This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Evening, folks. It's great to see you in particular. Welcome. If you're new to all Saints tonight, my name is Chris. I'm one of the ministers here.

We're thrilled that you're here with us to worship. And we're in the middle of a book called Joshua, an Old Testament book. And we've seen so far that the name Joshua literally means Jesus. And then some commentators say they really just should have called this book Jesus because that is what the name means. Joshua was a prototype Jesus.

The Israelites in Genesis, Genesis twelve, they've been promised an inheritance through Abraham, but it's through Joshua, the pre Jesus, that they are brought into the promised land in the same way that God's people today, the church promised an inheritance of eternal life. It said those who are in Jesus will inherit the earth, that one day there'll be a new heavens and new earth, there'll be an eternity with Jesus through his death and resurrection. And tonight's set of passages talks a little bit or give us a bit of a clue as to what God's plan is for in the meantime, that there is a journey to go on. And tonight's story, the place that we're landing, it reminds us that the real fight for those Old Testament people, for the Israelites, wasn't really where they thought it was. You see, the Israelites thought that they had this plan.

Wonderful. We're going to have a land where we can prosper and settle down and become a proper nation that belongs to a piece of land. But the danger, the problem is that there are giants in the land that we're going to have to defeat. Well, next week we're going to see the battle of Jericho. And some of you may know the song, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho.

There's one commentator that's named his chapter on that passage. Joshua didn't fight the battle of Jericho. The reason being that we're going to see that God essentially handed it to them on a plate. You see, the fight was never really where the Israelites thought it was. But the reason it took them so long to reach the place, reach the inheritance that God had for them wasn't the battle out there.

It was actually the battle in here. That God's people, they weren't ready to see their inheritance. Why? Because they bore the name of God's treasure as his chosen people. But they still worship the gods of Egypt.

They were called to trust that same God that had helped them cross the Red Sea for their food and water. But they couldn't trust they were called to believe that God could fight their battles, but they didn't believe. And so they wondered. The hardest battle wasn't bringing down Jericho. The hardest battle for the Israelites was learning what it actually means to walk and act as God's people, that identity that had been bestowed upon them.

And the same is true of us today. Don't know whether we're christian or non Christian here in this room. The Bible tells us, the story of the gospel tells us that the biggest fight we face is not what we think it is. That actually perhaps the worst enemy because of what Jesus has done, the worst enemy isn't out there. The worst enemy, the biggest fight we have to face is in here.

And that to become a Christian is to admit that we're our own worst enemy, that we need mercy and help. And that mercy and help starts with God changing us to prepare us for the inheritance that he has for us. The gospel tells us that Jesus, the true and better Joshua, came to earth to live the life we should have lived, to die the death we should have died, and to rise again one day that we might rise with him and live forever. And in accepting this free gift of grace, we have a hope of heaven that is not earned or bought, but is given to us by the free gift of Jesus death on the cross. And so we might presume that the christian life, you know, say, whether you're looking at it as a Christian tonight or looking at it from the outside of someone who's not yet a Christian, is kind of one of simply accepting this free gift, you know, the ticket to heaven, persuading other people to receive this free gift, sort of waiting around, doing church, reminding ourselves of what has gone and what is to come, and singing songs about how God is with us in the hard times.

And that is the christian life. None of which is wrong, even though incredibly reductionist. But what Joshua four and five reminds us, what John read to us, is that God is not only on a project to bring people from all nation languages to himself, but to prepare them for that inheritance, to prepare us for the day when we meet him face to face. And that is the bigger fight. That is the bigger fight.

And so we've looked at the commission of Joshua. We've looked at how he sent people to scout the land. He looked at last week at how God rolled back the river Jordan so the Israelites could cross it. And now, just before they enter the promised land, God puts them through a season of reshaping and reforming his people, saying, now rediscover the things that you have lost, remember the things that you have forgotten. And that is the journey for them.

And that is the journey for us as well. If you're a Christian here tonight, that we have a journey to go on, that our freedom, our joy, our hope, the Bible says is wrapped up in this journey. Does Christianity feel real to you? Or are you a Christian who sort of is a Christian by name only, but when you head out of the church doors, it doesn't feel like a reality. Well, maybe that's you.

