you can overcome, I'm not, God's saying
you can overcome, according to His Word, He says you can overcome. So I believe whatever
you're going through, whatever challenge, whatever ashes you have, God wants to raise
them to defeat, raise them to victory. Wherever you are defeated, God wants to raise you up
but you've got to make a decision, just like God told Joshua, you've got to actually get
up, you cannot lay on your face despondent anymore. So I want to close there but I want
to, I want to finish by saying if you have something that you're struggling with and
you want prayer for that, maybe you're in a place of dismay, maybe you want to come
before God and just release everything to Him, we have a prayer team who will pray for
you if you come forward and know that God will actually lift you up because He's faithful,
He will lift you up out of that place, I know He's done it for me, He's done it for me recently
but you've got to rely on Him, you've got to rely on Him. So Lord I want to thank You
for Your promises, Lord I want to thank You, Lord they are yes and amen, I want to thank
You for Your faithfulness. Lord I thank You that You see every challenge, Lord and You
remember and You see every tear, You see every heart, You see Lord every person's struggles
and Lord I want to thank You Lord that is Your great love for us Lord that You want
to respond to that and minister to that. Lord I'm asking Lord today where people are despondent,
Lord where people are Lord in those ashes, they are in the dust on their face, I'm asking
Lord today, Lord that You would revive them, Lord You would revive them according to Your
Word, Lord those souls that melt from heaviness, I'm asking Lord You would revive them according
to Your Word, Lord those people Lord who are discouraged, I'm asking right now Lord that
You would raise them up, raise them up Lord out of the ashes of defeat, Lord raise them
up to victory, Father God I thank You Lord that each and every one of us here Lord are
overcomers because of what You have done Lord Jesus, we are overcomers Lord and I declare
Lord today every person Lord shall walk out of this room and overcome it, they shall know
Your faithfulness, they shall know Lord that they are Lord in You Lord Jesus and You have
overcome the world, I thank You Lord that no challenge, Lord no challenge shall set
them back, Lord nothing, no mountain, Lord shall befall them but Lord they shall rise,
they shall rise up Lord because Lord You are the God that gives strength, You are the God
that builds courage in us so I ask right now for fresh courage, I ask for fresh hope right
now that You would renew hope in people's minds Lord where they have lost hope, I'm
asking You would renew that hope for every person today and ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.
Come forward if you want someone, one of the prayer team to pray for you, come forward.