1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,520 Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,480 where we are proclaiming the truth to the world. 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,720 My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to 4 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:10,480 this podcast. 5 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,680 I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen 6 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:16,080 you in the word of God. 7 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:17,600 Now, come along. 8 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,440 Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today. 9 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,910 Well, we're going to go ahead and start a new Bible study, a new 10 00:00:27,910 --> 00:00:31,670 book study, and for some of you, this is your first time here 11 00:00:31,670 --> 00:00:33,630 and hopefully not the last time here. 12 00:00:33,630 --> 00:00:36,470 But what I always try to explain to people is that even if 13 00:00:36,470 --> 00:00:40,310 we're doing a study in the whole book, each individual lesson 14 00:00:40,310 --> 00:00:42,150 that we look at is still applicable to us. 15 00:00:42,150 --> 00:00:44,510 You might say, well, I don't want to come in at the end of a study. 16 00:00:44,510 --> 00:00:45,630 I might be missing it. 17 00:00:45,710 --> 00:00:48,430 I'm going to tell you that even if you came in at the very end 18 00:00:48,430 --> 00:00:51,670 of any of the studies, like in the book of Romans or in the book 19 00:00:51,670 --> 00:00:56,190 of Genesis, the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration 20 00:00:56,190 --> 00:00:56,750 of God. 21 00:00:57,100 --> 00:00:58,140 And it's profitable for. 22 00:00:58,380 --> 00:01:02,060 For all of those things, for, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 23 00:01:02,060 --> 00:01:03,420 for instruction and righteousness. 24 00:01:03,740 --> 00:01:07,580 And so when we talk about the word of God, we know that everything 25 00:01:07,580 --> 00:01:10,100 returns back to us in a way that's going to be beneficial if 26 00:01:10,100 --> 00:01:12,700 we receive it, believe it, and apply it. 27 00:01:13,340 --> 00:01:14,940 But this book that we're going to be studying, it's. 28 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:15,460 It's a quite. 29 00:01:15,460 --> 00:01:15,980 It's a. 30 00:01:16,300 --> 00:01:17,380 It's a pretty long book. 31 00:01:17,380 --> 00:01:19,260 Okay, we're going to be studying the book of Joshua. 32 00:01:19,340 --> 00:01:21,380 And so if you have your Bibles, turn there to the book of 33 00:01:21,380 --> 00:01:21,700 Joshua. 34 00:01:21,700 --> 00:01:23,260 We're going to start in Joshua, chapter one. 35 00:01:24,100 --> 00:01:27,500 Now, this book was always my favorite book of the Bible. 36 00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:28,500 And I don't know why you. 37 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:29,500 You guys might know why. 38 00:01:29,500 --> 00:01:30,820 This is my favorite book of the Bible. 39 00:01:30,900 --> 00:01:33,620 When I realized that there was a book of the Bible named after me, 40 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:35,740 I was like, wow, that's my favorite book. 41 00:01:35,740 --> 00:01:36,900 And I didn't even read it yet. 42 00:01:37,220 --> 00:01:40,500 And, and so I got into it, and as a child, this is probably the 43 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:41,740 book of the Bible that I read. 44 00:01:41,740 --> 00:01:44,460 I don't know if it was the most I've read, but I read this one 45 00:01:44,460 --> 00:01:44,820 a lot. 46 00:01:45,300 --> 00:01:49,300 And I claim one of these verses as a quote unquote, light 47 00:01:49,300 --> 00:01:52,570 verse, even though I know that that can sometimes change over time. 48 00:01:52,570 --> 00:01:54,850 But we're going to get to Joshua chapter one, verse nine. 49 00:01:54,850 --> 00:01:55,410 And that's. 50 00:01:55,410 --> 00:01:58,650 That's a verse in my life that has played a huge role in my walk 51 00:01:58,650 --> 00:01:59,090 with him. 52 00:02:00,050 --> 00:02:01,890 But we're going to look at the Book of Joshua. 53 00:02:02,130 --> 00:02:04,290 And so we're going to just take our time to go through this. 54 00:02:04,610 --> 00:02:07,410 And in the Book of Joshua, I need to give you context. 55 00:02:07,410 --> 00:02:11,010 Anytime we have a study in the book of the Bible, we need to have 56 00:02:11,010 --> 00:02:11,450 context. 57 00:02:11,450 --> 00:02:14,130 What's going on when we start the Book of Joshua? 58 00:02:14,130 --> 00:02:17,810 Well, historically speaking, we know that the Israelites are still 59 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:18,900 wandering. 60 00:02:18,900 --> 00:02:21,300 They're still on their way to the promised land. 61 00:02:21,300 --> 00:02:22,660 They have not made it there yet. 62 00:02:23,140 --> 00:02:26,740 We know that God promised to take the Israelites out of Egypt 63 00:02:26,820 --> 00:02:29,460 and lead them to the promised land, the land of Canaan. 64 00:02:29,780 --> 00:02:35,340 Obviously, God used Moses as a leader to take them out of the bondage 65 00:02:35,340 --> 00:02:38,500 of Egypt and move them to the promised land. 66 00:02:38,500 --> 00:02:43,060 But because of rebellion, because of confusion, there's 40 67 00:02:43,060 --> 00:02:43,940 years of wandering. 68 00:02:44,710 --> 00:02:49,270 And so in the wilderness time, we know that Moses rebels, Moses 69 00:02:49,270 --> 00:02:50,950 has this lapse in judgment. 70 00:02:51,030 --> 00:02:54,630 And we know that God basically tells Moses, you're not going into 71 00:02:54,630 --> 00:02:55,510 the promised land. 72 00:02:55,750 --> 00:02:59,790 And so we see that as Moses dies, Joshua takes over and Joshua 73 00:02:59,790 --> 00:03:00,950 is now going to be the leader. 74 00:03:01,430 --> 00:03:05,270 Joshua has been the assistant to Moses for many years. 75 00:03:05,830 --> 00:03:10,270 And so Joshua has observed Moses as a strong leader, but ultimately 76 00:03:10,270 --> 00:03:11,830 he's observed the power of God. 77 00:03:12,670 --> 00:03:16,510 Joshua has observed God's provisions. 78 00:03:17,230 --> 00:03:20,710 We know the stories that were happening there as the Israelites 79 00:03:20,710 --> 00:03:21,630 were out in the wilderness. 80 00:03:21,630 --> 00:03:26,990 The manna coming down from heaven, the quail that fly in and 81 00:03:26,990 --> 00:03:31,270 give them meat, the guidance from the fire at night and by the 82 00:03:31,270 --> 00:03:32,670 pillar of cloud in the day. 83 00:03:33,070 --> 00:03:38,150 Obviously, Joshua witnessed the bondage in Egypt and saw God 84 00:03:38,150 --> 00:03:42,990 use his miraculous power in the plagues and, and eventually leading 85 00:03:42,990 --> 00:03:45,910 them through the Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea. 86 00:03:45,910 --> 00:03:49,670 So Joshua has observed a lot in his life and he gets to this place 87 00:03:49,670 --> 00:03:51,710 where God calls him to be the leader. 88 00:03:52,510 --> 00:03:56,790 And here in chapter one, we're going to see what God promises Joshua 89 00:03:56,790 --> 00:03:58,510 to be a successful life. 90 00:03:58,990 --> 00:04:02,350 And I think that all of us want to be successful, all of us 91 00:04:02,350 --> 00:04:03,470 want to be prosperous. 92 00:04:04,110 --> 00:04:08,970 But the true question I believe to be asked is not what does 93 00:04:08,970 --> 00:04:11,210 the world consider to be prosperity? 94 00:04:11,210 --> 00:04:12,770 What does the world consider to be success? 95 00:04:12,770 --> 00:04:14,930 But what does God define as success? 96 00:04:14,930 --> 00:04:17,890 And that's what we're going to be looking at here in Joshua chapter 97 00:04:17,890 --> 00:04:18,050 one. 98 00:04:18,050 --> 00:04:19,890 And so all of these things that we're going to be talking about 99 00:04:19,890 --> 00:04:22,890 here in the Book of Joshua are historical events. 100 00:04:23,370 --> 00:04:26,690 I believe that this is, this isn't an allegorical account. 101 00:04:26,690 --> 00:04:29,650 I believe all of these things happen with real people and real 102 00:04:29,650 --> 00:04:30,250 places. 103 00:04:30,650 --> 00:04:32,850 But I also know that God speaks through history. 104 00:04:32,850 --> 00:04:36,210 To give us examples of our own deliverance that we have in our life 105 00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:37,450 through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 106 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,600 And so I believe, yes, these stories that we find in Genesis, 107 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,440 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Book of Joshua and on 108 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,560 certainly are real events that are happening with real people. 109 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,400 But I do know also that the Bible tells us in First Corinthians, 110 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,760 chapter 10 that these things that God was doing to the people 111 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:59,240 in the Old Testament were for them, but also examples for us to 112 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:04,040 see how God works with people who follow him, who bring their hearts 113 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:04,880 to him in humility. 114 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:06,120 And God brings deliverance. 115 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:11,890 And so the picture of the Israelites being taken out of Egypt 116 00:05:12,370 --> 00:05:15,570 and taken to the promised land is a picture of our salvation, about 117 00:05:15,570 --> 00:05:18,930 being taken away from the bondage of sin and taken to hope 118 00:05:18,930 --> 00:05:21,890 in Jesus Christ and ultimately eternal life with the Lord. 119 00:05:22,450 --> 00:05:25,690 And so the central act of redemption we know in the New Testament 120 00:05:25,690 --> 00:05:28,930 is the Gospel, the, the, the work of Jesus Christ. 121 00:05:28,930 --> 00:05:31,890 But if we were looking at the Old Testament, obviously we know 122 00:05:31,890 --> 00:05:34,490 the Old Testament is looking towards Jesus as the Messiah. 123 00:05:34,490 --> 00:05:37,320 But if we were to say one story in the Old Testament to be 124 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:40,120 the story of deliverance, we would talk about the Israelites being 125 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,440 led out of Egypt and brought to the promised land. 126 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,600 So I believe as we look at the story as a real historical event, 127 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,000 we also need to see the parallels of God's deliverance in 128 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,680 our life when we come to him in faith and look at his hand of 129 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:55,800 blessing and forgiveness in our lives. 130 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:00,040 And so we know Israel was led by Moses, they wandered in the wilderness, 131 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,840 and the land of Canaan represents a destination that God 132 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:04,670 has his people to go. 133 00:06:04,910 --> 00:06:08,630 And we know that God's plan for his people is to pull them out 134 00:06:08,630 --> 00:06:09,390 of bondage. 