Introduction / Review:
What do you Fear?
- Future
- Failure
- Foe
There's No Fear!
- There's no fear when God's Presence is With me. (Josh 1:1-6)
- There's no fear when God's Word is In me. (Josh 1:7-9)
How do I get God's Word in Me?
- Memorize it!
- Meditate on it!
- Move on it!
- There's no fear when God's People are Behind me. (Josh 1:10-18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:24-00:30
All right, open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Joshua, and we're going to be in chapter one.
00:31-00:33
We're in a series right now.
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If you're visiting with us, this series is called Bible Basics.
00:37-00:43
And this series is looking at the Bible as a whole, getting the whole story of God's word.
00:43-00:48
And along the way, we're going to meet some people that you need to know and learn some lessons that you need to know.
00:49-00:55
So just to give you a recap, with Abraham, where we started, we learned what faith is.
00:55-00:57
With Joseph, we learned about trust.
00:58-01:01
What does it mean to trust God, even when things look a mess?
01:02-01:05
And last week with Moses, we learned dependence.
01:05-01:10
It's not about you or your abilities or your strengths, it's about God and what God can do through you.
01:10-01:13
And Moses had to learn that and we have to learn that.
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So picking up the story, Moses was called and equipped to lead Israel out of Egypt.
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Unfortunately, Moses could only bring them to the border.
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and that was the Jordan River, because he was not allowed, Moses was not allowed to enter into the promised land.
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Why?
01:30-01:39
Well, Moses committed a sin back in Numbers 20.10, and that is a whole nother sermon, but Moses sinned and was not allowed to enter.
01:39-01:51
So his right-hand man, Joshua, was called to lead the Israelites into the promised land, which also meant conquering those who were currently living there, which was a daunting task.
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And today, we're going to be talking about courage.
01:55-01:59
It's our theme of the whole ministry year, as we finished up the book of Acts.
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Our theme this year is "I will not fear." You know, when we talk about fear, I know this, look, I'm not oblivious up here.
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When we talk about fear, some people check out.
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I know that.
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Because immediately you think, "I'm not afraid of anything." Right?
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"I'm not afraid of anything." "But Pastor Jeff is talking about fear again.
02:21-02:26
What does he think I do, go home and like turn all the lights out and hide under my bed?
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What does he think I'm afraid of?
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Well fear doesn't always look like Scooby-Doo.
02:33-02:36
Sorry, I was trying to think of an illustration that would cover the generations, but apparently that failed.
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But fear takes on a lot of different forms.
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And I would suggest to you that probably most people in here fear something.
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It looks very different from situation to situation, person to person.
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What I mean is this, sometimes fear can range from just uneasiness, just a general sense of nervousness, uneasiness.
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It can go all the way to just terror.
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And I've known people afraid to leave the house, scared to death.
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That's a range, right?
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Fear can be focused on an object or a circumstance.
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Fear can make you physically ill.
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But sometimes fear feels like nothing.
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It just simply occupies your thoughts.
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It's just, there's something that just keeps running through your head and it keeps you up at night because you just can't get it out of your mind.
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Have you ever had that?
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You're just laying in bed and I just can't sleep because my mind won't shut off.
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Sometimes that's what fear looks like.
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So what do you fear?
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What do you fear?
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Let me give you three buckets here.
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Just categories of things that we fear.
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We'll alliterate them.
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All words beginning with the letter F.
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Number one is future.
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What do you fear?
03:46-03:47
For some people it's the future.
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The future, I'm thinking about going back to school or I'm planning on moving and you know you need to move forward with something but you keep making excuses for not moving forward with something and fear is the real reason you haven't done it.
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Also a future, health falls under this category.
04:08-04:13
Health, like I got this health issue, well, how's this going to affect me?
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And maybe it's a health issue with somebody in your family.
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You're like, the future's so uncertain.
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Are they gonna get better from this?
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Are things ever gonna change?
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Is this how it's always going to be?
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And for some people thinking of fear and future, it's your kids, right?
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You fear the future because you're like, what kind of a world are my kids going to inherit?
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For some people it's fear of the future.
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Secondly, what do you fear?
