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On Jul 05, 2015: Joshua 23:1-13 Possess The Lords Promises · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Well, this morning as we look at Joshua 23 verses 1 through 13, I've titled the message Possess the Lord's Promises. Possess the Lord's Promises. That's what God wants to remind us of and stir us up to do this morning. Now, as we begin chapter 23, we're looking at the beginning of Joshua's farewell address to the nation of Israel. And so he gathers the leaders, he gathers the people together here in Joshua 23 and 24, and he gives some final words to them. And we're just looking at the first portion of that to learn what God has for us this morning. And the overall gist of what Joshua is saying to them is that they are in the promised land, but that God still has lots of work for them to do. And that's important to understand for us as believers because, well, there's some great symbolism that's found in the overview of the things that we're looking at here with the nation of Israel. The symbolism can be kind of traced back to when Israel was in bondage in Egypt, right? And there in Egypt, God, of course, did some great miracles and he used Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and then into the wilderness. And as believers today, we can look back at what God did in that. And there's some symbolism, there's some imagery there that pictures the way that God has delivered us from bondage to sin and death. In the same way that Israel was in bondage there in Egypt, you and I, before Christ, before believing in Jesus, we were bound in sin. We were bound in slavery to our sinful nature, our flesh, the world, the devil. We experienced this slavery that we had. And yet when we believed in Jesus, there was this deliverance. There was this salvation, as Christ said, that when we know the truth, the truth will set us free. And so Christ brings deliverance and that is greatly pictured for us in Israel coming out of Egypt. Well, coming out of Egypt, Israel then went into the wilderness on the way to the promised land. But they got to the edge of the promised land and they decided, you know what? We're too scared. There's giants in the land. We don't want to enter in. And so in their unbelief and in their disobedience, God instructed them or caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years to allow that whole generation to die. And there's a picture there for us as well as believers that we can understand. As the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness as a result of their unbelief and their disobedience, you and I as believers can experience a type of wilderness wandering where we kind of go in circles like they did in the wilderness, where we are not going forward and growing in our relationship with God because of our unbelief and and disobedience because of our refusal to do what God has called us to do. Well, then Israel came out of the wilderness experience and obeyed God and went into the promised land. And Joshua led them into the promised land and he led them all around the area of the promised land and they defeated, they went to battle with the major kings that were there in the land of Canaan and they experienced victory. They experienced God's working on their behalf as they fought these battles. And again, this imagery continues for us as believers. The promised land for us is not looking at heaven, but it's looking at our Christian life and the growth and the victory that we experience as we walk with God and trust in God. And so as we look at Israel going into their promised land and Joshua encouraging them to take and receive the fullness of God's promises, there's great application for us today as well. We are encouraged this morning to possess the Lord's promises, to possess what God has done for us and what God will do for us as we respond to him. Now, before we get into the points for this passage, the first few verses here kind of set the scene for us. And so look with me again at verse one. It says, now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old, advanced in age. So as we begin to understand this scene here at the end of Joshua, we're understanding they've been in the promised land for some time. We don't know exactly how much time has passed, but at this time, they've had the battles. They've been victorious. They've been living in the land for a while. And it says that they've had rest from their enemies roundabout. And so there was a time of rest. There was a period of rest after they went in and invaded the land of Canaan. And so they're not under attack. There's still inhabitants that are in the land. When Joshua led the children of Israel to victory in the promised land, it wasn't that there was no more people in the land. It was that the major kings, the major nations were defeated, but there was still many different pockets of inhabitants and those who were living there in the land that God was calling them to drive out. But at this time, at the end of Joshua's life, it says he's old and advanced in age and They've been living there for some time and they've had those victories in the past, but they've just been kind of hanging out, building their houses, you know, getting settled since then. And now Joshua is going to call them to go beyond that and do more of what God has called them to do. And so in verse 2, it tells us he called together all Israel. He brought the leaders together and he says, look, I'm old. I'm advanced in age. It tells us that a few times. So we know Joshua is near the end of his