Journeying Through the Bible: The Call of Joshua

Well, good morning again. Today, we're going to go back. We started a little series on Sundays called "Journeying Through the Bible," where we are basically taking a passage from whatever book we've been reading in and/or through the Bible study and preaching on it.

We kind of halted that series for a little bit because the Lord just put it on my heart, and we had several Sundays on evangelism and on sharing the gospel. Today, we're picking back up in that "Journey Through the Bible." We're going to go to the Book of Joshua.

Now, although we're kind of stopping the per se sermon series on evangelism, I don't think we should stop sharing the gospel. Amen. I hope and pray we keep sharing the good news about Jesus Christ, and each Sunday, I will ask if there's a testimony to share. But we're going to go to the Book of Joshua today.

When we flip the page from Deuteronomy to Joshua, we see a lot of changes in the nation of Israel. For one, when we flip that page from Deuteronomy to Joshua, we see a change in leadership.

You know, all through the first five books of the Bible, we read about Moses being the human leader, led by God, for Israel. But when we flip the page from Deuteronomy to Joshua, Moses is dead. Moses is no longer the leader. Now Joshua is the new human leader.

We also see a change in geography as far as where Israel lived. When you're in Deuteronomy, Israel is in Moab, but when we go into Joshua, we all know that Israel goes into the Promised Land, and they're now in a new location in Israel.

We also see a change when we flip the page from Deuteronomy to Joshua. We see a change in vocation, per se. The Israelites, while they were in—throughout the first five books of the Bible and in Deuteronomy—they were kind of nomads. They were wandering through the desert.

But as we flip the page to Joshua, they become fierce warriors, going into the Promised Land and getting the land that God had promised them.

We also see a change of provision when we flip the page from Deuteronomy to Joshua. We know that when the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years, God miraculously provided quail and manna every day.

But when we go and flip the page to Joshua, we see in Joshua chapter 5, verse 12, that the manna ceased. Can you imagine that? For 40 years, every day, they're waking up, and they're miraculously getting manna from God—bread from God—then, like that, when they cross into the Promised Land, the manna ceased, and they began to live off the fat of the land, per se.

So, there’s a lot of changes. And, of course, we see a change in our Bible. The first five books of the Bible are called, often, the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

But when we flip from Deuteronomy to Joshua, we start the next section, which often is referred to as the 12 historical books of the Bible, Joshua beginning that.

So, there’s a lot of changes as we flip the page from Deuteronomy to Joshua, and today, we're going to do that. We're going to flip the page to the very first chapter of Joshua.

Joshua Chapter 1

If you've got your Bible, I invite you to open up there to Joshua chapter 1. We're going to begin reading there in verse one and read those first nine verses. And then, from there, after we read those, I'll share the message that God's put on my heart.

But I do invite anybody that would like and is able to stand with me in honor of the reading of the Word of God. Joshua chapter 1, beginning in verse one.

The Word of God says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead.'"

"Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel."

"Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness in this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory."

"No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you."

"Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them."

"Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go."

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Thank you. May be seated. God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for this beautiful passage to open up the book that we know as the Book of Joshua.

And God, now I just pray you open our hearts to receive your Word, and I pray you use it for your purposes, for your glory. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Reflections on Joshua’s Call

You know, in this opening chapter of Joshua, we read about the call and the commission of Joshua. So, there—there’s—there’s several takeaways that I take as I read through these first nine verses.

There’s a lot that God can stir in your heart as you read those nine verses in the Word of God, but one thing I can't help but think about when we think about Joshua being called—go—Joshua was being called to a big, big, big, big task. Amen.

He was being called to follow Moses and to lead Israel into the Promised Land. This is a big calling God had on his life.

And something that I just thought about when I thought about Joshua and God calling Joshua is how God uniquely prepares those whom He calls. You know, God—God uniquely prepares those when He calls you to different areas of service.

