Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] Awesome church. So excited to be with you today. Can you believe it's February 1st? A month of 2026 gone.
[00:00:17] Praise God. I don't know if you guys made some New Year's resolutions or whatever else, but here we are in February.
[00:00:23] I had the privilege to come back from my sabbatical in January and start launch us off in our first message of the year. We talked about presence over promise. And we contrasted Moses heart to pursue God's presence over everything else versus the people that kind of withdrew. They were afraid of God when God called them on the mountain, they withdrew. They went into idolatry, went into sin. Moses interceded. And Moses, we saw how he cared more about God's face and presence more than his own salvation. The people being saved, saved, all that stuff. Moses said, lord, please show me your glory. I want more. There's degrees of your glory, and I want everything right, even if it kills me. And so we talked about that on January 4th, and so I'm gonna actually pick up there a little bit. And instead of talking about Moses in Exodus, I want to talk about another key figure in Exodus that's not mentioned a lot in Exodus, just a handful of times, and how he pursued the presence of God. Presence over promise, part two, Joshua. That's what we're talking about today. Presence over promise, part two. And I'm so excited to be back now from my sabbatical. So August through December, I got to take five months. It was supposed to be two. And then I just realized I need more. You know, Moses had a glimpse and he needed more. And I was like, yeah, I need that too. But just being back now for a month in January, I feel so much life and energy, excitement, authority, the grace of God. And so I'm so thankful again for the gift that I had because, you know, I came into the end of summer and man, I was dealing with some depression, some anxiety, and I was not healthy. Just in my heart and soul motivation. Like, I was doing stuff because I was responsible, not because I was like super excited. And now I've seen that grace come back to me. So I'm so thankful for that. Just want to give you guys a quick update that we're doing so awesome, and the church in 2026 is getting ready to blow up with a move of God, the glory of God and revival. Amen.
[00:02:29] Awesome. Praise God. So, Lord, we just. We thank you and we invite your spirit to come and minister today. Lord, do something in 2026 in our hearts and in this community, God Wake us up, shake us up, align us. God. Wherever priorities are misaligned, wherever mindsets are bad God, we ask for the correction and the direction of the Spirit of God for us and our community. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.
[00:03:01] I want to highlight Joshua and I want to talk about how Joshua also chose the presence of God over his calling, over gifting, over opportunities. That Joshua actually chose the presence of God. And this is a theme that the narrator of the scripture, which is the Lord and the writers that, that they had, they, they showed that Moses was distinct from the people. And God chose Moses because Moses wanted God. And I want to show you today as well that God chose Joshua because Joshua was one that wanted God. Can I tell you, sometimes in life we've grown up thinking that the most important thing in life is to figure out why you're on this earth. You know, there's a famous statement that said, like, the two most important things you know in life are like the day you were born and the day you find out why, you know, and all of that is great, but it's connected to this idea of your purpose, your calling, your assignment, what you're supposed to do. So people you know, you know, the day you were born and the day you find out why you were born are pretty important days of your life, right?
[00:04:03] Connected to this idea of like, what is my purpose? It's interesting. In the United States of America, in English, the Christian best selling English book, I think in modern history, like, if you look in English is actually, it's called Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Why? Because the body of Christ overwhelmingly wants to know what is my purpose? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do?
[00:04:26] But can I propose to you today that we might.
[00:04:30] If your primary thing is to find out why you're on this earth, as far as like your calling, your purpose, your destiny, maybe it's a little bit out of order as far as priority goes. I remember being in middle school and I went to a Christian school from like kindergarten all the way through my senior year. One of the great things is every day I was in a Bible class.
[00:04:51] One of my Bible teachers in middle school, he was asked, he was teaching about purpose and calling and all that kind of stuff. And he's like, hey, how many of you here, I think it was like seventh grade. And how many of you students here, a class of 20 or something, you already know what God's called you to do. God's given you your purpose, you know, the calling of God on your life and it's like I had no clue back then. I mean, in second grade I wanted to be a fire truck. In seventh grade I wanted to be a lawyer. It's like, I don't know.
[00:05:15] It's true. I mean, I remember. Cause like, you know, in second grade, that's when like the fire department comes and I just. They walked us through the truck and I was like, that's what I wanna be, you know.
