This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day three of our Look Through the Book of Joshua, week one of our Look
Through the Book of Joshua. Yesterday, we began to look at how you begin to
receive God's promise. You're standing on the edge of a victory.

Every one of us is because of Jesus. Whether you feel that way or not, you are.
You're standing on the edge of God's promise.

Whether you feel that or not, it's what Jesus has given us. So how do you begin
to step in to God's promise? How do you begin to enjoy God's promise in your
life?

Yesterday, we reminded ourselves you have to let go of the past, and you have to
get ready to cross. You have to begin to look forward to the future. And then as
we get to Joshua chapter one, verse three, we begin to learn some more truths
about how you and I begin to live out God's promise in our lives.

Listen to what God has to say in these verses, verses three to five. "I will
give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your
territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the
Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the great sea on the west.

No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was
with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you.

" In these few verses, we continue to learn things about how you and I begin to
step into God's promise. Not just once in your life, but every day of your life.
As we walk through the book of Joshua, see this not as just a one-time
experience of beginning to step into God's promise.

I know it was for them as they entered the promised land, but in your own life,
see it as a daily experience. Every day, I need to let go of the past. Every
day, I need to look forward to the future that God has.

And every day, I need to do a couple of other things that are found in these
verses. I need to hear those three words at the beginning of verse three. "I
will give," God says.

"I will give you every place where you set your foot. I will give. " That
reminds me of the need to trust.

The need to trust. "I will give. " This is not a question of whether God would
give, but of what he would give.

And he says, "What I will give is every place that you set your foot in your
life. " It's not a question of whether God wants to give into your life. There
are many, many, many believers who are confused about this.

Because of the world around us, because of false father images that we have,
there's a lot of reasons for it. We somehow think that God is a miser. We
somehow think that God is begrudging, that he doesn't really want to give to us.

But look at what Jesus said about this. Jesus said we have a giving father. As
he taught in the Sermon on the Mount about it, he said, "If you as earthly
fathers want to give to your children, how could the Heavenly Father not want to
give?

" And then you get to Romans 8, and it talks about what Jesus did for us on the
cross. And Romans 8 reminds us, if God did this for us in Christ, how will he
not also with Christ also give us everything in him? He is a giving God.

That feeling that you have inside that, "Oh, he wouldn't want to give me his
promises. He wouldn't want to do in my life that kind of work. " That's a false
feeling.

The feeling that's based on the culture that's around us, the world that's
around us. The truth is, God is a giving God. I will give.

I love the picture here. I will give every place where you set your foot, as I
promised Moses. This picture of you have to set your foot somewhere, and every
place you set your foot, I'm going to give.

It wasn't just, "I'll give you the whole land. " They had to walk the land, and
every place they walked, that's what God gave to them. There's a parallel in our
lives.

You can say you trust God, but unless you step forward into that ministry,
unless you step forward into that relationship, unless you step forward into
beginning to study God's Word, then you don't see the reality of that promise in
your life. The question behind this picture is, where are you setting your foot?
God will give you those places where you trust him, but you have to step out and
trust.

If you're going to trust, I've got to ask myself the question. You have to ask
yourself that question every day. What is it that I'm trusting?

What is it that I'm trusting that causes me to make the decisions that I make?
Is it my circumstances? Is it other people's opinions?

Is it my feelings? Or am I trusting him? Joshua is encouraged here on the edge
of the promised land to trust God.

Not to say, "Go take a look and see if there's any problems over there. If there
are, maybe you should question this. " Not circumstances.

Not opinions. Joshua is not encouraged to say, "Would you take a survey of all
the people and see if 53% or more want to go into the promised land and then we
will. " He's not even encouraged to trust his own feelings.

Now God does deal with his feelings. God knows that he misses Moses. God knows
that he's afraid.

So he says to him, "Just as I was with Moses, I will be with you. " God will
deal with your feelings if you let him, but don't trust your feelings because
they'll let you down too many times. Trust him.

When you trust him, that determines your actions. In fact, whatever you decide
to trust determines your actions. If you trust your circumstances, then your
circumstances are going to determine how you act.

