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Joshua 2:9 (7/5/23)

Overcoming Fear

July 5, 2023 • Benham Brothers • Joshua 2:9

Satan wants you to operate in fear. 

Fear is like the shadow of a mouse on a wall - it’s much bigger in your mind than it is in real life. 

Anxiety is “projected” fear. 

If you operate by fear, then you’ll never enter your place of rest and peace. 

Your greatest blessing is found on the other side of your greatest fear. 

Look what happened with the Israelites. 

They were supposed to go into the Promised Land - a place of peace and rest and abundance. 

But they refused to go in because of fear. 

So they spent 40 years in the wilderness.

Now, they’re about to go in - Jericho would be their first battle. 

They sent spies, who met Rahab, who told them something crazy. 

Vs 9-11 - “(Rehab) said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” 

For 40 years the Israelites feared the very people who were afraid of them! 

EX: Most animals are more afraid of you than you are of them. 

Fear is a matter of focus - it magnifies and intensifies. 

The more you focus on the object of your fear it magnetizes in your mind (gets bigger) and your fear of it intensifies. 

EX: The Israelite spies said they were like “grasshoppers” compared to those in Canaan. 

But the more you focus on God the bigger He gets and the stronger your desire to obey and serve Him.

The question is, when you see your future do you see your problem or God? 

You can face your fear because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world!


Joshua 1 (4/16/14)

April 16, 2014 • Benham Brothers

God commanded Joshua to cross the Jordan but He didn't tell him how. Joshua didn't wait for a plan - he moved toward obedience before he knew how. Joshua's focus was on the God of plans and not the plan of God. Luke 17:14-15 - Ten lepers were cleansed in their "going." Joshua 3:4 - He didn't know the plan, but he did know that God must go first! God gave him the plan only after he moved toward obedience. The Jordan River was at flood stage right now - the odds were stacked against them crossing it. Joshua could have gone first and got his men to start building rafts to get the people across. When the soles of the priests feet touched the Jordan the waters stopped several miles away in a town called Adam.

Joshua 1:7-9 (3/31/16)

March 31, 2016 • Benham Brothers

• Moses was dead - Joshua took over. • The Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land. • God encouraged Joshua and the people with a very specific command: • Be Courageous, Hold to God's Word, Be Courageous. • He sandwiched His Word between the command to be courageous. • Like a PBJ in between two slices of bread. • God's Word apart from courage wasn't going to take the land, and being courageous apart from God's Word wouldn't do it either. • If we want to enter the land of promise for us it will take courage and God's Word. • God's Word apart from Courage makes a teacher. • God's Word with Courage makes a father (1 Corinthians 4:15)! • We need fathers today like Joshua. • Father’s speak it, think it, do it.

Joshua 2 (4/4/13)

April 4, 2013 • Benham Brothers

Rahab feared God more than Man If your lie is based on fear of God then it's ok, but no situation like that exists If Mercy wasn't owed to them then Truth wasn't either