Knowing and Obeying God's Word is Fundamental to All True Success
Notes
Transcript
Tell a story about knowing God’s word and doing it. John Willfinger
John Willfinger was born November 25, 1910, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. When he was ten his mother made her profession of faith in Christ and began attending the Alliance church. She faithfully prayed for her children’s salvation; but John did not receive Christ until he was nineteen. Almost immediately he sensed God’s call to service and enrolled at Whiteside Memorial Bible School in Pittsburgh and graduated in 1932. In 1933 he dedicated his life fully to the Lord for overseas service and entered the Missionary Training Institute (now Nyack College) in Nyack, New York, for preparation. After graduating in 1936, John pastored the Nadine (PA) Gospel Tabernacle of the C&MA for two years, during which time he became engaged to Mary McIlrath (later Mrs. Harold Catto of Irian Jaya, Indonesia).
Not yet having married, Willfinger left for Indonesia in early 1939 and was appointed by the C&MA to East Kalimantan (Borneo) where he first ministered among the Dyak tribe. With his ministry partner, Ernest Presswood, Willfinger often traveled through treacherous jungle terrain, climbing arduous mountains to reach remote Dyak villages. In a letter to A. C. Snead, then C&MA Foreign Secretary, John wrote: “I thank God and you who have been praying for me….I now have the Malay [Indonesian] language well enough to preach without the aid of an interpreter….I have had the joy of seeing many precious souls receive Christ as their Lord and Savior.”
When World War II broke out in 1941, a remarkable movement of the Holy Spirit was taking place. One Indonesian teacher reported his preaching centers had multiplied from two to eight. Another teacher estimated a thousand new believers and inquirers from non-Christian villages. Carrying a typewriter on the trail, John Willfinger translated many hymns into the Murut dialect. “…With a great sense of urgency,” John translated the gospel of Matthew and was principal translator for Mark’s gospel. Both Murut gospels were published later by the British and Foreign Bible Society. One of Willfinger’s fellow missionaries wrote: “I believe he knew he was going to suffer affliction for the Lord’s sake.”
On March 8, news was received by radio that Indonesia had surrendered to the Japanese. However, Willfinger along with several colleagues from other missions, continued holding Bible conferences in the interior for Murut workers. Orders came from the Japanese for the missionaries to come out and surrender, also stating that anyone who tried to help them would be punished according to military law.
Willfinger sent a letter to Mr. Makahanap, a Menadonese Christian official, saying “If I hide, naturally the saints will be forced to lie, to disobey orders if they hide me. In short, I would be forced to drag them into sin, whereas my intention upon leaving my country and my family was only to make mankind righteous and not to bring them into sin, even though I pay for it with my life.” To the C&MA Headquarters he wrote: “…We have decided to go to the enemy, trusting God as to the ultimate results…will you kindly send my love to both my family and sweetheart, Miss Mary McIlrath…”
Once he gave himself over to the Japanese, Willfinger was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp for two months. On Christmas Eve in 1942, he was removed from the prison, and four days later executed.
A colleague wrote: “There was quite a revival…during this time, and John Willfinger’s translated hymns played a great part in this revival.”
This story shows that it is possible to follow the commands of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. John Willfinger followed Jesus to the ends of the earth, he stayed on the path, he didn’t go either to the left or the right. When his life was in danger he did not hide and force others to lie for his sake. How many of us would we be willing to die rather then cause another to sin?
John knew God’s word and his ministry succeeded even he was executed for his faith. His life illustrates the fourth core value: Knowing and Obeying God's Word is Fundamental to All True Success
The supportive scripture for this core value is:
8 “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 success.
This verse points to knowing and obeying God’s word but when we look at it in the context of what God told Joshua then the command of knowing the word in order to succeed has more meaning.
So let’s take a look at Joshua 1:5-9
5 “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 “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 success.
9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua is just taking over leadership of the nation of Israel after Moses’s death. When he hears the word of the Lord. Words to strengthen and encourage him in this new chapter of his life. Words which should help him to stand up and bear the burden of leadership which has just been passed to him.
Let’s begin with verse five: “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
This says that Joshua can move forward as the new leader with confidence of the presence of the Lord with him. We too can have this same confidence in everything we do, as long as we know the word and trust it. We can have the confidence of the Lord’s presence if we know the word - Paul told the Romans:
Romans 8:31b (NASB95)
31b If God is for us, who is against us?
God was with Moses, He was with Joshua and He is with us - no one can truly stand against us. Especially if we stand together. Then the Lord goes on to encourage Joshua for the coming storm.
Joshua 1:6 says:
6 “Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
The Lord is now encouraging Joshua to be strong and courageous. What does it mean to be strong?
Strong — to be or become strong or powerful beyond the average or expected; whether physically or in one’s constitution.
This encouragement is necessary for all of us. We all need to remember to be strong and courageous. This idea of being strong isn’t always one of having a lot of muscles - it isn’t physical strength he needs although he will need that as they take the promised land. But this “Be strong” is one of mental strength.
The Lord was encouraging him to strengthen his constitution because leading this nation was going to require him to do things he didn’t necessarily want to do. Just as with us today we need to be strong and courageous because the Lord may want us to do things we don’t necessarily want to do. We may need to step out of our comfort zones and step into a storm once in a while.
Joshua 1:7 says:
7 “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
Here the Lord repeats His command of “be strong” but there is a change to the part about being courageous. The Lord encourages Joshua to be “Very Courageous”. But what does courageous mean?
Courageous — to be able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching.
The idea of being very courageous is one of standing firm in a situation that will be scary. Very scary as in life threatening or scary as in something you don’t want to do.
