Courage in Challenging Circumstances

Courage in Challenging Circumstances

By Keith Kobelia

Good morning. It is good to be here. I think the only time I have been to the building here is for a Cantucum Novum concert that they had here a couple years back.

But it's good to be with you for a morning service. Yes. My name is Keith Cabelia.

I just give you a little bit of background about myself. I actually grew up in central New York State near Syracuse and I was saved through the ministry of a small rural Baptist church. Heard the gospel, god worked in my heart and I desired to follow him into some type of ministry.

Actually I went to a Bible institute right out of high school near where I lived and I came out here to Faith to pursue a pastoral degree in 1994 and I had the intent of staying on for seminary. So I graduated from the college and then twice from the seminary. So it'd be 96, 97 and 99.

So to make myself sound really old, I tell all my students I graduated last century, which is true. Makes me seem a little bit older than I. Well, I don't know, maybe I am getting older because that's another development.

I have six children and I actually have one grandchild now. So we have our oldest son, Luke. He's been married for about a year and a half and they just recently had a baby, a baby girl.

So my wife and I are grandparents now and we have one daughter who's a student at Faith and then we have four at home. And the one who gets all the attention is our four year old. He is a bundle of fun and he keeps things pretty lively.

He's a lot of fun. So at Faith I do teach. Getting back to where I was heading, I graduated from seminary here and when I was in seminary, some professors encouraged me to maybe get some more education, think about teaching.

They didn't tell me it's going to take 15 years. Those are little things that they don't mention. Okay.

So I went on to get a THM at Central up in Minneapolis. Then I went down to Dallas Theological Seminary. Got a PhD in Bible exposition.

The Lord opened the door that I could come back and teach at Faith in 2014. So I'm actually in my 10th year of teaching. So now you start adding.

I graduated last century, I'm a grandfather, and I've had almost ten years of teaching. Okay, now I'm starting to sound old, right? But we have a four year old, so that kind of keeps us young. I do teach bible and theology.

I have a lot of varied classes. The Bible survey class is kind of the heart of what I teach. But then I also have some upper level classes and some Bible electives, and I have some students, former students, and I've got some current students as well here today.

So it's a joy to be with you, and my thoughts will be focused on Joshua, chapter one this morning. Joshua one, one through nine. And we'll read that in just a moment.

How many of you like puzzles? I find puzzles to be rather consuming. That's one of those things that I sit down to try to do, one of those sudoku things, and I'm stuck. I have to solve it.

But then the unfortunate thing is, when you get to the upper level ones, there's normally some point which you have to choose or make a guess as to which way you're going to go, and then it either goes well or falls apart. But sometimes puzzles can be consuming, and they can be fun, but they can be consuming. And sometimes we face challenges that are not just puzzles.

We face challenges of life. And those aren't all fun and games. Sometimes we face adversity and challenges and different types of crises in our life.

And we want to look at Joshua, chapter one, and we want to just find some encouragement. Courage in challenging circumstances. Courage in challenging circumstances.

What we're going to look at this morning, and we want to look into this passage where the lord is giving various encouragements to Joshua in a time of transition, a time of challenge in the life of Joshua. And hopefully we can draw out some principles that will help encourage us today as well. So let's go ahead and read beginning in Joshua one, verse one, old Testament.

So hopefully you got your text open there joshua one. Beginning in verse one, it says, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, saying, moses, my servant is dead now, therefore arise. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you. As I said to Moses, from the wilderness of 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. No man shall be able to stand before you all your days of your life as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you, nor forsake you. Be strong and of a good courage. For to this people, you shall divide an inheritance, the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them only.

Be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servants, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book, the law, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night.

That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you'll have good success. Have not I commanded you be strong and of a good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Let's go ahead and pause for a moment of prayer. And as we seek God's blessing, our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement that you gave to Joshua.

We thank you for the hope that he had and the resources that you gave to him. And we believe that those same resources are ours today. And even though we face radically different situations, we know that you do give us the resources that we need to navigate the challenges of life, whatever those challenges might look like.

And we just pray that you will help us to claim your promises and to rely upon the resources that you have given to us. Pray. Bless our time in your Word this morning.

