Good morning. I'm one of those people with a crook in my back today. I also want to say thank you to the people that helped out with the flooring. That was a lot. I think we started putting flooring down at 2.30, about 2.30 on Friday, and I put the last piece in yesterday at about 3 o'clock. And that's 4,100 square feet of flooring in a very short amount of time for that. So praise the Lord. It was literally all the Lord. And I'm thankful for the people that were here to help. And had some people here until about midnight, 1 o'clock on Friday working. So praise the Lord for that. I really appreciate you guys. Joshua chapter 1 here this morning is where we'll be. Joshua chapter 1. The thing I love about the Bible is that it's alive. It says in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, it says that the word of God is quick and powerful. That means that quick, it's alive. And so I can come to a passage as familiar as Joshua chapter 1 and the Lord can show me something that I've maybe have seen, have not seen before or seen in a different light. I mean, this is a very familiar passage to me. I've preached several messages out of it and I've heard several messages preached out of it. But this message the Lord kind of gave to me in a little bit of a different light. And so as we look into it this morning, I want you to just take some time and just think about this passage with me. Just calm down just a little bit. It's been a busy week. I told, I think it was Jesse this morning, he's like, you're done with the floor. I said, I still gotta preach. I'm almost done with the busy week, but just kinda take some time and calm down just a little bit here this morning as we think about this passage in Joshua chapter one. I'm gonna start reading in verse number one. The Bible says, now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass That the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan now and all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee. withersoever thou goest. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you just for this opportunity to be here this morning. I thank you for the opportunity to get up here and preach. Lord, you know more than I know how incapable I am of doing this and Lord, administering to these people. So Lord, I pray now that your Holy Spirit would move in here. and minister and feed and correct and reprimand and comfort, Lord, where it needs. And I just pray that you would do the work and get all the honor and the glory for what's done and said here today. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. I want to preach to you a message this morning on dealing with change. Life is full of changes. I mean, some are big, some are small, some are good and some are bad. I think of some of the changes in my life. My wife and I had been praying that we had decided we wanted to start a family, and we had been praying about having some kids, and we were praying for some crazy reason about we wanted twins. And I was like, you know what, we should fast about it. We should fast about it and maybe the Lord will give us twins. And so we did, we spent like three days fasting and just praying and begging the Lord, we wanted twins. Who does that? Crazy people. But we were praying and I remember we went to our first ultrasound technician visit and she was sitting there, like she had this confused look on her face and I was watching the screen and the image just kept flipping. It was like a mirror image. And she was like, is this your first ultrasound? And she was like, yeah. And she was like, is this your first pregnancy? And she was like, yeah. She was like, get ready. And I just looked at my wife. I was like, it's twins. She's like, how did you know? I said, because we prayed for it. You know what that was? That was a huge change. And that was a good change. Change happens all the time. I remember and I think about another change in my life just a few years ago. And this was a little bit scarier of a change where the Lord said, it's time for you to stop what you're doing right now. I mean, immediately, within the next day, you're done with everything. I need you to stop. You're done at this church. You're done. You know what that seemed like to me? That seemed like a bad change. And I was like, Lord, what are you doing? Why are we going through this change? There's nowhere else for me to go around here. I'm not going to start my own church. That's not what you've called me to do. What do you want me to do? And he said, just wait just a minute. I've got a change coming. And man, that change has been a good change. Because a month later, the Lord said, I want you to move to South Lyon, Michigan. And what seemed like a bad change in the beginning was actually a really good change. And Joshua is going through a really, really big change in his life right now. Sorry. He's going through a really big change in his life and it's gonna change the whole course of this nation that he's leading right here. And while he's going through a big change in this life, what we're gonna see here in this passage applies to any type of change, big, small, good, bad, any type of change that you go through in your life, these things that we're gonna look at will help in that change. It will help you to deal with that change. Throughout life, you're gonna experience many, many changes, but how you react to that change is what's gonna determine if you're gonna be made better or