Be Strong and Courageous

Well good morning. Grab your message notes that are in your bulletins. They look like this and if you have a Bible with you open it up to Joshua chapter 1. If you have a Bible app search out Joshua chapter 1. My name is René, one of the teaching pastors here and Promised Land Living is the name of our brand new series that we are beginning this weekend in the book of Joshua and I am very excited about this because I have never done a series in the Old Testament book of Joshua before in my life as a pastor. So this is some of this is unexplored territory for me and for you probably as well so I'm excited about digging into this and here's how it applies to you and to me.

God has a Promised Land life that He wants you to live. Something that He prepared for you through what Jesus Christ did on the cross but you have to choose to move forward into the life that He has already given you by His grace and that's exactly what we learn to do in the book of Joshua. So let me set this up for you. The time as Joshua begins is approximately 1446 BC. The Israelites have been set free from Egyptian slavery. This is the time of Moses going to Pharaoh saying let my people go and God delivers them and then they go into the wilderness where Moses gets the Ten Commandments and then the newly freed slaves form a new nation together, the nation of Israel.

And I want to show you so that you can get the context for this geographically approximately where their route takes them on a satellite map. Now they did not have satellites in Bible times. This is a modern satellite map. You can see the Mediterranean Sea. There was Egypt where they were in slavery for 400 years and there's their approximate route where they go through the desert of the Sinai Peninsula right up to the borders of what is now known as Israel, the country of Israel and then was known as Canaan. Now why did they go there after they were released from slavery in Egypt? Well it was their homeland. 400 years before this their ancestors had been there, they lived there, they thrived there and then they had to leave because of a drought and God had promised them one day, one day you will be back.

Now one of the reasons I wanted to show you satellite imagery was I think it's instructive to see how dramatically different this territory is from the place that surrounds it. I want you to look at that. There's the ocean on the west coast and then there's desert surrounding it plus some mountains with snow on the top there on the north so you've got a land that's very green and lush. It's great farmland with a couple of lakes on the border there and a river but surrounded by mountains and desert and ocean on the west coast. Does this remind anybody of any place else on earth? Say it out loud it reminds you of the state of California and that is in fact exactly what it looks like. The southern area looks a lot like southern California.

Now doesn't this look to you like Laguna Beach or someplace down in Orange County right? That is southern Israel. It was a beach that I was at one of the times that I visited Israel and the north is a lot like northern California. This is probably not what you think of when you think of Israel right? We think of desert. Israel is not primarily desert. It wouldn't be the promised land if it was desert. It's like California and this is a waterfall the Banyas waterfall that's up in the north of Israel near the Mount Herman range. It's a beautiful spot and I want you to imagine the appeal of this land particularly to people who had been stuck in slavery in the hot desert land of Egypt right? It's easy to understand why the slaves called this the promised land.

Imagine how they must have dreamed about it, told stories about it, pictured going back to it. Imagine this as their land of milk and honey, their homeland that they were longing for and then after four centuries of slavery when they're finally set free. Of course they go now at last it's promised land time. Now we're gonna be living on easy street and so they rock it right back up to the border. They sent 12 spies, advanced scouts out over the border to scope out the situation and almost every single spy comes back and says, "I have bad news while we were gone some other people moved into our house and they're really bad people." And they were just human beings on the other side of the border but here's how they exaggerated. They said, "They're like giants and not only are they like giants but compared to them we're like grasshoppers so we can't do it. The promised land is there but we can't take it."

And a grand total of two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, come back and they say, "No we don't see giants we see a giant upside we just got to go in and believe in the promises of God. Here we go!" But the people believe the negative report and what happens is they get freaked out, follow me here, freaked out by the idea that the promised land won't be easy and so they give up and they end up wandering in the desert in the wilderness for another 40 years. They are free but aimless. Free but aimless and that describes how a lot of people live.

So what happens next? Well the book of Joshua opens 40 years later. That first generation that had first come up to the border of the promised land after freedom from slavery that most of them have died in the desert just a few remain like Joshua and Caleb and the crowd has now wandered back up to the border and now once again they're at the point of decision. They're once again they're this time they're on the shores of the Jordan River which is the border of the promised land and they're trying to decide do we go forward? They don't want to go back into the desert. They certainly don't want to go back to slavery. They don't like their present but they are so afraid of the future.

And here's the psychology at work here. It's a huge truth in the book of Joshua that is super important to understanding what's happening in Joshua and to understand life in general. Jot this down you know. Many of the best things in life are events that start a process. They're events that start a process and follow me here. Where we often get messed up is this. We get to the event and we think awesome I achieved this I'm done. But that is not how most things in life work. They're events that start a process. How many of you know that when you came to Jesus it was an event that started a process? Did you do you understand that? I wish it was just I accept Christ in miracle poof I'm in heaven completely glorified everything's good but that's not the way it works.

We enter into a process of sanctification and discipleship and the same thing with the Israelites. They were free. That was their identity. They were a free nation. That was an event that started a process. Literally a step by step day by day process of entering into the promised land that God had already given them. And that's life and sometimes this surprises us like you get married a big event and suddenly realize that living with dream lover over there is gonna be a process right? Oh yeah it's a lifelong process or you finally get into college and you've been working that for four years of high school and you get your letter of acceptance it's a big event you maybe have a party you celebrate and yet I know so many college freshmen who quit because the event of getting accepted precedes a very difficult process or you finally have the baby and you realize that that birth event begins a process of raising that baby and I just now realized this would have been a great opportunity to show you a picture of Freddie and I messed it up.

So I want you to just imagine the cutest baby in the world right on the screen. Have you got that? Check my Facebook feed if you would like to have a reminder of what he looks like. But listen so often what happens is we get this big event in our lives right and then the process that comes next look it's by definition it's uncertain because we've never walked the process before and it's kind of scary and some of you right now are paralyzed with indecision. You're right on the border of a land that God has for you. You're right on the border maybe of marriage or maybe you're on the border of college or maybe maybe you're even on the border of following Jesus Christ but the uncertainty of the process that lies beyond the event is intimidating you and frightening you so much because by definition it's vague and it's foggy and you don't know what what lies beyond the border of that event that you're in being intimidated into indecision.

You've got paralysis by analysis and so the question is how can I confidently move forward into an uncertain future and that is what the book of Joshua teaches you. So let's dig into this. Here's how the book of Joshua starts. It says in Joshua 1 starting in verse 2, "The Lord said, 'Moses my servant is dead.'" So don't dwell on the past right. Moses was a great guy those were good times in fact those were legendary times but those times are done so now move forward and we all need to hear that sometimes when an era comes to an end in our lives. Now then you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I'm about to give to them to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses.

Now let me show you how this rolls out in the book of Joshua. This isn't in your notes but here's an overview of the book that I think you need as we start this. Chapters 1 through 5 are about moving into the land right. The chapters 6 through 12 are about the battles for the land because there's some people there about seven distinct separate tribes. The Bible calls them the Canaanites but they weren't really a Canaanite nation or kingdom. There were about seven different city-states that are currently occupying the land and so this is about the battle for the land and then chapters 13 through 22 are about dividing up the land because after they win the land there's a lot of drama about dividing up the land because these tribes don't always see eye to eye. There's a lot of divisiveness even within the nation of Israel but it's about dividing up the land.

Then chapters 23 and 24 are Joshua's final stirring words. In nine weeks of the series we don't have a chance to look at every single verse in this book but we're gonna give you the big picture in nine weeks. Now you look at this outline of Joshua, shout it out. What do you imagine is the most controversial part of this? Yeah the battles of course. In fact I some friends I was talking to a couple of days ago and I said I'm so excited gonna be starting the book of Joshua and they said I don't like it. Don't like the book of Joshua. I said why not? And they said I don't like that book of the Bible because of the wars, because of the battles and it just sounds like a big excuse for holy war and that's the last thing we need to hear in our era today.

Well that's a good question right? That the chapters 6 through 12 cover about a seven year period where Joshua is leading this brand new nation of Israel in their battle for nationhood. And so is that teaching us that that it's okay to go to war and to assume that God's always on our side and so on? Listen I get to be covering this in way more depth later on in this series but let me just say this briefly big picture. This is one of those books of the Bible that's what's called a narrative okay? Just like the book of Acts that we studied this fall and narrative just means it's full of stories. In this case stories from Israel's earliest history.

So when you read a narrative in the Bible it doesn't say usually here is how you can apply this to your life. When you read an epistle or the teachings of Jesus it's very explicit or proverbs but when you read a narrative it's a story about stuff that happened to other people in history. So how do you know what in that story applies to you? Well just like in Acts what we talked about then was you seek timeless principles in the story that the Bible repeats on other pages. Of course you don't just look at what applied to Joshua's unique historical circumstance where he was fighting a war of independence right? That applied to him over that seven year period. You look at what are the principles about faith and courage that apply to us today.