04:38-04:39
Number two is failure.
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Failure.
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You know, I thought about taking a new job, but what if I fail?
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Or starting a business or writing a book, or, you know, I wanna volunteer at church, but I don't really know if I'm quite equipped to do that.
04:55-05:07
And I would say, "You need to listen to the Moses sermon." You're like, "I get this coworker "that I know I need to witness to, "but I'm afraid that I'm gonna fail." Fear of failure, that's crippling.
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We wanna be comfortable where we are, but to take a chance is also taking a chance to fail.
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A lot of people are afraid of that.
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And the third, what do you fear?
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We have future of failure.
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The third, for alliteration purposes, I put foe.
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It could be a person, right?
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It could be a person.
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Future, failure, foe.
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We live in a day, church, where Christians and even whole church denominations are backing off of the truth, not because we've read the Bible.
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"Oh, we've been reading it wrong for the last few thousand years.
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We're backing off of the truth because we're scared to death of the culture." Shame on us!
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What's it going to look like for the next generation?
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If you think it's hard now to stand for the truth of God's Word as the world is getting increasingly hostile towards God's Word, what's it going to look like for the next generation?
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I would suggest to you that the next generation is going to need courage far more than us.
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When we talk about foes, sometimes it's not always enemies. Right?
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It could be a Christian friend that's in sin, and you know you need to confront them on this sin, but you don't want to hurt the friendship, so you don't confront them on the sin, even though you know you should.
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What's keeping you from confronting the sin? It's fear.
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Or maybe you have unsaved friends that you fear won't like you, so you try to fit in, and do things you know aren't Christ-like, talking ways you know isn't Christ-like.
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The Bible calls that fear of man.
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And according to Proverbs 29.25, the fear of man brings a snare.
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All right, I've got some good news for you.
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The good news is Joshua had to face all three of these things.
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I mean, that's good news for us. It certainly wasn't good news for Joshua.
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He had on his plate Israel's future.
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He had the potential for epic failure in leading a nation.
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And he had a land full of foes to conquer.
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I mean, think about that.
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Joshua had a group of nomads that had been traveling through the wilderness for four decades, and he has to enter into this land and take out the people that have been already inhabiting it.
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Oh, and then Joshua had the task of replacing Moses, which, like the greatest guy in the Old Testament, and Joshua was like, "Okay, I'm taking his place." Do you think he ever feared?
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Do you think Joshua ever felt tempted to be afraid?
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Can you see in this scenario that He's facing?
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It brought the potential for the most crippling fear ever.
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And I know that Joshua had to have felt it.
07:44-07:57
Like, "Well, how do you know that?" Because this passage we're looking at today, four times, four times he's told, "Be strong and courageous." You don't say that to somebody four times in a row if they don't need to hear it.
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See if you can catch them all. Right?
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Like Pokemon.
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You can live your life every day free of fear.
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You can.
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Whether it's future, whether it's failure, whether it's foe, you can live every single day of your life free of fear because you have the same resources that God gave Joshua.
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Did you know that?
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Everything that God gave Joshua, we're going to see it here in the text, He gives it to you.
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So in your outline, there's no fear.
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There's no fear.
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I'll jot this down. Number one, "There's no fear when God's presence is with me." There's no fear when God's presence is with me.
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Look at the first six verses.
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It says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 'Moses, My servant, is dead. I'll therefore arise.
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Go over this Jordan, you and all those people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.
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Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
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No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
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I will not leave you or forsake you.
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Be strong and courageous, "For you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them." There is no fear when God's presence is with me.
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We saw last week that God said it twice when He called Moses.
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Listen, "I will be with you. I will be with you." And here, He says it to Joshua in this passage three times.
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Verse 5, verse 9, verse 17.
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Three times He says to Joshua, "I'm going to be with you." There is no fear when you are in the presence of One who is greater, who is protecting you.
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I'm going to say that again.
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There is no fear when you are in the presence of one who is greater, who is protecting you.
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I've shared this story before. Some of you know this story.
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But it certainly fits here with this truth that Joshua needed to learn, that we need to learn.
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But when I was in junior high, there was a guy who said he was going to kill me.
