JOSHUA 4

LIVE 3 LIVES

Someone has calculated how a typical lifespan of 70 years is spent. Here is the estimate:

Sleep................23 years...........32.9%
Work.................16 years...........22.8%
TV....................8 years...........11.4%
Eating................6 years............8.6%
Travel................6 years............8.6%
Leisure.............4.5 years............6.5%
Illness...............4 years............5.7%
Dressing..............2 years............2.8%
Religion............0.5 years............0.7%

Total................70 years............100% Our Daily Bread, November 25, 1992., http://www.sermons.org/illustrations/l/life.htm

"Lessons in living: If You Want to Be Loved:

·       Don't contradict people, even if you are sure you are right;

·       Don't be inquisitive about the affairs of even your most intimate acquaintance;

·       Don't underrate anything, because you don't possess it;

·       Don't believe that everybody else in the world is happier than you;

·       Don't conclude that you have never had any opportunities in life;

·       Don't believe all the evil you hear;

·       Don't repeat gossip, even if it does interest a crowd;

·       Don't go untidy on the plea that everybody knows you;

·       Don't be rude to your inferiors in social position;

·       Don't overdress or under dress;

·       Don't jeer at anybody's religious belief;

·       Learn to laugh. A good laugh is better than medicine;

·       Learn to hide your aches and pains under a pleasant smile. No one cares whether you have the earache, headache, or rheumatism;

·       Learn to attend to your own business--a very important point;

·       Don't try to be anything else but a gentlewoman or a gentleman, and that means one who has consideration for the whole world and whose life is governed by the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would be done by.” Christian World, 1905 http://ezinearticles.com/?If-You-Want-to-Be-Loved&id=299762

 

Like it or not, living is something which we all have to do. God has given you life, and now your are forced to live it!

 

If anyone should know how to live it us who call ourselves born again Christians.

 

With the Son of God as our Savior and Lord, with the Holy Spirit as our comfort and guide, and with God as our Heavenly Father, we should know how to live!

 

Tonight we return to the Book of Joshua and Chapter 4.  Here we find how to live successfully, if we apply some of the principles which are alluded to in this passage.

 

Actually, Joshua teaches us to live 3 lives simultaneously.  As Christians we should live at least three different types of lives which compliment each other. They are:

 

THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE

THE CRUCIFIED LIFE

THE RESURRECTION LIFE

 

In chapter 4 there are three basic events.

1. Joshua and Israel set up a base camp, or center of operations at Gilgal.

2. There was a memorial of twelve stones set up in the middle of the Jordan River.

3. There was a second memorial set up at Gilgal.

 

First, in association with the establishment of the base camp, we see

 

THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE

 

Vs. 19 - Gilgal was on the eastern border of Jericho.

 

It became the base of operations for Joshua and Israel.

When not far away at night, it was back to Gilgal.

And even after longer expeditions it was eventually back to Gilgal.

 

Gilgal was a safe area.

Gilgal was a quiet area.

Gilgal, at least temporarily, was "home".

It was Joshua's place of retreat.

Gilgal means "The reproach has been rolled away."

 

There is a lesson here for us.

Spiritually (as well as physically) we need a place of retreat.

We need a "safe area".

We need a "quiet area".

We need a temporary spiritual "home."

 

Life is too hectic.

Life is too brutal.

Life is too confused.

We must have a place in our schedules for a devotional life.

 

The story is told of an explorer who was so determined to reach his destination that he forced his porters to travel until they were exhausted. All day he would keep them moving, hardly stopping to rest. One morning, however, when the leader was ready to go his helpers just sat by their baggage. The explorer did all that he could to get them started, but they simply refused to move. Finally, in exasperation he turned to the chief porter and asked him what was wrong.

He replied, "They are resting until their souls catch up with their bodies." Source Unknown

That is exactly what we need to do every day.

We need to let our souls spiritually catch up with our bodies!

 

Isaiah 26:9 - With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments [are] in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

 

Our Lord's habit was to spend time with God.

Mark 1:35 -  And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

 

The apostle Paul, as well, set an example of a life of devotion.  As you read his epistles, note the prayers which he mentions, and you will see that this was a man who knew how to get along with God.

 

Wilbur Wilberforce, Christian Statesman of Great Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, once said, "I must secure more time from private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul. It grows lean and faint." 

 

There's any number of ways to have a devotional life.

However, if you have not gotten started on one, here are some brief, practical suggestions:

 

1. Find a quiet place by yourself and set a time.

    Make sure that it is a time when you are alert.

    I find morning best for me.

 

2. Read systematically.  A book at a time, and if you have not done so before, read the New Testament before you take on the Old.

 

3. Have a set amount to read.

 

4. Ask God what He wants you to learn.

   

5. Seek to understand what He is saying when you read. Apply what you read to your own life.

 

6. Make a prayer list of things and people to pray for. Date them when you get your answer to prayer.

 

Remember, Joshua had a base of operations.

He had a place to come back to.

Your base of operations should be your constantly coming back to the Lord in a Devotional walk with Him.

 

THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE

THE CRUCIFIED LIFE

 

The Jordan River at this time of year was a place of death. It was the spring of the year and the river was in flood stage.

