June 9, 2025 • 39 mins
What happens when you follow the wrong leader? Pastor Chip opens with a harrowing tale of getting lost in the Canadian wilderness after following his canoe partner Bert down the wrong trail. This misadventure brilliantly illustrates a profound truth: the success of your life depends entirely on the leader you choose to follow.
Drawing from Joshua chapter 1, Pastor Chip reveals three transformative keys to unlock God's success for your life. First, believe God's promises to you. Joshua wasn't exceptional – he was born in slavery, served as an assistant for 40 years, and took leadership at age 80. Yet God used this ordinary man to accomplish extraordinary things because Joshua believed God's promises. "God loves to use ordinary people like me and you," Pastor Chip emphasizes, "so people don't see our greatness; they see His greatness through our averageness."
The second key is receiving God's power through His Word. True biblical success comes from marinating in Scripture until it permeates your entire being. Like warming yourself by a fire on a freezing day, we must stay close to God's Word consistently to experience its transformative power. "We don't want drive-through Christianity," Pastor Chip declares. When we carefully obey Scripture, God gives us wisdom to make fruitful decisions – the essence of genuine success.
Finally, perceive God's presence with you. Using touching stories about his children calling for "Daddy" when afraid of imagined lions or dinosaurs, Pastor Chip illustrates how God's presence transforms our response to life's challenges. The same challenges that paralyze us with fear become conquerable when we recognize Emmanuel – God with us.
Throughout this message, Pastor Chip redefines success according to God's standards: obedience to His Word, following His will, making godly decisions, and allowing Him to open doors. This isn't prosperity gospel; it's biblical prosperity – being in the center of God's purpose for your life.
Ready to experience true success? Fill out a Next Step card today and discover how following Jesus – the ultimate leader – will take you exactly where you need to go.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amen.
Well, aren't you glad you cameto church this morning.
Put your hands together onemore time.
It's just so good to seeeverybody, all of our first-time
guests.
Thank you for being here.
And man, god is just, he's justwith us in a really powerful
way.
We're so thankful for his handin our lives, his hand on our
church.
If you're a first-time guesthere, just a little bit about us
.
We're one church.
We meet in two differentworship services the 930 and the
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11,.
Two different worship languages, choir and orchestra our modern
worship here, but we are allabout one vision.
We're all about one thing, oneperson, and his name is Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
And that's why we are onechurch, all together and
literally like our mission.
What God calls us to do is toworship him together, to get
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into his word, for us to be ingroup, together, in relationship
with one another, for us to beable to be using our spiritual
gifts the Bible talks about aspouring it out or using them in
his church so that we can all beon mission in our community
together.
The church should be the oneplace where all the community
comes together,multi-generational, multi-ethnic
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, all under one name, the nameof Jesus and that's why we do
what we do.
So thank you for being a partof this.
I want to ask you a question.
You can turn to Joshua chapterone with me right now.
Joshua chapter one have youever followed the wrong leader
in your life and it took youwhere you did not want to go?
You ever followed the wrongleader and you ended up where
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you didn't want to be.
I remember I was doing a missiontrip in Canada many, many years
ago and in Canada we were inthe Algonquin National Park.
It was in my college days.
I was with some buddies.
We went and took an officialtrip.
We were literally canoeingacross these massive lakes.
We would portage, which meansyou take your backpack, you put
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your canoe on and you portagefrom lake to lake.
Sometimes it was a few hundredfeet, sometimes it was a few
miles of portaging.
We were camping out at night.
We saw all the wildlife.
It was an unforgettable trip inthat Algonquin National Park of
Ontario, canada, and I rememberit was late in the week and we
were tired.
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And my canoe buddy for the dayhis name was Bert.
Everybody say Bert.
I just love that name.
Bert, right, maybe you grew upwith Bert and Ernie, like I did,
and his name was Bert and helooked kind of like Bert too, to
be honest with you, and Iremember he was real tired that
day, like Bert was not cut outfor this trip, just to be honest
with you.
And so, bert, he had nothingleft and he was really slowing
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me down, just to be honest withyou.
And so I said, bert, I'll tellyou what.
I'm going to wear my backpack.
I'm going to wear your backpack, I'm going to take the canoe
and you just lead us where we'regoing, right on these portages,
to go to the next lake.
So we just got off this onelake and I had my backpack, I
had his backpack, I put thecanoe on my shoulders and I had
the nose of the canoe pointingdown towards the ground.
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I said, bert, I'm just going tofollow your feet, you just lead
me where we're supposed to go.
It was only supposed to be afew hundred feet around the
corner where we're supposed tojust put our canoe back in and
go.
Well, a few minutes went by andhe couldn't find it.
About 15 minutes went by, hecouldn't find it.
About 30 minutes went by,couldn't find it.
I take off the canoe, I takeoff the backpacks.
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I'm like, bert, what have youdone?
Where have you led us to?
We're out in the middle of theCanadian forest.
He said, man, we're not thereyet, we just gotta keep going.
I said, well, look, I'm notkeeping on going with the
backpacks and the canoe, I'mgonna leave it all here.
I'm gonna run ahead, I'm gonnago find them.
You stay here and I'll comeback and get you.
So I ran ahead.
I probably ran about 30 minutes, probably three, four miles or
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so, ran out and so realized whatwas going on, that here I am, I
ran for 30 minutes, and I amthree to four miles in the
middle of a Canadian forest, allby myself, with a bright yellow
life jacket, screaming to wildanimals around me come and eat
me, okay.
So there I am, and so I'm likefreaking out oh my gosh, I'm all
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alone.
So I run back and I'm like I'mgonna go get Bert.
We just gotta go back to wherewe started.
So I'll run back to where Bertwas and there were the two
backpacks and there was thecanoe and there was no Bert and
Bert I was like he has gotteneaten.
He has gotten eaten by theanimals, bert, you know he's
anyways.
So I put him back on, I put thecanoe on my shoulders and I go
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back to where we had firststarted and there it was.
Just a few feet away from wherewe came off, the lake was a
little fork in the road whereeverybody else was.
We had just missed it.
It was right off of where wegot off the canoe, off the lake.
And so I go to the people andI'm freaking out.
I'm like man, bert got eaten,bert's dead, bert's gone, right.
And so I go and I start to telleverybody, we tell everybody,
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we gotta go, we gotta find Bert.
And I look at everybody andthere is Bert standing with
everybody else and I'm like whatare you doing here, right?
And he said, oh, he said well,you didn't come back.
So I just decided to leaveeverything here and go back and
find everybody else.
I said, bert, I thought youdied and you're going to die
here.
We go, right.
And I mean, I just remembered Ifollowed the wrong leader and I
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ended up in the wrong place.
And this is a biblical principlethat I have to remember, that
you have to remember, because inlife it is so easy to follow
the wrong leader in life and weend up in the wrong places.
We achieve and accomplish thewrong goals and we don't achieve
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or accomplish what God hascalled us to do.
And that's why God has given usthe book of Joshua.
The book of Joshua that we arecalling follow the leader.
Look at somebody and say,follow the leader, follow the
leader.
And so it's all about how Godis calling his people, the
people of Israel, but the peoplelike you and the people like me
, calling them out of thewilderness and into the promise
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that God has for them.
So, as we study Joshua, chapterone this morning, what I want
you to see this morning is Iwant you to see God's secret for
your success.
You realize that God, he's agood God, he's a good dad and he
loves his kids, he loves youand he wants you to be
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successful.
He wants success for your life.