[00:05:24] But it was awesome. It was silly, but I just remember in seventh grade, our teacher asked, like, does anyone feel like they know what God's called their life to be about? And one of my friends that He. He. He was one of my friends that just last year we played basketball together on an Alumni 3 and 3 tournament back in Spokane. But so good friend that I've known ever since, like elementary, since I think second or first grade, he's like, yes, I know. I think I have heard God on this. And God says that my life's calling is to be a pilot. And I just remember thinking like, wow, that's really cool. Like God told him, like the career path and exactly what he's going to do. And sure enough, he would go through military, become a pilot. And to this day he's a pilot. And I was just always fascinated by that. And I was just like, wow, like, here's a young guy. And he knew since he was young, he was called by God to be a pilot. And you know, since then I have realized that our career path and our purpose and our assignment on the earth is actually not the primary thing that God's concerned about. And sometimes he'll actually leave it kind of vague. Cause maybe our world and our society develops in such a way where careers change really quickly. I mean, if you just look at like society, it's changes as technology has changed, so have careers. You know, like 100 years ago, they didn't need social media media, computer specialists, analysts. None of that was needed. Today a lot of people are very apt with technology and video and all that editing and all that kind of stuff. So can I propose to you that maybe God hasn't called you to be a video editor for your life, but. But maybe there's something greater that he's called you to. And then what you do is you use that primary thing, your gifts, the way God's made you to kind of just make a difference in the world, in people's lives. Can I tell you that our primary calling as believers is to be ministers to the Lord and to know him. Right? There's actually this powerful verse.
[00:07:14] Tracy reminded me of it in first service, but I wanna just read it real quick. It's in first service. First Corinthians.
[00:07:20] Oh, man, it popped off. I'm gonna find it real quick. 1 Corinthians 12 verse. Actually, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 9. God is faithful through him through whom you were called.
[00:07:33] God is faithful through whom you were called. Into being a pilot. Just kidding. Into fellowship with his son. Now, I don't dog that. I believe God can speak to you about a career path. I believe God guides his. You know, those that are led by the spirit of God are children of God. So I believe God guides his children. I believe he can speak to you about a path for your life. But can I tell you that if the primary thing you're on this earth is to discover why you were born, you know, and what you're supposed to do about that, and it sounds like a career or a calling, we might have missed the whole point. So we'll look at that. Through the life of Joshua, how he made God's presence his priority, even over any kind of pathway. And God said, that's a man. I'm actually gonna walk with empower, and we're gonna change the world together. Amen.
[00:08:19] As a team, when we were praying about this year, 2026, in December, we gathered together as a pastoral team, as our senior leadership team. We're like, lord, what are you saying? We spent times where we would just kind of pray, worship, just get in the cloud. That's our language. Like, we just. Let's just like, get out of the flesh, out of our natural mind. Let's get in the cloud and just hear God for our year. And one of the things that the Lord spoke to us, and it was kind of unanimous across, like, even we met with our communications team. So anyone that preaches here even once a month, I mean, once a year on this platform, any of our team members that do that, we got together. Like, what is the lord saying for 2026, for kingdom movement? And one of the themes was, we're gonna. This year like never before, discipleship is gonna go deeper in our community. God's gonna establish this house, and he wants to disciple his people. And so part of that is that there's gonna be disciples that are making disciples. Your life is actually called to transform someone. We'll see that today in the scripture. And then two, you're called to be spiritual form, to look like Christ. There's this powerful passage, and it's kind of the crux of Paul's ministry. And, you know, I've been a leader of a Bible school for, I think, 13 years now. This is my 13th year, if I got the math right. But Galatians 4:19, this has kind of like been my life verse ever since God called me into a kind of ministry, like, probably like 20 years ago. But it's Galatians 4:19. My children now, I love that language. Paul uses family language. Not master, servant, not, you know, classmates, not students, not pupils. He says, children, that's the environment of transformation, with whom I am again in labor. Wow. Paul's a man. But he's using this image imagery of. It's personal. I gave birth to you. I feel responsible for you. You're my family and I care about one thing. I am laboring until Christ is formed in you. There's one thing that I'm doing, my children, you're mine and I want Christ formed in you. And we just felt like the Lord said, this year, in 2026, our church, we're going to be formed more into the image of Christ than we have been before.
[00:10:25] We're going to move beyond just being inspired.
[00:10:27] We're gonna move beyond just kinda like, you know, doing church. But we are gonna be discipled by God. We're gonna begin to be discipled by people, we're gonna begin to disciple others, and we're gonna be formed into the image and likeness of Christ. Amen.
[00:10:40] Okay, so let's dive into our passage today. What I wanna do in the life of Joshua is I wanna look at Joshua in the book of Exodus. We looked at Moses last time. I recommend, if you haven't seen it, go check out that YouTube video. You can download the notes if you wanna follow along in today's message, actually, as well, you can download our notes. You can just tap the disc in front of you and you'll be able to get the sermon notes. It'll have the verses right there. So a lot of it, you'll be able to just kind of follow along if you wanna do that. But I wanna look at four instances where Joshua's highlighted. He's not a key figure in the book of Exodus.
[00:11:10] And there's four times where he's highlighted. And we can learn something each time from them. So I have three things that I want us to take from the life of Joshua. And I think it's gonna be an impartation for us as a community that that's being formed into the image of Christ.
[00:11:25] And I want you to see as well, like, why does God call certain people?
