WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:14.799 Just bow your heads in prayer as you stand. 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:26.239 Father, you know how things in our culture can make it hard to hear your Word. And we are entering 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:32.000 into a part of your Word today, Father, where that is definitely the case. And so Father, we ask that you 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:38.799 help us to sow, hear, and receive your Word, knowing that you who are the good, the true, and the beautiful, 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:45.920 have revealed to us your Word, which is true, and good, and beautiful. And we might so listen to our 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:53.359 culture and be able to commend and defend your Word, but even more importantly, that we might receive all 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:58.959 that you desire to give us in and through your Word this morning. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:06.000 do that gentle but powerful work in our hearts. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:12.959 --> 00:02:17.759 I'm going to do something a bit unusual. Joshua chapter 1, that's what we're looking at, 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:25.120 verses 1 to 9 primarily. And I'm going to read the first three verses. And the first three verses go like this. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:37.840 After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:46.159 Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:54.400 into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot 00:02:54.400 --> 00:03:03.200 will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. The book of Joshua is the story 00:03:03.200 --> 00:03:12.879 of the people of Israel entering into the promised land. It's a story of conquest. And so I really need 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:18.719 your prayer over this sermon series. We're not going to look at every single verse in Joshua. We're going 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:24.000 to do it in 10 to 12 weeks. So sometimes I'll just say this is what's going on here and just summarize 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:30.000 it. But I really need your prayers, more so than normal, because there's five really big areas where 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:35.919 I could go with the book of Joshua. And just roughly what they are, I could talk about modern politics. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:42.960 I could talk about archaeology. I could talk about apologetics. I could talk about what the text means. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:47.120 And I could talk about what the text means to me and you and why you should read it. 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:54.640 Archaeology, there's piles of debate behind this book. And all I'm going to say is, I'm going to put 00:03:54.640 --> 00:04:01.600 in the announcements this coming week, I'm going to give Morris a link that people can go to 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:07.760 on a YouTube video. I think it's about an hour long. Very good one on the dating of Jericho and a few 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:12.639 other things in the book of Joshua. But I'm going to go, just so you know, there's the traditional 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:17.920 dating and then there's the very modern mainline dating. And I'm just going to, I'm not going to 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:21.120 talk about any other week. I'm just going to say something now. And from now on, I'm just going to 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:26.639 assume it. And that is the traditional dating is that what's being described here either happened in 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:37.120 the year 1406 BC, give or take, or 1220 BC, give or take. And the dating has to do with some 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:42.800 archaeological stuff and how you read different parts of the first of the book and the first five 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:49.599 books of Moses. And that leads me to the second thing about politics, because I don't want to get 00:04:49.599 --> 00:04:54.879 dragged down rabbit trails of politics, which I could easily do because I'm interested in politics. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:05:01.120 But what I want to say is, as you go into it, you're going to very, very clearly see, even right off 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:07.279 the bat, Israel go in and conquer the land. Obviously, there's some political implications 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:13.360 that in terms of what's going on right now in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza and Jordan and Lebanon 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:19.519 and that Egypt and that whole region, it obviously has some types of political implications. You can add 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:26.399 to that the fact that there's a large segment of the general evangelical world who would say that 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:31.199 God's promises to Israel means we have to support Israel. And I don't want to go down any of those 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:36.959 rabbit trails on this book. One of the things we might do if there's an interest is I might organize 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:44.240 a circle time, so to speak, end of October, early November, where we can gather maybe on a late Saturday 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:50.160 afternoon and have Coke or coffee and hot chocolate and donuts and just have a free-for-all conversation, 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:55.040 where you ask me questions and challenge me. That would be good. Maybe we'll do that. We'll see. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:01.759 But while I'm not going to get into any of those things about the promises to Israel in the modern 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:07.759 state of Israel, the book is going to have certain types of implications that are unavoidable. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.680 And it just has to do with some of the arguments that we would support and some of the arguments 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:18.480 that we would reject. There's other arguments other than this. But what this book clearly does 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:23.599 reject is one of the main arguments used. This is the only time I'm going to talk about something 00:06:23.599 --> 00:06:27.680 political and you can challenge me afterwards. That's completely fine. Send me emails if you're 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:32.639 watching online. And that there's one thing, it's just a fact, that means that a certain type of 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:39.839 argument Christians should never accept. And the class of arguments that Israel is not indigenous to 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:46.319 the land, that they are a colonial occupying power, you can't read the book of Joshua as a Christian and 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:55.919 accept that argument. You have to reject it. This book is talking about Israel entering the land in 1406 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:05.759 BC. That means they have been in that land because there's been continuous inhabitation for 3400 years. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.920 And as well as that, because I've heard people get this completely wrong, and this is the only other 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:19.120 fact, the people that the Jewish people are displacing in this book are not Arabs. They are displacing 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:30.399 Canaanites. Arabs don't enter into this territory until the mid-600s or approximately 2,000 years 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:36.480 after this book. So all I'm going to say is you can have, there's all sorts of other arguments you can 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.600 do about Israel's actions and Palestinians and all that. There's all sorts of good ones, but one of the 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:46.560 most popular ones in North America, a Christian just has to reject. You just have to reject. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:52.720 1406 Israel enters into this part of the world, and so these other things are just wrong. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:57.600 The other three, well, one of them is as you get into the book, and if you look at Wikipedia, 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:04.800 which increasingly is a really good way to find out a left-wing consensus on a whole pile of things, 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:10.800 that's often what Wikipedia has become from what it used to be. But you'll see that this is a real big 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:15.199 battleground text on why you shouldn't have anything to do with the Bible, why you shouldn't be a Christian. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:22.719 There are claims that this book is teaching genocide, it's teaching race hatred, it's teaching 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:31.680 othering, it's encouraging violence, it's encouraging pride and presumption and modern Israeli policies, 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:37.439 and a whole pile of things are often alleged to be in this book. And there's six or seven or eight of 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:42.080 things that we need to do with them, and we need to deal with them, and we need to deal with them. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:46.720 So just so you know, what I'm going to do is I'm not going to have probably one sermon where I just 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:55.520 talk about them all. There's different strands of complaints, or not complaints, what are the 00:08:55.520 --> 00:09:02.240 words that I wrote down? I should look at my notes, eh? Indictments. There's seven or eight 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:08.480 indictments against the Christian faith in this book, and I'm going to deal with them one at a time as they 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:14.159 come up. In fact, this week I'll deal with one indictment in the text, which is often used against the 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:18.480 Bible and against this story. But I'm not going to, but I am going to look at them. But I want to have the 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:24.960 focus, the majority of my sermon, so other than this longer introduction, I want to have the focus on what it 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:33.840 meant, and what it means, and why Christians should be reading it. And I want to be able to deal with some 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:41.200 of the apologetic issues as they come up, because I want everybody to be a Christian. I think Jesus 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:48.160 really did rise from the dead. I think he is the hope of the world. I think he is the only savior. Jesus 00:09:48.160 --> 00:09:53.519 believed and trusted the Old Testament, so I believe and trust the Old Testament. And I want it to remove 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:59.699 anything that makes it impossible for you to think that the Bible might be something that Jesus is 00:09:59.699 --> 00:10:05.199 someone you actually need to have in your life. And I think the book of Joshua, it comes from the good, 00:10:05.319 --> 00:10:11.379 the true, the beautiful God, and I think the way it describes the things it will help you to do in your 00:10:11.379 --> 00:10:16.519 life are good and true and beautiful. I mean, one of the things that the book is going to constantly be 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:23.000 looking at, we're going to look at in a moment, is it's this call to do hard things. The call to do hard 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:30.200 things, which is a perennial issue. So pray that I can stay in my lane and not keep going off into 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:35.419 other lanes. And as I said, if there's lots of accumulative questions, after my eight o'clock 00:10:35.419 --> 00:10:40.659 service, somebody came at me, not like in a very friendly way, asking me what implications from 00:10:40.659 --> 00:10:45.419 something. I'm quite willing to have a coffee time or a Coke time or hot chocolate time, and we'll just 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:51.480 handle these things in a circle, not a lecture format. So please pray. Let's read the text again, 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:56.379 okay? And it goes like this. If you turn in your Bibles, Joshua 1, 1 to 3. 00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:03.000 After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:10.779 Moses's assistant, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:16.659 you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 00:11:16.659 --> 00:11:23.319 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised 00:11:23.319 --> 00:11:30.500 Moses. Now it's very significant. It's easy to miss, but it's very significant that the book begins 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:37.159 with a funeral, so to speak, or that after the reception for the funeral is over. It begins with 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:42.500 a funeral. It's very significant to the whole book, and it's part of the reason why, although it's a 00:11:42.500 --> 00:11:48.899 complicated book nowadays, and because of the issues of alleged genocide, etc., Christians don't want to 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:55.820 read it. Historically, this has been a very popular and powerful book to read, and it's partially captured 00:11:55.820 --> 00:12:02.480 in why this opening sentence is so important. And it's reflected in the original language, if you knew 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:07.919 it, about how it describes Moses and how it describes Joshua. But what you need to understand is this. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:15.559 Moses, okay, Moses is like the superstar of superstars of superstars in the Old Testament. 00:12:16.079 --> 00:12:25.519 He is the greatest prophet by far. Only to him did God speak in such a particular way. Only for him 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:30.860 that all of these remarkable things happen. And he is like the superstar of the superstar of the 00:12:30.860 --> 00:12:37.339 superstars. And that's described in the language, in the original language. And Joshua is just a servant 00:12:37.340 --> 00:12:42.080 to give you a sense of what that means is imagine this. I don't know. Sorry, this is a basketball 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.180 analogy. So some of you are going to go just over your head. But probably many of you have heard, 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:51.080 at least have heard of LeBron James or Michael Jordan. And there's a big debate as to who is the 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:58.000 goat? Who is the greatest of all time? Is it LeBron or is it Michael Jordan? At coffee time, 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.940 if you ask certain people of a certain age who's the greatest of all time, 00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:07.320 Michael Jordan or LeBron, you'll get a conversation going about it. It doesn't matter which 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:11.520 one it is. I'm just going to use the example of Michael Jordan. So Michael Jordan at his peak, 00:13:12.160 --> 00:13:22.440 Chicago Bulls, I'm his assistant. I am a short, slow, untalented, non-basketball playing white guy. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:30.480 He is the greatest of all time. And imagine that we go, Michael Jordan has to go into a key playoff 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:37.000 victory to win the game. And at the last second, he sprains his foot. And so he claps me on the back 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:45.500 and says, George, you're on in my place. Well, that wouldn't happen. But that's a little bit of 00:13:45.500 --> 00:13:53.019 what's happening in this book. Moses is the greatest of all time. Joshua is like way, way down at the 00:13:53.019 --> 00:14:00.139 bottom. And God says to Joshua, okay, Moses is dead. Joshua, take him into the promised land. 00:14:00.139 --> 00:14:10.879 Moses, God is asking Joshua to do something which he would have viewed as impossible. It's not just a 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:19.819 hard thing. It's an impossibly hard thing. And so you'll see as the book develops, one of the regular 00:14:19.819 --> 00:14:27.899 themes is this call to do hard things, impossible things. And wisdom, I think wisdom, which is 00:14:27.899 --> 00:14:35.519 ultimately good and beautiful and true, beautiful, good, true wisdom about the context of doing hard, 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:42.039 impossible things. Now, some of you might say, okay, George, that's very interesting. You're going to 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:46.519 talk about all of those things. And I am maybe a little bit curious about listening to it. But 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:52.340 George, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Right off those three verses, there's like two huge 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:58.540 problems that are going to stop me from listening. I mean, the first one is, is this saying that God is 00:14:58.540 --> 00:15:07.040 going to actually defeat all these people? Like he's like, he's like a drone hellfire thing that defeats 00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:15.399 people? And the second thing is, how can he give that land to other people? Like that's just wrong. 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:23.799 And what gives him the right to do that? The fighting we're going to deal with at another time. 00:15:23.860 --> 00:15:28.319 You just have to park that, write it down in your notes, make sure I deal with it down in the future, 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:34.699 not this sermon. But let's look at that particular first thing about what right does he have to God 00:15:34.699 --> 00:15:43.419 have to give the land. And to answer that question, I want to ask a question back. Who does the land 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:52.360 belong to? You see, the indictment implies something, implies something as just being obvious. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:58.179 But it's not obvious at a whole lot of levels. I mean, you can get into debates as to whether the 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:04.719 land belongs to the king, whether the lands belong to the idols, whether the lands, which by the way, 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:09.120 they might have actually said to us, they wouldn't actually said that the land belongs to them as much 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:15.539 as it belongs to their idols, their gods, their goddesses, which, you know, we assume one type of thing, 00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:19.120 and the ancients, if you could go back in time, would go, what? What are you talking about? That's... 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:28.399 You know, but is it the king, who's often semi-divine or a god himself? Is it the idols? Is it the tribe? 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:32.379 Like, is it the people? Is it the individual who owns the land? 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:40.600 Now, here's where the Bible goes in a way which is very, very, very unsettling to modern Canadians. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:49.340 But if you press into it, it's actually very wonderful. You see, God would say, the Bible 00:16:49.340 --> 00:16:56.100 teaches that the land belongs to the Lord because he is the creator and sustainer. The land doesn't 00:16:56.100 --> 00:17:01.080 belong to the king. It doesn't belong to the tribes or the families, definitely not to the gods and 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:06.900 goddesses. The law, the land belongs to the Lord because he is the creator of the earth and the 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:14.740 sustainer of it. Now, that's a little bit unsettling, but another implication of that is far more 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:23.059 unsettling to us, and that is, okay, if you're saying that the land belongs to the Lord, who do I belong 00:17:23.059 --> 00:17:30.759 to? Who do human beings belong to? So, once again, in Canada, people would say, well, ultimately, 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:38.579 of course, I belong to myself. And in fact, it's often now in the world, whatever I, you know, 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:44.960 and I need to find my real me and all of that. But if not that, then there's, because it's conflicting, 00:17:45.180 --> 00:17:51.480 the state, people belong to the state, people belong to parents, people belong to themselves, 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:56.799 people belong to corporations. You know, there's a contesting thing as to who people belong to, 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:03.019 but the Bible would give one very simple but shocking and unsettling but ultimately wonderful 00:18:03.019 --> 00:18:10.220 answer, that you and every human being belong to the Lord because he is the creator and the sustainer 00:18:10.220 --> 00:18:17.559 of human beings. And so that the way that a person is to understand who they are is that ultimately, 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:25.079 in fact, and this isn't just, I mean, there's a wonderful emphasis that comes in the rest of the Bible, 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:31.940 but every single human being that you see walking out there, the fentanyl addicts aren't, don't belong 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:40.440 to fentanyl. They belong to the Lord. The politicians that way, they belong to the Lord. 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:49.360 The land ultimately belongs to the Lord. We are called to be stewards of something that he owns. 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:56.640 And just as if I was to, let's say, allow one of my kids to have a car, and for a variety of reasons, 00:18:56.779 --> 00:19:01.180 I kept, made the insurance joint and I've made the payments, but it's ultimately mine. I haven't 00:19:01.180 --> 00:19:06.039 given it to them. I'm just allowing them to use it. And if I started to think that they were abusing the 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:10.879 car, I would take it back. And none of you would say, how come you took the car away from your son 00:19:10.879 --> 00:19:17.159 or your daughter? That's their car. I'd say, no, no, no. It was my car. My car. I was paying for the 00:19:17.159 --> 00:19:23.839 insurance. I was paying for the gas. It's my car. I can take it back. And every one of you would agree 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:29.940 with me. And as you're going to see in the whole thing, as to why the land is taken and given has to 00:19:29.940 --> 00:19:35.339 do with these types of issues. Now, it's very, very unsettling, but it's actually at the end of the day, 00:19:35.339 --> 00:19:40.779 as you press into this idea that the Lord belongs, it is both, you see, it's a wonderful, 00:19:41.179 --> 00:19:47.839 it is what protects us to have autonomy as individuals in the face of the state. 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:55.159 You belong to the Lord. Every human being belongs to the Lord. And that gives them a type of dignity 00:19:55.159 --> 00:20:01.459 that they have intrinsic. And it's not just that white people or black people or North Americans or 00:20:01.460 --> 00:20:08.740 Africans or Asians belong to themselves. Like, every single human being of every nation belongs to the 00:20:08.740 --> 00:20:15.579 Lord. We, of course, will see in a moment that we belong to God by nature being created. But more 00:20:15.579 --> 00:20:24.779 importantly is you need to belong to Him by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And it's on one hand, 00:20:24.779 --> 00:20:31.619 it's a protection against tyranny. In terms of the land, it's a protection against whether they be 00:20:31.619 --> 00:20:37.639 communist megaprojects or capitalist megaprojects that want to rape and pillage the land. It is a 00:20:37.639 --> 00:20:43.339 protection against that. There is a limit because the land belongs to the Lord. And there's an, 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:47.240 and the day there's a type of judgment about how you exercise your stewardship. 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:54.940 And it also is very wonderful at an individual level because it takes the weight of being off your 00:20:54.940 --> 00:21:07.079 shoulders. It's not all up to me. It never is. I belong to the Lord. And He has, in a sense, a role 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:12.660 and a place in dealing with the things that are in your life, a proper place in dealing with them. 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:20.380 So we're stewards, not owners. But some people may say, okay, well, George, that's interesting. I 00:21:20.380 --> 00:21:24.200 have to meditate upon it. I must say I don't entirely like the idea that I don't belong to 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:30.500 myself, that I ultimately belong to the Lord. Some people might hear that and hear it the way it's 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:37.100 intended to be, that it's the first glimmer of hope and peace and relief and a lifting of burdens 00:21:37.099 --> 00:21:43.579 and loads off of you. But George, the text seems to indicate that the Lord is fighting for these 00:21:43.579 --> 00:21:49.359 Jewish people as if they're somehow special. There's something about their biology and their 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:54.899 genetics that makes them special. And it just seems as if it's opening the door to conquer the whole 00:21:54.899 --> 00:22:02.219 world. Well, we're going to deal with the violence in subsequent sermons. But the Bible, the text that 00:22:02.220 --> 00:22:07.420 we're looking at puts two huge limits to show you that nobody should read the text this way. That's 00:22:07.420 --> 00:22:13.620 not what's happening. But let's look at verse four. Actually, we'll read verse three again to get the 00:22:13.620 --> 00:22:19.900 context. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, just as I promised to 00:22:19.900 --> 00:22:27.920 Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:33.940 of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. So the first 00:22:33.940 --> 00:22:42.740 limit is that it's just for this particular piece of land. It's not that you can, like the Koran basically 00:22:42.740 --> 00:22:51.120 teaches a type of worldwide conquering. And that's not at all in this text for the Jewish people. There's a 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:58.839 specific part of the world that is to be their land. And then you might say, okay, George, that still 00:22:58.839 --> 00:23:05.339 sounds really weird. Like it still sounds like there's favoritism and prejudice. And once again, 00:23:05.399 --> 00:23:11.379 that's not going on. And so we're going to look at the next five verses. And then I'm going to sort of, 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:16.599 because there's these several themes that go in and out of it. So I'll read the whole verse, and then 00:23:16.599 --> 00:23:22.559 we'll go back and look in bits and pieces to show why there's a very second, very, very important caveat 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:29.500 in this command. So read with me verses five to nine, and maybe you'll start to see it. Verse five, 00:23:30.779 --> 00:23:36.659 no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Now, once again, if this is like 00:23:36.659 --> 00:23:43.819 a worldwide conquest, that's like a really weird, that's a weird promise. But that's, I'll read it 00:23:43.819 --> 00:23:49.259 again, no man shall be able to stand before you, no woman, all the days of your life. Just as I was 00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:57.339 with Moses, so I will be with you. Here's a very important thing. I will not leave you or forsake you. 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:05.639 Be strong and courageous. By the way, you're going to now see this, one of the many recurring themes why, 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:10.039 like a hundred years ago, this would have been a very popular book to be read. 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:16.879 Not now, but a hundred years ago, and in many parts of the world, a very popular book to be read. 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:24.200 Verse six again, be strong and courageous. For you shall cause this people to inherit the land 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:30.619 that I swore to their forefathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, 00:24:31.299 --> 00:24:37.460 being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. That's the first 00:24:37.460 --> 00:24:43.980 five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Do not turn from it to 00:24:43.980 --> 00:24:52.700 the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law, 00:24:53.019 --> 00:25:00.140 that's those five books, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. 00:25:00.980 --> 00:25:04.860 I just have to say, there's this one really neat thing in the original language for this word, 00:25:04.859 --> 00:25:12.500 meditate. It actually is literally mumble or mutter. And what it's implying is that, you know, 00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:18.159 as you go through your day, you want to, he wants you to memorize the scripture. And you know how some 00:25:18.159 --> 00:25:21.919 people were there, you know, one of the problems we'll have is their self-talk, you know, I'm never 00:25:21.919 --> 00:25:26.459 going to be good enough. They're sort of mumbling and muttering under their breath. And what it's saying 00:25:26.459 --> 00:25:31.019 here is the first five books of the Bible, that's what you should be muttering under your breath. 00:25:31.019 --> 00:25:39.799 Mutter scripture. Think about scripture. Have that be your self-talk rather than this other type of 00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:45.920 stuff, you know. You know, rather than I'm really, I'm the best or I'm not good enough or all those 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.299 other things that we mutter to ourselves. Mutter, mutter these five books. I'll read it to you again. 00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:55.920 Verse 8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, 00:25:55.920 --> 00:26:04.279 but you shall meditate on it, mutter, mutter it, on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:11.240 according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your, for then you will make your way 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:19.600 prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:26.719 Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 00:26:27.939 --> 00:26:37.399 So what's the second type of big limit to what's going on in this text? Is that the first big limit 00:26:37.399 --> 00:26:45.699 is this. I'll give you the big idea, then I'll make a nuance with it. The Lord isn't looking for Jews 00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:58.180 to go into the land. He's looking for worshippers to go into the land. Now, Romans 11 and other parts 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:03.779 of the Bible very clearly teach that God is not finished with the Jewish people, but the second 00:27:03.779 --> 00:27:08.840 thing is connected to it. If you go and you look at the Old Testament prophets and other parts of the 00:27:08.840 --> 00:27:15.480 Scripture, you'll see that a regular theme within the Bible as it develops, within the Old Testament, 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:20.160 what our Jewish friends call the Tanakh, is that God didn't choose the Jewish people because they 00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:25.960 were the greatest, the best, they were the goats, they were the most holy, they were most special. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:33.400 He did it as an act of grace, and impartially if you look at it from the point of view of 1 Corinthians 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:39.539 1 and 1 Corinthians 2, it's how he shows the wisdom of the wise and the power of all their foolishness 00:27:39.539 --> 00:27:47.359 by using this small, tiny, powerless people. Because one of the reasons that Joshua has to be encouraged to 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:53.579 be strong and courageous is that he was there 40 years ago. He was one of the two people who went with 00:27:53.579 --> 00:27:58.819 a group of 12 to scout out the land. And if you go back and you read it in the book of Numbers, 00:27:59.399 --> 00:28:04.319 the 12 come back and 10 of them say, listen, there's no way we can cross the Jordan River and going into 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:11.659 that land. Technologically, they are vastly superior to us. Almost the equivalent of first world soldiers 00:28:11.659 --> 00:28:19.319 going against the modern U.S. Army. The technological advantage was quite huge. The technological advantage 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:26.019 is huge. They have fortified cities. There's giants. They're too numerous. There's no possible way we 00:28:26.019 --> 00:28:31.159 could go. Joshua came back and said, we can do it because the Lord will do it. But he knows all of those 00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:36.940 types of things. He knows how hard and difficult and maybe impossible it is unless God does something. 00:28:37.940 --> 00:28:45.240 And so the point of all of this is that it's God's grace for these people. 