Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / No Falling Words- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:32Speaker 1: T well.
- 1:02Speaker 2: God is a god of fresh starts and new beginnings
- 1:05Speaker 2: and second chances, And if you're in need of one,
- 1:08Speaker 2: then welcome to this study of the book and the
- 1:11Speaker 2: life of Joshua. Joshua and the children of Israel were
- 1:15Speaker 2: given a second shot at the promised Land, and they
- 1:19Speaker 2: took it. And if you're in need of a second
- 1:21Speaker 2: shot at God's promised land for you, then this is
- 1:25Speaker 2: your story. Welcome to glory Days. Before we begin the message,
- 1:30Speaker 2: let's do what we do every week. Let's make our
- 1:32Speaker 2: glory days declaration. The words will appear on the screen.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Please fill your lungs with air and your hearts with hope,
- 1:39Speaker 2: and say it like you mean it. You're ready. These
- 1:44Speaker 2: days are glory days. My past is past, my future
- 1:49Speaker 2: is right, and God's promises are true. His word is sure.
- 1:54Speaker 2: With God as my helper, I will be all he
- 1:57Speaker 2: wants me to be, do all he wants me to do,
- 2:01Speaker 2: and receive all he wants me to receive. These days
- 2:06Speaker 2: are glory days. They are Lord, They're good days. Forgive
- 2:10Speaker 2: us for when we over complain and when we forget,
- 2:13Speaker 2: how blessed we are. Even those who carry deep and
- 2:18Speaker 2: heavy burdens find strength in you, Lord, You are a
- 2:22Speaker 2: good God. Open our hearts to receive a word today
- 2:27Speaker 2: from you. Forgive our speaker his sins are so many.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Help us to see Jesus, our Savior, our Joshua, and
- 2:36Speaker 2: just him through Christ. We pray and all the Church said.
- 2:43Speaker 2: I was very comfortably seated in the exit row of
- 2:46Speaker 2: the airplane when a passenger in the ale called my name.
- 2:52Speaker 2: He was a tall, light haired fellow about fifty years
- 2:56Speaker 2: of age who appeared to be on a business trip.
- 3:00Speaker 2: He introduced himself, and because of the chaos of boarding
- 3:03Speaker 2: a fly, we really didn't have a chance to visit.
- 3:06Speaker 2: But I gathered this much that he had heard me speak
- 3:09Speaker 2: somewhere some years before and had found some encouragement in
- 3:13Speaker 2: my books and would like to talk someday. I returned
- 3:16Speaker 2: the greeting and settled in for the trip. About an
- 3:19Speaker 2: hour later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I
- 3:22Speaker 2: turned and turns out it was the same fellow who
- 3:26Speaker 2: greeted me in the aisle. He was sitting behind me,
- 3:30Speaker 2: and he did have something to tell me, and he
- 3:33Speaker 2: had written a note on a napkin, and the note
- 3:38Speaker 2: read as follows, Max six summers ago, Lynn and I
- 3:45Speaker 2: buried our twenty four year old daughter. This came about
- 3:50Speaker 2: following a lake accident in two weeks on life support.
- 3:56Speaker 2: We didn't see this coming. How do you go on
- 4:00Speaker 2: a summer vacation with four and come back home with
- 4:04Speaker 2: three friends, some of whom had also buried precious children?
- 4:11Speaker 2: Rallied around our family. A country lawyer with his encouraging
- 4:17Speaker 2: message that God means you good and not harm was
- 4:20Speaker 2: one of those encouraging voices. Various copies of your books
- 4:24Speaker 2: were given to Lynn and me, and we prayed for
- 4:27Speaker 2: a miracle. I wanted her made new, her smile and
- 4:31Speaker 2: brilliance restored. To unplug our daughter from life support was very,
- 4:37Speaker 2: very hard. Although the decision was painful, we were confident
- 4:43Speaker 2: that we were doing the right thing in laying her
- 4:46Speaker 2: in the arms of a mighty God who knew our pain.
