This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to week five, our last week in
our study through the book of Joshua. What a great study about how God's
promises can become real, can become familiar, become lived in our lives. And
the question I have for you as we enter this last week is, how are you getting
along with God's promises?

Are they, to you, more like strangers? They're at the door of your life, but
they haven't ever gotten into your house? Or they may be like guests.

They're welcomed in every once in a while, but they are only given the couch to
sleep on. You don't really feel at home with God's promises yet. Or do you feel
like they're family?

That the promises of God are welcomed into your life with open arms. You're made
at home with God's promises. They're made a part of your everyday life.

We're talking together through the lessons of the book of Joshua about how to
possess God's promises. How you and I can begin to feel at home with the
promises of God in our lives. And last week we talked about the first principle
of possessing God's promises that we learn in this book.

You have to drive out the enemy. This week we get a chance to look at several
more principles for living with God's promises, possessing God's promises. We're
going to start with this one.

How do you begin to anticipate God's presence in your life? When you learn that,
you learn how to be at home with God's promise. Anticipate God's presence.

Figure God's presence into the calculations of your life. If not, if you can't
do that, all of his promises are going to seem unworkable, unrealistic, because
they are based on his presence, his power. There's a contrast in Joshua's day
that helps us to see our need to anticipate God's presence.

A contrast between those who did anticipate what God was going to do and those
who did not. I want to show you what happened in Joshua chapter 17 and then go
back to Joshua 14. Joshua 17 we see the sons of Joseph, the people of Joseph,
and in Joshua 14 we see a man named Caleb.

Let's start with Joshua 17, Joseph's complaint. Joshua 17, 14 down to verse 16
says this, "The people of Joseph said to Joshua, 'Why have you given us only one
allotment and one portion for an inheritance? We are a numerous people and the
Lord has blessed us abundantly.

If you are so numerous,' Joshua answered, 'and if the hill country of Ephraim is
too small for you, then go up into the forest and clear land for yourselves
there in the land of the Perizzites and the Raphaites. ' The people of Joseph
replied, 'The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live
in the plain have iron chariots, both those in Bethshan and its settlements and
in those in the valley of Jezreel. '" Notice what's happening here.

This tribe of Joseph's coming and saying, "We don't have enough land," and
Joseph is responded to by Joshua. He says, "You have enough land, you just need
to clear some forest, you need to go and drive out the enemy. " In verse 14,
they claimed that the Lord had given them too little, they didn't have enough
land.

In verse 15, Joshua says, "It looks to me like God has already provided. " In
verse 16, they say, "You don't understand," and here's where the complaint comes
in. This can't be the solution, what you're saying.

There are too many problems. The hill country is too small, the Canaanites are
too large. We want the land on the plain, they were saying, but we don't want
any enemies there.

It is so easy for you and I to go down this path, to allow our problems to begin
to become the excuse for not allowing God's promise into our lives. So we think,
"You don't understand," and God is saying, "Just listen, I do understand. " In
fact, we hear God's understanding and Joshua's challenge to these people of
Joseph.

He says in verses 17 and 18, listen to these verses, "But Joshua said to the
house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, 'You are numerous and very powerful.
You will have not only one allotment, but the forested hill country as well.
Clear it and its farthest limits will be yours.

Though the Canaanites have iron chariots and though they are strong, you can
drive them out. '" Joshua is telling them, "Problems cannot prevent God's
promises. " Open your eyes, problems cannot prevent God's promises.

There is a way to receive his promises and the way is through the problems. And
listen to what he says, "Though there is a forest, you shall clear it. Though
they have chariots, you shall drive them out.

" How about you and the problems that you face in life? Have you seen how God
can work into your life his promises even through the problems? You are promised
peace and yet you struggle with anger.

Though it is a forest, you will clear it tree by tree by tree as you trust God
and you'll come to a place of peace in your life. You promise victory in your
life, in your spiritual life and yet you struggle with temptations. Though the
enemy has chariots, you will drive them out.

Listen to this, "Clearing forests and battling chariots are an inevitable part
of receiving God's promises in our lives. " And thinking that somehow our lives
are going to just fall into place without the clearing of the forest, without
the battling of the chariot, mistakes how God's bringing his promise to bear in
your life. The tribes of Joseph had to learn that, Ephraim and Manasseh had to
learn that.