If you trust other people's opinions, then their opinions are going to determine
how you act. Who do you trust? When Joshua had gone in with the twelve spies,
ten of them trusted their fears above God's promises and he'd lived with that
for 40 years.

So now he stands on the edge of the promised land once again and in this moment
God says, "I'm going to give you every place, but you need to trust in me. "
That's where you begin. Right now in your mind, "God, I trust in you.

I don't feel like trusting. It doesn't even feel right to trust maybe, but I
know you're trustworthy. I know you're greater than even my feelings.

I will give you. You have the need to trust. " But then there's another thing
you need and we find it in verses six to nine.

As Joshua hears the words from God, "I will make you strong and courageous," he
reminds us of the need for conviction, to live out God's promises in my life. I
need a conviction that God's going to be with me, that he's going to help me to
live out those promises. I'm not alone.

And that conviction is based on the promise of God. Listen to the promises that
are in verses six to nine. "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead
these people to inherit the land.

I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be
careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you.

Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful
wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law to depart from your mouth.
Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written
in it.

Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong
and courageous.

Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with
you wherever you go. " Talk about promises.

Talk about encouragement. Be strong. Have strength in battle.

Be courageous. Have firmness of spirit. But I want you to notice God's resources
that we hear about in these verses as God is saying to Joshua, "Be strong and
courageous," the resources of God's promises.

Be strong and courageous. Why? Listen to the assurance.

"You will lead these people to inherit the land that I swore to their
forefathers to give them. " Be strong and courageous based on God's assurance,
the assurance of what God wants to do in this world. God's at work in this
world.

He wants to be at work in your life. He wants to be at work in your family. He
wants to be at work through your life, in your school, in your business place.

So you listen to his assurance. "I want to be at work here. " And based on that,
you have strength.

You have courage. You don't try to build that strength up just on who you are.
Some of us will have more.

Some of us have less based on that because some of us are more outwardly strong,
some of us more outwardly weak. But that's not where spiritual strength comes
from anyway. You listen to God's assurance.

God wants to be at work in your life. The second thing you do is you live by his
word. You see how Moses and Joshua both had taken up God's word and because of
that, God is fulfilling God's promise in their life.

He reminds Joshua once again here that law that Moses, my servant, gave you, you
live it out. Don't let this book of the law depart from your mouth. And notice
what he says to Joshua, "Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful
to do everything written in it.

" The person who lives out God's promise in their life is the person who
meditates on God's promise in their life. And remember, the word "meditate" in
the Bible, it doesn't mean this idea sometimes we have of unfocusing your mind.
We think of Eastern meditation where you lose your mind to the universe.

That is not the biblical idea of meditation. Bible meditation is focusing your
mind on the word of God, just listening to what God has to say. That's where you
get the assurance to live out God's promise.

And what else do you have? What's the other resource you have? You have the
assurance of what God's doing.

You have the word of God in your life and you also have the presence of God in
your life. The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. As a follower of
Jesus Christ now, you have the promise not only will he be with you, he'll be in
you.

God's Holy Spirit lives in your life. You may not feel like that today, but
that's the truth about who you are. And based on that promise of who you are,
that's how you begin to live out God's victory.

You got to begin to see yourself for who you really are in him. The assurance
that God wants to work in your life. The word of God, you meditate on it, that's
how that assurance many times comes.

And the fact that God's promise of God's presence is going to be with you
wherever you are. In prayer, I want to just take a few minutes to remind
ourselves of those truths. Just in an attitude of prayer right now, just say,
Lord, thank you for the assurance that you are at work in this world.

And in your word, you assure me that you want to work through me in this world.
Whatever I've been through, whatever I'm facing right now, you want to still be
at work. I accept that assurance.

Thank you, Lord, for your word, filled with your promises, filled with your
truth. Help me to be a man, help me to be a woman who meditates on your word.
Let's the truth of your word soak its way into my life.

And thank you, God, for your presence. That whether I feel it or not, whether I
remember it or not, you are with me wherever I go. Help me to remember it more.

Help me even to feel it today, to sense your presence with me. Thank you for the
promise of your presence. In Jesus' name, I thank you for all these things.

Amen. Tomorrow, you and I are going to continue to learn from Joshua about how
we begin to trust God's promises.