You know, one thing is for certain when we read the Bible: even though Joshua, I believe, was fearful, God had uniquely prepared Joshua for this moment where He was calling him to lead Israel and lead them into the Promised Land.

We know from the Bible that Joshua would have been about 80 years old at this point. The first 40 years of his life were in slavery in Egypt; the next 40 years of his life were wandering in the desert.

Talk about an exciting life: 40 years in slavery, 40 years wandering in the desert. So, in all honesty, there was a lot of exciting things that happened to Joshua, but you think about it—he had a hard life those first 80 years: slavery and wandering.

But what we see in Joshua, one way God had prepared him, is he had been through what Israel had been through. He could relate to the people, even, and he could relate more so than the new generation could because he had been through what Israel had been through. God had uniquely prepared him in that way.

But I tell you, that's—that’s not it. Also, when we go to Numbers chapter 13, we read about how Moses sends 12 spies to go spy out the Promised Land, and when we read Numbers 13, we learned that Joshua was the tribe leader of the tribe of Ephraim.

So, understand, a tribe had many, many, many, many, many thousands of people. So, one thing we know was Joshua had some leadership experience. God had already allowed him to be the tribe leader for this entire tribe of one of the 12 tribes of Israel.

So, that was another way God had uniquely prepared Joshua before He called him to this big, big responsibility and this big, big task. He had already been a tribe leader.

We also know, when Moses sent out the 12 spies—again, we read about it in Numbers—do we remember what happened when they went to spy out the land? Ten of the 12 came back fearful. Ten of the 12 said, "No, we can't go conquer them."

But only Joshua and Caleb came back, and they said, "No, the Lord will fight for us. We need to go." But the other 10 convinced Israel not to go, and we know what happened as a result: Israel was punished. Israel didn't trust God, and Israel wandered in the desert 40 years right before they went into the Promised Land.

But notice Joshua and Caleb—they had faith in God. So, another way that we can see that Joshua was prepared is he trusted God. He had faith in God. He was willing to go and ready to go.

So, that’s another way that we see Joshua was prepared to be the one taking the new reins and leading Israel on since Moses had died.

We also know this: in Exodus 17, Joshua led the Israelite army. Again, think about all the experience Joshua had and how God had already uniquely prepared him. He was a tribe leader; he had lived the life that Israel had lived those 80 years; and now we learned he was also the military leader for Israel.

Now, something else we see in Exodus 24: God had told Moses to go up to Mount Sinai, and that was where Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain. Talk about being in the presence of God—wouldn’t that be glorious?

But we see that, although some came up part of the way—Aaron and his sons and the elders—Moses only brought Joshua up further up the mountain.

And we know what happened at the bottom of that mountain, don’t we? When Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days—the golden calf worship. But Joshua wasn’t down with Aaron and the others in Israel down there because that would have disqualified him, probably, from leading. Joshua was up on the mountain.

So, he wasn’t a part of that false worship. Numbers 27—and I love this—we see that Moses prayed to God for a successor. Moses knew he wouldn’t go on and on and on leading forever, and he prayed to God for a successor.

And what I love that we see there in Numbers 27 is man—or Moses or man—doesn’t choose Joshua. God chose Joshua.

So, we see that in these first nine verses, where God is commissioning Joshua to lead Israel into the Promised Land, I think a takeaway we got is that God had already, already uniquely prepared Joshua in so many ways.

And I hope that, you know, I don’t know how God is stirring in each of your hearts, but I do know when we’re a people that are pursuing a closer relationship with Jesus—when we are in the Word of God, when we are worshiping the Lord, when we are praying, and we are spending time drawing closer to God—

I do know this: God will work in our hearts, and there’s times when God will call us. It might be a calling to fellowship as a believer, where He draws us to want to be in a closer fellowship.

But often, as a believer, God will also call us to specific areas of service. Now, He might call you to lead a ministry. He might call you to lead some ministry here in our church building.

He might put on your heart a calling to go out and lead a homeless ministry. He might put on your heart a calling to go to the nations and to be a missionary and live somewhere in another country—might as well be another world.

When God calls, He calls, and it can be big, and it can be radical. Has anybody ever experienced that in your life where God’s called you to something big, and maybe you were a little fearful? Is there anybody else?

Well, I hope it encourages you to know—and maybe you’re going through it today—that when God calls and He’s truly calling somebody, for one, He won’t leave you or forsake you, just like He told Joshua.

And also to know that God has already molded you and shaped you and prepared you, and He’s not going to leave you alone when He calls you.

I remember when God called me to preach, and all I had ever done was business, and I didn’t have a seminary degree, and I was like, "You want me to what?" And I was fearful.

I was probably like Joshua. It was a much easier task than Joshua had—Joshua had to lead the whole nation of Israel—but I was overwhelmed.

But you know what God had already done? God had already molded me and shaped me and had me around people that had taught me and prepared me for that. Did I know everything? No.

But—and think about Paul—when Paul was saved on the road to Damascus, yeah, he was a Jew of Jews, and he was persecuting the Christians, but you know what? Even Paul had already been prepared because he knew the Old Testament. He knew it well, and he did love God.

So, if God is calling you to something today, I just hope you know that God has already, through your life, helped to prepare you for what He’s calling you.

God-Confidence Over Self-Confidence

You know, something else I think about when I think about the call of Joshua and these nine verses is that God’s not looking for people with self-confidence. He’s looking for people with God-confidence.

You know, there’s no question Joshua had to be fearful. I mean, first, he was following the mighty man of Moses—Moses, all those mighty acts that Moses did through the hand of God in Egypt, and then parting the Red Sea, and all these—the manna coming, and Moses being the leader. From a human perspective, it had to be overwhelming to Joshua. He had to be fearful.

Then, to know that he was leading a whole nation—will they even listen to me? Then, he knew he was leading them to go into the Promised Land and to fight battle after battle.

Have—do y’all remember reading through Deuteronomy how many—I mean, in Joshua, how many battles they fought? They fought battle after battle after battle. He had to be fearful.

God, you know—you know what the most common command in the Bible is? It’s something to this effect: "Do not be afraid."

You know, sometimes when God calls us to something, we can tend to be afraid. Amen. We can tend to wonder how it will all work out.

But I think—I hope we all, you know, remember that, just like God was with Joshua when God called him, when God calls you to something—and He, God who created the heavens and the earth, is choosing to give you an opportunity to serve—He’s not going to leave you nor forsake you.

You know what God assures Joshua? I’m sure Joshua had to be fearful, but God, over and over, assures him in this passage.

I love what it says in verses five and six. God tells him, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage."

In verse seven, it says God says, "Only be strong and very courageous." In verse nine, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

And we know that Joshua ended up trusting God. But if we try to have confidence in ourselves when God is leading us and we try to just rely on ourselves when God is calling us, we do have something to worry about. We will fall flat on our face.

God’s not looking for people with confidence in themselves. He’s looking for people that trust God and have God-confidence.

And when God truly calls us, yeah, we don’t know how it’ll all work out. I didn’t know how it all worked out when I was called to preach—who would bring me on as a pastor, how this would work out, or how that would work out. When God’s called you to something, you don’t.

But when God calls, often it’s—we got to take that first step and trust Him and obey and know that He goes with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

The Secret Weapon: God’s Word

You know, I want to just kind of—the rest of today’s message—hone in on there, on verse eight. You know, after God commissions Joshua, when we get to verse eight, we see that God gives him advice and kind of help on something to keep in mind as he follows this call of God and as he leads the nation of Israel.

He gives Joshua what I call the secret weapon. Verse 8 of Joshua 1 says, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

You know, the book of the law referred to the first five books of what we know—we know them as the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

I’m kind of glad we got the New Testament too, but you know what I mean—that was the Word of God. That was what was in place for the Bible at that point. That was what God’s people looked to and looked to to follow God.

And although Joshua was going to be going into fierce and bloody battles—and it’s hard to read through all those things that they went and did as God was giving the Promised Land—

But God sent them as they were going into these battles, as they were going to fight hand-to-hand combat and so forth and so on, more important than anything, God says, "Watch this, Joshua. Focus on the Word. Meditate on the Word."

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night." And I tell you, as I read that, I’m reminded that God gives us a secret weapon too. God gives us the Word of God.

And I’m reminded of the importance of reading the Word of God and the importance of meditating on the Word of God. A lot of times, we’ll hear the word "meditation," and we think of it as something bad, but meditating on the Bible is biblical.

Again, it says, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night." Psalm 1:1-2 says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night."

I love how it also talks about day and night, and in Joshua 1, He talks about, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night."

You know, it’s such a blessing when we hide God’s Word in our heart. You know, if we want to be helped as God’s calling us to different areas, but also we just want to be helped to live out our Christian faith, it is so important that we take time to be in God’s Word.

You know, we are reading through the Bible this year—many of you—and I tell you, when we read through the Bible, it’s a blessing, but we don’t want to read through it so fast that we’re not slowing down to get what God has given us.

That’s one reason I wanted us, this week, when we come to Wednesday night, we’re going to focus on just Judges—the Book of Judges. The next Wednesday, we’ll focus on the Book of Ruth. But meditating on the Word of God—it will bless you.

Have you ever had those times where you’re just in the Word, and you just sit in the Word, and you just take time with God, and you’re just blessed? You know what I mean—where you’re just opening the Bible, maybe on your porch, maybe in your living room, and you’re slowing down from the hustle and bustle of life, and you feel the presence of God?

It’s such a joy to meditate on the Word of God. Now, I remember after I got saved—I was 27 years old when I finally surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I was on the shores of Carolina Beach. I’d heard the gospel a lot of times, but I kept putting it off, kept putting it off, said I knew all about that, but I might have heard about Jesus, but I had never given my life to Jesus.

Three days after my dad died, I did. And after I surrendered my life to Christ, I was changed—still flawed, very imperfect, but I was changed, and I wanted to live for the Lord.

And I remember what else—I wanted to draw closer to the Lord, and specifically, I remember God putting on my heart: I wanted to read the Bible. I wanted to get in the Word, and I remember just this yearning, and it’s a call to fellowship.

That’s what God does when you give your life to Christ: after He calls you to salvation, He calls you to draw closer to fellowship. I didn’t know how to read the Bible. Praise God that God put in my life Pastor Dwight, the church where Chris and I started to go to in Leland.

And praise God that God worked on Pastor Dwight to reach out to me and to disciple me because I didn’t know how to get in the Word. I needed someone to come alongside of me and just nudge me that direction—help me a little bit and so forth and so on—and we would meet every week for lunch.

Now, I read the Bible on my own, but just to have somebody come up to me one day and say, "Hey, I got you this Bible," because, truthfully, I didn’t have an appropriate Bible. You know that? Well, there’s 66 books in the Bible, and I had a Bible that had more books than that—it wasn’t—it had the Apocrypha. First off, praise God, and I didn’t know.

Hey, yesterday I was out knocking on doors. We got to be on guard against false teaching—to be on guard and to recognize it. We can only recognize it if we know the Word of God, if we’re in the Word of God.

I was knocking on doors yesterday, and Brother Wayne and I ran into two guys, and we started talking to them, and they were knocking on doors too. And I remember one of the guys said they didn’t believe in the Trinity.

And one of the guys said, "Well, I don’t believe Jesus was here until later," and I said, "Well, the Bible says He was here in the beginning." He says, "Where are you talking about?" And I quoted John 1. I says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God."

