If you’ve ever attended a football game at Autzen Stadium, you may have witnessed the cheerleaders leading 50,000 enthusiastic Duck fans in an antiphonal call-and-response. The fans on one side of the stadium scream, “Go!” The fans on the other side answer by screaming back, “Ducks!” This volley goes on for several minutes. It’s pretty cool.
Now, imagine 2,000,000 enthusiastic God fans in an antiphonal call-and-response, a million at a time screaming “Amen!” back and forth to each other, after each verse Joshua reads from the Scripture. That’s beyond cool!
That’s the scene in Joshua 8, after Israel’s victory at Ai. More than an epic moment in Israel’s history, it teaches us a profound lesson about our relationship with God today. Read the entire chapter to prepare.
Review to Renew
Joshua
July 25, 2021 • Pastor Ben Cross
Last Words: The Sequel
September 12, 2021 • Pastor Ben Cross • Joshua 24
Richard Baxter, a renowned Reformed pastor from the 1600’s, captured, in his own experience, Joshua’s urgency at the end of his life. He said, “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” In chapter 24, Joshua challenges Israel, after all Yahweh their Elohim had done for them, to repent of their half-hearted loyalty and choose to be fully devoted to him. What Joshua confronted in Israel that day is a common delinquency found in God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments, including our own times, maybe even in our own lives. Read Joshua 24 to prepare.
Last Words
September 5, 2021 • Pastor Ben Cross • Joshua 23
A person’s last words are typically their most significant and the most important to remember. Maybe the last words of a loved one are a treasure you hold dear in your heart. Last words matter. In the final two chapters of Joshua, he shares his own, first to his fellow leaders (chapter 23) and then to the nation as a whole (chapter 24). Joshua’s last words are a treasure we can hold dear in our hearts. They reveal the secret to overcoming spiritual strongholds in and around us, which will lead us into a time of Communion, where we remember Jesus and all he has done for us. Please read Joshua 23 to prepare.
The Danger of Assumptions
August 29, 2021 • Pastor Ben Cross • Joshua 22
The topic of this Sunday’s message is the danger of assumptions—how civil war nearly broke out in Israel because of wrong assumptions. Mexican author, Miguel Ruiz, wrote: We make all sorts of assumptions, because we don’t have the courage to ask questions. Without asking a question, I’m going to go out on a limb. I think it’s safe to assume that everyone reading this has experienced conflict with someone—a spouse, friend, relative, classmate, neighbor, or work colleague—over an issue you later discovered was completely unnecessary, because it was based on a wrong assumption. Israel’s story in Joshua 22 reveals important insights for the division and strife in our own times and how to deal with the danger of assumptions.