Pray to bless each one in their respective situations. In Jesus name, amen. Okay, so as we were thinking about this situation here in the life of Joshua, it was a time of challenge for him.

It's a time of transition. And there are various times in our lives, if you have a normal life, that you face various times of cris, right? Times when things aren't going exactly as we planned, or things might be a little bit challenging, and sometimes they're unavoidable. So here in this particular situation, it was a natural passage from one leader, Moses, to the next because of the change of generations.

And sometimes those changes are unavoidable, but they often cause stress. As we think about some situations that we might face, some times of high stress include moves, new jobs, things like that. Over the past summer, my in laws moved, and it caused a lot of stress for everyone because there was a lot to do.

There was so many things to get ready, and the house had to get prepared and ready to sell, and we had to move them into their new place that they downsized to, a place where they don't have to take care of the outside of the house. So it was a good decision, but it took a lot of work and there was a lot of stress trying to get all the details wrapped up and get the paperwork all done and things like that. Those types of things cause stress in our lives.

There are sometimes changes of your status graduations, marriages, things like that. I remember well, in our not so distant past we've had children graduate from high school and then there's questions involved with that and we had a son get married. And there's all kinds of changes that come with that and the different situations that one faces in those times.

Sometimes there's health issues, there's sudden losses and other things like that. And those types of crises can be consuming. And while we have the hope of God's word, we sometimes need to claim the promises that have been given to us.

So sooner or later we will face some type of crisis in our life. And perhaps you are facing crises right now because they're a reality. And if you live in a life without crises, you definitely don't have a normal life.

So you probably have faced some type of crises in your life. And the question then is how can we cope with those challenging circumstances? How can we respond in a proper and God honoring way when we face those challenges? Thinking about in a secular environment I worked for FedEx a lot of time while I was working in seminary and the typical responses are either anger or depression. People get angry.

That happened a lot at FedEx amongst my coworkers. Something went wrong and what happened, they flew off the handle and then they lost control of their emotions and they're speaking all kinds of things they shouldn't have spoken and things like that. Hopefully that's not true for us.

Another response is people become depressed, they become withdrawn and they try to back away from the situations. But I don't believe that those are biblical responses. We can have confidence and trust as believers as we face the challenges of life.

So what resources has God given to us to cope with these transitions, these crises and the challenges of life? And as we look into Joshua chapter one, we'd like to identify a few principles to help us to remain focused and faithful in the challenges and crises of life. So we've already read Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine. And just by way of context, we do have a little bit of an extended introduction because we have a little bit of historical background to talk about here.

So don't worry, we won't go for hours and hours. But we do have a little bit of background to cover here. By way of the context, the historical situation is one in which there is a transition of leadership in the nation of Israel.

Of course, that transition is from Moses to Joshua. And we have that in the first couple verses where he says, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord. So, yeah, that's a pretty big transition there.

Moses was a phenomenal leader. Remember all the things that God did through him? He brought the people up out of Egypt, he gave them the law. We ought to back up that in Egypt, God administered the plagues through Moses.

They cross the Red Sea, they then go down to Mount Sinai and God communicates the law to Moses. So, yeah, Moses was a big deal, right? Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. And really, this is the only leader that that generation would have ever known.

They didn't have someone else they could look back to. Moses was the guy. And now we have a major transition.

Remember, Moses was not allowed to lead the people of Israel into the promised land because he struck the rock when he was supposed to speak to it. So he was not allowed to bring the people of Israel into the land. So we have this transition.

We have this transition point. And although it's not unforeseen, they knew this was coming, it still doesn't make it easy. And sometimes we even know that there are challenges that lie ahead and they are still difficult to deal with.

Filling Moses'shoes would have been very difficult for Joshua. Joshua had some big shoes to fill. Moses is kind of a towering figure in Old Testament history and in the narrative of the Pentateuch up to this point.

And now he's gone, and Joshua has that challenge lying before him that Moses is dead. He couldn't rely upon him any longer. And furthermore, the conquests lie ahead.

