Sermon Notes

September 22, 2024

The Valley of Discouragement

Joshua 1:5-9

Moses was dead. God had used him for many years to accomplish mighty things for His namesake and for His glory, all starting with how God used him to lead the Israeli people out of Egypt. The final chapter of the book of Deuteronomy sums up his amazing life by saying that there has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. So the death of Moses would have been a very major and traumatic event in the life of Israel. Nevertheless Israel still had to go on and it had to go on by the lead of God’s chosen man, Joshua. Can you imagine what Joshua was going through once Moses died? Not only did he lose a strong and Godly leader like the rest of Israel did, but Joshua lost a friend as well. The grief he had experienced was a little deeper than the rest of Israel. On top of that, add the fact that Joshua was called upon to fill the shoes of Moses as the next leader of Israel. Can you imagine all the things that Joshua was feeling and struggling with at that moment? Sorrow, grief, worry and anxiety — just to name a few. I’m sure if we thought about it long enough, we could come up with pages of emotions that we would be going through if we were in Joshua's shoes. All those emotions are important and need to be dealt with. But there is one emotion or response that God knew Joshua did have and was going to have as he stepped into those big shoes. That was the one thing God addressed as He spoke to Joshua and that was recorded in the book of Joshua in Chapter 1. It’s the same feeling or emotion that we will naturally find ourselves experiencing from time-to-time as well. God knows something about this emotional place that we don’t. He knows that if we hold on to this emotion for too long, the results will be catastrophic. This emotion is that of discouragement. Why is discouragement so dangerous?  Discouragement happens when we lose courage. When we lose courage, we begin to lose faith. When we lose courage and faith, we stop pressing forward to the goal that God has set for us. When we linger in our discouraged state for too long it becomes contagious. At that point it will lead us, as well as others, into serious issues that can cause catastrophic stagnation in our spiritual as well as physical lives. God wasn’t going to allow the children of Israel to stop pressing forward to the goal He had for them, especially as they were on the precipice of obtaining the land that God had promised all the way back to Abraham. It’s something that God doesn’t want to have happen in our lives as well. We cannot afford to lose courage, lose faith and lose the ability to press on as we pursue the mission Jesus has for our lives. So this morning, I want to look at how God addresses this in the life of Joshua and how that will apply in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

Things that Bring Discouragement - Joshua 1:5

No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

The book begins with a reminder that Moses is dead and after that reminder God speaks to Joshua directly. In the first handful of verses, God is reminding Joshua what mission he is to carry out. It’s the same mission that Moses was tasked with as well. He is to take God’s people into the promised land. It’s this mission that can’t be discouraged in the lives of the Israelites. It's at the start of verse 5 that God starts addressing some of the ways He knew discouragement would creep into the life and mission of Joshua. He briefly addresses them. It’s true that we are wired differently, and we will have different ways that discouragement might creep into our lives. The truth remains that no matter what factors might lead us into discouragement, we must not only get out of the Valley of Discouragement, but we must cut off the paths that keep leading us into that valley. For example, if you keep getting critters in your attic, you’re going to get worn out removing those critters day-after-day. Instead you need to address the hole they keep getting in through to fix the problem. That’s what God is addressing when He speaks of the first source of discouragement that Joshua will experience, and that source is personal failure. When we fail at something, most of the time, we start to lose the courage and the zeal we first had when we started to pursue our goal, and we even start to focus on our weaknesses.  This type of discouragement will always slow us down and if we don’t deal with it, it will stop us dead in our tracks. Joshua would have this happen to him just a few chapters later in Chapter 7. However God wanted to make sure he understood that no one will be able to stand against him (There is a caveat to this that we will discuss in the next point). There is something I find interesting about how God addresses this, because it’s not an empty promise that God makes but He backs it up. He doesn’t back it up by telling Joshua that he won’t fail because he’s a great warrior or because he was trained by the best. God doesn’t focus on Joshua at all, but rather He focuses on Himself by saying, I will go with you, and I never fail, nor do I abandon my children. This is exactly what we must do when we start letting failure bring discouragement into our lives. We must not focus on ourselves, but we need to focus on the one who called us to the task.  We see this many times in scripture, Moses himself was worried about not being able to speak well when God called him to lead His children out of Egypt. God did not respond by telling him that he will do great, but rather He brought the focus onto the one who created him and the mouth that He was calling to speak to the Pharaoh. Our focus cannot be on our failures. Yes, we are going to fail, but we need to use those failures to learn. We repent of those failures and try again not focusing on our failure or weaknesses but learning from our mistakes and humbly allow ourselves to be molded into the image of Jesus through these trials in our lives. There are a few other ways we experience discouragement that are referenced here in God’s address to Joshua. Sometimes we can let discouragement in because of how we perceive events that happen in our lives — events that don’t work out exactly how we hoped and prayed they would. Then we start to feel disappointment because we feel like God let us down. God says here that He will not fail, so we start to feel discouraged in those situations. We need to look at our expectations because unrealistic expectations can be a way discouragement creeps into our lives. Maybe in those situations we might even have a distorted view of who God is and what He has promised to us. All those things can cause us to feel discouraged and begin to lose faith. The same God who made this promise to Joshua is the same God who made the same promise to us today (Hebrews 13:5). God gives Joshua an ultimate way to strengthen our faith and drive out discouragement as we move forward with God in our lives pursuing our mission.