But if we don't understand howto be successful, if we don't
understand what success actuallyis from the word of God, then
we will never get to experiencethe success of God.
The success of your life isdetermined by the leader that
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you follow.
So this morning I wanna giveyou three keys to unlock God's
success for your life.
Three keys to unlock God'ssuccess for your life.
Here we go.
Number one is believe thepromises of God to you.
You believe that God has madehis children.
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God has made you if you aresaved in Jesus Christ.
He has made a promise.
He has made promises to you,promises that will make you
successful in his life.
I will show it to you from hisword this morning, starting with
Joshua, chapter 1, verse 6.
Joshua 1 6 says this says Bestrong and courageous, for you
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shall cause this people toinherit the land that I swore to
their fathers to give to them.
This is God.
This is God speaking to Joshua.
Joshua is this new leader inthis new generation of
Israelites, of God's people, andoften we get God's leaders
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wrong in the Bible.
Often we think I could never belike them, I could never do
what they did.
But the issue is is that Joshuawas no different from you or
than me?
Joshua is some average ordinaryJoe Schmo in life, but yet it
was.
Joshua was just simply someonethat God called to do someone,
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something great in him andthrough him.
He's not a superhero, he's anaverage Joe.
You realize that Joshua wasborn as an Israelite in Egyptian
slavery, but he did not letthat stop him.
You realize that, joshua, hisposition, he was Moses'
assistant for 40 years, but hedid not let his position of
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being just an assistant stop him.
You realize that, joshua, hewas one of the spies that went
and checked out the promisedland, canaan, and what he saw
with his eyes was impossible forthe children of Israel to go in
and conquer.
But he didn't look with hisphysical eyes, he looked with
his spiritual eyes and he wasone of two spies that came back
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with a positive report sayingyeah, they're big, yeah, they're
strong, yeah, there's a lot ofthem, but we have God on our
side and we can take them.
He didn't let his physicalsight stop him.
Do you realize that Joshua tookover for Moses when Joshua was
80 years old.
He was 80 years old at thispoint where God is calling him
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to lead his people, but he didnot let his age stop him.
God had called a king Josiah atthe age of eight.
God is calling Joshua at theage of 80, which means God's
will has no age on it.
If you're not dead, god's notdone with you, no matter what
your age is, no matter how oldyou are, no matter how young you
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are.
God has got a will.
God's got a plan for your lifethat he alone is going to
accomplish through you.
Can I get an amen?
So the question is, what areyou letting stop you from
accomplishing God's will throughyou?
What are you letting stop youto accomplish God's will through
you?
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Joshua wasn't a special man.
He was just a man filled withGod's spirit.
And how do you get filled withGod's spirit?
You don't have to be special,you just have to be surrendered.
Joshua's name meant salvation.
Actually, joshua's name, hisHebrew name, is the same Hebrew
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name for Jesus.
You realize that you have aname.
If you believed in Jesus, ifyou've given your life to Jesus,
you have a name, a nickname, atitle, a position, and that is
Christian.
You know what Christian means?
It means little Christ.
It means that Jesus is in yourlife and Jesus is leading your
life and Jesus is guiding yourlife, and the call on your life
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is to follow the leader, who isJesus Christ.
Here's why Because God loves touse ordinary people like me and
like you, god loves to useaverage people to accomplish
great things, so that peopledon't see our greatness.
People sees his greatnessthrough our averageness.
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You know what I'm saying.
God loves to use people like us.
So Joshua is this new leader ofthis new generation of God's
people.
And make no mistake, god isdoing something very special
here in our church, in our midst, in the next generation.
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It's actually very remarkable,it's miraculous, what God was
doing.
We just had KVX KidVentureExtreme, which is our vacation
Bible school.
In this past week we got toexperience six salvations.
Six kids gave their life toJesus.
Two more want to be baptized.
We had 130 different volunteersinvolved, 238 total kids
involved and all those kidsraised over $2,000 for our
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Uganda mission trip.
Put your hands together forwhat God did just this past week
.
Now here's what makes it soawesome.
7% growth is healthy churchgrowth, but this past week, from
last year, we were 27% up.
In our KVX week from last year,49 are going to our student
camp.
This year that's 58% more.
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And just a couple of weeks agowe had a young adult worship
night and we had 44 young adultsat that worship night.
We are seeing God work and movein the next generation.
Put your hands together onemore time.
God loves it when we have achurch full of
great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids and
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great-grandkids.
God is glorified in all of thegenerations, just like he's
glorified in all of theethnicities, all of the
nationalities.
So here's what we see in Joshua,chapter 1, verse 6.
God told Joshua be strong andcourageous.
Be strong and courageous.
And God is telling you thismorning that you need strength
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and courage, but not yourstrength and courage.
God isn't calling you to digdeep, to be stronger and more
courageous.
God is saying to believe hispromises on you and for you and
to you, which gives you hisstrength and his courage.
What does strength mean?
Strength is the Hebrew wordkazakh, and it means to take
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hold, to grasp.
In other words, what is it thatGod has put in your life that
requires his strength?
That you must take hold of itand you must grasp.
God, this is what you have forme, god, this is what you've
called me to do.
God, this is what you've calledme to accomplish.
God, this is what you've calledme to do.
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God, this is what you've calledme to accomplish.
God, this is what you've calledme to achieve.
God, I need your strength orcourage.
Courage is the Hebrew word amets.
Amets means that you aredetermined.
Even when you are challenged.
You're determined even whenyou're challenged, meaning that
God called Joshua to somethinggreater than him, and God calls
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you to things greater than you,not to show you what you can
accomplish, but to show you whathe can accomplish in you and
through you.
And what was it that he wascalling them to accomplish?
Be strong and courageous, foryou shall cause this people to
inherit the land that I swore totheir fathers to give them.
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What was he calling them toaccomplish?
That they were going into thepromised land that God had
promised them 500 years prior,but the promised land was filled
with all these other nations,and God is saying go in, and I
want you to conquer, I want youto take the land, and that is
going to require God's strengthand courage.
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Now let me catch you up for asecond, because one of my
favorite things to do as apastor and a preacher is just to
preach through the entire Bible.
In 2024, january 24, last yearthe very first part of the year
we started in the book ofGenesis, and in the book of
Genesis we talked about thebeginning and we talked about
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how God was promising Abraham aland and a people and a blessing
in their life.
So God is promising him thisland.
In Exodus we see how the peopleof God became slaves in another
land, in the land of Egypt, howGod delivered them out of
slavery and they were on theirexodus through the wilderness
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and they were going to thepromised land that he was giving
them In Leviticus.
The book of Leviticus was allabout being set apart, being
holy, or, in other words, onceyou get to the land, this is how
you're called to live.
In Numbers we talked about howto be breaking free from sin.
They were wandering through thewilderness for 40 years, not
because they couldn't find theirway, but because they kept
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sinning and they weren't readyfor the land that God was
bringing them to.
And then we saw in Deuteronomylate last year that they were
called to stop right before theygot to the land on the other
side of the Jordan River, whereGod said I wanna stop and I
wanna remind you how you'resupposed to live when you go in,
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because God is saying I've gotpromises for you, you realize
that God has promises for yourlife and your promises that he
has for you are the very samepromises that he had for them.
Those three promises he had forthem were blessing and people
and land, what God had promisedAbraham.
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He said look, I'm going tobless you and your family is
going to become a nation andyour nation is going to be a
blessing to the rest of theworld.
And what is that blessing?
