All right. Good morning, church family. Happy Lord's Day. Hope you had a good week in the Lord. As we gather this morning together for worship, as we come to sing, to hear his word, to remember the gospel, I pray that we would come humbly before our God, for it is he who gives us life, it is he who sustains us, and it is he who meets our every need.

So as we begin, let us sing the song, "Lord, I Need You" together. (SINGING) Lord, I come, I confess. Bound in here, I find my rest. Without you, I fall apart. You're the one that guides my heart. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Sin runs deep. Your grace is more. Your grace is found. It's where you are. And where you are, Lord, I am free. Holiness is Christ in me. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you.

My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. So teach my soul to rise to you when temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand, I'll fall on you. Jesus, you're my hope and stay. When I cannot stand, I'll fall on you. Jesus, you're my hope and stay.

Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you.

All right. Good morning, everybody. I want to welcome everyone to this morning's service. If you are new to the church, I want to extend a warm welcome to you and ask that after the service, please visit us at the Welcome Booth. It's the canopy that you saw in the parking lot.

And you'll also see our welcome team members there at the blue lanyards. If you have questions about Berean, et cetera, we'd be happy to answer any of those things for you. I want to highlight that in November 27 at 1 PM, there is the Season Jubilee Fellowship. Elder Philip announced that last week.

It's going to be called Jubilee Moving Forward. Please be sure to sign up so they can get a head count. If you have any questions, reach out to Elder Philip. Also, I want to make note that on December 4, we are going to be having another communion service. And at that time, we're going to be doing it in such a way where we're going to set up tables here.

And when you're ready, you can come up. And we'll give instructions. But look out for an email for that, as we're going to give a diagram on how we can facilitate that the best way. Also, as we're approaching the holidays, we have a special announcement for some opportunities that you can get involved with.

Let's welcome up Evangeline. Good morning, church family. My name is Evangeline, in case you haven't met me. Merry Christmas, since holiday is coming up soon. Here are just some announcements for how you can get involved in the holiday outreach this year. It's kind of long, so I'll try to keep it as quick as possible.

The first is going to be through the OC Rescue Mission. You can see some of the information here on the slide as well. This is a Christian organization, which is located in Tustin, whose mission is to just share the love of Christ to the homeless community through counseling, job training, shelter, and just so much more.

One way that you can serve is through their soup kitchen, where you can help serve the food and interact with the residents. Or if you can't make it, you can sponsor a meal for them, where you just donate money to pay for their meal that day. Or if you're feeling ambitious, you can do both.

So this event will be held on Friday, December 2, from 4 to 6, 30 PM. So mark your calendars, because the date is coming up soon. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to Nicole Chun. And there's a booth outside as well. The next opportunity is going to be at Brookdale Assisted Living Facility in Anaheim.

This is where elderly residents reside. And there are two opportunities where you can serve here. The first is through Christmas caroling. And this is open to everyone, including children. And we know that old people love kids, so bring your kids. And then let's see. So you'll be able to sing with them, share the gospel, do crafts, and just interact with the residents as well.

This opportunity will be held on Saturday, December 17, from 10 AM to 12 PM. The second opportunity is going to be through cardmaking, where you can make a Christmas card either by yourself or with your kids. And it will be delivered to the residents the same day as the caroling day.

You have the option to either come to church with your family and you can make a card on December 11 or after second service, which will be between 1 to 3 PM in the old cafe. Supplies are also provided. Or you can just make a card at home and then bring it by that same date, December 11.

OK, so there's a lot of information for that one. So you can find Sharon's saying for any questions. For both of the events that I just mentioned, the last day to sign up is going to be the Sunday before each event. So for example, the OC Rescue Mission event is going to be on Friday, December 2.

So the last day to sign up will be Sunday, November 27. And then same thing for the caroling and as well as for the card making. And then last but not least is through Living Well Pregnancy Center. Living Well is a Christian organization that provides free pregnancy services for women who are at the crossroads of an unplanned pregnancy in the Orange County area.

They provide many free services, such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, support and counseling, baby supplies, and just a lot more other services as well. And most importantly, they just focus on preserving the life of the unborn baby as well as supporting the moms who may be going through a difficult time as well.

So the church will be hosting a baby bottle drive. So this is where we will distribute these baby bottles or piggy banks. You might have seen them outside at the booth. But what you can do is just fill it with loose change, cash, checks of any amount. And then we'll donate that to the pregnancy center.

The last day we will collect all the bottles will be December 11, which is the same day as the card making day. So you can just bring it if you have it next week or whenever. OK, let's see. So this is also-- I think it's very important, just kind of in light of the election and everything that went on, this is a tangible way that we can get involved.

And this is also my booth. So please take all the bottles and clean me out by the end of service. That would be great so I have less to carry. So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. Again, all of this is going to be on either the brain app.

So I know there's a lot of deadlines and dates. So you can find it there or after service. You can just find us at our booth. We can give you more information on that. Ultimately, our biggest desire for this holiday outreach is that God will just use us as vessels and that he will be glorified in all of this.

So we just ask that you would be prayerful over these ministries and get involved if you can. Thank you. Yeah, we are very thankful to our sisters ministry, for putting together these opportunities. Again, please do check out the app for further information for sign up or visit the tables outside.

At this time, let's move into a moment of prayer for our offering. If you do have a physical check, there's a offering box there by the entrance, or you can give it on the online platform. Let's pray together. Lord, we gather together to give you thanks. God, we gather together to give you our worship and adoration.