[00:11:30] Sometimes we think that like God's calling is based on he chose someone and now like they're super favored, they're anointed, like they're just chosen, they're special. I used to think that I was like God, like, if you could just choose me and make me special, because I'm not. But I see these people that I look up to that are heroes in the faith and believers and like, I want God, like, choose me, choose me, choose me. And I thought in my life that God had to choose me for me to actually make a difference in this world. And now I've realized that that whole entire time, God didn't specially choose me. I just chose since the age of 12 that he encountered me to choose God every day. And God found a man that chose him. And he said, I'll partner with you. I'll break off your inability to learn. Cause up in sixth grade, I was in special ed, learning center every day. I did not have a good sharp mind. English was my second language.
[00:12:26] I didn't, I wasn't able to. I was a severe stutter. I couldn't talk in front of people. I'd be so shy. And God took this 12 year old shy kid in learning center, not smart, couldn't even get a C in any class.
[00:12:38] And God's like, you're hungry for me, you want me, I got you.
[00:12:42] Can I tell you a lot of God's calling is not who God chooses, it's who chooses God.
[00:12:48] Can I tell you today that the Scriptures reveal to us that every member is a minister?
[00:12:55] Every member is a minister. There's the priesthood of all believers. And sometimes as a church, we have been happy to cheer on the minister instead of us actually stepping into our place and being a minister unto the Lord and unto others. Amen.
[00:13:10] So let's take a look at Exodus 17. The first mention of Joshua is Exodus 17. And this is the battle of against Amalek, the Amalekites. And what's interesting is that Israel has been rescued from 400 years of slavery. They've been in the wilderness maybe a month or so at this time. And this is. So this is the very beginning of their rescuing. And they're now like walking through territory and they come across the Amalekites who have harassed them. And God's like, I'm going to destroy them. And so God tells Moses, and look what happens here. Chapter 17, verse 9. So Moses said to Joshua, now all we get here is his name. We don't get any background, any information, nothing about him yet.
[00:13:53] Moses just tells Joshua. So obviously this guy has some proximity and trust with Moses. That the first person that he tells you when God gives him an assignment, he's like, joshua, go choose men for us. Go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow. I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. And so we know kind of the story, maybe, But Joshua, before he's ever known, before anything is said about him, he's given this opportunity to lead this battle. And as long as Moses is hands up in intercession, Joshua and the troops of Israel are destroying the Amalekites. When his hands go down, they're being defeated when his hands are up.
[00:14:30] So they have this great victory. And it's interesting here, my first point is this, that Joshua prioritized proximity over purpose.
[00:14:41] Joshua didn't care what his purpose was. He just wanted proximity both with. Both with someone that, like, was walking with God. Joshua found the guy that, like, was. Knew God and was walking with him, was like, I'm gonna walk with a guy that walks with God. He prioritized proximity, even though he. His natural skill was. He was a phenomenal warrior. Like, he won that battle, but he didn't care what his purpose was. He didn't make his life about being a military warrior or leader. He's like, I actually am gonna lay down this thing, and I want proximity with God. I'm gonna find someone that's burning, that's hungry, that has something that I don't have, and I'm gonna get close to them. So much so that Moses, the first guy he turns to, he's like, joshua, take this battle. God's with us. I trust you. Because Joshua chooses proximity over purpose. Very interesting.
[00:15:28] Now let's Skip to Exodus 24. The next time Joshua is mentioned here, and this is the instance where this is Exodus 24. Moses goes up the mountain. God calls some people to him, and Joshua goes with him. The elders are called, but they don't keep going. But Joshua does. There's something unique here. Not a lot of information, but. But here's another little snippet of insight into Joshua before he's known in the Future Scriptures. Exodus 24:1, it says this. Then he God said to Moses, come up to the Lord. And then he names, like, four people.
[00:16:04] You, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 elders of Israel. So 74 people are named by God.
[00:16:12] Approach me, the Lord, right? This is what God says.
[00:16:16] And it says, verse, it says, 70 elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance.
[00:16:23] Verse 2. Moses alone, however, shall approach the Lord. But they, the rest of the 73 shall not approach, nor shall the people come up with him. So God's like, listen, come up a certain distance, up to the mountain. And then I'm going to call Moses even higher into this cloud, into this glory, and I'm going to have an encounter with him. But no one else is welcome in that space. For now, it's just Moses. But it's interesting here. God chooses four plus 70, right?
