The Book of Joshua – What Faithfulness Looks Like
Have you ever started watching a show with your friend, spouse, or family member and then felt obligated to watch it only with them? You can’t go ahead without them, honoring them, but the suspense of what happens next can be overwhelming.
Faithfulness isn’t automatic – it requires intentionality to reject the drift toward compromise.
Cost of Faithfulness
Sometimes being faithful isn’t in your best interest, and it often has a cost. It can be a cost to your career, family, hobby, relationship, etc. We might feel like we’ve missed it or misunderstood it when we start paying the cost – especially when it’s a long time.
We think if it has a cost, it must not be God.
Times of success are actually one of the times when faithfulness is most at risk. Our danger isn’t outright rebellion – it’s slow, unnoticed compromise. It’s drift.
When we get comfortable, we tend to drift.
Foundation of Faithfulness
Joshua 23
3 You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you.
Joshua remembers it’s God who fought for them and gave them the land. We can only remain faithful if we remember who God is and what He’s done. In our culture of self-made success, we must rehearse the truth. It’s the Lord who brought us this far.
We live in a forgetful age. We need to tell the stories of the past to ground ourselves in the present and future. It’s important to remember where we came from. We need to remember the mountains and the valleys.
Clinging to Faithfulness
Joshua 23
6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.
Joshua warns against mingling with the culture and its Gods.
Proximity to the wrong things leads to compromise in the right things.
Our greatest danger isn’t persecution, it’s dilution. Dilution is when we stop clinging to God’s Word and start blending in. It’s when we lose who we are, who He said we are, and who He calls us to be.
We all have an idea of what “watered down faith” is, and it’s never “what we’re doing.” It’s always “those people over there.” Where this shows up is our truth. It’s well-intentioned dilution. It’s not accurate.
Truth without a reference point is not truth, it’s conjecture.
God’s Word is the truth. Lose that, and everything starts to get watered down.
Obedience in Faithfulness
Faithfulness is steady obedience to God, rooted in trust, and proven over time. There are 3 components to faithfulness, and you need all three or it’s not faithfulness.
Faithfulness is rooted in trust, knowing that God has your best interests in mind, whether you see it or not. Not what you do, but who He is, which you respond to by what you do.
Endurance Issue: Obedience + Trust – Time = strong start, burnout, drift
Idle Faith: Trust + Time – Obedience = believes but doesn’t move
Hollow Religion: Obedience + Time – Trust = going through the motions
We all struggle with the balance because we are, by default, a faithless people.
Compromise always leads to consequence.
Joshua 23
11 So be very careful to love the Lord your God.
12 “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.
14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
“No longer driving out the nations” is a manifestation of consequence. Driving out the nations is what they needed in the moment. You have real needs in your moment.
God’s faithfulness means both blessing and consequence. He keeps His promises both ways. God remains faithful. There are times we will be faithless, and God’s faithfulness doesn’t mean we won’t experience consequences. But we can’t confuse consequences with God abandoning us.
God is with you even in the consequences.
God’s presence becomes even clearer to us as we walk in the way He’s instructed us to go. How? God’s Word, the community of faith, time, and distance. This is why being a part of a church community is so important.
An excellent way to know the way He’s instructed you to go is to look back. Where was God faithful? Where did we miss it? We need discernment because our hearts and feelings are poor barometers.
So, what are you supposed to do with this? We commit and then go out into the world. Commit and continue. That’s what faithfulness is.
Joshua 24
15… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua challenges them again and again with the things they shouldn’t do, have fallen into, or think they can’t do because of their past patterns.
Some things will tempt you. Things you’ll feel weak about, drawn to, or drawn away from. Commit to serve the Lord. Be passionate. There are a lot of people who get worked up about a lot of things. Be an extremist about committing to serve the Lord.
Commit over and over again. Repeat it, dwell on it, let it burn in your heart, and let it cost you. Lead your house to serve the Lord, and know you aren’t alone in doing it.
Want to play catch-up, or are you looking for a specific topic? Check out our collection of sermons and Season 2 of our podcast, LHC Unplugged!