Lord, we want to acknowledge that you deserve it all. And Lord, the more that we come to you, we receive from you and recognize that you grant to us so much, from your instruction to your comfort, to your mercies new every day. So we want to lift up our heart of gratitude to you.

And we pray for the offering, Lord, that it would be an expression, Lord, of our thankfulness. And God, that you would continue just to use everything from the offering to our time, our worship, this church for the furthering of your kingdom. We thank you, God. It's in Christ's name.

Amen. Church, let us stand together as we continue our worship. Oh, oh, Lord, good save themselves. Their all soul could heal. Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. Sing that again. Oh, oh, Lord. Oh, oh, Lord, good save themselves. Their all soul could heal.

Our shame was deeper than the sea. Your grace is deeper still. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to bind us, let us out of death. You alone belong the highest praise. You, oh Lord. You, oh Lord, have made a way.

The great divine, you hear. For when our hearts were far away, your love went further still. Yes, your love. Yes, your love goes further still. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to bind us, let us out of death.

You alone belong the highest praise. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes. You're the giver of life. Lift up our eyes. Lift up our eyes.

You're the giver of life. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to bind us, let us out of death. You alone belong the highest praise. You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave.

You came down to bind us, let us out of death. You alone belong the highest praise. You alone belong the highest praise. You alone belong the highest praise. Praise the Father, praise the Son. Praise the Spirit, three in one. Clothed in power and in grace. The name above all other names.

Oh, sovereign God, oh, matchless being. The saints adore, the angels sing. And fall before the throne of grace. To you belongs the highest praise. We suffer in this passage high. Under your weight I will abide. And every enemy shall flee. You are my hope in victory. Praise the Father, praise the Son.

Praise the Spirit, three in one. Clothed in power and in grace. The name above all other names. To the valley, to the valley for my soul. Thy great descent has made me whole. Your word, my heart, has welcomed home. Now peace, life, water, and throne. Oh, praise the Father, praise the Son.

And praise the Spirit, three in one. Clothed in power and in grace. The name above all other names. The name above all other names. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory forever. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory forever.

Forever. Praise the Father, praise the Son. Praise the Spirit, three in one. Clothed in power and in grace. The name above all other names. The name above all other names. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning again, everyone. Please turn your Bible to Joshua chapter 1. And we'll be reading from Joshua 1, 1 through 9.

It's a familiar, very familiar passage for a lot of people. And it has very, I guess you can say, broad and familiar teaching points. Everything from the idea of trusting God, being strong in the Lord, obeying as you go, and entering into the promises of the Lord. And so these are themes that we learn and repeat multiple times.

But I felt the need for me personally to review. I'm doing my devotion in it and found that there were so many details that perhaps I thought I knew, and just the question of do I really even understand what it means to be strong. So with that said, let's take a moment to read Joshua 1, 1 through 9.

And it says, "Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, 'Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise. Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as this great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea towards the setting of the sun, will be your territory.

No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. 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 it is written in it.

For then, you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Let's take a moment to pray. God, we want to ask for your grace and blessing.

God, we need the ministry of your spirit to help us understand, not just conceptually, but to help us have deep conviction, to understand in such a way where we can apply and also be the kind of strong and courageous followers, children, Lord, that have your power and your strength abiding in us.

So, this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. Apologies for me one second here. Switch. Okay. So, as we take a look at this passage, we needed to set up a little background story, right? As we look at Old Testament passages, we want to make sure we're jumping into context and the story the right way.

This obviously is a familiar story where it's a story of conquest. It's a story where the biggest portion of the book of Joshua is them entering into Jericho, then from there, basically having conquest over the land of the Canaanites, and then the rest of the book is just making sure every tribe got a piece of the land and how God divided it for the nation, okay?

So, a lot of times when you look at the book of Joshua, people see it as a victorious book. And if you sometimes go on YouTube, which I do, I sometimes write my sermons and then I go on YouTube to see, "Oh, I wonder what people are saying about it." A lot of it happens to be the, "You can do it.

The Lord is with you in your endeavors, in your business, in your school, in your family, in your job, whatever it may be, you can do it. Let's go." And it's a motivational book. And in many ways, it is because they are on the biggest enterprise ever in their history of their nation.

They're seeing the fulfillment of God's promises that has been from ages ago. So, this is a book of victories. But not so much, okay? The reason why I say this is because obviously God felt the need, okay, if I can put it that way. God is giving Joshua encouragement.

"You need to be strong." And it begs the question, why is he so emphatically three times over saying, "You have to be strong. You have to be courageous." And it's because leading up to this point has been anything but that, okay? There has been so much fear in the journey of the Israelites.

Leaving Egypt alone was, "I don't know if I can talk to Pharaoh. Oh, my goodness, they're going to oppress us more. We're going to die along the way. We'll die at the river. We'll die at the sea. We'll die in the desert. Die, die, die." That was the fear that was filling their hearts.

And then when they actually got past all that, and as you know, Joshua, he left Egypt with Moses. Commentators say that they believe he was a slave there too, and he was a young man, and he served as a servant of Moses all the way through. So he was with Moses the whole time.

They come to the Promised Land once before, right? And at that time, there were 12 men sent as scouts. When you go and take a look at the land, what do we have there? They actually come back with hordes of fruit. The land is a land flowing with milk and honey.