[00:16:52] And take a look at this verse nine. We'll skip here. Then Moses went up with Aaron and Nadab and Abihu, just like the Lord said, right? And the 70 elders of Israel, they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet there appeared to be pavement of sapphire and as clear as the sky itself. So they're having this encounter with God that is very unusual. So much so that the narrator in here in verse 12 says, and God didn't reach out his hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel. And they saw God and they ate and drank. So they're having, like, a meal with God. And. And the narrator has to say, like, and God didn't kill them, but they saw God in one sense. And I mentioned this last week a little bit, but there's like this. The degrees of, like, the face of God, the glory of God and the access that they had. This was a measure of access to God that God gave. That was very unique, but it wasn't his full measure of himself, because that would have killed them. Cause there's a couple other passages in the Old and New Testament that say no one can see the face of God and live. And the language is the same, but the context is different. Anyway, so I did this study this week as well. I didn't include it in my notes. I probably should have, but about the degrees of the presence of God that we see in Scripture and different people's, like, levels of presence and encounter. And the lowest measure of God's presence essentially, is like his omnipresence. He's everywhere in the world. And then if you're a believer, there's another measure of his presence. He will actually come and live inside of you. You are the temple of God. And again, that might not feel like an encounter every day, but. But guess what? If you're a believer, God has made his home in you.
[00:18:31] Wow, that's pretty significant. But that might not feel like, you know, the cloud sucked up in a vortex. You're on the ground and you're screaming, cause of the glory of God. But there are measures like that that we see in scripture. But there's. Can I tell you, there's more. Yes. God is present everywhere. God is also in you. But there's more.
[00:18:49] And these guys were seeing something more. God invites them up to the mountain part of the way.
[00:18:54] They're having a meal with God and he's on this like sapphire pavement.
[00:19:00] Wow. Right?
[00:19:02] Verse 12. Now the Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and stay there. I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I have written for the people's instruction. So Moses got up along with Joshua. Second time Joshua was mentioned.
[00:19:21] We have a little bit more information this time his servant.
[00:19:25] First time, it's like Moses says to Joshua, go wipe out the Amalekites. Okay. Second time, Joshua, his servant and Moses went up to the mountain of God. Now remember verse two that says Moses alone is to come.
[00:19:42] Moses and Joshua have this relationship where pretty much wherever Moses goes, Joshua's kind of coming along with him. And he's got an, he's got this, he's got this humble, hungry pursuit. Because Joshua is more concerned about proximity than he is about his purpose and calling and destiny.
[00:20:02] And so he's. So Moses allows Joshua, his servant to come up with him. Now if you look at this word servant, it's mentioned a few times, a couple of times about Joshua, Joshua, Moses, servant. But the word servant actually can also be translated as like a, an aid or minister.
[00:20:18] Interesting. I think that's appropriate language that Joshua becomes a minister before he ever becomes a leader. He becomes a minister to Moses and a minister to the Lord, which we'll see. Very awesome that the first description of Joshua is a servant. We often want our destiny and purpose and we want a bypass servant. But actually what's interesting about Joshua, when he won that battle over Amalek, he was probably, scholars say he was between 30 to 40 years old. Because to be a military leader you had to be about at least 30. 20 is the first time you could be in the military. So he's a military leader, probably 30 to 40 years old. This is their first month in the wilderness. Fast forward.
[00:20:59] Now they're like in the wilderness. Then they're 40 years in the wilderness because Joshua and Caleb come back with a good report. The rest of the people don't. Now they're in the wilderness for 40 years. The whole time, Moses is their leader. Joshua does not get another opportunity to do anything or lead anything until at least 40 years later. So Joshua's now in his 70s, maybe 80 something, before he takes over as leader. And sometimes we think like, oh, like, you know, I've been serving enough. Like, you know, I served, you know, three times. Like, God, promote me. And it's like sometimes we focus more on our promotion and our promise and our calling and our destiny, rather than just getting buried as a minister. But what's said about Joshua is he was just a minister, a servant, a minister, a. I love the scripture. So intentional about how it reveals the identity of an individual in scripture here.
[00:21:47] So Joshua isn't specially invited as a leader. He's not commissioned. He's not prophesied over. He just wants proximity. And Moses sees the hunger in this young man and says, I'm gonna let you be around me. You're the hungriest guy I know.
[00:22:02] And he starts to trust him. You know, it's in Scripture, leadership is transferred by proximity to leaders all the time. You see it with Elijah and, and Elisha. So Elijah's the prophet. And then there's this. There's this up and coming prophet that he's going to be raised up. And so he raises up Elisha to take his place. And he finds a guy that was willing to leave everything, father, mother, not bury them, just to go up, root and leave and make a crazy sacrifice, to not choose family or comfort or business. Because the guy was an expert at plowing fields. Elisha. But he left everything to be in proximity with someone that's walking with God. And that's God's like, that's the guy I'm gonna anoint and choose, right? You look at Eli and Samuel. Eli is a prophet. Samuel is 2 years old when his mom, Anna, dedicates him to the temple. He starts to live in the temple. At two years old, he just gets proximity to the presence of God. He's like. Because Anna was so moved by what God did for her, she's like, I will give my child to you to be in proximity. And she said that that wasn't God didn't ask for Samuel, but Samuel, how was he called and chosen? It said of Samuel that like, not one of his words fell to the ground. There's like, like in, in, in the Bible, you can find any hero of the faith and you can kind of find their mistakes. With Samuel, you kind of don't really find anything. He's just like always obedient and in tune with God. And it says that not one of his words Ever fell to the ground. Wow, that's like. There's a pretty good testimony about Samuel.