00:28:46.900 --> 00:28:53.180 It's not none of the language that's in the text says that it's a reward. It's connected to their 00:28:53.180 --> 00:28:59.300 accomplishments or anything like that. It's an act of God's grace and kindness. And as we see, 00:28:59.299 --> 00:29:04.559 his plan was to have the kindness first to the Jewish people and from the Jewish people to the 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:11.879 entire world. And you'll see that even in the book of Joshua as it goes on later on and on. 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:19.720 But he's looking for worshippers. And this brings up, out of these verses, one of the big ideas, 00:29:19.819 --> 00:29:27.139 not just in the book of Joshua, but the entire Bible and how the old, the Tanakh and the New Testament 00:29:27.140 --> 00:29:32.280 fit together. And that's this big idea. I should have had it up on the screen. I forgot to do it. 00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:43.420 God's concern is this. God's plan is this. His people in his place, in his presence, 00:29:44.220 --> 00:29:53.040 under his saving rule. That's this big theme from Genesis chapter 12 to the end of the book of 00:29:53.039 --> 00:30:01.539 Revelation. God's concern that he will have his people in his place, in his presence, 00:30:02.220 --> 00:30:10.099 under his saving rule. And we see that embodied and made very specific here in the book of Joshua. 00:30:10.259 --> 00:30:14.960 And you see it in the Old Testament. And you'll notice if you continue on to read the Old Testament, 00:30:15.180 --> 00:30:20.119 the nation of Israel is eventually, the majority of them kicked out of the land. They lose their 00:30:20.119 --> 00:30:26.479 kingship. And they'd lose that because they stop obeying the Lord and worshipping him, because that 00:30:26.479 --> 00:30:33.239 is his heart. His plan is to have his people in his place, in his presence, under his saving rule. 00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:40.419 So people might say, well, okay, George, are you saying then that every Christian should move to 00:30:40.419 --> 00:30:46.099 Israel? Like, don't you know the Jewish people? No, no, no, no. I don't say that. And I don't just say 00:30:46.099 --> 00:30:54.439 that just because I say that that's not what this text is teaching us. And it's because Jesus changes 00:30:54.439 --> 00:31:01.959 everything. Jesus changes everything. And the resurrection of Jesus changes everything. If you go 00:31:01.959 --> 00:31:08.319 back and you look at Luke chapter 24, you'll see that Jesus says twice that everything in the Old 00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:14.859 Testament is pointing to him. He is the culmination of these promises and the launching of things in a 00:31:14.859 --> 00:31:23.559 different direction. And it's all about him. And so you could say that only in Jesus, not only can you 00:31:23.559 --> 00:31:27.679 say this is what you should say. So, I mean, in other words, if the book of Joshua just stopped there 00:31:27.679 --> 00:31:31.359 and there wasn't the rest of the Bible and you didn't know about them being kicked out of the land 00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:35.879 because of their rebellion and hatred, and you don't know about Jesus and the fulfillment of the 00:31:35.879 --> 00:31:42.579 promises and the promises to be a greater prophet than Moses, the covenant to David, all of those 00:31:42.579 --> 00:31:47.139 things. If you don't know that, then you just have to stick with that. But we don't read it just as if 00:31:47.139 --> 00:31:53.639 it's just this. We read it in light of Jesus who changes everything. And it's because of Jesus, he went 00:31:53.639 --> 00:31:59.759 through a true and greater slavery. I mean, he takes us out of a true and greater slavery. Moses brought 00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:05.359 people out of the bondage. Jesus is the true and greater Moses who takes us out of a true and greater 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:12.219 slavery, which is to sin and death and submission to idols. And he is the one who is the true and 00:32:12.219 --> 00:32:17.799 greater Joshua who takes us through a true and greater Jordan, which is the valley of the shadow 00:32:17.799 --> 00:32:23.719 of death and death itself. And he is the one who is the true and greater Joshua in the sense that he 00:32:23.719 --> 00:32:31.819 takes us out into a true and greater promised land. When we put our faith and trust in Christ and we are 00:32:31.819 --> 00:32:38.359 united with him, we are taken out of a greater slavery, cross a greater barrier, which is the 00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:44.279 valley of the shadow of death, and promise of a greater future, which is a true and greater promised 00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:51.019 land to dwell with God in a renewed heaven and earth for all eternity. Jesus changes everything. 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:59.659 And in Jesus's words, the final words in Matthew, he says to his people, go into every people group 00:32:59.660 --> 00:33:05.080 on the planet. I don't want there to be a people group anywhere on the planet where there aren't 00:33:05.080 --> 00:33:11.600 worshippers of me. And I want you to not understand that you have to go back to Jerusalem. 00:33:12.560 --> 00:33:16.840 God is not finished with the Jewish people in Israel. That's very clear in the scriptures. 00:33:17.500 --> 00:33:24.880 But for you, your place is where you go in that people group. And I want you to be in that place 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:31.060 knowing that this is the place that he has called you to be. And you are to be in his presence in that 00:33:31.060 --> 00:33:38.920 place. And you are to be his people in his presence under his saving rule in that place for the good of 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:45.560 the city, in terms of sharing the gospel, and the good of the city so that you teach well. If you're in 00:33:45.560 --> 00:33:50.860 the government, you lead well. If you're in an embassy, you do embassy things well, to start businesses 00:33:50.859 --> 00:33:58.519 well, to run businesses well, to write songs, develop dances, to clean up the neighborhood, plant gardens, 00:33:58.679 --> 00:34:05.299 grow troughs, be there for the good of the city. Share the gospel. Be there for the good of the city. 00:34:05.419 --> 00:34:14.199 And know that for that time, I live in Ottawa. My true ultimate citizenship is heaven. My true ultimate 00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:24.359 king is Jesus. But he has put me in this place to be in his presence, to be under his rule, his saving 00:34:24.359 --> 00:34:33.460 rule, and to do strong and be strong and courageous and do difficult things in this place for his glory. 