Leftovers - Be Strong and Courageous! (Joshua 1:1-9)

Happy Monday. Pastor Matt is here with you.

Pastor Chris out on vacation. So Dom Wiese is here sitting in

on the pod this morning. Welcome to The Leftovers.

Yeah, I'm always happy to be here.

I enjoy our conversations. Yeah, Dom is interning over the

summer. He's going to be around a lot

more in ministry life at ERC. You're always kind of here.

You're always, always kind of here.

Anywhere from scrubbing toilets to playing on worship.

Dean, you've preached a couple times.

You are full on in. Yeah, in in between.

Yep, the servant. Leadership, part of vocational

ministry. But no, you are officially going

to be around more of the summer. My sabbatical coming up starting

on June 1st and you're going to step in and fill in some of the

gaps. You'll be on the pod with Chris

over the summer. What else?

What else all did we task you with doing this summer?

Yeah, just really get to, I'm really excited for the preaching

opportunities. Yep, you're preaching over the

summer too. I didn't go into homiletics this

semester exactly excited for that.

Just cause to me that's the most nerve wracking.

Even though I've been on that, you know, up on worship team for

how many years now? Sure, that's still that's much

more nerve wracking. It's tricky, man.

Then that we've talked about it before that weight of rightly

handling the word that I don't know, it's, it's weird to call

it a sense of dread, but like Saturday nights, it's always fun

at the worship teams come in, comes in on Sunday morning and

sometimes 7:00 AM hits hard on a Sunday morning sometimes that

people are dragging. But like, I just, I never really

sleep that well Saturday night into a Sunday morning, even if I

feel completely locked in and ready and prepared and, and all

the things I don't know. Yeah, there's, there's still

just kind of that the extra weight of, of bearing and

teaching the word of God, that higher accountability that's in

there. Yeah.

So I get the trepidation with the, the preaching class

homiletics and wanting to go about that rightly.

But you've preached a couple times before already.

And so that's, that's good. We got you preaching over the

summer a couple times. We'll be in the Apostles Creed

for most of the summer, working through many, Yeah, many of the

the phrases that stand as stands as the confessions in the

Apostles Creed and mining their roots, establishing their

reestablishing, reminding of their significance and why we

profess what we do in the Apostles Creed.

So you'll be in that with Chris over the summer, too.

You're going to Kentucky with the youth right on the on the

youth group trip. Yep, we'll go to the EYC stuff.

It's been a long time since I went and.

As a student, as a. Student, but I'm, I'm really

excited, especially being more involved with youth group stuff

now getting to know the kids a little bit more and spend some

time with them and also, you know, getting to bring them the

word on Wednesday nights. But even just knowing them a

little more personally, I'm really excited for that trip,

even though it's going to be a long one, just with that many

people and that many things going on.

It's we're going to come back and we're going to be exhausted,

but it's going to be amazing experience while we're there.

And I'm really excited for that, yeah.

It'll be a quicker trip than Colorado.

It's at least a lot closer for us than it's been in years past.

But yeah, that'll that'll still be something.

It's one thing just to be you're stuck.

You're committed on the road with students for a week.

There's no there's no relief. You're just.

Not getting out of that. One you're always on for yeah,

for all the days in a row so yeah.

And you're you're stepping up and taking over a lot of the

particulars of worship ministry this summer too.

Going to be leading the band and teams on Sundays with that.

So yeah, we're just going to see, we're going to put you

through all the things and see see how that goes, see how, see

how it grabs you so. I'm excited for it.

Cool. No, that'll be great.

So yeah, Dom sitting in on the pod with us this week.

Pastor Chris gave a graduation Sunday message yesterday.

Joshua won the 1st 9 verses of that chapter centered on be

strong and courageous. Congratulations to all the grads

out there. We acknowledge and recognize the

the high school graduates here in our ERC community yesterday.

But yeah, for all of you who have connections in in college

or or high school, it's kind of a yeah, it's a milestone

weekend, which whichever that graduation is from high school

or college or or beyond even. But where are you at?