life here. As he has led Israel for these many years, he's at the end of that. And he wants to kind of pass on the torch and stir them up to go forward after he's gone. Verse 3. He says, As Joshua begins this farewell address, he says, okay, first of all, remember what God has done. Remember what God has done. I think it's interesting. Joshua has a long legacy with the children of Israel, but he doesn't stand up and say, okay, it's time to say farewell, but I want you to remember everything I've done for you. He points them back to God and says, remember what God has done for you and remember how God has fought for you. And there's a purpose to this. He says, I want you to remember how God drove out these nations and how God fought for you and so that you continue to trust him and go to battle. Look at verse four. He says, see, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. And so he says, remember what God has done for you. Remember how God has fought for you because, well, I've divided for you this territory by lot And he specifically says, these nations that remain. The battle has been fought. The kings have been conquered. The promised land is theirs, but that is not the end of their battles. There is still more that God wants to do. There is still more territory for them to take within the territory that God has given to them. There's pockets of inhabitants. There's people there that need to be dealt with. And these nations that remain say, are a danger to the children of Israel. Now understand, it's not that they were under attack. In Joshua chapter 11, there was a group of kings that gathered together to attack Israel. That was as Joshua led them into the promised land. But that wasn't the case anymore. They had rest. There wasn't the attacks that were coming in, but there were these nations that remained kind of alongside of them. And that was a danger to them. It was a danger to their future. It was a danger and it was not what God desired for them. His instruction to them was to drive out the inhabitants completely from the promised land. Now this is important for us to consider because there is a similar danger for us. And this morning as we look at these things, I want you to consider your life as a Christian. Many of you have been believers for a long time. And the longer you've been a believer, I think the more appropriate it this last message of Joshua is for you because it's easy for us to get in the same similar condition as the nation of Israel where we've experienced great victory in our lives and then we just rest and we kind of coexist. We allow pockets or large areas of issues, of things that are not of God to exist in our lives and we just kind of learn to live alongside these things. And we stop working to drive them out and we start working to just coexist. We get comfortable with the amount of work that God has done in our lives. We get complacent. You know, we think, well, I don't use those words that I used to use. So, you know, that's pretty good. I don't have the temper I used to have. You know, that's pretty good. Yeah, sure, sometimes it flares up, but you know, it's nothing compared to what it once was. God's done a great work in me. And so it's easy for us to kind of think about our life in those terms and not continue to present ourselves to God to be transformed and changed to become more like him. We get those times of rest where we're not under attack as much. Now in times of attack, we're where the world is coming against you, where there's circumstances or situations, where there's emotional battles, those times of attack, we call out to the Lord, we cry out to the Lord, we seek the Lord, but in those times of rest, when that attack isn't coming from the outside, it's easy for us to just rest and not go forward. This was the area that the, this was the condition of the children of Israel. We, like them, can be tempted to stop growing, to stop going forward in our relationship with the Lord. But he says, look, I've divided the land by lot. So you have your portion and you need to continue to fight even though they're not fighting against you. Don't just learn to live alongside of them, but you got to go forward and drive out the inhabitants. In verse five, he says, and the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. If you will go forward in doing what God has called you to do and driving them out, he says, God will drive them out before you. He will do the work. There's still battles. Even though you've been in the promised land for a long time, there's still fights that need to take place. There's still growth that needs to happen. And the end result will be, he says at the end of verse 5, And that verse is where I get the title for the message this morning. Possess the Lord's Promises. In the same way that there was promises for the nation of Israel that they had to go forward in order to possess, there are promises that God has for you. And as a believer in Jesus Christ, you've experienced great victory, but there's still more battles that God wants you to fight. There's still more things that God wants you to engage in so that you can possess all of his promises, all of those things that he has promised to you. As you continue to trust God and obey him, you will possess the promises that he has given. In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus declares that the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus says, I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus says, I came so that you could have abundant life. And we're not just talking about eternity, although of course there is abundant overflowing life in eternity for a believer in Jesus. But I also would suggest to you that Jesus is promising here and desires to give you full and meaningful life. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you never will have problems and never have issues and never have struggles and never have hurts or wants or anything like that. But but that even in the midst of those things, Jesus came to give you full and meaningful life. And if you're not experiencing full and meaningful life, you need to understand there are these promises that God has for you. So possess the Lord's promises. God will do his part, but he also requires you to do your part. And that brings us to the points for the message this morning. Possess the Lord's promises, three points. Three things for us to do in order to experience the fullness of God's promises. In order to experience abundant life in the way that God has for us. What is the first thing we should do? Well, verse six and seven give us the first point and that is keep the word. Keep the word. Check out verse six. He says, therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. He says, therefore, be very courageous. Here I see Joshua seeking to stir up the nation of Israel. He wants to stir them up because there is still much to do. There is much that God wants to do. You can put yourself in their shoes and understand. It would have been easy for them to think, we're in the promised land, the work's done. But Joshua is saying, no, there's still much more that God wants to do. And in the same way as you and I look at these things this morning, as a believer in Jesus, you need to understand this is true of you. And I would encourage you to be stirred up this morning. There is still much that God wants to do in you. There is still much to do. There's not, well, we're not in the time of permanent rest. That's eternity. Until we enter into eternity, there is still much that God wants to do. And we could look at that in the sense of evangelism and reaching the world with the great, you know, the gospel, the great commission. But even just kind of stepping it down a little bit and considering our own hearts, let me just remind you, there is still much that God wants to do in your heart. And we could just start with that, set aside the outward stuff for a moment that God wants to do, and God wants to do through us. Yes, God wants to do great things through us, but don't let yourself fall into this mentality of this idea that, well, I'm kind of good enough now. The work is done enough. God has done enough in my heart. I'm fine because there is still much more that God desires and needs to do in your heart, in your life personally. He says, therefore, be very courageous. You're not done yet, so be stirred up. You're not done yet, so be very courageous. I can imagine the children of Israel in the promised land. And I think I would be maybe thinking this way if I was in their shoes. Evaluating the risk versus the reward. Now it's one thing to go to battle and to fight when you have nothing. They're entering into the promised land. They have no land. And so they go into battle and they fight because they have nothing. But now they're settled. They've been in the land for some time. They've got houses. They've got fields. There's less of an urgency. There's a risk when you go into battle. And now they're thinking, well, I don't know if the risk justifies the reward. Because we've already got land. We don't need that much more land. We're already pretty good where we're at. So why do we have to work so hard? Why do we have to fight so much? And so they're evaluating the risk versus the reward. It's one thing to fight when you're under attack. It's one thing to fight when you're highly motivated because you don't have anything. But when we slip into this mode of, well, it's good enough. It's so easy to stop fighting, to be like the children of Israel and just kind of coexist. And so there's issues in your life, but you just kind of put up with them. You just kind of, well, I'm good enough. I've progressed enough in the Lord. I've progressed enough in where I'm at. I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be. And so I can just kind of maintain from here on out. But Joshua says, no. Don't just take on this idea of you're just gonna coast, you're just gonna make do with, and you're just gonna be who you are, the way that you are for the rest of your life. No, he says, therefore be very courageous, in verse six, to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses. So be stirred up, take on courage, take on this boldness for what? To do what? To keep the word. Here's what we need to do in order to possess God's promises, in order to receive the fullness of life that God has for us. We need to keep the word. We need to do what God's word says. David Guzik says, You and I as believers need courage. We need boldness because what God calls us to do in his word is radical. It's different. He calls us to go against the flow. He calls us to be different than the world around us. As God said in Isaiah, his ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. And so when God speaks in his word, what he calls us to do is not what we would normally think. It's not what society would think. It's not the way that we would want. And so we need boldness. We need courage to be faithful to God's word. The word keep, it gives the idea of like setting a guard, a watchman to protect, to preserve the word. And there are those as believers who are watchmen of