Joshua 1:1-18 Don't Be Afraid or Discouraged

Jimmy talks about the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua in the nation of Israel. Moses was a great leader who led the people out of slavery in Egypt and received the Ten Commandments from God. Now, Joshua is taking over and they are at a pivotal point in their journey. They are back at Kadesh Barnea, where they had previously refused to obey God and enter the promised land. This time, they are going to obey and possess the land. They face challenges, like crossing the flooded Jordan River, but they trust in God's guidance. It is important for institutions and churches to have a smooth transition of leadership, where the new leader is appointed by God. Moses was a servant of God and Joshua follows in his footsteps. The people need second chances and Joshua proves to be a good leader who is obedient to God. The book of Joshua highlights the magnitude of Moses' role and the importance of following God's chosen leader. Well, good morning. Good to see you. Someone told me they'd rather be seen than viewed. We can all agree with that, I think. Well, we've spent about two or three times getting ready to go into Joshua, so we're going to go into Joshua today. Hopefully, we'll get the first chapter today, then next Sunday I'll do the second chapter. Then after that, we don't know what Brother Jack's going to do. You're going to do chapter three all at one time. Sometimes it's hard, because we're not going verse to verse. We're going a bit by bit in Joshua, and it's hard to know where we'll stop. But the good thing is, wherever we stop, we'll pick up there next week, and that's good. We're actually at a very pivotal point in the life of the nation of Israel for a lot of reasons. Number one, they're changing leadership. Every institution changes leaders. Leaders get older, and they step aside, and new leaders come, which means we always have to be passing off what we have to those behind us, because if we don't, there won't be anything here. My dad used to say the debt we owe to the past is to leave the future indebted to us. So we want to bring people along with us. So times of change, when you transition leadership, is very important. I'll talk to you a little bit more, but are you familiar with the acronym GOAT, G-O-A-T? The first time I saw that was when someone said that Tom Brady, when he retired, was GOAT. I always thought if someone was a GOAT, that was a bad thing. Then I got to looking a little closer, and GOAT stands for Greatest of All Times. When we come to Moses, the Bible says he's the greatest of all times. He's the original GOAT. We'll kind of think through the things that Moses did, but incredible. When God came to Joshua in this first chapter, he didn't mention any words. Verse 1 says, After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' assistant. Moses, my servant, is dead. Pretty abrupt. Can you imagine how Joshua felt? I mean, it's one thing to step into leadership, but to follow Moses? I mean, what an incredible thing. What an incredible moment that was for him. Now, also, this is a strategic point for several things happening. Kadesh Barnea, that's where they are. They've been there before. Forty years earlier, they had been there, and they sent the spies into the land. Ten, twelve spies, I guess. Two gave a good report. Ten gave a bad report. The people decided not to enter the land, even though God had told them to. So they rejected God's clear command. As a result, they spent forty years in the wilderness. We preachers sometimes misstate and say they wandered in the wilderness. No, they didn't wander anywhere. They just followed God, lived in the wilderness. I mean, just think about it. It's at least a million and a half people. Now, I don't know if you've ever driven from Jerusalem down to Cairo. Some of the trips where you go to Israel, you take a bus and you go from Jerusalem on down past the canal and into Cairo. You go through the wilderness that the children of Israel were in for forty years. Now, you talk about barren Sahara-type desert. There's nothing there. Now, forty years in the wilderness. At least a million and a half people. Could have been more than that. They had to have water. They had to have food. They had to have clothing. Forty years Moses led and God provided all of that. Unbelievable. Clothes didn't wear out. Isn't that good? That would put most of our clothing stores out of business. But God provided provisions for them for forty years. Moses was the leader. They needed water, so God told Moses, strike a rock. He struck a rock, out came water. And they did that every day for forty years. They had water. Amazing. Food. Moses told them, God's going to send you quail into the camp and he's going to send you manna from heaven. And they got that every day for forty years. A million and a half people. It's mind-boggling to think of the travels of Israel with that many people. And in the process of doing that, they established themselves as a nation. They basically got the framework for the constitution of that nation. They received the Ten Commandments. They saw miracle after miracle after miracle and complained all the way. Just like us. Do you know, I don't mind the hole in the wall, but you put a little black spot on the wall drives me crazy. Can you imagine how the people felt in the complaining? Moses got, you know, what are we going to do with these grumbling people? Imagine forty years of that. Now they're back at Cadiz Barnea for the second time. By the way, that's where