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Success by the Book: Word-Shaped Courage and God-Defined Prosperity (Joshua 1:8) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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take a key text, really get into the weeds and pull out what you
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need to know. And today we are looking at a
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moment of just intense pressure, a leadership transition that's
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happening on a knife's edge. We're in Joshua chapter 1 and
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we're going to park on verse 8. That's right.
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Our mission today is pretty focused.
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We want to understand what God requires from a leader and
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really from a whole people when they're facing what looks like
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an impossible situation. We're talking about Joshua
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standing right there on the banks of the Jordan River,
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looking across at a land filled with, well, giants and fortified
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cities. We know your time is valuable
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and you want to get solid, detailed knowledge without the
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fluff. So we're zeroing in on this one
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verse because it tackles a question that, you know, it
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really defines everything. It defines every life, every
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ministry. And that question is who gets to
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define success? That is the question, isn't it?
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Because it forces us to check what measuring stick we're
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using. When we look at our lives, our
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churches, what standard are we applying to say that was a
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victory? And that's where the world just
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gets it so wrong. I mean, the world's metrics are
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obvious. How much territory did you gain?
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What's the profit margin? How many followers do you have?
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It's all about the applause. But the very first thing God
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does when he commissions Joshua is he just rips that scale right
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out of his hands. He says true courage, real
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prosperity. That's not tied to your military
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genius. It's not tied to some inner
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strength you muster up. It's tied specifically, and you
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could say exclusively to the Lord's Word.
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And right here you see this powerful statement about the
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sufficiency of Scripture for everything in life and the
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centrality of what we call the ordinary means of grace.
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So to really feel the weight of Joshua 1.8, we have to start
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where the chapter starts with the the emotional and political
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earthquake of verse 2. Yeah, Moses, my servant is dead.
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So blunt, so stark. It is.
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It's not just an update to the org chart.
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This is the end of an entire era.
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I mean, we're talking about 40 years of leadership from this
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one singular, spectacular figure who spoke with God face to face.
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He was the lawgiver, the miracle worker, the guy who stood in the
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gap for the people. His death just creates this huge
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vacuum. It's designed to create deep
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national anxiety. And you can understand why
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they'd be anxious. They are literally at the goal
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line looking at the promised land, but it's filled with
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enemies and the one leader they've ever known, the
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indispensable man, is gone. And that's where God steps in.
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But not with, you know, fluff His words of comfort.
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He steps in with a Commission that completely shifts the basis
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of their security. Joshua isn't just getting Moses
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old Job. No, he's stepping into what
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you'd call a covenantal stewardship.
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He's a manager under King Yahweh.
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Let's unpack that term a little covenantal stewardship.
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I think it's key. It means Joshua is a manager,
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right? Not the owner.
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The land itself is a gift promised way back with the
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Abrahamic. Covenant, the Abrahamic oath.
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But his ability and Israel's ability to actually enjoy that
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land, to live in it and govern it, that is totally dependent on
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the terms of the Mosaic covenant.
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Exactly. That's why God doesn't start
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with battle plans for Jericho. He starts with the law.
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The land is a gift, absolutely secured by God's own oath.
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But flourishing in that land? That's secured only through
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careful, deliberate obedience. He makes it clear from the jump
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that military strategy is secondary to obedience.
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The whole conquest is at its heart a spiritual project.
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And to feel the full pressure of this moment, you have to look
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back at the the Deuteronomic backdrop.
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This isn't a blank slate for Joshua.
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The rules of engagement, you could say.
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The blessings and the curses, they're already on the books.
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You're talking about Deuteronomy 28, right?
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Deuteronomy 282930 The blessings for obedience are laid out, but
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the curses for disobedience are spelled out in I mean just
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excruciating detail. Israel knew exactly what was on
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the line. And there's that other piece in
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Deuteronomy 17, the part that lays out the rules for any
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future king of Israel. Yes, that passage is so
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important because it anticipates this very moment.
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It specifically demands a word centered rule.
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The king is supposed to write out his own copy of the law.
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The whole thing by hand. By hand and read every single
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day of his life. And the purpose is spelled out.
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So he learns to fear the Lord, so his heart isn't lifted up
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above his brothers, and so he doesn't turn from the law to the
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right hand or to the left. And there's that phrase again.
