Entering Canaan

The speaker is discussing the topic of possessing our possessions, which is inspired by the book of Ephesians. They mention that it is Father's Day and reflect on the importance of fathers entering into Canaan land and taking in the promises of God. They talk about Joshua and Caleb as examples of those who believed and were able to possess what God had given them. The speaker emphasizes that the Old Testament is still relevant today and encourages reading and applying it. They discuss the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, highlighting the significance of the Passover lamb and the miracle at the Red Sea. They mention that salvation in the Old Testament was by grace through faith, just like it is for believers today. The speaker explains that the wilderness is not always a bad thing, but it becomes a problem when one remains or refuses to leave it. reading this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11 says, Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And this whole entire series of possessing our possessions have kind of sprung out of what we just finished up in our study of the book of Ephesians. Do you remember in Ephesians they said, Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. And as I was looking ahead and thinking ahead and looking back and everything else, all of a sudden it hit me, you know what, Sunday is Father's Day. And I said, Man, usually I'm not here on Father's Day because we always have our national meeting and typically I go to it and so we've already left out and headed that direction. The last couple of years I've got to do Father's Day and so I got to thinking and the more I studied this sermon, the more I thought, you know what, there's nothing that I could talk about that would be more important for fathers than entering into Canaan land, taking in the promises of God. And we have already looked in the past several weeks that we've seen how that God has a plan and God has a purpose. And we've also understood that God is good and God loves us and cares for us. But we saw that because of the unbelief of the people, we found that they fell under the wrath of God. But we also have discovered that there was two individuals out of that majority that did believe God, that did trust God, and because of their faithfulness, Joshua and Caleb were allowed to go in and possess what God had given them. And so as we think about that this morning, I want us to look at four things, beginning, first of all, at this possession that God has given them. And I want you to understand that even though this is in the Old Testament, Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, told us that these things are for our example. They are for us to learn from. And so the Old Testament is not irrelevant today. The Old Testament is just as relevant as it was when it was written. And so, man, we need to take it and we need to read it more often and we need to learn to apply. We look at this possession. If you have your Bibles there in Joshua chapter one, in verse one, it says, Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, if you remember up until this point, Moses struck the rock. He did not believe God. He did not sanctify God in his heart or before the people. And because of that, Moses was not allowed to lead the people into the promised land. He got them out of Egypt. He got them through the wilderness wandering. But yet he had to, God said, you will not be allowed to go in to the land of promise. And so Moses technically was going to be the last one outside of Joshua and Caleb that would die before the people can go into the promised land. And that's where Joshua picks up. And so Moses is now dead. And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness of this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. Now remember, they're in the wilderness. They were not allowed to go into the promised land because of the failure. They had come out of the land of Egypt. They have wandered in the wilderness now for approximately thirty-eight years. Everyone above all the males and people above the age of twenty have now died. They've been buried. They've come here. Now they are fixing to finally get into the promised land. They're finally fixing to get into Canaan, which was a land of victory, a land that was marked by peace and rest. And if we look at the history of Israel, we have to understand some implications of these events. And I've been kind of telling you, what is our example? How much can we read into these Old Testament stories? How much can we apply to them? What references can we make? And my number one rule in Bible interpretation is, let the Bible interpret itself. And so as we study this, we have to understand that God is using this. When you go and you look at the first five books of the Pentateuch, you will find that God has given us a series of events in the life that look, that deal with a physical people, a nation of Israel. But they're the same exact things that tend to work out in our spiritual life as a spiritual people today. And as we look at this, Egypt represents that domain of a lost person. God never wanted them to be in Egypt. God never wanted them to be in bondage. But because of series of events and different things, they did not end up fulfilling and getting the promise while Abraham was alive, while Isaac was alive, while Jacob was alive. Joseph finally got him to come to the land of Goshen. And then we find that 400 years later, the Israelites are in bondage, they're in slavery, and God raises up Moses to come out. When we think about that Egypt, we have to understand they were living under very harsh conditions. They were living under the complete power of Pharaoh. Pharaoh told them what they were going to do, when they were going to do it, and how they were going to do it. And they had to follow