Some scary life threatening things might be going into combat - for him it would have been with a sword and shield, for us in this day and age it would be with bullets and explosives. Or maybe running into a burning building to save someone or put out a fire, or jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft while in flight. But other things might require us to be courageous - telling someone about Jesus, or telling someone that they are doing the wrong thing. Even for that matter just doing the right thing ourselves in certain situations requires courage. That is the idea here. The Lord tells Joshua to do everything according to the law. Why does that take courage? Well the law wasn’t always popular and not deviating from it either to the left or the right could take a great deal of courage. Especially since he would have to make sure everyone else was following the law.
And then we get to the verse in question.
Joshua 1:8 says:
8 “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 success.
Now the Lord gets to the meat of his encouragement and we have gotten to our verse for our core value.
This book of the law - meaning the first five books of our bible - otherwise known as the Pentateuch was all the nation of Israel had at the time. Joshua was supposed to read it regularly and meditate on it day and night. The Lord wanted Joshua to constantly be thinking about the Law - never forget it and never make decisions without it. He was to do this so that he would always make decisions according to the law and what was written in the books given to Moses.
This core value of Knowing and Obeying God's Word is Fundamental to All True Success should lead us to do the same thing. We should not let this law depart from our mouths and we should meditate on it day and night. We should also be careful to do everything according to what it says. The difference between what we have and what Joshua had is enormous. Joshua had the law we have God’s word - the Bible - which includes the law, the prophets, history, poetry, the teachings of the Apostles and the teachings of Christ Jesus. According to 2 Tim 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Joshua had the law which provided a bunch of rules to follow..... We have Jesus to follow. Since we have Jesus we live under grace and we have His example for right living. We don’t need to fulfill the rules to make it to heaven. We need to believe on the name of Jesus and invite Him into our lives. We need a relationship not a list of rules. And then, because we know and Love Him we can do what He said. John 14:15 says:
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
We won’t follow His commandments under compulsion but because we want to. Because we have the Holy Spirit and we want to honor and please Him. However, we will have to be strong and courageous just like Joshua. It takes strength of character to do all that is written in God’s word. Character that doesn’t come from us, it’s character that comes from the Holy Spirit. Just like John Willfinger. Giving himself up to the enemy to keep others from having to lie for him was not something that comes naturally. That is strength and courage. The kind of strength and courage that we can count on having when we really need it the most.
But we also know what Joshua was told. If we do according to all that is written in God’s word then He will fulfill a promise. A promise to make our way prosperous. Blessings would flow from a life dedicated to God’s Word and doing what was right according to it. This is the thing that we all want - we all want to be prosperous. The greatest thing is that if we do according to God’s Word for God’s glory and the furthering of His kingdom He will certainly pour out a blessing upon us.
And the final part of the promise. You will have success. But what is success?
Success: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose
Success - the thing we all want to have. Nobody likes to fail - that’s one of those things which can cause us to want to have courage. The fear of failure. The fear of looking foolish in front of others or of letting others down. So be strong and courageous. Be willing to do the hard thing, be willing to do the scary thing. Our perception of a situation is quite often inflated. The first time I went up in an airplane intending to jump out I was shaking like a leaf in a wind storm. By the time I finally jumped out of the plane I was so sick I didn’t care anymore - I simply wanted out of the situation. The second time wasn’t nearly as bad - I knew what to expect and I knew I could trust both my training and my equipment to get me safely to the ground.
This is what a new situation is like. This is what change is like. Scary at first but as we get swept up in the middle of the storm everything looks different. That’s when we start trusting Jesus and the Spirit within us to provide the strength and courage to jump - even though everything is telling us not to. And then we come to verse 9:
9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Once again the Lord is reminding Joshua to be strong and courageous. I’m beginning to get the idea that Joshua had an issue with being the new leader of the nation of Israel - or he was a chicken. The funny thing is these aren’t the only three times that Joshua was told to be strong and courageous. Over all he was told eight times to be strong and courageous. Three times in the book of Deuteronomy and five times here in the book of Joshua. How many times would you need to be reminded? Will the eight times in God’s word do it for you?
With this exhortation to be strong and courageous the Lord also tells Joshua not to tremble or be dismayed. Don’t tremble? That’s one of the first things most people would do when they are in a scary situation. Tremble - it’s natural to the body it’s natural to shake like a leaf in a wind storm. But do not be dismayed - what’s that mean?
Dismayed: consternation and distress, typically that caused by something unexpected
Distress - fear - the feeling that you want to run away and hide. The feelings that keep you from doing the hard thing. The feeling that the Evil one wants you to have so that you run away from the storm. If we feel consternation instead of courage we won’t follow God’s word and walk straight ahead on the path with which God has placed us.
A good example of Knowing and Obeying God's Word is Fundamental to All True Success comes from Psalm 1:
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
The final big point of all of this - the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. He is with you because He is in all those who believe in Christ Jesus. If you don’t believe in Christ Jesus He is just a prayer away - He is waiting for you to accept Him.
So let us hold firmly to this core value. We must know God’s word so that we avoid sitting in the counsel of scoffers. Let’s know God’s word so that we will use it as a lamp unto our feet. And let us know God’s word so we can obey it. If we don’t obey it then we have nothing. If we have nothing then there will be no guide for us and we will not be able to walk in the paths of righteousness. Let us obey it so that we will have true success. True success in all that we do, both for ourselves and especially for the kingdom of God.
Knowing it is the easy part. Read, study and talk to others about it. It’s the obeying part that’s hard. That requires trust. Trust in something you can’t see. Trust in something that you may not even feel very often. But remember you are trusting in the creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.
9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Let’s pray.