But what was filling their hearts? Fear. They're too big, city too fortified. We can't do this. And that was the sentiment of the entire group, that cohort of scouts, and it swayed everybody. And the story goes in numbers, right? Numbers 13, "Oh, my goodness, should we have just died in the land of Egypt?

You bring us out here, Moses, just to die?" It was fear. And the ramifications of that fear was God had them wander the desert for 40 years. They were right there. Okay. To set the stage for you then, they are coming to this point riddled with failure, riddled with doubt, tons of fear, and now they're just older.

Okay. Before, maybe they were younger, you know, 30, 40-year-olds, but now they're like 60, 80-year-olds. And the many people who were militiamen of that time, unfortunately, they have died. That generation of people who came out of Egypt and saw the wonders of God, the pillars of fire, the smoke, all that stuff, they walked through the wilderness and experienced, but a lot of the older generation, they passed along the way.

So is this really a situation where it's, "Let's go, we can do it. I'm so confident in all of you." This is not. It's not that kind of scenario. Actually, it's a dire scenario. Can we go in and actually take this fortified city? They're still strong. They're still bigger than us.

Look at us. We've actually spent the entire time just eating manna. Actually, the situation looks bleak. And in that situation, God says, "Joshua, you are now going to be the man. You're the leader, my servant that will take my people into the promised land. And you need to be strong." Okay.

I hope that helped you kind of place the scenario, and then you would have to do the, "If I was Joshua, what does it mean to be strong? Are you going to become maybe in the figment of our imagination kind of like the Braveheart man? He's riding on a horse, pace-painted.

He's just galloping up and down the army, telling them, "Don't ever take us." He's pounding his chest, screaming, "Freedom." And he's going to become the greatest motivational speaker that ever was. Is that what strength means? And I think, again, we have to understand what does God command us really when He wants us to be strong?

And I want to hit these points with you. And I want to, again, remind us that these points are not points that you've never heard before. These are age-old truths that we have to learn over and over again and understand. First, one of the things that God does in this passage in Joshua 1 is actually before He is telling Joshua, "You need to be strong," there is a scenario where all of the confidences and strengths of the humankind are being removed.

So, point number one to you, God will purposely, not in every single instance, but at key moments in time, He has clearly, purposely removed your human strength. He has removed the human confidence within this scenario. And let me show you by reading this beginning portion of our text again.

In chapter 1, verses 1 through 2, it says, "Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise. Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.'" Doesn't it sound like in that passage, God's timing is very purposeful, right?

It looks like He intentionally waited for Moses to pass before going into the promised land. In our human minds, in the human sense of the strength, it would have only made sense that the main leader, the primary one that God has been talking to, the one who has vigor and sharpness, that He be the one to lead.

Doesn't make sense that at the pinnacle moment, we've journeyed, we've traveled, and now that we're going, that God will purposely cause His death. Now, I say this because I want to highlight this interesting passage in Deuteronomy for you. Deuteronomy 34, verse 7 through 12. There it is on the screen, but I recommend you flip back and forth.

We're going to be looking at a lot of passages today, just as a heads up to you, in Deuteronomy and Joshua, okay? Deuteronomy 34 says, "Although Moses was 120 years old," he was an old man, "his eyes were not dim, nor his vigor abated." His eyes were sharp, you guys.

He was still strong, okay? And that being the case, if I was a man looking at him, I would be thinking, "You're like that God with the glory, the white hair. Lead us. You're still strong. We can do this." But instead, God commanded him to go up to the mountain to pass.

And so, reading this, it says, "So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. And now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hand on him.

And the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. For all the signs and the wonders which the Lord had sent to him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land, and all the mighty power, and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel." All that's to say is Moses was the man.

He performed all these miracles, produced terror in the land. He was the one that people actually saw as the prophet so much so neighboring nations would see him as a mini-God. And you're telling me that as we go in, not to a skirmish, but to war, to put a ban on other nations and to destroy them utterly, you're going to take the guy?

Doesn't make sense, does it? Well, it makes sense if God intentionally is stripping away the kind of human confidence we typically want. Don't you know that in the history of the Israelites, one of their greatest faults was that they always wanted a human leader like the rest? They always wanted a prophet, "You be our prophet.

You speak for us." They always wanted a king, "You be our king." And so a lot of what got them into trouble was thinking, presuming, "Of course, if we had a man this tall, we had a man with this much army, we had a man with this many horses.

Of course, we'd be strong." And God says, "Nope." You know what else? God removes human confidence because the people themselves, the Israelite nation, they were, they are, and they will be a failure in this story. That sounds mean and like an unfair judgment, but think about the fact that when they were here multiple times, and it wasn't just once, it wasn't just that time with Joshua and Caleb where they said, "Oh, these people of Jericho, the people of the land of Canaan, they're so big and they're so strong.

We can't do it." It was multiple times. When they wandered, they actually wandered towards the south end of Canaan, they failed. They came to the north side of Canaan, they failed. In the past, they've already said so many times with their own human wisdom, "We can't do this." But what's more, before Moses passes, God tells them this incredible forewarning.

Take your Bibles and go to Deuteronomy 31, verse 14 through 18. Deuteronomy 31, 14 through 18. Recall that Deuteronomy is God's rallying of the people through Moses saying, "When we enter this land," they're on the plain of Moab looking at the land and saying, "When we enter, you guys, you better obey.

You need to listen to me." Right? But then look what he says. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, the time for you to die is near. Call Joshua, present yourself at the tent of meeting that I may commission him.' So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting." So here they are together.

"And the Lord appeared in the tent, in a pillar of cloud. The pillar of cloud stood at the doorway." That's one magnificent scene. And then he said, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, and yet this people will rise, they'll play the harlot with strange gods of the land." What?

And then it says, "This land in the midst of which you are going, and they will forsake me, break my covenant which I have made with them, and then my anger will be kindled against them in the day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be consumed.

Many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?'" Mind-blowing. I don't know the mind of God. I can't counsel His way. But in the moment when He is regathering the people and saying, "You're about to enter the land," and Moses is like, "Yes, there's curses for disobedience and blessings for obedience.

We better go in with victory." And God says, "But they're going to play the harlot, and my hand is on them." You talk about the most deflating thing you can say at a rally event is to say, "And all of you will betray me." What? If they had any confidence like, "Yeah, now that we have fresh blood, now that we're younger, and now that maybe we learned some things," God just wipes that clean, doesn't He?

He says, "No. And you're going to understand the reason why you're suffering is because you're far from me. With me, success. Away from me, failure. With your own power, you could have everything. You could have multiple kings if you want to. Failure." And that is a lesson to learn.

You guys remember the story of Gideon and his army, right? Gideon, he is one of the judges, and he comes out in the hall of faith, but no one necessarily see him as, "Oh, I want to be that guy." The guy who was so timid, he said, "God, can you make sure we win?

And just so that I know that we win, can you make this fleece wet? Can you make it dry and then wet again?" And then he just constantly tried to test the Lord. But one of the craziest things about his excursion and his military fight that he was about to get into was he tried to rally everybody, and he rallied 32,000 soldiers.

Now, unfortunately, that wasn't enough for all these other kingdoms that they had to go against. That was just a blimp compared to the hundreds of thousands that other nations had. And so Gideon was fearful. His heart was in need of courage. And do you know what God did? He gave Gideon horses.

And no, he didn't. He didn't give them chariots. He didn't give them anything. You know what he said? He said, "You know, if you're afraid," like this is literally the kind of verbiage God used, "If you're afraid, let everyone who's afraid just go home." That's strange, isn't it? Do you know how many people of the 32,000 went home?

Twenty-two thousand of them. Ten thousand were left, and God said, "That's too much for me to just give the Midianites to you. Send them rest home." They were left with 300. And with that, God said, "I am doing this purposely." Let me read to you what he says. Judges 7, verse 2 through 3.

Judges 7, verse 2 through 3. "The Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hands.' For Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'" Whoa. God, I said earlier, may at certain times strip you of your confidence.

And many of you have already experienced it. You have tested the waters. And the thing about it is we are already taught that for salvation, all God, that's the gospel, right? For salvation, entirely everything God. There is nothing I can do to add. But on the flip side, I want to ask you this question.

Subtly have you been duped to think, "But everything else, my finances, my relationships, my well-being, my security, my success in this life, it's my education, my people, my know-how, and my wisdom." You see what I'm asking, right? Have you made that weird distinction where we think that the peripheral things, the on-this-life things, the human, earthly things that I need to care of is on me, and therefore I need, I need more education to make sure this, I need more that, and I need more this?

Well, let me say to you, God says, "No, I make rich and I make poor." God is sovereign over that. When you're alone, God is sovereign over the relationships you have. God is also the one who blesses you with community. God has sovereignty over every element of your life, including the elements we think are just the practical things of this life.

That's what He says, right? And I want to remind you of that. And therefore, sometimes if we ourselves as the children of God, as He is our Father, we start thinking, "You know, I have accumulated enough. I want to challenge you with this." Think about your life currently with all of those facets, right, of your finances, people, and the different things that really matter, right?

And then ask yourself, "If I remove God from my life, does it make any difference?" And that means we have been working hard to secure an environment where we don't need God. Now, in wisdom, you have to pursue all of these things, your finances, your relationships. In wisdom, you have to make sure you're guarding your family, yourself, all that stuff.

Good. But at certain moments, God will teach us, "Within all of that, I'm sovereign." And there should be no confidence that you alone are going to secure for yourself even a dollar. That's the point. They are supposed to walk into a nation and it's simply, it can be just a calculation.

It makes sense. Do we have more men than they do? Do we have more chariots, more weapons, more manpower? Totally makes sense to me. Let's go. And God says, "No, you won't have no leader. Your people are going to be a failure and there's going to be no confidence in the flesh because this success is going to be entirely on my fulfillment of my promise of my grace." That's the lesson we have to learn.

Amen. So from that, we know we don't have confidence in the flesh. We don't have confidence in our power, but we have to have confidence in His promise and provision. Number two, there is one thing to know. I know God provides. I know God gives. There's another thing to be strong in it, to take risk and base your life on it.

You don't see it with your eyes. It's not there right now. But His promises and His provision, you believe to such a degree where you are strong in it. Let's take a look at this passage again. And notice in verse 3, He talks about how God is the one who has given it to you, okay?

And then starting from verse 5, He says, "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life." And then look at this, "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous." Verse 9, "Have I not commanded you therefore?

Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Amen. The promise of God in this verse specifically is that just as God was speaking to Moses, just as God was in a relationship close, near, and intimately involved in the decisions, the worries of Moses, God says, "I will be with you.

I will not fail you." And this is the promise God has given all the saints of old. This is the promise God has given to the early fathers, the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and more. He said, "I will be with you, and I will be the one to bless you." And it therefore makes us think, "Man, that's kind of crazy." It makes us think about the fact that if I truly believe God's presence is with me, that should make me incredibly powerful.

