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Entering a New Year With Faith
13 Plays1 year ago
How are we entering this new year? Are we hopeful? Do we know that God is doing a new thing? God is doing a new thing in Joshua and the Israelites are entering the Promise Land. God tells Joshua, their new leader, 3 times to be strong and courageous. He also tells him to not afraid and that He is with him. As we enter this year are we being strong and courageous? Do we have faith that God is with us? Rahab does have faith, and risks her life to protect the spies Joshua sends to Jericho. Rahab knew God's power and knew that God does what He says He is going to do. In Luke, Mary has faith like this too. As we enter this new year, we can hold onto faith tight just like Joshua, Rahab and Mary.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Filling You Up With Hope
Hi, it's Abby from Filling You Up with Hope. Every week we go through God's word and it's just a gift to get to go through his word. So we started in Genesis and now today we are starting in Joshua.
Parallels Between Israelites' Journey and New Year
00:00:20
Filling You Up With Hope
So, and this is, this podcast is called Entering a New Year with Faith. So something we all want to do.
00:00:30
Filling You Up With Hope
and we're gonna learn from Joshua's faith and a couple other people's faith. But it's just a good book to start the new year because um it's the Israelites are doing something new. They are going to be entering the promised land.
Moses' Leadership and Legacy
00:00:52
Filling You Up With Hope
Finally, it's been such a journey, such a journey in Exodus,
00:00:57
Filling You Up With Hope
um God did so many miracles and he freed the Israelites from horrible slavery. And there's been many books, many years of them wandering in the desert of complaining. It was a hard time and Moses has been preparing them. He went over so many different regulations with them and he encouraged them But he was not allowed to enter the land. And so in Deuteronomy, before the holidays, he died. He was a very old man, and Israelites grieved him. And he was such an amazing man, and um with great faith, and how amazing how close he was to God.
00:01:57
Filling You Up With Hope
right And he um he struggled with believing in himself. He had a speaking problem and he didn't think he could do what God was guiding him to do, but God knew he could do it. God knew he could do it.
Joshua's New Leadership Role
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Filling You Up With Hope
And so the Israelites were grieving for him And now we start Joshua with Joshua taking over from Moses and God talks to Joshua. So, but this is, this is a time of new things for the people of Israel. Cause they're entering this land and we are entering this new year. Right. And, um, and it's a time.
00:02:55
Filling You Up With Hope
where we can look at our lives and see like, where is God leading us? What are the things that he wants us to do? And for the Israelites, they're entering this land, right? god um But for us, what what is he guiding us to do? And sometimes we don't know, like we don't know what he wants us to do. And so this is a time where we can deeply pray and pray for God to show us and to make it clear the things that he wants us to do. And we can start this new year on a journey of of following him and just like the Israelites are are following him.
God's Encouragement to Joshua
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Filling You Up With Hope
But so in one Joshua, something is
00:03:54
Filling You Up With Hope
repeated three times. And we know that three in the Bible is is a big number. And when something's repeated many times, it's just something to take in, right? So this is God talking to Joshua, and it's just just words of encouragement that we all need. um This is chapter one, verse five, starting in that.
00:04:23
Filling You Up With Hope
No one will be able to stand up against you during your lifetime. Can you imagine hearing that? No one will be able to stand up against you. ah I will be with you in the same way I was with Moses. I won't desert you or leave you. Be brave and strong because you are the one who will help this people take possession of the land, which I pledge to give their ancestors.
00:04:52
Filling You Up With Hope
Be brit very brave and strong as you carefully obey all the instructions that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Skipping down to verse nine. I've commanded you to be brave and strong. Have an eye. Don't be alarmed or terrified because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Wow. So three times God says,
00:05:20
Filling You Up With Hope
Be brave and strong. So those are some things he wants Joshua to take in. You know, Joshua is going to have to fight in battles, scary battles.
00:05:35
Filling You Up With Hope
and um But God tells him, don't be alarmed or terrified. Be strong, because I'm with you.