That blessing is that Abrahamand his family had a
relationship with God if theybelieved in him.
And he's saying I want you andyour family to become this great
nation so you can be a light toall the other nations.
Why Hear me, so all the othernations could have a
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relationship with God too.
God is blessing you in the sameway.
You understand the greatestblessing in your life is not how
much money God can give you, isnot how much happiness God can
give you, is not how muchcomfort God can give you, is not
how close in your seats thatGod can give you on your season
tickets, is not how much familyGod can give you.
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God's blessing on you.
Ultimately, the greatestblessing is his relationship
with you, that you get God inyour life.
And then he blesses us withpeople.
He blesses us with people andthat people that God is.
He says he's blessing us isactually look around, is with
each other that we are brothersand sisters in Christ.
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We are all part of the samechurch.
Together we get to do life inministry, in mission, in worship
, in community, together.
That God is saying I'm going togive you blessing, I'm going to
give you me, I'm going to giveyou people, I'm going to give
you each other.
And he says I'm going to giveyou a land.
And what is the land that Godhas given us?
A land?
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And what is the land that Godhas given us?
Our surrounding communities, asthey were called to go in and
to conquer the land, becausethat's the land that God had
given them.
We're not called to go in andconquer.
We're called to go in and serve.
We're called to go in and love.
We're called to go in and sharethe gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're called to go in and love.
We're called to go in and sharethe gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're called to go in and speakthe name of Jesus.
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God has given us a promise thatdefines our success.
This week, michelle and I, weget to experience, get to
celebrate our 11th weddinganniversary and we're just so
thankful, right?
I'm so thankful for my wife,I'm so thankful for our kids
that he's given us.
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And I was just reminded thisweek of the vows that we said to
one another and we wrote ourown vows, and this is a part of
the vows that we said to oneanother.
Babe, I just want to say thisto you publicly here on year 11,
this is the last part of ourvows that I vow to live my life
following Jesus.
I vow to love you as my wife,like Jesus.
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I vow to lead you spirituallytoward Jesus and I vow to love
you as long as we both shalllive for Jesus.
I love you and I continue tovow my life to you, and that's
exactly what Jesus has listenedto me, what he's done to you,
what he's done for you, his vowto you is his promise to you
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over your life.
You want to unlock the key ofGod's success for you.
It starts with believing thepromises of God to you.
Next is receive the power ofGod for you.
Everyone say power.
Receive the power of God foryou.
It says in verse seven.
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God tells Joshua again only bestrong.
A second time now that he'stelling him this Repeats the
same words only be strong Asecond time.
Now that he's telling him.
This Repeats the same wordsOnly be strong and very
courageous, being careful to doaccording to all that the law of
Moses, my servant, commandedyou.
So he's commanding him again Bestrong and courageous.
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Be strong and courageous to dowhat we would think.
Be strong and courageous tofight no.
Be strong and courageous tofight no.
Be strong and courageous tolead no.
Be strong and courageous tostand no, he says.
I want you to be strong andcourageous.
He tells him the one thing thattakes the most strength and the
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most courage in this life bestrong and courageous to be
careful to do all that the wordof God tells you to do.
Because you know as well as Ido we live in a dark, depraved,
sinful world who do not love,who do not honor and who do not
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desire the word of God.
And it takes strength andcourage of God on your life to
be careful to do all that theword of God tells you to do, not
what the world tells you to do.
Can I get an amen?
It takes strength and courageto be a Bible-believing,
gospel-living, jesus-worshipingChristian.
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It takes strength and courageto be a Bible-believing,
gospel-living, jesus-worshipingchurch.
God told Joshua, and I don'twant you to turn from my word to
the right hand or to the left,that you may have good success
wherever you go.
He's saying don't divert frommy word, don't drift from my
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word, don't redirect from myword, no matter what you
experience, if you experiencefear, if you experience pressure
, if you experience temptation,if you experience comfort, if
you experience culture coming upagainst you, he's saying do not
turn from my word, because ifyou don't, if you continue to
carefully do, to obey, to honormy word, he says that you will
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have good success wherever yougo.
What does success mean?
Success is the word sakal,which means God's wisdom to make
fruitful decisions.
Here's what success reallymeans.
It means that God fills youwith his Holy Spirit so that you
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get the wisdom of God, so thatyou know what to do in any
circumstance or any situation,according to the word of God and
according to the will of God.
That is true success.
The word of God and accordingto the will of God.
That is true success.
What I need you to understandthis morning is God is not
redefining success here.
God defined success thousandsof years ago.
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The world is who falselyredefines success.
Rather, what we're doing is weare rediscovering what real,
what true, what godly successlooks like.
Because here's what he says.
If we go back in verse 7, verse8, it says the book of the law
shall not depart from your mouth.
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So what do we do with the law?
What do we do with the word ofGod?
This is what we're talkingabout is the scriptures?
Notice, it's so interesting tome, he doesn't say so that the
word of God should not departfrom your lap.
He didn't say so.
The word of God should notdepart from your study.
He didn't even say so.
The word of God should notdepart from your heart.
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Now, all of those are veryimportant that you study the
word of God, that you read theword of God, that you memorize
the word of God.
But here's what he's saying.
The point is this so that youare speaking the word of God, do
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you study the word of God insuch of a way that it becomes
your very vocabulary?
Do you study the word of God insuch of a way so that it
changes your conversation?
He says if you want to besuccessful, then the book of the
law, the scripture, should notdepart from your mouth, but you
should meditate on it day andnight so that you can be careful
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to do all that is written in it, to meditate on it.
I've heard meditation comparedto like being freezing cold and
walking up to a warm fire to bewarmed by the fire, and I've
heard people say what you're notgonna do if you're freezing
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cold is to walk up to the firefor a second and walk away,
because it will do you no good.
No, rather, if you're freezingcold, you walk up to the fire,
you get as close to the fire asyou can and you stay at the fire
as long as you can so that itwarms your body, and that's what
we're called to do with theword of God.
I've heard about meditationcompared to like marinating a
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steak.
Some of you men need to hold on.
Right now.
You're gonna get a steak forFather's Day.
It's coming.
It's coming and there'ssomething about like you just
put a plain steak on the grill.
It don't matter how good youcook it If you don't marinate it
, if you don't add those spices,if you don't add that seasoning
, it's just kind of bland, it'skind of plain.
But every dude's got theirprivate, personal secret
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marinade right your secretspices, your secret seasonings.
You know how you like yoursteak and there's something
about when you marinate thatsteak and that marinade and all
that flavor seeps into thatsteak and it becomes a part of
that meat.
So when you put it on the grillit's not all pouring out.
So when you put your teeth intoit, man, you can taste all of
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that flavor because it's withinthe steak.
In the same way, we are calledto marinate in the Word of God.
Can I get an amen?
We are called to allow the Wordof God to sink deeply within us
, because we don't want somedrive-through Christianity, like
we don't want somedrive-through steak.
We want to make sure that weare marinating in the Word of
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God.
We want to sit in the Word ofGod, we want to soak in the Word
of God.
We want the Word of God to pourinto us so that the Word of God
will pour out from us in theway that we live our life for
the Lord.
Can I get an amen?
So that's what he says.
He says when you do that, youwill be successful.
And here's what's fascinating,he says and when you do that,
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you realize the Bible is tellingyou, you will be prosperous.
What is God's secret to yoursuccess.
It's the word of God.
He says, and when you are doingthe word of God, careful to do
it.