How to drive out Discouragement - Joshua 1:6-9

Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Over the span of 4 verses, God tells Joshua either to be strong and courageous or to be strong and VERY courageous. In the Hebrew language these two words are practically synonymous with each other, and they both speak of restoring one's courage once you experience discouragement in your life. It’s one thing to tell someone to be strong and courageous but it's another thing altogether to empower someone to do so. That's exactly what God did with Joshua.  With each of these 3 calls to be courageous, God tells Joshua exactly what he can do to keep his faith and his courage.
  • We must talk to God.
Before we get into the three things that God spoke and literally told Joshua to do, there is something that is assumed would be done. It's taking place at this moment and that is talking with God. When we find ourselves starting down into the Valley of Discouragement one of the first things that suffers is our prayer life. When we stop praying, we start getting more embedded in our discouragement. When we stop praying even more than discouragement happens, disobedience sneaks in as well. Joshua witnessed the power of prayer firsthand. In Chapter 9, we see that Joshua didn’t pray and talk to God concerning a peace treaty they were going to sign with the Gibeonites, and they were deceived. In Chapter 10 Joshua prayed and God made the sun stand still until Israel defeated their enemies. Prayer is our most powerful tool when it comes to dealing with anything in life, especially when it comes to overcoming discouragement. We must be very careful when discouragement comes not to set prayer aside for a season, but to run to the Lord in prayer immediately in those moments.
  • We must study God’s Word.
I’m going to take the things God spoke to Joshua out of order for us to understand that each of these are causally chained to one another starting with the command in verse 8. God tells Joshua that he needs to study the Word continually. Now at the time it was the law that was given to Moses and written down, but he was to continually study it (your translation might have something about the Word not departing from your mouth). The idea here as well as the word we translate as meditate both share the idea of making sure the Word is read out loud. God is making sure that not only does he read and study the Word, but he needs to hear it read aloud.  Recently scientists have found that when you read something in conjunction with reading and studying, it helps with comprehension. It helps with application and internalization, it helps us be more fluent with the material, and it will help us to memorize what we are dealing with. Funny that God knew this thousands of years ago when He commanded Joshua in these things. His command was not just for Joshua, it was for us too.  We are to study, read, and hear God’s Word as well. I think in our hectic lifestyles there is another word here we must focus on and that is “continually”.  We need to be continually in God’s Word — reading God’s Word, studying God’s Word, and hearing God’s Word. Just coming to services and Bible study on Sundays will not help us when it comes to God’s command here. If we are not continually in God’s Word, we will find ourselves being more prone to discouragement. Therefore we need to pray and be in God’s Word continually if we do not want to fall into discouragement. Like we have said many times, we cannot just pursue God intellectually. We must be obedient to His Word.
  • We must live His Word.
Twice in these few verses God mentions obedience. Once after He tells Joshua to make sure to study, read, and hear God’s Word but the other time is in verse 7. It’s when he adds the adverb “very” to the command to be courageous. Why would He have to mention this twice and use the term “very” as well? God knows that obedience is hard, He knows our sinful hearts and He knows that we are prone to wander away and become discouraged. So He tells Joshua this to make sure he is very careful in how he follows the law. We see in the rest of the Book of Joshua that the times that Joshua was obedient things went very well for the children of Israel, but in the times, he did what he thought was right, things crashed and burned. The same thing goes with us. To obtain success in life (not worldly success mind you) we must be obedient to all of God’s Word, not just the parts we want to be obedient to or are convenient now. To stave off discouragement we must live out God’s word. When we try to do life on our terms, we leave the door wide open for discouragement to come in.
  • We must hold on to His promise.
One of the ways we mentioned before that discouragement will sneak into our lives is when we have unrealistic expectations or a distorted view of who God really is. By studying and knowing God’s Word we can know exactly who God is from HIS Word, not from what others say, what songs say, or any other method, we will know God because of how He reveals Himself in scripture. We also need to learn exactly what He promised and not what we think He promises. God speaks to Joshua and makes it clear that He will be faithful to His promise, and He restates it here in verse 6. We need to be able to differentiate what we think God promised from what He promised. When our faith is in a promise that God did not make, not only is it a false faith, but we will feel like God let us down and that brings with it discouragement. The God who reveals Himself in His Word and makes promises to His followers in His Word has never failed and will never fail.

You might say that these points sound familiar — to study, live, and hold onto God’s word and they are, I think I’ve used them verbatim before in a sermon, but it should tell us how serious God is with this command and how much He knows we will struggle and drift from this in our lives. He knows the dangers of it as well, especially when it comes to experiencing discouragement in our lives. God wraps this conversation with Joshua with one last command: it is once again to be strong and courageous and not be discouraged or afraid. For the Lord YOUR God is with you wherever you go. I love how God tells Joshua that He is His Lord, but I wonder — can I say He is your God and Lord personally? Only you can answer those questions. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior there is a promise you can claim when it comes to discouragement in life. It was spoken by Jesus as He (as some have said) spoke at a funeral for discouragement in John 16:33. When He said that in this life you will have troubles, but take heart, I’ve overcome the world. We gain courage to carry out our missions in life, as parents, as spouses, and ultimately as followers of Jesus when we follow God and that all begins with making Him Lord of your life. Joshua was given a promise that was given to Moses as well, it was a promise that God will always be with them. That’s the same promise we are given as Followers of Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew when we see near its beginning that Jesus is called Emmanuel or God with us. We see it all throughout Jesus’ life, and we see it again in the last words of Jesus recorded there when He says, “I am with you always even to the ends of the earth.”  Discouragement is going to be a part of our lives, but we can let it linger long and set up shop. We have a mission that we cannot lose passion for.  We must deal with our discouragement as soon as we recognize it, strengthen our faith, and press on!
1 43 44 45 46 47 191

GATHER | GROW | SERVE | SHARE

We're an evangelistic body of believers centered in the Four Corners region of the United States, on a mission to reach our community–and the world–with the Good News of Jesus Christ. We believe that the Gospel is the most important message ever shared, so for us, that's what it's all about.
VISIT US!
envelopephone-handsetmap-markermenuchevron-down linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram