The Keys to Victory

Well, grab your message notes that look like this. Because on Super Bowl weekend, there's one phrase you're going to hear sports talk show hosts use again and again and again. If you go home and turn on the pregame, you're going to hear this phrase used again and again, the phrase, "Keys to victory," right? What are the keys to victory for the Niners? What are the keys to victory for the Ravens? In fact, the "Crack Me Up," I opened up USA Weekend yesterday, and this was in the headline for not one, but two stories in their sports section. What are the keys to victory?

Now, when it comes to sports, it always turns out to be the same thing. It's some cliché you've heard a hundred times. In fact, I made a list of the phrases that you will hear today about a hundred times on these shows as the keys to victory for these two teams. Phrases like, "Well, they just got to get out there and play their game." Because, you know, sometimes they go play basketball, and we've got to put a stop to that. They just got to put points on the board. Genius! And let me ask you this, how many percent do they got to give? They got to give 110 percent. That's exactly right. I listen to these phrases, and I think I could actually do that. I could just go on these shows and just spout random clichés.

They got to play the full 60 minutes, Bob. They got to start fast and finish strong. They just have to execute, right? Well, I was thinking about this and thinking God actually gives us keys to victory for life in a certain passage in the Bible, but his advice is not cliché, and his advice is actually very worthwhile to take a look at this morning. So since everybody's going to be talking about keys to victory, let's talk about keys to victory here too, but for life and from God. So if you have your Bibles with you, turn to Joshua chapter 1. What a great passage this is.

Joshua is given a seemingly impossible new assignment in this passage. And here's the situation. Moses, the famous leader of the Israelite people as they come out of slavery in Egypt, you know, the Ten Commandments movie and all that, when Joshua 1 opens, he's dead. Like freshly dead. And the people are grieving and they're very bummed. And now this guy, Joshua, is the new unproven leader. And they're beaten up. They have just come out of wandering for 40 years in the Sinai Desert. And now they are right on the edge of the Jordan River. They've come up south from Egypt, wandered around in the Sinai, and they're just north of the Dead Sea on the east side of the Jordan River. And they are looking across the Jordan River, west of them, into the Promised Land. The Land of Canaan. They are right on the edge of it. Desert behind them, nice greenery in front of them. Now what? That's the setting for this.

Joshua 1 starting in verse 1. "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the 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. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses." Now, the Promised Land. Right? The Bible refers to it as the Land of Milk and Honey. When I was a kid, I thought of it, "The Land of Milk and Honey? That's easy street, right?" Promised Land, I often pictured something, well, something like this. You know, Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, frankly. Peppermint trees, chocolate rivers, oompa loompas, trained squirrels. A life of leisure, the Promised Land.

But in fact, there were big problems in the Promised Land. And here was the biggest. Each one of the seven nations already in this area of Canaan was individually stronger than the Israelites. So this is literally an impossible assignment. And so I love that this is in the Bible. You know why? Don't miss this because it tells me that even the Promised Land has problems. Even the Promised Land is full of problems. Just because you have problems does not necessarily mean that you are outside the will of God. These people, when they moved into the Promised Land, they were in the center of God's will and they still had all kinds of issues. And God knows this is ahead. He knows Joshua's intimidated. He knows the people are scared. He knows they're frustrated. They got their backs to the desert wilderness. They've seen a land full of promise, but a lot of exotic danger in front of them. And so God gives them a pep talk all about the keys to victory.

Now to set this up, since we have kind of a football theme today, in case you've missed that, I just kind of want to show you a clip from a movie about football, about high school football. It's called "Facing the Giants." And in this scene, the coach gives his team an inspiring little pre-game speech. About five minutes we head out for the warm-up. I want to say two things. One, I love you and I'm proud of you. I wouldn't trade this season for anything in the world. Secondly, you're about to play the biggest team you've ever faced. They're strong, fast and undefeated. So far. But I want you to remember where God has brought us. I want you to remember how hard you've worked. We weren't supposed to have a winning season, but we do. We weren't supposed to advance through the playoffs, but we did. We're not supposed to be here, but we are. So if there's anything in you that says, "This is a losing effort, throw it out." Because as I stand here, I believe that as long as we honor God, nothing is impossible. Nothing. Leave everything out on the field. Give your best to God tonight. And whether we leave the field of victors or not, we will give God the glory. Now, who will go fight the Giants with me?

Don't you love that man? I just want to go out and play some football right now, right? Well, I was thinking about this and in the passage we're going to look at, God basically gives that kind of a pep talk to the Israelites and to Joshua. He says, "All right, who wants to go out and fight some Giants with me?" And this is very personal for me. You may not know this, but pastors can get discouraged. Pastors can get intimidated by challenges that they face. I do. Man, sometimes every Monday morning I feel like quitting, right? You know, man, the weekend was so hard. I didn't think I did very well and you just kind of get discouraged. And I bet you can relate. I bet that there's been times you've thought about quitting, you've been discouraged, you've been intimidated by challenges that face you.

But I really want to talk to you if you've been thinking about quitting this week. Maybe thinking about giving up on school or on your sobriety or on your marriage commitment or on your kids or on your faith or on your church or on your ministry. Or maybe you don't feel like giving up but you're facing a mammoth challenge right now and it is so intimidating and you are scared. You need to hear these keys to victory. I was kind of getting discouraged a couple of weeks ago. This all comes out of a very personal place for me. And you don't like you. I go through these ups and downs of motivation and discouragement. And in that place two weeks ago, I remembered a talk I heard called "Leadership Lifter" from the pastor in Southern California, Rick Warren, almost 20 years ago. And I still remember what he said and it was so encouraging to me. I want to reiterate it today and I hope it'll have the same impact on you that it had on me two weeks ago and that it had on me 20 years ago. I've never forgot this.

Jot this down. Number one, first key, be clear about your direction. That's the starting point. Be clear about your direction. Watch this. God specifically outlines the what, the when, the where, the why that Joshua was to take over the land. He says, "This is what I want you to do. Your territory will extend from the desert." That's in the south. "And from Lebanon," that's the north, "to the great river of the Euphrates," that's over on the east, "all the Hittite countries," that's the middle, "and the great sea," that's the Mediterranean on the west. God is very specific. Here is where you are headed. So you have clear direction and this is a principle for life. God was a good leader. You need a clear-cut goal too. You don't need a vague idea. You need a precise idea. Where am I headed in life? How will I gauge success in this endeavor?

Say, what are you talking about? One example. You come to me and you say, "I'm just kind of vaguely dissatisfied with my marriage. I want a better marriage." All right, what do you mean? "I just want to be happier." That's a vague idea. If you think, "I just want to be happier in my marriage," you don't have any way to gauge your marital success. What do you mean by that specifically? Typically people say things like this, "Well, I'd love us to do date nights once a week." And what does it look to me to have a success? Well, it kind of looks to me like getting away once a year and a couple's getaway. A successful marriage would do that. Or it looks like going to a marriage retreat. At least let's say every three years and sharpening our skills. Or maybe praying together every night. Okay, now you've got a definition. Now you've got some things you can work on. Now you've got some things you can gauge. You have to be clear about your direction. Have a clear, not a vague goal. Does that make sense?

Because really without a definition of success, listen, without a definition of success, then by definition you can't succeed. People, I learned this lesson several years ago when people asked me, "Pastor René, what does success look like for you in this ministry? What would success at this family camp look like for you? What does success look like for you in the weekend services?" And so you set some goals. Now, typically if you're like me, you set a goal, and immediately after you set it, you start to doubt it, right? You begin to question it, "Well, am I overreaching here? Is this really God's will? Do I really deserve this outcome? Is it really just a selfish request? What if I'm wrong?" I torture myself this way, so I have to remind myself sometimes almost daily that the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So you have to be confident. Just start with some parameters and trust God to make adjustments because he has great plans for you.

And that brings me to my second point. You need to be courageous about your destiny. Be courageous about the fact that you have a destiny ahead of you, and it is good. Now, evidently Joshua had a problem with this because look at what God says to Joshua four times in this passage. Verse 6, he says, "Be strong and courageous." And in the next verse, what does he say, "Read it out loud with me." Be strong and very courageous. Then look at part of verse 9. Read this out loud. Be and very courageous. And then look at part of verse 18. Say it out loud together with me. Be strong and very courageous. Now, you think God's trying to get a point across? Listen, if God says something to you one time, you better make sure you listen. If God repeats something, let me repeat this, then you really want to listen. If he repeats something four times in about four sentences, man, this is huge.

Now, why does God say this so many times? Did you know that the phrase, "Fear not or do not be afraid" appears 365 times in the Bible, one for every day of the week. Over and over God says, "Don't be afraid. Fear not. Be strong. Be of good courage." Why? Because he knows human nature. And he knows there are three common thieves of courage that the Israelites were facing and that we all face in life. First, experiences. Bad past experiences. If you've had failures, if you've had heartaches, if you've had hurts, you might have a tendency to say, "Well, it's never worked before. It's never been done before. Why should I try again? I have always failed at this." You know, sometimes inexperience can be an asset, as many analysts are saying about San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick. I'm going to work in Super Bowl references if it kills me into the sermon as often as I can, but inexperience can be an asset just because you don't know it's impossible and you just go ahead and try to do it anyway. For sure, never let a bad memory ruin your future.

And then there's emotions. A lot of people tend to make decisions based on their moods. And I fall into this too. You say things like, "I just don't feel like it. I'm just too tired. I'm depressed. I just don't want to." But if you're going to be successful in marriage, in ministry, in parenting, you have to learn to master your moods. You know, I love to read, I really love to read biographies. I've always got one going it seems. And right now I'm in the middle of Thomas Keneally. He's the guy who wrote Schindler's List. He has a great biography on Abraham Lincoln. I'm right in the middle of it right now. And you know what I've noticed? Abraham Lincoln hardly was ever pumped about something. He was hardly ever up. Both he and his wife really struggled with melancholy feelings and so on. But he went ahead anyway. I've noticed reading these biographies that that's pretty consistent. I've noticed that most of the things that are accomplished in life are accomplished by people who did not feel like doing it at the time. For sure, never make a major decision when you are down.

Then the third thief of courage, excuses. Things like, "I don't have the time. We don't have the money. I don't have the ability. I don't have the energy. I don't have the education." But you'll always find an excuse. So here's an idea that I've been trying, you know, because I was stuck on how do you go forward when there's actually good excuses that make intellectual sense. So don't deny your excuses, but turn your excuses into prayer requests. You're acknowledging that they're there. You're just saying, "God, I don't have enough experience for this. I don't have enough education for this. God, I don't see how we have the resources for this. So please guide if you want me to go forward in that area and help me to see the answer to this." Then you're taking this rational excuse and turning it into a prayer request instead of a roadblock. But you can only do that when you have something else deep down and it's this.

Number three, you need to be confident in your God. Confident in your God. Now this comes third in the narrative in Joshua chapter one, but really it's the point that underlies all the other points. Be confident in your God. What about God? Should I be confident? Well first, be confident in His presence. Look at verse five. God says, in fact, read this verse with me. It's the last part of Joshua 1, five. Let me hear you. "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you." You know, all of God's promises to Joshua are really reiterated in the New Testament for Christians, including this one. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Or look at verse nine. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Listen, if you forget everything else from this morning's message, don't forget this. In fact, memorize Joshua 1:9. Memorize this verse. Repeat it to yourself. And if you say, "Well, I can't at least remember this phrase. God is right here with me right now. He is right here right now." Repeat that phrase to yourself wherever you are this week, driving in traffic, watching Super Bowl this afternoon, wherever you are. God is right here with me. You will be amazed at the difference this makes to your confidence level.

So I'm confident in His presence, but then I also need to be confident in His principles for life. God says to Joshua, verse eight, "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 prosperous and successful." Now I didn't say that. Some health and wealth pastor didn't say that. God said that. When you know His principles and practice them, you will be prosperous and successful. Now that doesn't mean every one of us is going to be a millionaire, but it means life will go well for us. All things being equal, it will go better when we apply God's principles.

Now, some Christians look at this and they say, "Well this doesn't apply to us." Because this was talking about, you know, the Old Testament and the first five books of the Old Testament specifically, and those are principles applied to Israelites and not to Gentiles, so this doesn't apply to me now. Listen, there are universal truths, universal principles that are in God's Word that covers so many situations in life that apply to you and me today. I saw David Akers, the 49ers kicker. Here's another Super Bowl tie-in. He was talking in an interview on YouTube, and I love this because he loves studying the Bible. He's in Bible studies. He loves to read the Bible, and he talked here about why he loves to study the Bible so much. Watch this. I believe Jesus died for our sins, and being that, it's kind of my workbook to life's questions. The way I'm supposed to live my life, the way I'm supposed to really become more like Christ. The Holy Spirit within me, this is my guideline, and I have to be able to know God's promises, the works that I'm supposed to do, the how to serve. And when I question things, and whether times are good or bad, I can come in here, look up those issues, and see what God would want me to do in these situations.

I love that, and that is one of the reasons why we're starting a new series here next weekend. I'm totally stoked about this. Grab this little card that's in your notes. On one side it has this logo, "The Art of Living Well." Wisdom from Proverbs. That's what I call our new series where we're looking at meta themes in the book of Proverbs. There's a couple of reasons I'm starting this. One is because I'm starting to hear from Christians who correctly talk about a God of grace, God is totally God of mercy and grace, but then they excuse all kinds of unwise behavior by saying, "Well, God has to forgive me anyway, right? So I can do anything I want to because God will forgive me." Well, He will forgive you, but you might just ruin your life doing dumb things. You have to realize there's principles, guidelines for life in the Bible. We need this because, well, let me show you how applicable it is.

Raise your hand if you have ever done something really dumb. Can I see a show of hands? All right, now let me just ask for more specifics here. Raise your hand if your speech, your words have ever gotten you into trouble. Raise your hand. Okay. How about if your emotions have ever gotten you into trouble? How about if your temper has ever gotten you into trouble? How about if your decision-making has ever gotten you into trouble? And let's just kind of like cover it, just behaving like a fool. You've been an idiot. Okay, we all need this series, okay? Because Proverbs is basically how not to do dumb things. That's what the whole book is about, how to live wisely and not unwisely. I'm going to cover things like, how do you handle strong emotions? How do you control your temper? How do you resist self-destructive behavior that might be very, very appealing to you? How do you make decisions? And we're going to see each week how Jesus Christ models the behavior that's outlined in the book of Proverbs. I am really looking forward to this. Starting next week, the art of living well.

Now, I want to show you how these first three points play out in real life. When I say, "Hey, move forward with confidence. Be confident in God. Be courageous about your destiny." I am not saying you need to believe that every wild hair idea that comes into your brain is God's will for your life. I'm not saying that you should stride forward thinking, "Bullets are going to bounce off my chest and only good things are going to happen. From now on, there's going to be no suffering in my life." What I mean is you can move forward with total confidence into the future knowing God can bring glory to Himself no matter what happens. Example, Patrick Willis, linebacker for the Niners. Here's your next tie-in. This guy, I don't want to put him on a pedestal here, but this guy has seen some very tough times in life abandoned by both parents as a child. For a time as a teenager, he raised his three younger siblings himself. His younger brother drowned. Lots more tragedy in his life, but I think that deepened him, gave him a good perspective.

Now, he's very soft spoken and he has a very thick Southern accent, but I want you to watch part of this sports interview with him. Watch the screen. I didn't get here by myself. I didn't do it on my own. I feel like if there's a good Lord who put me as a good Lord, who blessed me better to be able to do what I do, I don't want to go and brag and say, "Oh, yes, me? Oh, look at me. Here I am now." Because just as He blessed you with it today, it could be gone tomorrow. Patrick's grandmother was a big influence on his life. Through her, he learned about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. My grandma, she always just, you know, tells us about faith and always put us in the church. I'll never forget my uncle, my uncle Arthur was a professional boxer. He would always tell me to, you know, he would always just be like Patrick and say, "No matter what you do, like this when I was young," he would say, "No matter what you do in life, no matter how good you do in sports," he said, "Just always remember to give God all the praise, glory, and honor."

When Patrick joined the 49ers in 2007, they were a losing team, but he never doubted that's where God wanted him to play. He remembers the prayer he prayed just before the draft. I said, "Lord, I don't know where I'm going to go." I said, "I've done everything I could possibly do to put myself in the best situation." Wherever you bless me to go, that's where I'm going to go and that's where I'm going to make a home and that's where I'm going to give everything I got. That's where I'm going to play the best football I can possibly play. I said, "Lord, so whatever happened on this day is in your will." The 49ers faced their first playoff game this weekend. Patrick says no matter the outcome, his number one priority is to glorify God. I just go out there and I always pray. I say, "Lord, I don't know what today's game is going to be like, but I just pray that I pray that you bless me and go out here and play for you, be a soldier for your army, be. Go out here and lead this team the way you want me to lead it." So each time I play, I don't want to go out there and say, "Tell the people I'm playing for the Lord today. I just want to see it and know that whether good, bad, or indefinitely know I'm playing for the Lord and that's why I'm able to just be like, "Man, today wasn't a good day, but just thank you Lord for blessing me to play this game." Although today wasn't a game I was hoping I had, but I'm just blessed to still be playing this game.

Man, I love that. I thought that's the kind of attitude that I'm talking about here, not a football player that goes, "The Lord's going to give us the W here." He's just saying whether we win or lose or whatever happens, I just want to give glory to God and His will will be done. And that's what I'm talking about here, being confident that no matter what happens, God is still working His will. You know, when I talk about crossing the River Jordan and walking into your promised future, I want to make something clear because a lot of Christians I think get mixed up on this. The Bible is not sort of naively optimistic about what lies ahead in your future. It doesn't say, "Oh, it's all going to be sweetness and roses and chocolate rivers and oompa loompas and peppermint trees," right? But it's also not fatalistic about your future. Well, God just chooses you for suffering and sorrow. The Bible's not naively optimistic and it's not pessimistic. You know what the Bible is about your future? It's redemptive. It's redemptive that no matter what happens, the wins, the losses, the victories and the sorrows, God is going to redeem them and bring something good out of them. And of course the ultimate example of this is the cross of Christ, which we're going to remember at communion in just a few minutes.

But believing that God can redeem no matter what happens to you, that can lead you to be number four, correctable about your mistakes. Huge key to victory. Even from your mistake. You know, if you've made a mistake, welcome to the human race, right? Everybody makes mistakes. But wise people learn from their failures. Unwise people give up after their first failure. A few chapters later in Joshua chapter seven, it describes the first big failure under Joshua's leadership. The Israelites go into the Promised Land and they're winning battles right and left. They're invincible or so it seemed. They get overconfident. They start saying, "Look what we're doing," instead of, "Look what God is doing." And when they come to a little town named Ai, they say, "Ah, let's just send out a small platoon here to take that village, just a few troops," and they lose big time. And the Bible says that Joshua is so overcome with just grief at this disaster that it says he goes into the tabernacle where they had their worship and he falls down on the ground, face down before the Ark of the Lord and he stays there until evening and he tears his clothes and he's weeping and praying. He's consumed with grief, probably self-pity and fear and self-loathing mixed in. Why did we do this? Oh, we're so horrible. And in verse 10, I love this, "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned,' and then he tells him, 'Get up and do something about it.'" Look, when you've been defeated, when you've failed, when you've made a mistake, don't just writhe in depression and self-denunciation, "I'm just so stupid, stupid, stupid." God says, "Stand up. Take action. For the cause, take the appropriate steps." I have to tell you, I literally cringe at some of the mistakes that I've made in my life. I mean, literally, they just make me cringe like this. But I'm also grateful for the lessons that I've learned along the way. Listen, you're going to make mistakes in life anyway, mistakes in relationships, mistakes at work, mistakes in your walk with Christ. You're going to make mistakes so you may as well be correctable. You may as well let God redeem them and don't give up at the first mistake.

And then finally, be committed to your decision. Be committed to your decision. Commitment is really the key to accomplishment. And part of the reason that I decided to give this message is I'm seeing this, like, virus of quitting. Just sweep through ministries and pastors that are just giving up because things are getting hard for them. And I'm seeing it in marriages. I'm seeing it with students at school. And I feel like saying, "We need to remember that commitment is a huge key to victory." Once you've made a choice, stick with it. Look at what Joshua says in Joshua 3:5, "Then Joshua said to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.'" Consecrate is a great word. That means an act of total, unconditional, unreserved commitment. It means laying it all on the line, being all in. They're in essence saying, "God, we're going to go for it even if we die." Question. What are you committed to like that? What are you committed to like that? A lot of people tend to be afraid of that kind of commitment. I was like that for many years. Why is there such a fear of commitment?

Well, what can tempt me to give up? Jot down these ideas. Problems, of course, will tempt me to give up, but every good idea has something challenging about it. Every good idea has a problem to it. You don't reject something just because it's difficult. Even the promised land had problems. Pressures will tempt me to give up. You want to say, "This is too much responsibility. I can't do it on my own. I can't handle the pressure. I want to quit. I just want to give up." And people will tempt you to give up. They will be weird. They will drive you crazy. They will disappoint you. They will just bug you. And you know who you are. No, just kidding. Listen, all three of these, all three of these, were all through the Israelites' conquest of the promised land. I really want to make this point clear. So many times we imagine that doing God's will means a smooth road. Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, right? That's the promised land. And I hear this so often as a pastor, "If only I'd married the right person, I wouldn't be having these struggles in marriage. It'd be smooth marriage. If only I had chosen a different career path, I'd be happier at work. Why did I go this direction? If only I'd chosen a different major in college, my problems would be so much easier." Not necessarily. Doing God's will does not mean the promised land doesn't have problems and pressures and tough relationships.

I think of our India team. You may not know this, but right now there's a team from Twin Lakes Church being led by Pastor Dave Hicks over in India. It's a medical dental mission. Some of you have been on it in years past. Every year we go in January and February. This year we're going to have a team there for a month. The first team's there for a couple of weeks, then the second team leaves Tuesday morning led by my wife, Lori, and they're going to relieve the first team with a little bit of overlap there, so it'll be a month that Twin Lakes people are there at a little orphanage in rural India taking care of their teeth and medical needs and helping villagers around there too. It's been fascinating to talk to these guys on the phone. We've been texting Dave. They have had nothing but problems since they've gotten over there. Here they've prepared for months. They've had luggage go missing with valuable dental equipment inside. They've had power surges and power brownouts that have ruined equipment. They've had other equipment failures. They've had all sorts of insects and issues like that, and you know what? They are not discouraged at all because they said, "We know we're in the center of God." Just because you're in the Promised Land doesn't mean you don't have problems.

You look at the Israelites going into the Promised Land. You look at God's people going to make disciples of all nations. God's people always have problems doing God's will. Those problems turn into part of the story. Those problems make the story a great story because you're able to tell a story about how God overcame this problem and redeemed it. And so let's bring this home. Look back over your notes. I want to ask you to apply these things to your life. Where does it apply? Be clear about your direction. Do you know where you're headed in life? Where are you headed in life? Do you have goals for different endeavors? How will you define success for the different things that you do? Are those goals specific? Are they worthwhile?

Be courageous about your destiny. God has great things in store for you. Great things, including redeeming setbacks in your life, stretching all the way into eternity future. Now are you letting your emotions or your past experiences or your excuses rob you of your courage about that? Don't let them. Be confident in your God. Do you remind yourself daily, "He will never leave me or forsake me." God is present right here. Or do you think it's all up to me, "I'm all alone. That's a recipe for discouragement." Are you correctable about your mistakes or are you uncorrectable? Like every idea you ever have is pure genius. I know some people like that. Can you blow it? Do you accept God's forgiveness through Christ, correct the action and move on? Or are you flat on your face, tearing your clothes, writhing in self-denunciation, "I'm so stupid, stupid, stupid." Listen, self-hatred is not the same thing as repentance. Self-hatred is not the same thing as repentance. God doesn't want you to hate yourself. He wants you to repent. That means turning around.

For some of you, the whole reason God brought you here today, His word for you is, "Stand up. Why are you on your face? Let's keep moving forward into the Promised Land together and be committed to your decision." Are you afraid of committing yourself? The only way to go to anything great is by unrelenting commitment. That's just the truth. Now in the New Testament, what fascinates me, there's an episode that is, I think, deliberately an echo of Joshua 1. And that's just when Jesus says, "I'm sending you not just into the Promised Land, but into the whole world to make disciples, and I will be with you wherever you go." You know, it's interesting. The name Jesus, of course, is just the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua. It's the same name, Jesus Joshua. And in many ways, Jesus is like the second Joshua. Only he's talking about a spiritual mission, not a physical mission. He's saying, "Cross the line, cross the river, go all in, spread the kingdom of God, the whole world's your Promised Land, and I will be with you always and teach them these principles, and don't be afraid now."

And maybe the way you apply this is you need to say, "Okay, I'm all in for that vision. I will do that at work in my friendships." Or maybe you need to commit yourself fully to Jesus for the first time. Whatever it is, it all starts with a decision to cross the line, to cross the river, and move with intention into the future that God is inviting you to move into. You know, at the very end of the book of Joshua, there's an interesting verse that to me reveals some of the keys behind Joshua's leadership. And here all these people have been going with him through all these adventures in the Promised Land. And some of them are still wavering in terms of whether or not they even believe in God, whether or not they want to be committed to this faith that Joshua's talking about. And I love this in Joshua 24:15. He gives a little speech and he says, "Look, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Just make a decision. Whether the God's your forefather served beyond the river, or the God of the Amorites, and whose land you're now living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Sometimes you have to stop wavering and cross the line and make a commitment.

And you know what? As we take communion, I want that to be a moment for you right now, where you choose for yourself whom you will serve. So let's pray as we prepare our hearts for communion right now. With our hats bowed, let me just talk to you. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Would you let God just do a work in your heart right now? Where in your life do you need to choose to serve God instead of some other God in your life? And you've been wavering. This is the moment for you to choose. Now maybe you've been standing on the banks of that river for some time, considering whether or not to commit yourself to Christ. Reconsidering, peering over to the other side, looking back behind you at the desert behind you. There's promise over there on the other side, but it's also kind of scary and unknown over there. I urge you today, say to Jesus, "I will follow you. I'll never figure out exactly all that you've got in store for me before I live my life. So I'm going to cross that line today. I'm all in. I'm tired of the wilderness, and I know I can't stand here on the banks deciding forever. So I'm plunging into a life with you, Lord, today." Lord whether people are praying for courage to be committed to you or to their marriages, to their jobs, to their ministry, to their faith, we all know the promised land is not the chocolate factory. It has problems, but it's so worth it. So we choose to commit ourselves to you, Jesus, in your plans and purposes. In your name we pray, amen.