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It's echoed directly here in Joshua 1.7.
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It's all about that constant, steady fidelity, not getting
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pulled off course by your own ideas or by what seems popular.
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The King's authority is tethered to something outside of himself.
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It is. It's tethered to the external
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text, and that makes what's happening with Joshua even more
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significant. He has to be the faithful ruler
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the law required even before Israel officially has a
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monarchy. So when God keeps repeating that
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command, be strong and courageous.
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You see it in verse 6, verse 7, verse 9.
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We shouldn't read that as just, you know, ancient positive
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thinking. It's not a pep talk.
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No, it's a covenant courage. It's a courage that's tied to
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two very specific, very objective anchors that are
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outside of Joshua's own feelings or his inner strength.
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The first anchor is God's promise, His unfailing presence.
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I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake
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you. That's the sovereign guarantee.
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That the foundation, but it's not the whole story.
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Right, because the second anchor is the covenant's rule, the
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Lord's word. Be careful to do according to
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all the law. Do not turn from it.
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So God gives the goal, the land, and He gives the power, His
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presence, but He links enjoying that goal to following the
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prescribed path. And that connection is the
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theological engine driving this whole chapter.
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It's God connecting the divine guarantee.
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I am with you with the human requirement.
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You must obey what is written, and that's what makes verse 8
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the hinge pin of the whole Commission.
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That's a huge shift in perspective.
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Verse 8 becomes the practical method.
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It links the promise to the daily practice.
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If you want the promise courage, you have to cultivate it through
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the Word. Yes.
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If you want conquest to be successful in a in a covenantal
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sense, it has to be conditioned by obedience.
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If you want your leadership to last has to be guarded by
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submission to what God has already said.
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It tells Joshua how to live in the reality of God's presence.
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It moves it from just abstract theology to a concrete, daily
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discipline. The Word is a tool God gives him
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to stay faithful. And if you look ahead, the Book
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of Judges is just one long, tragic story of what happens
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when the word is forgotten. You can have external success,
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you can win battles, but you can have a complete internal
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covenant collapse at the same time.
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So Joshua 1.8 is like preventative medicine.
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It is. It's preventative medicine
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against that disease of forgetting.
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Joshua has to keep the book close enough to speak it, deep
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enough to think about it, and powerful enough that it actually
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compels him to obey it. This is a perfect Old Testament
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picture of sola scriptura in action, isn't it?
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It's not just a dusty principle. It's a required posture for
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life. Your stability, your fidelity.
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It doesn't come from charisma or new techniques.
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It comes from submitting to God's revealed will.
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And the fact that God commands this at the moment of greatest
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pressure, Moses is dead, Enemies are ahead.
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That is the key. He double S down on the written
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text. That's a lesson we need to hear
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right now. OK, so that context really sets
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the stage. Let's unpack that first command
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in verse 8. Because it's so immediate, so
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public, this book of the law shall not depart from your
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mouth. Before God talks about anything
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else, He takes control of Joshua's speech.
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He understands the stewardship of speech.
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A leader's tongue is like the rudder on a ship for the whole
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nation. It's either a conduit for divine
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truth that builds people up, or it's a channel for human anxiety
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and, you know, bad doctrine. And in Israel's life, the word
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was meant to be this living public thing, read aloud, taught
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to your kids, confessed openly. We see that all over Deuteronomy
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6 in the Shima. It's meant to be heard and
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spoken. So the command is pushing Joshua
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toward this constant verbal nearness to Scripture.
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He has to speak it to the people to remind them who they are.
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He has to use it when he's giving counsel.
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He has to use it when he's giving military commands.
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And maybe most importantly, he has to speak it to himself when
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his own fear and anxiety start creeping in.
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The mouth sets the culture. That's the bottom line.
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If Joshua's public speech is full of cautious political talk,
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Israel will learn to survive by compromise.
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If it's full of just human motivational speeches, Israel
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will learn to trust in human strength.
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But if his mouth is saturated with the sentences of God, then
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the people are constantly reminded that the Lord is their
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king and the real authority is outside of Joshua himself.