 

The Jordan was where these people could have died.

The Israelites symbolically passed through death, going down into the river bed.

 

Joshua 4:9 - And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

 

Joshua put up twelve stones symbolic of the old life in Egypt, and the fact that they were dead to that old life forever. This memorial in the river reminds us of our death with Christ.

 

Romans 6:1-2 -  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

 

Now that we are saved we should in no way continue in sin so God can continue to be gracious!  It's like someone bailing you out of debt, so you go into debt again so they can bail you out again. Ridiculous!

 

Romans 6:3 -  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

 

Those of us who have believed have been baptized into the death of Christ.

WHEN CHRIST DIED AND WAS BURIED, BECAUSE I AM A BELIEVER, I DIED AND WAS BURIED. HE DIED IN MY PLACE SO I DIED WITH HIM.

 

Romans 6:6 - Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

 

This verse tells us that sin no longer has the control over me that it once had. I once had no choice about serving sin. But now I have a choice.

 

When I was a soldier in the 17th aviation group in Viet Nam, I had a section head named Captain Barnes. He was my leader, my commander, my boss. 

 

I HAD TO OBEY HIM!

 

If Captain Barnes came in here tonight and started giving me orders, would I have to obey Him?

Not any longer. I could but I don't have to. I am no longer under his authority.

 

So, when it comes to this life, how should I live it?

AS CRUCIFIED!

I am dead to the grip and authority that sin once had in my life.

 

Romans 6:11 - Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

I am  to reckon myself dead to sin!

Galatians 2:20 makes it even broader in scope.

 

I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST... - That means  I am dead not only to sin, but to all in my life that Christ doesn't want there.

 

A young man approached an Old Christian with this question: "WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST?"

 

The believer replied: "IT MEANS THREE THINGS"

1. A man on a cross is facing in only one direction.

2. He is not going back.

3. He has no further plans of his own.

 

Let me ask you - HAVE YOU COUNTED YOURSELF AS CRUCIFIED AS PAUL DID?

 

Are you dead to your own ambitions and desires?

Are you dead to your own plans?

Are you dead to your own way of doing things?

Are you willing to live daily considering yourself dead to sin and alive to God?

Are you willing to make living for Christ the only important thing? When you do, everything else will fall into place.

 

Alan Redpath told of a missionary giving a testimony at Keswick in England during a missions conference.

She had returned from missions work in China.

 

She said that before she went to China, a friend came to her and said, What on earth are you going to China for? You'll never stand the climate - You'll be dead in six months.

 

The missionary replied, My dear girl, I want you to know that five years ago I died. When Jesus called me to China, I bowed my head at the cross and died to everything except God and China.

 

Redpath added, "I happen to know that this girl died to the possibility of husband, a home, children, to her family, comforts, pleasure, luxury, all of which were within her grasp." Source Unknown

 

The crucified life is very practical.

I simply become dead to what is around me.

I can put off those sinful things of the old life, that I did before I was saved:

 

Colossians 3:5-9 -  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off  all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

 

Think of each sin from the old life as one of those memorial stones which was buried in the Jordan.

Take that stone place in the Jordan. Bury it!

 

THE CRUCIFIED LIFE

THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE

THE RESURRECTION LIFE Vss. 19-24

 

Here was the second memorial of stones.

This one was set up on the other side of Jordan to which they crossed, within the promised land.

 

The memorial in the river was a sign of death, the crucified life.

The memorial in the land was a sign of life, resurrection life.

 

Counting oneself dead is only part of victorious living.

Counting oneself alive to new life in Christ is the second part!

 

 Romans 6:4-5 - Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection:

 

Romans 6:11 - Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

I am dead to the old life of sin!

I am alive in resurrection life.

Please note the authority which I now have because I have new life:

 

Romans 6:12-13 - Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

 

During World War II "General Wainwright suffered greatly in a Manchurian prison camp after the fall of Bataan. Japanese prison guards mocked him and made his life totally miserable until he became a broken, crushed, starving man. One day an airplane landed nearby and a colonel of the Allied forces reported to General Wainwright, telling him that Japan had been defeated. Shortly after the colonel left, the prison guards, unaware of what had happened, returned to harass the general as before. This time he retorted, "I AM IN COMMAND HERE NOW, AND THESE ARE MY ORDERS." Source Unkown

 

The guards, shocked, speechless, understood that their prisoner had been informed of the Allied victory. From that moment General Wainwright was in supreme command over a defeated army."

Christian, the crucified life leads to the resurrection life. Which means there is someone new in command. That person is the Lord Jesus Christ. As He commands through you, the old life is defeated.

 

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 

We make this life practical, in the same manner we made the crucified life practical.

 

Colossians 3:5-9 told us to put off the old life.

 

Colossians 3:12-14 tells us to put on the new life.

 

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye.  And above all these things [put on] charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

 

Just as we placed the sins in a pile in the middle of the river so they were buried, so too, in the promised land of the new life we build new habits as a memorial to the resurrection life.

 

LIVE THREE LIVES:

 

THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE

THE CRUCIFIED LIFE

THE RESURRECTION LIFE