00:34:33.939 --> 00:34:38.500 That's how I'm trying to understand myself. Maybe he'll call me to live somewhere else. And when I'm 00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:45.320 there, I am to be with his people, because that's why God has called me to be there. I'm to be there as 00:34:45.320 --> 00:34:52.019 part of his people. I am to be there in his presence. And I am there to be under his saving 00:34:52.019 --> 00:34:57.860 rule wherever I am. Friends, brothers and sisters, he's called us to be in this city 00:34:57.860 --> 00:35:06.119 for such a time as this, to seek the true good of this city, the true good of the university, 00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:11.119 the true good of the civil service, the true good of Parliament Hill, the true good of the businesses, 00:35:11.339 --> 00:35:15.739 the true good of your neighborhood, the true good of your neighbors, the true good of your family, 00:35:16.059 --> 00:35:24.119 and to share the gospel with them under his saving rule. That's what he's called you for. 00:35:24.119 --> 00:35:33.819 And to do that, knowing that Jesus came to seek you and die on the cross for you, 00:35:34.460 --> 00:35:41.679 you know that as you are now one of his people, and you are here because he has called you to be here, 00:35:41.759 --> 00:35:50.500 at least for this season of your life, and you are here to be under his saving rule in his presence, 00:35:50.500 --> 00:35:55.159 you know because of Jesus' death on the cross for you that he is for you. 00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:57.559 He is with you. He is for you. 00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:00.320 He is for you. 00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:03.679 That isn't just 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:06.579 pop psychology stuff, 00:36:06.980 --> 00:36:09.579 but for us in Christ, he is for you. 00:36:09.579 --> 00:36:19.279 Now, as we see here in this text, and which is why it's this constant refrain to be strong and courageous, 00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:21.679 the Lord will call you to do hard things. 00:36:24.039 --> 00:36:25.719 And I know what the hard things are. 00:36:25.799 --> 00:36:27.860 I mean, for some of you here, you're new Canadians. 00:36:29.019 --> 00:36:30.059 Welcome to Canada. 00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:32.039 We're really glad you're here. 00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:39.059 And just coming to Canada must have been an unimaginable hard, almost completely unimaginably hard thing, 00:36:39.320 --> 00:36:44.340 leaving behind maybe prosperity or position or whatever to come to a very different land, 00:36:44.420 --> 00:36:47.259 maybe with a different language, with a very, very different culture. 00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:49.039 He's called you to do that hard thing. 00:36:49.400 --> 00:36:50.940 Maybe it's to attempt that PhD. 00:36:51.139 --> 00:36:52.539 Maybe it's to start that business. 00:36:52.739 --> 00:36:56.759 Maybe it's to deal with an abusive husband or an abusive dad. 00:36:56.900 --> 00:36:59.039 Maybe it's to deal with an abusive boss. 00:36:59.039 --> 00:37:04.699 Maybe it's to bring some major culture change to your place of work. 00:37:04.779 --> 00:37:06.739 He's called you to do hard things. 00:37:08.599 --> 00:37:10.940 That's what he's called you to do, and me. 00:37:11.639 --> 00:37:17.480 So be strong and courageous, knowing him, his presence, his word, and his will. 00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:18.980 Like, it's very interesting. 00:37:19.079 --> 00:37:21.279 If you look at just very briefly, look at verse 7. 00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:27.840 One of the things about being strong and very courageous is being strong and courageous to read the Bible 00:37:27.840 --> 00:37:30.160 and actually want to put it into practice. 00:37:30.579 --> 00:37:31.380 Look at verse 7. 00:37:31.500 --> 00:37:39.720 Only be strong and courageous, very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. 00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:44.380 Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 00:37:44.820 --> 00:37:47.120 It takes courage to say, you know what? 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:50.380 Yes, the world is telling me not to do this. 00:37:50.440 --> 00:37:52.860 The world is saying this is a bad book. 00:37:52.940 --> 00:37:54.240 This is only going to harm you. 00:37:54.239 --> 00:37:55.099 Don't get extreme. 00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:55.859 No, no. 00:37:56.099 --> 00:37:57.239 Be strong and courageous. 00:37:57.459 --> 00:37:58.159 Read the word. 00:37:58.319 --> 00:37:59.159 Have it take in. 00:37:59.639 --> 00:38:00.559 Fill your mind. 00:38:01.500 --> 00:38:02.299 Shape your mind. 00:38:02.539 --> 00:38:05.059 Form your understanding of what the world is that you live in. 00:38:05.459 --> 00:38:08.179 Be strong and courageous and persist in the word. 00:38:09.099 --> 00:38:10.939 Come to a church where the Bible is preached. 00:38:11.119 --> 00:38:18.219 Be part of the men's group or small groups or women's groups and Sunday school and youth groups where the word is brought to you 00:38:18.219 --> 00:38:21.459 and where we can discuss it and pray for each other and encourage each other. 00:38:21.460 --> 00:38:25.220 But be strong and courageous to know his word. 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:31.179 And it's not, you see, what makes Joshua able to take the land? 00:38:31.860 --> 00:38:35.619 God doesn't say to him, you know, man up. 00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:38.099 Put on your big boy pants. 00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:40.559 He doesn't say visualize success. 00:38:41.400 --> 00:38:47.920 You know, imagine everybody that you're going to fight are wearing no clothes or, you know, or manifest or do something like that. 00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:56.320 He says, no, it wasn't because Moses was special, but because I am profoundly special that he was able to do those things. 00:38:56.760 --> 00:38:58.900 And I am the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 00:39:00.019 --> 00:39:05.559 So do those hard things of confronting the bully or of taking that big step of faith. 00:39:05.700 --> 00:39:07.700 Do hard things and be part of a church. 00:39:08.019 --> 00:39:12.320 Pray that we will be the type of church where we can help people discern those things. 00:39:12.320 --> 00:39:16.400 We won't be the type of church that automatically says, oh, that sounds like really hard. 00:39:16.480 --> 00:39:17.480 Maybe you shouldn't do it. 00:39:18.660 --> 00:39:26.820 We want to be a church that does hard things and encourages each other to do hard things for your own good and for the Lord's glory. 00:39:27.300 --> 00:39:28.400 Just one final thing. 00:39:30.080 --> 00:39:32.120 The Lord guarantees. 00:39:33.180 --> 00:39:35.800 So because some of you might say, okay, George, that's very interesting. 00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:37.380 But you're not very successful. 00:39:37.680 --> 00:39:38.760 I mean, you're not in a big church. 00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:44.100 You're just buying, you drive the cheapest Subaru you can afford. 