And remember, God had promised the people of Israel the land of Canaan, and that's the work that lie ahead. So it's not just a time of transition, but they had a major task, even worse than a ten page term paper that lies ahead of them, right? They had a big task. They had to conquer the land of Canaan, and of course God would help them do this, but they had a lot to do and there's lots of uncertainties how long was it going to take? And there's all the what ifs, what if things don't go the way we planned? And things like that.

So there's all these things that might be going through the people's minds at this time that create a challenge that they have to overcome. Of course, they had opposition, all of those differentites those different lists of the Hittites and the Jebusites and all those other ITeS, they're not going to leave easily, right? They like where they're living and they're not just going to say, oh yeah, we know you're here, so we're going to move out. Right? So they have some challenges that lie ahead of them and the enemies of Israel would not be easily displaced.

Now, as far as the Book of Joshua goes, this, of course, is the first chapter and I think it does pave the way for the rest of the book. It really sets the groundwork for the rest of the book. Joshua, in many regards is a book of victory.

We do have the conquest and the people do obey the Lord. But here in chapter one, we really have the groundwork, we have the blueprint for success. And it really outlines how Joshua could be faithful to the Lord and accomplish the purposes that God was going to accomplish through him.

One commentator says that verses two through five really summarize the whole of the book. And really that's what we have, god giving them the land. And I think in the verses that follow down to verse nine, we have some of the principles that contributed to that success.

Now, before we turn to the passage itself and some principles, we do have to be introduced to Joshua just a little bit. Joshua is, in his own right, a very important leader in Old Testament history. And he was described here in the passage as Moses's servant.

So it says, or assistant. I'm sorry, at the end of verse one. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant.

And Joshua is not unfamiliar with leadership in the wilderness. He actually led the people against the Amalekites and God gave them a great victory. Remember, that was the time when Moses, when he had his hands lifted, they had victory.

When they've dropped, then they started to be defeated and God gave them a great victory. Joshua was the one who was leading the people. He was one of the twelve tribes, or one of the twelve spies from the twelve tribes that went in to spy the land of Canaan.

And he was one of two, along with Caleb, who brought a favorable report. So he was a leader within his tribe. He was a leader of the army and God had used him in various leadership positions.

Now God is calling him to take the next step, so to speak. And now he's going to take the reins of leadership of the nation of Israel, and God is going to use him to help the people conquer the land of Canaan. I should back up and just mention that his original name is actually Hoshea, and Moses changed that to Joshua, which has a divine element.

Hoshea means salvation and Joshua means yahweh is salvation. So I think that that is significant. Now, toward the tail end of Moses's life, he designated Joshua as his successor.

We have this recorded both in numbers and in Deuteronomy. And there we find that God was going to use Joshua as the next leader of the people. So that is basically I'll just read a verse here, Deuteronomy 31 23.

This is at the inauguration or the commissioning of Joshua. Then he that's the lord inaugurated Joshua, the son of Nun, and he said, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall bring this children of Israel into the land of which I swore to you, and I will be with you. You see some actual parallels between the passage that we read and that passage back in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Again, that's Deuteronomy 31, verse 23. But we have some indications, even before Moses is dead, that Joshua is going to be the next leader and that he is going to lead the people in the conquest of the land of Canaan. So what was Joshua to do? Verse two gives us kind of the core exhortation.

Here we again reminded that Moses, my servant, is dead, in case you forgot it from verse one. Right? That's definitely the situation. He says, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to land which I am giving them to the children of Israel.

So basically, he has commissioned to arise and to go over this Jordan in verse two. Now, again, historically, they're camped on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and then they're going to cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan Proper. The land of Canaan proper is actually between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

So if you have a map in your Bible, maybe that's helpful. But they're on the eastern side of the Jordan River, just above the Dead Sea, and now God is going to bring them over, but he says they're going to cross over, they're going to rise over this Jordan, and they're supposed to take action. They're not just supposed to sit back and do nothing.

They're supposed to be active in this. And Joshua is going to lead the people in the conquest. Again, this would be a major challenge.

And his attitude can be summarized in the repeated exhortation, to be strong and courageous, which we find in verses six, seven and nine. And I find repetition to be helpful. Again, I'm a teacher, so sometimes I repeat myself in class.