Miriam, Moses' sister, died was in Cadiz Barnea. But they're back the second time. First time, they refused to obey God. And this time, they are going to obey God and they're going to go into the promised land. But the people refused the first time. Doubt overcame faith the first time. But this time, faith overcomes doubt. And they move and they possess the land. Now, we'll not get into all the details of the things that they did, but that's where they are. When they head there the first time, there was no river to cross. There was no mountains to climb. It was open land. This time, they've got a flooded Jordan River that was basically impassable. In the springtime, the river rose. It was a wide, raging torrent of water that separated. And now they had to cross that. First time, they wouldn't have had to do that. But this time, they've got that torrent of water to cross. So they crossed the Dead Sea. Now they've got more water, but they've got to figure out how to get across. A lot of ideas about how they happened. I'm pretty simple-minded. I just think Lord said they divided the waters and they crossed on dry land. That's what happened. So here they are again. So Miriam has died. They're back at Canyon Spartan. They have a second chance. We all need second chances, don't we? People ask me, what would you do differently if you could live your life over again? I wouldn't do anything differently. I just want to do all of it better. We ought to be better. I only regret that I have the things that I didn't do as well as I should have. But Joshua now, the book of Joshua, picks up in the Kadesh Barnea. They're in this transition of leadership. And we discover the kind of leader that Israel would need to take the place of Moses. Fourteen times in the book, Moses is called the servant of the Lord. And Joshua does not earn that title until just before he dies. So we see something of the magnitude of the place of Moses. Joshua had to wait until near his death. But he did a good job. He served well in following God's leadership and leading the people. And the people followed him and listened to him and obeyed him. And only after his leadership grew to a close was he called the servant of God. Now, this happens to every institution, every church. This is a good pattern. I'm not going to dwell here for a minute. You notice God appointed Joshua. People didn't choose him. God appointed him. That's a good illustration of how you get a pastor. You don't hire a pastor. God calls a pastor. And you don't want the one you want because if you want the one you want and get him, he won't be what you thought he was. You need to let God pick it out. And when it comes time to select a pastor, you need to allow God to lead. The church needs to move and call God's man for a pastor. That's what we see happening here. Joshua had been the assistant to Moses for many, many years. But just think for a moment. Think of a statement. Moses, my servant, is dead. Simple statement, but let those words soak in just a little bit. Moses had been the incredible leader who had led the people out of slavery in Egypt. For 30 years, the people had looked to him for guidance. It was Moses who introduced the plagues into Egypt to convince Pharaoh to release the people from slavery. He was the one God used to deliver the Israelites from that slavery. He's the one who announced each of the plagues coming upon Egypt in an attempt to get Pharaoh to let the people go. It was Moses whose uplifted rod signaled the division of the Red Sea that allowed the children of Israel to cross on dry ground. He was the one who informed the people that God was going to send them manna and quail for food. Chapter 16, he also struck the rock. Chapter 17, and water came in from the rock. He was the one who climbed the summit of Mount Sinai and returned with the Ten Commandments, handwritten by God himself. He was also the one who led the codifying of the laws and regulations that would form the heart of the laws of a new nation of Israel. It was Moses who received the instructions of how to build the tabernacle and how to make the Ark of the Covenant, and he built both of them. He presented God's instructions of how the priests ought to dress and what kind of worship they ought to have in the tabernacle. He's the one who brought God's law down and found the Israelites, as the preacher preached about this morning, worshipping a golden calf. Talk about excuses. I had to laugh again when John reminded us this morning of how Aaron explained the golden calf. Well, we just threw these things into the fire in there and the calf disappeared. When you don't want to do something, any excuse will do. When you do something you shouldn't do, it blames somebody else. It's a hilarious picture of Aaron trying to explain, how did this golden calf get here? Well, Moses was the one who confronted that. He's also the one that kept God from destroying the people at that time. He said, God, you don't destroy these people. He's pleading for them. He's also the one who delivered the message that the seventh day was a holy day and would be a time of rest for them. It was Moses who called for the building of the tabernacle and took an offering part. The entire community was moved to respond to the message and the tabernacle was built. Then when you come to Deuteronomy 34, it says, No prophet has risen again in Israel like Moses whom the Lord God knew face to face. He was the incredible lawgiver who walked with God and his life can only be described as miraculous. Now, imagine how Joshua felt when