morning please. Joshua chapter 11. I'm thankful for the guys in the back there, Adlon and Barry and Harvey all manning the technology and they're going to try to get the screen working for us this morning. I'm trying to Do something the Lord convicted me about a little while back when we were preaching through the Gospel of Mark. And I noticed how the Lord treats children. And so I'm trying to put some more graphics and more illustrations and things in our messages that not just we adults, but also the children can recognize, can look at and get something out of. And so if I'm using artists' illustrations or different Bible verses, that is part of the idea behind that. But this morning, I want to ask a question to all of us. What is the secret to success in life? Someone were to ask you this morning, oh, how do I become successful? What's the secret to success in life? Not sure what you would answer. Maybe you'd say, well, if you know, tell me. I'm still figuring it out. But I thought it was very interesting. When I Googled that, Google said that investing in yourself is the secret sauce to finding success in your personal and professional life. Investing in yourself. When I looked at the life of Joshua here this morning, I think we recognize a life that was extremely successful that did not invest in him or herself, but rather invested in their relationship with God. Once again, God has a completely different perspective on success than Google. But here in Joshua chapter 11, I want to read one verse of scripture in verse 6. Joshua chapter 11 in verse 6. And then we're going to back up and give a little bit of a background story here. Joshua chapter 11 verse 6. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them. For tomorrow, about this time, will I deliver them up, all slain before Israel. Thou shalt hoof their horses and burn their chariots with fire. Let's bow in prayer. Dear Father in heaven, oh how we need you this morning. Lord, you know what is going on in each and every life here today. Lord, You know exactly the needs of our hearts, but more so, Lord, meeting in church, the preaching of Your Word, Lord, the worship of Jesus Christ, it's not about us, it's really about You and Your glory. And this morning, Father, we pray that our hearts would lift You up and exalt You, that our lives would change in such a way that it would bring glory to You. Father, if there's anyone that is here or listening in, Lord, that is not saved, that they'd be convicted of their sin, they'd be attracted by your love, and they'd trust in the Savior. And Lord, we pray that each and every Christian here this morning would be fed through your Word. God, I pray you'd help me to preach your Word the way I ought to, and we ask that you would get all the glory for it, Lord. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. I want to back up here a little bit and give you a little bit of the situation of this very interesting verse. We find there in Joshua 11, verses 1 to 4, how there's a great host of many different armies all drawing up to battle to destroy this young nation, the nation of Israel, under the leadership of Joshua. In verse 4 we read the summary of these armies, it says there, Horses and chariots, of course, the modern-day equivalent of that would be tanks drawn up to battle today. So this is a very scary situation they're finding themselves into. Being attacked by multiple armies, too big to number, from several different nations. And how did we get here? So that's where I want to back up for just a touch and give a bit of a background. We of course start off with the nation of Israel under Joshua's leadership crossing across the Jordan River and first starting out to conquer the nations and the cities in the south. And so we see here on the map how from Gilgal, excuse me, they cross over the Jordan, and then from Gilgal where their camp is, they go and conquer Jericho, they conquer Ai after the second try, and they help out at Gibeon. They conquer all the way down to the south there, to Makeba. And God gives them success. Now we've studied Joshua chapter 10 where we see this all described and we've learned that you know what? Battles come and battles go. That's part of life. Battles come and battles go but the captain of the Lord's host is in control. Amen? Battles come and battles go but the captain of the Lord's host is in control. Praise the Lord. See, there are enemies, there are battles, even when we live in the will of God for our life. Israel there, the nation of Israel, had entered the promised land, had entered the will of God for them, and yet even that was a place where not everything just came easy. It's a place where, yes, God promised them victory in the face of their enemies. And folks, how much you and I can relate to that as well. We obviously live in quite a bit of a different context. In the New Testament, we live in a dispensation. We live through the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not Israel, but nevertheless, we still find how foes may fight us. How friends may fail us. But Jesus remains faithful, amen? Jesus remains faithful. Now