SPIRITUAL ENCOURAGEMENT

Highlights from Pastor Richard Schofield’s message on September 8, 2024

Today, I am speaking on “Spiritual Encouragement” as we continue our study on the Book of Joshua. Back in the Book of Deuteronomy, before the Israelites went into the Promised Land God told Moses to send men to spy out the land. Joshua and Caleb were the only two who came back with a good report.  The others, more or less, said, “We don’t have faith enough in God that He can deliver them to us.”  They didn’t obey God’s Word and spoke negatively.  They needed ENOCURAGEMENT. When we get encouragement, it brings out the potential in us.  We all have potential to do better than what we are are, because that is what God put in us. The Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness until the first unbelieving generation died off. 

After the death of Moses, God spoke to Joshua (1:2-9) verifying and giving them ENCOURAGEMENT that He is with them wherever they go – to be better – to move forward and to bring out the potential that was within them and to be strong and of good courage! 

God our Creator wants us to be like Him; and He put the potential within us to be able to be like Him.  God made the universe from gases, the plants, animals from the dust of the earth. But God made us from Himself. He took part of Himself (His Spirit) and made us – that is why we have potential to be like God.  Adam and Eve had the potential to be like God but screwed up and sinned.  We can all be better than what we are.  We need ENCOURAGEMENT to be better.

THE POTENTIAL IS WITHIN US TO ACHIEVE GREATER THINGS!   Here is a personal examples:

I have always been a positive person, always looking with a positive view - most of the time. The first time Pastor Jerry asked me to do something I said, “I’m not ready to do that yet.” I needed to be encouraged for I knew with God’s help I could do it.  Out on the job I’ve learned that you could learn something from the person you might think is the ‘dummy’ if you are unwilling to listen and learn.

In Jeremiah 29:11 God is calling us to wholeheartedly “SEEK” after Him if we want to get what He is offering us.  He wants our full attention, so He can encourage us to go beyond where we are!  1 Samuel 30:6 is an example -  “David encouraged himself in the Lord” when the enemy took everything he had, God answered him, “You will recover all!’ David did what God told him to do and he “recovered all.” It is important to stay encouraged in the word daily! We can do anything when God strengthens us!

Before they crossed the Jordan River Joshua spoke the Word of the Lord to the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites,]bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it… that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.” 5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify[c] yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.”

And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses” (Joshua 3:7).  GOD IS WITH US EACH AND EVERY DAY JUST AS HE WAS WITH THEM! What God did for them He can do for us.  The priests stood in the middle of the Jordan while the people passed over on dry land.

After they had crossed the Jordan, at the Lord’s command Joshua chose 12 men (one from each tribe) and had them take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan, from where the priests were standing, “to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’  tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it crossed the Jordan.  These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:1-9)

Now in the land of milk and honey everything they needed was given to them, just as God said. Like us today… there may be things we want, but if there is “sin in the camp” (in our lives) God cannot work. We will not be able to receive the full potential He intends to give us if we are not obeying His word.  We need encouragement and obedience along the way if we want what God has for us. 

Joshua sent out 2 spies to Jericho, known as an impenetrable city. (Joshua 1 & 2) The people had heard about Israel’s God and all the miracles He had done. Rahab, a prostitute, believed what she heard and hid the spies and helped them escape. God rewarded her and spared her whole family when in obedient faith she hung a scarlet rope in the window (symbolic of the Blood). 

The Lord told Joshua to go up and march around the walls for 7 days and on the 7th day march around 7 times. On the 7th day the priests would blow the trumpets, the people were to shout! They believed God, did what He said, and the walls fell down flat! They took the city!

Joshua 21:44 says, “The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.”

GOD HONORS HIS WORD! God blesses when people obey Him. No matter what happens in life God is in control.  God knows what’s ahead. Listen to Him! He knows what’s best for you.

We need to know the Scriptures – to ENCOURAGE OURSELVES …TO BE DRAWN TO GOD!

“Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20)

“A faithful person will be richly blessed” (Proverbs 28:20).

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:12)

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved “(Romans 10:9) 

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3)

“I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day” (2Timothy 1:12).

 “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).:10