SPEAKER_00: We are gonna go to the book of Joshua, which is near the beginning of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua chapter one, and we're gonna look at the first nine verses of uh of Joshua chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about it, it's it's interesting how often we go through uh transitions in life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes uh sometimes they're good or at least natural transitions, you know, all these kind of milestones that we uh that we go through in the course of our life, maybe you know, moving to another city or uh moving to another school, uh leaving for college, uh getting our first job or getting a new job, uh, getting married, uh having uh having kids, um, becoming grandparents, retiring, all the all these different transitions and and different seasons of life that change as we uh as we as we go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, sometimes it's even just the the changing dynamics uh of relationships in your life as you get older, maybe with your parents or with your with your kids, and and those uh and those things change as we go.
SPEAKER_00: Now, even though these things can be positive changes, they can still be stressful.
SPEAKER_00: They can uh they can create this anxiety, um, really because in transition, there's a lot of unknown on the other uh on the other side of it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're sensing a call to something new, maybe you feel like there's this thing that I think I should do, but I'm not sure if I have what it takes to kind of follow through with it or uh or take the the take the next step towards it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because because that transition or or that that difference, that change that we know is gonna be on the other side of it can be uh can be intimidating and it can create a lot of a lot of fear and anxiety for us.
SPEAKER_00: Um now sometimes transitions are out of our control.
SPEAKER_00: We uh we get a new boss or we lose a job or we lose uh someone in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We have to we have to deal with a a new uh or different diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when our our nine-year-old a few years ago was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and you know, and it was one of those things where it's you hear those words and then it changes, I mean, so much of your life, and the and the things that you eat and the things that you do, and the you know, not and uh and uh the the time that you have to spend the medical things you learn.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it kind of changes uh just in uh in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And there's so many things that uh that are out of our control in our lives that uh that create that kind of change.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we're gonna read from uh, like I said, Joshua chapter one, and it comes at the crossroads of a huge transition for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Moses has been Israel's leader for uh for a long time, and uh he's been a great leader.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you think about the things Moses has brought uh God's people through.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this uh uh this battle with Pharaoh, uh, you know, he brings uh through him, God brings these plagues down on the most powerful nation in uh in the world.
SPEAKER_00: He brings God's people out of slavery, he uh he takes them through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he does all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's been uh you know the um the the great leader, you know, like uh like Bear Bryant or Bobby Bowden.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like the great uh the great coach.
SPEAKER_00: And you never want to be the guy after the guy, right?
SPEAKER_00: And um and this is where Joshua kind of uh kind of finds himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's right at this crucial point in uh in Israel's kind of history and in their life, and God calls them into a transition.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I can imagine Joshua's fears at the moment, right?
SPEAKER_00: Thinking, I've gotta fill his shoes, right?
SPEAKER_00: I've got to come after uh Moses um to do the things that God is calling us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine the fears uh and uh you know and the the worry of the people, right?
SPEAKER_00: To think, gosh, um we loved Moses, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, most of the time they love Moses.
SPEAKER_00: They had their issues with Moses too, but uh, you know, but Moses has been great.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, is Joshua gonna be uh as good or even or even close to measuring up?
SPEAKER_00: And so these first couple of verses in the book of Joshua are God calming Joshua's fears.
SPEAKER_00: And he's giving him some things that he can hold on to instead of his fear.
SPEAKER_00: God meets Joshua right where he's at, right where he needs him most.
SPEAKER_00: And God does the same for us.
SPEAKER_00: He brings us uh encouragement, he brings us hope, he brings us just what we need when we find ourselves in those moments and we don't know what to do, and we don't know what uh we can uh we can hold on to in the midst of the fear, in the midst of the uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's interesting, you know, what God gives him here is not it's not super complicated, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna surprise you the things that he says, and yet uh and yet they're things we forget really easily.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's good for us to hear them, and it's good for us to hear them again and again, because they're the kind of things that when we remember them and when we can hold on to them, they make all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: And yet uh and yet we uh we are so prone to wander and uh and forget.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna read Joshua chapter 1, verses 1 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to uh stand, if you're able and willing, we'll um we'll read uh God's word.