the question is, will you stay faithful to Him? He's faithful to you and to me, praise the Lord. Will we be faithful to Him? After the southern campaign, they went back to Gilgal, and then they moved on as you continue on the map there, brother. And so we see them kind of split the land in half, so to speak, and they kind of go first the southern direction, and then they turn north, if you move on, and we see this here described in Joshua chapter 11. And we see a great and fearsome army pulled up in battle. Can you move on those map, please? Thank you. And so you see how they now turn north from Gilgal, and they conquer all the way up to Hazar. And so all the way towards the northern part of Israel. God gives them success again. What did they learn in the Northern Campaign? Well, I think there's many different things, but one is that it's not the strength of the enemy that matters. These Northern armies were quite a bit more intimidating. They had horses, they had battle wagons, and all these different things. They had huge armies. But it's not the strength of the enemy that's important. You know what matters? The might of our God that you and I trust in. Amen? The might of our God that the people of Israel trusted in. And so God wasn't breaking out of sweat at all. Amen? And their success or their failure, folks, was not depending on their skill and their efforts or even chance and luck. No, it depended upon God being with them. Iman, it depended upon God being with them and well them being with God of course. And when I look at all these different historical events and when I look at the life of Joshua, You and I may look at this map and say, okay, well, I can't really relate much to that. And if you move to the next one, please. And you say, what can I learn from that? Well, I look at the life of Joshua and I look at the success that God gave him, all the victories. And I don't know about you, but I look at Joshua and I say, oh, I'd like to be that. Wouldn't you, Amen? I'd like to get all those victories and all these many great successes. I'd love that to be me. And so the question then that I ask myself is, what was special about Joshua? What kind of person can God use and give success like he did to Joshua? What can you and I learn from his life? And so that is our message this morning, the person that God can use, the person that God can use. What was it about Joshua that set him up for success? I don't think there's a single person in this room that gets up in the morning and says, man, I just can't wait to be a failure today. I really hope today is gonna be terrible, and am I really gonna fail at everything, right? Nobody does that, amen? No, of course, we want to be successful, we want to feel like we've accomplished something worthwhile and productive, and we want for things to work out, and even if we're maybe depressed and all down about ourselves, like, oh, I can't do anything right, We still want to, though, have success even when we don't have it. What was it that made Joshua so special? There's many Bible characters that we could look at and they didn't have half the success rate that Joshua had. Well, I think the first thing that we observe here in Joshua chapter 11 is that he obeyed God's Word. He obeyed God's Word. You say, well, of course you're going to say that. But let's look at this a little bit. And we want to move further and further into Joshua's life. We by no means will be able to point out everything that we could see about him, but I want to kind of roll backward his life a little bit and see, okay, well, he was a man obedient to the Word of God, but how did he get there? And then how did he get to that? And how did Joshua become the man of God that he was? How did God give him such success? Look at verse 9 in Joshua chapter 11, please. Lord willing, we'll at another occasion break down these maps a little more and talk about these different nations and so forth. But I really felt that this morning the Lord wanted us to first look at the man that he's using throughout these battles. Joshua. Let's look at Joshua 11, verse 9. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. Bade means asked or requested of him. So Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. hooved their horses and burned their chariots with fire." Say, what was so special about that? Well, to hoof means to cut the tenon on the inside of the horse's knee in order to render them useless for battle, to hamstring them basically. And for you and for me that may sound pretty cruel but that was a very common practice for armies to deal with in ancient days with the battle equipment of conquered enemies so to speak. You know, in times of war, you wanted to prevent for the enemy to still be able to use these horses and chariots if they would return. And many times, just as in this case, the Israelite army was moving so fast around the country from conquering city after city that they didn't have the logistical abilities, you know, to feed hundreds of enemy horses. So it would be similar to today immobilizing an enemy tank, right, and just leaving it scrap on the battlefield. Plus, I