I remind my students that that's often purposeful, right? Repetition, sometimes meaningful. And here it is. It's to remind Joshua to be strong and courageous.

And he's supposed to have the right attitude to accompany his action. And he's not supposed to be fearful. He's not supposed to be cowardly, but he's supposed to be strong.

And these are synonyms, the strong and courageous. And they bring out different aspects of similar attitude. He was supposed to be strong on the positive side and not to be afraid on the negative side.

Okay? So Joshua was supposed to be strong and courageous. And again, I think there is practical relevance in a passage like this because we do face times of transition, we face times of uncertainty, we face times of turmoil, and what are the resources that God has given to us? And I think that we can draw some principles from this particular passage that God has given us resources as believers. One more aside before we get into the passage itself is that these instructions are for believers.

And unfortunately there are a number of people in the society which we live that don't accept Jesus and these resources they don't have. And that's why we live in a society that is so depressed and so hopeless because they don't have the resources that God has given to us. We can avail ourselves to these resources when we trust Jesus as our Savior, when we have a right relationship with God, and then we have these resources and we can have hope and certainty in those times of cris and challenge.

So really that's the foundation and that's kind of assumed here in the life of Joshua that he is a believer. And I think that that is the assumed starting point. But really, if you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ, that's where you need to start to avail yourself to these resources.

So we do have, as believers, divinely appointed resources, but we need to be rightly related to God in order to access these resources. Okay? So as we think about this passage, I think that we can learn that we can face life's challenges with courage depending upon his resources. And God wants us to face life's challenges with courage depending upon his resources.

So how can we face life's challenges? Well, we can face life's challenges first of all, when we remember God's promises. Remember God's promises. So I told you we'd eventually get into the text here.

A little bit of an extended introduction, but hopefully that sets a little bit of the stage for our overview of the text here. We need to remember God's promises, and God's promises should be a great source of strength and comfort, encouragement to us as his people. Even when we're facing challenging situations, we should be able to claim those promises that God has made to us.

Now, in the context here of Joshua, the promise that he's talking about is particularly the promise to Abraham to give them the land of Canaan. So we have the communication of God's promise which began as God gave these promises way back to Abraham. This is over 400 years prior and the text here reminds us of the prior promises that God made.

He says let's pick up in verse three it says, every place where the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you. As I said to Moses, from this wilderness of Lebanon as far as the great river river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. And that was actually promised to Abraham way, way back in Genesis chapter 15 says in verse five, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

As as with moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you, nor forsake you. Verse six, be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

So again, that tie back to the fathers goes back to Abraham. And then that promise was then communicated to Isaac and to his son Jacob. So the initial statement of the promises here were given to Abraham and God is faithful.

And even though it's been quite a number of years, over 400 years since God made that Abrahamic promise that he would give him the land of Canaan and give it to his descendants, god is faithful. And now God is going to fulfill that promise through Joshua to give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. The Abrahamic covenant, of course, was established with Abram or Abraham.

That's why it's called the Abrahamic covenant. And one of the provisions of that is that they would receive the land of Canaan. And we have similar descriptions of that land given to Abraham in the book of Genesis.

So the promise was first of all given to Abraham, but then it was spoken to Moses. That's kind of interesting. In verse three it says, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I will give to you, as I said to Moses.

So God had revealed to Moses these promises as well and passed them on to him and they are confirmed. And everywhere they would walk in, the land of Canaan would be given to them. And I think that the mention of Moses makes it more immediate that this is not something that's remote, it's something that's a little bit closer.

Of course the promise to Abraham would be true, but that's a little bit more remote, that's a little bit further removed. Moses and Joshua didn't know Abraham personally, so it's much more remote. But the fact that Joshua knew Moses and that God had confirmed this promise to Moses would be meaningful.

And then it's then communicated here to Joshua and in some sense Moses kind of inherits the same commission and the same promise that God was going to be with him and that he was going to lead the people into the conquest of Canaan. So he gives Joshua the command to go over, but it also involves a promise that God was going to be with him and God was going to help him accomplish this task. So with the communication of the promise through Abraham, then down to Moses, then eventually to Joshua, the content of this promise is actually given in verse four, where they're specifically given the land of Canaan says from this wilderness of 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.