And then in verse 14, it tells us who the Word is in John 1. It says, "And the Word dwelt amongst us and became flesh." The Word—Jesus—He was here in the beginning. He was God, He was with God, and He is God.

But then that guy says, "No, that’s not what it says," and he had a version that said, "The Word was a god," and it had a lowercase "g." I said, "Brother, that’s a dangerous version because, first off, there’s only one true God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit."

But this guy had a version that basically says Jesus was a lowercase "g" god. No, Jesus is our Lord, and Jesus is our Savior. Guys, if we’re not in the Word, we can easily get led astray. So, that’s another reason we’re blessed when we are in the Word.

Hey, I want to tell you—who in here wants to be more and more in the Word of God? Sometimes we can struggle with that. We get busy, and we have a lot of struggles.

But I just want to tell you: you won’t regret time you spend in God’s Word. You won’t regret time you spend in the Word. If Joshua needed to be told by God, "Meditate on the Word of God day and night," as he was going to lead Israel into battle after battle, you better believe we need to be a people meditating on the Word of God.

How to Meditate on the Word

How do I better meditate on the Word? I tell you, in the fast-paced—you know, this day and age, people are so fast-paced. We’re all going so fast—fast—most of us, and we got to find a way to be intentional and put God first. God first.

But see, we tend, in this day and age, to kind of put everything else first. If we want to meditate on the Word before all the other stuff, we got to put God in—time with God—first. You know that.

And I tell you what—it helps to be intentional and have a plan. That’s one reason I love reading through the Bible. And hey, by the way, it’s going to take us more than a year, and I’m totally good with that. I’m—we’re getting in the Word.

And by the way, more time to meditate on the Word. You know, we were already going to go into 2026 because we had some weather-cancelled services, and now it’s going to go even longer because there’s 66 books in the Bible, and we’re going to break it down book by book—not two or three on one Wednesday.

But I tell you, if we want to better meditate on the Word, we’ve got to shut the world out. You know, we got to get alone with God, right? We got to—we got to kind of find a time in our day.

I love doing the first thing early in the morning. That’s what I love, and Jesus did that. You know, He would often withdraw. We got to—we got to get rid of the phone when we’re in the Word. I mean, I’m—I mean, bottom line, we need to get distraction-free with God.

And I don’t want to say you can or can’t use the phone, but I know if I try to pull it up on my phone, before you know it, I’m reading a text message. For me, I want to find a way—bottom line, I want to find a way to get distraction-free and just me and God.

When I don’t, I don’t—I don’t get quite as close, but when I’m distraction-free, I’m helped. And I think we want to—we want to ask, as we’re reading it, we might—we might read it and kind of not really catch much—well, read it again.

Slow down and take time to say, "What is God saying in this text, and how does it apply to me?" And hey, by the way, get your shovels out. If we want to meditate on the Word, get those shovels out—get your study Bible out.

If you’re digging into a certain text and a certain passage, you want to learn more—start digging a little deeper, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you on that, maybe even looking into some commentaries.

Before I do any commentaries, though, I always want to say I want to read God’s Word, and I want to say, "What is the Holy Spirit telling me?" The Holy Spirit’s the best teacher. But I tell you what else can help with meditating on the Word: writing God’s Word on your heart.

I remember when I was challenged by Pastor Dwight, "Would you like to remember two verses a week?" And there was a little study that went with it, and I just tore the cards off, and I had two cards a week to memorize.

When you write a verse or two on your heart and you say it over and over again to remember it, and then the next day you say it to yourself five, ten times—two—and the next day, for that whole week, you’re saying it—

You know what happens? You’re saying God’s Word over and over. You’re meditating on it, and God’s Word is starting to speak to you. But when we meditate on the Word of God, we will be helped.

Closing Thoughts

I tell you, I just want to close by saying on this: when we meditate on the Word, we are helped to live for the Lord, and God goes with us. You know, when we think about Joshua being called, verse 8, we see right after He commissioned him, He said, "Hold up, Joshua. Let me tell you something really important."

