The Recipe For Success

Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.

Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.

We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.

To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.

Morning church.

Let me tell you about the church that you're at this morning.

So I received in the mail over the week this award.

I don't know who nominated, and I don't know who voted, but we are the best church and got an award to prove it.

So while I preach this morning, that's gonna sit right here so we can see it.

Man, I'm proud of that.

Umnyway, that's right.

Thankful, thankful.

I'm thankful for you.

And man, uh seats are filling up, and it's exciting to see such a full church.

I want to tell you, you're keeping up with status quo as a Baptist church would.

We are full.

There are 16 seats in the front row.

So if you're looking, ushers, right here up front.

It's scary up there, I think.

Turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 1 and keep a tab there.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

And then Psalms chapter 1.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

We're gonna be going back and forth between these two.

And uh it has been good to jump in.

We started the year burning the boats and then we moved forward.

Last week we found out that Joshua had to move forward with courage.

To move forward, it takes courage.

No looking back takes courage.

And so today I want to talk to you about Joshua's recipe for success in uh chapter one.

Well, not a recipe for success in American culture in the 1980s was a sport called hockey.

If you want to be associated with winning in America, hockey was not the way.

And so Coach Herbert Brooks was given the tall task of putting together a team that would represent the United States in Olympic-level hockey.

And he began to get player after player, and nobody was paying attention.

Nobody thought anything about the United States and hockey and anything about being a contender.

If they thought anything, they thought this is an opportunity for us to lose.

Well, Coach Brooks was holding practices and tryouts and training, and week after week he was putting guys to the task and he was having a hard time coming up with a roster to settle on.

And if you watch, ever get the chance to watch the movie The Miracle, um, you'll see there's this line in the movie where he keeps cutting the best players.

He keeps cutting the players that have national average for being the best at scoring.

He keeps cutting people, and finally, one of the coaches says to uh Herbert Brooks, he says, Coach, why do you keep cutting the best of the best of the players?

And Coach Brooks said something that I've never forgotten.

He said, I don't need the best players, I need the right players.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for the opportunity to dig into your word this morning.

God, I pray that your truth would uh be purveyed, and God, that you're that our hearts would be touched by it.

God, we do not need to be in here for another Sunday.

We don't need to be in here for another habit.

We don't need a ritual.

We need the presence of your Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts.

God, we need to go out of the place, being encouraged, and God, give us an opportunity to be changed.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So I want you to look first in Psalms chapter 1, and look what it says.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

Psalms 1.1.

It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scornful.

Point number one this morning is this right people walk with right people.

Live right, and you'll have right around you.

Right people walk with right people, the right friendships.

Now, Cole said this you're not responsible for what your friends do, but you are judged by the company that you keep.

Another said, Sometimes the company you keep keeps blessings from you.

Now, Joshua and Caleb, they were cut from that same cloth.

They were ready to go in.

You remember, ten others over here, not doing it, no way.

Giants too big, we can't get in that land.

Joshua and Caleb said, This is ours.

And these guys stayed together.

Wonder why.

These right people thought the same way.

I wondered, I thought about this.

And the Bible doesn't say this, so what I'm about to say, it's not in the Bible, but I wondered.

You ever do that?

And I wondered, was there a third guy?

Was there ever a third guy out of the twelve who kind of leaned like Joshua and Caleb, who saw the land and said, Yes, filled with milk, filled with honey.

Yes, it's a good land.

It will make for my family a great place.

Yes, I think, and and they heard Joshua and Caleb, and they were leaning that way, and and something happened.

And he heard the other nine, and he heard them complaining, and he heard them moaning in fear, and his ear just took a twist because the other nine was like this, and he vacillated, but the persuasion was too much.

And instead of having the three amigos of Joshua, we have the ten men with bad report.

Two entered the promised land, ten did not.

Right people walk with the right people.

Psalms 1:1 says that, and it said, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

Psalms 1:1

So point A this morning about that is disassociate with the toxic.

In your life, you need to disassociate with the toxic.

Now I'm not saying that you don't live in the world.

The Bible says you are in the world, but you're not of the world.

So when I say disassociate, I want you to leave in here and say, Pastor Rick said, I can't talk to sinners, I can't talk to the law, I can't be around people like this.

That's not what I'm saying.

You're in it, and you should influence people that are lost.

You should influence the world, you're in it.

But I want you to understand that that doesn't have to be your closest company.