00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:47.520 The cheapest, not that I can afford, the cheapest Subaru there is. 00:39:49.220 --> 00:39:51.800 And you don't have lots of money in the bank. 00:39:52.160 --> 00:39:55.540 Like, why should I believe that it's going to make you successful? 00:39:58.260 --> 00:40:00.160 Well, here's where you really need the Bible. 00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:04.300 You need to know what success actually is. 00:40:04.300 --> 00:40:13.940 You see, not only do you need the word to remind you of God's presence, you need the word to remind you that Jesus is for you. 00:40:14.060 --> 00:40:28.120 You need to know that from the word that the Bible will call you to do hard things about justice and injustice and prosperity and speaking the truth and being clear when everything around you wants to obfuscate what's really going on. 00:40:28.119 --> 00:40:29.779 And just add that word of clarity. 00:40:31.380 --> 00:40:34.920 But you also need it to understand what success looks like. 00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:37.940 And here's the thing that the Bible does in terms of success. 00:40:38.059 --> 00:40:43.679 First of all, if you're in Christ, you're guaranteed that the end of your story will be good and true and beautiful. 00:40:48.019 --> 00:40:50.159 That's the end of your story in Christ. 00:40:50.159 --> 00:40:59.739 And even in the end, because you are welcomed into God's kingdom, because you put your faith and trust in Christ and he accepts you into his kingdom. 00:40:59.899 --> 00:41:09.619 And the final word about you, so to speak, on this side of the, you know, as you emerge out of the grave is the final word that we get in Christ is, 00:41:10.420 --> 00:41:14.879 I am so glad you're here as he welcomes you into the new heaven and the new earth. 00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:19.760 But on this side of the grave, we need to understand what success actually looks like. 00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:24.579 You see, the Bible isn't against you trying to get promotions. 00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:27.300 The Bible's not against you trying to make money. 00:41:27.760 --> 00:41:30.539 The Bible's not against you trying to make lots of money. 00:41:30.820 --> 00:41:31.619 The Bible's not against that. 00:41:31.740 --> 00:41:33.180 It warns you about certain things. 00:41:33.720 --> 00:41:40.380 But you make money to meet needs and to be generous. 00:41:40.380 --> 00:41:47.160 The successful person isn't the one who dies with a billion dollars in the bank. 00:41:48.200 --> 00:41:55.660 The successful person is the one who maybe dies with 800 million dollars in the bank because they gave away 200 million dollars. 00:41:56.680 --> 00:41:59.300 The successful person is the generous person. 00:41:59.980 --> 00:42:04.920 The successful person isn't the person who climbs the hierarchy and everybody hates your guts. 00:42:04.920 --> 00:42:13.960 The person who is the successful one is the one who knows that you rose and you're a people person and you love people and you respect them and you listen to them. 00:42:14.740 --> 00:42:20.500 The successful person isn't the ruthless person who can accomplish all these types of things. 00:42:20.599 --> 00:42:22.920 The successful person is the one who's learned forgiveness. 00:42:23.920 --> 00:42:29.019 The successful one isn't the one who ignores their neighbors as they build a bigger and bigger and bigger house, 00:42:29.019 --> 00:42:33.679 but the one who's known for their kindness and their prayerfulness. 00:42:37.099 --> 00:42:38.559 God knows you need money. 00:42:40.019 --> 00:42:42.219 And he knows you need a roof over your head. 00:42:43.179 --> 00:42:51.759 And he knows there's nothing wrong if you've been really blessed with great mental and people skills and other types of things to get promotions and to do those. 00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:52.960 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:56.119 But he blesses you to be a blessing. 00:42:58.519 --> 00:43:00.099 He blesses you to be a blessing. 00:43:02.220 --> 00:43:12.019 He blesses you to be that, you know, wouldn't you rather at your funeral, if you could, if God, like, you know, the Charles Dickens thing, 00:43:12.079 --> 00:43:15.699 if he could send you to your funeral and overhear what people are saying to you at the reception, 00:43:15.900 --> 00:43:17.840 wouldn't you rather here at your reception, 00:43:17.840 --> 00:43:26.480 boy, the thing about George is, gosh, he made a pile of money, and gosh, he was a cheap bleepity bleepity bleep. 00:43:27.800 --> 00:43:32.400 Or would you rather here, you know, the problem with George was, he's almost too generous. 00:43:33.780 --> 00:43:35.840 Like, wouldn't you rather hear that about you at your funeral? 00:43:37.100 --> 00:43:38.579 Boy, he was, like, way too generous. 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:40.800 I'm surprised he actually died with any money in the bank. 00:43:42.420 --> 00:43:43.380 What was success? 00:43:45.260 --> 00:43:47.240 Let's stand, bow our heads in prayer. 00:43:47.239 --> 00:44:01.299 Father, we give you thanks and praise that you want us to be your people. 00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:08.279 You want us not only to belong to you by nature, but to belong to you by grace, 00:44:08.500 --> 00:44:13.559 that we put our faith and trust in Christ and we belong to you in a new and deeper way. 00:44:13.559 --> 00:44:17.259 And we give you thanks and praise you desire us to be part of your people, 00:44:17.460 --> 00:44:20.820 that to know that we belong to you by nature and by grace. 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:25.099 And we know we give you thanks and praise that you will use us wherever we are. 00:44:25.659 --> 00:44:32.900 And even when we are called to change places, that wherever we are, you are there and we are to be part of your people. 00:44:33.420 --> 00:44:37.000 And we give you thanks and praise you want us to know that we are in your presence. 00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:43.099 And we give you thanks and praise that you want to have us under your saving rule and authority. 00:44:43.980 --> 00:44:48.639 And so, Lord, we ask that you would so grow these truths in us as we grow in our love of Jesus, 00:44:49.360 --> 00:44:55.079 that as your Holy Spirit prompts us to do hard things, things which maybe even seem impossible, 00:44:55.079 --> 00:45:02.000 that we will not turn away, but that we will confront that bully or that abuser, 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:08.360 or we will take that step of faith for prosperity for many or for generosity. 00:45:08.360 --> 00:45:13.099 We ask, Father, that you so free us up and make us at peace with you, 00:45:13.900 --> 00:45:21.179 that in your presence and by your word, we will do those hard things with strength and courage. 00:45:21.179 --> 00:45:25.759 And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.