135 00:06:09,470 --> 00:06:13,670 For us, that's the bondage of sin, the bondage of brokenness and 136 00:06:13,670 --> 00:06:17,910 guilt and condemnation and take us to a place of freedom, a 137 00:06:17,910 --> 00:06:20,830 place of promise, a place of everlasting life with Him. 138 00:06:20,910 --> 00:06:22,670 So that's the context here. 139 00:06:22,910 --> 00:06:25,190 And, and we see Joshua taking over. 140 00:06:25,190 --> 00:06:32,630 And obviously there, there are probably, probably concerns that 141 00:06:32,630 --> 00:06:33,510 Joshua has. 142 00:06:33,510 --> 00:06:35,470 I mean, we're going to see that by way of context. 143 00:06:35,470 --> 00:06:38,910 We can understand that no doubt there was some fear in his 144 00:06:38,910 --> 00:06:39,190 heart. 145 00:06:39,190 --> 00:06:39,510 Why? 146 00:06:39,510 --> 00:06:42,750 Because we're going to see God over and over again reminding Joshua, 147 00:06:42,750 --> 00:06:43,550 do not fear. 148 00:06:43,550 --> 00:06:46,110 And he gives him a reason to not fear. 149 00:06:46,510 --> 00:06:49,550 And we're going to see that Joshua probably felt a lot of pressure 150 00:06:49,550 --> 00:06:51,710 on him as he took this opportunity to lead. 151 00:06:52,030 --> 00:06:55,430 And God's going to give him the answer to all of his concerns, 152 00:06:55,430 --> 00:06:58,810 all of his Doubts all of his confusion. 153 00:06:59,210 --> 00:07:01,610 And I think for all of us, we are going to find times in our life 154 00:07:01,610 --> 00:07:03,130 where we have to pick up the torch. 155 00:07:03,610 --> 00:07:06,290 I appreciate it being mentioned here this evening about 156 00:07:06,290 --> 00:07:07,090 godly parents. 157 00:07:07,090 --> 00:07:10,730 Now, not every one of us have that testimony of having parents 158 00:07:10,970 --> 00:07:15,490 that pass that on to us again, though that doesn't mean that we 159 00:07:15,490 --> 00:07:18,930 as believers now need to neglect the importance of passing 160 00:07:18,930 --> 00:07:21,690 on to the next generation the promises of God. 161 00:07:23,140 --> 00:07:25,460 And for some of you, you might say, well, my children are grown, 162 00:07:25,460 --> 00:07:26,220 they're out of the house. 163 00:07:26,220 --> 00:07:27,300 I have grandchildren. 164 00:07:27,780 --> 00:07:31,620 The truth is, is that we can pass on the truths of God to our 165 00:07:31,620 --> 00:07:34,260 grandchildren, to our great grandchildren, to maybe not even 166 00:07:34,260 --> 00:07:36,820 our own biological children, but children that we see within the 167 00:07:36,820 --> 00:07:37,060 church. 168 00:07:37,060 --> 00:07:39,940 This is, this is an opportunity to see God's hand pass 169 00:07:40,180 --> 00:07:41,820 from Moses to Joshua. 170 00:07:41,820 --> 00:07:44,860 And Joshua is really going to experience the same promises that 171 00:07:44,860 --> 00:07:47,300 God gave to Moses and more. 172 00:07:47,460 --> 00:07:49,140 And so we're going to look here in verse number one. 173 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,840 Moses dies and God's going to now speak to Joshua. 174 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:57,560 We're going to see the torch being passed similar to when Elijah 175 00:07:57,720 --> 00:07:58,680 goes on to heaven. 176 00:07:58,680 --> 00:07:59,920 Obviously, Elijah didn't die. 177 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:02,080 He was, he was caught up in that chariot. 178 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:06,320 But that, that mantle being passed from Elijah to Elisha, the 179 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:09,480 mantle being passed from Moses to Joshua. 180 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:12,240 And for all of us in our life, there is going to be a point in time 181 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,910 where we need to realize that the past generation, that, that, 182 00:08:15,910 --> 00:08:16,430 that's not. 183 00:08:16,430 --> 00:08:18,070 They can't answer for us anymore. 184 00:08:18,950 --> 00:08:20,910 We're not going to be able to answer for the next generation. 185 00:08:20,910 --> 00:08:23,510 We have to understand that there is this opportunity for us 186 00:08:23,670 --> 00:08:26,590 in the time that we have to redeem the time as God has called 187 00:08:26,590 --> 00:08:27,230 us to redeem it. 188 00:08:27,230 --> 00:08:28,110 So look at verse number one. 189 00:08:28,110 --> 00:08:31,469 It says now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, 190 00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:35,070 it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, 191 00:08:35,070 --> 00:08:38,470 Moses's minister, saying, moses, my servant is dead. 192 00:08:39,670 --> 00:08:41,390 God doesn't pull anything back here. 193 00:08:41,390 --> 00:08:42,550 He says, here, here's the truth. 194 00:08:42,790 --> 00:08:43,550 Moses is gone. 195 00:08:43,550 --> 00:08:44,470 Moses is dead. 196 00:08:45,510 --> 00:08:46,750 Now, therefore, arise. 197 00:08:46,750 --> 00:08:47,590 It's your time. 198 00:08:47,670 --> 00:08:51,990 Go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which 199 00:08:51,990 --> 00:08:55,310 I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. 200 00:08:55,310 --> 00:08:58,749 And so God here speaks to Moses, or, excuse me, speaks to Joshua. 201 00:08:58,749 --> 00:09:00,070 And he tells him, moses is gone. 202 00:09:00,230 --> 00:09:01,510 Joshua, it's your time. 203 00:09:01,910 --> 00:09:05,470 The promise that I gave to Moses is the promise now that I give 204 00:09:05,470 --> 00:09:05,990 to you. 205 00:09:06,150 --> 00:09:07,750 The promise is this. 206 00:09:07,750 --> 00:09:08,790 I will be with you. 207 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:11,800 This is my plan for this people. 208 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:12,920 This is my plan for you. 209 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:15,960 And so Joshua, who was not A young man at this time. 210 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,960 I mean, obviously Joshua had experienced a lot of this place. 211 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:20,080 He's always been the assistant. 212 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:21,480 Now Joshua is going to find it. 213 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:23,680 Now that God is calling him to step up. 214 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:24,960 God is calling him to lead. 215 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:26,480 Verse 3. 216 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:29,520 Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that 217 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:32,600 have I given unto you as I said unto Moses. 218 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,240 And so this is a continuation of the promise of God. 219 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:35,840 He's saying this. 220 00:09:36,190 --> 00:09:36,350 The. 221 00:09:36,350 --> 00:09:36,550 The. 222 00:09:36,550 --> 00:09:39,630 The mantle is being passed, the torch is being passed. 223 00:09:39,630 --> 00:09:42,310 You now have the same promises that Moses had. 224 00:09:42,310 --> 00:09:45,390 That I will be with you, that you will have victory, that you will 225 00:09:45,390 --> 00:09:48,910 be prosperous, that you will have these things come to pass. 226 00:09:48,910 --> 00:09:49,630 Verse 4. 227 00:09:49,710 --> 00:09:53,310 From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, 228 00:09:53,790 --> 00:09:56,710 the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the 229 00:09:56,710 --> 00:10:00,110 great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. 230 00:10:00,510 --> 00:10:03,470 What essentially God is doing is he's restating his promise. 231 00:10:03,930 --> 00:10:07,130 He's reiterating his promise to his people through Joshua. 232 00:10:07,530 --> 00:10:10,050 And sometimes we need to be reminded of God's promises to us 233 00:10:10,050 --> 00:10:11,130 in our life and salvation. 234 00:10:11,450 --> 00:10:14,810 I know that intellectually we can know what God has promised us 235 00:10:14,810 --> 00:10:15,530 in His Word. 236 00:10:15,610 --> 00:10:18,370 But sometimes we need to be reminded of the promises of God. 237 00:10:18,370 --> 00:10:20,089 And we need to remind our children. 238 00:10:20,250 --> 00:10:23,170 We need to remind the next generation that God has promised 239 00:10:23,170 --> 00:10:23,770 us these things. 240 00:10:23,770 --> 00:10:26,730 He's promised us blessing, he's promised us eternal life. 241 00:10:26,730 --> 00:10:29,130 He's promised us his presence, his provision. 242 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:31,000 And so therefore we need to pass that along. 243 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:31,840 And that's what God's doing. 244 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:35,000 He's reminding Joshua to remind the people that you need to 245 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:35,720 live differently. 246 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:37,080 You need to live with hope. 247 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:38,360 You need to live with confidence. 248 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:39,640 You need to live in victory. 249 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:40,520 Verse 5. 250 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:44,360 There shall not any man be able to stand before the all the 251 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:45,880 days of thy life. 252 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:49,840 He promises Joshua that no matter who stands against them, the 253 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:51,560 victory is still going to be the Lord's. 254 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,720 It's not Joshua's victory as much as it is God's victory. 255 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:56,000 And Joshua is on God's side. 256 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,360 And he says, it doesn't matter who stands against you. 257 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:01,160 Reminds me of a passage of Scripture. 258 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:02,400 I want to. 259 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:06,000 I want you to see this because as I was reading Joshua Chapter one, 260 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,200 I couldn't help but think of a passage of Scripture that's helped 261 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:09,240 me out a lot in my life. 262 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:10,800 And that's Psalm 118. 263 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:12,680 So keep your finger in Joshua chapter one. 264 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:19,360 And I want you to come with me to Psalm 1:18 and th. 265 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:22,560 This is an amazing, amazing passage of Scripture because a lot 266 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:23,410 of times we. 267 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:25,560 We feel confident that God's doing work. 268 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,040 We feel confident that we're seeing revival. 269 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,680 We're, we're confident that, that maybe, just maybe, I've got 270 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:34,560 this all figured out in this Christian life and someone will come 271 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:35,040 against us. 272 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,280 Whether it be persecution or criticisms or maybe just someone's 273 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,160 trying to hold us back for whatever reason. 