also think God really wanted them to rely upon Him to fight the battle for them, not upon the battle equipment of man. Amen? And so the important thing here is, so that we notice, is how Joshua did exactly what the Lord commanded him to do. Drop down to verse 12, we see that again. And it was just something that really stood out to me as we study the battles here of the northern campaign. Again, Joshua did exactly what God had told him through Moses. Go to verse 15 please. As the Lord commanded Moses' servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. That is an amazing statement. Can you imagine if somebody would one day have to write your tombstone and they would write on there, here lies Timothy Jansen or whatever. Everything that God commanded him, he fulfilled. He left nothing undone that God told him to do. That would be an amazing testimony for God to give to any one of us here this morning, amen? Could it be, just maybe, that that was really a great key for Joshua's success? So many times it's not the really deep, the really, you know, intricate things that are the keys that why God uses a person. Many times it's just simple obedience, simple faith. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded. Notice in verse 23 in Joshua chapter 11. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses. Joshua obeyed the Word of God. There's a question that the psalmist in Psalm 119 asked all the young people. All right, so if you feel in some degree or another young this morning, all right, listen up, okay? There's a question that God's asking. He says, wherewithal shall a young man, or a woman for that matter, Psalm 119 verse 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How can I live a pure godly life? How can I be successful for God? Here's the answer. by taking heed thereto according to thy word." In other words, listening to the Bible, doing what God says, living life His way. That is where joy comes, that is where blessing comes, that is where fulfillment comes. Turn with me to Joshua 1. Real quick like where we really see this so clearly expressed that this was the very basis for God's blessing upon Joshua. Joshua chapter 1 and verse 7 and 8. The Lord is talking here to him and instructing and encouraging him when he says this. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whethersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Meditate means to keep thinking about it. He was supposed to keep talking about it and he was supposed to keep thinking about it. Amen? Study it. Meditate upon it. Notice it goes on to say that thou mayest observe to do according to the parts that you really like that are written therein. Oh, different version. Oops. No, it says that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. Amen? For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous. And then thou shalt have good success. I emphasize this on purpose because, folks, as Christians, and I include myself in that, we all have this tendency to just pick and choose what we obey from the Word of God, right? And then we're very quick to point fingers to others and to this terrible world that's so wicked, you know, that's just so not obeying God and how dare they rebel against the Creator and, oh, just, you know, turn on the news and I'm reading the news with my Bible on hand and, oh, that's wrong and that's wrong and, oh man, they should just read this and they would know better. And God says, yeah, you should read this too, then you would know better too. The air is where you're disobeying me, Hema. And, um, God is very, very clear. It's not for you and for me to pick and choose what part of His righteousness we ought to all obey. No, no. Whether it steps on our toes or not, whether it cramps our lifestyle, whether it means we have to change. Maybe feel a bit uncomfortable and convicted. Because God says, hey, this is not right, we gotta change this. You know, that's okay. That's part of living a life for Jesus. That is part of becoming a success. And being used and blessed by God. Who's ever played the game Lava Floor? I don't know, has many different games, you know, when they were young kids. Who's ever played? I don't know, maybe you know it under a different name or Crocodiles in the River or something. You know, where you're up on chairs or benches or whatever else and you're not allowed to touch the floor with your feet, right? And you're supposed to jump from item to item, whatever, right? Some of you have played it, good. I was thinking about that a little bit, you know? Or a minefield, if you will. Wouldn't it be helpful to have a map to know where to go? To stay safe and not touch the lava ground, right? Or not blow up on a minefield of life somewhere? Folks, that's what this book is. It is my map to guide me through the minefields of life towards the treasure of joy and blessedness and being a success for God. We see Joshua start out really early in one of the first mentions that we see of him in the Bible when we go back to Exodus chapter 17 with his battle against the Amalekites. I want to turn over there real quick, and I think we have