SPEAKER_00: After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses my servant is dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: From the wilderness in this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
SPEAKER_00: No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
SPEAKER_00: Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
SPEAKER_00: Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, this is your word.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you've given it to us because uh you love us, because you want us to know you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray that you would use uh these few minutes that we have to study uh your word, to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you open our ears, would you open our hearts uh to hear what you have to say to us and to really believe it, that we might be changed by it, that we might be somehow uh different by having spent time with you and having spent time uh in uh in your word together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we do pray for uh Stephen that you would uh continue to help him to get better.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and we pray uh for uh pray for me right now that you would speak and uh uh through me and even in spite of me to our hearts uh that we uh might love you more as a result of realizing how much you really do love us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So I think you know the first thing that we see here is that despite God being with us, we hold on to our fears.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Even though Joshua knows that God is with him, he's still afraid.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that always jumps out to me in this passage is God's assumption that Joshua is afraid, right?
SPEAKER_00: That he that he is anxious and that he's worried.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, in verse 6, be strong and courageous.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, be strong and very courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, have I not commanded you?
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, nowhere does he say, you know, Joshua, maybe, you know, maybe you are, maybe you aren't afraid, uh, you know, uh, but if but maybe if you are, he's he's he goes into the conversation knowing what Joshua's feeling and what he's experiencing in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows that our t the tendency for us is always to hold on uh to our fears.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about Abraham and Moses and Gideon and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the list could go on of people in the Bible who God calls to do something, maybe something small, maybe something great.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and almost every one of them, their response is to be afraid, to doubt that they have what it takes to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh for every one of them, their insecurities and anxieties uh bubble up uh to the to the surface in in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this happens to us uh as uh as well.
SPEAKER_00: So on the one hand, right, if you are feeling this way, you're in good company, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're in uh you're in company with everyone who's ever heard a call uh from uh from God before.
SPEAKER_00: But why is it?
SPEAKER_00: Why why is it that our initial response so often to the transitions in our life, to the things that we face, to the thing that God calls us to, why is our response so often uh doubt or fear or insecurity or anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I there's there's a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think we doubt God's goodness, for one.
SPEAKER_00: God's been so good to the Israelites, if you if you think about where they have been, He's chosen them, He's loved them, He's never broken His promises to them, He's never left them or forsaken them, but they still doubt.
SPEAKER_00: And we do too.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had uh like made a meal that you haven't eaten in a long time, or you go to a restaurant that you haven't been to in a long time and you eat it, and you think, man, I forgot how good this is, right?
SPEAKER_00: I forgot how good this uh this place is.
SPEAKER_00: Um this is what we do with God all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's been so good to us.
SPEAKER_00: We've experienced it, we've we've tasted his goodness in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then for whatever reason, we we drift, we drift away from it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and when we experience it again, we're like, man, how did I how did I forget how good he was?
SPEAKER_00: How did I doubt his goodness?
SPEAKER_00: Um we forget what God's done too.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about the things Joshua has seen God do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he saw the plagues in Egypt, like we talked about, the the death of every Egyptian firstborn, the conquering and most powerful army in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he provided uh food from the sky for them every day for uh for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh God led them as a as a pillar of cloud and as a pillar of fire.
SPEAKER_00: He uh God went in front of them, and Joshua Joshua saw this.
SPEAKER_00: Um He had all these evidences of what God had uh had done.
SPEAKER_00: But when God asked him to do the the next thing, it seems that he's already forgotten the last thing.
SPEAKER_00: And we do too.
SPEAKER_00: We're moving so quickly in life, we've got so many distractions that we don't take enough time to just reflect on the goodness of God, to reflect on what God has done, to remember, right?
SPEAKER_00: To remember what he's done for uh for us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was thinking about this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to just close your eyes for one minute, all right, um, and uh and just think about and try and remember.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't remember, ask God to remind you of how good he's been to you and the things that he's done uh for uh for you over uh maybe over the last week, over the last month, over the last uh years.
SPEAKER_00: Take just a quiet minute to reflect on some of that some of the goodness of God in uh in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We need more of these times to remember.
SPEAKER_00: Because we so easily forget.
SPEAKER_00: So I think we you know we forget in the past, we doubt uh what God's done in the past.
SPEAKER_00: But also, I think you know, some of our some of our fear and anxiety comes because we can't see the future.