his orders. We also see when we look at Pharaoh in this Egypt of this land that is the domain of a lost person, we see that Pharaoh is a picture of Satan. We see that Pharaoh was against God. We see that Pharaoh was oppressing the people of God. And Egypt becomes this picture of the world that binds and destroys everyone within its grip. The Bible says that Satan that had came to heal, steal, and destroy. But Christ came that we might have life and life more abundantly. And so the main thing that I want us to understand this morning is they came out of Egypt. They left that domain of a lost individual. And our Scripture reading this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it talks about that, that they were immersed or baptized with Moses. In other words, Moses was the one that led them. They had all the nation of Israel left out of Egypt. All of them were his people. All of them were protected by God's cloud in the daytime, by the pillar of fire by night. Every one of them received the provisions of God, the care of God, the love of God. And God, in order to get them there, provided for them a miracle. And that miracle was the sacrifice of a lamb, the Passover lamb. If you remember the last thing that God did after he sent 10 plagues upon the nation of Egypt, he finally said, here's the last thing I want you to do. I want you to go find a lamb that was without spot and without blemish. I want you to take it in on the 10th day of Niphon. I want you to observe it for three days to make sure that it has no spot. It has no blemish. It has no impurities or imperfections. And on the evening of the 14th, I want you to kill that lamb and take that lamb and prepare it for your supper. Take the blood of that lamb and apply it to the outside doorpost of your house. And what's going to happen is while you are inside and you are feasting upon that lamb, the death angel is going to pass through Egypt. But everywhere that the death angel sees the blood of that lamb, then he is going to pass by. You are going to be saved. And you're going to be delivered from this nation out of this world. When we think about that, this is not just me making things up. Not only did they have the Passover lamb, but God also delivered them with a miracle at the Red Sea. You remember? What did he do? He told Moses to take his rod. The Red Sea was before them. The army of Egypt was behind them. And God said, take your staff and place it on the water. And the waters divided up. There was a wall of water on either side. And all of the Israelites were able to cross on dry ground. And then the Egyptians followed them in there. And what happened? The waters turned loose. God allowed the waters to fall back and destroyed the entire Egyptian army. And so Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, he says, I purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And so their salvation, if you remember in the Old Testament, they were saved exactly like you and I are saved today. How are we saved today? By grace through faith. God gives us amazing grace that we sing this morning is a gift that we do not deserve. None of us deserve salvation, but God gives it to us through grace. And then we have to apply faith. We have to trust God and believe it. And when we trust God and we obey him and we believe it, then we are saved. Guess what? That's the same thing that happened to Israel. By them placing the blood on their doorposts, what they were doing was accepting the grace of God. They did not deserve to live. They did not deserve to go to the promised land as they are going to show themselves over and over between there and Canaan. But guess what? God delivered them and all they had to do was obey and do what God said. So guess what? Israel has now been out of Egypt. They are now headed toward the promised land. And from there they wind up into the desert that is referred to as the wilderness. Now I want you to understand something about the wilderness. The wilderness is not always necessarily bad. Egypt and our lost domain is a bad place in the Bible. But the wilderness is not always bad. It's not always a bad thing. The problem becomes is when we remain in the wilderness or we refuse to leave the wilderness. If you look at the Bible, you will find many examples starting with Moses. After Moses tried to deliver the people by killing the Egyptians, do you remember? Where did God take them for 40 years? To the wilderness. But then all of a sudden He appeared to them in the burning bush and He said, what? Moses, get back to Pharaoh and get my people out of here. So He put them in the wilderness. If you look at the nation of Israel, what did they do? They crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness. And what did God say? Let's set up camp while Moses comes up on the mountain and receives the law of God. And so the people were there. And what did they do? While Moses was talking with God and communicating with God, they are down there, as we read in the scripture reading this morning, committing all types of immorality and fornication and everything else. Moses comes down. God destroys over 3,000 of them right there at the bottom of that mountain. But the wilderness is not a bad thing. We even see in the life of Jesus Christ. Do you remember what Jesus Christ did immediately after His baptism before He called His first apostle to be His? It says God led Him away in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. You see, the wilderness is a picture of spiritual growth and maturity. The wilderness is an opportunity for God to prove Himself to us, to lead us to trust God, to obey God. And so the wilderness is not bad. When the wilderness becomes bad is when we refuse to leave the wilderness and we want to hang out there because we enjoy the wilderness that is there. And so they've been saved spiritually. They've come