For more LHC content, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram.
Faithfulness isn’t automatic – it requires intentionality to reject the drift toward compromise.
Cost of Faithfulness
Sometimes being faithful isn’t in your best interest, and it often has a cost. It can be a cost to your career, family, hobby, relationship, etc. We might feel like we’ve missed it or misunderstood it when we start paying the cost – especially when it’s a long time.
We think if it has a cost, it must not be God.
Times of success are actually one of the times when faithfulness is most at risk. Our danger isn’t outright rebellion – it’s slow, unnoticed compromise. It’s drift.
When we get comfortable, we tend to drift.
Foundation of Faithfulness
Joshua 23
3 You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you.
Joshua remembers it’s God who fought for them and gave them the land. We can only remain faithful if we remember who God is and what He’s done. In our culture of self-made success, we must rehearse the truth. It’s the Lord who brought us this far.
We live in a forgetful age. We need to tell the stories of the past to ground ourselves in the present and future. It’s important to remember where we came from. We need to remember the mountains and the valleys.
Clinging to Faithfulness
Joshua 23
6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7 Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.
Joshua warns against mingling with the culture and its Gods.
Proximity to the wrong things leads to compromise in the right things.
Our greatest danger isn’t persecution, it’s dilution. Dilution is when we stop clinging to God’s Word and start blending in. It’s when we lose who we are, who He said we are, and who He calls us to be.
We all have an idea of what “watered down faith” is, and it’s never “what we’re doing.” It’s always “those people over there.” Where this shows up is our truth. It’s well-intentioned dilution. It’s not accurate.
Truth without a reference point is not truth, it’s conjecture.
God’s Word is the truth. Lose that, and everything starts to get watered down.
Obedience in Faithfulness
Faithfulness is steady obedience to God, rooted in trust, and proven over time. There are 3 components to faithfulness, and you need all three or it’s not faithfulness.
- Obedience
- Trust
- Time
Faithfulness is rooted in trust, knowing that God has your best interests in mind, whether you see it or not. Not what you do, but who He is, which you respond to by what you do.
Endurance Issue: Obedience + Trust – Time = strong start, burnout, drift
Idle Faith: Trust + Time – Obedience = believes but doesn’t move
Hollow Religion: Obedience + Time – Trust = going through the motions
We all struggle with the balance because we are, by default, a faithless people.
Compromise always leads to consequence.
Joshua 23
11 So be very careful to love the Lord your God.
12 “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13 then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.
14 “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16 If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
“No longer driving out the nations” is a manifestation of consequence. Driving out the nations is what they needed in the moment. You have real needs in your moment.
God’s faithfulness means both blessing and consequence. He keeps His promises both ways. God remains faithful. There are times we will be faithless, and God’s faithfulness doesn’t mean we won’t experience consequences. But we can’t confuse consequences with God abandoning us.
God is with you even in the consequences.
God’s presence becomes even clearer to us as we walk in the way He’s instructed us to go. How? God’s Word, the community of faith, time, and distance. This is why being a part of a church community is so important.
An excellent way to know the way He’s instructed you to go is to look back. Where was God faithful? Where did we miss it? We need discernment because our hearts and feelings are poor barometers.
So, what are you supposed to do with this? We commit and then go out into the world. Commit and continue. That’s what faithfulness is.
Joshua 24
15… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua challenges them again and again with the things they shouldn’t do, have fallen into, or think they can’t do because of their past patterns.
Some things will tempt you. Things you’ll feel weak about, drawn to, or drawn away from. Commit to serve the Lord. Be passionate. There are a lot of people who get worked up about a lot of things. Be an extremist about committing to serve the Lord.
Commit over and over again. Repeat it, dwell on it, let it burn in your heart, and let it cost you. Lead your house to serve the Lord, and know you aren’t alone in doing it.
Want to play catch-up, or are you looking for a specific topic? Check out our collection of sermons and Season 2 of our podcast, LHC Unplugged!
For more LHC content, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram.
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