the next thing up here for that. In Exodus chapter 17, there in verse 9. Amalek is an enemy nation that Joshua would face several times. But here's the first time, and we see there how Moses said unto Joshua, Do you have that picture, Adlon? Notice verse 10. What did Joshua do? It says, So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek, And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. I find this very interesting because we see here how Joshua, right at the beginning where we see him for the first time really, goes ahead and obeys and does exactly what he's been instructed to do. And that was not an easy task. Maybe he was fearful. Maybe the battle meant a bit of effort, meant probably some danger, some inconvenience. But none of that was a problem. Joshua was willing to obey and do what God had told him through Moses, and go fight the battle for the glory of the Lord. He obeyed the word of God. I want to move on to the next thing that I noticed about Joshua. Let's move over to Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7, please. Where we see the defeat at Ai. They first went ahead and tried to conquer the city and something was wrong. You know what was wrong? Who knows what was wrong with the nation of Israel, why they couldn't conquer AI? What was wrong? Yes. Very true. Exactly. Very good. Achan, right? He had sinned. There was sin in the camp. There was a traitor. If you move on to the next one, please. There was a traitor. Notice there in Joshua chapter 7, verse 8. He's experiencing maybe the worst crisis in his life. He's desperately praying and crying out to God and He says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, What do you think he said? He said, Get thee up, for wherefore lies thou upon thy face? Hey, what's all the movement around there, Joshua? You know what? The problem is, they're sitting in the camp. The problem is, there's a traitor in the midst of Israel. Joshua moves forward in spite of what others did. I find this interesting here. Throughout this whole crisis, God is really teaching Joshua a lot, and what Achan did did not stop him, did him? He kept moving forward. Now, he did the right thing. His response was immediately to go to God in prayer. When we're faced with a great crisis, when we're faced with compromise, with backstabbing or hypocrisies of others around us, That should not deter us from following God. Jesus is still faithful, isn't he? Jesus is still worth it to move forward. And so in prayer, God encourages Joshua and gets his focus back on the Lord. And instead of the circumstances and the people, you know, like Achan who had portrayed him, who had turned against God. He doesn't focus on that disappointment, on that defeat, that setback, no. In prayer, God is, through His words, changing His thinking and renewing His mind and putting His perspective upon the truth that mattered. So yes, sin is painful, sin is devastating, and it only really has one cure, folks. Repentance. And so we see that after Acham is being dealt with, Joshua moves forward and they just go right back into the next battle with new faith in God. That encourages me folks, that encourages me. Because we all may face setbacks, we all may face people that disappoint us, friends that may turn against us. We all may face sin in the camp or compromise and that's no reason to stop. Joshua keeps moving forward regardless of what everybody else was doing. I want to notice something else that really encouraged me. Let's turn over to Exodus chapter 24, please. Exodus chapter 24. And I want to see it step-by-step. What made Joshua into the man of God that he was, that God could use and bless and give great success? And I think another reason is because Joshua had a servant's heart. Joshua had a servant's heart. He just sang the song, Lord, give me a servant's heart. And maybe that was his greatest quality, which really made him such a great leader. In Joshua 24, verse 13, we read this, Joshua 24, verse 13. And Moses rose up and his minister, Joshua, and Moses went up into the mount of God. The word minister means servant or one who tends to the needs of others. That's what it means to be in the ministry or to be a minister of God, tending to the needs of others, being a servant. Lord, give me a servant's heart like Joshua. Josh, I didn't mind being a servant to Moses and assisting him and helping him fulfill God's will. I think the Lord Jesus Christ is probably the greatest example of a servant's heart, of shemility. Wouldn't you say, Haman? He came to serve sinful man. Praise the Lord. And we see him there in John chapter 13 going ahead and washing the disciples' feet, doing the lowliest, dirtiest of slave work. And yet he is the master and the king of kings. But he had a humble heart. And he says to the disciples there, I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. You and I ought to serve one another. You and I ought to be willing to take the lowest place to be humble as well. The key to unity as the Church of Jesus Christ, the key to unity is humility, folks. The key to unity is humility in your family, in your marriage, at work, and