How did you wrap up seminary? This is first, first year of a

three-year program, right? For those who don't know the

Lutheran Brethren Seminary where we receive our pastoral

training. You've wrapped up year one right

and their graduation already happened a couple they usually

are done by like second week of May.

So those the 2026 seminary graduates have happened, but you

have two more years. What's what's left?

Did you have Hebrew and? Greek this year so they split

them up from my understanding. I believe you guys took them

both at the same time. It there was some crossover,

Yeah, yeah. This actually, I'll have a

little bit of crossover just because of the way I did it this

semester, but they split them. So first year you have Hebrew,

second year you have Greek. So you haven't started Greek at

all yet? I have not started that is that

is this upcoming semester. Cool Greek is weird.

Yeah, every everyone I've talked to says that Greek is slightly

easier than Hebrew because it more mimics, you know, the the

way that you put English sentences together.

The structure is a little bit more similar, whereas Hebrews

just. Hebrews completely.

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

What else is coming up in year 2?

Do you know what your what's on like your class list for this

next year? That is a great question.

I actually have a meeting with my advisor because I think we're

going to do things a little bit different than what like in the

booklet they have, hey, if you want to get it done in three

years, this is kind of the program.

I think we're changing things up just slightly, but I know I have

a a history course, a couple more history things.

Year 2, you usually start getting into the systematic

theology thing with systematics and Yep, and ethics.

That's kind of the yeah, the groundwork of Lutheran theology

and yeah, some of the some of the church history stuff I'm

sure will be in there too. So yeah, that's about preaching

languages, doctrine. That's Oh yeah.

That's a large thrust of the seminarians work.

So no, we're excited for you, man.

Two more years in school and you're you get to do that online

while being in very involved in ministry here.

That's how I did it and that's it doesn't work that way for

everyone. I know some people like just

need to be isolated in the academic setting and just feel

like they're focused on that. I really liked taking in the

academia while I was kind of live in the practical side of

it, you know, in a week in, week out church community.

So yeah, one year down to to go. Happy to have you here.

We're going to dive into the sermon text for this week.

Kind of take it in a couple pieces here, just setting up

where we're actually at the beginning of the book of Joshua,

Joshua chapter 1, Joshua was Moses's assistant.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

Basically he was not relationally like he wasn't

related to Moses, but through their relationship through

attributes that Joshua had leadership that Joshua had.

He he was clearly going to be Moses's successor as the leader

of the people of Israel about I think it was about 35 years

before where we are in Joshua one here Joshua and Caleb were

the Israelite spies. They were part of the 12

Israelite spies that were sent into the land of Canaan in the

promised land to scout and see what was there.

And they were the only two of the 12 who came back hopeful,

who the God had promised this land to them.

The other 10 spies came back with various reasons that Nope,

we should, we should turn back. There's no what there's, there's

giants here, there's, there's fierce people here.

There's, there's threats, there's things that we should

not. Well, Joshua and Caleb held to

the promise of no, this is, this is the land the Lord has

promised to us, has given to us. And that's interesting as we

come to this passage of, of being strong and courageous,

this passage that is full of God's promises.

Joshua already kind of had that that's how he'd been living his

life this, this whole way 30, almost 4 decades ago.

He had already held to no God promised us this land.

Of course we're we're going to enter into it and and receive

this gift and this blessing. So let's pick it up at Joshua

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, starting at verse one.

Just yet. Some some sort of context things

after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord came to pass

that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun Moses assistant

saying Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise go over this Jordan, the river, you and all

this people to the land which I am giving them the children of

Israel. Every place that the sole of

your foot will tread upon I have given you as I said to Moses

already we're in with the promises.

God is reminding Joshua, hey, this, this deal's the same.

This is, this is what I had set up with Moses, your mentor, your

leader. You are commissioned in, in

taking up this mantle and leading my people through here.

And just as I promised Moses, I'm, I'm treating it that the

deal is the same with you, Joshua.