- 4:52Speaker 2: His best work may not have been restoring Errin to
- 4:54Speaker 2: this life, but his assistance for Lynn and me to
- 4:58Speaker 2: let him have her. He made our daughter better than you.
- 5:02Speaker 2: He restored my Errand to his eternal presence. This is
- 5:06Speaker 2: his best work. And this was not a light to
- 5:09Speaker 2: wait hope. This was an assurance, let me have your daughter.
- 5:13Speaker 2: I've got her. Now God's children, reflecting the very nature
- 5:18Speaker 2: of God became his presence around us. Our faith is
- 5:22Speaker 2: getting us through this. Faith is a choice. I read
- 5:29Speaker 2: and reread that napkin many times, and I beginning to wonder,
- 5:34Speaker 2: how does this happen? Not the accident, but the faith.
- 5:42Speaker 2: Especially poignant question to ask on Father's Day weekend? How
- 5:48Speaker 2: does a dad place his daughter in Heaven's arms? Believing
- 5:54Speaker 2: that God means him good and not harm, Believing that
- 5:58Speaker 2: God is still saw that God has not vacated the throne,
- 6:05Speaker 2: believing that everything does work out eventually, ultimately for good.
- 6:11Speaker 2: The napkin could have contained a different tone of words right.
- 6:18Speaker 2: It could have been bitter. It could have easily been
- 6:20Speaker 2: full of hate. It could have been written by a
- 6:24Speaker 2: man overwhelmed by his grief. Instead, the pen carried words
- 6:33Speaker 2: of faith, words of hope. What made the difference in
- 6:40Speaker 2: his life? Well, he tells us, doesn't he Faith is
- 6:44Speaker 2: a choice, and he had made the choice to have faith.
- 6:49Speaker 2: He had made the decision to have faith. I believe
- 6:52Speaker 2: that promised Land people make this choice. I think the
- 6:56Speaker 2: people in the Book of Joshua did. The reason we're
- 6:59Speaker 2: studying the Book of Joshua is because these people, for
- 7:03Speaker 2: seven years enjoyed seven years of unbridled victory, and right
- 7:07Speaker 2: at the heart of their life is this drumbeat of
- 7:11Speaker 2: faith that God keeps his promises promise land. People believe
- 7:16Speaker 2: in the promises of God, and when forced by life
- 7:20Speaker 2: to stand at the intersection of disbelief and belief, they
- 7:25Speaker 2: choose belief. They walk the path of faith, seldom with
- 7:31Speaker 2: a skip, often with a limb, but still they walk
- 7:40Speaker 2: in the direction of God. They press into his promises.
- 7:49Speaker 2: This was the example of Joshua, and in many ways
- 7:53Speaker 2: a person could say this is the message of Joshua.
- 7:56Speaker 2: The central message of the book is this headline, God
- 8:00Speaker 2: keeps his promises, trust them. Toward the end of the book,
- 8:07Speaker 2: the author gives us this summary statement. So the Lord
- 8:12Speaker 2: gave to Israel all of the land which he had
- 8:15Speaker 2: sworn to give their fathers. They took possession of it,
- 8:18Speaker 2: and they dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest
- 8:22Speaker 2: all around according to all that he had sworn to
- 8:25Speaker 2: their fathers, and not a man of all their enemies
- 8:28Speaker 2: stood against them. So the Lord delivered all their enemies
- 8:32Speaker 2: into their hand, and not a word failed of any
- 8:35Speaker 2: good thing which the Lord had spoken to the House
- 8:38Speaker 2: of Israel, all came to pass. These three verses are
- 8:46Speaker 2: like the theological heartbeat of the Book of Joshua. The
- 8:50Speaker 2: narrator takes on the form of a commentator, as if
- 8:55Speaker 2: to say, before you finish the book, I want to
- 8:57Speaker 2: give you what all this book is about. Miss it.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Don't read too quickly. God keeps his word, and concerned
- 9:06Speaker 2: that we would miss it, the writer pounds his point
- 9:09Speaker 2: home in triplicant three times in three verses. He says,
- 9:15Speaker 2: God did what he said he would do. In verse
- 9:18Speaker 2: forty three, the Lord gave what he had sworn to give.
