Lifetime Guarantee :: Joshua 1:9

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YHWH your God is with you wherever you go.

Is there anything that God can’t do? 

Have you ever asked this question? ... I’ll confess that I have. I don’t think this question is not asked all that often by skeptics who are trying to tear down the faith. I think it’s more likely to be asked by Christians who have too much time on their hands.

Maybe you heard this question phrased another way. 

Could God create a boulder that is so big that even he himself couldn’t move it?


The answer is simple. 

Is there anything God can’t do? Absolutely! 

There are a lot of things that God can’t do! And this is all great news for all of you!

God cannot lie (Num 23:19) ... God cannot be tempted (Jas 1:13) ... God cannot be unfaithful. God cannot deny himself (2 Tm 2:13). God cannot forget a covenant (Deut 7:9). God cannot reject a blameless man (Job 8:20). God he cannot do evil. He cannot call evil good or good evil (Job 34:12). God cannot change (Mal 3:6). 

And today ... Joshua reminds us what was first spoken to Moses that God cannot leave you or forsake you (Deut. 31:6). 

In other words, God can’t do anything ... nor can he say anything ... that contradicts who he is or what he said. 


So ... brothers and sisters in Christ ... and especially you, Kellan Scott Eye ... today I want you to hear God’s Good News for you. I want you to take Joshua 1:9 to heart for the rest of your life. I want you to make it your own. God declares to you

BEHOLD, HE IS WITH YOU ALWAYS.

God cannot leave you.

I It is easy for you to forget this Gospel, that God is always with you. 

Kellan, today, you are confirmed in the church ... and many more people here who have watched you grow and mature the last 13 years will reconfirm their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who also has promised them that he will always be with you 

I think, therefore, that it is quite fitting you have chosen Joshua 1:9 as your confirmation verse. It is a confirmation of what God promised you on March 25, 2007, the day your Mom and Dad brought you to the baptismal font, this baptismal font. Here, God spoke the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you. Here, he promised to be with you always as he united himself with you in the death and resurrection of Jesus. And today, he promises to be with you as you receive the Lord's supper for the first time.


Our English translations don’t quite hit the full force of what God is telling Joshua. So allow me to translate the Hebrew of this verse for you this way ... God tells Joshua, Have I not commanded you to become strong and courageous? I don’t want you to tremble, and I don’t want you to be in a panic. I want you to know that YHWH your God is with you wherever you go.

Do you understand what this promise means that God is with you wherever you go? It doesn’t mean simply some vague idea that God is in my heart, although that is true. It doesn’t mean simply some that God has made you the temple of the Holy Spirit, although that also is true. It doesn’t mean that you can’t reject God and turn away from God. 


What it means is ... God has confirmed you as a saint. 

Yes, it is a miracle!

Here at this font, through baptism, God poured out his water and his word upon you, making you one of his own. He drowned your sin, washing it away. He sealed you into the forgiveness of sins, where there is life and salvation. He clothed you in his righteousness. He made you whole. He made you one of his very own ... He made you a new creation. God has reconciled himself to you (2 Cor 5:17-18) so that behold, he is with you, always, wherever you go.

It means ... 

You are forgiven, forever, not because of anything you do or say. 

You are forgiven, forever, not because of how you live the rest of your life. 

You are forgiven, forever, because God is with you wherever you go. 


In order for God to be with you wherever you go, your sin ceases to be. It ceases to be on account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus has paid for your sin, and God has declared you to be innocent, so that he can be with you. 

You no longer need to doubt your salvation. God not only took your sin away from you through the crucifixion of Jesus, through his innocent suffering and death. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree of the cross for this very reason (1 Peter 2:24). God so loved the world that he was willing to do that so that he could be with you wherever you go.

You see, sin has no place with God. Sinners cannot stand in the presence of God. Sin is destroyed by the holiness of God. God doesn’t overlook sin. God doesn’t ignore sin. Instead, he has forgiven them, and destroyed them by the death of Christ. 


Now, because you have been declared innocent, God is able to keep his promise to you, that he will always be with you. 

This is his promise to you. He does not lie. He cannot contradict himself.


II Even though God can’t break his promise to you, that does not mean you cannot break your promise to him. 

To be true to our text, I need to note that we should not take Joshua 1:9 out of context. What the Lord spoke in Joshua, he spoke directly to Joshua. He did this because Joshua knows ... like you ... that there are things he himself can’t do. Joshua doesn’t always walk with God.


As the Book of Joshua begins, Moses has just died, and Joshua has inherited the task of leading the people of Israel through the Jordan River into the Promised Land. 

On the other side of the Jordan are cities such as Jericho, which have walls that seemingly reach up to the sky. There are people such as the Canaanites, who make the Israelites feel like grasshoppers by comparison. There is an entire world of people who will oppose God and his people at every turn.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Jordan, Joshua is tasked with leading a couple million cantankerous and miserable people who complain endlessly about their lot in life. They don’t want to do what God says. They don’t want to follow the Lord. They don’t want to conform to God’s ways.


So you see, Joshua undoubtedly feels utterly alone and isolated. 

How can I do this, he must be saying to himself. I cannot possibly follow in Moses’ footsteps. I can’t possibly do this or that by myself. I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to him. I am a sinner in need of repentance.


III So God does something that you and I could never do. He reminds you ... once again ... that I will be with you wherever you go.

Kellan, you are vowing to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your soul ... and to love your neighbor as yourself ... all the days of your life. 

You are vowing to turn away from your sin ... and Lord knows that like me you undoubtedly have too many to confess ... 

You are vowing to no longer live according to the flesh, as Saint Paul reminds us in the epistle to the Romans, and will therefore confess all of your sins, even the ones you want to keep on doing, and to receive absolution from your pastor.

You are vowing to recognize that because God has raised you to new life when he led you through the waters of baptism that now you will put to death the deeds of the body ... immorality and idolatry, the love of yourself and the lack of self-control ... among so many other vices of body and soul ... and of thought, word, and deed.

You are vowing to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as possible ... to believe that it is what Jesus said it is ... his body and his blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

It’s a daunting pledge. 

Just like everyone in this sanctuary, you cannot do this by yourself. 


And like Joshua, like your pastor, like every member of this congregation, you will fall short from time to time. The world will tempt you into conforming with its ways, its thoughts, its desires. The devil and your own flesh will pile on as well, urging you to do what you want to do, how you want to do, and when you want to do it.

IV But rest assured, God will be with you wherever you go.

These words aren’t solely for Joshua any more. 

The writer to the Hebrews quotes this passage for the entire Christian church on earth, which includes you. And when God gives his word, he can’t go back on it. No matter what you do for the rest of your lives, God will always be with you. This is his promise. 


Brothers and sisters in Christ, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God. 

This you can do. Keep the scriptures close to your heart. Keep them on your lips. Tell the world about Jesus, what he has done for you, how he lived for you, how he died for you, how he was raised from the dead for your justification. 

Don’t forget your catechetical training. It is a valuable aid to develop a growing and healthy faith that is fruitful in love. And it firmly fixes our attention on God and His son, Jesus, with whom we live in a vital and enduring relationship.

This is always true, because He is always with you, wherever you go. It’s his lifetime guarantee to you.

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