Now in contrast to these people who were afraid to take the hill country, let's
go back to chapter 14. Let's look at a man by the name of Caleb. Listen to what
happened beginning in verse 6.

It's one of the great stories of the book of Joshua. Now the men of Judah
approached Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb, son of Jephunah, the Kenazite, said to
him, "You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about
you and me. I was 40 years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from
Kadesh Barnea to explore the land, and I brought him back a report according to
my convictions.

But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with
fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses
swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance
and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God
wholeheartedly.

'" Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for 45 years since
the time he said this to Moses while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I
am today, 85 years old. I am still as strong as the day Moses sent me out.

I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this
hill country that the Lord promised me on that day. You yourself heard then that
the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord
helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said.

Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Japhunah and he gave him Hebron as his
inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Japhunah the Kenazite ever
since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. You just
have to love Caleb.

In total contrast to these people of Joseph, Caleb says, "I want the hill
country. I want the greatest battle. " You remember well, many of you, that
Caleb and Joshua were the only two of the twelve spies that Moses sent out that
brought back a good, faith-filled report.

And here they are talking in the land these many years later. And he's still
saying, "I want to take this land. Give me the hill country.

Not reluctance, not compliant, not complaint, but confidence. Give me the
challenge," Caleb says. There were Anakim who were taller than everyone else
apparently.

There were giants in the land. These were the very people that had kept Israel
from entering 40, 45 years earlier. "Let me at them," says Caleb.

While the rest of Israel wandered 40 years in the desert in fear of these
giants, you get this sense that Caleb walked those 40 years in the desert
anticipating God's eventual victory over these giants. Let me at them. He'd been
thinking this for over 40 years.

Caleb's confidence was in God's promises. Caleb's confidence meant that God's
promises worked even though there are problems. In fact, here was Caleb's
confidence.

Caleb's confidence was that God's promise means that the problems are in fact
God's problems. If you could begin to see life that way, everything would turn
around. That's how you begin to take God's promises into your life.

You realize that God's promises mean that the problems are also God's problems.
Now what made Caleb different? What made him able to see it that way?

I think it's in verse 12. "The Lord helping me," he said, "I shall do this. "
Caleb anticipated God's presence, and that anticipation changed the direction of
his life.

That anticipation affected every decision of his life. So do you anticipate
God's presence, or is it just what you can do and how you can do it? How do you
become a man, a woman like Caleb, who has this kind of attitude, this kind of
heart?

Look at verse 8, verse 9, and verse 14. This same phrase is repeated again and
again. He followed the Lord his God fully.

That was the rule of Caleb's life. That was the mark of Caleb's life. Caleb's
trusting obedience resulted in this anticipation, this passionate anticipation.

His anticipation grew out of where he chose to place his trust. So if you look
at your life and you think, "I'm not anticipating God's presence in my daily
life," you start with trust. You start with trusting him wholeheartedly.

You start with trusting him personally. "God, I trust you above the problems. I
trust you above the circumstances.

" What I'm saying is this. You have to commit to follow him in trust before you
can begin to anticipate where he will lead. A lot of people want God to show us
exactly where he's going to lead, and then we say, "Oh, now I'll trust you.

You laid it all out for me and worked it all out for me. " It doesn't work that
way. If you're living the life of faith, you already know this.

It does not work that way. You begin with a step of faith, of trust. You commit
to follow him in trust, and then he shows you how the problems work out.

So how are you getting along with God's promises? Are you living in fear of your
problems? Are you living in a place where you're reluctant to begin?

Or like Caleb, do you have a confidence, a trust? We all struggle with our
confidence in the Lord. When you struggle, instead of looking at the problems, I
encourage you.

Look back to him. Decide again to trust in him. Begin in a new way this day to
anticipate God's presence in your life.

Our Father, that's what we ask. As we walk through this day today, help us to
remember to realize we're not walking alone. We walk into each situation, each
circumstance, each problem, each opportunity, and you're there.

So help us to live and to act in anticipation of your presence, we pray. We ask
this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look at how we can act on the
assurance of God's promises.