"As busy as you are—you got many hundreds of thousands of people you’re leading, you got many battles you’re going to be fighting—but I want to tell you, more important than anything, Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night."

"Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you’ll have good success." He didn’t say, "Joshua, start training everybody." He didn’t say, "Joshua, start getting everybody in the best physical shape." He said, "First, put Me first."

See what happens when we put God’s Word first? Where—if we’re reading and we’re pondering the Word of God every morning, every evening, in the morning and in the evening—we’re starting to think like God things.

But if we’re only watching the TV and, you know, thinking about things that this world—we’re going to be thinking like the world thinks. But if we’re meditating on the Word day and night, God’s going to help us walk closer to Him.

Does anybody ever struggle living for Jesus? Yeah, because you’ve got flesh. Yesterday’s funeral, we talked about the flesh and the spirit war against each other—Galatians 5—but, man, when we’re in the Word, He helps us.

You know, that’s what God did for Joshua in Israel. He helped them because Joshua was leading them by leading them in the Word, and as they were in the Word, they were being helped to live for God.

And we know, as we go through Joshua, we see when he sends two spies to go to Jericho, Rahab the harlot was there to protect them, and all she—she told the two spies, "Everybody’s already fearful. Y’all have already won, basically." The Lord had already given them Jericho before they even went to battle because they were in the Word, and in the Word, they were obeying God.

You know, when we go to Joshua 5, we see there that there was a man that stood there before they went into Jericho, and it was the commander of the army of the Lord. Basically, the Lord was coming to fight for them.

Now, do you think if Israel wasn’t walking with God, the commander of the Lord of the army would have been there? No. But they were in the Word, they were meditating on the Word, and they were helped to walk with God, and God went with them, and God fought for them. And it’s the same for us.

Think about the Jordan—when they crossed the Jordan River. The Jordan River would have—would have normally been, I believe I read, about 100 feet wide at certain times and about 10 feet deep, and it was rushing—strong, rushing river water.

But what did God do? Many miles away from where they crossed, He stopped the waters so they could cross. And what did God do when they went to Jericho? They marched around it one time for six days, then they marched around it—I think—seven times on the seventh day, and the walls came down.

Talk about the Lord fighting for you. That’s the power of God. And Joshua and Israel—they were listening to God. He said, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you’ll have good success."

And you know, as we read that, I hope that we’re encouraged that, just like God told Joshua the secret weapon—meditate on the Word—you and I, as believers in Christ, we have a secret weapon.

And we shouldn’t let our Bibles just sit on the shelf and collect dust. We shouldn’t just come to church and just go on and just live life and forget about reading the Word. It will bless you. It will bless me when we are in the Word of God.

And by the way, if you need a Bible, let us know. I would love to get you one. If you need a Bible, our church will get you one. And if you just need help because you’re not sure how to get in the Word, talk to us. There’s nothing to be ashamed about that. I remember when I wasn’t sure how to get in the Word—nobody—I had never grown up reading the Bible.

Don’t do this alone. The enemy wants to keep you alone. If you need help with how to get in the Bible—how to get in the Word—let us know.

I just want to close by just remembering that this Word—the Word of God—it’s our secret weapon as we walk this walk as believers. We need help. We’ve got flesh, but the Spirit of God is inside of us. If we trust in the Lord, and when we’re in the Word, we’re helped.

It’s our secret weapon to help us draw closer and live more and more for the Lord. It’s our secret weapon to help us be obedient. And if God is calling you to something, it’s our secret weapon to help give us strength as we follow God on the call that He has in our life.

I hope today that we challenge ourselves as we think about Joshua being commissioned for a big, big task, and God telling him, "Don’t forget to be in the Word. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

I hope that, as we think about that, each and every one of us are reminded of the importance of being—taking time with God to be in God’s Word. Father God, we love you, and I do just thank you and praise you for your Word, and I thank you for this time.