And basically this is kind of like a map of the land of Israel. The basic borders, he says, from the wilderness of Lebanon. So that'd be in the north, basically, mount Hermon would be the border between the northern territory up in Syria and Israel.

The great river. That would be the River Euphrates. And that kind of borders kind of on the northeast of the land.

And I think there's even other aspects of that that will be fulfilled in the future. All the land of the Hittites, and I guess we should include there all of those other Canaanite groups. The Great Sea would be the Mediterranean Sea.

And of course, that's a pretty natural border for the land of Israel because that's a very large body of water and that's the western border of the land of Israel. All that land God would give to the people of Israel. And of course, this was exactly what he had promised to Abraham, and the people of Israel would inherit this land.

So by way of application, God promised Joshua success, and God gives us promises as well. Now, we probably will not conquer the land of Canaan, okay? We're not called to go and drive our neighbors out of the neighborhood or something and take their land, okay? That's not the right application. But God has given to us promises, promises that we can rely upon.

He's given us promises such as the promise of eternal life, that we can have our sins forgiven and we can have a right relationship with God and we can have eternal life. He's given us promise of the resurrection. He's given us promise of Christ's return, that Christ will come again.

As he is gone, so he will likewise come. And we have the promise of God's presence. And that actually bleeds into our next point here.

But we can claim these promises because God is faithful and God will keep his promises, just like he kept his promise to Abraham. And there was a good deal of time that transpired between the giving of the promise and the fulfillment of it. But God was faithful to that promise.

And I would suggest that God is always faithful to his promises, and we can rely upon those promises. So I encourage you that if you're facing difficulties, difficulties or crises, trials, to remember God's promises. And Joshua did.

And he remembered the promises that God had given to Abraham and to Moses and to Him. And he was able to use that as a resource as he faced the challenges that lie ahead. Secondly, we need to rely on God's presence.

Rely on God's presence. Not only are God's promises a help and comfort and encouragement to us, but they are also complemented by God's presence. And there is a sense in which God is omnipresent, but there's also a sense in which God is with us as believers in our challenging times.

So it's interesting that as the passage opens, it says that as I was with. Moses. So again, there's that connection back to what Joshua had seen through the life of Moses, and he was going to experience that same presence of the Lord.

Yeah. So in verse five says, no man shall be upstand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses. So there was a special blessing of God upon Moses.

And in that same way, God's going to be with Joshua. So he's giving basically Moses as an example of God's presence with a key leader in the nation of Israel. Okay, so God was with Moses, and God was going to be with Joshua in the same way.

Now, of course, the power of God with Moses was evident. We saw the ten plagues we mentioned in passing, the crossing of the Red Sea. These are huge events and miraculous displays of God's power.

And just as God was with Moses, god says that he is going to be with Joshua as well. So we see an example, but we also see God's assurance. And I think that's very meaningful.

As God speaks with Joshua, he says that he will never leave him nor forsake Him. He'll never leave him nor forsake Him. At the end of verse five, he says that.

And I think that's a very important point, that God was with Joshua, that he wasn't just sending Joshua out to take care of things on his own strength and things like that. But God in a special way was with Joshua, and this applies to Joshua personally. He says he will be with Him.

And we find similar promises to other people in the Scriptures, to Isaac and to Jacob and to Moses that God was with them. And now we have it here to Joshua. Again, leave and forsake are synonyms.

They overlap in meaning. And as you look into the lexicons, they kind of use overlapping definitions. But God would not abandon or fail Him, and he would not forsake or wouldn't leave Him.

So God is going to be with Joshua. And it's interesting, this promise is actually communicated to believers in Hebrews, chapter 13, verse five, where God says that he will be with people as well, be with us. As his people says, let your conduct be without covetousness.

Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So that's a principle that's not just for Joshua and for the Old Testament people, but it's actually applied to us as New Testament believers as well. So I would suggest we need to remember God's promises, but we also need to rely upon God's presence.