By the way, just because someone says they're Christian doesn't mean they're godly.

I want you to understand that there's plenty of pot stirrers with the name Christian on the back of their tag.

There's plenty of people who gossip and they say they're a Christian.

Well, I'm gonna get on a trail, but listen, somebody I was talking to at my previous church and they were talking about gossip, and they said to me, Pastor, but they're always coming to me and I want to be their friend.

I don't want to push them away.

They need a friend.

I'm like, are you kidding me?

If a heroin addict comes to you, do you provide the needle?

I want to be their friend.

I want to help them.

No, the Bible says Matthew 18, if they have something to talk to you about somebody else, you take them to that person.

Man, we don't help people by listening to that.

That's not a friend.

Right people stay with the right people.

You say, no, I'm not gonna do that.

Listen to what it says.

It says, walk not, it doesn't say don't be around it.

Walk not in the counsel.

What's the counsel of the ungodly?

That's the way of the ungodly.

That's what they purvey.

What is the counsel of the ungodly?

Well, Solomon said it this way: the counsel of the ungodly, the goal of the ungodly is to eat, drink, and be merry, and then tomorrow you'll die.

The ungodly said, Whatever I gotta take to eat, drink, and be merry.

Pleasure, power, possessions, whatever I gotta take to fill that up, that's what I'm gonna do.

And I'll add to this eat, drink, and be merry, and die rich.

Okay?

That's the world's philosophy.

That's the counsel of the ungodly today.

Well, there's a big contradiction that Paul brings up.

He says, but for me to live is Christ.

As a Christian, for me to live is Christ.

That word blessed, happy, in Psalms 1, happy, blessed is the man.

The word is Esher, and it means literally happy, or the root esher is to be level or walk straight.

To be blessed, to be happy is to be level and walk straight.

Interesting that it says don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

And so walking the right way.

The word ungodly there is rasha, listen.

And that means the guilty of sin, hostile.

And here's a line of things that went under that in the Hebrew definitions.

Always opposing, stirs conflict, causes offense.

Blessed is the man who doesn't walk with that.

Does that make sense, church?

Well, I want to take you over to a verse.

I want you to look at Matthew chapter 12 for some context here.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Matthew 12, verses 34 and 35.

Matthew 12:34

Need to understand and break down the ungodly so we understand how to be with the right people.

It says, either, Matthew 12, 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad.

For a tree is known by its fruit.

I want you to circle that word tree if you're there, because we're going to get back to it in Psalms.

Brood of vipers, he says, This is angry.

How can you, being evil, speak good things?

For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So what's coming out, let me tell you, church, is what's in there.

It says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

And so understand, the ungodly lives for himself.

Well, he doesn't stop there.

Okay, blessed man who walks not in the accounts of the ungodly, too, nor stands in the path of sinners.

That's talking about your way, your direction.

Your direction should be opposing to somebody who is lost.

Your direction for life shouldn't look like eat, drink, be merry, and die rich.

Your direction should look like I'm living for an audience of one.

And what he wants, my giftedness is going toward him.

If I can impact his kingdom in this world, that's my direction.

He says, Don't the way that you stand, your way shouldn't look like sinful man's way.

Well, the last thing he says, he doesn't end it right there.

He said, Blessed, happy is the man who doesn't do that or that, then, nor sits.

I like the digression here.

Walking, standing still, sitting, he says, who sits in the seat of the scornful.

What's the scornful?

That's the critical spirit.

You're blessed if you're not listening and being around negativity, the critical spirit.

The critical spirited person exasperates.

Ever felt like that with somebody?

Exasperates.

The critical spirit, the scorner, complains and finds mistakes in everyone.

You know what my Bible says?

1 Peter 4.8 says, love covers a multitude of sins.

Why don't you give people a break?

Why don't you give people the benefit of the doubt that you want?

We call it grace.

Give grace.

Why?

If you're like that, it's because you're not very loving.

1 Peter 4.8 says, love covers a multitude of sins.

You're not practicing love.

Love covers.

Galatians 6.1 says to the Christian brethren, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, unless you be tempted.

God convicted me.

It's almost been two years ago.

He convicted me.

And he told me, Rick, I want you not to complain.

Not be critical.

I don't want negativity, critical speaking to come out of my mouth.

I'll tell you what I've found out.

There's a whole lot of times where I gotta just be quiet.

It's in my heart, it's coming out my jaw, out my neck.