- 9:22Speaker 2: Verse forty four, the Lord gave rest according to all
- 9:25Speaker 2: he had sworn to their fathers verse forty five. Not
- 9:28Speaker 2: a word failed of any good thing which the Lord
- 9:31Speaker 2: had spoken, all came to pass. God kept every single promise.
- 9:37Speaker 2: One commentator was so touched by that last sentence that
- 9:41Speaker 2: he named his commentary on the Book of Joshua no
- 9:45Speaker 2: falling words. We live in a world of falling words.
- 9:52Speaker 2: People speak words and they just fall to the ground.
- 9:56Speaker 2: They make promises and they don't keep them. Maybe the
- 10:00Speaker 2: promise was too big to make in the first place.
- 10:04Speaker 2: Or maybe the character wasn't strong enough to uphold the promise.
- 10:08Speaker 2: But you've heard your share of falling words, or will
- 10:12Speaker 2: take care of you till death do us part. I'll
- 10:16Speaker 2: always love you. And then the words tumble. They are
- 10:22Speaker 2: autumn leaves in November's wind, falling words. You've heard your share,
- 10:29Speaker 2: but you will never hear one from God. When God
- 10:34Speaker 2: makes a promise, he keeps it. He is a covenant keeping,
- 10:39Speaker 2: a covenant making God and his promises are sure. And
- 10:45Speaker 2: in a world where people break their promises and do
- 10:48Speaker 2: not keep their word, you can trust God to do both.
- 10:54Speaker 2: If he has spoken, you can be sure that that
- 10:58Speaker 2: word will rain for ever in eternity. The Psalmist said,
- 11:03Speaker 2: the Lord's promise is sure. He speaks no careless words.
- 11:10Speaker 2: All he says is purest truth, like silver seven times refined.
- 11:17Speaker 2: In other words, all the dross, all the unnecessary ingredients,
- 11:22Speaker 2: are taken away. God is a covenant keeping God. And
- 11:26Speaker 2: for proof, the writer of Joshua says, just look to history.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Look how God kept his promise to Abraham. God had
- 11:35Speaker 2: promised Abraham that he would give Israel all the land
- 11:39Speaker 2: that he had sworn to give their fathers. It's found
- 11:42Speaker 2: in Genesis chapter twelve and verse seven, which you need
- 11:46Speaker 2: to note. This is a promise that was made six
- 11:49Speaker 2: hundred years earlier. Six hundred years God never forgot his promise.
- 11:58Speaker 2: That's a long time. When Abraham died, he owned only
- 12:03Speaker 2: a small parcel of Israel, just enough to bury his
- 12:07Speaker 2: wife and family. And then the children of Abraham eventually
- 12:12Speaker 2: ended up in Egypt, where they were slaves and sharecroppers.
- 12:17Speaker 2: Moses got him out of Egypt, but he never got
- 12:19Speaker 2: him into the Promised land. How many times do you
- 12:22Speaker 2: think those grisly bearded sons of Abraham looked up to
- 12:26Speaker 2: God and said, are you going to keep that promise?
- 12:29Speaker 2: Do you remember your promise? And the Book of Joshua
- 12:34Speaker 2: says yes, God keeps his promises. God did bless the
- 12:40Speaker 2: children of Abraham. The promise he made was this, I
- 12:45Speaker 2: will make your name great. You shall be a blessing.
- 12:47Speaker 2: I will bless those who bless you. I will curse
- 12:50Speaker 2: him who curses you, and in you, all the families
- 12:52Speaker 2: of the earth will be blessed. That promise has come true,
- 12:58Speaker 2: partly in Joshua, but entirely in our Joshua, Jesus Christ.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Because of Jesus Christ, all the families in all the
- 13:09Speaker 2: nations of the earth are blessed. Every person on the
- 13:14Speaker 2: planet has equal access to hope, to redemption, and to
- 13:19Speaker 2: forgiveness no wonder. The apostle Paul wrote, all the promises
- 13:24Speaker 2: of God find there, Yes in Jesus. Our God is
- 13:30Speaker 2: a promise keeping God, isn't he? Others may make a
- 13:33Speaker 2: promise and forget it. But if God makes a promise,
- 13:36Speaker 2: he keeps it. He who promised is faithful. This matters
- 13:41Speaker 2: if you are in the emergency room. This matters if
- 13:47Speaker 2: you're feeling the sting of a divorce. This matters if
- 13:54Speaker 2: you keep having more month at the end of your
- 13:59Speaker 2: money than vice versa. You need to know God has
- 14:04Speaker 2: not forgotten you, and He has made promises to you.