Originally he was named Hoshea, which means salvation and Moses

changed his name to Joshua, which it which is kind of the

adding that that Yeshua in into it, meaning Yahweh is salvation

and really relying on the promise and salvation of the

Lord that's now in his name. We see that a lot in the Bible

people's names being changed or or renamed repurposed for God

and that follows the vein of those are in Christ or a new

creation. We we see that lived out

throughout the Bible of of this is this is your new calling.

This is your new meaning. This is your new name.

So I thought the whole thing Joshua's now given name

Yahoshua, which means Yahweh saves and delivers.

So that's that's how God's addressing him here and at God's

command, Moses who had already kind of formally recognized

Joshua as as his successor. God is now affirming that

saying, Yep, you're the dude for for all these reasons.

You've been the leader of the army of Israel.

You were Moses's assistant disciple.

You, you've, you were one of the two faith filled spies that came

back. You've already demonstrated

faithfulness. You've demonstrated leadership

in, in soldiering and and pressing on you.

You've been one of the most faithful people here.

He's not a perfect person, but he has lived a life of

faithfulness. So that's where we're at with

with Joshua as he kind of his leadership is established here

by God. I always think this passage is

interesting. I, I love this narrative of how

the how God's work. Where is that it?

It told us in verse one after the death of Moses, the servant

of the Lord. So it told us Moses is dead.

And then it kind of we reiterate God's word.

Moses, my servant is dead, says God.

OK, Yep. Yeah, we we got that.

But God is just letting us know that I know too, right?

Just to make sure. Yeah, in case in case you didn't

get the scroll this this happened a thought from the

enduring word commentary here just on Joshua.

This is from the commentator Morgan.

It says God's instruments are men and high indeed is the honor

of being such. Each will take up a work already

begun and we'll leave it unfinished.

Each is a debtor to those who have gone before and creditor to

those who are follow who who will who are to follow.

Therefore it behooves us to be filled with humility and

restfulness. There had to be a measure of

Joshua that felt unworthy, I think to continue on this thing

that Moses had started. I we certainly don't see a

display of of arrogance and in fact, most of the rest of this

passage this be strong and courageous.

We had to actually get the impression there was a there's a

feeling of unworthiness. There was a feeling of

trepidation that that Joshua was like, I can't do what this guy

did. I'm I'm, I'm not, I'm not worthy

to continue this on, but this is this is kind of the start of

that and and the continuation of God.

No, man, that you're you're the guy just like Moses was before

you. As much confidence as you had in

Moses that I was with him in the same way I'm with you.

When and to think about, we talk about, you know, the nerves and

nervousness and all the things that come with, you know,

leading our people. And just imagine that on a 10X

scale, like you are the guy, you are next.

Like Moses was that guy, but it's also the cool imagery of

it's not just the person doing the work.

God is doing the work. And he's using US in the moments

to lead his people to to lead his people to his Kingdom.

And it's cool that, you know, yeah, there's the leader that I

want to follow is the one that is slightly nervous is the one

that is, you know, doesn't necessarily feel like he should

be the guy, but he is the guy. He's got the tools, He's got the

abilities. God chose him for a reason.

Like, yeah, I want to follow that guy.

I don't want to follow an arrogant, you know, Oh yeah,

that I should have had this job. I should be this leader.

So it to me, it's really cool seeing Joshua in this moment.

Like, yeah, there is nervousness.

There is you're you're leading God's people.

Like Moses had the bar pretty high, but Moses wasn't doing all

the work himself. God was.

And God's going to God's promising Joshua here that he's

going to continue to do those works even through him.

So I really like, I really like Joshua as a leader.

Like this is a guy that I would want to follow.

Yeah. And there has.

To be that I'm sure he had that base understanding that there

wasn't anything magical about Moses.

He saw how God was working in and through him.

And so so verse 5 of chapter 1, hear this promise from God.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your

life. And as I was with Moses, so I

will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake

you. Joshua that that had to be a

reassuring word as he had already witnessed God working

through Moses. And God again is saying, no,

it's it's the same deal. I'm choosing you.

I'm going to work through you as I worked through Moses.

So that's yeah, that's one of the great promises in here.