00:05:47
Filling You Up With Hope
And that's just a reminder for us, no matter what we're facing, we can be brave and strong. We don't need to be alarmed or terrified. That doesn't help us. That doesn't help God. That doesn't help us do the things God is guiding us to do. um And he's he's with us. And that gives gives us strength. that he The creator of the universe is with us.
00:06:17
Filling You Up With Hope
Like these words are powerful. These words, I mean, it's easy to just read them over um quickly, but taking these in, they're powerful, powerful words to be brave, and be very brave and courageous, no matter what, and and being strong. um So he's telling Joshua these words, and then,
00:06:46
Filling You Up With Hope
Joshua decides that he's going to send spies into this land, ah into into Jericho.
The Spies and Rahab's Faith
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Filling You Up With Hope
And it's it's interesting because Joshua is someone with faith. And it starts in and Numbers 13 and 14. That's the first time that spies were sent into the promised land.
00:07:15
Filling You Up With Hope
and Moses sends them. And if you remember, they come back and they they don't have a good attitude, most of them. And they they say that this land, it's great, but there are big scary people there, like this isn't gonna work. And their attitude affects all of the people of Israel and alarms them and they're they're freaking out. And Caleb and Joshua, they they have a positive attitude. And Joshua says, this is in Numbers 14, I think, he the Lord is with us, so don't be afraid of them. So he's kind of saying the things back then that God is telling him now that
00:08:14
Filling You Up With Hope
Yes, these you know these people are there and the in this land, but we don't need to be afraid. We have God with us. um So it's very wise and and there's that faith that we don't need to be afraid. So Joshua has this faith and now he's sending out spies and now we're gonna encounter someone else with faith. So he sends out two spies and they enter the house of a prostitute named Rahab and they stay there. And the ah someone had told the king of jeric Jericho that the Israelites are here. The Israelites are here. They're spies. They're here. And so the
00:09:13
Filling You Up With Hope
the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab that send the men out who came to you um because they're spies. And Rahab lies.
00:09:31
Filling You Up With Hope
She says, um go this way. They already left. Go this way. And meanwhile, the spies are still with her. And so she's protecting them and she's risking her life. Like she's risking her life for these men that she doesn't even know. She's risking her life, her family's life. And it's because she knows God's power. She knows his might. She's heard of him. She's heard of the things that he's done. And she knows that, um,
00:10:11
Filling You Up With Hope
that things are gonna happen. We're in Jericho and she, well, she wants to be safe. She wants her family to be safe. And um she knows that God is the way. She knows that. So, which is amazing um that she has faith like that. And she was willing to risk her life to protect these people that she doesn't you know doesn't even know. so but she But she does that and she just says, just keep me and my family safe. So they tie a red, um she ties a red thing ribbon to her house to mark it, to mark her house. And they say, you know we we are gonna keep you safe, but
00:11:08
Filling You Up With Hope
It says in Joshua 2 verse 21, she said, these things will happen just like you said. So, um so she, she knows that these things that the men are saying that we're going to keep you safe, that they're going to happen. Like again, she has faith and it sounds these things will happen. Just like you said, sounds a lot like Mary.
00:11:39
Filling You Up With Hope
Mary says in Luke, um after the angel comes to her and says, you're gonna have Jesus, Mary says, let it be with me just as you have said. So, and we know that Mary knows that God can do impossible things and Mary has strong faith and so does Rahab. So, and Joshua, like we talked about,
00:12:09
Filling You Up With Hope
earlier, Joshua's faith. and um What they have in common is that they all know God's power and his might, and that he was going to do um the things that he said he was going to do. So as we enter this year, do we know God's power? um Are we being held back from doing things because it's too overwhelming, because it's too scary, it's too big? um Kind of like this the spies back in numbers that we talked about. oh Or are we being like, Joshua, and we know, at and Rahab and Mary, and we know
00:13:07
Filling You Up With Hope
that God can do impossible things. And so we're holding on to Him because He's with us and we're being strong and courageous. um That gives us confidence to do do the things that God is guiding us to do and to not hold back from that um and to just know His might and His power.