There are three questions we can ask ourselves tonight. I'm going to use this passage to answer what habits are forming you, what identity is grounding you and what hope is strengthening you. There are three questions I'd love us all to answer together tonight. Firstly, what habits are forming you? So as Ben shared with us last week, in order to reach the promised land, God's people had to cross the Jordan River.

God miraculously rolled back the waters of the river so that they could crosse of Joshua four. We read that God tells Joshua to instruct the twelve representatives of the twelve tribes to take twelve stones, twelve being the number of completion in scripture and to form a monument with these stones to God provision. And so they did. Let's just remind ourselves of those verses we heard. On the 10th day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones that they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites in the future, when your descendants asked their parents, what do these stones mean? Tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on high ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did that to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

Remember, set these stones up that you would remember. So generations don't forget. But memorials generally, they're not only set up just for a sort of nice reminder of something nice in history that happened, they're not just to remind us of an entryway of how we got to this place. But always there is a fear that actually if we don't remember this thing and if we don't walk in remembrance of this thing, then bad things will happen. There's always a fear associated with memorial stones, which is why they say, you've got to remember this.

So we think of, say, wedding rings, right? Wedding rings are a memorial. They're a memorial to a promise, a covenant that a couple makes to each other, but then not only something that helps remind the couple of their nice wedding day, but remember to walk in this covenant for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for sickness and in health. Stay with one another through the fears, the things that might otherwise break you up. You remember the covenant, but you remember it in order to walk in it.

My last church, we took a group of young people to Rwanda and they have all sorts of monuments and memorials there to the genocide that happened 30 years ago. And they say not just to remember this, but they believe they have a message to the world that says this might never happen again. And so they set up memorials that we might walk in reconciliation. And so we ask ourselves, this memorial, this monuments that they're setting up just on the edge of the promised land, these twelve stones, what is the fear? What might they forget?

Well, we have it in the next verse. He did this so that all peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you, God's people, might always fear the Lord your God. Why did the Israelites wander in the deserts? They didn't fear God. They didn't trust God.

And the monument here is set up so that they will go into the land and remember that a God is a God worth fearing. So that brings us two questions for ourselves. Firstly, what for the people of God, for the church? What are our monuments? What are our memorials?

And secondly, what are we called to remember? Is it the fear of God or is it sort of something else? Have we moved past that as New Testament people? One commentator says that pattern of remembering, it carries over for the church in communion when we share the bread and wine. That memorial act carries over for the church not in an object but in an action, which is really, really good news, because if it were an object, it could only exist in one place.

People would come from pilgrimages to this object that would help us remember. People would start worshipping the object or someone would steal the object. But God said, no, no, no. This is something that you can do as a memorial that every church around the world can do, is have a meal together of bread and wine to remember. And we take communion so that our children will ask, what does that mean?

Why are you doing that? What does it mean? For us, it is a moment to remembrance and it is right to talk about that as a remembrance for the love of God, the love that God has shown us in Jesus Christ by dying on the cross for our sins, but also as a remembrance to our fear of God, our fear of God in the New Testament church, it's not that sort of. The Old Testament was about the God of fear. It's the God of love.

There's a book I've been reading recently. I meant to wave it around, but I think it's in my bag. It's called rejoice and tremble by Michael Reeves. And if you're sort of dealing with these ideas of the Bible, keeps talking about the fear of God, is that a good thing or a bad thing? He really untangles that for us.

It's a wonderful book. And in this he talks about a right sort of fear that comes from being faced not only with the abundant power but the abundant blessing of God. In that, as we lean into God's powerful works, as we lean into God's blessings, the sense in us emerges not only a fear of the creator of the universe, but a God whom we fear because we look at what he's done for us in redemption and say, how could we possibly reject a God like that? How could we dare rebel against a God like that? Why would we even want to?

And one of the references he brings to is in Jeremiah 33 that points towards the new covenant that ends with this. They, my people, God says, will be in all of and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and at peace I provide for it. And so, as a church, God calls us to remember. He calls us to remember the great love of God. But he calls us to fear God as we press into the abundant blessings that he has given us in Jesus, and he promises us for the future.