And yet there are moments when I don't feel that power. And to me, it's like having a billionaire then going to Costco and wondering, "Do you think I could afford that hot dog?" It would be like going into war with a billion soldiers and wondering, "Do you think we could take this little island?" Now, I want us to take that analogy and just think for a moment.

God is impressing on Joshua, "I will be with you." But if we keep asking this question, "But Dad, can we really afford this hot dog?" At some points, it gets really offensive, doesn't it? Why would you sit there and ask, you're going with your father to the Costco, why would you sit there and ask, "But what are we going to do about the hot dog?

When we get to the register, what are we going to do?" But the thing about it is that sometimes is the state of affairs of our heart. "God, what's going to happen in my next five-year plan? What's going to happen in my family? What's going to happen to my own children?

What's going to happen with," and then we have an X, Y, and Z of all of these questions and all of these, I guess you can say even demands. "Bless us with this and bless us with that," and God is going to say to you, "I have in my plan a blessing already that I want to give you and I've promised it.

Don't give me your own plans of your provisions and the things that you think you need. Don't demand the provisions of your blessing. I've already promised this to you. That should produce in us an incredible kind of strength." And so here's a passage from Ephesians chapter 6. We think about this idea of being strong in God and that strength then has to come from something that comes from God's promises, provisions, His might, and more.

Ephesians tells us, "Be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might, putting on His armor," right? This is the full armor of God. It's the armor of, that says in verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against forces of darkness, and against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on the full armor of God." And then that list goes on to tell us about how there's going to be like the truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet of the gospel, the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the list goes on.

My only admonition to us is if we allow fear to rest, if we allow fear to dictate and have authority of us, we're basically telling the Lord, "You haven't given us much." You see, sometimes I wonder if any of us were in genuine deep, deep pains, and this summer was, there was a lot of tragedy.

Many individuals in our church family, they've lost loved ones, grandparents, their fathers, mothers, and more. This summer, there was a lot of tragedy. And all of us would assume if in the midst of that tragedy and pain, someone came and said, "Be strong and courageous," that would be slightly insensitive, yes?

And we would say, "Hey, hey, the emotions are real. The pain is raw. You can't just tell somebody, 'Be strong,' right?" And that's true, you can't. However, you can when the God of the universe says, "I have given you all of my presence, all of the truth that you need to know.

I have given you provision, the Spirit, the community. God has given us so much." And so I would encourage the same for you. If sometimes you're in a position of counseling somebody, it would be actually incomplete just to say, "You know what? You just need to be strong." What actually needs to happen is to say, "Think about the provisions of God." Amen?

Now, as we think about that then, this is the way that Moses was thinking. This is the way Joshua was thinking. The provision of God is, "He's going to fight for me." Amen? The provision of God is, "He's not going to leave me." The provision of God is Romans 8, "What is going to actually separate me from the power and love of my God?

Nothing. No angel, no demon, no famine, no sword, nothing. To my own death, nothing." That's supposed to be powerful. Yes? That's supposed to be incredibly powerful. And so today, if any of you have come in here and you have incredible fears, fears about…and it's not just financial, but recently I've been talking to a lot of people and they are, they're scared.

They'll say, "I feel like my job is on the chopping block." They'll say, "I'm actually already doing two to three people's jobs because other people have been getting laid off." What are you going to do in that kind of scenario? Are you supposed to say, "Be strengthened. Don't worry.

You already have a good degree and good work experience. You'll be fine." Is that the source of your power and strength? No, no, no. We're supposed to say, "In the state of joblessness, in the state of hopelessness, in the state of any kind of darkness, God has told me He will never fail me." Amen?

That is the kind of strength and conviction we want to have. Number three, God says that He wants us to be strong in His commands. God says that He wants us to have a kind of strength where we have vigor in obedience. If you think about a person who's strong, you can think about a lot of different types of strength.

I could have strength of brute force. I could have strength of power to control you. I could have strength in the sense of influence, or maybe you're thinking strength as in just like this angry, mad, you're just picturing this person who is just violent and he has this kind of crazy strength about him.

But this kind of strength is more like even if you're calm, even if you're collected and self-controlled, you have conviction and you say, "No matter what happens, I'm obeying God." God sees that as strength. Take a look at this passage, what God commands Joshua. The biggest portion of Joshua chapter 1 is not so much, "Be strong, be strong, be strong," although that is repeated three times, but undergirding every single one of those be strong is what?

He says, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give the people the possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. But only be strong and courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you?" That's an emphatic rhetorical question.

Have I not given you my instruction and my law, and my goodwill has been given to you by the Scriptures? My character, my provision and protection, my instruction has been given to you by the Word of God. So what is actually popping out from this portion from verses six through nine in Joshua chapter one?

Yes, he says, "Be strong, be strong, be strong." And then maybe I'm thinking as a man, it's like, "That's right. I'm going to be a man. And when I speak, you're going to hear me, and you're not going to interrupt. And I'm going to be a man because I'm going to lead.

I'm going to tell you what to do." I have had all of those silly thoughts in my head. But here God says, "Be strong. Pay such careful attention." If we're walking through this, look at everything He says. He says, "Be careful to do." That means a kind of precision.

