This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look together at the book of Joshua. We're going to be
looking today at the first couple of verses in this book, this great book in
chapter one. And as we look at these verses, as we enter into the book this
week, we're going to begin to talk about where the life of victory begins.

And we're going to find out that it begins with God's promise. God's victory is
born into my life when I trust God's promise. So how do those promises get
trusted?

How do they get born into my life? How do they take shape? How do they take
reality?

Birth is not a bad picture of how God's promises need to come into my life. Like
in a pregnancy, God creates the child, but he trusts us with whom he created,
with the little baby, with the little girl, with the little boy. God has many
promises that he has created, he has given you as your creator.

And that is the victory in your life. The victory in your life comes through the
promises of God in your life. But it begins as I begin to trust those promises,
as I begin to handle those promises and live with those promises and live out
those promises.

And in Joshua 1, we learn, we're reminded that it's not always easy to trust
God's promises. In fact, it often challenges us to our core. As you look at what
Joshua had to learn, had to face in order to begin to trust God's promises for
himself, I hope you and I are going to learn some things about what we have to
face in order to trust God's promises in our lives.

In Joshua chapter 1, just picture this with me, the entire nation of Israel,
millions of people with Joshua as their leader, they stand on the edge of God's
promise, literally on the edge of the promised land. So they're standing on the
edge of God's promise. How do they begin to enter into it?

How do they begin to enjoy this victory in their life? This is the story of our
lives. This is the story of your life, actually, every day of your life.

You don't stand at the edge of God's promise just once in your life. Every
single day, we're standing at the edge of God's promise. And the question is, am
I going to step into it?

Am I going to step away from it or am I going to get stuck where I am? How do I
begin to step in to God's promise in my life so I can enjoy God's victory in my
life? My life's greatest battles.

Well, let's let Joshua help us to picture how that can happen. Listen to what
happens in verses 1 and 2, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,
the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' aid, 'Moses my servant is dead. Now
then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land
I'm about to give them to the Israelites.

'" Now, just a few simple verses, but there are some very deep truths here about
how God works in our lives to begin to accomplish his victory, how we begin to
trust God's promise. Beginning is what he says in verse 1, "Moses my servant is
dead. " Now, maybe one part of you that thinks, "Well, that's pretty obvious.

Joshua's been serving him all his life and God has to tell him, 'Moses my
servant is dead. '" Why does God have to tell him that? He has to remind him
because it's so easy to hold on to the past.

If you want to enjoy God's victory in your life, first of all, you have to
understand the need to let go. What do you do when everything changes? In
Joshua's case, what do you do when the leader that you've been following for 40
years is gone?

Well, first, you realize that he's gone. God seems very blunt here, very
uncaring, "Moses my servant is dead. " Now, cross the Jordan River, but he's
actually being truthful.

There's nothing more frustrating. There's nothing more wearying than trying to
keep the past alive. There's nothing more frustrating, nothing more wearying
than trying to trust in some other person's trust in God in the past.

That's trying to keep the past alive. If you're trying to bring God's promises
into your life through some other person that used to trust in God's promises,
it's never going to work. "Moses my servant is dead.

The past is gone. I've got to trust God in a fresh new way today. " To receive
God's promises for your life today, you must first let go of yesterday.

Moses had trusted God's promises. And the people of God, Joshua included, had
followed Moses. But now, Joshua comes to this moment in his life where he has to
trust for himself.

Maybe you've been trusting someone else's trust in God's promise. Maybe a
parent, maybe a pastor, maybe a teacher, maybe a friend. I want to tell you that
God will always bring us to this place in our lives that Joshua came to this
day.

"Moses my servant is dead. " That person whose trust in God's promises I've been
trusting, and as they trust I follow them and I see God's blessing, at some
point that person's not going to be in your life. Not always through death.

Sometimes it's because you move, or sometimes it's because there's a change in
their life. But there comes a moment when you realize, "I can't trust in that
anymore. I've got to trust for myself.

Moses is dead. Now what am I going to do? " Joshua had to choose.

"Am I going to run away from this, or am I going to choose to trust in God? "
God immediately challenges him to trust. First there is the need to let go.

We learn that from the very beginning of the book of Joshua. If I'm going to
step into God's promise. But then there's a second thing right away.

He says, "Moses my servant is dead. " Then God says, "Now get ready to cross the
Jordan River. " First there's the need to let go, and then there's the need to
act.

God had given them the promised land. It's God's land. It's God's promise, but
they have to do something about it.

They have to cross the Jordan River. They have to step into the land. God's
promises require our response.

There's something we have to do to step into God's promise. God didn't carry
them into the promised land. He had them cross the Jordan to get to the promised
land, and we're going to see what a challenge that was in a couple of chapters.

God didn't ask them just to drive by the promised land and wave at it on the way
by. He said, "You've got to cross the Jordan River. " He didn't build a bridge
for them before they got there and say, "I've got it all ready for you.

Just go across this bridge. " He said, "They had to cross the Jordan River. " He
said, "They had to trust.

" The same thing is true in my life and in your life. There is a step of trust
that you need to take. Now I'm not talking about works.

I'm not talking about the things that I do make me right before God. There is no
way that you can make yourself right before God by anything that you do,
crossing the Jordan River or any other thing, being baptized, any other thing,
any service to the poor, any other thing. If I think that me doing good things
or me doing religious things is going to make me right before God, I'm fooling
myself.

Only the power of Jesus can make me right before God because only Jesus is
perfect. So it's not by my works that I'm saved. It's because of my salvation
that I now do the good works that God has for me to do, that I step into God's
promise.

That's what empowers me to do that in my life today. So there's this moment here
as we begin the book of Joshua in my life, in your life. What am I going to do
about the way I'm living?

What am I going to do about the life that God has for me? Are you going to be
satisfied just standing where you are? Satisfied just trusting in somebody's
promise in the past and what you enjoyed in that?

Or satisfied standing on the edge of the promised land and never really stepping
in? Or right now in this moment, are you going to allow God to do something in
your heart, your mind, where you say the past is gone? I'm never going to
recapture that.

How can I trust God today? How can I trust God today? Get ready to cross.

Where do I need to act? What step do I need to take? Get ready to cross.

What do you need to do right now to get yourself ready to hear what God has to
say to you through this study of the book of Joshua? What do you need to let go
of? What do you need to look forward to?

You see, that's the two things that are happening here. Let go of the past. Look
forward to God's future.

You want to see God's promises become real in your life, you've got to let go of
the past. You've got to look forward to God's future. Get ready to cross.

Let's take a minute to talk to God together about this. Wherever you are, even
driving in your car or there's a lot going on around you, I hope you can build a
holy place right now where you can spend a moment talking to him about this
personally. Just say to him, "Father, I want to see your promise lived out in my
life.

You know me. You see me. I'm not perfect.

I struggle. But I also know you have given your promise. You've given that gift.

So based on who you are and the promise that you have given, I right now look
forward, begin to look forward to living in the way that you've promised, living
by faith, living out your vision, living out your promise in my life. I know
it's a day-by-day process, a step-by-step process. I know I'm not going to
become perfect overnight or ever on this earth, but I also know that I can be
growing.

I can be changing, that your promise can begin to possess my life like it never
has before. And I pray that through the study of Joshua, that your promise will
become more real in my life than it ever has. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to continue to look at how you begin to get ready to
receive God's promise in your life.