especially in the church. Humility is when we see ourselves through God's eyes. Guess what? We all of a sudden become very unworthy, and yet so precious to the Lord, because that's how He sees us. When we look to God, we realize that, well, we're all sinners, aren't we? None of us is better. Compared to the Lord, we all fall short. There's no room for pride in the service of God. Folks, where there's humility, there's Christlikeness. Amen? And I think that is a very significant reason why God could use a minister like Joshua. Folks, where there is true humility, there will not be any gossiping, and any talking behind one another's back, and slander, and arrogancy, and all these things that follow pride in the heart. Lord, give me a servant's heart like Joshua. I want to move on to the next thing. We see how Joshua obeyed the Word of God. We see how Joshua moved forward regardless of what other people did, even when they forsook the Lord. We see how Joshua had a servant's heart, but we also see how Joshua had to learn a very important life lesson. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 32, please. Exodus chapter 32. We're just about to read or just read this this past week. I encourage you to continue in the Bible reading plan three chapters a day. Every single person here that is able to read can do that. I totally believe that. And if you've fallen behind, just at least jump right in where we're at and continue from there. Amen? Exodus 32, who knows the story about the golden calf? Story about the golden calf. I'll try to get you up to speed a little bit with that. What happens is Moses there in Exodus 32, he's going up to the mountain and receiving the tablets with the Ten Commandments. You know the Ten Commandments, right? I'm not going to ask you to quote them, alright? But maybe you should though. And so God gives Moses the Ten Commandments and while he's up there on the mountain, right? What we see happening down in the camp with the people of Israel is Aaron, out of all people, ends up making an idol, a golden calf. And the people start dancing and partying and drinking and fornicating and everything around that golden calf. And so God warns Moses about that up on the mountain, and Moses comes down and takes Joshua with him, who had come along at least partway with him there. And this is what happens. We see how Joshua learns that sin is the most dangerous of all enemies. You see, the worst enemy were not the Amalekites. It was not the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Gibeonites or any of these other guys. The worst sin really is sin. The worst enemy. In Exodus 32 verse 17, we read this, Exodus 32, 17. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there's noise of war in the camp. And he, that is Moses, said, it's not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing I do hear. So he could identify that it wasn't, you know, a shouting over victory or a cry of defeat. No, there was some singing and some music going on that sounded just like the war of noise. We still got music like that today, folks. And it's usually the kind of music that's appealing to the flesh, amen? Notice verse 19, And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot. And he cast the tablets out of his hands. And he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mount. So the 10 commandments that he had received from the Lord, right? Verse 20. And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strutted upon the water, and made the children of Israel to drink it. Verse 25, it says that Moses noticed they were even naked. What was going on there? Well, the flesh was going on there. And the flesh loves sin, doesn't it? Amen? Your flesh, my flesh, loves sin too, sadly. And the flesh is always looking for something visible, something material and physical. And so, with Moses being gone for a while, and Joshua, they figured, well, we're going to make our own God that we can see. Because, you know what, that's what all the cool nations around us are doing. And so, let's just be like the cool nations, and like everybody else, and let's make ourselves a visible God. And we're going to make this calf. And we see here music that appeals to the flesh. We see immodesty and indecency that appeals to the flesh. We see worldly dancing that appears to the flesh, and we see idolatry that too appeals to the flesh. And Joshua, though, thinks there's a war going on. Well, there was really a war going on, but not with physical weapons, it was a spiritual war. The people of Israel had rebelled against God and His commandments. Sin is our worst enemy. It will destroy us and it will always take us further than we ever wanted to go. It will always stay and keep us longer in bondage than we ever intended to stay with it. Sin is a liar. It's a filthy liar. It never keeps what it promises. Never. So that's why the Apostle Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6, O man of God, flee these things! Run! flee these things, the fornication, the idolatry, the youthful lusts, all these things that he describes, and instead rather follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Folks, our