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Which brings up this huge contrast between two different
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philosophies of leadership. The temptation, And it's a
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powerful 1 today, is for a leader to say what's persuasive,
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say what gets people to comply, say what keeps morale high, even
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if it's not the whole truth. That's the leadership of
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perception management. It is, and God's requirement is
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the complete opposite of that. He says speak what is true,
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speak what is written, speak what is authoritative, even when
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that truth is unpopular or cuts against what people want to
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hear. The world says say what works.
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God says say what I said. That verbal fidelity is just
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covenant fidelity made audible. And this changes how we think
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about authority, because the revelation is written down, it's
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fixed, it's public, it's stable. Joshua's authority is purely
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ministerial. He's a servant of the text.
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Right. He doesn't lead by getting new
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private revelations. He leads by humbly submitting to
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and proclaiming the Word that God has already given.
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Which is a powerful rebuke to spiritual pride, isn't it?
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It rebukes the Mystic who is always looking for an inner
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voice or a vague feeling to guide them instead of the plain
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text. And at the same time, it rebukes
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the pragmatist, the one who sees the Bible as just a collection
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of useful phrases to get desired outcomes, rather than a fixed
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truth that demands obedience. Joshua has to be a herald of
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truth, not a spiritual innovator.
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Let's get practical on the pastoral side of this.
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We said fear is fought first with your speech.
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So imagine Joshua standing there looking at the walls of Jericho.
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The language of site says those walls are huge, we're tiny, this
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is impossible. But the language of faith
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trained by this verse has to say the Lord has promised the city,
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the Lord has commanded our path. The mouth becomes the
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battleground where you interpret reality through God's truth, not
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the other way around. And that applies so directly to
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the Church today. The danger isn't that we stop
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carrying Bibles, the dangers that we fill our mouths with
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other things that push the Bible to the side.
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Like what? Well, we replace biblical words
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with therapeutic slogans that are more about making people
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feel good than leading them to repentance.
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We swap out doctrinal clarity for, you know, managerial jargon
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about growth metrics. Or we get caught up in political
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talking points that just stir up anger instead of building faith.
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And all the while, Romans 10.1 CN is still true.
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Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of
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Christ. If the leader isn't speaking the
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word of Christ, faith will just wither on the vine.
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So the leader has to be a word man, someone whose counsel,
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whose encouragement, is genuinely soaked in biblical
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categories, not just quoting verses randomly.
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But when they comfort someone, it's with God's specific
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promises, not just vague optimism.
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The leader has to stand under Scripture, and that first line
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of defense against the whole mission collapsing is his
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willingness to put God's fixed word in his mouth.
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That public stewardship of speech sets the course for
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everything else. But as important as that public
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proclamation is, it's not enough by itself.
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The Lord knows a person can train their mouth to say all the
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right things. They can look very pious in
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public while their inner life is a complete mess.
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And that's the fast track to hypocrisy or just total burnout,
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especially under pressure. Exactly, which is why the
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command immediately goes deeper. It goes from the public mouth to
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the private mind, but you shall meditate on it day and night.
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God requires Joshua to not just proclaim the book, but to to
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chew on it internally. Yeah, chewing on the book.
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That's a great way to put it, This Hebrew verb here, hugga,
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It's really descriptive. It can mean a low murmuring or
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amusing. It's the sound someone makes
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when they're totally absorbed in a text, repeating phrases to
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themselves to get the full weight of it.
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And that definition is so important because it immediately
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shows how different biblical meditation is from what our
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culture thinks of as meditation. Right.
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This isn't about passive daydreaming.
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It is absolutely not about emptying your mind to have some
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kind of mystical experience. It's the exact opposite of that.
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Biblical meditation is an act of act of faith.
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You are intentionally filling your soul with God's revealed
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words. It's a discipline where you
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wrestle with the text. You turn it over and over until
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you grasp its meaning, until it brings conviction, and until it
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shapes your desires. It's letting the creator's
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speech correct and redirect the creatures thoughts.
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Precisely. And that phrase day and night,
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that's covenant language. It speaks to constancy, a steady
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rhythm. It obviously doesn't mean Joshua
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never sleeps or does anything else.
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No, it means Scripture becomes his constant reference point.
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It's the grid through which he processes everything.
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Morning decisions, fears in the middle of the night, strategic
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planning, private temptations. It all gets filtered through the
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Word. It becomes the framework for all
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his knowing and doing. And this is the secret to how
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that courage is maintained. It's not through an adrenaline
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rush from a big victory. It's through the quiet,
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consistent work of keeping your mind saturated with the Word.
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Because when you're under pressure, your mind will always
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default to its deepest script. And there really only two
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scripts. There's the script of site which
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says I have to control this, I have to figure this out, my
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experience is what matters. Or there's the script of faith
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which says God has spoken. My job is to obey.
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Success is obedience. So meditation is the process of
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installing God's script as the default operating system.
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That's a great way to put it. It's installing God's script so
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when the walls of Jericho are right in front of them, or when
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the people start complaining, Joshua has to interpret that
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situation through what God has explicitly said in the book, not
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the other way around. This connects so well to that
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image in Psalm 1, doesn't it? The blessed man who meditates on
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the law day and night. He's like a tree planted by
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streams of water. Yes, he's stable.
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He's nourished from a deep source.
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He can endure. That kind of rooted life
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produces a wisdom that goes way beyond just what you've
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experienced. Constantly reviewing God's law
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gives you a depth that can withstand a drought.
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And I think we need to be really clear about the distortions of
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this today, because they are everywhere.
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Even in good churches. You have the Mystic distortion,
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which wants a kind of spirituality without any
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theological content. It's looking for an inward quiet
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that's detached from the actual words on the page.
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And biblical meditation is the antidote to that.
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It's not about quiet emptiness. It should be what some have
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called a holy noisiness of the mind.
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This active, constant engagement of your conscience with God's
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written words, the spirits job, is to illuminate the text, not
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to replace it with a vague feeling.
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Then you've got the other side, pragmatist distortion.
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This is the person who values action over any kind of
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contemplation. Decisions are driven by what
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seems to work, what's popular, what's efficient.
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Right. Our world values speed, God
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values depth, and slow, steady rumination.
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And again, the ordinary means of grace are what God provides.
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He doesn't promise Joshua guidance through some
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spectacular vision that would elevate Joshua's own status.
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He binds him to the book that's already been written.
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So meditation is just this unspectacular hard work of
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faith. It is.
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It's reading until you get the meaning, repeating it until it's
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familiar, praying it back to God until your heart is engaged, and
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then applying it until your actions change.
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It's labor. And that's where the real battle
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is won or lost, isn't it? In the mind, the leader who
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won't have his thoughts governed by Scripture will by default
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have them governed by his own anxieties, his own appetites, or
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the opinions of others. But the leader who meditates day
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and night becomes anchored. He becomes harder and harder to
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push around by external pressures because his whole
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being is stabilized by the living Word of God.
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So that brings us to the purpose behind all of this.
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The word isn't just for quoting or for thinking about.
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Those are the means to an end. The real goal, the heart of the
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verse, is that clause, so that you may be careful to do
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according to all that is written in it.
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The end game is obedience. Not just spiritual feelings, not
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just intellectual knowledge, but watchful, comprehensive word
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governed action. This is where right belief has
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to result in right practice. That phrase, be careful,
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suggests very deliberate, principled kind of obedience.
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It's not haphazard. It's paying close attention.
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And then God drops the hammer with that next phrase, according
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to all that is written. And that right there, that rules
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out any kind of selective Christianity.
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Oh, it's a huge challenge for us today.
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Joshua can't just pick and choose the commands he likes,
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the ones that are convenient or popular, and then ignore the
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ones that are costly or strange. Partial obedience is just self
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worship with a religious coat of paint.
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Scripture is so realistic about this.
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It always teaches that talk can never be a substitute for
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walking, James 1.22 says. It's so plainly be doers of the
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Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
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God wants Joshua's leadership to be a practical demonstration of
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right conduct that flows out of right belief.
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And the consequences for getting this wrong are immediate, and
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they're devastating. A leader's private compromises
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almost never stay private for long.
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We see that in the very next major story in Joshua 7 with
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Asian's hidden sin, right? He took some of the devoted
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things from Jericho, directly violating God's command and that
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one act of disobedience hidden in a intent.
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It brought defeat on the entire army at AI.
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It required this harsh judgement to restore Israel's standing
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with God. The lesson is clear.
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God's program of conquest doesn't advance because of
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clever military tactics. It advances because of
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consecration. What we might call a small sin
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is devastating because it's still disobedience to the King.
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Now we have to bring some gospel clarity here, especially for
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those of us in a Reformed tradition.