And I just be quiet.

People want affirmation when they're complaining to you.

You know what I do a lot?

Hmm.

Okay.

I'm not going to do that because my Bible says do everything without complaining, without murmuring.

I don't want to be that.

And I take this thing literally.

I have to be quiet a lot.

I'm not saying I've mastered it, but there's a whole lot of times where I just have to not comment.

And I don't want that.

I don't want to be seen as that.

So he says, disassociate with that.

Letter B, associate with the trustworthy.

The trustworthy.

Verse 4 through 6, it goes on to talk about the ungodly.

The ungodly are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

He says, The ungodly are not trustworthy.

He calls the ungodly a worthless chaff.

And he says, before that, at the beginning of verse 4, he says, the wicked are not so, are not so like what?

Previous to that, he's talking about a fruitful tree.

And he says, the wicked are not prosperous like a fruitful tree.

They're malnourished.

Their tree has dead fruit, unwholesome.

In Galatians 5:19, Paul talks about the fruit of wickedness.

Galatians 5:19

And he says it's sexual immorality, impurity, hatred, discord, which is disunity, that gossip, what I was talking about, rage or anger, selfish ambition, all about them, factions, divisions, envying, jealousy, and drunkenness.

This is the kind of abhorrent behavior that we see in our nation.

It's exactly what we see in this nation.

It's the exact behavior we should expect because there's so many people living far from that fruitful tree of grace.

We have epidemics raging, and it's what we should expect.

We have an attempt to redefine sexuality, running full.

And it's what we should expect.

There's incarceration rates that are high, and it's what we should expect.

So many people are planted outside of grace.

They're like the ten.

And there's two over here.

When I tell you, right people need to be with right people.

It's what we should expect.

Trees, righteous trees, bear fruit.

But he says this chaff.

He calls them a chaff.

What does that mean, Pastor?

Well, at winnowing time, a farmer would go out and he would have a section of grain, and when it was windy, he would pick out the grain and he would throw it in the air, allowing the dust particles on the grain to blow off in the breeze.

That's what he calls the ungodly.

He calls the righteous, we're gonna get to in a minute, a fruitful tree.

But the ungodly, the people that are not trustworthy, are like a chaff.

I don't know if there's many farmers here, but a farmer always collects anything that's valuable.

Anyone know a farmer?

They will use anything that's valuable.

And he says a chaff is worthless.

I want you to think a minute on this.

They're not averse to collecting anything valuable.

Manure is a fine example.

A farmer will collect manure.

They're savvy enough to make money on that.

If a chaff had any value, they'd have found it.

No farmer collects chaff because it's worthless.

God's word on the wicked and what becomes of them, he says worthless.

They're like just blown away.

They're gonna live this life and it's gonna be gone.

It would have never made a difference.

There's never been a man that's longed to be compared with chaff.

No man's ever been standing upon people and said, I want to be called one day useless, blown like the breeze.

We want a matter, we want legacy.

That's not what's in store for those who walk in the council of the wicked, the way of sinners, or sit with scorners.

Let's look at the second thing this morning.

I want you to turn over to Joshua 1.8.

The second people is this right people, read the right playbook.

It says in Joshua 1.78, On only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do.

Important phrase there, observe 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, that you may prosper wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you should 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 will have good success.

Right, people read the right playbook.

Back there in Psalms chapter 1, verse 2, it says, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

Psalms 1:2

For Joshua, this book of the law meant the Torah.

The first five books of the Old Testament was the Torah, and it meant the words of Moses.

The same literary device that's used here is used in Deuteronomy 11, 18.

It says, Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and soul, and they shall be frontlets.

I want you to see a picture of the phylacteries that were used and worn back in the Jewish custom.

And so they wore these things, because he says, should be like a frontlet.

They should be as a sign on your head and on your arms.

Okay?

They were bound to them in their heads, right on their forehead, and in an elaborate ritual, each day they would wear these things.

They would look the part.

But I want you to understand, that's not the point at all.

You can come in here this morning and you can tote this and you can look good and you can look the part, but have had nothing to do with this all week long.

And they had a box they'd wear on their forehead.

How dumb was that fashion statement?

I hope somebody here goes to work with a box on your forehead this week.

It's not the point at all.

The intended meaning behind these words is the same as what God said to Joshua.

It's the need for you to have a personal daily commitment to apply the Bible.

To be in the Word of God.