Not only will you be successful, not only will he give you your
wisdom for decision making, buthe'll give you prosperity,
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which means this that God is theone who's advancing you.
That God is the one who'sopening doors for you.
You don't want to advanceyourself, you don't want to open
doors for yourself.
Jesus said seek first mykingdom, and all of these things
will be added to you.
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You want the will of God foryou.
You don't want your plans.
You don't want your agenda.
You don't want your dreams, youdon't want your hopes, because
you sell yourself short.
God is a bigger God than youare a person, and he's got
bigger dreams for your life thanyou have for yourself.
Can I get an amen?
Let God be the one who makesyou prosperous, because that is
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what real, true prosperity is.
So what is success?
Godly success, real success,true success is when you obey
God's word.
True success is when you followGod's will.
True success is when you'reable to make godly decisions.
True success is when God is theone who opens the door for you.
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And number three, and finally,not only are we believing the
promises of God, are wereceiving the power of God, but,
thirdly, when you areperceiving the presence of God
with you.
This is what God told Joshuathree times in a row be strong
and courageous, be strong andcourageous.
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Be strong and courageous.
Why, I wonder, if Joshuastruggled with fear and anxiety?
I had three meetings this weekwith three different people,
three people, and all three ofthem told me something very
similar.
They said Pastor Chip, Istruggle with stress.
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Pastor Chip, I struggle withfear.
Pastor Chip, I struggle withanxiety.
Pastor Chip, I struggle withdoubt.
Can I just say right now, ifthat's you is, I believe that
represents so many of us heretoday.
I believe that fear, anxiety anddoubt and stress is a common
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weapon of the evil, one todaythat Satan is using against us
to experience the success of Godin your life.
I think that Satan, uniquely inour season, he's using anxiety
as a weapon.
In fact, what God tells Joshua,he says look, I don't want you
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to be frightened and I don'twant you to be dismayed.
To be frightened the Hebrewword aratz means to be
physically shaken or paralyzedby fear.
It is a physical fear, butdismayed.
Dismayed means to be mentallyshattered or emotionally broken.
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So here's what God is tellingJoshua I know you, I know your
weaknesses, I know yourstruggles, I know what you're
going through.
I know your weaknesses, I knowyour struggles.
I know what you're goingthrough, I know what you feel, I
know what you think, I knowwhat you battle, and God's not
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letting him off the hook, justlike he's not letting you off
the hook.
He's not taking it easy on him,like God's not gonna take it
easy on you, because that's notwhat I need and that's not what
you need.
Rather, here's what God issaying I don't want you to fear
and I don't want you to bedismayed.
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He says because I am with you,the Lord, your God, is with you
wherever you go.
Here's what God is tellingJoshua I have something bigger
for you than you could everdream for yourself In your 80s.
I want you to take over for oneof my greatest servants, moses,
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and I want you to lead two tothree million Israelites, my
people, out of a wilderness intoa land that I promised them
some 500 years ago.
And you don't have anythingcoming out of this wilderness
for 40 years.
And you're gonna go in andyou're gonna fight and you're
gonna battle and you're gonnaconquer and you're gonna win and
you're gonna secure this land,because I'm the one that
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promised it to you, I'm the onethat's given it to you.
And so just watch what I can dothrough you.
And here's the difference.
The difference is that God saidI am present with you.
There are nights that our littlesix-year-old girl, brooklyn,
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she, sees a lion, a lion in herroom.
Some lion just keeps visitingher room, revisiting her room
all the time, right, and shetells us about it kind of during
the day and it's just a part ofher dreams, it's a part of her
psyche going on.
And so in the middle of thenight we'll just hear her scream
, but she doesn't scream lion,lion, because we'd probably all
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go run lion, that's not what shescreams.
She screams daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy and I run in and
everything's okay Because whenDaddy is with her she is safe.
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Our little boy, cruz, two and ahalf years old you've heard me
tell it a little bit before heloves some dinosaurs.
He calls them Dino-roars,dino-roars, which I think is
very appropriate.
He's just a lot smarter than weare Dino-roars, dino-roars,
which I think is veryappropriate.
He's just a lot smarter than weare Dino-roars.
And there have been nights thathe has run into the room where
I am and he says Daddy,dino-roar, he's out of breath,
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dino-roar, dino-roar.
And he's pointing at another.
He saw a shadow, he thinks it'sa dinosaur, he's terrified,
he's dismayed.
Right, he's shattered, he'sbroken, he's scared, he's
frightened.
And so I'll take him with meand he'll go with me and I'll
show him.
It's a shadow, it scares him todeath.
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There are some days you'veheard me tell that I'll take him
on a hike Lost Mountain Trailsand he thinks it's a dinosaur
hunt and he will call outDonnarore, I'm coming, donnarore
, where are you?
What's the difference in aterrified little boy and a
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fearless dinosaur hunter, daddy?
What's the difference for youIs that your heavenly father is
with you through his son, jesusChrist, in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
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I don't know what God is callingyou to.
I don't know what you're goingthrough, but here's what I can
tell you Be strong, becourageous To do all that the
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word of God is telling you to do, because God wants you to
experience good success in hisprosperity.
That is found in his word, thatis according to his will for
your life, and so I encourageyou to get in the word of God so
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that his strength and couragegets into you to accomplish what
God has called you to.
Can I ask us all to bow ourheads and close our eyes?
With every head bowed and everyeye closed, I just wanna
encourage you right now just tobe thinking about, be praying
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about, even be asking God.
God, what is it, what is it thatyou have for me?
You can tell God right now.
God, I believe your promises.
God, I receive your power.
God, I perceive your presence.
God, just show me your will.
God, just show me what you want, and you can just tell him.
God, and I will obey you, Iwill follow you.
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You are my leader, I willfollow you.
Maybe you're here this morningand you can't do that because
you haven't given your life tohim yet.
It all starts with salvation.
It all starts when you believein Jesus.
It all starts when you make himthe Lord of your life.
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So if you've never done that,then right here, right now, I
just wanna encourage you thismorning to give your life to
Jesus, and I can't do that foryou, but I can help you pray
that to God and help you giveyour life to Jesus.
Today, you can pray somethinglike this to him right now you
can say dear God, I love you,god, I love you God, I need you,
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god, I believe in you.
And you can say God, I believein Jesus, your son, from your
own heart and your own words.
You can tell him God, I believethat Jesus died on the cross
for my sins and I ask you toforgive me all of my sin, my
past, my present, my future sin.
And you can tell them to sayGod, I believe that Jesus rose
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from the dead, he's alive, he'sreal.
So, god, I call on him to bethe Lord of my life because I
want to follow him with my life.
And the Bible says that if youconfess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved.
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God, we believe that.
We thank you for that truth.
I thank you for every personthat prayed that this morning.
And God, thank you that you area God who continues to save
people today for eternity.
We love you in Jesus' name.
And all God's people said wouldyou put your hands together
right now for anybody that gavetheir life to Jesus.
We just wanna say welcome tothe family.
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We're so thankful for what Godled you to do today, and there
is a next step card in front ofyou and I wanna encourage you.
If your decision this morningis salvation, or maybe you need
to strengthen the courage to bebaptized, maybe you need to
strengthen the courage to bebaptized, maybe you need to
strengthen the courage to join agroup or to serve in one of our
ministry teams, or to live yourlife on mission or just to come
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to our Next Step Lunch andlearn more about what God is
doing in our church, what Godwants to do in your life.