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Now, this man had a reputation that he didn't mean that figuratively.
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He meant he was literally going to kill me.
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His name was Carl.
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And Carl said to me, "I'm going to kill you at the dance." And I was 13 years old.
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And I was not the Mr. Olympia that's standing before you today.
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But I was 13 years old and I went to the dance.
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And I know right now, right now you're thinking, if he said he was going to kill you, why did you go to the dance?
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Did you make wise decisions when you were 13?
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Were all of your decisions above reproach when you were 13?
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So I went to the dance and I had this friend and I was just, I was so scared.
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I don't know why I went. I was so scared and the reason he was gonna kill me That's a whole nother story, but I'll tell you sometime I was so scared and I had this friend that he was like, you know what? He's probably gonna do He's probably gonna He's probably gonna try to stab you and like get you between the ribs With a knife and then as your heart beats It'll like pump the blood out of your body and you'll probably bleed out I'm like, why are you telling me this like don't you have any like kung fu advice?
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instead of giving me the MythBusters breakdown about how I'm going to die?
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The moment came, not long, this man, Carl, he got up in my face, and I was never more scared in my life, and I don't think I've been more scared since.
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He stepped up to me. Now, Carl, I've got to set the record straight, he was a year ahead of me in school, but he was like five years older than me.
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And you might have to explain that to somebody on the way home, what that means.
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He had a mustache. I thought this was it.
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He got up, I thought this is it.
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It was a good 13 year run and now it's over.
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I literally thought I was going to die.
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When suddenly, out of nowhere, this hand, which I thought was descending from heaven, comes down on Carl's shoulder and he says, "What are you doing, Carl?" It was my big brother.
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He says, "What are you doing, Carl?" Carl turns around, he goes, "I was just leaving." True story, right?
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He goes, "I was just leaving." And he ran out the door.
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And my brother goes, "That's right, Carl, "you were just leaving." And I was like, "That's right, Carl, you was just leaving "because clearly you don't want none of this "'cause this be a package deal." So the point of that story is simply this.
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What turned me from Jell-O to Chuck Norris like that?
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What was it? It wasn't me.
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It was because I suddenly realized I was in the presence of someone greater.
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And you're like, "Well, it's your brother.
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How come you didn't know he was at the dance?
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Didn't you live in the same house?" I don't know, okay?
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I don't remember that.
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I was afraid for my life, okay?
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If you're in a life-threatening situation, you tell me how rational you're thinking.
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That's not the point.
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The point is this, there's no fear when God's presence is with me.
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When you're in the presence of someone who is greater, It just drives out fear.
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And I was just walking around the rest of the night, like, fearless, because I knew my brother was there.
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I wasn't scared of nothing.
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You're like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, "well, how can I foster a greater awareness "of God's presence?" That's a great question, and that takes us to number two.
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There's no fear when God's Word is in me.
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There's no fear when God's presence is with me.
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There's no fear when God's Word is in me.
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Look at verses seven through nine.
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to me is like the, these are such meaty verses.
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The Lord continues, "Only be strong and very courageous, "being careful to do according to all the law "that Moses my servant commanded you.
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"Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, "that you may have good success wherever you go.
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"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, "but you shall meditate on it day and night, "so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
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For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
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Have I not commanded you?
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Be strong and courageous.
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Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." So there's no fear when God's presence is with me, there's no fear when God's word is in me.
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God's presence is experienced as God's word is in you.
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And when I say God's word in you, I mean God's Word in you like breathing.
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That's how God's Word has to be in you.
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Like the breath in your lungs, in and out, in and out.
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God's Word needs to be breath for your spirit, in and out.
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And if you don't feel God's presence in your life, if you're sitting here today, I just don't really feel God's presence in my life.
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My question to you is how much is the Word of God central to your daily living. Whether it's at work, at home, at play, at school, fear creeps in areas when God's Word is not front and center. That's why the Lord said this to Joshua, "Keep my Word front and center and you will not fear." You won't fear.