And then we get to the really kind of the main thrust in verse

6. He says for the first time, God

says to Joshua, be strong and of good courage.

For to this people, you shall divide as an inheritance the

land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

There's already been there's, there's 13 times specifically in

Genesis, but throughout the Pentateuch, this, this promised

land promise has, has happened again and again and again.

And then the Israelites kind of, they lose sight and meander and

God reminds them, no, I still have this salvation in store.

I still have this land in store for you.

And he's once again reminding Joshua, Nope, this is I'm still

holding up my end of of what this is.

Spurgeon has a thought on this on this promised land because it

was quite literally a location for them.

But us modern day Christians and Jesus coming and establishing

the new covenant that this is now for all people.

It's salvation in him. This this promised land, though

it was a literal place becomes more of a metaphor for the

modern Christian that really the post Jesus Christian.

So Spurgeon offers this thought. Though this refers to a literal

land, it has spiritual application.

All that is in Christ is meant for all believers, and therefore

all believers may have all that is in Christ, who is All in all.

We should not be content with Pence when he endows us with

pounds, though this was an an actual place.

We sing a song Egypt sometimes. You, you stepped into my Egypt.

You, you took him by the hand and brought me out of freedom

into the promised land. That's what we have now.

We were slaves to sin even when we were dead in our sins and

trespasses, God made a way to bring us out of that into the

promised land. So now, now our promised land

is, is abiding in God's Word, is is in full life with him, not

just a place. And this was an orchestrated

place where the Israelites were called to go and be and live in

his provision for them. That obviously looks different

for us nowadays, but it's still, if we, if we can think of it as

a metaphorical place or a metaphysical place or kind of

just a mental place to our promised land is God His, his

very being, his Word, his presence, his spirit.

Those were things that also weren't present for the people

of God at that. Time so and Chris touched on it

a little bit too I believe you said something along the lines

of you know Christianity is the only faith on the planet that

doesn't just promise that God loves you but God dwells in you.

So even as we're living our earthly lives like we have a

piece of that with us at all times God is dwelling in US.

His Kingdom is within us and to me that's a scary promise, but

it an awesome promise of like, no matter where we are, it, we

don't have to be in a physical place.

Like they're like you're talking about here.

They have a specific area that's promised to them and where

they're living. We get to live our lives

wherever we are and we get a piece of that Kingdom with us.

We get God dwelling in US. And that's such a cool promise

that I personally overlooked for a long time in in my own faith

of like, yeah, God is with you all of the time, no matter where

you are, whether you're you feel like you're behind enemy lines

or you're in your comfort space, like God is dwelling in you at

all times. Yeah, and Chris talked about

that. I think he got into the one of

his, one of his phrases from yesterday was nail your colors

to the mast. The the story about the the

naval battles and and how ships flying their colors was.

It was a symbol of which which team you're on which side you're

on, but also signals to your team that I'm I'm still

fighting, I'm still championing this thing.

I'm still believing that this this is the fight we're fighting

in. That's what God's kind of pep

talk is here for for Joshua to of as he as he continues on

verse 6, be strong enough good courage.

Verse 7 then reiterated, only be strong and very courageous that

you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my

servant commanded you stick, stick to this.

Don't deviate. He said he goes on.

Do not turn it from the right hand or to the left that you may

prosper wherever you go. He has a plan to prosper here.

It's it's in his plan. It's in sticking to that

remembering that he is with you, that he's our that he's our true

north, that he's our direction. So this this whole passage

promises of God for the good, for the prospering of his

people. We get into some conditional

statements here in in the last part of it, verses 6 through 9.

And I thought this was interesting.

Chris also put out in the in the life group discussion questions

talking about if you truly believe deep in your bones that

God is with you wherever you go, what would you do differently

this week? And and also just kind of asking

what practical rhythms help keep scripture in front of you

throughout the week. How how do you apply these

things because there are, I think some some conditions here.