You indicate that you can turnit into our Next Step Station
right outside in our lobby, andwe would love to just walk
alongside you in your journeywith Jesus.
Can we all stand up right now,as this whole series is called
Follow the Leader.
Our leader is Jesus.
I just want to encourage you.
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This morning we're going toworship the leader.
We're going to worship our Lord, jesus Christ.
He's the one that is leadingyou to your promised land, the
land of heaven.
So let's worship him right nowwith all your heart, with all
your spirit.
Give him all the praise,because he's the one that's
given you good success in yourlife.
Let's worship Jesus.
Amen.
Well, aren't you glad you cameto church this morning.
Put your hands together onemore time.
It's just so good to seeeverybody, all of our first-time
guests.
Thank you for being here.
And man, god is just, he's justwith us in a really powerful
way.
We're so thankful for his handin our lives, his hand on our
church.
If you're a first-time guesthere, just a little bit about us
.
We're one church.
We meet in two differentworship services the 930 and the
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11,.
Two different worship languages, choir and orchestra our modern
worship here, but we are allabout one vision.
We're all about one thing, oneperson, and his name is Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
And that's why we are onechurch, all together and
literally like our mission.
What God calls us to do is toworship him together, to get
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into his word, for us to be ingroup, together, in relationship
with one another, for us to beable to be using our spiritual
gifts the Bible talks about aspouring it out or using them in
his church so that we can all beon mission in our community
together.
The church should be the oneplace where all the community
comes together,multi-generational, multi-ethnic
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, all under one name, the nameof Jesus and that's why we do
what we do.
So thank you for being a partof this.
I want to ask you a question.
You can turn to Joshua chapterone with me right now.
Joshua chapter one have youever followed the wrong leader
in your life and it took youwhere you did not want to go?
You ever followed the wrongleader and you ended up where
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you didn't want to be.
I remember I was doing a missiontrip in Canada many, many years
ago and in Canada we were inthe Algonquin National Park.
It was in my college days.
I was with some buddies.
We went and took an officialtrip.
We were literally canoeingacross these massive lakes.
We would portage, which meansyou take your backpack, you put
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your canoe on and you portagefrom lake to lake.
Sometimes it was a few hundredfeet, sometimes it was a few
miles of portaging.
We were camping out at night.
We saw all the wildlife.
It was an unforgettable trip inthat Algonquin National Park of
Ontario, canada, and I rememberit was late in the week and we
were tired.
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And my canoe buddy for the dayhis name was Bert.
Everybody say Bert.
I just love that name.
Bert, right, maybe you grew upwith Bert and Ernie, like I did,
and his name was Bert and helooked kind of like Bert too, to
be honest with you, and Iremember he was real tired that
day, like Bert was not cut outfor this trip, just to be honest
with you.
And so, bert, he had nothingleft and he was really slowing
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me down, just to be honest withyou.
And so I said, bert, I'll tellyou what.
I'm going to wear my backpack.
I'm going to wear your backpack, I'm going to take the canoe
and you just lead us where we'regoing, right on these portages,
to go to the next lake.
So we just got off this onelake and I had my backpack, I
had his backpack, I put thecanoe on my shoulders and I had
the nose of the canoe pointingdown towards the ground.
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I said, bert, I'm just going tofollow your feet, you just lead
me where we're supposed to go.
It was only supposed to be afew hundred feet around the
corner where we're supposed tojust put our canoe back in and
go.
Well, a few minutes went by andhe couldn't find it.
About 15 minutes went by, hecouldn't find it.
About 30 minutes went by,couldn't find it.
I take off the canoe, I takeoff the backpacks.
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I'm like, bert, what have youdone?
Where have you led us to?
We're out in the middle of theCanadian forest.
He said, man, we're not thereyet, we just gotta keep going.
I said, well, look, I'm notkeeping on going with the
backpacks and the canoe, I'mgonna leave it all here.
I'm gonna run ahead, I'm gonnago find them.
You stay here and I'll comeback and get you.
So I ran ahead.
I probably ran about 30 minutes, probably three, four miles or
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so, ran out and so realized whatwas going on, that here I am, I
ran for 30 minutes, and I amthree to four miles in the
middle of a Canadian forest, allby myself, with a bright yellow
life jacket, screaming to wildanimals around me come and eat
me, okay.
So there I am, and so I'm likefreaking out oh my gosh, I'm all
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alone.
So I run back and I'm like I'mgonna go get Bert.
We just gotta go back to wherewe started.
So I'll run back to where Bertwas and there were the two
backpacks and there was thecanoe and there was no Bert and
Bert I was like he has gotteneaten.
He has gotten eaten by theanimals, bert, you know he's
anyways.
So I put him back on, I put thecanoe on my shoulders and I go
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back to where we had firststarted and there it was.
Just a few feet away from wherewe came off, the lake was a
little fork in the road whereeverybody else was.
We had just missed it.
It was right off of where wegot off the canoe, off the lake.
And so I go to the people andI'm freaking out.
I'm like man, bert got eaten,bert's dead, bert's gone, right.
And so I go and I start to telleverybody, we tell everybody,
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we gotta go, we gotta find Bert.
And I look at everybody andthere is Bert standing with
everybody else and I'm like whatare you doing here, right?
And he said, oh, he said well,you didn't come back.
So I just decided to leaveeverything here and go back and
find everybody else.
I said, bert, I thought youdied and you're going to die
here.
We go, right.
And I mean, I just remembered Ifollowed the wrong leader and I
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ended up in the wrong place.
And this is a biblical principlethat I have to remember, that
you have to remember, because inlife it is so easy to follow
the wrong leader in life and weend up in the wrong places.
We achieve and accomplish thewrong goals and we don't achieve
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or accomplish what God hascalled us to do.
And that's why God has given usthe book of Joshua.
The book of Joshua that we arecalling follow the leader.
Look at somebody and say,follow the leader, follow the
leader.
And so it's all about how Godis calling his people, the
people of Israel, but the peoplelike you and the people like me
, calling them out of thewilderness and into the promise
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that God has for them.
So, as we study Joshua, chapterone this morning, what I want
you to see this morning is Iwant you to see God's secret for
your success.
You realize that God, he's agood God, he's a good dad and he
loves his kids, he loves youand he wants you to be
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successful.
He wants success for your life.
But if we don't understand howto be successful, if we don't
understand what success actuallyis from the word of God, then
we will never get to experiencethe success of God.
The success of your life isdetermined by the leader that
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you follow.
So this morning I wanna giveyou three keys to unlock God's
success for your life.
Three keys to unlock God'ssuccess for your life.
Here we go.
Number one is believe thepromises of God to you.
You believe that God has madehis children.
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God has made you if you aresaved in Jesus Christ.
He has made a promise.
He has made promises to you,promises that will make you
successful in his life.
I will show it to you from hisword this morning, starting with
Joshua, chapter 1, verse 6.
Joshua 1 6 says this says Bestrong and courageous, for you
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shall cause this people toinherit the land that I swore to
their fathers to give to them.
This is God.
This is God speaking to Joshua.
Joshua is this new leader inthis new generation of
Israelites, of God's people, andoften we get God's leaders
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wrong in the Bible.
Often we think I could never belike them, I could never do
what they did.
But the issue is is that Joshuawas no different from you or
than me?
Joshua is some average ordinaryJoe Schmo in life, but yet it
was.
Joshua was just simply someonethat God called to do someone,
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something great in him andthrough him.
He's not a superhero, he's anaverage Joe.
You realize that Joshua wasborn as an Israelite in Egyptian
slavery, but he did not letthat stop him.
You realize that, joshua, hisposition, he was Moses'
assistant for 40 years, but hedid not let his position of
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being just an assistant stop him.
You realize that, joshua, hewas one of the spies that went
and checked out the promisedland, canaan, and what he saw
with his eyes was impossible forthe children of Israel to go in
and conquer.
But he didn't look with hisphysical eyes, he looked with
his spiritual eyes and he wasone of two spies that came back
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with a positive report sayingyeah, they're big, yeah, they're
strong, yeah, there's a lot ofthem, but we have God on our
side and we can take them.
He didn't let his physicalsight stop him.
Do you realize that Joshua tookover for Moses when Joshua was
80 years old.
He was 80 years old at thispoint where God is calling him
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to lead his people, but he didnot let his age stop him.
God had called a king Josiah atthe age of eight.
God is calling Joshua at theage of 80, which means God's
will has no age on it.
If you're not dead, god's notdone with you, no matter what
your age is, no matter how oldyou are, no matter how young you
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are.
God has got a will.
God's got a plan for your lifethat he alone is going to
accomplish through you.
Can I get an amen?
So the question is, what areyou letting stop you from
accomplishing God's will throughyou?
What are you letting stop youto accomplish God's will through
you?
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Joshua wasn't a special man.
He was just a man filled withGod's spirit.
And how do you get filled withGod's spirit?
You don't have to be special,you just have to be surrendered.
Joshua's name meant salvation.
Actually, joshua's name, hisHebrew name, is the same Hebrew
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name for Jesus.
You realize that you have aname.
If you believed in Jesus, ifyou've given your life to Jesus,
you have a name, a nickname, atitle, a position, and that is
Christian.
You know what Christian means?
It means little Christ.
It means that Jesus is in yourlife and Jesus is leading your
life and Jesus is guiding yourlife, and the call on your life
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is to follow the leader, who isJesus Christ.
Here's why Because God loves touse ordinary people like me and
like you, god loves to useaverage people to accomplish
great things, so that peopledon't see our greatness.
People sees his greatnessthrough our averageness.
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You know what I'm saying.
God loves to use people like us.
So Joshua is this new leader ofthis new generation of God's
people.
And make no mistake, god isdoing something very special
here in our church, in our midst, in the next generation.
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It's actually very remarkable,it's miraculous, what God was
doing.
We just had KVX KidVentureExtreme, which is our vacation
Bible school.
In this past week we got toexperience six salvations.
Six kids gave their life toJesus.
Two more want to be baptized.
We had 130 different volunteersinvolved, 238 total kids
involved and all those kidsraised over $2,000 for our
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Uganda mission trip.
Put your hands together forwhat God did just this past week
.
Now here's what makes it soawesome.
7% growth is healthy churchgrowth, but this past week, from
last year, we were 27% up.
In our KVX week from last year,49 are going to our student
camp.
This year that's 58% more.
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And just a couple of weeks agowe had a young adult worship
night and we had 44 young adultsat that worship night.
We are seeing God work and movein the next generation.
Put your hands together onemore time.
God loves it when we have achurch full of
great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids and
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great-grandkids.
God is glorified in all of thegenerations, just like he's
glorified in all of theethnicities, all of the
nationalities.
So here's what we see in Joshua,chapter 1, verse 6.
God told Joshua be strong andcourageous.
Be strong and courageous.
And God is telling you thismorning that you need strength
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and courage, but not yourstrength and courage.
God isn't calling you to digdeep, to be stronger and more
courageous.
God is saying to believe hispromises on you and for you and
to you, which gives you hisstrength and his courage.
What does strength mean?
Strength is the Hebrew wordkazakh, and it means to take
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hold, to grasp.
In other words, what is it thatGod has put in your life that
requires his strength?
That you must take hold of itand you must grasp.
God, this is what you have forme, god, this is what you've
called me to do.
God, this is what you've calledme to accomplish.
God, this is what you've calledme to do.
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God, this is what you've calledme to accomplish.
God, this is what you've calledme to achieve.
God, I need your strength orcourage.
Courage is the Hebrew word amets.
Amets means that you aredetermined.
Even when you are challenged.
You're determined even whenyou're challenged, meaning that
God called Joshua to somethinggreater than him, and God calls
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you to things greater than you,not to show you what you can
accomplish, but to show you whathe can accomplish in you and
through you.
And what was it that he wascalling them to accomplish?
Be strong and courageous, foryou shall cause this people to
inherit the land that I swore totheir fathers to give them.
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What was he calling them toaccomplish?
That they were going into thepromised land that God had
promised them 500 years prior,but the promised land was filled
with all these other nations,and God is saying go in, and I
want you to conquer, I want youto take the land, and that is
going to require God's strengthand courage.
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Now let me catch you up for asecond, because one of my
favorite things to do as apastor and a preacher is just to
preach through the entire Bible.
In 2024, january 24, last yearthe very first part of the year
we started in the book ofGenesis, and in the book of
Genesis we talked about thebeginning and we talked about
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how God was promising Abraham aland and a people and a blessing
in their life.
So God is promising him thisland.
In Exodus we see how the peopleof God became slaves in another
land, in the land of Egypt, howGod delivered them out of
slavery and they were on theirexodus through the wilderness
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and they were going to thepromised land that he was giving
them In Leviticus.
The book of Leviticus was allabout being set apart, being
holy, or, in other words, onceyou get to the land, this is how
you're called to live.
In Numbers we talked about howto be breaking free from sin.
They were wandering through thewilderness for 40 years, not
because they couldn't find theirway, but because they kept
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sinning and they weren't readyfor the land that God was
bringing them to.
And then we saw in Deuteronomylate last year that they were
called to stop right before theygot to the land on the other
side of the Jordan River, whereGod said I wanna stop and I
wanna remind you how you'resupposed to live when you go in,
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because God is saying I've gotpromises for you, you realize
that God has promises for yourlife and your promises that he
has for you are the very samepromises that he had for them.
Those three promises he had forthem were blessing and people
and land, what God had promisedAbraham.
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He said look, I'm going tobless you and your family is
going to become a nation andyour nation is going to be a
blessing to the rest of theworld.
And what is that blessing?
That blessing is that Abrahamand his family had a
relationship with God if theybelieved in him.
And he's saying I want you andyour family to become this great
nation so you can be a light toall the other nations.
Why Hear me, so all the othernations could have a
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relationship with God too.
God is blessing you in the sameway.
You understand the greatestblessing in your life is not how
much money God can give you, isnot how much happiness God can
give you, is not how muchcomfort God can give you, is not
how close in your seats thatGod can give you on your season
tickets, is not how much familyGod can give you.
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God's blessing on you.
Ultimately, the greatestblessing is his relationship
with you, that you get God inyour life.
And then he blesses us withpeople.
He blesses us with people andthat people that God is.
He says he's blessing us isactually look around, is with
each other that we are brothersand sisters in Christ.
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We are all part of the samechurch.
Together we get to do life inministry, in mission, in worship
, in community, together.
That God is saying I'm going togive you blessing, I'm going to
give you me, I'm going to giveyou people, I'm going to give
you each other.
And he says I'm going to giveyou a land.
And what is the land that Godhas given us?
A land?
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And what is the land that Godhas given us?
Our surrounding communities, asthey were called to go in and
to conquer the land, becausethat's the land that God had
given them.
We're not called to go in andconquer.