the word in the sense that they treasure it, they value it, they memorize it. But the key here in verse six, he says to keep and to do all that is written. Don't just think about the word of God and think how important it is to you. You can read it every day. You can spend time in it. You can memorize it. But as James said, if you're just a hearer of the word, you're deceiving yourself. We need to be doers of the word. And so the idea isn't just that we know the word of God and that we can, you know, talk about different books of the Bible or we know certain verses or this or that, but that we're spending time in the word of God. We're keeping, we're guarding, we're preserving the word of God so that we can put it into practice. And we're looking for opportunity to do what God says and be faithful to what God instructs us in his word. And again, this is why so often we encourage you as the body of Christ here to be engaged with us in reading through the Bible. We have the Bible in three years reading schedule that we're doing together so that we're together in the word day by day to have opportunity to hear from God and then do what he says. Now there's a danger if we don't keep the word. He says here at the end of verse six, he says, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. So here Joshua says, if you're not courageous to keep and to do God's word, you're gonna turn away from the word of God. There needs to be this boldness, this tenacity for us to keep the word of God, to seek to obey it. And Joshua says, if you don't have that, then what's going to end up happening is you're going to turn away from the word of God to the right hand or to the left. You're going to, you're something, you're going to turn away to something, something other than the word of God. He extends that warning into verse seven. The first part he says, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. So not only will you turn away from the word of God, but then you'll go among the nations of you'll start to mingle with the world. You'll start to assimilate with the world. If you're not courageous to keep and to do God's word, you will settle with the world. There's a saying, it's been around for a long time. If you're not moving forward, you're falling behind. And that's something to consider as you think about keeping the word. If you're courageous to keep and to do God's word. then you're going to be going forward. God's going to be doing a work. You're going to be experiencing the promises and possessing the Lord's promises. But if you are not courageous to keep and to do God's word, then you will begin to slip away. You'll begin to turn away and you'll find yourself engaged in things that are of the world and should have no place in your life. This morning, I want to encourage you to possess the Lord's promises and to experience the full and meaningful life that Jesus has for you. And it starts with a real commitment to keep the word of God, to believe it and to live it out in your life. Well, that's the first thing, keep the word. Now going on to the second thing that we need to do to possess the Lord's promises, verse seven and eight tell us to hold fast to the Lord. That's what you need to do. Hold fast to the Lord. Verse seven says, Again, the first part is what we just talked about. Lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. But then he says, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them. Verse eight, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. He makes it clear. There's a choice to make. There's their gods, right? And there is your God. Now, as he talks about their gods, he's talking about the people of the land of Canaan, where they've now moved into and taken up residence. And the land of Canaan was full of idolatry. All kinds of different idols, all kinds of different worship that the people were engaged in throughout the land of Canaan. It was normal. It was natural. It's what those people had always known. And what Joshua is saying here is that there's going to be this tendency among you. Kind of a natural pull as you're living there side by side, commingling with the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, you're going to start to incorporate their gods into your life. And that's a very dangerous thing. And so he kind of outlines for us the progression to kind of prevent the people from going that way. So he says, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods. This is where it starts. You begin to talk about their gods. You begin to consider, to ponder, to think. You begin to have discussions with one another. Well, what do you think? Is there anything to this God that they worship? And as they would begin to engage in this discussion and making mention of their gods, well, then it would lead to them beginning to swear by their gods or cause people to swear by them. Now he's not talking about using them as profane words or cuss words. He's talking about making commitments and vows and promises by these gods. And then if you mention them and then begin to swear by them, ultimately you begin to serve them and bow down to them. You begin to worship these other gods. And Joshua says, you're not to do this. Don't start down that road. Don't make mention of their gods. Don't swear by their gods. Don't serve their gods or bow down to them. Now, the same danger exists for us today. It exists, though, in a slightly different format. In those days, there was physical, literal idols that they would bow down to. And some would suggest, you know, that's more honest, that they were really