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So how do I get God's Word in me? How do I get God's Word in me? Three things, jot these all M words, we're really hitting the alliteration thing today, right? All M words. How do I get God's word in me? The first one is memorize it. Memorize it. It's fantastic to read the Bible. It's even better to be memorizing verses. And as soon as I say that every time, somebody's like, "Well, I can't memorize. I can't memorize." Let me ask you this. What if I offered you, I'm not offering you, but what if, hypothetical illustration, what if I offered you $50 for every verse of the Bible that you could memorize.
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You would become a memorizing machine, wouldn't you?
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I would suggest to you, if you could be so motivated to memorize the Word of God for money when you truly understand the benefit that comes from having God's Word in your heart, that should be the motivator.
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Worth far more than $50.
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Memorize it.
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Find verses in God's Word that address what you need right now.
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"Well, how do I memorize it?" I encourage you, write it out on a card.
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I'm still old school, but this is what I still do.
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I write verses out on cards, on index cards, and I keep them in my pocket.
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Throughout the day, several times, you just pull it out, and I encourage you to read the verse out loud.
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This word shall not depart from your mouth.
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Read it out loud.
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Just stick it back in.
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Just do that several times a day, and you're gonna find in no time, you got it.
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You got it.
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It's not just on the paper now.
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It's in your head, and it's in your heart.
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Memorize it.
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Secondly, meditate on it.
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This is by no means an overstatement, okay?
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I can't possibly exaggerate this.
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One of the greatest disciplines that will have the biggest impact on your life is meditating on the Word of God.
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If you will commit yourself to that discipline, that will impact you more than anything.
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You see, the Lord tells Joshua, "Meditate on my Word." We see it again in Psalm 1, verses two and three, meditate on the word of God.
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Like, well, okay, what does it mean to meditate on the word?
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Sometimes we think meditate, we think, you know, we're, you know, sitting Indian style, that's not politically correct.
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What, crisscross applesauce, does that offend apple farmers, whatever.
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But we're sitting with our legs crossed and we're humming or whatever.
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That's not what the Bible means by meditation.
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When the Bible talks about meditation, it literally comes from the idea of a cow chewing its cut.
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Okay, this is a great illustration right before lunch, but you know how cows eat, right?
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Cows have four stomachs, they're ruminants.
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And when they eat grass, it goes down into the stomach and after a while, they bring it back up and they chew on it again.
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And that's how cows eat.
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And that's the picture.
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That's literally the picture of meditation.
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As you take the Word of God, okay, we've memorized it, and now that we have it memorized, we are chewing on it.
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We are chewing on it.
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We're thinking, as we think about those verses, we think, "What does it mean?
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What does that mean?
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Why did God say it that way?
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Why did God use those words?
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How can my life reflect this truth?
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What's this verse telling me I have to change?
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What's this verse telling me I need to trust God for?" That's meditating on the Word of God.
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So memorize it, meditate on it.
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Thirdly, move on it.
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Memorize it, meditate on it, and move on it.
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He says twice, verse 7, verse 8, "So that you may be careful to do." Emphasis on "careful," emphasis on "do." The endgame of memorizing and meditating on God's Word doesn't stop at knowing.
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It goes all the way to doing, actively applying the Word of God.
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That's the point.
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The point of memorization is to get to meditation, and the point of meditation is to get to application.
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That's the point. That's what God told Joshua, and that is still true for the church.
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I want to talk about application for a second, because we live in a day of information.
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Right? You carry in your pocket a little television screen that sometimes you make phone calls with.
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You have access to more information right now than you could possibly process in a thousand lifetimes in your pocket.
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The problem isn't that people lack information, the problem is people aren't applying what they learn concerning the Word of God.
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That's the problem.
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And you're like, "Yeah, those pagan people out there." No, I'm talking about the church people.
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And I think sometimes for the church, I want you to listen to this very closely, I think even sometimes in the church, we are so over-informed that we don't even consider applying what we learn.
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What do you mean by that? Here's what I mean.
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Okay, so you come to church today and you're hearing a sermon on Joshua chapter 1 and then you go home And you're reading a book from John Piper about how to suffer well and then tomorrow morning You're driving to work and you listen to John MacArthur give a sermon on discernment and then you get an email devotional from James McDonald that talks about being salt and light at work and then you kick back you put your headphones on and you Downloaded a podcast from dr. James Dobson teaching your children how to forgive and then all you get on Facebook and one of your friends reposts an article about tithing.