out of Egypt, but yet we find them wandering around in the wilderness. And as they're wandering around in the wilderness, it's amazing when you read the five books of the Old Testament, when they get to the wilderness, what you quickly discover is there's absolutely no victories while they're in the wilderness. There's nothing to celebrate. There's no wars that are won. There's nothing that happens. There is no joy. All you read about in the wilderness is the people griping, complaining, grumbling, not looking at the provisions that God...there is no joy. It's just like, let's hurry up so these people will die so we can get on to the promised land. You'll find that there's no accomplishments in the wilderness. They've come out of Egypt, but they have never entered into Canaan. But finally, and we get here this morning, finally they get to enter into Canaan, the land of promise, the land of victory, a land of peace and fruitfulness, a land that God says is a land that is flowing with milk and honey. And so many people get their types and their pictures and their shadows all messed up. And Canaan is one of these things that we typically get messed up. If you read commentaries, if you listen to a lot of our hymns, you will find that these songwriters have messed up this type or this picture or this shadow. Canaan is not a type of heaven. And I keep telling us that to remind us, because even though we sing these songs that depict Canaan as heaven, these are not accurate. And you say, why are they not accurate? Because the promised land, the land of Canaan, the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, is not a picture of heaven. When you look at Canaan, you will find that there are fight wars. There's going to be no wars when we get to heaven. God is going to sit on His throne. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. There is all the war that we find is always coming back to earth. There is never war mentioned in heaven. We also find that there was sin in Canaan. Matter of fact, that's why they had to drive out the inhabitants. Guess what? When I get to heaven, we don't have to drive sin out, because guess what? Thessalonians tells us that when the trump of God sounds, the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air, and we shall be changed. We are going to be given a glorified body, a body without any sin, stars or anything. And so all sin is seen here on earth. You never see sin in heaven. We also find that they went to Canaan, and also they returned from Canaan. I have not read or seen anybody or any scriptural proof of it that anybody goes to heaven and returns back. It doesn't happen. But the people of Israel, guess what? They went to Canaan, but then they returned back home. When I get to heaven, I am in heaven for all of an eternity that is there. There were giants and failures in Canaan. Guess what? There's not going to be any giants or failures in heaven. So none of these things are going to be found in heaven. And so we've got to be very careful when we look at our types and our shadows and everything. What does Canaan actually picture? If it does not picture heaven, then what does it picture? Well, I think the Bible teaches us, and I am under the full apprehension that Canaan is a picture of the believers' possessions in Christ. It is the promises of God. It is what God wants to give us as believers. When we look at Ephesians chapter 1, remember, God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. But unfortunately, is everybody living and experiencing the spiritual blessings of God? Absolutely not. We see so many Christians today that are wandering around in the wilderness. We see so many Christians that are wanting to return back to the world, to go back to the world. We see very few that are actually living and experiencing all of the spiritual blessings that God has for them. We've been studying on the Wednesday nights, when we touched on it a little bit on Sunday mornings, but there are these people that came out of Egypt that never did possess their possession. On Wednesday night, we're studying the book of Hebrews right now, and we're looking at the dangers that are associated with not possessing what God wants us to possess. And we see that we've already looked at the danger of neglecting our salvation, where we are saved, but yet we are saved by grace through faith, but then we refuse to live by grace through faith. And we forget about the salvation and the grace that God has given us. Last week, we talked about the danger of when you begin to neglect your salvation and not look at your salvation or question your salvation. The next thing is, is you're going to start doubting your life. You're going to start doubting the things that are in your life. You're going to start doubting God's goodness and God's care for you and God's provisions for you. And then we studied last Wednesday night, you're going to miss God's risk. The danger of missing God's risk. We're still going to look at the danger of remaining immature and the danger of withdrawing from a relationship with Christ altogether. And that's what we see in the nation of Israel. And that's what the author of Hebrews comes back in the New Testament and writes to these Jews that have been saved, that have come out of spiritual Egypt and have come to the promised land, but yet they want to go back. Why do they want to go back? Why do people get saved and want to return to the world? The question that has baffled pastors and people for a long time, but yet it happens way too often. And so when we think about this possession that God has for us, I want you to understand four things about this possession. First of all, it was a, it was meant to be a parole. Where were they when God delivered them? They were in Egypt, in slavery. In other words, God does not want us in slavery. God wants to set us