flesh's goal is always to rebel against God and to follow sin. It's being fed by the things we see and by the things we experience through our senses. So at the end of that chapter, Moses stands up in the camp and he says, hey guys, who's on the Lord's side? And this morning, I believe the Lord is asking us as well, who is on the Lord's side? Or are we gonna follow the flesh? Are we gonna succumb to our worst enemy, sin in the camp? Joshua stayed with the Lord. But he learned, I believe, an important lesson there. That sin is the most dangerous things in the fight. Let's turn over to Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. Where we see one more example of things we can learn from Joshua. We see how Joshua believes in God's promises no matter what. Joshua believes God's promises no matter what. Who knows the story about the twelve spies? The story about the twelve spies, right? Maybe you know the children's song, right? Ten were bad and two were good, right? Ten were bad and two were good, right? You know that story? Amen. Very good. What was Joshua's friend that stood up together with him? Do you know his name? Caleb. Very good. Caleb. Amen. We read that story there in Joshua chapter 14, and we see how Joshua and Caleb stand up as all the other spies say, oh man, this is going to be too big, this is too scary. The Canaanites and those big giants, oh man, they're just going to take care of us, they're going to destroy us. Oh, this is so scary, this is a disaster. Joshua and Caleb say, hold on here, hold on here. God said we're going to conquer the land. He promised us the victory. So why don't we just trust what God says, forget what everybody else thinks, and move forward. Amen? How about that? Everybody else did not trust the Lord. Everybody else was scared, was falling all the way over the world, but Joshua and Caleb said, no, no, no, we're going to trust the Lord. I believe his promises, no matter what everybody else says. And God blesses Joshua and Caleb for that. Out of all these spies, as a matter of fact, of their entire generation, only Joshua and Caleb survived. And God says specifically that the reason for that in Deuteronomy 31 is because their heart was wholly given to the Lord. Is your heart wholly given to the Lord this morning? It's my heart. Hebrews chapter 11, we read that without faith it is impossible to please God, in verse 6. In Hebrews 11, verse 30, we see how Joshua did what he did and how he had the victory by faith. We can't expect for God to use us or to bless us and give us the victory in our life if we're not willing to trust Him for it. And we're still trying to do it our own ways, amen? In our own strength. Folks, even when everybody else is turning away from the Lord, even when this whole world thinks we're going to start crazy. I mean, we're just some nutty extremists there. You know, take the Bible literally. How in the world? You know, don't you want to have some fun in life? Don't you want to be cool and go with everybody else? No, we don't want to go with everybody else. We want to stand for the Lord like Joshua and Caleb did. You know what? We need to be willing, like Joshua, to stand against the majority, if need be, as long as we stand with the Lord. That's what faith in God means. That's what believing His promises and taking it to the bank, so to speak, means. I'd rather be in the minority here on earth, but in the majority up in heaven, wouldn't you, Amen? I'd rather be in the minority here on earth, but in the majority in heaven. Lastly, we see once again in Joshua chapter 1, Joshua chapter 1, how he surrounds himself with those who are loyal to God's cause. Notice there in Joshua chapter 1, in verse 16. Joshua surrounds himself with those who are loyal to God's cause. It says there, And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou hast commanded us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. I think we have a next picture there. Verse 17, it says, According as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so we will hearken unto thee. Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Joshua was surrounded by people who were loyal to God's cause. They were willing to go through thick and thin with him, like brothers in arms, so to speak, no matter what, and face every enemy, face every battle, and they were in this together as brothers and sisters because they had a cause that was greater than them. Say, what was their cause? The glory of God? Their cause was the glory of God. David, when faced with Goliath, said, is there not a cause? Folks, is there not a cause even today for you and for me to stand for God, to take His Word and put it to the bank, so to speak, and say, you know what, I'm going to trust this even if the whole world thinks I'm crazy. I'm going to do and obey God's Word. I'm going to act different. I'm going to talk different. I'm going to look different. I'm going to think different. Because Jesus is worth it. Jesus is worthy. And because I know that God blesses the man that is having his heart wholly given to him. But one thing that really helped