SPEAKER_00: Believing without seeing is hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big part of the challenge of trusting God, is he so often uh tells us sort of where to go, but he doesn't uh he doesn't tell us what all the things we're gonna face along the way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Jesus Storybook Bible talks about Abraham trusting God more than his eyes could see.
SPEAKER_00: And so again and again, God says, Abraham, go here.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham, go do this.
SPEAKER_00: And he just has to trust God, even though he can't see what's um what's over the next over the next hill.
SPEAKER_00: And that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to trust God when we can't uh see, to lose something dear to us, but trust that God has something good to teach us through not having it.
SPEAKER_00: To be derailed from our well-thought plans for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But believe that God's plans are actually gonna be better than what we had planned out.
SPEAKER_00: No matter where our fears are coming from, they can keep us from doing the things that we know are right and we know uh are best because we're uncertain about where we're going and what the path is gonna be like to get there.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua had been through this, uh, and uh and here God is asking him uh yet again.
SPEAKER_00: There's this uh there's this great song from uh Ellie Holcomb, and it's called uh Red Sea Road, and she's sort of describing what it must have been like for the Israelites as God um as God calls them to uh uh to go through this uh the the Red Sea as it's as it's parted.
SPEAKER_00: We have the benefit of knowing what happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: We have the benefit of knowing that uh Pharaoh's army is gonna get swallowed up in the in the ocean, that they're gonna make it to the promised land, that all of these things are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: They they didn't have any of that.
SPEAKER_00: They just had God's words to go and um uh and to go where he uh he leads.
SPEAKER_00: And so she writes, uh she she wrote the song, I'm not gonna sing it for you, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: But um uh that would not be pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: But I am, I'm gonna read uh read these uh read these lyrics for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh like I said, Red Sea Road by Ellie Holcomb.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it says, We buried dreams, laid them deep in the earth behind us, said our goodbyes at the grave, but everything reminds us, God knows we ache.
SPEAKER_00: When he asks us to go on, how do we go on?
SPEAKER_00: And then the chorus goes, We will sing to our souls, we won't bury our hope.
SPEAKER_00: Where he leads us to go, there's a red sea road.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't see the way, he will part the waves, and we'll never walk alone down a red sea road.
SPEAKER_00: When you say you will deliver us from all of this pain that threatens to take over us, while this desert's dry, the ocean may consume, and we're scared to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: We will sing to our souls, we won't bury our hope.
SPEAKER_00: Where he leads us to go, there's a red sea road.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't see the way, he will part the waves, and we'll never walk alone down a red sea road.
SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, we are not the first ones that God asks to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: That God says, This is where I'm leading you.
SPEAKER_00: Um it uh it may be hard, it may be difficult, um, but I'm going to be there uh with you through it all.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's asking Joshua to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm asking you yet again to walk through this.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of holding on to his fears, God gives him, God, God gives Joshua two things that he can hold on to that'll help him through uh through this uh through this time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the first is uh that he can hold on to God's presence, and the second is that he can hold on to God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so, first, you know, with God with him, he can hold on to God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: The hope God gives Joshua isn't that following him is gonna be easy, but that he'll be with him wherever he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: And then again in verse 9, why should uh Joshua not be frightened or dismayed?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the passage, God is calling Joshua away from fear, away from worry, away from insecurity, and he's calling him to strength, to courage, to the good things that God's prepared for him to do.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the motivation over and over and over again?
SPEAKER_00: It's God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: See, if God's good, then we need his presence much more than we need his answers.
SPEAKER_00: God never promises us all the promises us all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: He promises us that we can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And this means that there are times, even if we had the answers to all our questions, we wouldn't fully understand.
SPEAKER_00: But if he's good, then as long as he's with us, we can trust he's at work for our best, even if we don't understand how or why that can be possible.
SPEAKER_00: This is why God's presence is so comforting.
SPEAKER_00: It means we'll be okay whether or not things end up the way that we planned or how we thought they should go.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is one of the reasons why people, you know, as Jesus walked on the earth, why people wanted to just get close to him so much.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you saw people just wanting to sit near him or to touch his uh clothing or just to be to be close to him.
SPEAKER_00: There was something about his presence that gave them, that gave them a sense that because Jesus is here, everything is gonna be okay, no matter what I'm going through.