Again, we mentioned before that God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. He doesn't have limitations as far as where he is.

But there is a special way in which God is with believers, and that's what I think he's talking about here, is that special presence with his people. We're reminded about that in passages like Psalm 23, verse four. That's the shepherd psalm.

Of course. But he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So the psalmist knew that special presence of God. And when we face the different challenges and crises and trials of life, we can claim God's promises. We can claim those things that he's given to us in his word and know that they are true.

And we can rely also upon his presence, that he will be with us in a special sense. So when we face those difficulties, we do not walk those paths alone. But God is with us in a very meaningful way.

So we need to remember God's promises. We need to rely upon his presence. We also need to regard God's precepts.

Regard God's precepts. And here this is the part of the passage that I often focus on. The other parts I think are very meaningful, but my attention has always been drawn to the latter verses here.

So it's good to include those other principles. But we do need to stay in God's word and to be faithful to the principles that he has given to us. In times of crisis, it's sometimes a temptation to become lax in our relationship with God, to ignore the Scriptures, when exactly the opposite should be the case, when we face difficulties and trials, what should we do? We should turn to the Scriptures and to rely upon the revelation that God has given to us.

So we need to regard God's precepts. We see the source of those precepts in verse seven. He says that Joshua is to be in the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

So Moses was the instrument through whom the Law was given, but ultimately it is God's revelation. But he calls it here, the Law which Moses gave you, this book of the Law in verse eight. And of course, that's referring to the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.

The term law just means instruction or direction or law. And we use that term for the whole of the first five books of the Old Testament, even though it's not all legal material. We do have a lot of instruction given to the people of Israel, but all this information was given to the people so that they might stay on the right path.

So then we have that responsibility. We have the source which was through Moses, but it was ultimately from God. But the responsibility that Joshua had was to be in God's Word.

And there are several phrases that highlight this. So turning to verses seven through eight, let's just reread those verses says only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do all that is written in the Law which Moses, my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

This book of law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. That you may observe to do according to those written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. So in verse seven, he says to observe to do.

That's our first response. We observe to do. And basically we're supposed to keep it, to watch it, to protect it, just like a watchman.

That's the one way in which that word can be used. We're not supposed to turn from it. He mentions that also in verse seven, we're not supposed to turn from it to the right hand or to the left, to stay squarely within God's revealed instruction for us.

And that is one way in which we honor God's Word and we keep it. We don't turn from it to the right or to the left. It's very easy to become distracted and we don't want to turn off the path of God's Word.

Verse eight then says, you shall not depart from it. So again, that kind of brings up the same idea, not turning from it, but we're not supposed to depart for it. Abandon it is kind of the idea of that word.

We're not supposed to remove ourselves from it. On the positive side, we're supposed to meditate on it in verse eight. And the idea of meditation is kind of to basically speak to oneself, kind of be thinking about it.

And maybe some of you speak to yourselves. I probably speak to myself more than I should. Sometimes it's the only person who listens, right? So it's the idea is to be reflecting on it, be mulling it over in your mind over and over and over.

And I do find myself sometimes when I'm thinking about something really intently, I might say a phrase or something and my wife's like, what? Yeah. So, yeah, you're thinking about it and it comes out. It's kind of the idea we're supposed to meditate on God's Word and then we're supposed to be careful to do it.

Careful to do it. As the end of verse eight, we're supposed to be attentive to accomplish that which God's Word wants us to do. So the overall effect of these different descriptions, these responsibilities, is that basically we're supposed to commit ourselves to follow God's commandments.

And rather than deviating from God's commandments in those times of difficulty, we need to commit ourselves even more wholeheartedly to keep God's Word and to follow his instructions. Again, in times of difficulty and crises, it's very easy for us to become lax and even justify that. I have all these difficulties, so I don't need to be in God's Word.

Well, that's actually not what's happening here. That Joshua is facing a time of cris and he's supposed to be driven back to God's word. And then the result we have is that God will bless.

God will bless. The result is that we will be blessed. And I guess I missed a bullet point there.

