No Reserves No Retreat No Regrets

64 • No Reserves, No Retreat, No Regrets: SIAFU Men’s Conference 2016

d. One blessed assurance: God don’t play!, Josh. 23.14-16 – “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. [15] But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you, [16] if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

3. Joshua’s lack of regret is also revealed in his address to the gathered tribes of Israel at Shechem, Josh. 24.

a. You can only go forward by looking back: Joshua recites and reviews a brief history of the Lord’s gracious promise and work for the ancestors of his people, 24.2-13.

(1) Abraham and their kin who dwelt on the other side of the flood, 24.2-4

(2) God’s great and majestic deliverance of their fathers and mothers from Egypt, 24.5-7

(3) God’s defeat of the Amorites (Sihon and Og’s armies), and God’s frustration of Balak and Balaam’s blessing, 24.8-10

(4) God’s conquest of Canaan, 24.11-13

b. Joshua’s threefold challenge to the people, 24.14-28

(1) Challenge #1: Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness, 14a.