Let me ask you, brothers and sisters, when you look at the Scriptures, are you content with, "I got it. I got it." Or are you looking at it with precision, with, "What does that mean? How am I supposed to do that?" Are you looking at it for accuracy? Are you bent on making sure that you're going to do it to the T?

That's different. He says to do all of it. Brothers and sisters, are you content that you got the general big five? It's the stuff like, you know, the big golden rule, "I love people. Like, you know, I want to be loved, so I'm a pretty good Christian." And then the other commandments, "I don't know about them." That's not strength, is it?

To have such a shallow, to have such a limited view of all of God's will is actually ignorance, folly, and weakness. It's not strength. What's more, just in the commandments to say, to tell Joshua that he needs to have the Word of God on his mouth? Isn't that weird?

We kind of think like you just kind of have to have it up here in your head memorized or you're thinking about it or you heard the sermons, so you're meditating. But He says, "No, let it be in your mouth. You're ready. You're ready to speak it. You're ready in that situation where it seems dire to say, 'This is what the Word of God has to say about that situation.'" He wants us to meditate on it all because He wants us to be so careful that there is zero deviance.

It's all right there. There is a kind of strength. You don't have to have a loud, booming voice. You don't have to be machismo. You can be a soft 12-year-old girl in this room, but if you're like, "No, I don't want to lie because God said so," you're like the strongest person in the room, right?

If you just stick to your convictions of, "This is the will of God," you are strong, resilient. And God says, "The weak person is like seaweed in the ocean, just getting swayed left and right." And Satan's scheme is to move you like that, just manipulate you. That's enough. God says, "Go worship." No, you don't have to make it all the way to Jerusalem.

Just worship here. The reason why I talk about this too is because I do believe that our church is under threat. I have been kind of reading and also thinking that a church, it's not just our church, any church that says, "We are a Bible-teaching church designed to convict the membership of obeying the Scriptures all the way through, even if it's hard." The rest of the modern day, I think, you know, Christianity and mainstream will say, "What are you guys doing?

That's so self-righteous, legalistic. You're kind of a rule-meister, but that's not who God is." You probably already have heard stuff like that. Or somebody will say, "You know, we're better than that. We find our strength in diversity. We have differences of opinions. We have different look on religion." Or maybe even someone will say, "No, no, we're even more noble than even that." As opposed to having this like stickler to the Scriptures, we're going to progress beyond that and we're going to experience greater experience of religion because God is not a stale old God.

He is a live God and we're going to be experiencing Him in newfound ways. There's an entire class of what's called progressive Christianity that desires to move on this. Brothers and sisters, we need to be strong. And that strength is going to come from an extremely exacting, vigorous dedication that I am going to abide by the Word of God because the Word of God is ancient, unmoving, it's old, and that does not make it uncool.

It makes it everlasting. It doesn't change today, it doesn't change tomorrow. The Word of God is sure, the Word of God is perfect. And I thank God that God gave Joshua such a clear path. If God says, "Oh my goodness, Joshua, you have to be so strong. I don't know anything about those pagans over there, but you got to find out what their plans are.

I want to make sure that you train your people the right way. You got to be up to date with all the weaponry." No, no, God said, "Let me just make it simple for you, Joshua. I've given it to you. It's not up there in the sky." Moses says to the people, "The Word of God is near you and I've explained it repeatedly to you.

Now we must obey." That makes us strong Christians, amen? We don't have to have novel new thoughts. That's not what Christianity is about. Nowadays, if you have a new angle, you saw scripture in a new light, you become a thought leader online. No, we have the gospel handed down to us by the saints, by the prophets, and Jesus Christ our Lord, and we abide.

I love that because I am not a creative person. I just need to follow. Let that be a source of encouragement to you. Now, I do want to take us down this interesting journey because the moment in Joshua is a buildup. It is a buildup of Moses trying to lead the people and saying, "Do you understand how important, how consequential it is for you to heed and obey God?" I'm going to go through several passages for you and just turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 26, and we're going to do one of those run along the passages in the scriptures.

The thing about it is God drew it out of them, meaning He gathered the people, rallied them up and said, "We're going to go into the promised land. Here we are, plains of Moab, you see Jericho." In that moment, God drew out of them and said, "Covenant with me.

Tell me you're going to obey." Then so in Joshua 26 is covenanting. In verse 16 says, "This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and all your soul. You have declared that the Lord is your God and that you would walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and His ordinance and listen to His voice.

And the Lord today declared to you to be His people." Amen. That's the scenario. That whole conversation of the gathering of the people, they are covenanting with God and saying, "God, we'll obey you." And then what's more, chapter 27, if you scan it, you'll notice it says, "Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed." And the reason why is because Moses said to all the people and charged the people saying, "Keep all the commandments which I command you today, otherwise be cursed." So in case you missed it, there are incredible consequences to your disobedience and any kind of compromise.

Let me just say this for a moment. I do believe subconsciously, not explicitly, not arrogant rebellionly, but subconsciously, New Testament Christians are in danger because we believe there are no consequences to sin. That because of grace, we're excused from all the ramifications of sin. That is not true. You know how sometimes when we read the Old Testament, it feels a little weird because if I said something like this, "You obey and you will be prosperous and God will watch your way." Feels a little bit like health and wealth, right?

Kind of like up to you, when you work hard, God will bless you kind of theology. But let me put it in another way. If you disobey God, you will be weak. That's a truism. And what he says is he warns, chapter 27, in your relationship with God, if you disobey, you will be cursed.