And so I ask tonight, what habits are forming you when we take communion, we remember Christ, remember this powerful God who brings us every blessing at such great cost to himself. And the cross becomes not only the door through which we attain that promise, but the path in which we walk, fearing God for his abundant blessings. And of course, we could talk about many other habits that help our faith, help this story be real to us as we walk. Bible reading, hearing scripture, prayer, quietness, scripture memorization, christian community and friendship is a discipline and of course, giving which we're thinking about tonight through dedication Sunday, which maybe talk about a bit at the end. But the first question is, what habits are forming us as christians?

What habits are forming you? Secondly, what identity is grounding you? There's a second act of recentering the Israelites that takes place in Joshua five, which is the circumcision at Gilgal. And to understand what's going on here, it'd be helpful to take just a big picture of Israel's journey. One of the images that we find in the Old Testament, of Israel's journey in scripture is that of a street child, a baby born on the street and left for dead, being taken in by a prince, being taken in by a royal household and finally marrying a prince and becoming a princess.

And for God's Old Testament and New Testament people, the image of adoption, from spiritual rags to spiritual riches, is a hugely important one. And we might say that as we come to Israel's story at this point, it's where perhaps the street child, the nobody, has been told that they are going to come to live in the palace as royalty. It's going to happen, but because they don't quite believe it, because that news is too immense and unbelievable. Unbelievable. The child stays outside the palace, both hoping the news is true, but also not trusting that it's true and living a very conflicted life, imagining what it might be to grow into this identity.

But while they still feel inside the reproach and the stigma of being a slave, of being a nobody, so as they continue to live in unbelief at what's about to happen, they sort of continue to go back to the old life, begging, even though they don't need to beg. Stealing as though they don't need to steal. Degrading themselves even though they don't need to. All while this new life is waiting, until at some point this child realises that the promise really is near, that their inheritance is coming and really is true. And the prince says, it's time for you to come and enter the palace now.

The adoption papers are through, the marriage papers are through, the promise is coming to fulfilment. But now you need to remember your new identity, the identity that you've forgotten, and you need to leave behind the old now, that promise was given for the people of God way back in Genesis twelve, when God gave the promise of the new line of this, of the inheritance of the land. But the sign of that promise, circumcision, that was given in Genesis 17 and was also an important marker of identity for the Israelites. Here it is, Genesis 17. God says to Abraham, I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants, after you, for the generations to come, the whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be their God.

And that is the introduction to God giving to Abraham, God's people the sign of circumcision. And so for the Old Testament church, if we can call it that, it was an outward marker of an inward reality. It was the marker of the covenant, almost a marriage between God's people and this God of the universe. Romans four tells us more about this covenant. It was God's declaration that your faith is credited to you as righteousness.

Because you believe me, we can be in relationship not because of anything that you have done, good or bad, but simply because of the righteousness that has been given to you and that language of God's affection of his people. It gets stronger as their journey goes from there. God's people enter the wilderness after crossing the Red Sea, after which, in Exodus 19, God declares over them, out of all nations, you will be my treasure possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In other words, the palace is waiting.

Your name and my name will be the same. And through you, in this raw house, a saviour will be born who will save the whole world. That is an immense promise, but so immense as they wrestled, whether it really was true or not, they preferred the security of living as paupers than trusting that the promise was really real. And in Joshua five, we read that the sign of circumcision has been lost. Boys born after the people who came out of Egypt hadn't been circumcised, they just hadn't bothered because they'd really lost sight in their hearts and minds of that new identity.

And so they lost the signs of that new identity. Israel became a people bearing the name of the people of God. But they weren't acting any differently. They didn't really look any different to other nations, except for the fact that they were wandering and had no land. And we might be tempted to say, well, the people of God got tempted, the Israelites got tempted.

But the deeper problem was they forgot their identity as treasured possession because the inheritance hadn't come yet. They forgot their identity and so they acted no differently. But here in this passage in Joshua five, before they enter the land, the inheritance, it says, before you come, it's time for you to remember those things again that you were promised. Now, for us in the New Testament church, that sign of circumcision maps onto the sign of baptism. In the new covenant, what sets God's people apart, what declares this new identity is the outward sign of baptism.

And so imagine a church that has stopped baptising people that's just given up on it, a church that stops baptising has forgotten what salvation looks like. ChuRch that stops baptising has forgotten the story that ought to shape them. Church that stops baptising becomes a community that looks no different from the communities around them. It's very easy for a church to become a community that bears the name of God about having none of that reality, because that's what happens when a church forgets their identity. And in one, Peter two, Peter declares that Exodus 19 identity over the church but you are a chosen people.