[00:23:31] But Samuel, where was he trusted? He was in proximity to the temple, to the presence of God, in proximity to Eli. And God starts to speak to him. And he's responsive to the voice of God because he wants the voice of God. Can I tell you that God will often actually like who you're in proximity with will determine your life. People have said this, that the five people that you are the most around is basically, that's your pinnacle and peak. You will never surpass the top five people that you spend the most time with. Why? Because your proximity determines your purpose and your destiny and everything you do. So if you don't like what's happening in your world, can I change? You change the change the five people that you are the most around.
[00:24:10] You know what I mean, right? So, like, you know, many have said, like, show me your friends, I'll show you your future, your destiny, everything about your life. Because proximity actually matters. So we see all over in scripture. We see it with David and Saul. This is very fascinating. One. God wants to raise up someone. He raises up Saul. Saul becomes. Starts to do his own thing. He's going astray. He was actually also speaking of the Amalekites, was called to fully, like, destroy them because they hear in Exodus, they just have a battle. But now God's like, I'm wiping them off of the face of the earth.
[00:24:42] And there's a hint of that you see here in Exodus. And then it's fast forwarded. So Saul is trusted to do this. And Samuel, the prophet's like, he, hey, this is really important to God. God's talked about this to Moses and Joshua. Now go finish the work. Wipe them off. Don't leave anything. Not an animal, not a child, not a wife. I mean, it's kind of brutal. And Saul comes back and there's like, sheep and the spoils and there's people. And Samuel's like, what? And then he's like, yay. I did everything God said to do Samuel.
[00:25:13] Awesome. And he's like, why do I hear the sound of sheep? Well, well, the people, they wanted, like, the spoils. Like, that's good, right? Like, they wanted some of the lamps to. To offer to God. We brought treasures for God. Well, God actually wanted the destruction, not the treasures. And so God does Is no longer working with Saul. Saul is in rebellion, is in disobedience to the point where he becomes demon possessed. And God's looking for a man that's after his heart. And guess who he chooses. An 8th birthday born shepherd boy who was rejected by his family. When Samuel comes to the to Jesse's house to anoint the next king, God's like, there's a king in Jesse. There's a king there. I want you to anoint him. He goes to him and Jesse's like, here's my seven boys. Which one is it? Probably the oldest goes through the seven. Nope, it's not any of these. Do you have another son? Not really. I mean, yeah, there's kind of like a half. Whatever.
[00:26:07] What? You know, because some of the Jewish scholars believe, and I think the House of David, that that series does a good job of actually representing this historically and biblically as well. I'm not going to get too lost in this, but that David was likely born of another woman through prostitution and was not a full blood brother like the other seven. That's why he was rejected out in the field. And so God wasn't looking that he was born at the wrong time as a result of sin. He says, I was concealed.
[00:26:36] So there's a moment of iniquity that he was conceived in. Right. So it's interesting that it's possible and Jewish scholars widely believe this, that David was the reason why he talks about his rejection over and over again from his family and his brothers is because he grows up this way. But God's not looking at the state he was born. He's looking at a boy's heart that wants the Lord. And he said, go get me a boy that wants me. He has his harp and bears and alliance are not scaring him. But here's a man after my heart. So God starts to anoint him. And guess what God does? He puts him into proximity with Saul, an abusive leader that's trying to throw spears at him, kill him and all this stuff. And David's like, I'm getting abused, God. You probably want me to leave. And every time David tries to leave, God says, go back.
[00:27:20] Because God is forming someone through proximity, even through proximity with someone that we would say, get out now. He's cussing at you. He wants to kill you. He's pursued you to multiple cities. He's thrown spears at you twice, like, get out. That's abusive leadership. And God's like, stay, because I'm gonna get the Saul out of you, David, because you're a man after my heart. I saw the glimpse of it when you were a kid and I like you. Can I tell you that God chooses those that choose him? Can I tell you, God didn't choose David. David chose God. I mean, you could say, like, maybe that's a stretch theologically, but just. I think there's a case to say that God chooses those that choose him, that he.
[00:28:04] That God calls everyone, but he chooses those that respond. Right? God in his sovereignty, he calls, but we have to actually respond. Amen. I mean, Jesus, in Matthew 22, he tells this parable of this wedding feast, and he says, hey, you know what? I'm gonna do this banquet. I'm doing this feast, and I want you to start inviting people. So he sends his servants, you know, to start inviting people, the first group of people that they invite, make a bunch of excuses, they don't come, all this stuff.