Now I want to make the distinction, Old Testament and New Testament is different. God actually says within this context that I have not given the Spirit to them. He says that. To us we have the Spirit, but does that mean since we have the Spirit, we're more excused from His curses?

Actually the opposite, right? Since we have the Spirit, are we more just simply guarded from the penalties and the ramifications of sin? No. God actually says when the time of judgment comes, I will hold you account for everything I gave you, my word, my Spirit, and more. Let me move on.

To highlight even more how imperative it is that we have this strength to say, "God, I'll obey your word. I'll do no matter how inconvenient, no matter how stressful, no matter how much I think it will not work, I'll do it." He says there's also blessings for you. Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy is all about blessings.

I'll read verse 1. Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you, right, and overtake you if you obey the Lord.

So in case we're kind of missing it, He just repeats over and over again, "You have to obey and listen to Me." And then He warns you, "If you don't, this is a ramification." And then He motivates you, "If you do, these are the blessings." And He continues on.

Let me read for you Deuteronomy 28 verse 15. Chapter 28 verse 15. He says, "It shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all of His commandments and His statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." I'm going to enter into a time now of reading some of the things that God says about His curses and it's going to be, in my eyes, incredibly, incredibly gloomy but scary and fearsome.

In Deuteronomy 28 verse 55, well, before that, verse 35, Deuteronomy 28, 35, okay, He says, "The Lord will strike you on the knees and legs with sores and boils from which you cannot heal." Wow. Doesn't that sober you? He said, "What?" In that passage, He'll talk about how pagan nations will take your wives and children and you will never get them back.

Verse 55, "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in the book to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe lasting plagues, miserable chronic sicknesses." If you read chapter 26 through 28, it's almost like, like, you almost have to sigh, like, "Oh, my goodness, did we just read that?" But here is why I say is because for the New Testament Christian, again, I've already made the kind of case to you, I think we may have the misconception that since I am underneath Christ, there are going to be no practical consequences to my sin.

But let me tell you, in this admonition for you to be strong, the weakest person is the person who is being disciplined by God Himself. The weakest person is the person who is most far away from God's command, that he would be far from the Lord, the Holy One, to the degree that God Himself is hurting you.

Yes? And God has said, "If you are my true child, I will always make sure you get disciplined and you learn." So, brothers and sisters, like, when we think about strength, it is not health and wealth for me to think I have to obey because I want to be underneath the graces of God.

That's not legalistic. That's not health and wealth. It's the reality of affairs, that our obedience and disobedience has incredible consequences for our relationship with God, my personal well-being, and this entire church. And the standard of holiness that is existing in our community is always going to be under threat.

You think about things like sexual purity, that's going to be under threat. More and more, we're going to say, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Everybody does it. Everybody has this problem. It's okay." But Scripture says, "Let there not be even a hint of sexual morality." Talk about greed.

"It's okay, I struggle with this too, trying to buy stuff I can't afford. It's okay, we always do this stuff, trying to take loans I can't pay back." But the Scripture says, "Do not have greed in your heart. Don't even let that take root in here. Don't even let it start.

Let there not be even a seed of greed inside of you. Completely expunge that out of your life." So Scripture's expectation of us in the New Testament is a higher standard, actually. Somehow we've reversed that to think that the New Testament is less. Brethren and sisters, I'm saying that our obedience and the vigor that we take to obey the Lord is of great, great importance because God has said that is going to predicate your success.

Isn't that what He's saying? Only then will you be successful. And this, with that, I want to move to the next point, is that I want you to be strong in God's purpose. We need to be strong in what God defines as success. We need to be strong in what God defines as the blessing He is giving to us.

We're not going to be strong just because I'm strong because I am a go-getter. We're not going to be strong because I'm a person who doesn't give up. You can not give up on something and it'd be completely a waste of time. I didn't put it up here because I thought it was a little inappropriate, but there was this photo of this man.

It's a meme. It says, "Excellence." And what he's done, he took rubber bands and he made a massive ball the size of his body, right? But he's sitting next to it and it says, "Excellence in vanity," right? In stupidity and folly. Just being a go-getter is nothing. We need to seek that which God says, "This is my vision of success for you." Even if it's, yes, really painful and I guess inconvenient or not in line with what we would think is success, God says, "That's what you have to do." Take a moment to look at what verse 10 through 15 of Joshua chapter 1 says.

In Joshua chapter 1, 10 through 15, God uses the word "give" in so many different ways. He repeats actually in chapter 1 12 times. "I gave you, I'm giving you, and I will give you." And the thing about what he says is, "I am giving you this land to possess it.

Yes, and amen." This is a promise he has given from almost 480 years ago when he gave that promise to Abraham and now it's coming to fruition. Amen. But on top of what he said is, "I am going to give you," verse 13, "Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, 'The Lord your God gives you rest.'" And he gives you this land.

And it says, "Your wives, your little ones, your cattle will remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross before your brothers in battle array, all your valiant warriors, and shall help until the Lord gives your brothers," what? "Rest as he gives you, and they shall then possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them.

Then you shall return to your own land, possess that which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise." This point I haven't just truthfully speaking, it's just a huge massive point so I haven't thought of it exhaustively. But what I'm trying to get at is what has plagued mankind, what has plagued all of Israelite history is God says, "I am going to give you," right?

And they say, "What? I can't wait for that child now." So they have it through the maid, right? "I am going to give you a king." No, God actually said, "This is the kind of king I want. This is the kind of king and this is what he's going to do." And they say, "No, we want Saul." So many times without waiting for God's provision, people have essentially envisioned their own success.