274 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:45,520 We're going to see here this evening that nobody can stand against 275 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:47,160 us when God is on our side. 276 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,680 We know in the New Testament, if God be for us, who can be against 277 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:51,000 us? 278 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,200 But Psalm 118, if you're going through a struggle in your life and 279 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:59,440 you feel the fear of man rearing its ugly head in our life, 280 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:02,880 and I don't know if any of you know how nasty the fear of man can 281 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:03,160 be. 282 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,080 The fear of man can control us. 283 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,320 The fear of man can close our lips to what we need to be saying 284 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:09,440 for the cause of the gospel. 285 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,640 The fear of man can stop us from going places that we need to 286 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:12,920 go. 287 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,960 The fear of man can make us go places that we shouldn't go. 288 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:18,800 And in Psalm 118, we see this challenge. 289 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,660 And it says in verse number six of Psalm 118, the Lord is on 290 00:12:22,660 --> 00:12:23,340 my side. 291 00:12:24,460 --> 00:12:25,820 I will not fear. 292 00:12:26,780 --> 00:12:29,500 What can man do unto me? 293 00:12:30,140 --> 00:12:33,740 The Bible says that if we are following God, there is nothing that 294 00:12:33,740 --> 00:12:37,660 man can do against us that can harm us in the grand scheme of eternity. 295 00:12:37,660 --> 00:12:39,420 Oh, they might be able to hurt us physically. 296 00:12:40,460 --> 00:12:42,340 They might be able to even in some ways. 297 00:12:42,340 --> 00:12:45,740 We see in the New Testament martyr God called us to do. 298 00:12:45,740 --> 00:12:47,805 And so what does God call Joshua to do? 299 00:12:47,805 --> 00:12:47,950 What? 300 00:12:48,180 --> 00:12:51,060 Lead the people of Israel into the promised land. 301 00:12:51,140 --> 00:12:52,940 Now, some of you know the rest of the story. 302 00:12:52,940 --> 00:12:55,540 Some of you know that Joshua is not going to have an easy path. 303 00:12:56,100 --> 00:12:57,460 There's going to be giants there. 304 00:12:58,100 --> 00:12:59,420 There's going to be people that aren't. 305 00:12:59,420 --> 00:13:01,020 There's going to be people there that say, you know what? 306 00:13:01,020 --> 00:13:01,980 We don't want you to come in. 307 00:13:01,980 --> 00:13:04,179 They're not, they're not having open doors saying, come on, 308 00:13:04,179 --> 00:13:05,220 Joshua, take our land. 309 00:13:05,460 --> 00:13:08,660 No, there's going to be great opposition from the pagans that he's 310 00:13:08,660 --> 00:13:09,940 going to find in the land of Canaan. 311 00:13:10,420 --> 00:13:12,140 And there's always going to be great opposition. 312 00:13:12,140 --> 00:13:15,270 When we stand up for the things of God, God will call us to 313 00:13:15,270 --> 00:13:15,790 do things. 314 00:13:15,790 --> 00:13:18,830 And sometimes we'll feel like maybe God didn't want me to do this 315 00:13:18,830 --> 00:13:20,190 because of pushback from others. 316 00:13:21,230 --> 00:13:24,270 But sometimes the pushback from others is confirmation that 317 00:13:24,270 --> 00:13:28,590 God has called us to do this and we're doing the right Thing the 318 00:13:28,590 --> 00:13:31,270 Bible says in the New Testament that as believers, if we 319 00:13:31,270 --> 00:13:35,950 are living boldly for Christ, we will face persecution, we will 320 00:13:36,110 --> 00:13:37,150 face opposition. 321 00:13:37,870 --> 00:13:40,910 Folks, the Christian's life is a comfortable life, but the comfort 322 00:13:40,910 --> 00:13:42,510 does not come from the circumstances. 323 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,360 The comfort comes from knowing that the great comforter lives within 324 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:45,680 us. 325 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:48,160 And so if there's some Christians that say, you know what? 326 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:49,320 My life's so easy. 327 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,680 I've never had anyone come against me for my faith. 328 00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:54,680 The question might be, am I living bold enough for the cause 329 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:56,080 of the truth in this world today? 330 00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:00,200 Now, I would argue that in our country, we still have many Christian 331 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,400 liberties and Christian freedoms that I am thankful for that 332 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:04,640 I counted a blessing. 333 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:08,200 But at the same time, if we live boldly for the cause of the 334 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,060 gospel, people will notice and people will oppose. 335 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:11,700 Why? 336 00:14:11,780 --> 00:14:12,980 Not because they hate us. 337 00:14:12,980 --> 00:14:15,580 Because the Bible says, when Jesus says, hey, look, they're going 338 00:14:15,580 --> 00:14:17,620 to come against you, but they're only coming against you because 339 00:14:17,620 --> 00:14:18,660 they're coming against me. 340 00:14:19,540 --> 00:14:23,260 And so Joshua is going to go and follow God, but he's not going 341 00:14:23,260 --> 00:14:25,180 to have a quote unquote easy path. 342 00:14:25,180 --> 00:14:27,220 He's not going to have an open door. 343 00:14:27,220 --> 00:14:29,140 He's going to come and face a lot of opposition. 344 00:14:29,140 --> 00:14:30,500 But go Back to Joshua 1. 345 00:14:30,500 --> 00:14:31,100 What does he say? 346 00:14:31,100 --> 00:14:34,900 He says, there shall not any man be able to stand before the all 347 00:14:34,900 --> 00:14:36,020 the days of thy life. 348 00:14:36,550 --> 00:14:40,550 As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. 349 00:14:41,590 --> 00:14:44,230 I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 350 00:14:45,510 --> 00:14:48,630 This is an amazing truth because every time God calls us to 351 00:14:48,870 --> 00:14:53,230 have courage, every time he calls us to not be fearful in our 352 00:14:53,230 --> 00:14:55,750 life, he always gives us a reason for that confidence. 353 00:14:56,310 --> 00:14:59,590 And so for Joshua, he doesn't say, hey, just, just don't fear. 354 00:14:59,670 --> 00:15:01,350 He says, hey, don't fear. 355 00:15:01,350 --> 00:15:02,830 Know that you will have the victory. 356 00:15:02,830 --> 00:15:03,190 Why? 357 00:15:03,350 --> 00:15:07,500 Because he says, just as I promised Moses, so I will be with 358 00:15:07,500 --> 00:15:07,940 thee. 359 00:15:08,900 --> 00:15:09,900 What does he promise us? 360 00:15:09,900 --> 00:15:11,540 He promises us his presence. 361 00:15:12,180 --> 00:15:15,380 He doesn't promise peacefulness, necessarily peaceful 362 00:15:15,380 --> 00:15:16,100 circumstances. 363 00:15:16,740 --> 00:15:19,740 He promises inner peace, a peace that passeth all understanding, 364 00:15:19,740 --> 00:15:21,140 as Philippians chapter four says. 365 00:15:21,140 --> 00:15:23,380 But he doesn't promise peaceful circumstances. 366 00:15:23,460 --> 00:15:25,900 So he doesn't say, joshua, everything's going to be okay. 367 00:15:25,900 --> 00:15:26,940 No one's going to come against you. 368 00:15:26,940 --> 00:15:29,460 He says, hey, no one's going to be able to take you out. 369 00:15:30,750 --> 00:15:34,990 But he says the, the reason for the confidence is this. 370 00:15:35,310 --> 00:15:36,190 I'm with you. 371 00:15:36,510 --> 00:15:40,190 The presence of God, I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 372 00:15:41,310 --> 00:15:44,270 Can't help but think about the passage of Scripture, that in the 373 00:15:44,270 --> 00:15:46,910 New Testament that he will never leave us nor Forsake us. 374 00:15:46,910 --> 00:15:50,070 Hebrews tells us that he will never leave us nor forsake us. 375 00:15:50,070 --> 00:15:52,630 And that's something that sometimes as Christians, we repeat 376 00:15:52,630 --> 00:15:55,470 and maybe even try to encourage one another with. 377 00:15:55,470 --> 00:15:58,690 But if we truly lived with the confidence of knowing that God is 378 00:15:58,690 --> 00:16:01,090 with us, that he's living within us, we would live with a lot 379 00:16:01,090 --> 00:16:01,650 more boldness. 380 00:16:01,650 --> 00:16:03,290 We would live with a lot more courage. 381 00:16:03,290 --> 00:16:04,730 We would live with a lot more hope. 382 00:16:05,050 --> 00:16:08,250 And so here he says, I am with you just as I was with Moses. 383 00:16:08,330 --> 00:16:11,690 And evidently Joshua would have understood that God was with 384 00:16:11,690 --> 00:16:12,330 Moses. 385 00:16:13,930 --> 00:16:16,170 And so he says, I'm going to be with you as well. 386 00:16:16,330 --> 00:16:17,890 And then he starts here in verse 6. 387 00:16:17,890 --> 00:16:20,730 Be strong and of a good courage. 388 00:16:21,770 --> 00:16:22,130 Why? 389 00:16:22,130 --> 00:16:25,330 For unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the 390 00:16:25,330 --> 00:16:27,770 land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. 391 00:16:28,130 --> 00:16:29,930 He says, joshua, be strong and have courage. 392 00:16:29,930 --> 00:16:30,130 Why? 393 00:16:30,130 --> 00:16:31,730 Because I've called you to do something. 394 00:16:32,610 --> 00:16:34,370 I've called you with a purpose. 395 00:16:35,010 --> 00:16:36,610 I've given you my plan. 396 00:16:37,330 --> 00:16:38,650 It's your job to lead. 397 00:16:38,650 --> 00:16:42,330 It's your job to help divide this inheritance that I am blessing 398 00:16:42,330 --> 00:16:42,690 you with. 399 00:16:42,690 --> 00:16:46,530 And so as a believer today, we can say that God has a plan for us, 400 00:16:46,530 --> 00:16:48,050 that God has a purpose for us. 401 00:16:49,090 --> 00:16:50,850 We all have a role within the church. 402 00:16:51,410 --> 00:16:53,330 We all have a role in our Christian life. 403 00:16:53,780 --> 00:16:56,420 Some are called to preach publicly behind a pulpit. 404 00:16:56,420 --> 00:16:58,740 Others are called to preach in their workplace. 405 00:16:58,900 --> 00:17:01,140 Others are called to serve behind the scenes. 406 00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:04,820 Others are called to reach people in places that maybe I couldn't 407 00:17:04,820 --> 00:17:06,100 get to or you can't get to. 408 00:17:06,180 --> 00:17:08,620 The Bible says here, though, that all of us have a purpose. 409 00:17:08,620 --> 00:17:09,940 Joshua had a purpose. 410 00:17:10,340 --> 00:17:12,060 The Bible says that we are all gifted. 411 00:17:12,060 --> 00:17:13,300 Ephesians, chapter four. 412 00:17:13,700 --> 00:17:16,740 Believe it's verse number seven says all of us are gifted in 413 00:17:16,740 --> 00:17:20,060 Christ Jesus to live our lives in the grace that he has given us, 414 00:17:20,060 --> 00:17:24,089 to serve him and to edify others, to evangelize others, to 415 00:17:24,089 --> 00:17:25,569 serve him with all of our might. 416 00:17:25,569 --> 00:17:27,729 And so he says, be strong and of a good courage. 417 00:17:28,289 --> 00:17:28,929 Verse 7. 418 00:17:29,089 --> 00:17:31,329 Only be thou strong and very courageous. 