free. He wants to parole us. As a matter of fact, that is that big fancy word that we use in the New Testament, propitiation. In other words, we are guilty, but God steps in and guess what? He paroled us. He pays the debt for us. And so when we look at this, we know that they were slaves, but God released them from slavery and set them free. Paul tells us in Romans chapter six and verse four, that sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law, but under grace. In other words, God has paid for our debts and our sin. When I was saved at nine years old and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart, he forgave me of all of my sins. He cleared them all from the past, present, and the future. However, I still live in a sinful body. And so I still mess up. I still make mistakes. But guess what? And he tells us here in Romans chapter six and verse four, that that sin does not have to have dominion over you. And I've mentioned this several times since I've been pastor here at Kentucky, but if you can go 10 minutes without sin, you can go a half an hour. If you go a half an hour, you can go a day. If you go a day, you can go a week because sin does not have dominion on us. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. God says that we are more than conquerors through him that died for us. And so up until then, but not only did God give them freedom, but God also meant for Canaan to be a place of provisions. Now think about this for just a minute. Up until this time, where were they at? They've been in the desert for 38, almost 40 years. And do you know what they ate in the desert? Manna. You know how many times a day they ate manna? Three times a day, breakfast, lunch, and supper. You know how many days a week they ate manna? Seven days. Every single day it was manna. Do you know how many weeks out of the year they ate manna? 52 weeks out of the year. Manna, manna, manna. You know how many years they did that? Almost 40 years. Manna in the morning, manna in the evening, manna at supper time. Some of you guys gripe and complain about your wife's leftovers, right? Imagine 40 years every meal of them leftovers. Manna. Every single day. As a matter of fact, they ate so much manna that in numbers it tells us that they cry out to God because they're sick and tired of it. And they said, our soul loathes this light bread. We hate it. We despise it. You know, sometimes my wife, a few years ago, man, she went through this chili phase. And man, you know, I bragged about that chili the first time. I bragged about it the second time. Next thing I found out, we were eating chili all the time, right? And I said, finally, I said, Lisa, I love you and I love chili, but we've got to have something else besides chili, right? Manna. 40 years. And it said they hated it. They despised it. But you see, Canaan was to be a land of corn and wine. Canaan was to be this land of luxurious grapes and pomegranates. Canaan was a land that flowed with milk and honey. Canaan was a land of total abundance. And so the land of Canaan not only meant pardon, but it also meant provisions. Also, on the land of Canaan, it also meant peace. It meant peace. You see, the book of Hebrews calls it the land of rest. Rest does not mean inactivity. It's not rest from work. And we get this idea, well, I'm at rest and God has given me rest and I don't have to work. No, you go back into the garden and you look at Adam and Eve. And what did God tell Adam and Eve to do? To work. To work. Into the garden. Dress it. Keep it. But they enjoyed it. It wasn't laborsome. It wasn't until after the curse that God made labor and work, made it labor. It's kind of the difference when you think about rest and work. It's kind of the difference of burning the wick and burning the oil. If a candle burns the oil, guess what? It will burn forever. But you've only burned so much of that wick and it's gone. And that's the difference between rest and work. As a matter of fact, when Jesus Christ comes onto the scene in Matthew chapter 11, what does he say? He makes this statement, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and what? I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my burdens are light. Did God tell us there, Come and I'll give you rest and tell His disciples, y'all go to sleep now and just hang out and make it fiesta time all the time? No. What did He do? He said, Come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. He was busy. They were always working. They were always doing. They were always healing. They were always going. But guess what? There's a joy that is in us. There's a peace that is within us. You know, I heard somebody make the statement not too long ago that if you really love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. That's what we're talking about here, that rest, that rest, that enjoy it. You know, I hear preachers all the time, right, that complain about having to get sermons together and all of this. Man, it's glory. I don't understand that. God called me to preach and I love studying the Bible. I love sharing the Word of God and it's not work. Yes, there's work. There's some late hours sometimes studying it. There's some long days studying it, but it's refreshing. It's a peace that God gives us knowing that we are doing the right thing. But before they entered into Canaan, they knew no rest. They knew no peace. They had come out of Egypt, but they did not know any rest. And then we find the last thing of the possession with Canaan meant presence. You see, up in this time, they had heard sermons about Canaan. They had heard people talk about Canaan. They had been given descriptions of Canaan. Abraham, as a matter of fact, we looked several weeks ago. Remember, he was taken up on the mountain and what? God walked him around and showed him all of the land that was going to be his children. What a