open. You know, if they were lusting after things, if they were chasing after things, if they were pursuing things, they were more honest about it. They did it, you know, more openly. I maybe look at it in a little bit different light though. And I would suggest to you this way. I think Satan has stepped up his game and the deception is far greater than it was in those days. That is, it's the same idols, but they're much more subtle. They're much more behind the scenes. They're much more where we can deceive ourselves and engage in the worship of these idols without actually having to bow down to a statue in our living room. That is, we give other things the place of God in our lives. And the world around us is full of idolatry. That is our nature. We're worshiping things. We're chasing after things. And there's a natural pull for you and I in the same way that there was for them to take on the values and ideals of the culture around us. And Joshua says, look, you're going to have to make a choice. And the next chapter, he's going to make that choice very clear, right? Choose this day who you're going to serve. These gods of these nations or your God. You're going to have to make a choice. And it has to be a deliberate choice, right? Because the natural tendency will be for you to be pulled in that direction. And so he says in verse 8, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. It's going to require a purposeful decision on your part to keep yourself from following their gods. You're not going to naturally hold fast to God. It's not just going to happen automatically. You need to make the decision to You need to choose who you're going to serve. You need to hold fast to the Lord your God. As I was thinking about this idea of holding fast and this pull and pressure that we feel from the world around us, it reminded me of, well, long ago when I was just a young boy, I had some friends. They were real good friends of our family. And it was a big family. They had seven kids and And so we would often go visit and one of the things that we loved, especially during the summer, was their above ground pool in the backyard. They had this above ground pool I don't know, maybe it was the size of like this middle section of chairs here. And it was round and there would be their seven kids plus a couple of us. But if you've ever been around a big family, you kind of know how it is, right? All the seven kids have their own friends that are over. And then there's extra family members that are living with them at the time and stuff. And so whenever we would go over there, it was just always, there's just overflowing with people, right? And so we would get into the pool during a hot day and we would be enjoying ourselves as kids in the pool. And one of the favorite things that we would do is we would make a whirlpool. Have you guys ever made a whirlpool inside an above ground pool? Listen, when you have a big round pool like that, it's just perfect for it. So we would have, you know, sometimes 20, 25 people, you know, kids inside the pool and we would get in the line and we would go all around the perimeter of the pool. And it would take a while, but we could, we had all day, we were kids. So we could go for hours, you know, just walking in circles. And we would, it would take some time, but we would build up the momentum in the water. It would begin to flow and flow. It would go faster and faster, stronger and harder because, you know, there was so many of us. And I always remember little Benjamin, he was the youngest. And there would be times where he'd be holding onto the ladder, you know, with his legs stretched out because he couldn't keep up with the current anymore. He wasn't helping with it. He was caught up in it. He couldn't do anything except for hold on to try to keep above, you know, keep above water, keep above... able to breathe and such. And so there was this pressure that built up. There was this whirlpool and you would be, you know, then try to stand your ground. That was the fun thing. Like we would work, you know, for a half hour to get it built up real strong so that we could try to like stand and resist, you know, and try to stand in place while the water pushed against us. That's, I think, a helpful illustration to understand. This is the way the world around us is working. This is the tendency. There's this pressure to take on the values and ideals of the world around us, to take up their gods and worship their gods. And it's pushing against us. And it's very easy for us to just go with the flow. It would be so much easier if we would just go with the flow. But we can't because those are false gods. And going with the flow will bring destruction to our lives. And so instead, we've got to be like little Benjamin, holding fast to the Lord, clinging on for life, making sure that you never let go, that you value what he values, that you give priority to what he gives priority to. The word hold fast, it means to cling, to cleave to. Again, it's like you're holding on for dear life. This is the kind of grasp that you need to have on the Lord, that you're holding on to him, that you're insisting that you don't let go. But it requires a purposeful decision. It requires, otherwise you're just gonna easily go with the flow. You gotta make a choice. You gotta watch out that you don't get swept away. And again, the idolatry that we face today is much more subtle. And so it's things that begin to creep into our life. And kind of like the whirlpool illustration, it's one thing to jump in after we've got the current going, but