This is for us now, here today, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were a people, but now you are people of God. Once you had received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And it doesn't stop with simply declaring the story. But what Peter goes on to say to the church is this.

Therefore, dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, as people still on that journey, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Where is the true battle for us as christians? Where is the real battle? Is it the battle to work hard enough and to fight hard enough to earn our inheritance? No.

Jesus Christ has already done that for us. God has already handed that to us. The battle is in preparing ourselves for that time as frozen exiles abstaining from sinful desires which wage war against our soul. The circumcision at Gilgal was a way of saying, it's time to put away the old ways. You need to be prepared for the new life.

You need to remember your identity. The question for us is maybe in getting distracted by the trials and difficulties and the giants of the life out there, are we losing the real battle, the one in here, in whatever we're facing, are we pressing into the identity that Jesus has given us? Or as the world presses in, are we forgetting that identity? What habits are forming you, what identity is grounding you? And finally, what hope is strengthening you?

Towards the end of chapter five, after the Israelites sort of, they circumcise the younger men who haven't been. They rediscover that identity. And God says to Joshua, today I've rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. What's the reproach of Egypt? The shame, the disgrace, the reviling, the identity that they were slaves.

They're about to take the land, and finally they will be free. They will no longer be looked upon the world as a nation of slaves, as a wandering, homeless community, but as a people over the land in which they can prosper. They are about to become God's royalty in more than just name. In other words, God's promise given them all the way back in Genesis twelve and again after the exodus, and again is about to be vindicated. God was right.

It's going to be the message of what is about to happen. God is vindicated. And some of you here today, I don't know whether you are weary. Some of us are approaching reproach because you know Jesus, because you bear that name. Maybe we've just become weary of the true fight in here, become weary of praying.

We've become weary of sort of pursuing God's word and God's voice in our lives. Maybe we're weary because the outer struggles haven't been beaten and we just want to work those through first before we work on ourselves. Maybe you're tired because believing that promise, that hope is tiring, that actually being formed of this new identity is exhausting. Maybe there are people here, you're a Christian, but you've stopped kind of following Jesus in any sort of real sense because you're kind of just fine. You kind of feel like I don't really feel I need Jesus for the life I'm walking question what hope is strengthening you?

Do you believe that one day the promises of God, the salvation he's brought for you and Jesus will one day be fulfilled? Do you believe that he is leading you to an eternity secure in him? Do you believe that he is working in you and wants to work in you to prepare you for that day? See, another way to ask what hope is strengthening you is to ask, what do you spend your time dreaming about? The perfect partner, an easier life or prosperity?

Today is dedication Sunday, and last week in the morning we spent time looking at the reason we give. Because it's an investment in eternity. It's an investment in that hope. And the way we give our money tells us about where our hope really is, where the desires of our hearts lie. We may not be in the palace yet, but I, Jesus says, through me you will inherit the earth if you are in me.

And those who one day know that they will receive this inheritance have plenty more to give. In this life, we give as part of remembering the sacrifices made for us. We give knowing that we don't need money to dress our lives in a particular way because our identity lies somewhere else. If you're discouraged now, realise that for those in Christ, your vindication is coming, just like it did for the Israelites. And I hope you find it a wonderful blessing not only to do church while we wait for that inheritance, but also to grow in being church and being a follower of Christ.

And that is to wage the real battle. So we start with these questions. What habits are forming you? What identity is grounding you? What hope is strengthening you as we journey looking forward to that day?

Let's pray.

Dear Lord God, we thank you that you are always working for your glory and for our joy. And, Lord, we confess, some of us, maybe here, we're feeling joyless tonight, or tired or weary. And, Lord, we pray that you would minister to us. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would help us to lean into your blessings, that we might walk in fear of you. Lord, we want to pray that you would help us lean on the identity that you have given to us, not the identity that the world speaks to us.

And, Lord, that we pray that as we look forward to the hope that you have promised us, we might walk not only in what you have done for us, but, Lord, in knowing where we are headed. We thank you that you have led your people once of the promised land and that you will do it again through a worldwide church. And so help us, Lord, make this promise real as we journey. Amen.

Close.