SPEAKER_00: God isn't telling Joshua, don't be frightened, don't be dismayed, because the road ahead is gonna be easy and everything's gonna go smoothly.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you need my courage and strength, because things won't go as planned.
SPEAKER_00: Because life will be hard, because you are going to grow tired and weary.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told us, in this world we'll have trouble, but take heart.
SPEAKER_00: I've overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is helpful, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, we'll overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: He has overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so even when we feel like things are spinning totally out of our control, they're not out of his control.
SPEAKER_00: I think this also helps us be honest about how we're feeling and what we're going through, whether it's with God or it's with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't ask us to pretend to be okay when we're not.
SPEAKER_00: He's honest about the difficulties we're gonna face in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And honest faith doesn't require us to deny the realities of our of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Life is hard, the world is broken.
SPEAKER_00: And putting a fake smile on our face so we can pretend nothing's wrong doesn't help us follow Jesus better.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's presence in the midst of this that can give us the joy and the peace that we long for that we desperately need.
SPEAKER_00: It's confidence not in ourselves, but in but in God that helps us to walk through the scariest and most uncertain times of our lives with courage and with strength.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh a couple years ago now there was uh there was an NFL quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was on the Jaguars at the time, but he'd won a Super Bowl with another team, and then he'd come uh down to Jacksonville and got hurt like right away.
SPEAKER_00: And so he basically was out for you know a lot of the season, and and they they interviewed him at one point and and said, you know, what is it what is it like to have won a Super Bowl and yet uh sit on the bench and watch somebody else take your job?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, because basically he uh uh you know he lost uh he he lost his job because of the because of the injury.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I mean he was honest, he said it's not easy.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you know, I um I want nothing more than to than to be out there and to be playing uh like I know uh uh I can.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but it's interesting, he basically said after that, he can find joy even while he's going through trials, because he can trust that God is with him and teaching him even through those trials.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, I can have as much joy holding up a Super Bowl trophy.
SPEAKER_00: As I can when I'm injured, because it's not about me, he said.
SPEAKER_00: It's about God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the best place he said he could be is where God wants him to be and where God has him in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a hard perspective to have, right?
SPEAKER_00: When we think about some of the places that we find ourselves and think this is the last place I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: And yet I think he's right.
SPEAKER_00: I think he understands what God is trying to tell Joshua in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: That wherever you are, wherever you find yourself, no matter how worried you are, no matter how ill-equipped you feel, you're right where God wants you and He's with you in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you are experiencing this kind of just anxiety and fear and that sort of thing, you know, there's a chance.
SPEAKER_00: What God says to Joshua all through this is that is that it's God's presence that brings this comfort, that brings this hope, that brings this peace.
SPEAKER_00: And so it requires a connection to God.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe for some of you, um, what's at the source of what you are feeling and experiencing is that uh is that you haven't experienced um a relationship with Him yet.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that there's this wall that is between us and God.
SPEAKER_00: It's created by our own selfishness and our own self-focus and our own sin.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only through the grace of Jesus, it's only through Jesus and what he's done for us that this wall can be broken down and we can begin to experience some of what he's describing in uh in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd encourage you, if you um, if you haven't yet trusted uh Jesus, to consider that maybe that's the first step in uh in coming to grips with the fear and anxiety uh that you may be facing.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you do have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you do belong to Jesus, he's present in your life, but you just forget easily, like we've been uh talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Uh listen to this uh passage from Paul uh tripp, kind of reflecting on this on uh on these verses in particular.
SPEAKER_00: He says, there's a crucial difference between facing hard realities and allowing those realities to dominate the meditation of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what biblical faith does: it examines reality, but it makes the Lord its meditation.
SPEAKER_00: It's only when you look through the window of the glory of the one who has been the source of your meditations that you see reality accurately.
SPEAKER_00: The more you meditate on your problems, the bigger and more insurmountable they seem to be.
SPEAKER_00: Meditating on God in the midst of your trouble reminds you once again that the God to whom grace has connected you is magnificent in his grandeur and glor and glory.
SPEAKER_00: He is infinitely greater than any problem you could ever experience.