[00:28:28] And who is that historically, theologically, that Jesus is talking about? Well, that was the Jews. They were invited to be part of God's table feast. And they said they had stuff to do. You know, so God's like, go out again in this parable of Jesus saying, and invite the next group of people, the Gentiles. And then some of them came, some of them didn't come. And then he said, go out again and get everyone off of the highways, the byways, the lame, the maimed, the broken, everyone that will come, invite them.
[00:28:59] And then he finishes the parable with this statement that's taken out of context. Often, many are called, few are chosen. He just finished telling the parable where literally everyone was called three times. You know, many are called, meaning the call of God is for all of us. There's not elites in the kingdom of God, but those that respond, he chooses.
[00:29:21] Could God using your life be more about you saying yes than God, like, doing something supernatural for you? I'm telling you, my life is an example of someone that should not be in any kind of leadership or ministry or be chosen. I was not articulate. I wasn't smart. I was a stutterer. I was the middle child. They're very messed up and broken. And, you know, I was kind of dealing through some of that my whole life.
[00:29:45] So I'm telling you, I'm not God's choice.
[00:29:50] I just said yes.
[00:29:52] Can I tell you that Joshua. I believe. I mean, of all the people named in Israel, Joshua is never really named, but he becomes the one that takes over. Why?
[00:30:01] Because God was his choice. And God is looking for the humble and the hungry that are walking in proximity. Okay, moving on to point number two. Here, Joshua prioritizes waiting while others were still wandering.
[00:30:17] Third time we hear of Joshua, let's Fast forward to Exodus chapter 32.
[00:30:23] Here I'm going to give you the context to save time. Moses goes up the mountain to get the ten Commandments.
[00:30:28] Israel is panicking because Moses has left. They don't know how long he's going to be gone.
[00:30:34] They ask Aaron, Moses, assistant, right, to go and make them a calf.
[00:30:39] They. They go into idolatry. Then the next day they're like, let's. Let's create worship, dancing and celebration. So now they're literally worshiping the golden calf. Celebrating, dancing. It says in scripture that they engaged in lewd behavior. There was dancing, worshiping, and guess the whole entire time you have all of the camp of Israel camping with their leader Aaron, helping them in idolatry.
[00:31:04] You have Moses on the mountain. And where's Joshua this whole time?
[00:31:09] He's not at the camp.
[00:31:12] Did God choose Joshua or did Joshua want God? He's not at the camp.
[00:31:17] Exodus chapter 32, verse 17 says this.
[00:31:20] Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted. And he said to Moses, So Moses is walking back down the mountain. There is a sound of war in the camp. Joshua hears the noise and thinks it's battle, but it's actually not. Moses is like, no, that's not actually battle.
[00:31:34] That is dancing and singing. And they come down together. So Moses is called to approach the mountain, and he's up there for 40 days with no food or water.
[00:31:44] So do you think that Joshua is lugging around 40 days worth of food and water because he doesn't know what's going on? He just knows that God invited him to the mountain? Probably not. And he goes up there. He approaches the mountain as close as he can come. He's not at the camp in comfort, in food and shelter with the people.
[00:31:58] He's waiting because he's like, Moses is going to meet with God. I want to be as close as I can without dying.
[00:32:06] And he's waiting for the Lord. He's waiting for Moses. He's waiting for. So he, He. He creates his proximity around the presence rather than around the people and the comfort and the purpose and the calling and everything else that the people were wrapped up in, right?
[00:32:26] So Joshua prioritizes proximity. He prioritizes waiting for 40 days by himself. Moses is coming down. Joshua's like, he thinks like, man, let's go help them. They're in war. Mo. What are you going to do? You know, this is not war. This is a war against their. Their salvation and soul, right? And then you see the crux of the story. The. The fourth time we see Joshua. This is Exodus chapter 33, 7 through 11.
[00:32:56] And here Joshua is now lingering at the Tent of Meeting.
[00:33:01] It says, verse 7. Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting.
[00:33:10] So he would take a tent outside of the camp, and he said, I want to meet with God. Because he came down from the mountain, God spoke to him, and. And he had proximity with God. He saw God in a way that he'd never seen before, and it ruined him. And he said, I'm not going to wait for any instructions. God hasn't give the tabernacle instructions yet. What does Moses do? I want to meet with God. I don't. I can't go up to a mountain every single day. It's too far. But I'm going to go outside of the camp to a lonely, wilderness, secluded, kind of distant spot. I'm going to create a tent. I'm going to create a meeting spot with God. The original tent of Meeting. Moses made that, not God. Then the tabernacle, that was God. The temple, that was God. He gave all this specifications. Actually, the temple, like David wanted to build a house for God. God was like, okay, but here Moses builds a meeting place with God. Now this is very interesting. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Later on, the tabernacle that God designed would later be called Tent of Meeting. But initially, there was no tabernacle.
[00:34:11] And look at this second half of verse seven. Everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.