typically we were all in, and so we would just begin to walk. The way that the current ended up was nowhere near the way that it started. It was just nice and calm, comfortable. We were just walking around the pool. And that's the way things can creep into our life, these gods, these idols. that take the place. Listen, God needs to be your ultimate devotion. And when things creep in and you begin to be devoted to them instead of God, you're starting to be swept away. You're starting that current. It's pulling at you. When there's things that you're more passionate about than you are about God, you're experiencing that tugging, that pulling, that creeping away. When things begin to take priority over God, Again, you're experiencing that tug, that pull. I would ask you to consider, are there things that are trying to pull you away from God? One of the first things to go many times in our lives is our devotion time, where we spend time with God just personally between us and Him. Spend time in the Word, spend time in prayer, spend time in worship. And many times we get busy, we get, you know, a lot of things going on. That's the first thing to go. And we need to make sure that we hold fast to the Lord. Not in a legalistic way, not because, well, if I follow these laws and do this formula, then God will be happy with me. No, but because I recognize there's this danger of being pulled away and there's these other gods that are fighting for my attention and passion and devotion. And I need to make sure I cling to the Lord and put him first because he's the most important thing in life. And so I would encourage you to check out your devotional time. What are you doing? How are you spending time with the Lord? That's often one of the first things to go. There's lots of variety in the ways that these things can impact our lives. We can get distracted by, it's unlimited. Sports, kids in sports, social pressure, entertainment, activity, all types of sinful practices as well. Not just things that maybe seem like they have no harm. There's all kinds of things. There's many different false gods. He says, you need to make sure that you hold fast to that you cling to the Lord your God. Remember in Hebrews chapter 12, verse one and two, the author of Hebrews says, hey, look, we have a cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us, those who have been faithful. And so he says, so let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. This is what Joshua is talking about. Lay aside the weights and lay aside the sin. Those false gods, those things that are trying to sweep you up, lay them aside. He says the sin easily ensnares us. The weight, it holds us down. We got to put those things aside and then run the race that is set before us. Cling to the Lord. Hold fast to him. Make sure that you run the race. And if you find yourself in a spot where you haven't been clinging to the Lord, the good news is Jesus addressed that in speaking to the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter two. He says, I have this against you. You've left your first love. You haven't been clinging to the Lord. But then he says, repent and do the first works. Go back. It's not too late. You find yourself on the other side of the pool because you've let go. It's not too late. You can grab hold of the Lord once more. Right now, where you're at is He allows that. He invites you to do that. And he doesn't say, okay, well, you've let go and you found yourself all the way over here. Now work really hard against the current and get back and then you can grab hold of me once again. No, he just says, repent and do the first works. Start right now. Grab hold of the Lord once again. Hold fast to him and you will begin once again to possess the Lord's promises. Once again, he will begin to work in your heart and in your life. Once again, he will fight the battles on your behalf. He will go before you and drive out the enemies. Once again, you will experience the full and meaningful life that Christ has for you when you hold fast to the Lord. Well, the final point found in verses nine through 11 is, is to love the Lord. For us to experience the fullness of what God has for us, to possess the Lord's promises, we must love the Lord. Check out verse nine and 10. Again, he says, for the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you. Verse 11. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Again, he reminds them of what God has done. He says, the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. Don't forget the work that God has done. Don't forget how God brought you out of Egypt. Don't forget how God brought you into the promised land. He tells them all these kings gathered together and God gave you victory. You were outnumbered, but God allowed you to be victorious. He fought for you. No one has been able to stand against you. And he says, one man of you shall chase a thousand. Now, can you picture that on a battlefield? I mean, even on the Lord of the Rings, you know, the heroes didn't chase a thousand just by one person. They were greatly outnumbered. But anyways, let's not get into that. But can you picture on a battlefield one man chasing a thousand? It's kind of a funny visual, right? But you know, this really happened more than once. Remember the account of Gideon? God used Gideon with his 300 men to defeat Gideon. the Midianites, which it says were more than 132,000. There was this huge battle that took place where 300 chased 100,000 or more. In other words, the enemy might look huge to us. The battle might look way too big for us. The problem