419 00:17:32,049 --> 00:17:34,049 It almost seems I, I, I'm not there. 420 00:17:34,289 --> 00:17:35,489 I, I wasn't there. 421 00:17:36,209 --> 00:17:38,729 And I don't want to read into this too much, but I can't help but 422 00:17:38,729 --> 00:17:41,649 think every time when, when I tell my kids to be brave and have 423 00:17:41,649 --> 00:17:44,889 strength, it's usually when they aren't strong and brave, right? 424 00:17:44,889 --> 00:17:47,649 I'm reiterating to them over and over, be strong, be brave. 425 00:17:47,729 --> 00:17:50,649 And so I believe I see this as a heavenly father looking down to 426 00:17:50,649 --> 00:17:54,500 Joshua, saying, joshua, I see your fear, I see your confusion. 427 00:17:54,580 --> 00:17:55,500 I see Your doubt. 428 00:17:55,500 --> 00:17:56,660 Be strong, be strong. 429 00:17:56,740 --> 00:18:00,580 And so verse seven, he says, only be thou strong and very courageous 430 00:18:00,660 --> 00:18:04,100 that thou mayest observe to do according to the law. 431 00:18:04,100 --> 00:18:04,980 So he says this. 432 00:18:05,220 --> 00:18:08,260 This is how you find this type of strength. 433 00:18:08,420 --> 00:18:13,380 This is how you find this type of success and prosperity. 434 00:18:13,460 --> 00:18:16,500 And now he's going to explain to him the process of what it means 435 00:18:16,660 --> 00:18:18,660 to be successful in the eyes of God. 436 00:18:18,660 --> 00:18:21,940 So he says, first and foremost, what be strong and very 437 00:18:21,940 --> 00:18:25,420 courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to the law, 438 00:18:25,420 --> 00:18:27,220 to obey his word. 439 00:18:28,180 --> 00:18:28,860 To, To. 440 00:18:28,860 --> 00:18:33,060 To start with, to be successful as a believer, we must 441 00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:34,900 obey his word. 442 00:18:34,900 --> 00:18:37,060 We must follow his word. 443 00:18:37,060 --> 00:18:39,140 His word must be important to us. 444 00:18:40,580 --> 00:18:45,260 It's not just knowing it, but it's observing it, which Moses my 445 00:18:45,260 --> 00:18:49,270 servant, commanded the turn not from it to the right hand or 446 00:18:49,270 --> 00:18:55,030 to the left, that thou mayest prosper whether so ever thou goest. 447 00:18:55,430 --> 00:18:56,830 He says, observe it. 448 00:18:56,830 --> 00:19:00,190 And then once you're on that path of the word, once you're on 449 00:19:00,190 --> 00:19:03,510 that path of God's plan for your life, don't deviate. 450 00:19:03,510 --> 00:19:07,070 Because it's easy to say, well, that's where I started 20 years 451 00:19:07,070 --> 00:19:07,310 ago. 452 00:19:07,310 --> 00:19:08,710 I was on fire for God. 453 00:19:08,790 --> 00:19:09,870 Where are you at today? 454 00:19:09,870 --> 00:19:12,670 Because the truth is, is that sometimes there can be times in our 455 00:19:12,670 --> 00:19:15,430 life where we're walking the right path when we're following well, 456 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:19,440 but we're tempted by the cares of this world to be driven left or 457 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:23,040 right, to be driven to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and 458 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:24,000 we can be led astray. 459 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,000 And so he says, don't turn away from it. 460 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:27,280 Observe God's law. 461 00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:28,560 Follow God's law. 462 00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:29,840 Follow his word. 463 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:32,280 But then he goes on further and says, don't. 464 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:33,280 Don't deviate from it. 465 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,280 Don't go to the right, don't go to the left. 466 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:37,360 That's where you're going to see success. 467 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:39,200 That's where prosperity comes. 468 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,840 And by the way, there's a phrase that we use in our culture 469 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:46,420 today that I have preached against, and that is the prosperity 470 00:19:46,420 --> 00:19:47,020 gospel. 471 00:19:47,500 --> 00:19:49,220 The material prosperity gospel. 472 00:19:49,220 --> 00:19:52,140 That is, the material prosperity gospel is that if you 473 00:19:52,140 --> 00:19:55,100 love God enough and believe enough, you can speak prosperity 474 00:19:55,100 --> 00:19:55,980 into existence. 475 00:19:56,460 --> 00:19:58,100 So if I want to be a millionaire, I just. 476 00:19:58,100 --> 00:19:59,260 I just manifest it. 477 00:19:59,660 --> 00:20:02,820 Well, that's not what God promises us in his word. 478 00:20:02,820 --> 00:20:06,180 Now, for some of us, God has a plan of financial success, and that 479 00:20:06,180 --> 00:20:06,860 is fantastic. 480 00:20:06,860 --> 00:20:08,460 But that's not God's plan for everybody. 481 00:20:09,830 --> 00:20:10,510 So what do we see? 482 00:20:10,510 --> 00:20:12,870 What, what, what kind of prosperity are we talking about? 483 00:20:12,870 --> 00:20:14,390 Well, read the book of Ephesians. 484 00:20:14,470 --> 00:20:18,230 There's great Spiritual prosperity promised to us as believers. 485 00:20:18,470 --> 00:20:20,390 That's promised to every believer. 486 00:20:20,390 --> 00:20:23,670 So I'm going to go out on a limb and hopefully they don't clip 487 00:20:23,670 --> 00:20:24,790 this out out of context. 488 00:20:24,790 --> 00:20:26,430 I believe in the prosperity gospel. 489 00:20:26,430 --> 00:20:27,830 Someone's going to clip that on the Internet. 490 00:20:28,070 --> 00:20:30,870 I believe in the spiritual prosperity gospel. 491 00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:34,430 I believe that when we follow God, there's prosperity within our 492 00:20:34,430 --> 00:20:37,760 lives and in the spiritual realm, when there's strength and, 493 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:38,080 and. 494 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:40,360 And courage and bravery. 495 00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:43,080 In the case of the gospel, there's prosperity there. 496 00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:43,800 There's hope there. 497 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,640 There's a peace that passes all understanding. 498 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:47,520 So he says, here you want to prosper. 499 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:47,880 Follow. 500 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,640 Follow my life, follow my plan, follow my word. 501 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:54,520 And so he's laying out spiritual prosperity here. 502 00:20:55,560 --> 00:21:00,000 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou 503 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:01,960 shalt meditate there in day and night. 504 00:21:02,500 --> 00:21:04,300 Here's where I want to stop, because I think this is important 505 00:21:04,300 --> 00:21:04,900 to note. 506 00:21:05,780 --> 00:21:07,460 It's not just about knowing it. 507 00:21:08,500 --> 00:21:11,700 It's not even just about reading it and in many times, even 508 00:21:11,700 --> 00:21:14,820 observing it in our lives and trying to live it to the best of 509 00:21:14,820 --> 00:21:15,300 our ability. 510 00:21:15,380 --> 00:21:17,620 He uses a phrase here that I think is so interesting. 511 00:21:17,620 --> 00:21:20,420 He says, thou shalt meditate there and day and night. 512 00:21:21,300 --> 00:21:22,820 What does that word, meditate, mean? 513 00:21:23,460 --> 00:21:25,660 He's called us to meditate upon His Word. 514 00:21:25,660 --> 00:21:29,220 To be spiritually successful, we must meditate upon His Word. 515 00:21:29,390 --> 00:21:31,150 So we need to stop and know what that meditate is. 516 00:21:31,150 --> 00:21:35,710 Because in our society today, sometimes meditate is used as a phrase 517 00:21:35,710 --> 00:21:38,350 to explain someone emptying their mind of everything. 518 00:21:38,750 --> 00:21:42,190 Like, I just want to void my mind of all distractions and be a 519 00:21:42,190 --> 00:21:44,270 complete nirvana, to be a complete peace. 520 00:21:44,350 --> 00:21:46,990 That's not necessarily what this is talking about here. 521 00:21:47,150 --> 00:21:47,510 Actually. 522 00:21:47,510 --> 00:21:50,190 The biblical mandate for meditation means this. 523 00:21:50,270 --> 00:21:53,950 To fill our minds with something, to dwell on something. 524 00:21:53,950 --> 00:21:56,110 The idea of meditation is to dwell on it. 525 00:21:57,890 --> 00:22:00,490 All of us probably to some degree understand what it means to 526 00:22:00,490 --> 00:22:04,050 dwell on something in a negative fashion, to think about 527 00:22:04,050 --> 00:22:07,370 it, to overanalyze it, to get to a place where we think about every 528 00:22:07,370 --> 00:22:08,050 scenario. 529 00:22:08,130 --> 00:22:10,490 And the Bible says, no, that's not what we do. 530 00:22:10,490 --> 00:22:11,850 We don't dwell upon the negative. 531 00:22:11,850 --> 00:22:13,570 We don't dwell upon our sin. 532 00:22:13,570 --> 00:22:15,370 We don't dwell upon our brokenness. 533 00:22:15,370 --> 00:22:16,250 What do we dwell upon? 534 00:22:16,250 --> 00:22:17,650 We dwell upon the word of God. 535 00:22:17,890 --> 00:22:18,970 We meditate upon it. 536 00:22:18,970 --> 00:22:22,130 I'm going to use an analogy that actually the word meditate actually 537 00:22:22,210 --> 00:22:22,850 comes from. 538 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,640 It's this idea, some of you know that there are some. 539 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:28,920 I'm going to gross some of you out. 540 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,040 So just hopefully you didn't eat Right before you came, maybe 541 00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:32,440 you did. 542 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:37,560 But there's these animals that are said to chew the cud, right? 543 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:42,240 So some of you might know, like a cow chews grass, they swallow 544 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:42,520 it. 545 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:43,400 What do they do? 546 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:44,760 They just put in their belly and they're done. 547 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,680 No, they, they regurgitate it and then they get more nutrients 548 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,280 over and over and over again. 549 00:22:50,750 --> 00:22:53,350 Now, that sounds kind of gross, but the picture of that would 550 00:22:53,350 --> 00:22:58,350 be we take in the Word of God, whether it be through Bible study 551 00:22:58,430 --> 00:23:02,110 in our own life or through a sermon or through some type of study, 552 00:23:02,750 --> 00:23:05,790 we take that knowledge into our minds and into our hearts. 553 00:23:05,790 --> 00:23:08,990 But remember, the Word of God just stays knowledge if we don't 554 00:23:08,990 --> 00:23:09,470 apply it. 555 00:23:09,470 --> 00:23:13,230 So it's taking it, applying it to our lives and dwelling upon it 556 00:23:13,230 --> 00:23:15,990 and going back over it and saying, okay, what does that mean 557 00:23:15,990 --> 00:23:17,310 for me now in this situation? 558 00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:19,030 What does that mean for me as a man? 559 00:23:19,030 --> 00:23:20,350 What does that mean for me as a husband? 560 00:23:20,350 --> 00:23:22,070 What does that mean for me as a father? 