Message Overview
Pastor Greg continues his series on six legendary Old Testament Superheroes of the Faith. This week he teaches us a little of the origin story of Joshua also known by his Hebrew name Yehoshuah.

MESSAGE NOTES

LEGENDARY HEROES

1) Have a faith-based personal relationship with God.
2) Obey God rather than human beings.
3) Trust God to do the impossible.

Yehoshuah/Hoshea/Joshua
“Yahweh is Salvation”
This is the Hebrew foundational name for Jesus as well.

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you. ~ Deuteronomy 11:24-25

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel. ~ Numbers 13:1-3

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.” ~ Numbers 13:30

TWO TYPES OF TIME IN GREEK THOUGHT

1) Chronos: Simple time on a clock, a timeline. (Chronology)
2) Kairos: A God-appointed, limited window of opportunity.

Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses… No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  ~ Joshua 1:1-3, 5-7

GOD’S COMMAND TO WAIKOLOA COMMUNITY CHURCH

“Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you… So be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”

Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.” ~ Joshua 6:1-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. ~ 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

GO DEEPER
ALOHA GROUP QUESTIONS

READ:  Deuteronomy 11:24-25
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) While God made this as a specific promise to Moses and Joshua and the rest of the people of Israel does that necessarily mean this is true for every Christian as well? 

2) Certainly God is specifying very specific borders of the Holy Land that won’t apply to anyone but the nation of Israel but is there a universal personal promise alluded to in these words for each of us as well?

3)How might it apply to Waikoloa Community Church? How might it apply to you personally?

READ:  Numbers 13:1-33
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) If God has already promised to give the Israelites victory why do you think He instructed them to go spy out the land first? Why did it matter what was in the land if the Lord was going to make sure they won no matter what?

2) Why do you think the majority of the spies came back with such a negative and pessimistic report? Why do you think Caleb (and Joshua implied along with him) were so optimistic and positive in contrast to the other ten? Do you find that this is typical of most organizations and nations that only a handful are super positive and enthusiastic while the rest tend to dwell on negative, worst case scenarios? Why is that? What can we do, as a church, to avoid becoming that kind of organization?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) Pastor Greg talked about the difference in Chronos time and Kairos time. Had you ever heard that distinction before? Have you ever experienced Kairos Time, where you felt like God had opened a temporary window of opportunity to you and challenged you to jump through before it closed? If so, what happened?

2) If you’ve never experienced that before is it possible that you just weren’t paying close enough “spiritual attention” and missed that God was communicating an opportunity to you? What steps can you take to make sure you stay aware and alert in the future so that you don’t miss these kinds of Kairos Time Moments?

READ: Joshua 6:1-5
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) Imagine you were one of the Israelite soldiers when Joshua described the plan of attack to you, what would your first thought have been? How do you think the people inside the wall were feeling during this daily march? 

2) Imagine each day, being an Israelite soldier, completing the lap around the city and then returning home, would you have been 100% on board or do you think you might have had some doubts about the strategy?

3) Can you think of examples from your past where you felt like God was guiding you to do something that seemed odd at first but ended up being the method He used to bring you to success? If so please share with your group.

4) Why do you think God chose this strategy for the Israelites to take Jericho? He doesn’t command the same strategy against every army they face. This seems to be a unique situation. What do you think God was trying to teach them?

READ: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) What are some of the “fortresses” in our world that war against us?

2) What are some of the “lofty things “raised up against the knowledge of God?”

3) If we don’t stand against these, what will happen to our world, to our faith?

4) If you were explaining this passage to a non-believer or a brand new Christian how would you put it in your own words to help them understand exactly what Paul is proposing here?

5) When Paul talks about “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” is he talking about our own thoughts or the thoughts of others? Explain your reasoning. How is this similar to what the Israelites had to do when they followed God ‘s (and Joshua’s) orders to simply march around the city each day?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) In the second service today our opening song was “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  The lyrics are at the end of the message notes inside. How is God’s fortress different from the fortresses that we are able to pull down in our world and how do you see this hymn connecting with this passage of Scripture?

READ: Luke 18:27
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1) At both services, Pastor G led us in a closing song by Chris Tomlin called “You Do The Impossible.”  Imagine an atheist or an agnostic asked you what it means to say we believe God can “do the impossible.” They might say that makes no sense, that if God can do it, by definition, it must be possible. What does this song mean and what did Jesus mean when he indicated that God could do impossible things in Luke 18:27?