Look at what he said there in Psalms, Psalms 1, 2.

But his delight.

Letter A is this, it's to be read out of delight.

The Bible is a delight.

To Joshua, he said, read it day and night.

Do you do anything day and night that's not a delight?

He says, it's to be a delight.

Let me tell you a little something about the Bible.

Forty authors over 1,400 years.

It's one cohesive story.

Impossible with anything else, or over that amount of time.

66 books.

It has lasted the test of time.

Men have tried to burn it, tear it up, outlaw it, and listen to what the Bible says of itself.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but God's word will never fade.

It's forever settled in the heavens.

The earth will pass, his word will stand.

It's the all-time bestseller.

They can't keep it on the show.

I love my Bible.

I hope that you love your Bible.

The Bible has been with me in the greatest and worst parts of my life.

In 2000, at Tennessee Temple University, I was 600 miles from home.

And I made a decision to go to this college solely, solely, this is truth, that I could get closer to my God.

Wasn't about education.

I was done with that.

I made this decision.

I went to the school.

So I started as semester open and I opened up the Bible at a desk and I began to form without mom or dad or my Christian school or anybody telling me to do what I needed to do.

I began to read my Bible obligatorily.

I was doing it as a habit.

I was doing it because that's what a good Christian boy does.

And I began to form my habit.

I was looking the part, checking the boxes, had my sideburns cut just right because that was a rule in school.

And my shirt tucked in, my belt on, I would go to class, my room was neat, and in the morning I was having my quiet time out of habit.

God sent me Psalms 127 one morning.

It's my life verse is A.

It doesn't make sense to a lot of people because it's a family verse about family.

But that day, that application was for me, and I was sitting at my desk, Psalms 127.1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

And God was telling me, You can do all this, and you can put on the frontlet and you can look the part and have everything done and not do it for the right reason.

I said, What are you saying, God?

And so I began to try to read the Bible differently, not for a habit, but for a relationship.

And God Began to speak to me in my quiet times there.

And I began in my college days experimenting.

Maybe you experimented in your college days.

My experimentation was things like turning on worship music with my devotion time.

One time I turned on some worship music and it was early in the morning, and I got, you know, I got in the spirit.

I began to sing to my God.

Shout to the Lord.

Okay, I'm singing.

And when it hit shout in the verse, I said, Shout to the Lord.

My roommate from Honduras didn't know he was in the room.

He pulls a cover from over and says, He said, Hey, bro, could you keep it down?

I had no idea he was in there.

I thought he was in class, very embarrassed.

But I remember, so clear one of those mornings, the real presence of God.

Phillips dorm room, fourth floor.

We were called the herd.

Second door on the right.

I'm sitting in there.

God, the Bible, and the newsboys told me something.

Let me tell you what it told me.

I prayed for a few minutes, I opened the word, and I pressed play.

And these words, if you guys have that ready, began to play the music.

Turn the page, can't turn the light on.

Every word, every line carries to my soul.

Doug Litter's on a page singing so loud.

Where did I go wrong?

If you didn't catch it, I'm reading the Bible.

I'm this age.

He says, Turn the page, can't turn the light out.

Every word, every line is speaking to my soul.

Dark letters on the page singing so loud.

It says, Where did I go wrong not to hear your song?

I began to weep.

It goes on.

It said, 18 years, I guess I was alright.

Father to son, Sunday, hand me down.

That was me.

I was handing down Christianity, father to son.

I was in bus ministry from the age of seven.

I've been to church my whole life.

Father to son, Sunday, hand me down.

Where did I go wrong not to hear your song?

I went through it for 18 years and I didn't hear it.

I didn't feel it.

I was all around it.

It goes on the song.

And I'm just weeping and weeping more.

He says, to have found you, I'm a Christian, but still be looking for you is the soul's paradox of love.

He says, You fill my cuff and I lift it up for more.

He says, I'll be chasing you like you chased me.

I sat in my dorm room and I hugged my Bible and I wept.

I was obligatorily behaving, I was heartlessly forming a habit.

And God said in his book, what Dave read, that it will never return void.

I was doing what I should be doing, and the book did what it can do and brought life into this obligatory habit.

I'm so excited about what God's word can do.

Listen to me, parents have told me for years, I'm not gonna make my teenager come to your youth group.

Make them I don't want them to grow up and be a hypocrite because I made them.

Make them a hypocrite, they're gonna be a hypocrite anyway.