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You're like, I gotta read that, right?
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And then you go to Bible study where the Bible study teacher says, today we're gonna talk about finding Jesus in the Old Testament.
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That is all good stuff, but my question is how in the world can you fully process, let alone work on applying all of that?
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And that's the reason so many churchgoers, they go to church on Sunday, but they live in fear the rest of the week because the word may be taught and the word is heard and the word is even understood, but the word isn't applied.
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We know the truth, but the truth doesn't reflect in our daily living.
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Well, what does that have to do with fear?
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Everything.
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It has everything to do with fear.
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Because when you're not taking God's word to the point of application, you see, you don't have God's promises on hand.
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You aren't living under the principles for wisdom that he's given us in his word.
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Your heart and mind aren't focused on the mission and purpose he has for his people.
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His majesty and splendor are not exalted in your eyes.
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His presence isn't felt.
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And life just seems like it's you and your resources against the world.
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And that is scary stuff.
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That's why ministry at this church is done in a very particular method.
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This is why we do what we do at Harvest, okay?
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First of all, preaching is applicational.
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Preaching is applicational.
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Again, I don't mean this criticizing, condemning.
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I'm, look, I'm just saying this is how we do it.
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This is really the only church that I'm most concerned about, right?
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But preaching is applicational.
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A lot of preachers, a lot of sermons get up and they're like, here's what the passage means.
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It means this, it means that, it means this, it means that.
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And let me give you some of the, you know, the root of this Greek word and here's how else the Greek word was used.
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and here's who his, you know, this is what his house might've looked like.
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And it means, it means, it means, it means, it means, and that's not transformational.
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Transformational is taking the word of God, saying, okay, it means this, therefore we should this.
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And that's what the Bible calls exhortation.
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Titus 2.15, God commands Titus, exhorts.
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What does it mean to exhort?
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It means helping people apply the word of God.
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That's the job of the preacher, It's to say, this is what the Bible says, therefore, here's what we should do about it.
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That's exhortation.
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So that's what we do on Sunday, but really the lifeblood of this church is in our small group ministry.
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In our small group ministry, we have applicational discussion questions that are based on the text that we cover here in church.
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It helps you dig deeper and understanding and applying this word in your day to day.
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Okay, so small group, spoiler alert, when you go to small group this week, there's going to be discussion questions based on the text that we're covering right here in Joshua 1.
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Like, aren't we moving on to something else?
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Did we master this?
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Let's dig deeper and talk about how can we apply this?
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What's the result when God's word is in you and it's being meditated on?
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What's the result?
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Did you see he says it three times here?
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Verse seven, success.
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Verse eight, prosperous.
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Again, verse eight, success.
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Also Psalm 1, verses two and three.
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God promises.
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God promises you will be successful in all that you do when His Word has that kind of a place in your life.
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If you will discipline yourself and be diligent to go through that memorize, meditate, move on a thing, if you are diligent to go after that, this isn't my promise, this is a promise from God.
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He said, "You will prosper no matter what you do." So having God's Word in your hand is good.
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Having God's Word in your head is better.
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Having God's Word in your heart, that's best.
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Having God's Word as your lifestyle, that's the goal.
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And when you live like that, you will not fear anything.
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Thirdly, there's no fear when God's people are behind me.
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There's no fear when God's people are behind me.
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And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, "prepare your provisions for within three days "you are to pass over this Jordan "to go in to take possession of the land "that the Lord your God is giving you to possess." Here we go, verse 12.
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"And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, "and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, "Remember the word that Moses, "the servant of the Lord commanded you, "saying, the Lord your God is providing you a place of rest "and will give you this land.
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"Your wives, your little ones, your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you. And they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan for the sunrise.
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What's all this talking about?
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Well, just jot this down.
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Numbers 32.
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The Reubenites, the tribe from Reuben, the tribe from Gad, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, they made an agreement in this process of going to the promised land.