It says, observe the law which Moses, my servant commanded you

do not turn, do not turn from it to the right or to the left that

you may prosper wherever you go. There, there is application

there of we, we, we talk about God's word being the best thing

for us. We talk about time with God

being, being what we need the the best thing for us.

God even attaches it to it. And I'm not saying it's a binary

do this and get all your problems solved.

So sort of thing. It's, it's not that, it's not

that exacting that you may prosper wherever you go.

You would want to have God on your side wherever you go.

That's really, that's really what it is.

And Joshua had lived out this faithfulness to keeping God at

his side. I also think with this, with

this verse, and Chris talked about prospering yesterday.

He, he talked about no, none of us sets out to lose our job and

and be homeless and and like that's, that's not usually our

goals for, for life. But I do think God's prosper at

times can it can differ from what we might actually think of

prospering, right? We may see a trial.

God May God may see a trial as prospering as opportunity for us

to grow our faith as as opportunity for us to draw

closer to him, which is really at the root of our prospering.

We might not see it as such in that moment.

It might not feel like prospering when we're navigating

through that. So what do you what do you think

about how do we frame that? Well, sticking to God's precepts

to for our prospering for our good.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's, it's so

easy to fall into the earthly things of prospering.

Like when you think of someone who's prospering, you think of

someone who has the nice house, has the cars, has their family

well taken care of. But yeah, like, as you pointed

out, even in the trials, like I don't feel like God's

necessarily letting me prosper in that moment.

I I feel quite the opposite. But yeah, like we prosper by

being closer to God. And unfortunately, because we

are human and we, we struggle with sin when things are going

well, when we are earthly prospering, we're often

spiritually hurting because we're, we're, we're kicking God

to the back seat, like, oh, it's going great right now.

I think I could drive right now. We're, we're going great places.

Things are going smooth. And then that trial hits.

And guess what? We're back at God's feet saying,

Hey, I'm so sorry, I thought I had this.

I don't, please help me. And it is it's that constant

back and forth like when we're when we're earthly prospering is

often when we're we're hurting the most spiritually.

And that's a, a scary thing to, to deal with because you can get

blinded by how good or smooth things are going at the time

that you start neglecting, you know, staying in the word.

For me, the biggest help has been the Bible app.

I'm more technologically savvy now.

Like I don't necessarily always have a Bible with me, but I have

it on my phone all the time. And I just the the plans that

you can find in there, like staying in the word to me is the

biggest thing. I get glimpses of it all

throughout the week, you know, preparing for worship team and

stuff like that. Like the songs we sing obviously

have elements of of the word, but it it's completely different

when you actually sit down, digest something, think about

God's word and his promises like we're we're seeing here in

Joshua, like, yeah, just you don't, I promise you, you don't

spend enough time in the word. And I know that's, that's rich

coming from, you know, a pastor and a soon to be pastor.

Like obviously we would want to spend as much time in the word

as we can, but we're still, we're not even doing the bare

minimum to, if we're being honest with ourselves.

Like we just, I don't, I don't, I don't know, I know I struggled

with this, especially early on in my, my, my own faith journey.

And as soon as I spent more in the Word like, my faith grew in

an amount of understanding that I could have never imagined

before. No, I think you're right on.

I let and I love that earthly prospering versus spiritually

hurting. That's, that's attention that we

all, we, we can get caught up in and we just have, we have to

stay humble in crediting God. Like I think, I think we need to

not even when things are going well, whose, whose strength is

that happening? And I think that's a good way to

keep perspective and to stay humble.

But even as, even as I hear you say, you're not in, you're not

in your Bible enough. And I think that's, that's true

for all of us. The longer I've been in this,

and this was, this was how one of Chris's questions kind of hit

me last night. When have you experienced God's

word giving you clarity, courage or direction in a difficult

moment? I took that question because I

think a lot of life can be difficult a lot of the time.

But I kind of took that question.

The more of what you're saying, the more I'm saturated in the

longer I've been in it. And yes, we've been throwing

around the professional Christian term the past few.

Like, I don't. I don't want to use that as a

crutch, though. Like we should.

I should be in the word, the ton.