Now we all know this instinctively. We read other works of literature this way. For example I love American history and when I read about George Washington. Anybody else inspired by George Washington? I love to read some of his words. A friend of mine gave me a book about George Washington. I was riveted. He inspires me but do I conclude after reading about George Washington you know what I'm inspired to do? I need to pick up a musket and load it with shot and get in a rowboat and cross the Delaware River in the middle of the winter and attack any British people in Washington DC you know. Of course not. I understand that applied to George Washington's unique historical circumstance but his example and his words of leadership and honesty and integrity those do apply to me.

We instinctively know that when we read most historical documents. Well similarly here in the book of Joshua you ask how can I learn from the timeless principles here about putting faith in God's promises to move forward in life and conquer the internal enemies of sin in my life. Now as evidence that this is the way we should interpret the book of Joshua I went back this week and looked at the very earliest Jewish interpretations of Joshua from the very earliest Orthodox Jewish rabbis and that's exactly how they saw it too. They said this doesn't justify holy war that was a seven year period a war of independence in their history. What this does is teach us about faith in the promises of God. Amen.

So that's what we need to hear and that's what we're gonna look at here. Let's study them three times in the chapter we're gonna look at today. Joshua chapter 1. God repeats one phrase "be strong and courageous." Let me hear us say that together. "Be strong and courageous." I'm gonna ask you to repeat that three or four times every time God says it in chapter 1 this morning. Now each time God repeats this he gives them a new reason that they can be strong and courageous and these are timeless principles that the Bible repeats many many times that apply to every single person in this room and what happens is when you choose to believe these things it will give you a filter to see your future your life that will give you strength and it'll give you courage.

So jot these down. Number one I need to believe that God has given me a purpose to live for. A purpose to live for. Look at Joshua chapter 1. I'm gonna start in verse 6 and just go through the next five or six verses just verse by verse. Let's read this together. "Be strong and courageous." Why? "Because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them." In other words he says, "Hey remember why you are here in the first place." You're here to start a new country so stay on mission. Don't let your fears distract you from your mission and God says the same thing to all followers of Jesus. He says, "Remember you're here to start a new country too." Didn't he tell us that? The kingdom of heaven.

We're here to advance the kingdom of God. That's not a political kingdom with physical borders but it's a kingdom that advances one human heart at a time and then has real life impact. Let me give you an example. We just finished World Outreach Week here at TLC and it was great week phenomenal and I was talking to Lisa Pole. Lisa works in South Africa with teenagers in South Africa. She's from Twin Lakes Church. Now South Africa has the highest number of AIDS patients in the world, the highest rape rate and as you can imagine a demoralized youth population. A lot of these young men and women before they're 14 or 15 years old they've had the most horrific things happen to them. Many, many, many of them.

So Lisa does leadership camps in South Africa and guess what she has discovered is the single most important thing for these young people to hear. Young people many of whom have been raped. Young people many of whom have done bad things. Young people many of whom already at 13, 14, 15 years of old have lost their parents to AIDS. The most important thing for them to hear is this sentence, "You have a purpose." No matter what has happened in your past, you have a future. You are here for a reason. Your life is not over. God made you for a mission. She says you can just see in their eyes the difference this makes because before they heard this many of them thought at 14 their lives were over.

So can you hear this too? You are here for a reason. No matter what you've done, no matter what's been done to you, God still has a purpose for your life and that comes from knowing your identity in Christ. Just like the nation of Israel, you have been freed from slavery. By God's grace Jesus Christ set you free from slavery to sin and guilt and you can walk out of that prison. However, you can be free but aimless. So instead realize God has given you a mission. Jesus said now you are here to be a light in the dark. He said you are here to be my hands and feet. You're here to be the ambassador of God's kingdom. So don't be frightened by your future. Move into it with confidence knowing no matter what job you have or don't have.

No matter what university or college or community college or no college you're attending. No matter where you are in life, doesn't matter the circumstance, you can advance God's kingdom. You can accomplish the purpose that he has for you. It is not hopeless. You have a purpose. This is such a unifying message. We're gonna see as we go on in the book of Joshua that the nation of Israel was actually very internally divided. These 12 tribes had varying allegiances and Joshua has to continue to rally people to stay on mission. Yes, we're not all the same some of our tribes kind of fight with each other but we need to all remember the mission that we all share because they were divided tribes within the bigger group.