561 00:23:22,070 --> 00:23:23,830 What does that mean for me as a citizen? 562 00:23:23,830 --> 00:23:26,830 What does that mean for me when it comes to my role within the 563 00:23:26,830 --> 00:23:29,910 church and, and analyzing it to the place of saying, I want to 564 00:23:29,910 --> 00:23:32,470 get every nutrient that I can out of the Word of God? 565 00:23:32,470 --> 00:23:33,950 And so it doesn't mean this. 566 00:23:33,950 --> 00:23:35,550 I used to read the Bible sometimes like this. 567 00:23:35,550 --> 00:23:38,630 I'm just going to open up to a random page and read a verse and 568 00:23:38,630 --> 00:23:40,390 say, okay, I got my Bible reading done for the day. 569 00:23:40,390 --> 00:23:45,100 No, no, I, I, I would venture to say that, that there's, there's 570 00:23:45,100 --> 00:23:47,380 an importance of quality and not quantity. 571 00:23:47,380 --> 00:23:50,100 Sometimes people say, well, I read a whole book of the Bible in 572 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:50,780 one sitting. 573 00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:52,700 What did you glean from it? 574 00:23:52,780 --> 00:23:54,300 I can't even tell you what I read. 575 00:23:54,780 --> 00:23:57,860 Well, I, I, I think bet reading the Bible is better than 576 00:23:57,860 --> 00:23:58,700 not reading the Bible. 577 00:23:59,260 --> 00:24:02,220 But the best model would be reading it and gleaning from it and 578 00:24:02,220 --> 00:24:04,820 understanding it and applying it and dwelling in it. 579 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:08,540 And so he says, you will meditate upon it there in day and 580 00:24:08,540 --> 00:24:08,860 night. 581 00:24:09,170 --> 00:24:12,250 That idea of it being day and night is, it's it, it, it's pervasive. 582 00:24:12,250 --> 00:24:15,330 It's your life, your life is guided by the Word of God. 583 00:24:15,650 --> 00:24:18,210 You don't just go to the Word of God when you're struggling, even 584 00:24:18,210 --> 00:24:19,970 though that's a good time to go to the Word of God. 585 00:24:20,370 --> 00:24:22,930 You don't just go to the Word of God on Sunday mornings when the 586 00:24:22,930 --> 00:24:25,129 pastor says, open your Bible, even though that's a good time to 587 00:24:25,129 --> 00:24:26,050 go to the Word of God. 588 00:24:26,930 --> 00:24:28,850 But this guides our life. 589 00:24:29,010 --> 00:24:30,970 This gives us our answers. 590 00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:32,770 This gives us our direction. 591 00:24:33,170 --> 00:24:36,130 This gives us all the things that we need to know in our lives. 592 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,550 And, and so he says, that's why we meditate upon it. 593 00:24:38,870 --> 00:24:43,470 We should be able to, forgive me, regurgitate material that we 594 00:24:43,470 --> 00:24:44,670 find in the Word of God. 595 00:24:44,670 --> 00:24:46,310 It should be oozing out of our lives. 596 00:24:46,630 --> 00:24:47,830 Are we going to be perfect? 597 00:24:47,830 --> 00:24:51,670 Never on this side of heaven, are we going to say always the right 598 00:24:51,670 --> 00:24:51,950 thing? 599 00:24:51,950 --> 00:24:55,830 No, but the truth is, is that as we grow in the Word of God, it 600 00:24:55,830 --> 00:24:57,470 will change our life. 601 00:24:57,470 --> 00:25:00,590 It will get us to a place, as the Bible says, to be thoroughly 602 00:25:00,590 --> 00:25:05,030 furnished unto all good works, meaning maturing in our faith, maturing 603 00:25:05,190 --> 00:25:08,230 in our growth process. 604 00:25:08,390 --> 00:25:11,550 And so it says, that thou mayest observe so. 605 00:25:11,550 --> 00:25:12,470 So meditating it. 606 00:25:12,470 --> 00:25:15,790 Why that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 607 00:25:15,790 --> 00:25:16,270 therein. 608 00:25:16,270 --> 00:25:20,150 So it's not just hearing the Word, but it's heeding the Word, 609 00:25:21,190 --> 00:25:24,070 applying the word of God to our life by way of action. 610 00:25:25,510 --> 00:25:29,130 The, the truth is, is that all of us can read the Bible or understand 611 00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:32,810 the Bible, maybe even agree with the Bible, maybe even say Amen. 612 00:25:33,050 --> 00:25:35,690 But the true test of whether or not it's changed our life is if 613 00:25:35,690 --> 00:25:36,730 we put it to practice. 614 00:25:36,970 --> 00:25:38,090 He says, you want to be a success. 615 00:25:38,170 --> 00:25:39,930 This isn't talking about salvation, by the way. 616 00:25:40,170 --> 00:25:40,850 Two different things. 617 00:25:40,850 --> 00:25:42,010 I talked about it this morning. 618 00:25:42,090 --> 00:25:45,290 The only thing that saves us is faith in Jesus Christ and the 619 00:25:45,290 --> 00:25:46,650 work that he's done for us on the cross. 620 00:25:46,650 --> 00:25:49,370 But this is specifically talking about that, that growth, 621 00:25:49,690 --> 00:25:52,650 that, that being successful, seeing God's hand in our life. 622 00:25:52,810 --> 00:25:54,650 And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a Christian 623 00:25:54,650 --> 00:25:55,770 that only gets the minimum. 624 00:25:56,390 --> 00:25:58,150 I don't want to be a Christian that says, well, I've got a ticket 625 00:25:58,150 --> 00:25:58,470 to heaven. 626 00:25:58,470 --> 00:25:59,350 I've got everything I need. 627 00:25:59,350 --> 00:26:00,550 Now I can just do what I want to do. 628 00:26:00,550 --> 00:26:01,750 No, I want more. 629 00:26:01,910 --> 00:26:03,030 I want blessings. 630 00:26:03,350 --> 00:26:06,150 I want to have success in the eyes of God. 631 00:26:06,230 --> 00:26:06,950 So it's this. 632 00:26:07,030 --> 00:26:11,150 It's not just knowing it, reading it, understanding it, agreeing 633 00:26:11,150 --> 00:26:13,870 with it, but it's saying, I agree with this so much that I want 634 00:26:13,870 --> 00:26:15,110 to live this in my life. 635 00:26:15,830 --> 00:26:18,230 I want to pass this on to the next generation. 636 00:26:18,950 --> 00:26:20,830 I want to share this with those around me. 637 00:26:20,830 --> 00:26:25,170 And so he says, meditate on it, observe it, obey it. 638 00:26:26,450 --> 00:26:28,290 For then, verse 8. 639 00:26:28,290 --> 00:26:31,650 For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous. 640 00:26:31,650 --> 00:26:37,769 He says, only after this path do you find your prosperity in God, 641 00:26:37,769 --> 00:26:39,170 your success in God. 642 00:26:39,170 --> 00:26:40,130 And so we go back. 643 00:26:40,130 --> 00:26:44,370 Okay, what does it mean for a person to be successful in this world? 644 00:26:44,370 --> 00:26:47,110 Well, a lot of times we think about it from the material success 645 00:26:47,260 --> 00:26:47,620 setting. 646 00:26:47,620 --> 00:26:50,220 Well, they've got a lot of money, they've got a lot of power. 647 00:26:51,020 --> 00:26:53,900 And that might be true in the eyes of the world, but we got to 648 00:26:53,900 --> 00:26:56,700 go back and say, what are we defining when we talk about success? 649 00:26:57,580 --> 00:26:59,180 What makes a successful church? 650 00:27:01,020 --> 00:27:01,980 Well, a lot of people. 651 00:27:02,700 --> 00:27:04,220 Well, not always. 652 00:27:05,100 --> 00:27:05,620 We can. 653 00:27:05,620 --> 00:27:07,900 We can accumulate a lot of people by doing a lot of different 654 00:27:07,900 --> 00:27:08,140 things. 655 00:27:08,140 --> 00:27:10,180 That doesn't necessarily mean we're a successful church. 656 00:27:10,180 --> 00:27:12,860 Now, do some churches grow and have a lot of people? 657 00:27:12,860 --> 00:27:13,300 Yes. 658 00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:16,500 So I'm not preaching about against growth, but what I'm saying 659 00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:16,980 is this. 660 00:27:16,980 --> 00:27:18,820 That's not the true measure of success. 661 00:27:19,220 --> 00:27:21,420 Well, the true measure of success is the pastor has a lot of 662 00:27:21,420 --> 00:27:21,780 followers. 663 00:27:21,780 --> 00:27:22,980 He's written a lot of books. 664 00:27:23,700 --> 00:27:25,380 That's not always a measure of success. 665 00:27:26,340 --> 00:27:27,620 What is the measure of success? 666 00:27:28,100 --> 00:27:32,340 Measure of success is following the word and the will of 667 00:27:32,340 --> 00:27:33,460 God in our way. 668 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:36,620 Is a church following the will of God? 669 00:27:36,620 --> 00:27:39,380 Is the church obeying what God has called us to do? 670 00:27:39,460 --> 00:27:41,140 What has God called the church to do? 671 00:27:42,010 --> 00:27:45,130 Well, make sure you meet Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday 672 00:27:45,130 --> 00:27:45,410 night. 673 00:27:45,410 --> 00:27:47,130 Now you're doing everything that he's called you to do. 674 00:27:47,130 --> 00:27:48,570 No, that's. 675 00:27:48,570 --> 00:27:51,090 That's the start of it, by the way. 676 00:27:51,090 --> 00:27:51,890 I don't ever. 677 00:27:51,890 --> 00:27:53,730 You'll never hear me preach against church attendance. 678 00:27:53,730 --> 00:27:54,010 Okay. 679 00:27:54,010 --> 00:27:55,570 I think you should go to church with. 680 00:27:55,570 --> 00:27:55,850 I. 681 00:27:55,850 --> 00:27:56,290 You know what? 682 00:27:56,290 --> 00:27:57,410 I'm just going to say it this way. 683 00:27:57,410 --> 00:27:59,610 I think we should have church every day because that's really what 684 00:27:59,610 --> 00:28:00,490 the Bible talks about. 685 00:28:00,490 --> 00:28:01,050 Okay? 686 00:28:01,050 --> 00:28:03,130 Some of you are like, well, Pastor, you're getting pretty extreme 687 00:28:03,130 --> 00:28:03,370 here. 688 00:28:03,370 --> 00:28:04,890 Well, it's okay, That's. 689 00:28:04,890 --> 00:28:06,890 If I had my way, that's the way we would do it. 690 00:28:08,210 --> 00:28:10,770 The Bible does say meet all the more as the day approaches. 691 00:28:11,490 --> 00:28:15,290 So, so, so I'm not preaching against church attendance, but what 692 00:28:15,290 --> 00:28:16,210 I'm saying is this. 693 00:28:16,290 --> 00:28:19,010 God has called us to more than attending church. 694 00:28:20,210 --> 00:28:21,330 That's the start of it. 695 00:28:21,330 --> 00:28:22,450 God's called us more. 696 00:28:22,849 --> 00:28:26,090 He's called us to so much more than just attending a Sunday school 697 00:28:26,090 --> 00:28:26,450 class. 698 00:28:27,010 --> 00:28:29,090 Even though that's an important thing, I think that's a 699 00:28:29,090 --> 00:28:29,810 beneficial thing. 700 00:28:30,850 --> 00:28:34,250 He's called the church to be the pillar and ground of truth, as 701 00:28:34,250 --> 00:28:35,200 a New Testament says. 702 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:40,240 He's called the church to go and preach the gospel, to teach, 703 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,640 to disciple, to make disciples, to multiply. 704 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:48,440 The Bible says that there is growth that comes with a church that's 705 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:49,600 following the plan of God. 706 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:51,520 We're about multiplication, not addition. 707 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:52,680 Addition is. 708 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,280 Hey, we need to find ways to bring people into the church. 709 00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,280 Multiplication is, hey, you know what? 710 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,000 We're leading people to Christ, and they're leading people 711 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,050 to Christ, and that goes on and on and on. 712 00:29:03,050 --> 00:29:04,770 I'm thankful for a godly heritage. 713 00:29:05,170 --> 00:29:05,890 I'm thankful. 714 00:29:05,890 --> 00:29:08,610 I'm thankful for someone that was willing to witness to my grandfather. 715 00:29:09,170 --> 00:29:10,810 I'm thankful that my grandfather got saved. 716 00:29:10,810 --> 00:29:12,850 I'm thankful that my grandfather brought my dad to church. 717 00:29:12,850 --> 00:29:14,770 I'm thankful that my dad brought me to church. 718 00:29:17,090 --> 00:29:19,570 And so the truth is, is that that's multiplication. 719 00:29:20,130 --> 00:29:22,530 Multiplication is passing it on. 720 00:29:23,650 --> 00:29:25,690 That my salvation is not just for me. 721 00:29:25,690 --> 00:29:29,840 Even though, yes, I'm thankful I get to go to heaven, but my salvation 722 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:30,880 doesn't stop with me. 723 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:34,480 And so the church is a church that's looking for reproduction. 724 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:35,440 Multiplication. 725 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:37,680 I would love. 726 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:44,240 I would love to see people sent out from Middletown Baptist 727 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,400 Church to be missionaries, pastors, ministry leaders across 728 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:48,840 the world. 729 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:50,640 Wouldn't it be hard to see people go? 730 00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,240 Yeah, it is hard to see people go. 731 00:29:52,940 --> 00:29:54,620 And in my humanity, I don't want. 732 00:29:54,620 --> 00:29:55,620 I want, you know what? 733 00:29:55,620 --> 00:29:57,820 In my flesh, in my mind, in my. 734 00:29:57,900 --> 00:30:01,340 In my human mind, when it comes to success and prosperity, 735 00:30:01,420 --> 00:30:03,580 I want this church to explode and grow. 736 00:30:03,660 --> 00:30:06,180 I want people to be talking about Middletown Baptist Church all 737 00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:08,659 over the state and saying, have you seen what that church is 738 00:30:08,659 --> 00:30:08,940 doing? 739 00:30:09,100 --> 00:30:12,340 But, you know, at the end of the day, that may or may not be God's 740 00:30:12,340 --> 00:30:16,060 plan, but God's plan, I know for a fact, is that we multiply and 741 00:30:16,060 --> 00:30:18,100 we spread the word of God everywhere we go. 742 00:30:18,100 --> 00:30:20,980 And we follow the will of God by the way that we live our lives, 743 00:30:20,980 --> 00:30:24,190 to live righteously in this present world, to live. 744 00:30:24,190 --> 00:30:25,310 To live holy lives. 745 00:30:25,870 --> 00:30:28,550 Some people might say, pastor, is it God's will for me to do? 746 00:30:28,550 --> 00:30:30,030 And then they list a bunch of things. 747 00:30:30,110 --> 00:30:33,910 The truth is, is that if you list sinning, it is never God's will 748 00:30:33,910 --> 00:30:34,590 that we sin. 749 00:30:34,830 --> 00:30:37,630 It is never God's will that we go the way of the world. 750 00:30:37,710 --> 00:30:41,790 It is always God's will that we obey him, that we glorify him, 751 00:30:42,110 --> 00:30:42,470 that. 752 00:30:42,470 --> 00:30:43,950 That we proclaim his word. 753 00:30:44,430 --> 00:30:45,870 And so that's an easy question. 754 00:30:46,270 --> 00:30:50,520 It's an easy question to answer when you ask, okay, does God 755 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:52,200 want me to retaliate against this person? 756 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:53,560 I can tell you clearly, no. 757 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:54,960 The Bible says, vengeance is mine. 758 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:56,360 I will repay, saith the Lord. 759 00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:58,200 God does not want you to retaliate. 760 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:02,680 God wants you to love and to respond with grace and with patience. 761 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:04,680 Let's say. 762 00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:09,120 Let's say, for example, a husband came to me and he Says hypothetical, 763 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:10,120 completely hypothetical. 764 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,920 By the way, I have to be careful when I say this because people 765 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:15,240 will start saying, who are you talking about, Pastor? 766 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:16,240 I am not talking about anybody. 767 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,140 I'm going to try to do an extreme situation, let's say a pastor 768 00:31:19,460 --> 00:31:20,620 as, as a, as a pastor. 769 00:31:20,620 --> 00:31:23,060 I walk out and, and a fella comes up to me after the marriage 770 00:31:23,060 --> 00:31:25,140 night, after the marriage night, says, pastor, can I talk to 771 00:31:25,140 --> 00:31:25,660 you after the marriage? 772 00:31:25,660 --> 00:31:27,420 And I said, yeah, guess what? 773 00:31:27,420 --> 00:31:27,820 You know what? 774 00:31:27,820 --> 00:31:31,420 I'm just, I've been married to my wife for like 40 years and I'm, 775 00:31:31,420 --> 00:31:32,900 I'm just, I'm ready to get a new one. 776 00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:34,500 I'm ready to trade up. 777 00:31:35,060 --> 00:31:36,340 What, what. 778 00:31:37,700 --> 00:31:39,260 And I think that's what God wants me to do. 779 00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:40,180 What do you think, Pastor? 780 00:31:40,340 --> 00:31:43,020 I can guarantee you without a shadow of a doubt I will tell that 781 00:31:43,020 --> 00:31:44,750 person, are married to that person. 782 00:31:44,750 --> 00:31:47,230 That's God's plan for you, no matter what. 783 00:31:47,630 --> 00:31:47,990 Why? 784 00:31:47,990 --> 00:31:50,110 Because the word of God is so clear about it. 785 00:31:50,190 --> 00:31:53,190 So God's not vague about things that he has called us to do 786 00:31:53,190 --> 00:31:54,270 in his will and his way. 787 00:31:55,710 --> 00:31:58,470 So a lot of times we put that up in, in vague ways and we go, I 788 00:31:58,470 --> 00:32:00,550 don't know, maybe God wants me to do this, maybe God doesn't want 789 00:32:00,550 --> 00:32:01,070 me to do that. 790 00:32:01,150 --> 00:32:03,790 When it, God's word is so clear about it, we follow. 791 00:32:03,950 --> 00:32:05,230 We don't ask questions. 792 00:32:05,390 --> 00:32:08,110 There's a lot of things in, in the word of God I don't understand 793 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,160 because my, my, my human nature does not understand it. 794 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:13,920 My sin nature does not understand it. 795 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:15,400 But what I can tell you is this. 796 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,880 The Bible very clearly teaches us that the word of God is not negotiable. 797 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:23,160 We're not going to sit there and compromise on the word of God. 798 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,240 There, there are things that we're willing to give on, but there 799 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:27,760 are things that we cannot give on. 800 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,000 And what the Bible says here is that, that is when we find success, 801 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,520 when we follow the word of God, when we, when we strive to follow 802 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:36,120 the word of God with all of our hearts. 803 00:32:36,970 --> 00:32:39,130 And he says, that's when you find prosperity. 804 00:32:40,410 --> 00:32:41,130 Verse 9. 805 00:32:41,290 --> 00:32:43,210 Have I not commanded thee? 806 00:32:44,410 --> 00:32:47,050 Be strong and of a good courage. 807 00:32:48,330 --> 00:32:52,010 Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. 808 00:32:52,490 --> 00:32:54,410 For the Lord thy God is with thee. 809 00:32:54,410 --> 00:32:55,850 Withersoever thou goest. 810 00:32:57,210 --> 00:32:57,610 He. 811 00:32:57,610 --> 00:33:01,210 He reminds Joshua of the command. 812 00:33:02,820 --> 00:33:05,060 He reminds Joshua of the plan. 813 00:33:06,020 --> 00:33:10,860 He reminds Joshua of the, the hope that he has in the presence 814 00:33:10,860 --> 00:33:11,260 of God. 815 00:33:11,260 --> 00:33:13,460 He starts with his presence, he ends with his presence. 816 00:33:14,900 --> 00:33:17,340 He starts with reminding Joshua, I'm here with you. 817 00:33:17,340 --> 00:33:20,300 And now here's the Call Joshua. 818 00:33:20,300 --> 00:33:20,980 I'm here with you. 819 00:33:20,980 --> 00:33:22,020 I'm going to give you power. 820 00:33:22,340 --> 00:33:23,700 I'm going to give you direction. 821 00:33:23,860 --> 00:33:25,140 I'm going to give you the victory. 822 00:33:25,380 --> 00:33:26,820 But here's the difficult part. 823 00:33:27,550 --> 00:33:30,190 Going to have to go into the land of Canaan and fight for me. 824 00:33:31,070 --> 00:33:32,510 You're going to have to fight for your people. 825 00:33:32,910 --> 00:33:34,270 There's going to be hardships. 826 00:33:34,830 --> 00:33:35,990 But then what does he end with? 827 00:33:35,990 --> 00:33:36,830 He ends with hope. 828 00:33:36,910 --> 00:33:38,110 God always ends with hope. 829 00:33:38,110 --> 00:33:40,990 He says, and by the way, after all of this, be strong. 830 00:33:41,070 --> 00:33:41,390 Why? 831 00:33:41,390 --> 00:33:42,270 Because I'm with you. 832 00:33:42,670 --> 00:33:43,790 Don't be dismayed. 833 00:33:43,790 --> 00:33:45,990 There's going to be times in our life that word dismayed essentially 834 00:33:45,990 --> 00:33:46,510 just means this. 835 00:33:46,510 --> 00:33:47,230 Discouraged. 836 00:33:48,110 --> 00:33:49,070 How many of us. 837 00:33:49,390 --> 00:33:53,680 Don't raise your hand, but how many of us get discouraged when, 838 00:33:53,750 --> 00:33:57,550 while trying to serve God, probably all of us would say, I'm 839 00:33:57,550 --> 00:33:58,230 discouraged. 840 00:33:59,830 --> 00:34:04,390 As a pastor, I get discouraged when. 841 00:34:04,390 --> 00:34:07,350 When I minister to an individual, pray for an individual, 842 00:34:07,430 --> 00:34:08,430 think that, hey, you know what? 843 00:34:08,430 --> 00:34:09,230 This person's getting it. 844 00:34:09,230 --> 00:34:10,750 This person's growing this person's. 845 00:34:10,750 --> 00:34:11,990 And all of a sudden, what happens? 846 00:34:12,310 --> 00:34:13,910 They revert back and don't listen. 847 00:34:14,070 --> 00:34:15,750 And you're like, oh, man, what am I doing? 848 00:34:15,750 --> 00:34:16,910 Is anyone even hearing me? 849 00:34:16,910 --> 00:34:18,150 Is anyone even listening? 850 00:34:19,679 --> 00:34:20,919 Am I doing the right thing? 851 00:34:20,919 --> 00:34:22,039 Am I preaching the right thing? 852 00:34:22,039 --> 00:34:22,799 Is it resonating? 853 00:34:22,799 --> 00:34:23,519 Am I minute? 854 00:34:23,679 --> 00:34:25,799 And we can start thinking about all these doubts, and we can 855 00:34:25,799 --> 00:34:27,199 get to a place of discouragement. 856 00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:27,519 Why? 857 00:34:27,519 --> 00:34:30,479 The discouragement comes when we don't feel like we're being successful. 858 00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:33,839 But again, we go back to, what are we doing this for? 859 00:34:33,839 --> 00:34:34,719 How are we doing this? 860 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:35,039 What. 861 00:34:35,118 --> 00:34:38,079 What purpose has God called us for in our life? 862 00:34:38,159 --> 00:34:39,639 It's not to have followers. 