And what God is telling us is actually that he has a desire to give us far beyond just the land but rest. And what that means to me is God is giving us a kind of grace, yes, that he has devised. Apostle Paul says it in another way. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9-10, he says, "I have this thorn on my side and I've asked God multiple times, three times." I'm pretty sure he asked it more, okay?

"Three times, 'Will you remove this thorn from my side?'" And then this is what God has said. Verse 9, "He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" I don't know if I can fully wrap my head around all of that.

But he says, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses. I can have insults, distress, persecutions, and difficulties, all for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." That is not just wordplay.

I believe what more precisely he's saying is, yes, you can have categorically all the things the world will deem you as a failure. You have people rejecting you. You have people hating you. You lose relationships. You can lose all your money. Failure, okay? But God has for you an entirely different definition of success, which is, "You have been graced by me.

I gave you rest from all that. I gave you the sufficiency of Christ, His Spirit, and therefore dare we not settle for anything less than the blessing of God, amen? It would be radically, radically us settling for trash if I said, 'No, God, give me today that house, the car, the people, the friends, and the money.'" One hundred percent failure.

And the reason why I say this is because back in Deuteronomy, God in His sovereignty was doing this thing. Their weakness, His grace. Their weakness, His grace. I already highlighted to you that God has predicted their failure, miserable failure. Take another look at Deuteronomy 30, verse 1 through 3.

Deuteronomy 30, verse 1 through 3. In this idea of failure and yet graced, He says, "So it shall be when all these things have come upon you, the blessings and curses which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

And yet you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart, soul, according to all that I have commanded you today, you and your sons. Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and will gather you again from all the people where the Lord your God has scattered you." That to me is difficult to wrap your mind around.

But He says, "Right now I am commanding you to obey and have a successful entrance into the promised land," but He says, "You're going to experience banishment because of your sins." And if I was Moses, I would just be dumbfounded. What do you mean? These people are going to go through banishment and you're going to hide your face and you're going to listen to them and you're going to bless them?

But God says, "But I, I will restore them." And that last day where God has emptied them, He has humbled them, and then He has restored them, that was His purpose, was it not? It was for Him to give His grace and His blessing all apart from our own flesh.

And so I will, I will just say, all I have to say about that is, Lord, perhaps sometimes the hardest time for me to be strong is when I'm staring at my own weakness square in the face. If I have failed or sinned in any way, outbursts of anger, greed, lust, right, selfishness and pride, too many to speak of, those are the times when I'm most not motivated because all I want to do is go hide.

All I want to do is not think about my failure. But God says, "Remember, my purpose is to restore you." And I wanted to give every single one of you that encouragement today. God has told you He will not leave you or forsake you. God has told you, "I have provided you and I have given you promises." And just like every servant of God has been told, "I will be there for you to restore you and to bring you up," our Lord Jesus Christ has told us, "I am with you, lo, to the end of the age." And He has also said that He is going to perfect you.

And so my desire to obey the Lord fully, to be more like Christ, to strive for perfection, it's not hindered by my weaknesses. I am actually so challenged that God sees it all and is bringing perfection. Now with that said then, I want to close by saying God has commanded every single one of you to be strong and courageous and it does not have to look like you're this articulate person with words to say and you're just destroying people with your arguments.

That's one type of strength, intellectual. God says, "I want you to be so strong in me, so strong then in my presence, so strong in my provision, my plans, my will and purposes, everything has to do with me. And I don't want you to be this wishy-washy like, "Oh, I don't know.

I don't know what we're going to do next season." Yeah, you do. You're going to love God. You're going to evangelize. You're going to take over the world, not by way of might or power intellect, but by the gospel. And you will have no fear because you know God is with you and He will not forsake you.

Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for your mercies and grace that continues to just forgive our sins. And sometimes, Lord, even in well-intended ways of maybe wanting to be strong, we can pervert that by trying to be strong by my own intellect, willpower, and strength. But I pray, Lord, that our true strength would come from your presence.

And God, we've been at our church talking a lot about prayer so that we would know what it means to be strong in the spirit versus strong in form and function. And God, we know that we'll probably need many reminders of this. Thank you for the reminder today. And it is my prayer that anybody here going through worries, anxieties, despair, and fear, would you, Lord, strengthen their heart and mind to know, Father God, that you are the one who goes before us, you are the one who surrounds us, you are the one who grants us strength.

We thank you. It's in Christ's name. Amen. Let us stand together for a closing praise. >> Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer together. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much. Your grace is upon us, Lord, and God, you have sustained us through all of our individual lives.

You sustained this church and all the saints in this world. God, you hold by your powerful hand. And Lord, we pray, God, that we would be heeding this word to be strong. Perhaps we feel now a lot of worries and concerns about where just the generation, culture, whatever it may be, that the wickedness of our day may be headed.

But on another thought, God, we have not experienced the kind of suffering that's even close to the nation of Israel or your son, Jesus Christ. So, Lord, help us, knowing that the spiritual battle is going to get more intense, knowing, Father God, that there are difficulties ahead, help us to find true strength, not simply of manpower or of our own flesh, but truly in Christ.

And now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy, through the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.

God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He came to love. He went for a gift. He lived and died. To buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lived. Because he lived, I can face tomorrow. Because he lived, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future.

And life is worth the living just because he lived. Amen.