Let me repeat that. Divided tribes within the bigger group. Do we live in a time like that right now? I have never as a pastor seen Christians who are parts of the core of the church as divided politically and about all kinds of other things as they are right now. It is a remarkable era that we're going through where people are practically coming to blows you know within small groups talking about how differently they feel about political things. We are divided tribes within a larger nation and what we need to do is to remember our common mission.

You know I don't know if you're like me but sometimes I'm so tempted to get so focused on all the things that are going on in the headlines that I get distracted from my mission and I get worried and I get frustrated and I start to obsess and I start to headline check the headlines every 30 minutes. What's the latest? What's happening now right? But those things are out of our control. Focus on the things you can control which is your actions and your attitude so that you can go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ so that you can go out and be a ray of hope so that you can go out and be a light in the darkness no matter what tribe you're a part of that is the mission we share as the kingdom of God on earth the Church of Jesus Christ. Can I hear an amen? Does anybody agree with me on this? That's what we got to stay focused on. Our purpose.

Then the second thing that God tells these people is this you're gonna be more strong you're gonna be more courageous when you know God's principles to live by. The principles in his word. Now there's a lot to say here but the second time God says be strong and courageous verse 7 the next verse be strong and very courageous say that phrase out loud with me say it be strong and very courageous now stop there but he tells them here's how you can do it be careful to obey all the law that my servant Moses gave you do not turn from it to the right or to the left and that is not a political statement by the way that you may be successful wherever you go keep this book of the law always on your lips meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it and then you will be what prosperous and what successful now there's a lot to cover but I want to just focus on one phrase here circle meditate on it day and night there is something about meditating on the Word of God that brings you strength and brings you courage.

Friday I was talking with a friend of mine who goes to church here Rick Ducard a lot of you know Rick well Rick told me that just a few years ago he memorized the first Bible verse he'd ever memorized as an adult and it was Joshua 1:9 where God says be strong and courageous for I will be with you wherever you go and he said I don't know why but I memorized that verse it stuck with me a few days later Rick had an embolism that almost killed him and in the hospital he said everybody thought I was going to die I thought so the doctors thought so and he says guess what I kept repeating in my head the one verse he had just memorized Joshua 1:9 be strong be courageous the Lord is with you wherever you go and he said René I had perfect peace thinking I was gonna die perfectly he said I was almost disappointed when I survived really he told me that here's what I'm telling you listen you will never ever regret meditating on and memorizing the Word of God you will never not you will never go man I wish I wouldn't have spent that moment meditating on God's Word that thought will never enter your mind you will never regret any time you spend meditating on the Word of God or memorizing it because it will always come back to minister to you in a time of need.

I got to show you something that happened to me I was so excited about this I took some pictures of my phone in the lobby last weekend somebody walks up to me and says René look and he takes out his stack of three by five cards with verses written on them a couple of weeks ago during the habit series I told you you might want to consider this as a habit write down Bible verses on three by five cards stick a rubber band around them put them in your pocket when you get anxious take them out meditate on God's Word it works so this guy shows in a B I take a picture and somebody else sees this walks up and he says René look at this and she whips out her stack people are starting to show me their things I took a picture because I was so encouraged that some people actually listen to what I say it was awesome but I got it I wished you could have heard him because these people were all saying this is making such a difference when you meditate on the Word of God get it into your heart and so based on their endorsement what I did on page three is I put some more verses for you to meditate on from God's Word.

Now here's the thing when you talk about you got to meditate on scripture a lot of us put put a negative spin on that because we think of I got to memorize boring lists of don'ts but when I talk about this I mean radical principles principles like in those were look at page three of your notes there principles like bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you principles like let your yes be yes and your no be no in other words keep your word principles like the next one rejoice always pray continually give thanks at all circumstances you know if you practice those principles no matter what you were going through you would have a sense of kind of ballast and security in your life.

Now maybe you're thinking dude I try to read the Bible but I just don't get it that is why we do things like this in your bulletin there's a list of the Wednesday night classes that we're starting this Wednesday to help you get into the Bible and learn it that is why we have things like starting point it's a discussion group for people who are interested in Christianity but have some questions starting group also starting this Wednesday and there's a there's a group meeting right now even as I speak so there's more details on all these classes in your bulletins but the point is we want to help you get into God's word and discover God's principles that will guide you.