We're all hypocrites to some extent, are we not?

Okay.

Make them be a godly one.

They say, Well, I want them to want it.

They're gonna do if they don't get in the shower, do you make them?

If they don't brush your teeth, you say, Well, I don't want you to be hypocritical, just have your yellow teeth.

Good heavens.

The word doesn't return voice.

They might get it by accident, not their plan.

Let them get it.

I'm so glad this book had a plan.

I love my Bible, I love this book, but I can tell you this: the only book in history that's ever loved you back.

It's loved me.

It's held me tight.

There's something wrong with the child of God that doesn't love God's book.

There's something wrong.

I'm not saying I'm not judging you.

I'm just saying there's something wrong.

If you search your soul and you search your last six months, and this book isn't much in it, you gotta get something, something in there that's got to be fixed.

Do you delight in the Bible?

If you do, you should, as 2 Timothy 2.15 says, study.

Another version says, do it diligently, but study to show thyself approved unto God.

A workman rightly divides the word of truth.

When we love God, we will do that diligently, and that's this letter B.

It's to be read with diligence.

Joshua 1, 7, and 8 twice said to observe to do, to observe to do, to understand how to move forward, to burn the boats behind us and move forward, we have to understand how to observe to do.

Not listen to me.

What do you mean, Pastor?

Not just observe to know, to observe, to act, not just observe for intellect and conversation.

To observe, to do.

There's many non-Christians who observe, and that's it.

Not to do, they just observe.

They observe here.

They may go home and observe some, but they don't observe to do.

This is diligence.

James 1 22.

It says that we don't just be a hearer of the word, but we are a doer of the word.

We observe it to do it.

See a need, take the lead.

We observe to do.

I'll say that again.

That's an important one.

See a need, take the lead.

We observe to do.

I found this cute writing.

Well, it's not that cute, but I'm gonna read anyway.

Four people everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody.

There was an important job to be done, and everybody was sure that somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was everybody's job.

And everybody thought anybody could do it, but nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done.

Don't ask me to say it again.

Observe to do.

I said last week we've got some areas of serving.

We want to be a church that serves.

If you're not serving in some capacity here, and it's not just I'm begging you to serve because we need something, it's for you.

You fulfill something within you to your God when you serve him.

And it does better the church, it does help.

Observe to do.

Well then, that was about comprehension.

We read diligently for comprehension so that we can do.

And then what it says says, don't go left or right.

It says, do not sway left or right.

Joshua said that.

We observe to do and we don't go left or right.

And that means that we continue, that we would continue on, that we would form this and God would form it in us and that we would be hungry for it.

We continue.

We don't go left, we don't go right.

We don't sway away from, we stay straight, walking that pattern with God.

I have a friend growing up, and he was pulled over.

Cop got talking to him, and the cop perceived.

Now, my friend, you just had to know him.

He was just this type of guy.

Now, I don't even have a good word for it, but kind of flighty.

Flighty is a good word.

And and and Fred's telling me a sweet man, the cop pulled me over and uh he made me walk the straight line.

He said, Man, he said, Rick, he said, I don't know what happened.

He said, I didn't have one drink.

Fred didn't drink.

He said, I couldn't walk that line.

He said, I walked it four times.

I tried.

He let me four times.

He said, I couldn't walk the straight line.

He said, Then he took out a little flashlight and he said, I need you to follow the flashlight.

He said, Rick, I swear.

He was like this.

He said, I couldn't follow it.

He said, and then he said, I want you to start from the back of the alphabet.

He said, not fast, but slowly from the back of the alphabet, and start telling me.

Now this sounded hard to me.

From the back of the alphabet, the letters of the alphabet.

And he said, So I started.

And I said, X, and he said, ah.

He failed every part.

The man gave him a breathalyzer.

He passed the perfect.

He couldn't pass the rest of the tests.

He couldn't follow that line.

Listen, church, CCW, staying on track is vital.

Not left, not right for you, it matters.

Not left, not right for your family, it matters.

Not left, not right for this church.

It matters.

Staying on track.

In the train world, if you get derailed off track, it's a big problem.

It's a lives at stake problem.

And you being in the Word of God matters.

We've got this 70-year space the Bible talks about.

Three score and 10, you know.

And we've got this one chance staying on track.

Well, how, Pastor Rick?

How do I do that?

Just a few practical points.

This is not something you can find scripted out.

It's just some things that I've found in my life.