The result then is that we will be blessed. Verses seven and nine. Well, seven, eight and nine all mention these words.

But the idea here in the result is that God will bless. Now, this isn't some type of prosperity gospel or something like that, but God says in verse seven that when Joshua would stay in the word of God, that he would prosper wherever he would go. In verse seven, at the end of verse eight, he says, you will make your way prosperous and you'll have good success.

So we have that result that God will bless the efforts of Joshua when he stays in God's word. And again, this isn't just staying in God's word like a volume and pill so that we might have some type of blessing, but that we receive the blessing as a result of our right attitude with the Lord. Okay, we'll end with a couple implications here, a couple implications as we close out our time together and as we think about this chapter here and what God is doing through Joshua, we do find some helpful reminders.

Remember to be relying upon God's promises, his presence and then his precepts. And when we face these challenges and the crises of life, we need to respond to them properly. So I would suggest three negative implications and then one positive implication.

First of all, we shouldn't fear. We shouldn't fear. A lot of times when we face difficult times, we're fearful.

And it would have been natural. And that's, I think, why God gives Joshua these admonitions not to be fearful, but to be strong and courageous. But if we utilize these resources that God has given to us, we can have peace, we can have hope.

When we again remember his promises, his presence, and then stay in his precepts, we can have great confidence and not fear. When we face the difficulties of life, we shouldn't worry. That's another negative that we should avoid.

We shouldn't worry. And again, if we were to put ourselves into Joshua's shoes, we might be thinking, well, how are we going to do this? How long is it going to take? Do we have enough resources? And a lot of times in our lives, worry sets in. But again, I suggest that that is not a biblical response.

We're not supposed to worry when we're supposed to trust the Lord. We're supposed to bring those things to Him in prayer. So don't fear, don't worry and don't trust ourselves.

That's another one that I think is implied here. Who is Joshua supposed to trust in all this victory? The Lord. Okay, he's not supposed to trust himself.

It's not because Joshua is such a great leader and he had such tactics and such training and things like that. Who was he trusting? He was trusting the Lord. A lot of times when we face difficulties, we trust ourselves again, we work harder.

And I must say I'm probably guilty of that when I'm faced with difficult challenges and things like that, is try to work through it and try to work harder, put more effort in. And that's not to say that that's not a good thing, but we need to also trust the Lord. We need to trust the Lord as a complement to our efforts ourselves.

Again, Joshua had work to do. He wasn't just passive in this, he had work to do, but he had to ultimately trust the Lord to bless his efforts. And as we think about various situations, we have to trust the Lord for his blessing on our efforts.

On the positive side, we need to take courage in God's resources. And that's what we've been highlighting here in the bulk of our analysis here of Josh. One, we need to trust God's resources.

Again his promises, his presence and his word. His precepts. I'm not always alliterated, but that one close enough.

So we made it into the outline here. But we need to be faithful to God's word and to utilize the resources that he has given to us. Again.

God encouraged Joshua in his time of challenge. In this crisis, the transition of leadership would not be easy, but God gave Joshua the resources that he needed. And I suggest that God has given us the resources to navigate every trial of life as well.

Things that are unexpected, things that might be difficult, but God gives us those resources. Again, we face various challenges in our lives, whether it be health or finances or even thinking on a church level when you're without a pastor, right, that brings certain challenges. And God can help us through those difficult times when we are faithful to Him, when we claim his promises, when we remember his presence and we follow his precepts.

So I trust that we will be like Joshua, rest in God's resources and have the courage and trust in Him in whatever challenge or crisis we might face. God has given us those resources and hopefully we can be encouraged in them this morning. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for Your many blessings upon us.

We do thank you for the resources You've given to us. We thank you for your promises. We want to remember those promises and to claim them as our own.

We thank you for Your presence with us, that we do not have to navigate the challenges and trials of life on our own. But you are very much with us in a real sense, and that we as Your people can know that peace, even in difficulties and challenges. And we thank you also for Your Word, that resource that You've given to us, and we pray that you help us to be in it, help us to know it and that then we might apply it in our particular situations.

Again, we thank you for your blessing and pray be encouragement this morning. In Jesus name, amen.