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God is not giving Joshua a checklist so he can earn God's
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acceptance. Joshua's already in the
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covenant. He's receiving these promises
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because of God's faithfulness to his oath to Abraham.
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That is such a critical distinction.
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This is not legalism. It's not.
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But within that framework of grace, the Lord insists that the
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path of blessing, the path of flourishing, is always the path
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of obedience. Grace doesn't get rid of
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holiness. Grace is what produces holiness
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and empowers it. So it avoids both legalism on
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one side trying to earn God's favor, and antinomianism on the
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other, thinking that since we're saved by grace, the law doesn't
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matter. The law is still the guide, the
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lamp for the redeemed life. And that truth just stands in
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stark contrast to so much of modern evangelical drift.
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Pragmatism always asks, will this program work before it
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asks, Is this approach biblical? The whole seeker sensitive
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impulse is tempted to trim any doctrine that might offend
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people. But Joshua 1.8 demands this
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unwavering conformity to all that is written.
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Real spirituality is measured by obedient conformity to the whole
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counsel of God. The only question that matters
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in the end is did we submit to the Lord's commands?
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OK, so if that's the requirement, what's the promise?
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The verse connects them with those two words for then the
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prosperity, the success. It's directly tied to the means.
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God ordained the Word on the lips, in the mind, and in the
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life. And that direct link means you
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can't just RIP the word prosper out of this context, which
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happens all the time. God is promising His blessing on
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a very specific, narrow path. If you step off the path of word
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saturated obedience, you forfeit the promise.
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So we have to define this covenantal success very
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carefully. The promise is not a blank check
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for Joshua to become rich and comfortable.
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No, the meaning is in the Hebrew terms.
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Yes, the first verb sela, which gets translated make prosperous.
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It has the idea of advancing, a breaking through, of succeeding
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with effective strength. It's about forward progress.
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And the second phrase has the word chuckle, which means to act
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wisely or to prosper because you have wise understanding.
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So you put them together and the promise is this.
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Your path will be made fruitful and effective, and you will act
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wisely because you are aligned with my revealed truth.
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Success is faithfulness and wise progress in the mission God has
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assigned. Which for Joshua was conquest in
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settling the land without becoming like the Canaanites.
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And this clarity is the essential rebuke to the
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prosperity gospel. That entire movement tries to
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use God as a way to get the world stuff health, wealth,
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comfort, right? Joshua 1.8 does the opposite.
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He uses God's Word as the means to obey God in the world.
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The world wants upward mobility. God wants covenant fidelity.
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So as we think about this promise, we have to avoid 2
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errors. 1 is fatalism, the idea that our choices don't matter
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because God is sovereign. This verse explicitly links our
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disciplined obedience to God's blessing.
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Our choices matter. And the other error is the the
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mechanistic mindset, the transactional idea that if I
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just read my Bible enough, God owes me the specific result I
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want. Like a vending machine.
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Exactly. The text promises success is God
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defines it advancement in his mission, not an easy life.
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The man of Psalm 1 is fruitful, yes, but that fruitfulness is
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for God's purposes on God's timeline.
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Obedience is never wasted, but the blessing is spiritual and
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missional first. The path of faithfulness is
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success, whatever the cost. And that perspective is what we
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have to hold on to as we look from Joshua to Christ.
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The moment we talk about Old Covenant obedience, it's
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designed to make us long for the One who actually did it
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perfectly. Joshua's struggle points us
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forward. Even his name, Yeshua, is a
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prophetic echo. Christ is the true word man.
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He is the one who perfectly fulfills Joshua 1.8 with no
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remainder. He is the word made flesh, who
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always delighted to do the Father's will.
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I mean, think about his temptation in the wilderness.
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Where Israel failed. Where Israel failed for 40
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years, Christ triumphed in 40 days.
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And how did he do it? Not with big displays of power.
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He did it by constantly saying it is written, it is written, it
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is written. The word never departed from his
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mouth and. His mind was perfectly aligned
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with the Father's will. He lived out all that is
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written, never turning to the right hand of legalism or the
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left hand of license. His success, our salvation, was
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defined by His perfect covenant faithfulness all the way to the
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cross, where he said, not my will, but yours be done.
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And that's the beauty of the gospel, isn't it?