00:13:37
Filling You Up With Hope
So, but Rahab is mentioned many times in the Bible. She's mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. She's mentioned in Hebrews 11.31,
Faith Over Status
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Filling You Up With Hope
by faith. And that's Hebrews 11 goes through by faith, all these people with strong faith, and Rahab is one of them. By faith, Rahab the prostitute didn't perish with those who are disobedient, like what's gonna happen next week in Jericho,
00:14:10
Filling You Up With Hope
um having received the spies in peace. So and another thing that we learn from all of this is God works through all of us. He doesn't only work through powerful people, through kings and um whatever, He works through people with faith. um He works through shepherds. He works through prostitutes.
00:14:43
Filling You Up With Hope
um What it's about is our heart and our faith and taking that plunge of following him. And that's that's where Rahab did um risking her life. She took that.
00:15:02
Filling You Up With Hope
that leap of following God. um And I just pray that we all do that in 2025, that we take that leap.
00:15:14
Filling You Up With Hope
and um But then, so the spies are back, going back to Joshua.
Miracle of the Jordan River
00:15:25
Filling You Up With Hope
We're just gonna just quickly summarize um the next couple chapters.
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Filling You Up With Hope
um
00:15:36
Filling You Up With Hope
So now the the spies go back and another miracle. God parts the Jordan River and um for the priests who are carrying the covenant, they they walk over on dry land. So God is doing more um miracles. And every tribe of Israel um has a stone that they're carrying um at Gilagal. And this is Joshua 4 verse 6. This will be a symbol among you. In the future your children may ask, what do these stones mean to you? When you tell them that the water of the Jordan was cut off before the Lord's covenant chest,
00:16:28
Filling You Up With Hope
When it crossed over the Jordan, the water the water of the Jordan was cut off. These stones will be and an enduring memorial for the Israelites. A reminder of the amazing things that God has done and for us to tell our children about it. So now they're The crossing is completed.
00:17:03
Filling You Up With Hope
Approximately 40,000 armed for war crossed over in the Lord's presence to the plains of Jericho, ready for battle. And so we can understand they needed to be strong and courageous. Joshua, the leader of them, needed to be strong and courageous. They were facing battles.
00:17:28
Filling You Up With Hope
and And so, and this to rank in the courage that that took.
00:17:37
Filling You Up With Hope
ah So, so Joshua set up the the stones that they had taken over as that memorial. And um this is verse 24. So, Joshua 4, 24. This happened so that all the earth's people might know the Lord's power is great.
00:17:58
Filling You Up With Hope
and that you may always revere the Lord your God. So again, Joshua, knowing the Lord's power and might, and because he because God does amazing things in all of our lives. He does such amazing things. And then Joshua circumcises the people who haven't been circumcised, and they celebrate Passover. And um so, and that leads us to, there's this interesting and interaction that Joshua has.
Joshua's Divine Encounter
00:18:40
Filling You Up With Hope
and When he was near je Jericho, he looked up, he caught sight of a man standing in front of him with the sword drawn. Joshua went up to him and said, are you on our side or on our enemies? He said, neither I'm the commander of the Lord's heavenly forces.
00:18:58
Filling You Up With Hope
Now I have arrived. Then Joshua fell flat on his face and worshiped. And Joshua said to him, what is my master saying to the servant? The commander of the Lord's heavenly verses said to Joshua, take your sandals off your feet because the place where you are standing is holy. So Joshua did this. Wow. So
00:19:27
Filling You Up With Hope
what and What an experience um the commander of Lord's heavenly forces. It makes me think it's God that he's having this interaction with. And again, he knew to fall on his face and worship him. And no so all of these amazing things happening, and it's going to continue next week with what happens.
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Filling You Up With Hope
at Jericho. But for us today, we just taking in to be brave and strong this new year, and just to pray for guidance on whatever journey God wants to take us on. And I just pray that you had um and have a great start to your 2025.
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Filling You Up With Hope
and I will talk to you next week. Bye.