If I, if I'm leading this out, living this out, I should be in

the word more than anyone else I know, right?

And the more I have been, especially in recent years, have

I experienced God's Word giving me clarity, courage or

direction. It, it's, it has become my

compass. If, if, if there are struggles

or brokenness in people's lives, it, it, it I have that clarity

of, well, are we doing the things are, are, are we

following what God's Word says? And some of those and some of

those situations, no, that that person has no regard for God's

Word anyway. And I'm like, they weren't using

it as their guiding light to begin with.

So that would be completely out of left field for them to all of

a sudden like start living by these standards.

But at the same time, I see, I see like, I know you don't think

this is a thing and I know it, but I see exactly what's going

on that you're not living in this way that God designed out

for you and yell, your life is hard right now.

That and, and I see that direct correlation in God's word.

And then there are others that like, and we all get in that

place of we know better. We, we know, we know the way we

should go. And we do get caught up in

prideful moments and, and just decide, Nope, I'm going to, I'm

going to try my way. And sometimes we even enter into

that with I'm going to try my way and I'm willing to take the

consequences. I'm, I'm willing to deal with

what's going to fall out. Sometimes we're I'm going to try

my way and we forget that, oh, that probably wasn't going to

work out. And now, now I feel sorry for

myself and I'm looking for someone to bail me out.

When I was just, I was recklessly careless anyway.

So yeah. But as to to your point, though,

the word of God, it sounds cliche and it sounds weird, but

I I also see it lived out. Joshua's best qualification for

inheriting this leadership was that he was faithful.

We don't he he was obviously a a good military leader, but we

don't hear a whole lot of other detail about like his

righteousness like like we would like like Abraham and God

credited credited his faith to him as righteousness.

We, we don't hear descriptors even like of Job or or Noah or

or of some of these, some of these other Old Testament

figures. Joshua's best attribute was his

faithfulness. And that at times I think, I

think faithfulness and obedience, they don't feel

glamorous because they are best. The results are best seen and

felt with those things with faithfulness and obedience over

a course of time, right? Because really those things are

attached to time. If I, if I told my kids to do

something today, like, OK, whatever, pick, pick up your

shoes and put and put them away in, in your locker and they did

it today, is that obedience? Maybe like, OK, in that, in that

moment, But is there also the overarching expectation, like in

our household that every day when you come home from school,

you, you put your shoes in the in the locker And that's, that's

just how that goes. If I have to remind the that for

them every day is, is that obedience?

I don't know. We don't feel if they made it

through the whole week without me reminding them, that probably

looks a little more like obedience, right?

Or at least faithfulness to the way it should go, right.

So that can be, I feel like that can be frustrating as a

Christian. Do you have do you have thoughts

on that? The the kind of the drawn

outness of faithfulness and how it becomes faithfulness.

Yeah, I it's, it's a struggle all of the time.

You know, we talk about God's provision and his promises to

provide for us at all times. Like that's hard to see in some

moments. Where you're not feeling

provided. Like and, and obviously like

faithfulness, it's a long time spectrum that we have to be

doing the things to really see the fruits of that.

But we're promised daily provisions.

We're we're promised exactly what we need each and every day.

And for me especially, like I struggled with that because I

want to know what's going to happen in two years, in five

years, in 10 years. I want to know where I'm going

to be. Can I provide for a family?

Can I do the things? And I struggled with that

recently, especially with going to seminary.

Yeah, I, I left my job, I sold my car, I moved back home.

Like, I am poor, like I, I, I am, I do not have finances to do

the things I'm getting by. But at every single turn,

because I trust God, because I'm fully trusting him, especially

in this moment, Like every single time I, every corner,

everything that's come up, God has provided in a way that I

wouldn't have been able to see if I wasn't in a moment like

this where, yeah, I don't like relying on people.

I don't necessarily love asking for help, but God's using this

time and to to show me that, hey, I'm going to provide for

you at every single turn. And that has grown my

faithfulness tremendously. And now, yeah, I can see this on

a much larger scale. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not going to see tomorrow, unfortunately.