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Our hope doesn't rest on our own spotty obedience.
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It rests on Christ's perfect righteousness, which is counted
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as ours by faith alone. So Joshua 1.8 is not a command
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we follow to get justified. It's a signpost that points us
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to Christ, who obeyed it perfectly for us.
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And then, having secured our justification, He sends the
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Spirit to train us to walk in that same word shaped pattern,
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that sanctification. The law is still our guide, but
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now it's written on our hearts, shaping us into the image of
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Christ. And Christ is also the greater
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Joshua when it comes to the inheritance.
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Joshua LED Israel into a temporary earthly rest in
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Canaan. Arrest.
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They eventually lost, but Christ leads his people into the true
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eternal inheritance, a Kingdom that can't be shaken, a rest for
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our conscience from sin and the sure hope of the new creation.
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Hebrews 4 makes that point so clearly.
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So let's bring this home. Let's apply this command to the
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church today. The antidote to all the noise
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and anxiety and novelty in our culture is exactly the same as
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it was for Joshua, A life anchored to God's written Word
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on our lips, in our minds, and in our actions.
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And to do that, we have to actively push back against these
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modern drifts. First, the drift of pragmatism.
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This is the idea that if a program gets butts and seats, it
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must be from God, right? So ministries become all about
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management. Sermons become inspirational
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talks designed to get applause instead of conviction.
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Joshua 1.8 calls us to repent of measuring success by numbers and
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applause and to get back to the ordinary means of grace.
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Patient preaching, teaching discipleship.
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God's standard is faithfulness, not flashiness.
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OK, what's the second drift? The drift of mysticism.
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This is that constant hunger for a private, secret word from God
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that you know bypasses the Bible.
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It looks like chasing impressions, vague feelings,
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looking for a sign to consume a decision you've already made.
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And yet, at the most critical moment in Israel's history, God
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ties the leader to the book that was already written.
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Word Shaped Courage isn't about getting a secret message.
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It's about resting in what God has plainly and publicly
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revealed in Scripture. The Spirit's job is to make the
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Bible clear, not to make it optional.
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And the third drift is therapeutic religion.
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This treats the Bible like it's primarily a tool for self
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esteem. It avoids all the sharp edges.
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It wants to comfort people without ever confronting their
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fin. It wants to affirm without
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calling for repentance. But Joshua 1.8 isn't
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sentimental. Word shaped courage requires the
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strength to face our sin and put it to death.
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For leaders, that means preaching the whole counsel of
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God, law and gospel, warning and promise, not just the parts
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people want to hear. And for all of us as believers,
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it means intentionally replacing the fire hose of worldly input,
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the outrage, the entertainment, the social media comparison with
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sustained active meditation on Scripture.
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The antidotes are simple, but they're not easy.
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Daily Bible intake. Scripture memorization, taking
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Lord's Day worship and teaching seriously.
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A process of catechesis, learning the core doctrines of
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the faith so we can interpret our lives through biblical
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categories, not worldly ones. And that word shaped
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perspective, brings us right back to courage.
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True courage isn't the absence of fear.
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It's not pretending you're not trembling.
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It's about bringing that trembling under the authority of
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God's specific objective promises.
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Because in God's economy, success is faithful obedience,
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whatever it looks like to the world.
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All right, let's bring this deep dive to a close.
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Joshua 1.8 gives us God's blueprint for success, and it's
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completely at odds with the world's.
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The formula is simple, but it's demanding.
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The Book of the Law has to govern your lips, saturate your
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mind, and shape your life. That is the only path to God to
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find prosperity. That's right.
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True success isn't found in cultural approval or in our own
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shifting feelings. It's found in the steady, fixed
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voice of God that he has written down for us.
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The world is always shouting. Be impressive, be clever, but
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God's command is be faithful to the text.
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The world demands that you win. God demands that you obey.
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So since the Lord promises to write His law on our hearts
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under the New Covenant, as we see in Jeremiah 31, let me leave
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you with this question to think about, built right on what we've
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covered. If true success is defined only
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by conforming to all that is written, what is one major
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cultural metric in your job, your finances, or your social
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life that you now realize you have to actively reject as the
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measure of your worth because it conflicts with the external
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standard of God's Word? We encourage you to seek word
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shaped courage in everything you do.