might seem unsolvable for us, but God is able to do such a work that one man can chase a thousand because it's God who fights for you. And notice at the end of verse 10, as he promised you, God fights for you as he promised. And so then he says, therefore, in verse 11, because of the victories that God has done, because of the promises that he will continue to fight for you, as you consider all that God has done for you, he says, love the Lord, love God, The word love here speaks of an ardent and vehement inclination of the mind. There's this intensity of the mind. There's this focus. There's this attention of the mind. But then it also speaks of tender affection. And this is how we're to love the Lord. Having that focus, that intensity in our attention to the Lord at the same time as having this affection, this tenderness towards the Lord. this love for him. It speaks of both the determination as well as the feelings of love for God. If you don't think that God has done very much for you that is deserving of that kind of love, then I would just remind you or let you know that you don't understand the gospel. And I would ask you to consider that. As we've been going through the book of Romans on Wednesday evenings, it's been so refreshing for me personally just to revisit that. what the gospel is and how much it means and really the incredibleness of what God has done for us through the cross. And if you will understand the gospel message, the good news of what Christ has done for us, then you will know that God is worthy of all of our love. And if you don't recognize that God's worthy of our love, then you need to go back and remember the gospel. The fullness of what God has done for us, what it cost him is incredible. John tells us later on in one of his letters that we love God because he first loved us. Our love for God is just our response to his incredible love for us and what he has done for us. And as you consider all that God has done, as they consider how God fought for them, as we consider how God fought for us, defeating our enemies, sin and death there at the cross. He says, therefore, take heed to yourselves that you love the Lord. So not just love the Lord, but take heed to yourselves. Take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord. He says, take a look at yourself. This idea of taking heed, again, it's the idea of setting a guard. Set a guard over your life, over your heart. Keep yourself in check. Check yourself out. Do I love God the way that I need to? Do I have the right heart towards God? Am I keeping myself in the love of God? Am I where I need to be in my relationship with the Lord? He says, take heed to yourselves. Pay attention to yourselves. Check your heart to make sure that you keep yourself in a place where you love the Lord. I've quoted Pastor Chuck in this often, but one more time, I think it's worth it. Pastor Chuck once said, if there's ever been a time where you are more on fire or more passionate for God than you are right now, then you are in a backslidden state. If there's ever a time in your life where you loved God more than you do right now, you're backslidden. Where you are more passionate for God than you are right now, then you're backslidden. Now don't confuse loving God with being busy, you know, so it's not doing stuff. It doesn't mean you have to get busier and busier and busier and busier and busier. You know, you started out reading the Bible five minutes a day. But after 20 years, you should be reading four hours a day every day. You know, otherwise you don't love God as much. That's not the point. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, where's your heart? Things are going to change and seasons are going to change and God's going to call you to different things at different times. But if you were more passionate, more on fire, if you love God more at some other point in your life, then that means you're backslidden right now. You should continue to increase and take careful heed to yourselves that you continue to love the Lord, that you grow in your love for him, that you grow in your passion for him. And again, that's the point of what Joshua is saying here to the children of Israel. God brought you in and now you're just resting, but you need to press forward and not just coexist with your enemies, not just put up with those things in your life, not just put up with those issues or those things that are concerning to the Lord, but Don't just settle with those big victories. Hey, I know I'm going to heaven. That's the most important thing. That's all that really matters. So that's enough for me. He says, no, don't have that heart. Don't have that mentality. And it comes with a warning. Look with me at verse 12. He says, or else. So now you know it's a warning. Keep the word, hold fast to the Lord, love the Lord, or else. If you don't, walk in these ways if you don't keep the word and hold fast to the Lord and love the Lord well if you do you'll possess the Lord's promises and God's going to work on your behalf he's going to fight for you you're going to experience the fullness and and meaningful life that that the Lord intends for you but if you refuse to do these things he says or else if indeed you do go back you Verse 13. So here he gives the warning. Here's what you need to do to experience God's promises, to possess his promises. But if you don't, it will be your destruction. I like the way that Thomas Constable talks about this. He says, here is the danger of freedom. God seeks man's free response of love and he does his part to deserve and receive