"A New Year and A New Start"

Joshua 1:1-11 - Milnsbridge Baptist Church: 1st Jan 05

This Sunday was the first time I've preached on New Years Day. It's also the first new year I've started at Milnsbridge, so I spent a long time thinking around the theme of what it means to start a New Year with God.
Eventually I settled on this passage from the beginning of Joshua, where the people of Israel are looking towards the promised land. It's a fantastic picture and the theme that runs through the passage and the book of Joshua is God's commandment to be "strong and courageous" and that He will go ahead of them into the places He calls them.
I chose Josh 1:9 as the text for the church this year. "Be strong and courageous...for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." I think the reason for this is that I kind of don't know where we're going. I've been writing a statement for the Yorkshire Baptist Association to go with our application for funding for next year and I kept coming up with the conclusion that I don't know where we're going, but God's asking us to go into new places this year, to do new things, and it's right that we should be excited cos 2006 is gonna be great.
I talked about spending time in the presence of God, which has to be first before we go out in His name , and also about believing in His promises.
Ask me in 12 months how we've done...
The book of Joshua ends with this verse "Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel." and it struck me that's an awesome thing to say, and it was a challenge to us all yesterday. Are we serving the Lord for all of our lifetime....