Pastor Todd draws on Joshua 1 and Numbers 11 to make the case that God's plan doesn't change when circumstances do, and the past is no place to live.
The past has a grip on us that feels like safety. We hold onto it the way a child clutches a parent's pant leg — not because it's good for us, but because it's familiar. And God doesn't lead by the familiar. He leads by faith.
That's the tension at the heart of Joshua chapter one. Moses is dead. The man who represented the will of God to an entire nation, who led them out of Egypt, who spoke the plan — gone. And the people faced a choice that every one of us eventually faces: do we stay camped at the mountain of what was, or do we cross the Jordan into what God promised?
Your soul is tied to the past, but your spirit is tied to the future.
Before we get to Joshua, there's something worth understanding from Numbers 11. When Israel left Egypt, they didn't leave alone. A mixed multitude came with them — Egyptians who had friendships with the Israelites, people who were protected by association but not in covenant. And it wasn't Israel who started complaining about the manna. It was this mixed multitude.
They began to lust for what they'd left behind. Fish from Egypt. Cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic. And Israel, instead of keeping their eyes forward, gave their ears to the complaints. They heard it long enough that they started weeping too, standing at the doors of their tents, asking Moses to give them what God hadn't provided — because what God had provided wasn't enough for them anymore.
"The mixed multitude among them began to lust greatly for familiar and dainty food. And the Israelites wept again and said, who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt." — Numbers 11:4-5
You have to be careful who you're walking with. When the voices around you are rehearsing what used to be — before you got saved, before you made that decision, before everything changed — those voices will convince you that you don't have it as good as you think. That bondage was better. That Egypt had something God's plan is missing.
It didn't. And it doesn't.
Moses to many people was the will of God. So when Moses died, they thought the will of God died with him. That's the mistake. Faces change. Circumstances change. Leaders come and go. But the plan of God for your life hasn't moved.
God told Joshua directly: "Just as I was with Moses, so will I be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." The assignment continued. The promise remained. The land was still there, still waiting to be possessed. Nothing about Moses being gone changed what God had declared.
Situations and circumstances change. God never does. His plan for your life has remained the same all along.
This matters for where we are right now. Maybe you've lost someone significant. A mentor, a parent, a spouse. Maybe a season of your life ended in a way you didn't choose. The temptation is to treat that loss as the end of the story — to camp at that grave and weep. But that's not for believers. Commemorate people who mattered. Honor them. Then keep moving. They wouldn't want you to stop.
God actually buried Moses himself because he knew the people would erect a monument over his grave and stay there. He removed the thing to return to so there was nothing left to go back to. Sometimes God takes away the option to look backward so you have no choice but to go forward.
Deuteronomy 1:6 is God telling His people something that sounds almost impatient: "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey."
There is a time for grief. There is a time for preparation, for training, for getting equipped. But there is also a point where staying at the mountain stops being rest and starts being avoidance. And God, who knows the difference, will tell you when it's time to move.
The Philippians 3:13 instruction is clear: forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. But you cannot strain forward while you are still talking about the past. Every time you rehearse the hurt, the failure, the loss, the mistake — you are facing the wrong direction. The struggle is behind you. The blessing ahead is always greater than what you came through.
Faith isn't the familiar. Faith is new territory.
The word God spoke over Israel in Deuteronomy 1 is staggering in its scope: "May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as he has promised." A thousand times more. That's not a modest upgrade. That's a declaration about the size of what God intends.
The land was set before them. God said, go in and take possession. Not eventually. Not when conditions are better. Now.
The same is true for what God has placed in front of you. Not next year. This year. Some of you are standing at the edge of something new — a bigger place, a new season, a step of faith that looks impossible from where you're standing. Good. Another baby always looks impossible. You have one anyway. A new building always looks like too much. You step into it anyway. That's how faith works.
"The blessing ahead of you will always be greater than the struggles that you've come through that are behind you."
Stop chasing dreams and chase God. When you run after Him, get in His presence, and actually listen, He will load you up with more than you thought to ask for. The God-given goals in your heart, the ones that line up with His plan — those are worth pursuing. The ones that pull you sideways, away from what He's already told you, those are worth laying down.
Your soul may be tied to the past. But your spirit knows where you're going. Start listening to the spirit. Deep calls to deep, and what God is calling you toward is always forward.
Say goodbye to yesterday. The days ahead are days of blessing. Move in faith.