such love. But God does not force his attentions upon man. He says, the man who ignores God's claims finds God's punishment. God gives us freedom to choose. And we can choose him to keep his word, to hold fast to him, to love him. And if we do, we will experience his promises. But if we don't, if we choose not to walk with the Lord, not to follow the Lord, well, there's great danger for us. Joshua tells the people, know for certain the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. If you love God, if you keep his word, God's going to do a work. He's going to drive out those nations. He's going to work on your behalf. But if you don't, he's not going to drive those nations out. He doesn't call you to just sit on the couch and then he's going to drive out all the inhabitants. He says, as you go, you suit up, you march out to battle, then I'll go before you. As you obey me and trust me and keep my word, then I'm gonna do the work. But you're not just supposed to sit there. You gotta get up and go to battle. If you don't keep my word, I'm not gonna drive them out. And instead, he says, they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes. I don't know, that one just kind of gets me a little bit like thorns in my, I'd rather have a scourge on my side than a thorn in my eye. I'm pretty sure of that. He says, if you put up with these nations, you just allow them to live there, they're gonna end up being great pain to you. And if you, as a believer today, you just put up with these things in your life that you know are not of God, you know God wants to deal with, but you just learn to live with them. you're gonna end up experiencing great pain from that. Alan Redpath says, how often we see that the temptation we have pampered and encouraged and indulged has become a scourge and a thorn in our side. He says, the compromising Christian is not a happy man. The compromising Christian is not a happy person. They're miserable because those things they've compromised with, those things that they've allowed have become pain. great pains in their eye, in their side, in their back, their snares and their traps. Listen, the children of Israel are in the promised land, but there's still much work to do. And you as a believer in Jesus Christ, you're in the promised land, but there's still much work to do. God's not done changing your heart. He's not done changing your life. He's not done transforming you into the image of Jesus Christ. He's nowhere near done. And if you need verification, just ask your spouse or someone next to you. He's not near done with you. It's not the time to rest and just kind of coexist. It's the time to possess the Lord's promises by keeping his word, by holding fast to him, and by loving him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I'm going to invite Jonathan and Alina to come back up and do a closing song for us as we partake of communion together. And I would encourage you as we partake of communion, this is what the Lord gave us as a reminder of what he's done for us. And so as Joshua reminded Israel of the great victories that they had before, we get a great reminder this morning. The bread and the cup, which picture the body of Christ being broken for us and the blood of Christ in the cup that was being shed for us, that we might be forgiven, that we might be set free, that we might have everlasting life. And so as you partake of communion this morning, I would encourage you to make sure that you receive the work of Christ and enter into the promised land, whether it's for the first time or whether it's, well, you've been away and you need to come back. or you've been slacking and you need to step up and engage in what God has called you to do in allowing him to work in your life, enter into the promised land. And if God's been speaking to you in any of these ways, are you not keeping the word? Then I would encourage you as you partake of communion this morning, then make the choice, obey God's word, make the choice that you need to make, take the steps that you need to take. To obey God and be faithful, to keep his word, to keep yourself invested in the word of God. Do you find yourself not holding fast? You've been kind of swept away by some other things in the world around you and you've been caught up. You find yourself on the other side of the pool. Now's the time as you partake of communion to give God his proper place. to grasp hold of him once again, to repent and do the first works, as the Lord told the church of Ephesus, to lay aside the weeds and the sin, to run the race. So partake of communion this morning, receiving the work of Christ and grabbing hold of him once more. Or do you find yourself not loving God the way that you once did or the way that you know he's called you to? Well, allow yourself to remember and reflect the cross. the meaning of what Christ has done for us, and then just respond as we recognize what he has done for us. The only reasonable response is to love him in return. And so let this time of communion be meaningful for you, where you take the time to hear from God, to respond to him, and enter into the promised land, to possess the promises that God has for you. The ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup as they lead us in worship. And as you get the bread and the cup in your hand, you can go ahead and partake at any time between you and the Lord. But you spend time with God. You hear from him. You enter into the promised land and look forward to receiving those promises that he has for you. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.