We're called to go in and serve.
We're called to go in and love.
We're called to go in and sharethe gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're called to go in and love.
We're called to go in and sharethe gospel of Jesus Christ.
We're called to go in and speakthe name of Jesus.
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God has given us a promise thatdefines our success.
This week, michelle and I, weget to experience, get to
celebrate our 11th weddinganniversary and we're just so
thankful, right?
I'm so thankful for my wife,I'm so thankful for our kids
that he's given us.
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And I was just reminded thisweek of the vows that we said to
one another and we wrote ourown vows, and this is a part of
the vows that we said to oneanother.
Babe, I just want to say thisto you publicly here on year 11,
this is the last part of ourvows that I vow to live my life
following Jesus.
I vow to love you as my wife,like Jesus.
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I vow to lead you spirituallytoward Jesus and I vow to love
you as long as we both shalllive for Jesus.
I love you and I continue tovow my life to you, and that's
exactly what Jesus has listenedto me, what he's done to you,
what he's done for you, his vowto you is his promise to you
(19:24):
over your life.
You want to unlock the key ofGod's success for you.
It starts with believing thepromises of God to you.
Next is receive the power ofGod for you.
Everyone say power.
Receive the power of God foryou.
It says in verse seven.
(19:45):
God tells Joshua again only bestrong.
A second time now that he'stelling him this Repeats the
same words only be strong Asecond time.
Now that he's telling him.
This Repeats the same wordsOnly be strong and very
courageous, being careful to doaccording to all that the law of
Moses, my servant, commandedyou.
So he's commanding him again Bestrong and courageous.
(20:05):
Be strong and courageous to dowhat we would think.
Be strong and courageous tofight no.
Be strong and courageous tofight no.
Be strong and courageous tolead no.
Be strong and courageous tostand no, he says.
I want you to be strong andcourageous.
He tells him the one thing thattakes the most strength and the
(20:26):
most courage in this life bestrong and courageous to be
careful to do all that the wordof God tells you to do.
Because you know as well as Ido we live in a dark, depraved,
sinful world who do not love,who do not honor and who do not
(20:47):
desire the word of God.
And it takes strength andcourage of God on your life to
be careful to do all that theword of God tells you to do, not
what the world tells you to do.
Can I get an amen?
It takes strength and courageto be a Bible-believing,
gospel-living, jesus-worshipingChristian.
(21:07):
It takes strength and courageto be a Bible-believing,
gospel-living, jesus-worshipingchurch.
God told Joshua, and I don'twant you to turn from my word to
the right hand or to the left,that you may have good success
wherever you go.
He's saying don't divert frommy word, don't drift from my
(21:29):
word, don't redirect from myword, no matter what you
experience, if you experiencefear, if you experience pressure
, if you experience temptation,if you experience comfort, if
you experience culture coming upagainst you, he's saying do not
turn from my word, because ifyou don't, if you continue to
carefully do, to obey, to honormy word, he says that you will
(21:55):
have good success wherever yougo.
What does success mean?
Success is the word sakal,which means God's wisdom to make
fruitful decisions.
Here's what success reallymeans.
It means that God fills youwith his Holy Spirit so that you
(22:19):
get the wisdom of God, so thatyou know what to do in any
circumstance or any situation,according to the word of God and
according to the will of God.
That is true success.
The word of God and accordingto the will of God.
That is true success.
What I need you to understandthis morning is God is not
redefining success here.
God defined success thousandsof years ago.
(22:42):
The world is who falselyredefines success.
Rather, what we're doing is weare rediscovering what real,
what true, what godly successlooks like.
Because here's what he says.
If we go back in verse 7, verse8, it says the book of the law
shall not depart from your mouth.
(23:03):
So what do we do with the law?
What do we do with the word ofGod?
This is what we're talkingabout is the scriptures?
Notice, it's so interesting tome, he doesn't say so that the
word of God should not departfrom your lap.
He didn't say so.
The word of God should notdepart from your study.
He didn't even say so.
The word of God should notdepart from your heart.
(23:23):
Now, all of those are veryimportant that you study the
word of God, that you read theword of God, that you memorize
the word of God.
But here's what he's saying.
The point is this so that youare speaking the word of God, do
(23:44):
you study the word of God insuch of a way that it becomes
your very vocabulary?
Do you study the word of God insuch of a way so that it
changes your conversation?
He says if you want to besuccessful, then the book of the
law, the scripture, should notdepart from your mouth, but you
should meditate on it day andnight so that you can be careful
(24:04):
to do all that is written in it, to meditate on it.
I've heard meditation comparedto like being freezing cold and
walking up to a warm fire to bewarmed by the fire, and I've
heard people say what you're notgonna do if you're freezing
(24:25):
cold is to walk up to the firefor a second and walk away,
because it will do you no good.
No, rather, if you're freezingcold, you walk up to the fire,
you get as close to the fire asyou can and you stay at the fire
as long as you can so that itwarms your body, and that's what
we're called to do with theword of God.
I've heard about meditationcompared to like marinating a
(24:48):
steak.
Some of you men need to hold on.
Right now.
You're gonna get a steak forFather's Day.
It's coming.
It's coming and there'ssomething about like you just
put a plain steak on the grill.
It don't matter how good youcook it If you don't marinate it
, if you don't add those spices,if you don't add that seasoning
, it's just kind of bland, it'skind of plain.
But every dude's got theirprivate, personal secret
(25:10):
marinade right your secretspices, your secret seasonings.
You know how you like yoursteak and there's something
about when you marinate thatsteak and that marinade and all
that flavor seeps into thatsteak and it becomes a part of
that meat.
So when you put it on the grillit's not all pouring out.
So when you put your teeth intoit, man, you can taste all of
(25:32):
that flavor because it's withinthe steak.
In the same way, we are calledto marinate in the Word of God.
Can I get an amen?
We are called to allow the Wordof God to sink deeply within us
, because we don't want somedrive-through Christianity, like
we don't want somedrive-through steak.
We want to make sure that weare marinating in the Word of
(25:55):
God.
We want to sit in the Word ofGod, we want to soak in the Word
of God.
We want the Word of God to pourinto us so that the Word of God
will pour out from us in theway that we live our life for
the Lord.
Can I get an amen?
So that's what he says.
He says when you do that, youwill be successful.
And here's what's fascinating,he says and when you do that,
(26:18):
you realize the Bible is tellingyou, you will be prosperous.
What is God's secret to yoursuccess.
It's the word of God.
He says, and when you are doingthe word of God, careful to do
it.
Not only will you be successful, not only will he give you your
wisdom for decision making, buthe'll give you prosperity,
(26:38):
which means this that God is theone who's advancing you.
That God is the one who'sopening doors for you.
You don't want to advanceyourself, you don't want to open
doors for yourself.
Jesus said seek first mykingdom, and all of these things
will be added to you.
(26:59):
You want the will of God foryou.
You don't want your plans.
You don't want your agenda.
You don't want your dreams, youdon't want your hopes, because
you sell yourself short.
God is a bigger God than youare a person, and he's got
bigger dreams for your life thanyou have for yourself.
Can I get an amen?
Let God be the one who makesyou prosperous, because that is
(27:23):
what real, true prosperity is.
So what is success?
Godly success, real success,true success is when you obey
God's word.
True success is when you followGod's will.
True success is when you'reable to make godly decisions.
True success is when God is theone who opens the door for you.