worse by that change. And so what God is trying to give to Joshua, you see, it says in verse number one, it says, the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun. So for the next nine verses, this is the Lord talking to Joshua. This is directly from the mouth of God. God is trying to give Joshua some direction, some instructions for a change that he's never gone through before. He's never been the leader of a million people. He's never done something this big before. He's helped and he's been around to do some stuff and we'll see some of that here in just a little bit, but he's been the servant of Moses. This is a change that the Lord is putting in his life that's actually gonna be a really good change for him, but at the time, it's probably pretty daunting. It's probably pretty scary. It's something that, I don't know if I'm ready for this, Lord. And the Lord's like, calm down. I'm gonna tell you just a few things that are gonna help you. It's gonna help you get through this change in your life. And the first thing that I want you to see about change and when we have to deal with it is found in verse number two, is that change requires reflection. Change requires reflection. Look at the very beginning of verse two, it says, Moses, my servant is dead. Do you know what? The first thing that God calls Joshua's attention to is where he's been. who he served under. Joshua had been serving under Moses for many, many years. And he called his attention to the person that he had been serving under. Now, I understand that the New Testament, the Bible says, in Philippians, it says, forgetting those things which are behind, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. God is not telling Joshua to dwell in the past. He's not saying, well, Moses is dead, so have fun now. He's not telling him to dwell in the past. He's not telling him to dwell back there. He's saying, I want you to reflect on it. I want you to think about it. And the two things that we're gonna see that he's reflecting on are not Joshua's mistakes. They're not Moses' mistakes. They're not the good things that Moses has done. They're not about the things that Joshua's done in his past. They're about the things that the Lord has done. So when I say that, I wanna say it with some balance. We should never be dwelling in the past. But sometimes when change hits, the Lord wants us to take a look at some things that He's done in our own lives. Look at verse number five. Verse number five, right in the middle of the verse, it says, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Do you know what he's trying to get Joshua to reflect on? He's trying to get Joshua to reflect on the presence of God in his own life. You see, he got Joshua to look at Moses because Moses was God's servant. God was with Moses. You wanna talk about the presence of God in somebody's life? He was with Moses. Let's actually, I want you to turn back there to Exodus chapter 33. Keep your finger here in Joshua. We'll be back here in just a moment. But I want you to turn back to Exodus chapter 33 and we're gonna see, I think, about Moses in this passage. Exodus chapter 33, it says in verse number 12, verse number 12 it says, and Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, that's God, it says, and he said, my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Do you know what Moses realized in his life? He said, I don't care if I've got the biggest congregation in the world, it doesn't matter. If you're not going with me, I don't wanna go. That was Moses' attitude towards the presence of God. He desired it so much in his life that he said, Just leave us here to die in the wilderness. If you're not going with us, it doesn't matter. And that's an important thing to remember when something happens and changes in your life that maybe you don't want to change. I hate change. I hate it with a passion because I like comfortability. Comfortability. I like to be comfort. I like my comfort zone. I don't like getting out of it. But that's exactly what change is. Change gets you out of your comfort zone. And Moses said, you know what? You're gonna take us on a journey here. You haven't told me who's going with me yet. Who's gonna help me out? You haven't told me any of that. But as long as you're with me, I don't care. As long as you're going with me, it doesn't matter. I want the presence of God in my life. And you know, I think it's interesting, because if you look back at verse 11 here in Exodus chapter 33, look who's there with him. It says, and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend, and he turned again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that even at a young age, you can desire the presence of God. Even at a young age, I mean youth group, even in the Sunday school, you can have a desire to have the presence of God. Brother Dan was talking about the youth activity. Man, what a blessing that is. I've been to some of those youth lock-in things, the overnight youth rallies, and they're like, we're going to stay up all night and feed you blended Happy Meals. I remember the first time I was like, I was maybe like 14, 15, something like that, and our church took a trip down to Hope Baptist Toledo in, Hope Baptist Church in Toledo, which is where Pastor came from and started this church, and I remember we were there and it was one of those overnight things and they were like, alright, who wants to eat a Happy Meal? And all these kids