Now before I bring this in for a landing with the third point I want to show you how these first two principles work in real life you might have heard that there is a little athletic contest taking place later on this afternoon how many by the way how many of you are Patriots fans anybody here be proud come on be proud how many of you are Falcons fans how many of you don't care don't even know who's playing in the Super Bowl that's the majority that's actually me this year well I want to show you a three-minute testimony from an NFL pro football player named Matt Forte he and his wife Danielle discovered the power of knowing God's purpose through God's principles watch this it really started with me I had an identity crisis coming into the NFL I didn't know who I was in Christ which is the most important thing is to know who you are in Christ and know your purpose you know my rookie year go you know play a football game and break all these records and do all this and go home and just sit down and be like how like feel empty and I was like there's got to be something more what profit a man to gain the entire world but loses soul and I thought about that I'm like man you got all these things you you're a draft that you're playing NFL you have money you can buy what you want but all that means nothing if you lose your own soul and so I didn't want to be that guy that has all these material things and all these accomplishments that are given by the world and then in the end lose my soul and I did not want to be that guy who didn't give back to God what he already had given me and that's when I woke up and was like I need to be doing more in the community mentoring young kids doing more as a husband and so in 2013 I started my foundation the map for t what's your forte foundation where we mentor kids and we want to find out what their forte is and so in Chicago if you hear about the gun violence and everybody goes on TV and they talk about it but nobody goes into the neighborhood and actually engages in those kids and show them that hey I care about you you know I just wanted to be a light shining light for God in that area of darkness where you know kids are getting killed just innocent bystanders on you know standing on the street because there's no youth center for them to go play at or they may not go to the playground because there's other transactions going on in the playground where they can't be over there so every Saturday last year I would go to Inglewood and the south side of Chicago you know started off slow get the kids together then more and more started coming and we would you know entice them to be there we were gonna play flag football but the first thing we did was sit them in a circle and you don't have a mentoring kind of conversation with them about what it's like to be a man I just tell them my story and where I come from and just kind of connect with them on a deeper level that first it was something that he wanted to do for boys and then we decided why would we close it off to just boys we could be a blessing to girls too so I decided you know what I could be the person that helps them and helps them figure out why are you insecure there's no reason to be insecure God loves you God is here for you and nothing else matters but that but if they don't have someone to show them and to talk to them how else are they gonna get there God may use you to impact a major problem that's going on in the world so we have to be the example for him be his hands in his feet so that we can impact so many more people isn't that good stuff it's a good example but did you catch that they discovered they had a purpose to live for when they looked at the principles in God's Word and those two things are huge but there's not enough there's something else that you have to know to really be strong and and be courageous as you move into the future and that's this it's not all up to you to do it all alone in your own strength you also have God's loving presence to live with watch that this is so beautiful the third time God uses that phrase in this text the next verse verse 9 he says this Joshua 1:9 have I not commanded you commanded you to do what read the rest of this out loud with me be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go that is a principle repeated all through the Bible in the New Testament never will I leave you never will I forsake you and God wanted us to know this so badly that he demonstrated this in the ultimate way you know there was somebody else in the Bible named Joshua did you know that another pretty major character in the Bible named Joshua he lived about 1,400 years after Joshua and he started a different kind of a nation but he was a nation builder too did you know that the name Joshua means Jehovah or Yahweh or the Lord saves the Hebrew word is Joshua and in the Greek New Testament the same word Joshua is Jesus Joshua and Jesus are the same exact name in two different languages and Jesus became the ultimate example of how the Lord saves he was the ultimate deliverer out of slavery into freedom because he loves you so much and when he accomplished that for you on the cross that was an event and that leads to a process where we learn to step by step day by day learn to walk into the life that he has already given us and he says as you walk into that promised land life I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.

This is so important to understand you know God does not promise smooth sailing he promises his presence God did not promise the Israelites just rainbows and unicorns and happiness in the promised land but he promised his presence and believing that makes such a difference let me just show you how much of a difference I'm gonna show you a picture of a guy I took a picture again kind of just with my phone a picture of a guy was having lunch with this guy's name is Ron Pontier and I was having lunch with him a couple of years ago in Uganda I've been speaking at a conference there and we had lunch together near the end of the conference he was an attendee at the conference he's a pilot for missionaries in Africa he's been doing it for almost 30 years he flies these tiny like Cessna planes in and out of these air strips that are just hacked out of the jungle he's actually single-handedly saved the lives of entire villages with deliveries of medicine and food and so on quite an interesting fellow but a few years ago Ron was captured and held hostage by radical Islamic terrorists who publicized his capture and they said we are going to execute you as an example to the West and they set the date for his execution which was a couple of months away by firing squad and they said we're gonna videotape it and you know publicize it online.

