Joshua 21:43-45
The Road to Victory
Please keep your place at this text for we will get to it in time.
Victory is defined as a successful ending of a struggle or conquest,
a triumph. We all want victories. No one wants defeats.
In the text, Joshua is acknowledging that Israel had victory. They
were in possession of the land. But what had brought them to that
victory? And even more, how does one get on the road to victory?
Let’s consider some thoughts.
I. Israel’s Victory
A. It started over 700 years earlier and it began with a promise.
Gen 12:6 And Abram passed through the land unto
the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And
the Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said,
Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there
builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared
unto him.
1. This was Abraham’s first entry into the land we today call
Israel.
a. As soon as Abraham set foot into that land, God gave
Abraham a promise.
b. The promise was that the land would be his and his
descendents.
c. By my fuguring, it took 716 years; but Joshua recorded
that promis being kept.
2. I am not going to tell you that the only victory you can
have come from God’s promises.
a. You can win many victories without God or His
promises.
b. You can Iron Bowls, contests, promotions, fortune,
fame, and most everything else.
c. But I am going to tell you that the only victories
worth having are those that start with God’s promise.
d. Otherwise, it won’t be eternal.
(a) It will be crown that will pass away for a result
that will not last!
(b) Where are the great super bowl teams of the past?
Bears of 1985, Dolphins of 1972, Cowboys of 1971
3. Here is the strange thing about a promise from God. Every
promise is an implied command.
Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
a. The implied command is to trust that He will do that.
Ro 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
b. The implied command is that you call upon Him for
salvation.
c. God promised Abraham the land.
(1) What is the command?
(2) You be righteous enough to take it.
(a) Stay faithful.
(b) Obey Me.
(c) Trust Me.
B. A Vision
1. What is the difference in God giving a promise and having
a vision?
a. A promise from God is still God’s.
(1) God’s promise is God’s guarantee, but it is
God’s.
(2) God’s promise is His word, His commitment, His
desire, the promise of His actions and works to
make His words come to pass.
(3) God’s promise is a commitment from God’s heart
to you, but it is God’s.
b. The vision is yours.
(1) When you get a vision, it will be in your heart.
(2) It will be your commitment, your desire, the
promise of your actions and works to make it
come to pass.
c. The vision must be yours for the promise to have any
value to you.
(1) I don’t want to diminish a promise from God, but
it has limited worth unless it becomes your
vision.
(2) A promise from God is nothing but a promise until
it becomes your vision.
(3) I don’t want to say God’s promises are just words
until they become your vision but that is close
to the truth.
2. I don’t know when God’s promise became Abraham’s vision,
but I know it had by Genesis 24.
Gen 24:1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken
in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all
things.
2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of
his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put,
I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the
God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that
thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the
daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my
kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure
the woman will not be willing to follow me unto
this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto
the land from whence thou camest?
6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that
thou bring not my son thither again.
a. Notice, Abraham wanted a wife for his son. Even more,
he wanted the right kind of wife for his son.
b. But he was not willing to let his son go back to the
land of the Chaldees to get that wife!
c. Why? Because the land was no longer just a promise
from God.
d. The land was Abraham’s vision.
(1) It was Abraham’s vision that his son live in that
land, that he die in that land, and that his
descendents one day fill up that land.
(2) The promise was God’s but the vision had become
his.
3. I say that I do not want to diminish God’s promises by
saying that they are just words until they become your
vision, but even God’s promises can not help you until
you claim them as your own.
a. There are great promises made to the unsaved.
(1) Promises of salvation, forgiveness,
justification, adoption, peace, heaven, purpose,
and a new life.
(2) But they will do you no God unless they become
yours—unless you get a vision of what God can do
for you.
b. And there are promises to the saved of the Holy Ghost,
of ministry, or rewards; but they too must be claimed
and produce a vision in our hearts.
c. Abraham had a promise of the land but until he claimed
it and it sprouted a vision within his heart, the
promise meant very little.
4. Some need to let the promises of God give them a vision
this morning!
Pr 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people
perish….
C. Battle
1. Once the promise produces a vision, then you have to
battle.
a. I’m sorry but a promise from God requires you to
fight.
b. As soon as you take any promise that God has made to
yourself, His enemies are going to start coming out
of the woodworks.
2. Nehemiah was a man who knew about enemies.
Neh 6:1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and
Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of
our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall,
and that there was no breach left therein;
(though at that time I had not set up the doors
upon the gates;)
2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me,
saying, Come, let us meet together in some one
of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they
thought to do me mischief.
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am
doing a great work, so that I cannot come down:
why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and
come down to you?
a. The threat was so real that he has his men carrying a
mortar trial in one hand and a sword in the other.
b. But he did not stop. He keep going. Why?
c. He said it himself. "I am doing a great work here!
It’s God’s work and I will not stop it because of
you."
3. Joshua knew about enemies. He literally fought kings and
armies to take the land, but he stayed at it.
4. But not all enemies are visible or external.
a. If Abraham were here he might tell you that time was
his biggest enemy.
b. For many people, they are their worst enemy!
c. Maybe circumstances, finances, health, previous
obligations, or poor choices of the past are your
enemies.
5. It does not matter what your enemy is. What matters is
that you don’t let the enemy win! You stay at the battle
until you have the victory.
6. I love what the Bible says.
1Sa 4:9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like
men….
a. How do men quit?
b. They don’t! They fight until they die and then their
sons take their place.
7. If you got your faith from a TV preacher who told you all
you have to do is believe and God will give you a victory
then good luck! That is like getting a diploma from the
back of a comic book. If it were that easy it would not
be worth anything.
8. When God’s promise becomes your vision it will take you
into the battle.
D. Then comes victory?
1. You say, "When?" Whenever God decides that you have
fought long enough.
2. For Abraham and Israel it was 716 years.
3. You say "I won’t fight that long!" Then you have no
vision.
4. When God’s promise becomes your vision, you will fight
until you receive what God has promised.
a. Like Jacob worked 7 years for Rachael but God Leah, so
he worked 7 more!
b. Was that fair? right? something that Jacob wanted?
c. But he had a vision of that beautiful woman being his
wife and time was irrelevant.
d. He just wanted the victory.
5. So we are back at our text.
6. Joshua said, "We have fought hard and waited a long
time and endured much sorrow, but God has kept every
promise He ever made to us. The victory is ours!
II. Our Victory
Today, we dedicate Phase 2 of the new building. I went back through
the books. It was January 14, 2004, during a business meeting that I
first asked the church to pray about building an addition. I had been
praying about it during 2003. I cannot say that I heard God’s voice
give me a promise, but I was so convinced that it was God’s will that
I recall actually being ashamed that I had not seen the call to start
the work years earlier. I took what God was doing in my heart as a
promise—as a command—that we were to build the building.
On February 11 of that year, the church voted to start raising the
funds. On March 10, 2004, we changed the name of the Building Fund
to the New Building Fund and decided to dedicate the money given to
that fund for the purpose of building a new building. The fund had
$4,842.97 in it. That was over $350,000 ago—a phenomenal amount for
a church this size.
From March 10, 2004, until September 9, 2012, we prayed, collected,
studied, looked, discussed, priced, and waited.
On the second Sunday of September, 2012, I stood in about the same
spot that the new building ladies’ bathroom now rests upon and we
prayed, asking God to bless the first phase of our building. Within
days, the trucks and dozers were moving the embankment and work was
begun.
On June 2, 2013, we had a service in the shell of our new building. A
concrete slap, a tin building with doors, an insulation was all that
there was. That summer, we hosted a Friday Night Christian film flick
for the community. That fall, Church Builders of Central Alabama were
framing the first floor.
Our people began hanging insulation and sheet rock for Phase 2 (the
entry way, the two bathrooms, and the annex hallway) in 2014 and we
have not quit. Every week someone is here doing something. Why?
Because God’s church got a vision. It started as God’s promise but
it became our vision.
Battles? Did we have them? Yes. Finances was a big problem. How
could a small, country church raise the funds needed? Should we
borrow? Should we not? There was debate—strong debate—but we
persevered.
God brought people in to give us money. God brought people in to
give us knowledge and experience. God brought people in to give us
labor. And what God did not bring in with new people, God gave us
through the people we had.
Now, not only does the building stand, but it stands with the
testimony I knew God wanted us to have. It stands without us losing
one single person over the building of it! A feat for any church but
a very important feat for this church.
Today, we are enjoying a victory! Every one of God’s promises has
come to pass. Not a one of them has God left undone!
One more thought that actually goes under the thought of Israel’s
Victory.
A. After the victory, there has always been another promise which
means the need to catch another vision, to do more battles,
so that another victory can be won
1. Israel had the land but there were still enemy strongholds
within it.
2. God and Joshua told Israel to drive them out.
3. Even as they were celebrating their victory, there was
more work to be done.
B. And today, as we celebrate the victory over what God has
done, there is more work to do. (Just open the hallway
door over there!)
1. And so it is in life. There is always another promise to
be claimed, another vision to be caught, another battle
to be fought, and another victory to be won.
2. Will you get on the road to victory today?
III. Your Victory
A. My message today has been mostly to the members of the Green
Pond Baptist Church, to the saved, to the serving and
giving; but if you are here and have never trusted Jesus as
your Savior,
B. I want you to know that the greatest promise God has ever
given is yours to claim this morning. It is the promise of
forgiveness and salvation.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.
Mt 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me
before men, him will I confess also before my
Father which is in heaven.
Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall
be damned.
C. There are some enemies that want to keep you from claiming
those promises.
1. The devil - He wants you to stay lost, to go to hell with
him.
2. Your own flesh - It whispers, "Not yet. Wait until
later."
3. Time - You don’t have the guarantee of another second. Two
things are working against the lost.
a. Death
b. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
D. But you need to claim God’s promise, let the vision of a new
life in Christ become yours. And what a vision it is!
2Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
Ro 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Would you claim that victory today?
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