Tomorrow I'm not going to run into $1,000,000 inheritance and

be and be set and great. It's going to take a while.

But also at every single turn, God has provided exactly what

I've needed financially and otherwise, spiritually putting

people in my life that need to be either for myself or even for

them. Like I get to the opportunities

that I've gotten to speak to people about my faith and about

God and about how he promises to continue to provide has gone up

dramatically because my eyes are a little more open to it now, if

we're being honest. But also, yeah, this, this

moment of, of being faithful, of doing the things, of taking the

steps to me is growing to true faith, Not just, hey, I believe

God exists. I believe he did these things

for me. But I'm going to kind of go off

and do my thing and live life the way I want to.

As much as I would probably enjoy doing that while here on

earth, longevity wise, that's not going to turn out in my

favor ever. Yeah.

And, and going back to the language here, the words that

are translated, you, you will be prosperous, you will have

success wherever you go as you hold to my precepts.

That that's kind of what's being talked about in verses 6 through

9 of Joshua one here. There's 59 times in the Old

Testament that these words are, are translated as either

prosperous or success. There's obviously nothing

financial in this passage. There's no, there's no talk of

money. There's no, there's no talk of

riches or anything. 59 times in the Old Testament, these two

verses are these two words prosperous and success.

Only once our finances even closely connected to the passage

of the words that's and that's it.

That's in Ezekiel 1613. Paul goes on to to remind and

and reference back to this strength and courage.

Not for again, not for worthy success, not for worldly

prosperity. Ephesians 610, Paul reminds

believers that Joshua was to be strong in the Lord and in the

power of his might. This is the pattern for

believers to find their strength in God and not in self.

So there's not things going on here that are going to bring us

that that earthly prosperity. It's it's a reminder that our

success depends solely on our ability to keep God's word, the

presence of God. I'm sorry, I said I said that

wrong. Our success does not depend

solely on our ability to keep God's word because we can't I

missed that don't because we can't keep that perfectly right.

So we're going to we're going to fail.

We're going to meet frustration as we try to keep God's word

perfectly and God in nowhere in here says you're going to do

this perfectly. But there is a but he says, but

I will be with you wherever you go.

The fact that his presence, his advocacy, his strength is with

us, that is what gives us the ability then to keep his word,

to to be drawn to his goodness, his direction, his, his

prosperity for our life. And again, his prosperity is

going to look different. I think I, I think from God's

perspective for us, we are best when we abide in him, when we

rely on him and there's not some, there's not addendums,

there's not add-ons to that. God wants most for us to be

found in him to spend time engaged with him.

One more thought here from Enduring Word commentary.

David Guzik says under the new covenant, again, this is so like

new covenant post Jesus Christendom, post Jesus on

earth, Christendom. Under the new covenant, God's

people are not blessed primarily because of their obedience, but

because of their relationship of love and trust in Jesus Christ.

Yeah, because God commands are inherently good and wise.

There is a built in blessing in conforming to this good and wise

design. There is a great blessing for

the believer in knowing and obeying God's word.

So that still sets that still sets the table of, you know what

found in Jesus, found in faithfulness to God.

That's that's what matters first, your relationship there.

But as you do that, as you're drawn closer to him, as you

learn every day more and more to walk in faithfulness, to walk in

obedience that God's way really is best you, you then get to

discover that it is best. And then you get you get to walk

in those ways as He's orchestrated your steps.

That's cool. When I think the cool thing too

is, you know, as you grow in your faith, as you understand

your faith a little bit more and, and what God's saying here,

when you're, when you're living your life, you're not

necessarily early on, you know, whether you're a non Christian,

non believer or you're a baby Christian, you just, you know,

got into what this all looks like.

It's easy to continue to live your life and, and maybe commit

some of these sins without even like recognizing that you're

doing it or, or you're living in an earthly way.

But as you're growing in your faith and, and you're spending

more time in the word, spending more time with God, you have

the, the double edge there of you are now more aware of all of

the things that you're doing. It's you're, you're so much more

aware of of the little things. Obviously on the grand scale,

all sins are the same. But what we would classify as,

you know, oh, it's just a little thing.