were like, yeah. And we need some volunteers from the crowd. And so they come up on the stage, and they're like, we need some volunteers. We're going to eat this Happy Meal. And they're like, all right, on your mark, get set, wait a second. Hold on. We have one more thing, and then you hear over the loudspeaker, they had a blender noise, and these, like, five people come from the back, and they're bringing up blenders to the stage, and I was like, that's kind of weird. And they're like, all right, throw all this stuff in the blender, right? And the drink's still sitting there, and they're like trying to, ah, we need to put some liquid in here, and so they take a Coke and just dump it in there. Whew. Yeah, you want to talk about a change. That's a change of molecular structure, that's disgusting. But let me tell you, there are some times growing up that I got into some of those youth rallies, some of those youth activities and the preaching, you know what that gave me? It gave me a desire to be close to the Lord. It gave me a desire to have the presence of God in my own life. despite what's going to happen in my life, despite how my life is going to turn out, I can tell you right now, I'm 36, I turned 36 this week, my life has not turned out anything like I imagined it would. Not even close. There's been some changes in my life, but you know with the presence of God, if you reflect on the presence of God, that's what Joshua, that's what God's telling Joshua here in Joshua chapter 1, He's telling him to reflect on the presence of God. You see, people should be able to see that you have the presence of God in your life. I think over there in Acts chapter 4, in Acts chapter 3 they healed that crippled man at the gate, at the beautiful gate of the temple. And then throughout that, there was some persecution that arose because, wait a second, now you're taking some glory from the temple here. And so these religious people, they looked at that and they were like, hey, you can't be doing that around here. You can't be preaching in Jesus' name. And they were like, you know what, this is what God told us to do. And the Bible says when those religious people, it says when they saw, They beheld the boldness of Peter and John. They were bold. It says that they took knowledge of them, that they were not educated. They were unlearned and ignorant men. They didn't have an education. They hadn't gone to Bible college like all these religious people. They were like, you shouldn't be telling us anything about religion, anything about God. It says that they took knowledge of them, what? That they had been with Jesus. Do you know what the presence of God in your life does? The presence of God in your life allows you to learn some things that other people cannot learn. And I want to just kind of pause here for just a second because the rest of this message here, the rest of this message, if you've never been saved in here this morning, the rest of this message, it doesn't apply to you. You see, because if you are not saved, the Bible says that you're an enemy of God. It says that the wrath of God abides on you. It says that you are condemned already. You're like, oh, I'm gonna go and stand before God and He's gonna condemn me to hell. No, your sin is what's condemned you to hell. The willingness, the willing sinfulness of your own life, that's what's sending you to hell. You see, God sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to die for your sins. Because every single person in here, I don't know, unless Jesus Christ is in here, every single one of us is a sinner. That's what the Bible says, it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And without you accepting that gift of free salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have the presence of God in your life. I don't care if you want to walk with God, if you want to work for God, if you want to do all of these things and be a good person, you don't have the presence of God in your life. That only comes through salvation. And let me tell you, the rest of this message, it's not going to help you at all. unless you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, unless there has ever been a time in your life where you have been reconciled to God, an enemy that has become a family, a family member of God. If you've never done that in here this morning, this doesn't apply to you and you can just turn me off right now. You don't need to listen to the rest of this message. Because until you can come to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, you know what, I am a sinner, I know that my sin is going to send me to hell and that the only person, the only person in the universe that can save me is the blood, it's the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood that He shed on Calvary. Until you can come to Him and accept that gift and say, I can't do it on my own, then the presence of God will never be in your life. and you will have nothing to reflect on. And when you stand before a holy and perfect God, He's gonna say, remember that time that you were sitting at a little church in South Lyon, Michigan, and that preacher got up there and he said, hey, if you don't get saved, you're gonna go to hell. He's gonna say, you remember that day and that fool got up there and said that to you? That was me, that was my love for you, trying to send you something, trying to give you something. trying to allow my presence into