the message came, Moses is dead. Now you get ready, you're going to lead these people to the promised land. It had to be a sobering moment. He could always blame Moses for 30 years. Now then, as Harry Truman said, the buck stops with Joshua. The buck stops here. Awesome moment. Verses 11 and 12 of Deuteronomy 34, it says, No prophet has risen again in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unparalleled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to do against the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all of his officials, to all of his land, and for the mighty acts and power of terrifying deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. I mean, this guy is the GOAT. He's the greatest of all times. Who wants to follow the greatest of all times? It's an awesome responsibility. And God gave great promises to Joshua that he would lead the people. And by the way, I probably have told you this before, but you don't remember it. When I was here, we had nine acres of land, and we needed more land. And this corner property over here was just trees. We couldn't even find out who owned it. I mean, it took a hard time. It was amazing. We finally found that. It's a long story. We finally found that was a joint venture. And there was a Jewish lawyer by the name of, I can't think of his name. It doesn't matter. But he was the one who you had to go to to talk about that land. And so I'll tell you what I did. I took my Bible, and I walked around that land. And this is what I read. I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Now, I did make one big mistake. I didn't walk around the mobile station on the corner. So now we have Popeye's on the corner. But, you know, it's an incredible promise that he makes. Everywhere, every place you walk is yours. Incredible promise. And he promised Joshua that he would never abandon me. He said, I'm going to give the people will honor you just like they've honored Moses, and I'm going to honor you just like I honored Moses, and I'm going to give you power and strength just like I gave power and strength to Moses. And he instructed Joshua to do three things. To guide the people to the land, to conquer the land, and possess the land. In other words, get the land distributed. And so when Joshua leaves, the land has been possessed, and the tribes have received their inheritance, and everything is as God promised. And then God commanded Joshua to obey all the words of the law. Verses 5 through 9 here. Didn't challenge the entire nation to serve and obey the Lord, and they renewed their covenant that they had. Chapter 24 describes the renewal of the covenant with the people with God. Eight times in Joshua, the law of Moses is mentioned, and every time it calls for obedience to the law. That's the focus. Three times out of eight times, the people responded and said, we'll do that. Five times they didn't. But God promised that he would be with them, and Joshua continually reminded the Israelites that the possession and the permanence of the covenant they had with God was dependent upon their response and their obedience to God. Sometimes he would say, well, you know, I've been asking God what he wants me to do, and he hasn't told me. Well, the simple truth is, if he hadn't done what he's already told you in the Word, why is he going to give you any more information? God's response, our response to God is what allows God to do something else. God's never going to force his way into your life. He's not a party crasher. He has to be invited. When you come down to Revelation, he said, I stand at the door and knock. Oh, and by the way, that was to a church. He stands at the door of the church and says, I'm knocking at the door, and if you'll open the door, I'll come in and we'll have some fellowship. God's a gentleman, and so obedience is always attached to the promises of God. If we're not obeying God, why should we expect him to give us another assignment? Obedience is absolutely the key, and the defeat at Ai, that little hole in the wall of a town that soundly defeated the Israelites, was because of the sin of Achan, who did what God commanded him not to do. He disobeyed and God defeated the whole army that day because of the actions of one person not being obedient. It shows you the importance for all of us to be together, working together. Our church is a fellowship. It is also a theocracy. It's not a democracy. We have democratic principles whereby we vote and take action as a people, but ultimately those actions are supposedly a response to the presence of God and the will of God as revealed to us as a people. But obedience is required. We really have made very little sense of church membership. It's easier to join the PTA than the church that is the PTA. I mean, you sign a paper, the church votes one way or another, and you become a member. Now what? What does that mean? What are you going to do? What are you going to do differently? We've not defined the responsibility of membership very much, and so we expect very little and get very little from most of the church members. In our church, if it's typical, I haven't checked it, but we have done statistics in Southern Baptist Convention, 20% of the people give 80% of the money, and also 20% of the people do the work that the rest of the 80% don't do. We've not fully appreciated the value and the depth of church membership, and that's a shame because being a church member is a great thing. I was exiled in Nashville, Tennessee for 15 years. Many times, there was probably only one church in town I could have joined without somebody complaining. It was a walk in the wilderness in a lot of ways. Very few people were glad I was there that worked a lot. We had 3,000 employees, and very few of them were happy that I was there. So I had my work cut out for me. By the way, they responded beautifully, and we loved being there. When I was introduced, Bill Anderson introduced me to the employees. There was not one ripple of applause. No two hands came together in anybody. There were 1,100 people in the auditorium. Total deathly silence. When we left 15 years later, over 1,500 people walked three blocks in the driving rain to have one last time of chapel together. It took time, but it meant something to be a part of what we were doing. Everyone of us as members needs to realize we're all important in the life of the church. One of the great things about being believers is that nobody is unimportant. Everybody is somebody. I still communicate regularly with a young lady who was 15 years old when she was saved and baptized in this church and got an email again from her today, and that has been 40 years, 50 years. She's 65 now. She's important. Nobody is unimportant. So we take her to lunch, too, occasionally. Pray for her. She has struggled and faced some real challenges. She's growing in the Lord, and she has a network of people she sends emails to and has Christian songs on it. But it's all because she has grown because somebody showed an interest in her as being valuable. I was not the only one, Carol Ann. I was not the only one. But everybody is important. That's the value of church membership. I believe that's what makes this a great church. We're a healthy church. We're a happy church. We've got strong leadership. We follow well. God is just blessed. Well, Israel now is in the process of changing allegiances from Moses to Joshua. And there's one thing that is interesting. The word holiness only appears three times in Joshua. But the whole book of Joshua describes the holiness of God and the holiness of the people who walk with God and claim to know God. And that's demonstrated no better than when they crossed that flooded Jordan River. The instructions that were given was that the Ark of the Covenant was to go a thousand yards ahead of the people and they were to follow it. Now, that was for two reasons. One is very practical. With a million and a half people, if everybody crowded around the Ark, nobody past the first two or three rows could see the Ark. So you had to let it get out there far enough that you could see it. But another reason was it describes and reminds us that we're not like God. The holiness of God means that God is different than we are. He is holy. We are not holy. We can never be holy apart from his grace. And the whole purpose of the cross was for the one who knew no righteousness to die and pay the price for our sins so that we could become the righteousness of God. That's a divine act. And so even in the crossing of the river, there's an indication that God is a holy God. And that God said to Joshua, I will be with you just as I was with Moses, and I will not leave you or abandon you. Verses 6-9 are remarkable words. Let me just read it to you. Here's what he's saying to Joshua. Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance. Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth. You are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed wherever you go. Heaven, I commanded you, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Four times he tells him to be strong and courageous. Moses wrote a copious journal of what God told him. Likely the finitudes of the book of Moses, it's often called. Now God is assigning the message that he delivered to Moses to Joshua. And he says that message needs to always be on your heart and in your meditation. He was to carefully observe everything written on it. Now I have to do a rabbit. What does meditate mean? Now if you were down on El's funeral, I've described it a little bit. If you go online and type in meditate, somewhere in what you will find will be this phrase, like a cow chewing its cud. Now what on earth does that mean? Well, you have to understand that cows are part of a family of animals that have a different kind of stomach. One area of the cow's stomach is called the rumen. And that particular family of animals are what we call ruminants. Now what does that mean? Well, the rumen is like a large fermentation vat. And it retains or it contains rumen bacteria which digest the cow's food and converts it into energy and protein. Now here's how it works. While fibrous feed like hay is good for cows, they can't just eat it and swallow it and go about their time. They have to ruminate it a little bit. You see, when the cow first eats the feed, she chews it just enough to moisten it and to swallow it. That's when the bacteria gets to work softening the feed and the fiber. And that softened food is what we call the cud. Now what the stomach does, it sends the cud back to the mouth. It goes back to the mouth of the cow and the cow re-chews it. And chews the cud to get it to the place where the stomach can fully digest it. And chewing the cud produces saliva which is important for controlling acidity. Too much hinders the growth and function needed for a healthy cow. Too little is just the other extreme. Now cows need to be comfortable when they chew their cud, so they're usually laying down. You usually see cows laying down. Now cud-chewing cows are generally healthier and will digest more of their diet and produce more milk. So meditation is a lot like that. You don't just read the Bible once and put it down. It's for you to read and re-read and repeat it. Think about it. Ask the Lord to show you more truth from the reading. His word is never exhausted. It's always fresh for believers. Go ahead and chew your cud. And you'll be better for it. Meditate. Chew your cud. That's what he's talking about. He's literally saying you've got to do this every day. The food's not readily digested when you just read it. You need to re-read it. And I know you've had the same experience. I've been preaching a long time. I preached my first sermon 75 years ago. But do you know I read Scripture today and learn something I didn't know? I've got sermons that I've preached many times from different passages. And lo and behold, I read the passage and I discover something that I never had seen before. That's what chewing your cud does with Scripture. Meditate on it. And he said you don't let this get away from you. Do it night and day. It will always be on our mind. We ought to live in a consciousness that's saturated with the Word of God. Think about it. Chew the cud. Meditate. And do it every day. And that's what he's telling Joshua. You can't handle this job if you don't stay with it every day with what I'm telling you to do. Oh, and by the way, Christianity is not difficult. It's impossible unless you chew your cud. Let the Holy Spirit refresh your mind. Reveal new truth. And then obey what you hear. The last little book I wrote I called It's Not Rocket Science. It's about the Great Commission. God did not give the Great Commission to us and then say now go figure out how to do it. What he did was, when we got saved, he put the Holy Spirit in us. The disciples wanted to go shout about the resurrection in the first chapter of Acts in verse 4. Jesus said, no, don't do it until the promise of the Father comes. Verse 8, now when the Spirit comes, now you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Sounds like the Great Commission does it. I don't have much complication in my life. My life never has been very complicated. My brother Charlie always said, it is what it is. Well, it is and you need to get used to it. It is what it is. It's not what happens to us, it's how we respond to it. And so God doesn't let anything come into our lives that he doesn't want to bless us with. And the only way we can believe Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, is that whatever God allows into our life, he has a purpose and he's going to bless us for it. And we need to live our lives in the expectancy of what God is going to do. And our lives ought to be lived in the atmosphere and culture of his word that has been given to us, his spirit dwells within us. And so to fulfill the Great Commission and complete the Christian life, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which all of us are already possessing the Holy Spirit. Pay attention, be obedient, and we'll do what God wants us to do. It's not rocket science. Very simple. Pay attention, be obedient, and you'll go to the ends of the earth. You know, God has to make things simple for us, doesn't he? But then we have to make it complicated. I get emails every week from think tanks all over the world. How are we going to fulfill the Great Commission? Very simple. Holy Spirit's in you. Spend time with him every day. Pay attention when he speaks. Be obedient. That's the strategy. It's not rocket science. Joshua is being told, you need to concentrate on the fact that God is with you every step of your way. He makes no mistakes. Pay attention and obey what he's told you to do. The same thing is true for us. Thank God none of us ever has to follow Moses. But God's spirit's in us, and we're at our best when we're paying attention to him. Jesus spent his entire 17th chapter of John along his prayer in the Bible that Jesus prayed that we have a record of. One thought in that prayer was that those who came to the gospel and were saved would be united together in their love for the Lord and for proclaiming the gospel. That's what the church is all about. It's not about our fellowship, but isn't it great to have fellowship? It's not about how many meals we get to eat. It's not about how many people we baptize. It's about obeying God and allowing God to bless others through us. Joshua, what he's hearing is, you've got a big job. You've got big shoes to fill. But it's okay, because I'm going to go with you. I'll be with you every step of the way. And you'll go to possess the land, and you will divide the land up among the twelve tribes, and you'll possess the land. It's interesting that God did not speak to Joshua about military strategy. He didn't speak to him about military tactics. And the reason is that Joshua's success did not depend upon the strength of their army. It depended upon the presence and power of God. And he would take them safely through. Imagine a general in an army strategizing how to conquer Jericho. Well, you've got to have a good strategy here. So God said, okay, I'll tell you what to do. All y'all get together, and some of you carry these horns around and just march around the city every day. Oh, and on the last day, march around it seven times. And when you finish the seventh time around, blow the horns. You have candles and vases, clay pots that have candles in them. Smash the pots and roar. And the walls fell suddenly down. Not a strategy Joshua could ever have dreamed up. It was God's strategy. God did it. Listen, you have the opportunity, and we have the opportunity, to live a life directed by how God wants to act. How he wants to work through us. And he's telling Joshua, you've got a big job. But I'm bigger than your job, and I'm going to tell you what to do, and I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to be with you all the way. And you'll get all the way to the Promised Land, and you will divide it up, and you will conquer it and possess it. And not one promise that I've given you is going to fail. What an incredible comfort that must have been to Joshua as he stood next to Moses in leadership and moved into Moses' position of leading the people. Incredible. The Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go. And that's the promise that God made to him. In verses 10-18, Joshua is well aware of God's sovereign actions at the Red Sea. He remembers that. He believed that he would make it across the flooded Jordan River. He summoned the officers of the people and gave them instructions to prepare to cross the Jordan River to Canaan. He had no hesitancy in doing so, because God had told him, You will distribute the land, I swore it to the fathers, to give to them as their inheritance. Don't be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go. And they responded. The people responded, Everything you have commanded us, we will do. And everywhere you send us, we will go. We will obey you just as we obeyed Moses in everything. Certainly the Lord, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses. Man, that had to be a shot in the arm for Joshua. He had to stand up a little straighter, probably adjust his shoulders a little bit. But God had just not only given him an impossible job, he said, Hey, I'll take care of what you need. It's going to be okay. And you just follow through what I tell you to do. And the heart of positive confidence, his words, those words were to Joshua, but also to the people. And their response was unanimous. After 40 years in the wilderness and the death of those who had refused to enter the promised land 40 years before, a new generation stepped forward in faith and obedience to believe God and possess the land. Now, let me just make a statement. The generations coming behind us are more conservative than we are. You go to the Northwest, one of the most liberal parts of our country, and you follow survey after survey interviewing the young people in the Northwest. And every survey that's been taken indicates that the kids are more conservative than their parents. We have to pass on what God has given to us. Dr. Crystal used to say that Christianity is one generation away from extinction. You realize if we don't win the battle for the minds of our children, there will be no church? That's why how foolish it is for us to divide over things that don't matter. Most dominant in the last 50 years have been the music wars. I don't like contemporary music. Well, Psalms very clearly says that every generation needs to sing a new song. I don't care for some of the popular music. Some of it's great, by the way. And that's why we have blended services, even our 830 service. We sang a song for us today, a contemporary song. This is a wonderful song. But the point is, why are we arguing over this? Who cares what kind of music we have if it's pointed to God and it's revealing the plan of God for our lives and to praise God? Look, if you don't like some of the music, just pray for the people who do. And when you get through, the music will be over with. Use it as a time to pray about it. Now again, in fact, I was interim pastor down in Mobile for about a year. Carol Ann and I flew down to Mobile every week for a year back about 15 years ago. And, you know, sometimes I say things and in my mind I say, who said that? And I had one of those moments in Dolphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile. Well, in my last Sunday morning, I said, the choir has not sung anything that I really like. Now where do I go from that? I said, there's a lot of music that I don't care for, but I appreciate. I don't have to like it, but I appreciate what God does with it. To this day, I never, I mean, why on earth did I say that? And that's why, Eddie, last week I told you you never have to apologize for something you don't say. I've had to apologize for a lot of things I wish I hadn't said. But the message is clear. I'm giving you the position of Moses. I'm giving you the commands I've given to him. Now you pay attention, be obedient, lead the people, and you'll possess the land and you'll succeed. He did, and they did. That's the message. Anywhere God wants us to go, we don't want to go without him. The battle that they got defeated, when the enemy, early on, when God told them not, they refused to go, and they said that God, in fact, when they were the first time in Tethys 14, I think, Moses told them, God said, okay, you've got to spend 40 years out in the wilderness now, and everybody that made this decision is going to die, and they'll all die before you can come back. Now they're back there, and all those people have died off. And the people said, when they said that, they said, oh, we didn't understand that. Well, now we're going to go fight. Moses said, don't do it. God said, if you go fight, you're going to get whipped. They said, well, we're going to do it anyway. We didn't understand the consequences. So they went out and got a family defeated by the Amalekites. It showed the people that God meant business, and obedience was required, and you have to respond while you have the