It's just a little lie or a little this you're, you become

much more aware of that as you grow deeper in your faith.

So that helps us continue to obey and walk in faithfulness

because, yeah, these things that I would have brushed aside

before and not seen as a problem.

I feel convicted by this now. Like I, I want to change.

And that's what that's what we're called to do.

We're not going to do this perfectly.

Unfortunately, we're never going to do all of the things and

check all the boxes. But being aware and wanting and

desiring that change and coming to God with that conviction and

just and praying in those moments, that is what's growing

us in our faithfulness so much more than.

We could really see in the moment.

Yeah, and that's, and it is, it is hard to see in the moment,

but year over year, stacking days, stacking weeks, stacking

years of, of abiding in his word, being filled by his word.

It's it's the same with it. It's almost, I talked about it

yesterday because we were talking about money and

prosperity and things at at Life Group.

But it almost feels like saving for retirement, like it doesn't

feel good today it and it's very unexciting.

I'd like to. Have that money right?

Now it's, it's very unexciting to just like set this aside for

30-40 years now. And I know some of you are

further away from retirement than that, some of you are

closer, but it either way, you're looking to reap that

return way later. But it's by obedience today that

you're going to have that return, right?

And that and that's just yeah, that's the that was the simplest

sort of analogy that I that I could bring to life group of

last night was it's actually it's actually just an act of

obedience and it doesn't it doesn't have to be

revolutionarily life changing every day.

You're not going to have I don't think maybe you do.

I don't always have like a revolutionary breakthrough where

I have a moment every day. I was like, oh man, so much

closer to Jesus right now. Like because I, because I hit

that today, but over, over a week over the time of this

series that we're, we're going into Philippians for the next 4

weeks and talking about Christian living.

Like I have my eyes set 30 days from now of yeah, OK, I'm, I'm

going to be able to measure growth in the next 30 days of,

of where we're going. Am I going to feel it tomorrow?

Probably not. Am I going to feel and in a

week, yeah, I'll feel a little bit 30 days from now when we get

through all of this deeper study of Philippians 4, Yeah, there's

there's going to be results there.

Yeah. Well, and that's just that's a

testimony to how you spend time in the word and and the growth

that comes from that. Yeah, like I had New Testament

intro one and two this year. And so we read through every

single book of the New Testament and did some paper outline of

how we would kind of break down each section and what we think

the overall thrust of it was. And, and just pulling together

different pieces and getting to see other people's ideas was

really helpful to me as well. But yeah, instantly, like after

spending time in these books, I mean, we're reading requirement.

We read it once, we either read it or listen to it another time.

And we're highly encouraged to do it three times.

And I can tell you, like, reading through each of those

books this many times and actually digesting different

parts of it at different times completely changed my idea of

how I should be living. And for each book, there's a

unique look and a unique idea. And I'm sure different people

come with different outcomes than what I did, but just taking

the moment and taking the time to really sit in the word and

ask questions, you know, having the outlet to ask questions is,

is hugely beneficial. And I know you and Chris are

completely open to people coming and asking those questions and

having those conversations. And, but having it at at a

seminary level as well with other students and professors,

like just dramatically changes my outlook on life.

And all I did was spend time reading God's Word.

Yeah. Yep.

And so, yeah, this isn't meant to be.

I hope we're not raking you over the coals or anything with this,

but God reiterates be strong and courageous multiple times in

this passage. He promises, I will not leave

you or forsake you. I'll be with you wherever you

go. And that's what we need to rest

on in this. Joshua's success did not depend

solely on his ability to keep God's word.

The presence of God with him was the greatest factor.

And we we get to have that today too.

So hope that's a good word for you this week, Church.

Thanks for hanging with us on the ERC leftovers.

Next 4 weeks we are in Philippians on Sundays.

There's four chapters. There's four weeks.

We're going through some principles of Christian living

in the book of Philippians. So hope you're along with us for

that. We'll see you Sunday.

Until then, have a blessed week.