- 14:10Speaker 2: And you are at that crossroad yourself, and you have
- 14:14Speaker 2: to choose fear or faith. Do I look at my
- 14:18Speaker 2: problems or do I heed God's promises. We all find
- 14:22Speaker 2: ourselves that those intersections. Some of you are there today
- 14:25Speaker 2: in a very dramatic fashion. And I believe that God
- 14:28Speaker 2: has brought you here to say I've made you some promises.
- 14:33Speaker 2: You need to trust those promises. You need to remember
- 14:36Speaker 2: the words of the Great Hymn, his oath, his covenant,
- 14:41Speaker 2: his blood support me in the whelming flood. Nothing deserves
- 14:47Speaker 2: your attention more than God's covenants. No words ever written
- 14:54Speaker 2: on paper will sustain, strengthen, and nourish you. The promises
- 15:01Speaker 2: of God. And so I'm wondering, do you know them?
- 15:06Speaker 2: God keeps his promises. Know them. Our first point is
- 15:11Speaker 2: God keeps his promises. Trust them. But our second one
- 15:16Speaker 2: is know them. God says to the bereaved, weeping may
- 15:20Speaker 2: stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
- 15:24Speaker 2: That's a promise to those who are besieged by problems.
- 15:29Speaker 2: The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord
- 15:33Speaker 2: delivers him from them all. That's a promise to the sick.
- 15:38Speaker 2: The Lord sustains them on their sick bed and restores
- 15:43Speaker 2: them from the bed of illness. That's a promise to
- 15:48Speaker 2: the lonely. God says, when you pass through the waters,
- 15:51Speaker 2: I'll be with you. That's a promise to the dying.
- 15:56Speaker 2: In my father's house are many rooms. I am going
- 15:59Speaker 2: there to prepare a place for you. That's a promise
- 16:03Speaker 2: to the sinner. My grace is sufficient for you. That's
- 16:08Speaker 2: a promise and These promises are for your good and mind,
- 16:13Speaker 2: Peter the Apostle said, And because of his glory and excellence,
- 16:17Speaker 2: he has given us great and precious promises that enable
- 16:25Speaker 2: you to share His divine nature and escape the world's
- 16:30Speaker 2: corruption caused by human desires. God gives promises for your
- 16:36Speaker 2: good and mind. Press into the promises, memorize them, put
- 16:43Speaker 2: them on your bathroom mirror, record him on a tape
- 16:47Speaker 2: or in your iPhone, and play it over and over.
- 16:50Speaker 2: Major in the promises, And whenever troubles arise, you check
- 16:55Speaker 2: those troubles against the promises of God. Trouble comes up
- 17:00Speaker 2: and you think, oh, wait, but God said, trouble surfacing.
- 17:04Speaker 2: He said, Oh, but but God said, But God said,
- 17:11Speaker 2: in God's word, God's promises. Become the authoritative voice in
- 17:16Speaker 2: your world, constantly trumping and silencing these voices of fear.
- 17:22Speaker 2: This is the behavior of a promised land person. You
- 17:25Speaker 2: have these promises, put them to use. Declare these words,
- 17:31Speaker 2: I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because
- 17:36Speaker 2: you have rescued me. Turn again and again to God's
- 17:44Speaker 2: spoken covenants. Do with God's promises what I did with
- 17:48Speaker 2: the promise of the airline pilot Not long after I
- 17:52Speaker 2: met the fella on the airplane, I was on another plane.