wonderful land of Canaan. But none of them had ever experienced it. None of them had ever seen it. And here's the key to the whole thing. God has already given you everything. He's already given you victory. Remember, Ephesians 1-3, God has blessed you with all spiritual blessings. He's given it to you. That's great. We don't deserve it, but He gave it to us anyway. God has given you victory. If you're living in defeat, you're living out of the will of God because God has given us victory. And so you say, why don't we have it? If God has given it to me, God has given it to you. But here's the problem that most Christians have. We don't take it. We don't go get after it. You remember in Ephesians chapters 1-3 dealt with doctrine, beginning with God has given us all spiritual blessings. Chapter 4-6 tells us how we get that. We have to be obedient. We have to walk in the Lord. We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We have to do some things. We have to take on the armor of God. And the key to all of this is found here in Joshua 1-3. So I want us to understand this possession, but then look at verse 3. He says, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said, unto Moses. Notice they weren't even in the land yet. Where are they at? They are still in the wilderness. Moses has died. God comes to Joshua and says, It's now time for you to rise up and go, but I've already given it to you. It is actually yours. They haven't even crossed Jordan yet. You know, I've already given it to you. It's yours. Go and take it. You remember when Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary? What was his last words before he gave up his spirit and died? It is finished. It is finished. In other words, what Christ was telling us, guess what? The victory over sin and death and the grave has already been provided for us. All you have to do is receive it. All you have to do is take it. See, God says, Donnie, I want you to be saved. But it wasn't until I was nine years old that I finally took salvation. I finally said, Don, I believe you. I believe that your son died for me. I believe that I am a sinner. I believe there's absolutely nothing that I can do to be saved or to get myself saved. I'm simply trusting you. And there at the age of nine, I took salvation. And because of my faith, it became a part of me. It became who I am. It became my destiny in life. And so guess what? I don't have to worry about dying. I don't have to worry about death. Because guess what? I am never going to die. I'm never going to die. I'm never going to die. This body may die. But I am going to be baptized from this body to be present with the Lord. I am going to live forever. Even at the second death, when death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. But the revelation says this is the second death. Guess what? I'm not going to be there either. Because I'm going to be in heaven and eternity with him. So he's telling us this land is your land. Don't pray for victory. Pray from victory. Victory has already been won. The land of victory is already yours. And all we have to do is put a foot of faith upon the promises of God. This is mine, and I claim it. Now, be very, very careful that you don't get into this health, wealth, and prosperity gospel that's being preached today. Just name it and claim it. I'm not saying that if you claim God wants you to have all this money, God's going to give it to you. Because that's not what he's talking about. You claim the promises of God that God will what? He will give you food, clothing, and shelter. It may be manna for 40 years, but guess what? Do you know that manna kept them to where it says that their feet and their shoes never wore out, their clothes never shrunk or got too big? Everything was perfect for four years. God provided for them. Well, that's not my idea of provisions, right? But that's the promise of God. He says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you. The problem is that our naming of the promises is often misinterpreting from God's promises. Joshua 1 and verse 5, look at their promise that they find here. It says, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Again, remember 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 11. These happened for our example. This promise, let's analyze it for just a minute. He promises them two things. First of all, he promises them power. Notice what he says there in verse 5. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. What did we find out in Ephesians chapter 6 when we finished Ephesians? Take the whole armor of God that you may be able to what? Stand. Stand. It didn't say we have to fight. It didn't say we have to go and confront Satan every single day in Jesus' name. It didn't say that we have to run out there and try to do. No, what did he say? He said take Jesus Christ and stand. And we're going to look at that over the next two weeks as we go into the first two battles that they fight in the promised land that is there. But living victorious is not your responsibility. It's not your responsibility. You say, well, whose responsibility is? God's already given you a victorious life. It's up to your response. It's not your responsibility. It's your response that is needed. Even so, Lord, how many times did Jesus Christ throughout his ministry say, nevertheless, Father, not my will, but thine be done. He knew that he was going to die. He knew that he was going to be buried in a grave. He knew that he was going to rise again. But it wasn't his responsibility. The Father said, I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so he said, nevertheless, not my will, Father, I'm trusting you. I believe that when I die, you will resurrect me. You're not going to leave me in that grave because I have done everything that you asked me to do. I've sought your will. That is the response that