your life, and you said, no, I don't want to hear it. That's not what I want. It can't be that easy. You're rejecting the presence of God in your life. So when you deal with change, as an unsaved person, your life is just going to be meaningless. You're going to have a hard time. You're going to go through all the same changes that everybody else goes through in their life, and you're going to deal with challenges, and you're going to go through those times of change and you're not going to have the presence of God in your life. But God here is trying to get Joshua to reflect on the presence of God. But not only is He trying to get him to reflect on the presence of God, He's trying to get him to reflect on the promises of God. Look back in Joshua chapter 1, if you will, Joshua chapter 1 and verse number 3. Verse number three, the Bible says, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you, as I said, unto Moses. You know what God promised the children of Israel? He promised them a land to dwell in. He promised them a place to live. It reminds me of John chapter 14 and verse number 1, the Bible says, I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Do you know when you're going through some changes in life, when you're going through a hard time, you're going through something that's like, man, I don't know what the future holds for me. Do you know what a good thing to reflect on is the fact that no matter what my life turns out to be, in a thousand years it's not gonna matter. If you're saved here today, it doesn't matter because in a thousand years it's not gonna matter at all. We were on the floor the other day and I was, Something had happened and I'm not going to tell you about it because then you're going to like, you're going to go and look at it and you're going to be like, oh yeah, see, he's not perfect. I'm not, not even close. But I made a little bit of a mistake. And it was a rookie mistake. And I was sitting there and I was like, man. And me and Billy were kind of sitting there talking and he, you know, he was kind of having some frustrations and I was having some frustrations. And I looked at him and I was like, bro, It's not going to matter in a thousand years. He was like, yeah, this place is going to be burned up. I was like, yeah, exactly. That's what I want to do to it right now. But until then, we can remember, we can rest in the fact that it's not going to matter a thousand years from now. He was like, well, maybe the Lord will bring back that time when we're on our knees, saying, you remember when you were trying to be a sinful person and just help me out? He was like, that's all the problems we're having on this floor. It's all sin. It's all a result of sin. That's all we're having. He's like, maybe the Lord will bring that back to our memory. I don't know. That would be interesting to see. But you know what it's good to remember is that we have a place that we can go to. We have a home that we will go to, a home that is not just a dwelling place on this earth, but a home that will be our forever home, our long home, if you will, the Bible talks about. And when you're going through change, man, that can be a very comforting thought. It's very comforting to understand that no matter what I'm going through right now, someday the Lord's gonna come back. Someday the Lord's gonna come back and get me out of this vile place. And you know what happens when I'm taken out of here when the Lord comes back to get me? The Bible says that He will change our vile body. Man, what a blessing that is. You know this body that's just marred and just scarred by sin? It's not gonna have sin anymore. It's going to be a perfect body, a body like Jesus Christ and what a day that will be. I'm going to, I'm looking forward to that day when I don't have to sin anymore. I don't, I don't even have to think about sin anymore because you know what, I'll have the mind of Christ. And that was one of the promises that He had given to Joshua and to the nation of Israel is that you've got a place that you can go to. But not only that, It says in verse number three, or verse number five, excuse me, in the very end of the verse it says, I will not fail thee. Man, that is a blessing. Because if you can take a look at the Bible, so many times I feel like we get this idea of like, okay the, God's not gonna fail me. And so if God's not gonna fail me, then if something bad happens in my life, that means that God failed me. That's, I don't know, I don't understand why that's always, that's always the thought. That's always the conclusion that people jump to is if something happens in your life, well, God failed me. I was talking to a guy one time and I was witnessing to him and man, I could tell he was like, he was crying, literally crying. He was like, no, God doesn't want anything to do with me. God's failed me in my life. I was like, what do you mean? He was like, well, I wanted a wife and kids and I don't have a wife and kids. And I'm like, so you're blaming that on God? And that's what you're worried about, the fact that you don't have a wife and kids when God sent His only begotten Son to die for you? You see, I think a lot of times in our mind we just get this idea that like, oh God's only out for my good. And the way that I see my good and the way that God sees my good are completely different things. I was talking to another guy the other day. And he was asking me questions and he asked me this question