How do I stay on track?

Practical.

Read daily.

If you want to write these off to the side somewhere, read with a pen, a highlighter, a crown.

If you're artsy, circles, arrows, underlines.

If you love technology, oh, I love it.

There's a Bible app right now.

Use the Bible app.

It even, if you if you're goal-oriented, it'll tell you your streaks.

If you're all about them streaks, it'll tell you two weeks.

Some of you, you know, right now, three weeks in the year, might say you need to start a streak.

Okay.

You got the Bible app, and there's every version of the Bible you could get into that.

If you need something that's easier for your listening, listen to the Bible.

I got apps on my phone that I can press play when I walk the dog.

And I just listen to the Bible.

Read scripture out loud.

Now it might scare your children, but that's okay.

If you're going to scare them, that's a good way.

Maybe you need to read it out loud.

Listen while you're driving, listen while you're cooking.

Listen while you're working out.

Listen while you're walking.

Write out a book of the Bible.

Never tried that.

Just handwrite.

If you love writing, just write a book of the Bible out.

Whatever your best means of comprehension, do that.

But do it faithfully.

Do it habitually.

Do it.

Listen to me.

Joshua said day and night.

I'm going to say, this is you don't see it written this way in the Bible, but I'm going to say before anything else.

Do it before anything else.

He says, day and night.

Do it before Facebook.

Please.

Do it before breakfast.

Do it before anything else.

And Joshua said further, and after anything else.

He said, day and night.

And then you will have success.

I think a lot of people say, well, I read it in the.

I'm just giving you the exact formula.

He said, day and night.

Meditated on it.

Day and night.

For good success.

Before anything else, after anything else, here's what you need to do.

You need to set a definite time.

You do nothing in life without setting a time.

Do you?

Maybe some by accident.

I do wake up now just because you get to that age.

Are y'all of that age?

You just wake up.

Okay, I've done enough waking up that now my body just says, I'm up.

And I'm like, why?

I was okay being there.

So it's like a date.

You set up a date with you and the Lord.

You set your time.

Do it with prayer.

And the last thing I'll say about it, do it and guard against distractions.

Everything in the whole world can happen when you're going to read your Bible.

Spend that time.

Make it important.

Verse 3, we're going to read and then we're going to go back to Joshua 1.8.

Verse 3 says, He, the person that has the right people around him, the person that has the right playbook, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither.

And whatever, what's that word say?

Whatever he does.

I want to be in that category of the whatever I do shall prosper.

And in Joshua 1.8, again he says, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.

Meditate on it day and night.

Observe to do according to all that is written, for then you will make your way prosperous and have good success.

Good success.

The sum of the equation is here.

Right people, right playbook equals prosperity.

Right people, right playbook equals prosperity.

So let the third thing this morning is right people stand in prosperity.

And let me tell you, this prosperity that I'm talking about is not the fluff preaching that you see on TV.

Okay?

I'm not talking about prosperity like that that speaks in this way.

If you just know it and you just show it, then God will grow it and God will make dough of it.

That's not what I'm talking about.

God is not in heaven with a golden dump truck ready to just pour down.

That's not the prosperity that it's speaking of.

Not saying God won't bless you in that way.

He's not waiting for you just to speak it into existence and drop down cash loads, okay?

Prosperity that he speaks of, the word is shalok in Hebrew, and that means to go through like a river with ease.

Well boy, that doesn't that sound like a good life here?

Because sometimes I don't feel like I'm going through like a river with ease.

How about you?

Do you feel like sometimes you're going through like a bull hitting a door?

With that kind of ease?

Does it get that easy?

Go through like a river with ease.

It says this, letter A, that it produces a foundation.

What do you mean, Pastor?

Well, like a tree planted by rivers of water.

There's a foundation for a tree that's been planted, planted by rivers of water.

It could have just said like a tree.

But it was purposeful to let us know, like a tree planted, to be one who has a regular supply of nourishment and refreshment.

That's what a tree planted by rivers of water is like.

Jeremiah 17, 18 says, Those whose confidence is in the Lord are like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought, and never fails to bear fruit.

Plants growing near water are sustained.

They go through prosperous like a river with ease.

They thrive.

You see, water is the ultimate source of life for a tree.

A tree planted by water will grow, be strong, it'll be sturdy, and it'll have a good root system.

Finally, a well-watered tree has the ability to provide shade.

Therefore, rest to anyone who is in need.

Hear this, don't miss this.

If your foundation gets dug down in deep and strong, we're going to hit some of the fruits in a minute.

Not only will you be fruitful, but you will provide rest.

A biblical-minded person will provide rest.

Unlike the ungodly, remember?

The person that stirs up, that makes critical comments, that makes things feel negative.

A biblical person, when you get around those type of people, you feel rested like you've been under shade.

You ever found shade on a hot day?

You ever been to a theme park with 60 teenagers?

Let me tell you something.

There's some places you just gotta go.

Some is for shade, some is for hiding.

Either way, it feels restful when you find that place.

When people are around you and your words, do you think they feel restful in your presence?

Galatians 6 2 says, Bear one another's burdens.

Don't miss the weight of the simile, because in the New Testament, Jesus came to a lady that was coming, or a lady came to Jesus while he was seated.

And there at the well, she was thirsty, but not just physically thirsty.

She was spiritually malnourished.

She needed a new foundation.

And Jesus Christ found her.

And listen to what he said to somebody who needed a new foundation.

He says, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

Talking about the well.

But whoever drinks the water that I give will never thirst.

Indeed, the water that I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Right people gain the right foundation and prosper.

And so because we get in this book, because we dig in and we have this right relationship with God, we are rooted deep.

And it's prosperous.

Let it be as this, it produces fruitfulness like a fruit tree.

What does a fruit tree do?

Well, one, it gives free food.

Everybody likes that.

It gives the freshest fruit.

Fruit right from a fruit tree.

The tastiest.

It increases your property value.

I don't know if you knew this, but a fruit tree will absorb bad carbon emissions and convert it into good.

It feeds and protects other life.

If you live by God's word every day, you can't help but produce fruit.

Galatians 5.22 talks about it.

But the fruit of the Spirit is this gentleness, kindness, goodness, meekness, and it goes on.

If you're in the book, you'll get a firm foundation and you will produce fruit.

You can't even help it.

John 15, 4 and 5 said, remain in me as I also am in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I'm the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me, if you remain in that book, if you remain in that habit every day, and I in you, you'll bear much fruit.

Unless we says, apart from me, you can do nothing.

Like the chaff.

Nothing.

I'm telling you, church, I'm so convicted.

I don't want of my life to be said that in my legacy, that I did the minimum, that I got by, that I landed a paycheck, that I provided some finance for my family.

Oh, I hope that they'll say one day, God, my daddy fed me, but he fed me spiritually.

He made sure I was nourished.

My husband, man, he fed.

He fed into me.

He loved me emotionally with words.

Listen to me, some out there.

It is more than just getting by with bare minimums and getting the paycheck.

Yes, we need it.

Apart from me, though, apart from this man, apart from this ladies, you won't be able to do it.

That's what he said.

Because it's all in ourselves.

We're not moral enough.

You might be moral, but you're not moral enough day after day.

The secret recipe for success is God's word.

And let me tell you, church, to burn the boats and move forward, you get one shot.

This is the playbook.

Coach Brooks continued to coach that team and work with them.

And against all of the odds and everybody's talking, they went into some games.

Well, they had an exhibition game against the Soviets who were the heralded great hockey team.

It was no doubt to anybody before that Olympic Games who was going to win, and it was the Soviets.

They had an exhibition match with them before Olympic play started.

They lost to them 10-3.

And people thought they did a great job.

They lost to that team 10-3.

They went into Olympic play.

And Coach Brooks continued pushing the system, continued teaching them to trust one, continued.

You have to do the right thing by your teammate.

You have to live the right way.

You have to do this to a T.

And Coach Brooks went into that first round and they tied Switzerland, who ended up coming in third overall.

They tied, and it was a shock wave sent through everybody that the U.S.

could even tie the Switch.

They went into the next round and something kicked in.

They won five games following.

They go up against the Soviets, which everybody knows we're done.

We've had a good run.

It's been amazing.

We've made it this far.

They get into the third corner, and the score is uh three to two Soviets.

Or two to three, I'm sorry.

And they come back in early, they score a goal, tie it up, and with about half of the period left, they score another goal.

The clock begins running out, and you can look back and you can hear Al Michael shouting across that megaphone this.

Do you believe in miracles?

Yes! 1980 U.S.

Olympic Gold, the American team.

How did it happen?

The right people, the right playbook, and they prospered.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.

If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.

Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.