I told you this guy's a pilot and the way he talks in real life conversation is exactly like airline pilots always talk on the intercom in airplanes you know I'm talking about where they're super relaxed ladies and gentlemen we just realized there's gonna be some bumps ahead so and the intercom goes off and you're like what happened up there why did he stop talking does anybody else ever wonder that what's these people are like the low blood pressure champions of the universe right so enjoy your flight so Ron's telling me I say how's it going on he goes well a few years ago I well I was kidnapped by radical Islamic extremists and I'm like what what so I gotta tell the rest of the story in like normal language because it would take an hour to tell if I told it to you the way he told it to me but he's captured by these people and he tells me that after they said they were gonna execute him they set the date he talks them into letting him clean and oil their weapons and align the sights what did you that for and he said he goes I did not want the guns to miss fire and merely wound me I wanted a quick and painless death just I was like who are you and true story he tells the commander of this group of terrorists I want that guy and that guy and that guy on my firing squad chooses the people for his own firing squad I said why'd you do that he goes because the rest of the guys were terrible shots and I didn't want to just get wounded I mean just nerves of steel says that houses even possible Ron how did you face a fearful future like that well he told me that the first several days in captivity he was not calm like that he said he was freaking out understandably and he said he was bargaining with God he kept saying God how can you allow this to happen to me don't you know who I am I'm a very skilled pilot and you need me God so I can't believe this is happening you got to get me out of here because you need me and he said after a few days of that it was as if he heard the voice of God saying you know I can raise pilots up out of the rocks I he said I love you but I don't love you because of your skill I love you because of who you are and he said it was like God was saying can you for once in your life just relax and sense my infinitely loving presence all around you and he said I sensed it and he started to cry over lunch and he told me and René I just realized my only response was God I love you too and he actually stopped praying for his release and he said my prayers were just always God I love you so much it was that sense of the loving presence of God that gave him the peace that passes all understanding.

Well obviously I was sitting at lunch with him so he survived would you like to know how he survived watch my daily devotion on Monday no just kidding I'll tell you so the enemy of these these some other faction carpet bombs the village that he's held in and the it's like something out of the Bible the wall of the house that he's in this brick wall just goes boom boom and just falls outward he's completely uninjured so he kind of gets up looks out like this and just walks over the wall walks into the jungle and he's free that's how he was saved just like something right out of the Bible amazing man amazing story but can you hear the promise of God for you to Jesus says to you surely I am with you always to the very end of the age and to the very end of your life look believing all these things did not keep the Israelites from future tough times did they in life there's going to be ups and downs and you just got to own that but the degree to which you believe in God's purpose for you principles for you his presence with you will determine your courage as you face the future the degree to which you believe these things is the degree to which your courage will grow despite the ups and downs of life.

Now let me close with this I also have a personal responsibility right Joshua had a responsibility first I have to prepare myself for action he told the troops in the next verse get your provisions ready we're gonna leave in three days to take the land that God is giving us and you and I too need to prepare ourselves take practical steps get into a support group right get into the word and then finally I need to control my attitude the people say to each other after having her God say it three times Joshua 1:18 let me hear you say this out loud here we go one last time only be strong and courageous in other words you can choose to be strong and courageous you say but I can't control my feelings no you cannot control your feelings most of the time but you know what you can control your attitude so don't wait for feelings of courage to wash over you take control of your attitude no matter what you feel like the fact that God is commanding it means courage is not a product of your feelings or of your temperament don't let your feelings bludgeon you into cowardice control what you think about control your attitude.

We're gonna spend a moment in communion and I honestly believe that God has brought some of you here into this room today because you have been paralyzed by a fear of the future and God wants you to hear this you no longer have to feel oppressed by some sense of impending doom God has things for you ahead of you in your path he's got a life for which Jesus Christ set you free so don't bench yourself get back in the game move forward be strong and be courageous heavenly Father thank you that we can be strong that we can be courageous because of the event that Jesus Christ made happen at the cross which we remember now at the communion table and God I pray that we would realize that this this finished work this event leads to a daily step-by-step process as we walk into the life that you have given us and let us do it with strength and with courage and with unity of purpose and a focus on your principles and a realization of your presence and God I just want to pray specifically for anybody really struggling with anxiety and uncertainty right now may this time of communion be a time like that time that Ron had when he was being held captive where they hear you say can you sense my infinitely loving presence all around you.