and it kind of made me chuckle a little bit the way he asked it, but he was like, hey, does God got your back? And I was like, well, yes. I'm gonna answer it like this. I said, but I think he's got my back in a way that you don't, you're not understanding. See, he was like, you know, does God pick up the slack for you? You know, does God cover your mistakes? Yes, because in the context that he was thinking about was work, because we were working together and he was like, does God cover for you if you mess up? Yes, God covered for me every time I mess up, every time I sin, every time I willfully sin, the Lord Jesus Christ says, no, I've got that covered. You see, God does have my back, but not like he thinks that, not like that guy thinks that he does. God does not fail. He will not fail. And if you think that he's failed, that means that your perspective is off and not his. Because the Bible says, I will not fail thee. So if you think that God has failed you, then it's you that has failed in understanding God. But not only did he promise that he would not fail him, at the end of verse five it says, nor forsake thee. He promised that he would be with Joshua and he wasn't going to forsake him. He wasn't going to leave Joshua alone. Man, I am thankful for the doctrine of eternal security. I am thankful for the fact that I don't have to worry about my salvation. I don't have to worry about the fact that like, oh man, I sinned today, am I still going to heaven? That's not what the Bible teaches in the Pauline doctrine which is to the church. I don't have to worry about that. You know what the Bible says? It says, for he said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. If I could lose my salvation, I would have done it a million times already in my life since I've been saved. at least a million. Because there's sin that I don't even know about. There's secret sins that I don't even know about, presumptuous sins that I have no idea that I'm doing. But the Lord knows every single one of them. But He said, I will not forsake thee. So we see that it requires, when you're going through a time of change, it requires some reflection on the presence of God in your life, and if you don't have that, please, talk to one of us before you leave here today. We'd be more than happy to sit down and just show you what the Bible says about what it means to be saved. more than happy. And it wouldn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes and you could get something settled for eternity. But not only that, we can reflect on the promises of God. But I want you to understand that change reinforces some responsibilities in your life. Look at verse number 8. It says, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. You know, sometimes I don't like the shall and will verbiage in the Bible. Do you know what that is? That's a command. There are some responsibilities when you're going through change, there are some responsibilities that you have as a Christian that will help you get through that change. Because, let's face it, sometimes the Lord's just not, He's just not gonna carry you. Sometimes He will carry you through, and I've had that in my life, but sometimes the Lord requires some stuff out of you. There are some responsibilities that He has put on you and look at the first one. The first responsibility that we have is to the Word of God. It says in verse seven, only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein." That's a commandment. Do you know what you're commanded to do as a Christian? You're commanded to be in your Bible. Man, how many times have I failed that? Lots of times, as a Christian, as a saved person that claims to be a Bible believer, that claims to love the words of this book, how many times have I not picked it up and read it? That's a responsibility that we have, it's commanded right here. That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. And that happens twice. In those two verses, that phrase shows up twice. In verse number seven, it says that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. In the middle of verse number eight, it says that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. So you might be a King James Bible believer rightly dividing And you might even read your Bible but it says observe to do. I think Kelly went there on Wednesday night to James chapter 1, the Bible says be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. How's your responsibility to the word today? Are you following and doing what the Lord says? But not only are you supposed to observe and do according to all the law, it says deter not from it. Do you know what that is? That's a willing choice that you make to get away from the Bible. It's a willing choice where the Lord says, hey, why don't you pick it up? Why don't you read it? I'm tired today, Lord. That's turning from it. Why don't you spend some time in my book? Why don't you spend some time with me? I've got some things I've got to tell you. This is perfect words from a perfect God who wants to have fellowship with you. Why don't you come and spend time with me? Actually, I've got some other stuff I need to get done. I've got more important responsibilities than the first responsibility that we have to the Word of God. Hmm. But not only are you not supposed to observe it and do it and turn not from it, it says that it should be, it shall not depart out of thy mouth. Let me ask you this, how much time do