God wants us to have. And listen to me very, very carefully. If you understand this, when you understand that God doesn't call you to do anything, that's what we talk about in the New Testament when we talk about living freedom and independence. It doesn't give you a right to go sin and do what you want to be doing. But when you are being obedient to God and you are following God, when God makes a promise and He demands it to you and through you, God will give you the ability to do it. He will equip you to do whatever God has asked you to do. And then you will learn to live the victorious life. That's what Paul meant in the New Testament when he said in Romans 8, verse 37, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Go read that list sometimes of all of the things that God has made us a conqueror of every single one of us. That more than conquerors, we are super conquerors. Because it's not by our power. It's by the power of Jesus Christ. Not only did God promise them power, but He also promised them His presence. Look at what He said. He said, I will be with thee, I will not fail thee, nor forsake you. Man, that gets exciting right there. That God will continually, constantly be with us. His presence, no matter what the storm, no matter what's going on, you go to the New Testament and you see Jesus with these examples. And how many times were the disciples panicking? Jesus was found asleep in the bottom of the ship, right? Why are y'all worried? You think God's going to allow me to die out here in this ocean? I'm supposed to die on the cross. And so if I'm not afraid, if I'm asleep, if I'm at peace, why ain't you at peace? Because I'm here with you. I'm right here amongst you. And so we talk about His presence. You see, what the Lord was saying is the promise didn't die with Moses. I'm going to carry on. And everything that I did for Moses, guess what? I'm going to do for Joshua. And because I'm doing it for Joshua, I'm going to do it for each and every one of you. And so God is saying in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5, He says, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. How wonderful. How wonderful to know that not only is there a promise of His conquering power, but there's also the promise of His continuing presence. Listen, if you've got His power, and if you've got His presence, you've got all you need to go into Canaan, to live victorious and to obtain every spiritual blessing that God has given you. He said, He has said, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. Not only do we see the possession and the promise, but notice thirdly, the preparation. See, it doesn't just happen. See, even though God said, I'm going to give it to you, and I'm going to be with you, guess what? There was some preparing that had to be done. Because they had to get ready, because what did He say? Arise up, get ready, prepare yourself, for we are going into the promised land. If they were to sit there in the wilderness and not obey God, they would have never experienced Canaan. So how do we prepare to receive the blessings of God? Look at what He says in verse 6 and 7. Be strong and of good courage, for unto this people shall this divide for an inheritance to land, which I swear unto their fathers, to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from the right hand to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Now, we have said that God gives the victory, and there's nothing that we can do to get the victory. God already gives it to us. Yet what does this verse tell us? This verse tells us that we've got to be strong. This verse tells us that we have to be courageous. This verse tells us that we have to be obedient. And here's the secret, and I hope you're listening to me this morning, especially you fathers, because you are the leaders and the mentors of your house. And as we saw with Caleb, because of his faith, what happened? His children still, to this day, his offsprings still possess Hebron. But notice, everything that God demands of you, God will supply for you. Every command is a promise. Because every command that God gives us, behind it is the omnipotent power of God to carry out that command. You see, God is our strength. God doesn't want us to be obedient in our strength because we are nothing. And we're going to see that in these first two battles that we're going to look at. And you see, when we understand verse 7, in light of verse 5 and verse 6, where the Lord is saying, I'm going to be with you, I'm going to strengthen you, I will not leave you, because of that He tells them to be strong. Quit looking at the giants. Quit looking at the problems. And look to Me. Be strong. Be courageous. Do you realize this morning that strength and courage is a decision? You have to choose to be strong. Snakes still scare me to death. But guess what? I have chose to be strong. I have chose to be courageous. As a matter of fact, Jordan killed a snake by our pond the other night. And I got home and I was looking at it. I thought it might be a copperhead. I didn't know really what it was. I called Daniel down there. And Daniel reached down there and picks it up, you know. And he said, I don't believe this is a copperhead. And we look at it and we talk about it for a little bit. And he says, I'm going to go throw it out there in the bushes. And I said, good. And he was walking away and said, aren't you glad I didn't throw that on you? I said, no, you were glad you didn't throw that on me. But the fact that I was actually standing there beside the dead snake with a lot of strength and courage that I normally don't have. My wife has got pictures and has laughed at me when I've taken a shovel or hoe and standing on the seat of the tractor trying to kill a snake. So I've come a long ways. And you know what it's been because it's a decision. It's a decision. I choose