SPEAKER_00: Then your responses are shaped by this glory and not by the seeming side of your problems.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so um but uh Joshua has God's presence to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: But next, he also has God's promises to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: The tool God gives Joshua to remind him of his presence is the word of God, the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the first half of verse 8 here.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul Trip was talking about in that quote a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: What are you meditating on?
SPEAKER_00: What consumes your thoughts?
SPEAKER_00: What are you trying to avoid thinking about when you distract yourself with entertainment and busyness?
SPEAKER_00: Is it thoughts of broken relationships or the challenges of parenting or how overwhelmed you are at work?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's your regrets or how alone you feel.
SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine all the things that were running through Joshua's head as he as he looked back at where they'd been, ahead to where they were going, and all that God was calling him to do.
SPEAKER_00: But God tells him, be honest about your circumstances and then fill your head with the truth of his word.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, he says, don't let it depart from your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he could have said your head or your heart or your ears, but he says, uh, don't let it depart from your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if it's because it's because what we what we say is often an indication of what is filling our hearts and our minds.
SPEAKER_00: What we, you know, what what comes so quickly uh to our conversations as we talk is an indication of what we've really been been thinking about and what we've really been spending uh spending time uh considering.
SPEAKER_00: So what what comes quickly uh to your minds and uh and to your mouths as um uh as you talk?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been reading and thinking about God's word enough that uh that his word comes uh comes to you and that you're able to rest in that?
SPEAKER_00: Or um uh you know, like uh like me often is the case, uh do the size of your circumstances and the depths of your insecurities kind of fill uh fill your thoughts as you uh as you walk through the things that you're uh that you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's like we said, because we forget the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: We forget his faithfulness to us.
SPEAKER_00: Um and his word is what we're what reminds us of those things over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what does Joshua say?
SPEAKER_00: Uh meditate on them day and night so that you can be careful to remember them, so that you can be careful to live like they're true and to do uh what they uh what they say.
SPEAKER_00: We are forgetful people.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is the story of uh of a God who has forgetful people over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh and so he he tells us to develop these habits in our life as a way of of uh of reminding ourselves and remembering what's true.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a great book I read uh a while back.
SPEAKER_00: It's called The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for the Age of Distraction.
SPEAKER_00: It's by a guy named Justin Whitmel Early.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and in the book, he has four daily practices and four weekly practices that he says, you know, it as you if you can follow these things, they create a uh a rhythm to your life that helps you to remember and rest in the in the truths of of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not like a magic formula, you know, where like you do these things and automatically uh you know you're living your best life now kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um but it's a way of shaping our lives and the and how we spend our time to um uh to keep at bay those fears and insecurities and things that creep into our minds and our hearts so uh so easily.
SPEAKER_00: Two of the daily practices he talks about are kneeling prayer at morning, midday, and night.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh and then another one is uh scripture before phone.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I think if if we're gonna meditate day and night on God's word, um it's gonna, it's a good place to start, right?
SPEAKER_00: That just little bits at a at a time throughout our day to remember God's goodness and to be reminded that God is with us uh and that he's at at work.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, think about the um even something like uh scripture before phone.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we uh when we go to uh you know our our phones first or social media first or our email first, we we have all of these voices that are speaking to us first in our day about who we are, right, and about what um and about whether or not we're enough, and about um well what it's gonna take uh to be successful today, and however we uh we define that.
SPEAKER_00: And we get all of those voices uh filling our heads, not to mention our own thoughts, right, and our own insecurities.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, but what what if we were to start with God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Right, and before any of those things have a chance uh to chip away at us, that we're reminded of what's actually true about our God, what's actually true about us, and what's actually true about uh about who we are in belonging uh and belonging to uh to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I have done better and worse at times in my life with these things.
SPEAKER_00: But but it is interesting the difference that I notice sometimes in my life with these with these habits of just being intentional about getting God's voice and God's truth into my into my ears, into my heart, into my life as as often and as regularly as I can because of how uh because of how much uh and how quickly I uh I forget.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine hearing first thing in the morning every day, you've been bought with a price.
SPEAKER_00: You you belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: Because of Jesus, you are his dearly loved child.
SPEAKER_00: To be reminded that he is good, to be reminded of his promises, to be reminded of the strength and encouragement that he offers you.