you spend talking about the Word of God? How much time do you spend telling other people about what the Bible says? That's what this is all about, it's not about trying to be friends and make a living and have, you know, a good worldly success, we're going to talk about success here in just a minute, that's not what this life is about, this life is about pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you have a relationship with someone and you love someone, you wanna talk about them. So how's your relationship with this book today? Do you talk about it? I want you to turn, keep your finger here and we're gonna turn one more place over here and then we'll stay in Joshua the rest of the time. But turn over to Deuteronomy chapter six. Back one book, just one book to your left, Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six and verse number five. The Bible says, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Let me ask you this, parents, grandparents, do you talk about the Bible with your kids, with your grandkids? Do you talk about the Bible with them? Do you spend time talking to them about what the Bible means? You know what's hilarious? They have a lot of questions. They have a lot of questions that sometimes you don't have the answers to. And sometimes they get information that you have no idea where they got it from. The other day Emily was bringing the kids up. And she was like, yeah, Daddy has a couple more people helping him up at the church. Mr. Billy's up there helping him, and then his brother Adam and Levi from the back seat goes, Adam? He's the one that ate the apple, right? She was like, what? She was like, yeah, somebody told him not to eat the apple, but he did it anyway. She was like, no, not that Adam. But you know what I find is that When you talk about the Bible with your kids, they have a lot of questions. They're curious about it. Because it doesn't make sense. From a human standpoint, from a natural man standpoint, the Bible does not make sense. But you know what? When you get in the Bible and you do the things that you're supposed to do and you spend the time with the Bible, and then you talk about it with your kids, do you know what happens is you kind of start learning the Bible together. and that's a cool thing. It's really cool to talk to your kids about the Bible, man. It's so exciting, we, the boys have been in Sunday school, what, now almost a little over a year, huh? A little over a year, and each week they have a memory verse. And you wouldn't think that four-year-olds or five-year-olds could memorize Scripture. But if you spend just a little bit of time with them, every day, maybe 10 minutes, you know what they do? They memorize that scripture. And sometimes it puts me to shame, and I'm like, man, I need to spend more time in the scripture. But here it says in Deuteronomy 6 that you're supposed to talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. That pretty much covers everything that you do in life, right? When you rise up, when you go to bed, when you're going out about your life, talk about the Bible, it's a responsibility that we have. But not only that, go back to Joshua chapter one, we have a responsibility to meditate in it. It says in verse number eight, it says, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. How much do you think about the Bible? The Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 97, oh how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day. Can you say that? Can you honestly say, yeah, I think about the Bible all the day, all day long. I'll tell you, I'm going to stand up here and I'm not going to lie to you, I can't say that. But you have a responsibility, it's a commandment. You have a responsibility to the Word. But not only to the Word, but look in verse number three, we have a responsibility to walk. It says, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you. You know, God was leading this group of Israelites through the leadership of Joshua, He was leading them into a land that they had not been before. And He promised them that every place that the sole of your foot touches, that's what I'm going to give you. That means that they still had a responsibility to do some walking, right? They still had a responsibility to put one foot in front of the other one, in front of the other one, in front of the other one. It's not a very fast process, the Christian walk. It's not fast at all. It indicates slow, methodical steps that produce advancement. Unlike my children, they like to run. And Lucas found out the other day that when you live in a really small house and you run around corners, that sometimes your tooth goes into your lip and hurts really bad and bleeds a lot. We've been trying to work with them on... they're boys, right? I love, like, be a boy. But sometimes, think about where you're at and what you're doing. Sometimes we as Christians like to do that. We're like, there's a place that I wanna be in my life and I wanna get there and so I'm gonna try and go as fast as I possibly can and get there as quick as I possibly can so that I can do what? What's the rush? Where in the Bible can you find that Jesus was ever running? I can find a lot of times in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, excuse me, in the New Testament where Paul commands a Christian to walk, and he likens it to a race, but there are many times in the Bible where we are commanded to walk. It's a slow, methodical process. It's something that is not to be rushed. In scripture, the definition of walk is to live and act or behave to pursue a particular course of life. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that today you need to do what you're supposed to do today. And I'm not saying don't have a vision for the future, don't have something that you're looking towards or working towards in your Christian life, but I'm telling you that the way to reach that goal in the Christian life is not by taking shortcuts, it's not by running, it's not by trying to get there as quick as possible, it's by taking the next step and the next step. And until the Lord shows you the next step, all right, I'm just gonna stay here and I'm gonna do what I know I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna follow my last orders. That's what the Christian walk is all about. So let me give you just, I've got six things here in the New Testament that Paul commands a Christian to walk in. He's commanded to walk in the Spirit. The Bible says walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Are you walking in the Spirit or are you trying to just please my flesh? That's all I care about. I just want to please my flesh. It says in Romans chapter 6 that we are to walk in newness of life. Are you trying to walk in newness of life or are you just pleasing that old man? That dead man, he's dead. He was buried with Christ. You're supposed to be risen to walk in newness of life. How about the Bible says in Ephesians, it says to walk in love. And I'm not talking about the stupid worldview of love nowadays. Love your neighbor, love your neighbor. You know what that means when someone says that? Oh, you're just not very loving. You know what that means? That means that you are pointing out their sin. Don't point out my sin. If you point out my sin, you don't love me. Well, actually, the fact that I point out your sin means that I do love you because I don't want you to go to hell. I don't want you to stand before God and say, well, I didn't know. Are you walking in love? Are you constantly hating people? Do you care about them, do you want to help them? The Bible says to walk circumspectly. Do you know what that means, that word circumspectly? It means to walk cautiously, it means to have your head on a swivel. To walk in your Christian life and watch out for the things that can come in and destroy your life. those fiery darts of the wicked that come in. You need to be on guard all the time as a Christian watching. That's what it means to walk circumspectly. It says to walk as children of light. That goes back to where I talked about how people had seen the disciples that they had been with Jesus. Do people see your life? I'm not talking about witnessing, I think you should witness, but does your life match what you're saying? Does your life match what you're preaching? And then it says to walk honestly. Are you walking honestly or are you trying to squirrel your way out of things by being dishonest? So we have a responsibility to the word, to walk, and then we have a responsibility to work. Look at verse number six. Very beginning it says, be strong and of a good courage. Look at verse number seven, only be thou strong and very courageous. In verse number nine it says, be strong and of a good courage. You know what I know about strength? Strength doesn't just happen. You can't go to the gym and put 405 pounds on a bar and just pick it up if you've never done it before. You know what's gonna happen? You're gonna break your back. There's been a time in my life where I've been able to pull 405 pounds. I went to the gym the other day, and I was like, let's see how far I can go. And I put like 185 on there, and I was like, maybe that's too much. Do you know what happens with strength? Strength requires work. It requires work to get the strength, and it requires work to keep that strength. You see, there's some responsibilities that we have. And I found in the Christian life that sometimes the changes that we experience in life, the changes that the Lord puts us through, that's what helps increase our strength. That's what helps to build us up just a little bit more, to get us a little bit farther in our Christian life. Yeah, I'm a little bit out of my comfort zone right now, and I don't really want to be doing this right now. And the Lord's like, it's all right. It's helping you out. It's strengthening you. It's helping you to be a better Christian. And lastly, I want you to see that change reaps rewards in verse number nine. Actually, verse number seven. At the end of the verse, it says that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. And then at the end of verse eight, it says, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. This is not worldly success that he's talking about. This is actually the only time in the scripture where the word success shows up. And when you go to the world, if you were to go to one of your coworkers and say, hey, what does a successful person look like to you? They would say, well, you know, if you got like this many square feet in your house and this many acres and this many cars and you make this much money and you work at this job or you have this particular career field, that's a successful person. Or you might even, inside of a career field, you might say, what makes a successful mechanic or an engineer or an architect? There are things that make those people successful. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about being successful in the thing that God has commanded him to do, being successful in those responsibilities, but those rewards only come after the work happens. Do you know I talked about the gym a little bit ago? If I don't go to the gym and pick up 185 pounds a couple times, and then I pick up 225 pounds a couple times, and then I consistently work up and I hit 315 pounds, and then I put 405 pounds on the bar, you know what doesn't happen? I can't pick that bar up if I don't consistently go and do the work. You don't get the rewards without putting in some work. And a successful Christian life only comes after being in the word, spending some time walking, and putting in some work in the Christian life. And success in the Christian life looks completely different than what the world thinks it does. Because it has nothing to do with your money, your career, your family. It has nothing to do with any of that. And it has everything to do with how you treat this book right here. and your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I want you to see in verse number nine, and I'm done with this. In verse number nine, I want you to see another reward that change reaps, and that is the presence of God. It says at the end, it says, for the Lord thy God is with thee, withersoever thou goest. Now if you remember, we talked about the presence of God already. But here we are and this is God talking to Joshua and he's saying, I, it says, is with thee. The Lord thy God is with thee. If you look back at verse number five, it says, I will be with thee. You see, after you put in some work, after you do some walking and some working, and you spend some time in the word, and you go through some changes that the Lord brings about a closer relationship with Him than you've ever seen in your life before. But it's not going to happen if you get mad at the Lord when He says, hey it's time for some change in your life. It's time to tweak just a few things, it's time to change just a little bit. I want to tell you about a story of a successful Christian, and you may have heard this before and some of you may have not, but I want to tell you about a person who went through some changes in his life. His name was Horatio Spafford. He lived in the 1800s, I think he was born in 1828. And he was a businessman in Chicago and he had five children. Four girls and one boy and his son passed away from scarlet fever. He was a young kid and he passed away. And I forget exactly the year it was, the Great Chicago Fire happened and he lost a lot. And his wife after losing their son and him losing a ton of his business, was extremely stressed out and he was like, you know what, we need to take a vacation. And so he sent his wife and his four daughters on a ship and was sending them to Europe for a vacation. And in the middle of that voyage, they were hit by another ship. They were on a ship and another ship collided with them and that ship went down in 12 minutes. And his four daughters were killed. And his wife made it to Wales and she sent him a telegram that said, saved alone, what shall I do? Immediately he jumped on a ship and went across. And the captain of that ship understood the story he had heard, what was going on with him and his family and how he'd lost his four daughters. And the captain brought him up to the bridge and said, this is where the ship went down. And he went to his cabin and he penned the words, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say it is well with my soul. You think that man went through some change in his life? being a successful businessman from the world standpoint, having a loving, beautiful family, and losing all of his kids. He was a successful Christian because he understood that when he went through some change in his life, he could reflect on the fact that he had the presence of God in his life. And that was a reward that he could look at. He could look at the promises of God and understand that the sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. And he understood that Someday he would get to see his family again because he said, and Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight, and the clouds be rolled back like a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with my soul. That man went through some changes in his life. He went through some hard changes in his life and yet through it all, because he had a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, because he spent time in his Bible, because he was able to get close to the Lord, it didn't take the pain away, it still hurt. But he was able to look at that situation and say, no matter how bad it gets, it is well with my soul. Change in your life, it's inevitable. You cannot stop it. It's about the only thing in life that's guaranteed is that things will change. My question to you this morning is, how are you gonna deal with that change when it comes? How are you gonna go through it? Are you gonna get bitter? Are you going to get mad at God? Are you going to get closer to the Lord? Are you going to reflect on those things that He's given you, the presence of God in your life, the promises of God? Are you going to put in some work even though it hurts? Let's go ahead and stand. And I want every eye closed and every head bowed. And if this altar is open, if you want to come down and spend some time with the Lord here this morning.