to be strong. I choose to be courageous. And that's what God is doing. Just like obedience is a decision. You know why Christians are not obedient to God? Because we decide. We already make up our mind decisions that you're going to be somewhere tonight doing something else. You're going to be somewhere else Wednesday night doing something else. You've already made up your mind that you're not going to memorize the verses. See, obedience is a decision. You have to decide. Guess what? If I hadn't decided that I was going to be here this morning, it would have been easy to call in. Because our power went off at 3 o'clock this morning. And so I was up from like 3 to 5. Fortunately, it came back on. Some of us here still don't have power. But guess what? The power wasn't locked up because the decision was already made. I'm going to be in church. I'm going to be in church. I'm going to be obedient to what God has me to do. And so God has given us this plan. And as we finish this up, look at verse 8. Because he said, you must obey me. And now he's going to tell them how. How do we obey God? How are we obedient to God? How do we possess our possessions? How do we actually get into Canaan land a life of victory and peace? Look at what he says in verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Notice three things that he tells us that we have to do in being obedient. First of all, we have to proclaim the book. Look at what he starts with. You know, we as pastors, and I think finally something enlightened me this week as I was reading this passage. I've had it all wrong. All of my ministry for 35 years, I have tried to get people to read the Bible, to memorize the Bible, when God says the very first thing that I want you to do is proclaim the Bible. See, if we will proclaim it, then you have to read it. You have to memorize it in order to proclaim it. Look at what the first thing he says. The law shall not depart out of thy mouth. He didn't say out of your mind. How do we get things into our mind? We read it. We observe it. We study it. He didn't say put it into our heart. What is our heart? That's that emotional deal, right? Some of us, you go to camp or you go to the revival service, and what? The Word of God emotionally grabs us and it tugs at our heart, right? That we want to respond. He didn't say put the law of God in your mind or in your heart. What did he say? Put it in your mouth. Your mouth is used for speaking. So that's why he says proclaim the book. Speak the Word of God. There is power in the Word of God. Remember, Ephesians 4, and I keep going back to this. Verse 29. He said, Proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. Folks, we have the grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's what the world needs. The world doesn't need a definition of the rainbow and what it means. It doesn't need a definition of all of these things that we fight and we try to explain and we argue. The world needs the grace of Jesus Christ. And that's what we need to proclaim. Paul said, I didn't come to you with all this elegant talk and wise words. I came to preach Jesus Christ to you, crucified, buried, and rose again for you. And because of that, you believed, and now you are a child of God. Joshua 1a. He said, Not only are we to proclaim the Word of God, but look what else he said, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. Not only do we proclaim the Word of God, but we also have to ponder the Word of God. We have to ponder on the book. We have to think about it. You know what that word meditate literally means? When you take all of the words and definitions and nuances of the Hebrew word, it comes down to humming. How many of you hum? You know, a pun, a hit in your head, a passage of Scripture, a song, a thing, and all of a sudden this gets into your mind, and what does it begin to happen? The more it stays in your mind, all of a sudden you begin to hum. Or some of you may whistle. Or some of you may just jump past the humming and the whistling and just go right out to voicing it out, right? And singing loud. I kind of start with humming, and then I go to whistling, and then I'll go to singing. But this is the idea here. It's a little tune that you can't get out of your mind. In other words, if we are proclaiming the Word of God, it's going to force us to meditate on the Word of God, and we're going to have to think about what we are proclaiming. And so it's going to get into us, and as we're thinking about it, it has to get out. That's the whole thing with preaching. The more I study, the more I prepare, the more I read, the more it has to get out. And praise God, my wife thanks every one of you for being here this morning, because guess what? If you wasn't here to hear it, guess what? She would be listening to it all week long. Because when it gets in you, and you think about it, and you meditate on it, it's like that song, it starts humming, and it's got to come out. And so look, we take the Word of God, we let it dwell in our minds, we chew on it, we mull it over, and that's what's been so amazing. Somebody said, man, your sermons, I've really been enjoying them this summer. And I told them, I've done more meditating this summer than I've done all winter and everything. I've spent a lot of time getting up early in the morning, reading the Word of God, studying the Word of God, and then I go out to my garden. And I'm too fat and old to hoe and bend over and pick stuff, but you know what I do? I get down on my hands and knees, and I crawl through my garden. And the whole time I'm there on my hands and knees, guess what? I am meditating on what I read in the Word of God, what I'm studying. And all of a sudden, it has been amazing these last two months at how many connections God has given me. I understood the Old Testament. I understood the New Testament. But God has given me this connection between the two like I've never had. We proclaim it, but then we have to ponder about it. We have to think. We have to meditate. And the third and the last thing, and this is where the rubber meets the road. This is the last part of our plan. You have to perform it. Look at what he says there in verse 8. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then. For then. That then is not going to happen until you have proclaimed the Word of God, pondered on the Word of God, and obeyed the Word of God, performed the book, and then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. The proclamation and the pondering of the Word of God will produce obedience, performance into your life. It will help you to perform the Word of God. John chapter 14 and verse 21. Jesus Christ said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest, reveal myself to him. How do we get a relationship with Jesus Christ? How do we get Jesus Christ to reveal himself to us? By keeping his commandments. By being obedient. You know, we say we love Jesus Christ, but then we're not willing to obey Jesus Christ. And you can say all you want about loving Jesus, but if you don't keep his commandments, the Bible says that you are a liar. Look at what Joshua says in verse 9. He reminds him again, Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord is with thee, withersoever thou goest. What kept them from going into the promised land the first time when God intended them to go? Fear. Fear, remember? They came back with all of the proof. Man, it is everything that God said. However, there's giants in that land. And fear allowed them. And so you think it's a coincidence that God keeps telling them, Be strong. Be courageous. You think it's any coincidence when you get to the New Testament that over and over Jesus Christ told his disciples, Fear not, have faith. You think it's a coincidence that the Apostle Paul and Peter and John wrote in their letters over and over and over for us not to fear, but to be strong, to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to what? Stand and not flee in the battle, not run in the battle, but just stand our ground. Just hold what we have. Are you ready to possess your possessions? I want to finish with two verses, and I know we're out of time. Look at verse 17. Look at what the people respond. According as we have hearkened unto Moses, which I kind of giggled at this, because did the people ever really listen to Moses? Not an awful lot, right? This is something. This is a start. This is a beginning. We can't worry about the past. We've got to look to the future. But according as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee. That's when I think if I was Joshua, I would have passed out. Oh Lord, you give somebody else to go. But no, they said we'll go with thee. Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses. We finally have made the connection that God was with Moses. That as long as God was leading Moses, they would not go without water, food, or shelter, even while wandering around in the wilderness. And look at what they're promised. This is the seal behind it. Wheresoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto the words and all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death, only be strong and courageous. Don't you think it's about time that we possessed our possessions? Don't you think it's about time, especially here in America in this age of life of Christianity, that we begin to put forward the foot of faith and say this one is mine? My Lord has given it to me, and I'm not going to let the giants of doubt, I'm not going to let the giants of despair, I'm not going to let fear move me from this land. You see, the reason so much wickedness has taken over our county, our state, and our world, is not because God is still not on His throne. It's because we Christians are afraid. We haven't stood our ground. We've compromised. And we're going to see as they go into Joshua, there's a book right after that called Judges. And any time man began to do what was right in their own eyes, every single time it was wrong in God's eyes. And God sent judgment and wrath. Why? Because the people said, if I don't obey you, kill us. Kill us. Which has been God's pattern from the very beginning. God doesn't want us, especially as Christians, He doesn't want anybody to live in despair and defeat, but especially Christians. He wants us to be victorious. And He said, why? Because if we're victorious, I can't take the credit for it. You know who I have to give the credit to? God. God. The song that Lisa sang beginning of this year has been in our household, and we've been getting video of parents with their kids and their grandkids that are singing it in the car and everything. But Lisa sang that song, I am blessed. I am blessed. Not because of me. Not because of my parents. But because of God. And so when I am blessed, and I'm living in victory, then guess what? The credit goes to God. And Jesus Christ said, if I will be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me. And hopefully, there's some of you that are sitting here today that said, you know what? I see Brother Donnie living in victory. Oh, he may not have a lot of possessions. He may not have the best health. He may not have the best house. But he's living in victory. He always has joy. He always has peace in his life. And hopefully, you will say, I want that too. And I'll tell you exactly, the only way that you can do it is by obeying God. Trusting God, and He will deliver. And we'll see that over the next two weeks if you come back. As we stand and have a verse of invitation, are you ready to entertain it? We are here on the shores. God said, I will never leave you and never forsake you. Do you trust Him? Do you trust Him? Are you ready to possess your possessions as we sing, What Am I?