- 17:55Speaker 2: I know I must be traveling too much. When that plane,
- 18:00Speaker 2: I didn't meet somebody with a note on a napkin,
- 18:03Speaker 2: but we sure ran into a storm. Consequently, the flight
- 18:07Speaker 2: landed in Houston at the very hour my flight was
- 18:11Speaker 2: supposed to be leaving for San Antonio, and it was
- 18:14Speaker 2: the last flight of the night. As we taxied on
- 18:19Speaker 2: the runway, I began to complain in my mind, Oh no,
- 18:23Speaker 2: I'm going to be stuck in Houston tonight. I began thinking,
- 18:27Speaker 2: where am I going to get a hotel room. I
- 18:30Speaker 2: started to pull out my cell phone and called Deenland,
- 18:32Speaker 2: when all of a sudden, over the loud speaker, the
- 18:35Speaker 2: pilot came and gave us a promise. I know many
- 18:42Speaker 2: of you are making connections. Just relax, we're holding all
- 18:49Speaker 2: the flights. You'll make it home. At that moment, I
- 18:55Speaker 2: thought to myself, well, I can do one of two things.
- 18:57Speaker 2: I can either be anxious or I can trust the pilot.
- 19:02Speaker 2: Now I'm not too bright, but I thought I'm going
- 19:05Speaker 2: to trust the pilot, so I didn't look for hotels.
- 19:10Speaker 2: I put my phone away, I got off the plane
- 19:14Speaker 2: in leisurely pace, and I walked to the gate. I
- 19:19Speaker 2: enjoyed the walk because I was walking empowered by a
- 19:23Speaker 2: promise from the pilot. Apparently not everyone in the airport
- 19:29Speaker 2: had received a promise from the pilot. Some of them
- 19:33Speaker 2: were white faced, they were running, they were jumping over
- 19:37Speaker 2: each other. Or maybe they had received a promise and
- 19:40Speaker 2: they had chose not to believe it. I made the flight.
- 19:47Speaker 2: Your pilot has made you some promises. He has amen.
- 20:00Speaker 2: Are you right now empowered by the promises of your pilot?
- 20:07Speaker 2: Or are you right now hearing the voices of your fear.
- 20:14Speaker 2: You cannot choose whether or not your life will have problems.
- 20:18Speaker 2: We didn't get a vote on that right, But we
- 20:21Speaker 2: do choose whether or not in the midst of problems,
- 20:27Speaker 2: we will listen to the voice of our pilot. My
- 20:31Speaker 2: friend West Bishop did this. I wish you could have
- 20:37Speaker 2: meant West's Bishop. In all my life, I don't know
- 20:42Speaker 2: if I've known a finer man. For thirty five years.
- 20:50Speaker 2: He lived in the same house, worked at the same hospital,
- 20:56Speaker 2: was a pillar in the same little Sweetwater, Texas commit unity,
- 21:01Speaker 2: married to the same wife, raised three wonderful sons. One
- 21:05Speaker 2: of whom happened to marry my oldest daughter. He was
- 21:11Speaker 2: a special man. A few months ago, Wes was diagnosed
- 21:15Speaker 2: with brain cancer. We prayed for his healing, and for
- 21:20Speaker 2: a time it appeared God had removed the cancer. But
- 21:24Speaker 2: then it returned with a vengeance, and within a matter
- 21:30Speaker 2: of weeks, Wes was in hospice care at home. He
- 21:40Speaker 2: hadn't spoken in days, but still the family placed a
- 21:46Speaker 2: baby monitor next to his bed in case he were
- 21:50Speaker 2: to cry out. The sons took turns keeping vigils, staying
- 21:55Speaker 2: up at night in case Wes needed anything. One night,
- 22:02Speaker 2: he did cry out. The youngest son heard his father's
- 22:06Speaker 2: voice come through the speaker of the baby monitor, but
- 22:13Speaker 2: Wes was not crying out for family. He cried out
- 22:17Speaker 2: to Jesus, and he said this, Jesus, I want to
- 22:25Speaker 2: thank you for my life. You've been good to me,
- 22:31Speaker 2: and I just want you to know that when it's
- 22:34Speaker 2: my time, I'm ready to go. Those are the last
- 22:42Speaker 2: words anyone ever heard Wes speak. Jesus took him home
- 22:50Speaker 2: soon thereafter. I want that kind of faith, don't you,
- 22:55Speaker 2: The kind of faith that, even on a deathbed says
- 23:00Speaker 2: I'm going to choose faith and not fear. I think
- 23:04Speaker 2: that's a promised land faith, the kind of faith that
- 23:10Speaker 2: takes an ink pen and presses into an airline napkin
- 23:17Speaker 2: words of hope and says faith is a choice, and
- 23:24Speaker 2: I choose faith. May you do the same. Amen. This
- 23:30Speaker 2: is our prayer Father, that we would be people of faith.