863 00:34:39,639 --> 00:34:41,039 It's not to have success. 864 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:43,279 It's about following him and obeying Him. 865 00:34:43,279 --> 00:34:45,639 And if we're doing that, we can know, hey, you know what? 866 00:34:45,639 --> 00:34:46,399 It is worth it. 867 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:47,800 I don't need to be discouraged. 868 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:51,160 Discouragement is a very, very dangerous thing because discouragement 869 00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:54,520 can eventually lead to complete depression. 870 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:56,480 Depression can lead to anxiety. 871 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,600 Anxiety can lead to bitterness and anger. 872 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,680 It can be a whole chain reaction. 873 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,440 And so when we get to that place of discouragement and fear, 874 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:05,360 where do we turn? 875 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:07,000 We turn to the Lord for answers. 876 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,040 We turn to His Word for answers. 877 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:11,120 If we feel like someone's coming against us. 878 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,480 We go back to those verses that say that no one can come against 879 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:13,800 me. 880 00:35:14,050 --> 00:35:17,210 When I stand in the power of God, when I start to believe that 881 00:35:17,210 --> 00:35:20,370 I'm not enough, I go back to the passage of Scripture that teaches 882 00:35:20,370 --> 00:35:23,370 me that, yes, in my flesh, I'm not enough. 883 00:35:23,370 --> 00:35:24,890 But because I'M in Jesus Christ. 884 00:35:24,890 --> 00:35:25,970 I have hope in Him. 885 00:35:25,970 --> 00:35:27,730 I have identity in him, folks. 886 00:35:27,730 --> 00:35:30,770 It's preaching to ourselves the truth of God according to His 887 00:35:30,770 --> 00:35:31,170 Word. 888 00:35:31,170 --> 00:35:31,770 That's how. 889 00:35:31,770 --> 00:35:33,490 That's why we meditate in His Word. 890 00:35:34,770 --> 00:35:36,930 That's why we counsel in His Word. 891 00:35:37,330 --> 00:35:39,850 That's why if someone comes up to me and asks me a question, I. 892 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,840 I'm not going to give my opinion specifically in a matter 893 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:43,720 of the Bible. 894 00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:45,560 I'm going to say, this is what the Bible says. 895 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:47,120 And sometimes we don't want to hear that. 896 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:48,400 We want to hear what. 897 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:49,160 What do you say? 898 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:50,400 Well, I say what the Bible says. 899 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:50,760 This is. 900 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:51,840 This is what the Bible says. 901 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:52,920 Do I agree with it? 902 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:53,680 I agree with it. 903 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:54,560 Do I understand it? 904 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:55,040 Not always. 905 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:56,240 But what I see is this. 906 00:35:56,240 --> 00:35:57,440 This is the word of God. 907 00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,320 And therefore, if it's the word of God, and I believe God is 908 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:01,240 who he says he is. 909 00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:02,640 And I believe that God is perfect. 910 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:03,920 And I believe God is loving. 911 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,010 And I believe that God is the creator of the universe. 912 00:36:07,010 --> 00:36:09,050 And I believe that God is my Savior. 913 00:36:09,050 --> 00:36:10,170 I'm going to follow His Word. 914 00:36:10,170 --> 00:36:12,170 And that's what Joshua was challenged with. 915 00:36:12,170 --> 00:36:15,690 Before you get into this, before you go into this battle, let 916 00:36:15,690 --> 00:36:17,250 me just warn you, it's going to be difficult. 917 00:36:17,970 --> 00:36:21,729 I, I don't know if, if I was Joshua, I am Joshua, but not this 918 00:36:21,729 --> 00:36:25,410 Joshua, I would start getting a little bit nervous. 919 00:36:25,650 --> 00:36:27,330 God, why do you keep telling me to be. 920 00:36:27,330 --> 00:36:28,050 Be strong? 921 00:36:28,690 --> 00:36:30,770 Why, why do you keep telling me to not be afraid? 922 00:36:30,770 --> 00:36:32,460 Is there something what's coming? 923 00:36:33,020 --> 00:36:34,300 Sometimes I've done that with folks. 924 00:36:34,300 --> 00:36:36,700 I've just texted them, God's put them on my heart. 925 00:36:36,700 --> 00:36:38,700 I said, hey, I'm really praying for you today. 926 00:36:39,340 --> 00:36:39,700 Why? 927 00:36:39,700 --> 00:36:40,500 What, what do you think? 928 00:36:40,500 --> 00:36:41,180 What's going on? 929 00:36:41,340 --> 00:36:41,740 Nothing. 930 00:36:41,740 --> 00:36:43,100 Nothing just came out to my mind. 931 00:36:43,100 --> 00:36:46,700 Okay, so, so sometimes there's that initial fear of like, what, 932 00:36:46,700 --> 00:36:48,540 what, what is God preparing me to do? 933 00:36:48,860 --> 00:36:50,140 But what I'm saying is this. 934 00:36:51,260 --> 00:36:53,860 Anytime we're going to do anything that's worth it for the 935 00:36:53,860 --> 00:36:57,990 Lord, there is going to be opposition, there is going to be 936 00:36:57,990 --> 00:36:58,870 some discouragement. 937 00:36:58,870 --> 00:37:02,710 There is going to be sometimes where we're tempted to fear. 938 00:37:02,710 --> 00:37:03,470 But what do we do? 939 00:37:03,470 --> 00:37:04,870 We always go back to his presence. 940 00:37:04,870 --> 00:37:08,270 We go back to his promises, we go back to his peace, we go back 941 00:37:08,270 --> 00:37:09,070 to his power. 942 00:37:09,310 --> 00:37:10,830 This is the character of God. 943 00:37:10,830 --> 00:37:12,150 He always gives us. 944 00:37:12,150 --> 00:37:16,310 He, he book ends the command and the challenge with his truth. 945 00:37:16,310 --> 00:37:17,710 And the truth is, I'm with you. 946 00:37:18,110 --> 00:37:20,190 Here's the thing, you gotta be strong. 947 00:37:20,270 --> 00:37:23,390 Here's the thing, you're gonna probably fear don't fear. 948 00:37:23,390 --> 00:37:23,670 Why? 949 00:37:23,670 --> 00:37:24,510 Because I'm with you. 950 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:26,120 Go, go, go with me. 951 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,040 We're going to look at one last passage of Scripture. 952 00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:31,960 You're going to be tempted to be tired of going to this passage 953 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:33,920 of scripture, but we're never going to get tired of going to this 954 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:34,240 scripture. 955 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:37,160 That's the end of Matthew, chapter 28, the Great Commission. 956 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,600 If God had me preach on one passage of Scripture for the rest 957 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:43,640 of my life, I. I don't know what it would be. 958 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,360 Probably somewhere in the book of Romans without the Gospel. 959 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,770 But if I'm going to preach to the church, if I'm going to preach 960 00:37:50,770 --> 00:37:52,770 to people that are saved, here's my challenge. 961 00:37:52,770 --> 00:37:56,450 Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18 through 20. 962 00:37:57,250 --> 00:37:58,530 We call this the Great Commission. 963 00:37:58,850 --> 00:38:00,250 We call this the. 964 00:38:00,250 --> 00:38:00,530 The. 965 00:38:00,530 --> 00:38:02,290 The marching orders for the church. 966 00:38:03,730 --> 00:38:08,610 We see Jesus came and spake unto them, verse 18, saying, all 967 00:38:08,690 --> 00:38:12,290 power is given unto me in heaven and earth. 968 00:38:12,290 --> 00:38:16,610 Jesus starts the challenge with a reminder of his power. 969 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:18,520 This is the character of God. 970 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,400 Before he calls us to do something, he's going to give us 971 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:23,800 the reason behind it, and he's going to give us the power. 972 00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:27,560 And so Jesus says, okay, I'm coming to you with all of my power, 973 00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:28,600 unlimited power. 974 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,640 All power is given unto me in heaven and earth to give you this 975 00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:32,040 command. 976 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:36,720 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 977 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:40,640 of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them 978 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,970 to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. 979 00:38:45,330 --> 00:38:47,890 And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. 980 00:38:48,850 --> 00:38:56,170 He starts the commission with his power, promises his power to 981 00:38:56,170 --> 00:38:59,170 be with us, to do the things that he has called us to do. 982 00:38:59,250 --> 00:39:00,170 And what does he end with? 983 00:39:00,170 --> 00:39:02,530 He ends with the reminder that he's with us, his presence. 984 00:39:03,330 --> 00:39:06,090 So when we're going through things in our life that are overwhelming, 985 00:39:06,090 --> 00:39:11,340 difficult, scary, concerning, we start with understanding his power 986 00:39:11,340 --> 00:39:13,420 in our life and his presence in our life. 987 00:39:13,900 --> 00:39:17,300 And when we do that, I'm not saying that the fear goes away, but 988 00:39:17,300 --> 00:39:18,820 we're able to deal with that fear. 989 00:39:18,820 --> 00:39:23,180 As the Bible says in First John, perfect love, cast out fear. 990 00:39:23,500 --> 00:39:25,260 So we meditate upon the love of God. 991 00:39:25,340 --> 00:39:28,300 We meditate upon the fact that we have no reason to fear. 992 00:39:28,620 --> 00:39:28,940 And. 993 00:39:28,940 --> 00:39:31,020 And we're about to get to Romans Chapter eight in our Sunday 994 00:39:31,020 --> 00:39:31,540 morning series. 995 00:39:31,540 --> 00:39:34,300 And Romans Chapter eight is that passage of scripture that I 996 00:39:34,300 --> 00:39:37,740 would encourage you to go to anytime you doubt, anytime you struggle 997 00:39:37,900 --> 00:39:40,420 with whether or not God loves you, whether or not God has you in 998 00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:44,180 his hand, if you're losing His Love, or you're losing his salvation. 999 00:39:44,180 --> 00:39:44,460 No. 1000 00:39:44,460 --> 00:39:49,660 The Bible says that no man, no one, nothing, nothing in this world 1001 00:39:49,660 --> 00:39:51,820 can separate us from the love of God. 1002 00:39:52,460 --> 00:39:56,020 And so we wrap our minds around that as Joshua has these marching 1003 00:39:56,020 --> 00:39:58,380 orders at the very beginning of the book. 1004 00:39:58,540 --> 00:40:00,300 Hey, Joshua, you're about to face a lot. 1005 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:02,280 Be strong and of a good courage. 