[00:34:22] Everyone who sought the Lord, because everyone had their own tents. But there was another tent the Moses set up as a meeting place with God. And people who wanted God, they were welcome to approach.
[00:34:34] God said, hey, Moses, you alone can come up into this glory, because I trust your heart. I know you, you want me. The people don't. We talked about that in January.
[00:34:42] But here, anyone who's hungry could seek the Lord and go out to the Tent of meeting. Verse 8. And it came about whenever Moses went out to the tent. So Moses left the camp, went to the tent that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his own tent. So people would stay in the camp and gaze after Moses until he returned from the tent tent, until he entered his. The tent.
[00:35:11] Verse 9. Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent. And the Lord would speak with Moses. So Moses creates this holy meeting place with God, not because God said it but because Moses wants more, he went on a mountaintop, he had an encounter. And he didn't turn his encounter into a moment. He turned his encounter to like, I want this every day.
[00:35:36] So he builds outside the about outside the camp and outside his own tent, another tent of meeting. And God said, I'm going to honor that hunger. And God started to come in a pillar of, of of cloud at the entrance. So much so that the people were like, we want to see this manifestation of God. We know God's among us, right? And then it says everyone who sought the Lord would go out there.
[00:35:57] This is so fascinating here. And it says this that the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, right?
[00:36:05] The Lord would speak to Moses. Verse 9, verse 11. The Lord speak Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.
[00:36:11] When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, third time we see Joshua servant the minister.
[00:36:22] That's another accurate translation of that Hebrew word.
[00:36:25] The servant, the minister. Joshua, the son of nun, a young man. A little more description about who this guy is, would not depart from the tent.
[00:36:39] Wow.
[00:36:41] Why did God choose Moses? Because when Moses saw a burning bush and he thought it could be God, he's like, I want God.
[00:36:50] Why did God choose Joshua?
[00:36:52] Because here's a man that he doesn't have access to the mountain where. The mountaintop where Moses is.
[00:36:59] But Moses creates this tent and there's this meeting place. And everyone who saw God would go there. And Moses would have to go back to his. To his job, to his leadership, to 2 million people in the wilderness. And guess what Joshua was doing.
[00:37:12] I want God.
[00:37:15] We see his heart.
[00:37:18] We see his heart all throughout here. These four instances, can I tell you, Joshua's formation was in the presence of God.
[00:37:27] That's where his identity was shaped. That's where he was formed. And that's when Moses died. And God says, now arise Joshua. My servant Moses is dead. I'm asking you to lead. He was only commissioned 40 something years later. 40 years later.
[00:37:42] But he was formed in the presence. He was formed waiting by the mountain when everyone else was wandering.
[00:37:48] He was formed staying at the tent of meeting when everyone else was sitting at their tents, like saying, moses, you're awesome. We love that you love God. We love that you're amazing. Minister, you talk to God. Tell us what he wants. Can I tell you? Sometimes Christians, we often are like that. We cheer for the people that have intimacy with God, that have intimate relationship with God, that pay the price, price to be in the presence, that pay the price to know him, to seek him, that pay the price through their life, through surrender, through fasting. And they're like, yes, I'm just going to be around you. You talk to me about God.
[00:38:19] But often we don't approach ourselves. Can I tell you our primary calling is to be with Him. In Mark, chapter three, I believe I. I don't remember the verse here. Mark 3:14, it says Jesus appointed the 12 and he called them to himself, that they would be with him and then he would send them out. They were with him for many years, for a long time, up to three years. But like before, he sent them out towards later in their ministry, but he was with them. Can I tell you our greatest calling in life is to be with him.
[00:39:00] Can I tell you God's greatest desire for you?
[00:39:04] He wants you, and he wants you to want Him.
[00:39:09] The eyes of the Lord are looking to and fro throughout the whole earth.
[00:39:13] In Second Chronicles 16. 9, the eyes of the Lord, they roam the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is totally his.
[00:39:24] Joshua was a man whose heart was burning for the Lord. Can I tell you, as we close, I'm going to invite the rest of the team. We're going to close here, but I just want to give you guys a couple. A couple practical things, because sometimes we can be inspired by Moses. We're like, wow, Moses. But. But God chose him, not me. Wow, Joshua. So cool. But God chose him, not me.
[00:39:45] Can I tell you, your calling isn't primarily to a career.
[00:39:52] Calling isn't primarily to the workplace. Your calling is primarily to the Lord.
[00:40:00] And what if we as a church in 2026, what if everyone in our church, what if we made daily presence something that we start to pursue in our life? What if daily presence, we built a tent time in our daily schedule. What if we as a community, said, God, I want your presence. I am going to create a meeting place for you. I'm going to set it apart as holy to you. You know what the word holy means? Means set apart. Can I say, let's have holy things in our life, things that are set apart for nothing else. What if we set apart minutes in our morning, you know, what if we started with 15 minutes a day and we said, God, this is holy to you. I'm not going to allow social media into this space. I'm not going to allow anyone else into this space. I'm not gonna allow messages, distractions, my to do list, my day into this space. I'm gonna create a tent of meeting, a daily place of presence where I'm gonna meet you.