(27:49):
And number three, and finally,not only are we believing the
promises of God, are wereceiving the power of God, but,
thirdly, when you areperceiving the presence of God
with you.
This is what God told Joshuathree times in a row be strong
and courageous, be strong andcourageous.
(28:20):
Be strong and courageous.
Why, I wonder, if Joshuastruggled with fear and anxiety?
I had three meetings this weekwith three different people,
three people, and all three ofthem told me something very
similar.
They said Pastor Chip, Istruggle with stress.
(28:41):
Pastor Chip, I struggle withfear.
Pastor Chip, I struggle withanxiety.
Pastor Chip, I struggle withdoubt.
Can I just say right now, ifthat's you is, I believe that
represents so many of us heretoday.
I believe that fear, anxiety anddoubt and stress is a common
(29:06):
weapon of the evil, one todaythat Satan is using against us
to experience the success of Godin your life.
I think that Satan, uniquely inour season, he's using anxiety
as a weapon.
In fact, what God tells Joshua,he says look, I don't want you
(29:28):
to be frightened and I don'twant you to be dismayed.
To be frightened the Hebrewword aratz means to be
physically shaken or paralyzedby fear.
It is a physical fear, butdismayed.
Dismayed means to be mentallyshattered or emotionally broken.
(29:49):
So here's what God is tellingJoshua I know you, I know your
weaknesses, I know yourstruggles, I know what you're
going through.
I know your weaknesses, I knowyour struggles.
I know what you're goingthrough, I know what you feel, I
know what you think, I knowwhat you battle, and God's not
(30:14):
letting him off the hook, justlike he's not letting you off
the hook.
He's not taking it easy on him,like God's not gonna take it
easy on you, because that's notwhat I need and that's not what
you need.
Rather, here's what God issaying I don't want you to fear
and I don't want you to bedismayed.
(30:35):
He says because I am with you,the Lord, your God, is with you
wherever you go.
Here's what God is tellingJoshua I have something bigger
for you than you could everdream for yourself In your 80s.
I want you to take over for oneof my greatest servants, moses,
(30:58):
and I want you to lead two tothree million Israelites, my
people, out of a wilderness intoa land that I promised them
some 500 years ago.
And you don't have anythingcoming out of this wilderness
for 40 years.
And you're gonna go in andyou're gonna fight and you're
gonna battle and you're gonnaconquer and you're gonna win and
you're gonna secure this land,because I'm the one that
(31:21):
promised it to you, I'm the onethat's given it to you.
And so just watch what I can dothrough you.
And here's the difference.
The difference is that God saidI am present with you.
There are nights that our littlesix-year-old girl, brooklyn,
(31:43):
she, sees a lion, a lion in herroom.
Some lion just keeps visitingher room, revisiting her room
all the time, right, and shetells us about it kind of during
the day and it's just a part ofher dreams, it's a part of her
psyche going on.
And so in the middle of thenight we'll just hear her scream
, but she doesn't scream lion,lion, because we'd probably all
(32:05):
go run lion, that's not what shescreams.
She screams daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy and I run in and
everything's okay Because whenDaddy is with her she is safe.
(32:31):
Our little boy, cruz, two and ahalf years old you've heard me
tell it a little bit before heloves some dinosaurs.
He calls them Dino-roars,dino-roars, which I think is
very appropriate.
He's just a lot smarter than weare Dino-roars, dino-roars,
which I think is veryappropriate.
He's just a lot smarter than weare Dino-roars.
And there have been nights thathe has run into the room where
I am and he says Daddy,dino-roar, he's out of breath,
(32:52):
dino-roar, dino-roar.
And he's pointing at another.
He saw a shadow, he thinks it'sa dinosaur, he's terrified,
he's dismayed.
Right, he's shattered, he'sbroken, he's scared, he's
frightened.
And so I'll take him with meand he'll go with me and I'll
show him.
It's a shadow, it scares him todeath.
(33:12):
There are some days you'veheard me tell that I'll take him
on a hike Lost Mountain Trailsand he thinks it's a dinosaur
hunt and he will call outDonnarore, I'm coming, donnarore
, where are you?
What's the difference in aterrified little boy and a
(33:34):
fearless dinosaur hunter, daddy?
What's the difference for youIs that your heavenly father is
with you through his son, jesusChrist, in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
(33:54):
I don't know what God is callingyou to.
I don't know what you're goingthrough, but here's what I can
tell you Be strong, becourageous To do all that the
(34:18):
word of God is telling you to do, because God wants you to
experience good success in hisprosperity.
That is found in his word, thatis according to his will for
your life, and so I encourageyou to get in the word of God so
(34:39):
that his strength and couragegets into you to accomplish what
God has called you to.
Can I ask us all to bow ourheads and close our eyes?
With every head bowed and everyeye closed, I just wanna
encourage you right now just tobe thinking about, be praying
(35:01):
about, even be asking God.
God, what is it, what is it thatyou have for me?
You can tell God right now.
God, I believe your promises.
God, I receive your power.
God, I perceive your presence.
God, just show me your will.
God, just show me what you want, and you can just tell him.
God, and I will obey you, Iwill follow you.
(35:21):
You are my leader, I willfollow you.
Maybe you're here this morningand you can't do that because
you haven't given your life tohim yet.
It all starts with salvation.
It all starts when you believein Jesus.
It all starts when you make himthe Lord of your life.
(35:41):
So if you've never done that,then right here, right now, I
just wanna encourage you thismorning to give your life to
Jesus, and I can't do that foryou, but I can help you pray
that to God and help you giveyour life to Jesus.
Today, you can pray somethinglike this to him right now you
can say dear God, I love you,god, I love you God, I need you,
(36:04):
god, I believe in you.
And you can say God, I believein Jesus, your son, from your
own heart and your own words.
You can tell him God, I believethat Jesus died on the cross
for my sins and I ask you toforgive me all of my sin, my
past, my present, my future sin.
And you can tell them to sayGod, I believe that Jesus rose
(36:25):
from the dead, he's alive, he'sreal.
So, god, I call on him to bethe Lord of my life because I
want to follow him with my life.
And the Bible says that if youconfess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe withyour heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved.
(36:46):
God, we believe that.
We thank you for that truth.
I thank you for every personthat prayed that this morning.
And God, thank you that you area God who continues to save
people today for eternity.
We love you in Jesus' name.
And all God's people said wouldyou put your hands together
right now for anybody that gavetheir life to Jesus.
We just wanna say welcome tothe family.
(37:07):
We're so thankful for what Godled you to do today, and there
is a next step card in front ofyou and I wanna encourage you.
If your decision this morningis salvation, or maybe you need
to strengthen the courage to bebaptized, maybe you need to
strengthen the courage to bebaptized, maybe you need to
strengthen the courage to join agroup or to serve in one of our
ministry teams, or to live yourlife on mission or just to come
(37:30):
to our Next Step Lunch andlearn more about what God is
doing in our church, what Godwants to do in your life.
You indicate that you can turnit into our Next Step Station
right outside in our lobby, andwe would love to just walk
alongside you in your journeywith Jesus.
Can we all stand up right now,as this whole series is called
Follow the Leader.
Our leader is Jesus.
I just want to encourage you.
(37:51):
This morning we're going toworship the leader.
We're going to worship our Lord, jesus Christ.
He's the one that is leadingyou to your promised land, the
land of heaven.
So let's worship him right nowwith all your heart, with all
your spirit.
Give him all the praise,because he's the one that's
given you good success in yourlife.
Let's worship Jesus.
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