Joshua is that he surrounded himself with those who are loyal to God's cause as well. Folks, that's why church is so important. Because hopefully, that is out of all places where we are to find those who seek to be loyal to the cause of the glory of God in this world as well. Amen? We see here how the people encouraged Joshua They say in verse 6, be strong and of good courage. In verse 7, only be thou strong and very courageous. In verse 9, the Lord again is talking to him and says, be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. And then in verses 16 to 18 we see the people of Israel encouraging him as well. Be of good courage. Folks, the greatest men of God need to be encouraged. The greatest men of God need to be encouraged. Even David encouraged himself in the Lord. That's really the meaning of our theme this year. Learning how to be happy in Jesus. Amen? The joy of the Lord is your strength. But folks, who are we encouraging to keep falling for the Lord in this church? In whatever circle of influence we have. Who do we seek to surround ourselves to encourage us towards godliness? There's plenty of encouragement to go the wrong way that we face all week long. Who do we surround ourselves, like Joshua did, with those who are loyal to the cause of the glory of God and that will encourage us to do right and to stay the course and to trust God? Think about it. There's 168 hours in your week. He spent approximately 63 hours working, maybe more, maybe less. Around 49 hours sleeping or so. That leaves you somewhere around 62 hours, over 8 hours per day technically. How are you using that time for the glory of Christ? That is the cause that you and I are to strive after each and every day. Folks, you may accuse me of being self-serving or sounding like a broken record, but folks, if it's biblical, we ought to talk about it, amen? And the Bible says that we need to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ that help us to keep going. And that is what happens at church. That is why the fellowship with the saints is so vital. That's why the Holy Spirit says in Hebrews chapter 10 that we ought to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. but rather even so much the more, amen? Not going less to fellowship together and hear the preaching and pray and sing, encourage one another, but rather more! Folks, there's a reason why the New Testament calls Sunday the Lord's Day, not the Lord's Morning. The Lord's Day, not the Lord's Morning. Even in the Old Testament, we have that example, that illustration where the people got together for the morning and the evening sacrifice. By the way, the same with the Lord's Supper. It's not called the Lord's Breakfast. It's called the Lord's Supper. But whenever we have the opportunity to meet together and to worship God together, we ought to do so because we desperately need to encourage one another. I need, you need encouragement, folks. Amen? And Joshua was such a great success. He was so victorious because he surrounded himself with those who would encourage him. And he found encouragement most and foremost in the Lord. Even Moses was commanded by the Lord in Deuteronomy chapter 3 to encourage Joshua, to strengthen him. God knew Joshua was facing some tough battles. And you know what? He gave him people that would encourage him to trust God, to move forward. No matter if the battle was tough and scary, no matter what everybody else did, no. Joshua was encouraged to keep trusting God and keep moving forward for Him. Brothers, sisters, I think we all want to be a success before the Lord this morning. Amen? And I think we all have to look at our lives in the light of the example of Joshua, who, by the way, his name is a picture or type to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Hebrew name Joshua really comes out to the Greek equivalent of Jesus. It means God saves. And as you and I really ultimately take a good look at the Lord Jesus Christ, are we willing to trust God's Word and obey it even when no one else does? Are we willing to keep moving forward even when others fall to the wayside? Are we willing to continue for the glory of God and surround ourselves with those who are loyal and encouraging us to move forward because He is worthy? The cause of the glory of Jesus Christ is our mission to hold up. In easy times and in times of battle. Are you and I going to answer that call this morning? Are you and I going to answer that call this morning? We're encouraged through Joshua. Now it's our turn to step up by faith. Just a seated, amen? I'd like to ask you to please stand, bow your heads in prayer. There's nothing special about Joshua that you or I couldn't attain. He was just a humble man who was willing to put it all upon God and his promises. Even in setbacks, in defeats, even in discouragements and struggles and battles, He kept moving forward. Because the Captain of the Lord's Host had commanded, and obeying Him is the worthiest of all causes. Send you place this morning. If there's a decision you need to make to follow and trust the Lord like Josh I did, I want to encourage you. Don't delay. Do it now.