[00:40:55] One of my friends, Mark Jones, he's here in this region. He's at Manhouse Church. He teaches our students. He developed this really cool devotional thing. And it's basically, he says if you, like, start with 15 minutes a day with God every single day, do it for 40 days. So he has this like 40 day worship experience. It's called the 40 Day Worship Experience. It's in my notes. You can check it out. But there's a free youversion Bible plan with all of it in there with some steps to take. He's got a website called bewithjesus365.org and there's a lot of really cool things there, playlists, stuff. But basically, like, what if we 365, 15 minutes a day just gave God the best. What if we lived as a people of his presence? What if we just weren't inspired and didn't just come to a meeting place where someone else paid the price for the. For the anointing and the presence of God? What if we didn't just come to church to like, pull on what someone else has paid for? But what if we started to pay the price to just meet with God? What if we wanted him? Because I believe God's called this church in this region to be a place where every member is a minister and the power of God, the love of God starts to flow through our lives.
[00:42:05] What if we created rhythms where we lingered like, like Joshua lingered. And we ministered to the Lord, we ministered to his heart. We stayed. After everyone else leaves. When others are wandering, we're waiting. What if we created lingering rhythms like that in our life? What if we created rhythms on our schedule? Because I can, I tell you, like, anything that you don't add to your schedule is a good idea. You'll be inspired by, but you'll never do.
[00:42:29] Anyone ever added something like, you're like, dude, I was, I was at this meeting, I was at this conference, I was at this teaching, I was at this thing, and man, it impacted me so much. But none of it changes your life. So we go from meeting to meeting, conference to conference, equipping to equipping YouTube video to YouTube video, and we wonder why we're not transformed. Well, maybe we're actually, we're doing the wrong thing. We're trying to get inspired by someone else, but we're not, like, actually paying the price, right? But what if we added to our schedule rhythms.
[00:42:58] One of my friends, Tony Verg, he goes to this Church every year since I've. I've met him for many years now. He. In January or at the beginning of the year, he does this fasting retreat, and he always invites me to it. And they typically do, like, 21 days of fasting with a bunch of brothers. They leave work, family, everything, and they set aside time. In the last three days of that. They're just with the Lord, fasting and just going after God. I'm like, wow, what a. What a rhythm to keep presence a priority in your life.
[00:43:22] What a way for God to, like, touch you and transform your life forever. Amen. What if we had rhythms where we, monthly or quarterly, like, took an entire day, put on our calendar. It's holy to the Lord, set apart, and we didn't touch. It was like, lord, this day is for you. I'm gonna get away. There's places you can get away in this region that are even free. There's like, I went to this, like, abbey that was like this. You know, we're like this monastery, and you just quiet. And people, you know this, they have their things, but you just, like, sit there in the library or out on this lawn. You're just like, lord, I want this day. Me and you. Jesus often withdrew to solitary places to host the Lord, right? What if we created rhythms in our week, in our month, biannually, annually, where we hosted the presence of God? I want to invite us to stand and we're going to worship. We're going to go into this. But I just wanted to invite us to, as a church and as a community, to really to respond with hunger towards God.
[00:44:21] Moses said, lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving the people. Thank you for not destroying them. Thank you for the angel you wanted to send. But, God, I don't want any of that. I just want you, Lord, show me your glory.
[00:44:33] Lord, show me your face. I want you. And then here's Joshua, who picked up the disease that Moses had. This hunger for the presence, it just overtook his life. And he said, I don't care that I'm a great military leader. I had victory over Amalek. I don't care about anything. I don't need to fight wars. I don't need to do anything. God, I just want your presence. What if we made his presence our priority and it looked like something in our life?
[00:44:56] I want to invite us to just repent where we've had misaligned priorities in our life, where we've allowed other things, where we've sought other things instead of seeking first him.
[00:45:06] And I want us. I want. I want us to get into proximity with the Lord and with people that are burning. Can I tell you, just in our church, I know there's hundred, two hundred, I don't know, like, burning ones that I. When I spend time with them in my life group or around them, I'm like, man, I want more proximity with you. You carry something. You're the real deal. What if we got in proximity with some hungry people that were burning for God and our life would start to look differently.
[00:45:35] So, Lord, we just open up our hearts and we just say, God, we want to burn for you.
[00:45:40] If you're here today and you just want to respond with humility and hunger and say, God, I want to want your presence, but I don't have that want to in me. Will you put it in me?
[00:45:51] Would you just respond today, just hunger and humility as we just worship and let's just go after the Lord. Let's be a community that our primary purpose is the Lord Jesus name. Let's worship.
[00:46:08] Thank you for joining King Movement Online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