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They said, "Well, how about we just stay on the other side of the Jordan?
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Done.
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Okay, you got it.
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But here's the deal.
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You leave your wives and kids and your stuff there and your men go and fight.
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And then when the fighting's done, you can go back.
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It's like deal.
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That's what's being talked about here.
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Joshua's basically saying, hey, remember this was the deal?
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Well, we're sticking with it.
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Men, saddle up.
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Look at verse 16.
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It says, "And they answered Joshua." Look at their answer to Joshua.
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"And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded us, we will do.
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"And wherever you send us, we will go.
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"Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, "so we will obey you.
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"Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses.
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Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death.
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Only be strong and courageous." So God works through people.
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God works through people.
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And when you have a group of people like Joshua here with these three tribes, two and a half tribes, I guess.
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When you have a group of people that come to you and say, "Hey, we got your back.
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And we are going with you all the way.
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And by the way, whoever's not on board, we're gonna squash 'em.
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When you have people behind you like that, you suddenly forget about fear, don't you?
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I can illustrate this right now in real time.
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This is a real time illustration, okay?
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This is a rare bird here, okay?
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You know one of my biggest fears is what happens to my family when I'm gone.
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It's a fear that I've wrestled with.
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You wanna see how the Lord squashes that fear?
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We're gonna do a little exercise.
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If I were to drop over dead this afternoon, by show of hands, by show of hands, if I were to drop over dead this afternoon, who would personally help to make sure that my wife and kids were taken care of?
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Yeah, you see, when you got people like that behind you, when the Lord provides such people, it drives out fear.
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This church is such a blessing, and our small group ministry not only makes disciples by focusing on applying the Word of God, but our small group ministry also provides you a group of godly people who have your back.
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If you're not in a small group, come and see me in guest reception afterwards.
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Get on our website.
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Email smallgroups@harvestpittsburghnorth.org. You should be in a small group.
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We'll help you get there.
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We're about done today.
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We're about done with the church service.
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But like Joshua, you're being sent into a hostile world when you leave these doors.
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And like Joshua, you're being sent out to advance a kingdom.
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But you, you're going out to confront a culture with the love of Jesus Christ.
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There's going to be conflict.
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And you are going to be tempted to fear.
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But you are armed, just as Joshua was.
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So I would say to you as our worship team makes their way forward, be strong and courageous, because no man can stop you.
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Be strong and courageous, because God is with you.
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Be strong and courageous.
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Get His Word in your head, in your mouth, in your heart, and in your hand.
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Be strong and courageous, because you've got the rest of us behind you.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we are so susceptible to fear, and the common denominator is always when we get our eyes off of You, and start looking at what's around us.
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Father, I pray today, I pray today, Father, for a realignment.
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That You, Father, have resourced us just as You have Joshua.
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And I pray today, Father, for personal commitments from every person here.
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Every person is going to be listening to this on the podcast later.
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And we know this message goes out to so many different places in the world.
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I pray, Father, that You would use this message to raise up a group of people who are going to commit to meditating on Your Word.
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You have made it so clear in Your Word that we will be successful and prosper no matter what we do, so long as we are meditating on Your Word.
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Father, let Your Word be front and center.
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And through that, Father, let us feel your presence as your Holy Spirit works with your Word.
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And Father, let us go forward knowing that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who love us and have our backs.
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Drive out fear.
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Your Word makes it so clear, Father, that you deliver us from fear.
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Your Word tells us that you did not give us a spirit of fear.
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So Father, we know that fear is not from You.
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Drive it out.
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Deliver us.
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Let us walk in freedom.
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Let us advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
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And it's in the glorious, incomparable name of Jesus Christ that we pray.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
WHOLE GROUP
Read Joshua 1:1-18
Define fear, be specific. Why are we all so susceptible to fear?
How does meditating on the Word drive out fear (Joshua 1:18, see also Psalm 1:2-3)
What do you fear in this current chapter of your life? How are you seeking the Lord to be delivered from it? (Psalm 34:4)
BREAKOUT
How are you currently working on memorizing and meditating on God's Word? How have you been convicted to move on what God is teaching you?
