Growing up my father lived in Michigan and I lived in California. Most of the time I knew my father was through a telephone conversation. The one thing I really didn’t like about my dad was he was a promise breaker. He would promise to send something…a card for my birthday, money, Christmas card…whatever you can think of. I would wait everyday by the mail box hoping my father would pull through and deliver on what he said he said he was going to do. Time after time he failed to live up to the promises…after time I would ask him not to make any more promises, because it hurt to much when he would fail. I knew at the time he was making the promise he had ever intention to come through…but for some reason he would fail.
Have you ever known anyone like this…who would promise to come through for you and not show up?
Promises mean something to us…It’s important to keep our promises because it says something about us.
In reading the book of Joshua I came across a verse…tucked away at the end of chapter 21. You would miss if you weren’t careful, verse 45 simply reads…
“Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”
This really for some reason got my curiosity up, perhaps with my past I naturally don’t, trust promises. The thought of God never failing to deliver on a promise, is amazing to me. And if He never failed on the ‘good’ promises, what of the threats…if you have remembered he has made plenty of them also, blessing and a curse comes to mind. But we know Joshua is in charge and is a man of God. We have seen God give Joshua after victory after victory…to secure the promise land. Now at the end of life he is confident in the Lord. God had kept every promise.
Reading a little further we see Joshua’s farewell to the leaders. He reminds them not to stray 23:6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.” And then he continues remind them and then…verse 12 and on….
Joshua 23:12-16
Jos 23:12 “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them,
13 then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.
14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.
15 But just as every good promise of the LORD your God has come true, so the LORD will bring on you all the evil he has threatened, until he has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.
16 If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD'S anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
There are lots of principles we can take from this…but there are two things I want to focus on…God’s promises don’t fail and what does that mean for you and me…
God’s Promises don’t fail…
We have been focusing on evangelism, our revival, VBS…and light of this I think about the promises made by Jesus about salvation, about peace about security…his undying love. Jesus promised us an abundant life. He promised freedom from sin, He promised so many wonderful things…Eternal life…
But about Hell…it is a subject we don’t like to talk about in church any more, but how does the Bible say…
Listen to these six verse…
but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Mat 8:12
They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:42
and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:50
Then the king said to his attendants, 'Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!'
Mat 22:13
and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 24:51
And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Mat 25:30
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves thrown out.
Luk 13:28
How does these verses change how we view others…I think if God keeps his promises both good and bad…should this effect the way we witness…we should want to reach others.
What this means for you and me…
How does this effect the way I live…I know in life there are many time where I feel maybe God isn’t listening…be honest now…we pray for something and we ‘claim’ God’s promises but there is something missing…we don’t have peace…we still worry…
When we feel this way we need to revaluate our relationship with Christ…Christ never promised there would never be any doubt, he never promised there wouldn’t be any pain…that there wouldn’t be any hard times…He did say seek first the kingdom…He did said my yoke is easy and my burden is light…and if the son sets you free you are free indeed.
We need to understand God will never fail in the promises he did make…
Next we have to understand that there is going to be time when all people will be held accountable. We have to understand the urgency in which Christ says GO…
We have to understand that our lives where bought with a price and the price was paid for in full…because of that we will face God and give account. This should burden us for our family members who do not know Jesus…We should weep over our neighbors…our communities…our co-workers…
In John 11:33-36 Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Right before Jesus did this ‘he was deeply moved’ and he wept watching the people around him morn. Jesus ‘loved’ Lazarus, he love Lazarus family…he rose Lazarus because he love him…he raises us because he loves us. We need to love our neighbors or communities, our family…this is something I thing we have lost…
The Bible says whoever believes in the Son of God…will have eternal life. If we believe this than we have to believe what God says about judgment and hell…and that should change the way we live…
-ps
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