SPEAKER_00: We find all this in the Bible because all of those things come from Jesus, and the Bible is about him, and it points us uh to him.
SPEAKER_00: We read those things and we're reminded for the rest of our day, or at least for the next few minutes, right?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to spend today earning God's love because we already have it, because he's already done everything for uh for us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I've seen this in my life in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I remember I was going through a really difficult time, and I had uh I had these two CDs of sermons in my car that I would listen every day, uh in the morning, on the way to a job that I didn't want to be at and I didn't want to do, and on the way home from that uh from that same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and it made such such a difference to hear uh those uh those sermons over and over again in uh uh in my uh in my head as I drove in the car.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the the last place that we lived, my wife Kelly had a group of friends, and when somebody was going through somebody something difficult in their uh friend group, they would all go to their house when they weren't there, which is a little creepy, I admit, but uh but they would go to their house when they weren't there, and they would take all these Bible verses and they would uh tape Bible verses to like their mirrors and their uh you know and their and their doors and and all around their house to give them reminders of uh of God's truth and uh and and God's goodness uh in what they were in what they were going through.
SPEAKER_00: I know with our kids, we've listened to over the years, uh there's this music, we use it in the in kids' church, uh seeds, uh, kids worship, and it's just Bible verses set to music uh for uh for kids and their parents.
SPEAKER_00: Because those things stick in your head.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all of the time.
SPEAKER_00: I um I'll start to, I'll I'll see one word from the Bible and I'll remember the whole verse because the song comes straight to my head, or uh, you know, or I'll hear a little bit of the tune and I'll remember God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: And it and it comes back and it's you know it's it's sunk in there for whatever reason through through you know the because it's set to music, because we listen to it probably a thousand times, uh, you know, it's uh it's God's words and it's God's truth that's there to uh to cling to and to hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh and it's so much better to cling to uh than my fear and my insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of God's word as we as we meditate on it.
SPEAKER_00: That's it, it's as we wrap up, um, you know, in looking at this passage, it's interesting to note that uh the promises God gives Joshua here are conditional in a sense.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you're careful to do everything according to the law, if you don't turn from the right to the left.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Joshua and the Israelites, they don't keep up their end of the bargain.
SPEAKER_00: They don't um hold on to these things faithfully all the time.
SPEAKER_00: They're distracted by other gods, they're unfaithful to the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and because of it, these promises end up being sort of temporary for them in a way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Joshua leads them for a while, but then Joshua dies, and they have to find another leader.
SPEAKER_00: They get into the promised land for a little while, but they um eventually, because of their disobedience, uh, they're they're the Israelites are conquered and they're and they're kicked out of uh of the promised land that they had um they had so longed to uh to be in.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, it's it's it is helpful to relate, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of times where we don't keep God's law either.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of times where we can read something like this and say, yes, I am gonna remember God's presence, I'm gonna remember uh God's promises, I'm gonna be strong, I'm gonna be uh courageous, uh, and then we wake up the next day, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we and we think, um, why am I so afraid of today?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I so worried about uh about what I have to uh what I have to face?
SPEAKER_00: We know what it's like uh to be fearful and unfaithful, to love all sorts of things more uh than God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So to really give us hope, we need an even better leader than Joshua.
SPEAKER_00: We need a better promise keeper than ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is we have one.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this table in front of us points us to him.
SPEAKER_00: He came and walked among us.
SPEAKER_00: He was the fulfillment of God's promise to be present with us.
SPEAKER_00: He faithfully kept the commandments perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: He was God's word in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of leading us to a checklist of things to be faithful to, he was faithful for us by doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: He humbled himself to death on a cross so that we could find life in him.
SPEAKER_00: He became weak for us so we could be made strong in him.
SPEAKER_00: He endured the wrath of God, he experienced the abandonment of God so that we would never have to experience being abandoned by God again.
SPEAKER_00: So that we could know and experience his presence every minute of every day.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave us his spirit that lives inside of us for those who have faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: And that spirit goes everywhere with us.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us of God's goodness, it reminds us of God's promises, and it calms our fears.
SPEAKER_00: Because even more than building up our own strength and our own uh and our own courage, we have our faithful Savior Jesus, who walks with us and carries us through whatever it is that we're going through.