- 23:33Speaker 2: We confess to your father, it's not easy, but you
- 23:37Speaker 2: already know that because you are, after all, our father.
- 23:42Speaker 2: You've gathered together people here to hear your story of
- 23:47Speaker 2: keeping promises in heavenly Father. Would you please let the
- 23:52Speaker 2: message now go deep into our hearts and not just
- 23:55Speaker 2: be a message we hear in this room, but be
- 23:57Speaker 2: a message that really changes the way we live our week.
- 24:01Speaker 2: That we will become more inclined to hear your promises,
- 24:07Speaker 2: and that we will not let our lives be lost
- 24:10Speaker 2: in problems. Through Christ. We pray.
- 24:14Speaker 3: That all the church said, Amen, amenh.
- 25:03Speaker 4: As the.
- 28:20Speaker 5: Cash.
- 30:08Speaker 6: I'll be all right. You don't have to stay if
- 30:16Speaker 6: you've already chosen. I won't stand in your way. I
- 30:24Speaker 6: can feel it in your distance.
- 30:27Speaker 1: And the way you barely speak, like your heart is
- 30:32Speaker 1: somewhere else now, somewhere I can't reach.
- 30:38Speaker 7: I was trying to just doo hold us? Why are
- 30:42Speaker 7: you slowly slipped away?
- 30:46Speaker 1: Now I'm left with all the silence you didn't want
- 30:51Speaker 1: to say. Maybe I just held long.
- 31:01Speaker 7: To something.
- 31:03Speaker 5: Already gone.
- 31:08Speaker 2: I'll be fine.
- 31:09Speaker 7: You can't leave. You don't know me anything.
- 31:15Speaker 5: If your heart is found ui.
- 31:19Speaker 1: How do what we used to be?
- 31:22Speaker 5: How be fine? Don't look back?
- 31:26Speaker 7: How survived this sempty space?
- 31:30Speaker 5: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but hollor.
- 31:36Speaker 7: To be okay? We don't need to fake the feeling.
- 31:45Speaker 1: I can see it in your eyes. There's no reason
- 31:49Speaker 1: left the stand.
- 31:52Speaker 5: When the love already died.
- 31:57Speaker 7: Through the quieting your voice, I can't hear your choice.
- 32:11Speaker 4: Be fine, you can't.
- 32:14Speaker 5: You don't know me anything. If your heart has found noise?
- 32:21Speaker 1: How do what we used to be?
- 32:25Speaker 5: I'll be fine, don't look back.
- 32:28Speaker 7: I'll survive this empty space, not tonight, maybe.
- 32:34Speaker 1: Not so much, but I'll learned to be okay.
- 32:41Speaker 7: I don't need a reason why.
- 32:45Speaker 5: I can see it in goodbye.
- 32:49Speaker 2: And it breaks me in Dutch, but I.
- 32:52Speaker 7: Won't ask you to step.
- 32:58Speaker 5: I'll be fine. You can't. You don't know me anything.
- 33:06Speaker 7: Give your heartest bound a work?
- 33:09Speaker 5: Howd of what we used to be? Copy fine?
- 33:15Speaker 7: Don't look back, how surve I have this.
- 33:18Speaker 4: Simpty space that's an
- 33:21Speaker 7: My baby not so, but I'll learn to be okay,
- 33:35Speaker 7: I'll be all right.