1006 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:03,080 Be successful. 1007 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:09,320 In my definition of success, folks, if we want to be successful, 1008 00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:11,520 it starts number one. 1009 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:13,240 In faith, that's a given. 1010 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:18,760 But then number two, it moves forward and it says, okay, what role 1011 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,000 does the word of God have in my life? 1012 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:24,800 This book has never failed me. 1013 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,420 Just as we heard this evening the song Jesus Never fails. 1014 00:40:28,740 --> 00:40:29,820 This is the word of God. 1015 00:40:29,820 --> 00:40:30,980 This will never fail us. 1016 00:40:32,260 --> 00:40:34,060 And I would encourage you to think about that. 1017 00:40:34,060 --> 00:40:37,660 I would encourage you to think about how the word of God has shaped 1018 00:40:37,660 --> 00:40:41,780 your life, how the Bible has shaped your family. 1019 00:40:43,860 --> 00:40:44,780 I want my children. 1020 00:40:44,780 --> 00:40:45,140 If. 1021 00:40:45,620 --> 00:40:49,820 If my children ever do give a testimony of me at some point, I 1022 00:40:49,820 --> 00:40:50,260 want them. 1023 00:40:50,980 --> 00:40:52,740 I don't want them to remember all the bad things. 1024 00:40:53,140 --> 00:40:54,380 If we're parents, all of us understand. 1025 00:40:54,380 --> 00:40:54,700 We've. 1026 00:40:54,700 --> 00:40:55,540 We've had moments. 1027 00:40:56,820 --> 00:40:57,380 I want. 1028 00:40:57,540 --> 00:41:00,100 I want my children to remember at least anything. 1029 00:41:00,100 --> 00:41:00,420 Dad. 1030 00:41:00,420 --> 00:41:02,980 Dad loved the word of God and he tried to preach the word of God 1031 00:41:02,980 --> 00:41:07,140 to us right before we leave. 1032 00:41:07,140 --> 00:41:09,219 Out of our house, before, above. 1033 00:41:09,380 --> 00:41:11,380 I don't know if any of you guys go out your front door all the 1034 00:41:11,380 --> 00:41:11,460 time. 1035 00:41:11,460 --> 00:41:12,460 We go out our garage door. 1036 00:41:12,460 --> 00:41:12,940 Okay, that's. 1037 00:41:12,940 --> 00:41:13,660 That's the exit. 1038 00:41:13,660 --> 00:41:15,300 That's like where we go. 1039 00:41:15,300 --> 00:41:17,700 We barely use the front door unless we have guests coming over. 1040 00:41:18,750 --> 00:41:21,310 But above our garage door, we're going to have. 1041 00:41:21,310 --> 00:41:22,670 Joshua, we have. 1042 00:41:22,830 --> 00:41:23,630 We're going to get to this. 1043 00:41:23,630 --> 00:41:26,270 In Joshua, chapter 24, the verse that says, for as. 1044 00:41:26,270 --> 00:41:28,430 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 1045 00:41:29,070 --> 00:41:30,950 It's not just a slogan that we put up, really. 1046 00:41:30,950 --> 00:41:31,310 It's our. 1047 00:41:31,310 --> 00:41:31,870 It's our plan. 1048 00:41:31,870 --> 00:41:32,270 It's our. 1049 00:41:32,270 --> 00:41:32,870 It's our goal. 1050 00:41:32,870 --> 00:41:34,110 Are we going to be perfect in that? 1051 00:41:34,110 --> 00:41:34,430 No. 1052 00:41:35,230 --> 00:41:38,350 But there are steps that we want to take as a family. 1053 00:41:38,830 --> 00:41:41,470 Whether our children understand it now or not, whether 1054 00:41:41,470 --> 00:41:42,870 they understand it ever or not. 1055 00:41:42,870 --> 00:41:44,990 We want our children to know that we put God first. 1056 00:41:45,550 --> 00:41:45,950 And there's. 1057 00:41:45,950 --> 00:41:47,910 It's very easy not to put God first in our lives. 1058 00:41:47,910 --> 00:41:49,550 It's very easy to put other things first. 1059 00:41:50,510 --> 00:41:52,670 But what I want our children to know is that, hey, we. 1060 00:41:53,070 --> 00:41:56,030 We're striving to serve God and put him first. 1061 00:41:56,590 --> 00:41:58,110 That's what we should do within our church. 1062 00:41:58,110 --> 00:41:58,750 And the reason. 1063 00:41:58,750 --> 00:42:00,910 And the reason why that is the case. 1064 00:42:00,910 --> 00:42:03,350 You know why I want to teach my children about the Word of God? 1065 00:42:03,350 --> 00:42:05,230 Well, I want good kids that don't act up. 1066 00:42:05,390 --> 00:42:08,070 Well, that's true, but that's not the reason why I show them the 1067 00:42:08,070 --> 00:42:08,670 Word of God. 1068 00:42:09,150 --> 00:42:11,590 You don't want to know why I want to show my children and the 1069 00:42:11,590 --> 00:42:13,230 church and the world the Word of God? 1070 00:42:13,620 --> 00:42:15,380 Because the Word of God has changed my life. 1071 00:42:16,180 --> 00:42:18,100 The Word, the Word of God is powerful. 1072 00:42:18,100 --> 00:42:19,780 It's sharper than any two edged sword. 1073 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:25,140 The Word of God has changed my heart, it has changed my desires. 1074 00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:27,300 Ultimately the Spirit of God has changed that. 1075 00:42:27,300 --> 00:42:31,140 But faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 1076 00:42:32,260 --> 00:42:36,900 You can't have a growing relationship with God without a growing 1077 00:42:36,900 --> 00:42:38,180 understanding of His Word. 1078 00:42:39,950 --> 00:42:42,630 You can't say I'm growing closer to God, but I don't want anything 1079 00:42:42,630 --> 00:42:44,270 to do with what he's written to me. 1080 00:42:44,910 --> 00:42:45,950 It just doesn't add up. 1081 00:42:45,950 --> 00:42:46,910 It doesn't make sense. 1082 00:42:46,910 --> 00:42:50,830 You can't be a Christian thriving in the truth, thriving in 1083 00:42:50,830 --> 00:42:55,550 the Holy Spirit without a personal walk with him in accordance 1084 00:42:55,550 --> 00:42:56,310 to His Word. 1085 00:42:56,310 --> 00:42:59,030 And I would even flip that on the side of prayer. 1086 00:42:59,030 --> 00:42:59,390 Right? 1087 00:42:59,550 --> 00:43:02,590 I can't be a Christian who's growing without calling out to God. 1088 00:43:02,590 --> 00:43:05,150 It's that communication, communication is key. 1089 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,280 Any of you that are in a marriage or not even a marriage, 1090 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:13,160 any relationship, a work relationship, familial relationship, 1091 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:14,360 communication is key. 1092 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,760 If you're not communicating, you're not thriving, you're not, 1093 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:17,680 you're not healthy. 1094 00:43:18,640 --> 00:43:21,360 There's a lot of Christians that are expecting a healthy relationship 1095 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:25,000 with God, but they're missing the point that communication is key. 1096 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:26,440 And how do we communicate with God? 1097 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,120 Well, he speaks to us through His Word predominantly and we speak 1098 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:30,960 to him through prayer. 1099 00:43:32,660 --> 00:43:34,620 And I would encourage you to think about those two things as we 1100 00:43:34,620 --> 00:43:36,220 move forward in the study of the Book of Joshua. 1101 00:43:36,220 --> 00:43:40,740 Next week we're going to study more about the nation of Israel crossing 1102 00:43:40,740 --> 00:43:41,700 the Jordan River. 1103 00:43:42,100 --> 00:43:44,780 Many of the stories that you remember in the Bible, you may or 1104 00:43:44,780 --> 00:43:47,060 may not know that they're from the Book of Joshua. 1105 00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:48,860 And it's a really exciting story. 1106 00:43:48,860 --> 00:43:52,900 We're going to talk about a lady named Rahab in the Book of Joshua. 1107 00:43:53,060 --> 00:43:55,580 Rahab has a connection to the Messiah. 1108 00:43:55,580 --> 00:43:56,780 What an amazing story that is. 1109 00:43:56,780 --> 00:43:59,000 We're going to talk more about that later on. 1110 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:03,200 And so I hope that you'll follow along with the story of Joshua, 1111 00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,200 the historical record of Joshua, Joshua and the battle of 1112 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:06,640 Jericho. 1113 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:07,560 You guys know that story. 1114 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,560 We're going to talk about all those different things throughout 1115 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:11,560 the book of Joshua. 1116 00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:12,040 Man. 1117 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:13,200 There are some really cool stuff. 1118 00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:14,360 The Sun Stands Still. 1119 00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:16,160 There's battles. 1120 00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:20,600 It is an exciting story, but there is an underlying Gospel theme 1121 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,400 throughout the Book of Joshua, and it's God's provision and his 1122 00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:27,360 protection and his rewarding them that diligently seek him. 1123 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:31,320 The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 he is a rewarder of them that diligently 1124 00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:31,880 seek him. 1125 00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:33,320 That's a matter of faith. 1126 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:36,360 And so I hope that you'll come along with us in this study in the 1127 00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:37,160 Book of Joshua. 1128 00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:39,840 If not, I hope that this has been a blessing here for you this 1129 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:40,280 evening. 1130 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:44,920 And I hope that you can have that growing desire to be a successful 1131 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,960 Christian, not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of the 1132 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:49,320 Lord, in accordance to His Word. 1133 00:44:50,850 --> 00:44:53,330 Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church 1134 00:44:53,330 --> 00:44:53,970 podcast. 1135 00:44:54,130 --> 00:44:56,530 I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you. 1136 00:44:57,170 --> 00:44:59,450 If you would like to find out more information about our church 1137 00:44:59,450 --> 00:45:02,930 or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org 1138 00:45:03,250 --> 00:45:05,730 or find us on Facebook or YouTube. 1139 00:45:06,530 --> 00:45:10,970 You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch 1140 00:45:10,970 --> 00:45:13,570 dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast. 1141 00:45:13,810 --> 00:45:17,580 Please subscribe and follow along along for future podcast and 1142 00:45:17,580 --> 00:45:18,260 updates. 1143 00:45:18,900 --> 00:45:19,860 Thank you so much. 1144 00:45:20,100 --> 00:45:20,820 God Bless. 1145 00:45:21,060 --> 00:45:22,340 Have a wonderful day.