opportunity to respond. My dad used to say, the opportunity of a lifetime has to be grasped during the lifetime of the opportunity. Opportunities are not always open. So it was a great thrill for Joshua, no doubt, to find that God is going to be with him, and he will give the land to them, and that the people would follow him, and they would possess, and God would keep his promises. Oh, by the way, the whole book of Joshua is the story of a promise-keeping God. God made a promise, and when Moses came down to the inn, he referred to the fact that in Deuteronomy, see the Lord our God has set the land before you. Go up and take possession of it. God, dear Father, has told you, don't be afraid or discouraged. And then toward the end of it, he says, every promise that God made has been fulfilled. We don't have to like everything God brings into our lives, but we need to be obedient, and we need to be grateful. There are two statements in the New Testament. One place, Paul says, be thankful in all things. So gratitude is a good attitude for whatever you're experiencing. But in another place, he says, be thankful for all things. There are a lot of things I'm not particularly happy about, maybe, but I can be grateful that the God who knows more than I do understands, and even though I don't particularly appreciate what I'm going through, I know that he's going to make it to be good for me, and that nothing will come into my life, that he's not in there with me carrying the load, guiding the way, and he'll keep his promise. That's really the message of Joshua. The first step of victory in the promised land was to claim the inheritance that God gave them. And God has made promises to us, and he didn't want us just to get saved and then go figure out how to live the rest of our lives. He has a plan and a purpose for our lives. I look back, Carol Ann, I look back over our nearly seven decades of marriage. The presence of God in inexplicable ways are just incredible. If he had told us what was before us, we probably would have scared us to death. But step by step, we followed God, and we found out that his steps are always best, always wise, and that his way is sufficient. And we may not get what we wanted, but we all get what we needed. And God will see us and never leave us, walk with us each step of the way. That sure is comforting when you come to these last years for many of us. If my life was a football game, I'd be in a two-minute drill. Don't know how long this life's going to last. But God's going to be with me every step of the way. Paul says, to live is Christ, to die is Cain. It's going to be better. We can't make everything better. God can and God will. And we can trust him in that. But our responsibility is not to try to figure out how to serve him, how to listen to his word. He's given us a clear picture. There's not anything you need to know that's not found in the word of God. So that's why you need to do what you could. You need to study it and restudy it, read it and reread it, pray over it and ask God to give you new insights, stay by the word, be obedient. God says, it'll be okay. I'm with you all the way. What a step. Someone says, my dad died when he was 52 years old. Someone said, well, he died prematurely. I said, no, nobody dies prematurely. I said, it's all of God. He died right on time. And by the way, the greatest blessing in my ministry was when my father died because it helped me have a heart that knew pain and sorrow and comfort. Those are things that I had watched but had never experienced. And even the passing of my best friend and my mentor was a blessing because God equipped me through his death to be a better person and a better minister of the gospel because of what I experienced at that time. Was it hard? Absolutely. Difficult. But he was with us all the way. And he's with every one of us that way. Joshua is just a reminder. We have a promise-keeping God who's given us clear instructions. Don't grumble and complain. That's what the Israelites did through 40 years. They just fussed about it all the time. Moses at one point said, what am I going to do with these complaining people? Yet when the push came to shove and the golden calf was finished, it was Moses who said, God, don't destroy these people. Forgive them. Restore them. Don't take them and destroy them. He had every right to want them gone, but he prayed for their survival. And God's Holy Spirit prayed for us today. And he wants what's best for us so we can trust him. And I think there's a gospel song that goes something like this. You cannot always trust God, but you can always trust him. And that's still true. So Joshua is going to teach us that. It's a book of the journey to the promised land and the journey in following God's will and God's leaders. And we're going to have a good time with it. And my time is not gone yet. I'm going to let you go and you'll be shocked. And I hope you can make it to wherever you're going in light of the shock of us being through 15 minutes early. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you that you are with us every step. We don't deserve that. God, we are a hard people. We are complaining people. We are compromising people. We often make mistakes and we often do not obey. And yet, Lord, your patience endures and you love us and you care for us. Your spirit never leaves us. And we're grateful for the confidence that every step of our life passes through your permission and you're with us every step. We're grateful. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.