Jesus is the Perfect Promise Keeper | Joshua 1-24

David Penuel: Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? I'm not going to call you out specifically, but some of you I recognize from normally going to the 9:00 a.m. service, and you're here on Daylight Savings at the 11:15. Welcome. We're glad you're here. It's definitely more crowded at 11:15 than it was at 9:00. This is a great group.

Hey, if this is your first time with us at Watermark, welcome. We're so glad you're here. Thank you so much for trusting us with your Sunday morning. We hope this place begins to feel like home really quickly. One of the ways to help you orient to everything Watermark is your Watermark News. You guys all got this when you came in.

Every single week, we share a story of one of our members of the work God has done in their life. It's a great way to get to know us as a church by getting to know one of our members. So, make sure you read Hank's story today, and then you can thumb through here and find out a little bit more about everything going on in and around our church.

Also, if you're new or if you've been here forever and there's anything you want us to know or a question you want to ask or a prayer request you want to submit, there's always a tear-off section every single week. You can leave whatever information on that tear-off section that you want to leave and drop it in a giving box or out at the Town Center on your way out at the welcome desk, and we'll make sure to follow up with you this week. I wanted to make sure you know you have that in your hand every time you're here.

Now, as you can see behind me, 2025 at Watermark is being defined as the Year of the Word. Here's what that means. We have a Bible reading plan called Join the Journey, and we are trying to read through the entire Bible, cover to cover, the whole Word of God, throughout the year 2025 together as a church, and we're also teaching through the Bible here on Sunday mornings.

We just finished the book of Joshua. So, if you don't have a Bible reading plan, now is your time to join the journey, or if you have fallen behind, now is your time to start fresh on Monday. We're starting the book of Judges. Today, we are going to get teaching from the book of Joshua. From time to time, we like to share with you a young leader from our church to show you that the future is bright.

So, this morning, you are going to get to hear teaching from God's Word from Jonathan Linder. Jonathan works on our Community Team, helping shepherd and guide our Community Groups, but he also serves as a volunteer small group leader for ninth-grade boys. My son is a part of Jonathan's small group, so I'm blessed by him every single week. You get to be blessed by him today.

So, I want to invite you now to take a few moments to pray, just to prepare your hearts for the teaching of God's Word. If you would, would you bow your head with me? I'm going to invite each of us to pray. Just pray for yourself right now quietly. Pray that your mind and your heart and your ears would be open and receptive for God's Word and that you wouldn't hear from Jonathan this morning, but pray and ask God that you would hear from him. So pray for yourself right now.

And if you would, take a moment and pray for those around you. You don't know what situation somebody down the row from you or behind you is coming in here with. Just pray that God would meet them and minister to them right where they are this morning through the teaching of his Word. So pray for those around you. Now join me as I pray for Jonathan.

Lord, thank you so much for the work you've done in Jonathan's life. I pray that this morning your Spirit would speak through him and that it would not be his words we are listening to but it would be you we hear. God, we're so thankful for your Word. As it goes forth this morning, I pray that it would bear fruit in our lives, just as you said it would. We love you so much, Lord. We praise you for Jesus Christ and the opportunity to talk to you and be in your presence now that we have because of Jesus. It's in his name we pray, amen.

Jonathan Linder: Amen. Thanks, David. Guys, it's good to be here with you this morning. As he said, my name is Jonathan Linder. I worked in student ministry for a while, and now I'm on our Community Team, and it is exciting to be here and teach God's Word. I'm going to talk a little bit about my family this morning, so I'll start with a picture of them. We have my wife Linen, our daughter Lucy, and our son Leroy. It is a joy to be their dad and Linen's husband.

As you guys are joining, as David said, we're going through Year of the Word. This morning, we're going to be in the book of Joshua. Before we dive in, though, I want to quickly ask a question and then tell a story. My question is this. By show of hands, who in the room is a dog person? We have a lot of dog people in the room. Probably some people in here know who you are. You have some dog hair still running down the side of your pants. It's amazing. We have a lot of dog people.

Here's my second question, though. I'm going to press in just a little bit more. By show of hands, who in the room has ever been deceived, guilted, or forced into becoming a dog person? Okay. There are a few more of you. It's amazing. I saw some elbows to the person next to them. We have a recovery ministry on Monday nights. It's called re:generation. You can attend that.

Growing up, my parents fell into that second bucket. We were not a dog family. We had a gerbil at one point in our family, and that was great, but I really wanted a dog. So, around the age of 12 or 13, I finally was able to wear my parents down by using two words: "I promise." Those are the two words I used all the time.

Ultimately, I made a lot of promises to them. I told them, "Hey, Mom, Dad, if we just get a dog, I promise I will take care of this dog. I'll feed it. I'll water it. I'll take it on walks. I'll give it baths. Every day, rain, snow, or shine…it doesn't matter…I will take care of this dog." So, finally, I wore them down through a lot of what became empty promises.

We ended up getting a dog named Sandy. I thought twice about showing this picture. I'll be fully known. This is me and our dog Sandy. Yeah, not my best. I don't even look very happy, to be honest, in that moment. I don't know what was going on. That is me and my sweet dog Sandy. She was a Golden Retriever and Lab mix. So, we ended up getting Sandy.

One of the promises I failed to keep was this. I failed one night to close the gate of our backyard, so Sandy got out. She ran away, and it was a sad, sad night in our house. I remember that night, sitting on the couch, and now I took my promises that I had given my parents so many times, and I turned my attention and my promises to God.

I remember praying. "Lord, if you just bring Sandy back… Please, please, just bring her back. If you do, I promise I will take care of her. I'll give her baths. I'll never leave the gate open. I will feed her and water her every day of Sandy's sweet little life." That next morning, I woke up, and by a miracle, Sandy was back on her bed. She had come in the gate and found her way back to our house. It was amazing. So then, a few more months and years passed. Unfortunately, a lot of those promises I made to my parents and to the Lord became empty promises.

I start there this morning with that story because we are going to talk about promises this morning. Promises are really, really important, but more important than the promises that are made is the person who is making the promise. So, when my 3-year-old daughter Lucy… We go to Chick-fil-A a lot, probably too much.

When my 3-year-old goes… She has her little toy that comes in her kid's meal. She goes, "Dad, can I just please take this up? Can I go get ice cream? I promise I will eat my dinner after my ice cream." I look at her, and I don't believe her. But when my wife looks at me and says, "Jonathan, if you keep leaving your shoes in the middle of our bedroom floor, we're going to have a problem," I believe her. Right? So, the person who is making the promise really matters.

Again, as we jump into the book of Joshua, we're going to specifically be in Joshua, chapter 1, this morning. As we spend time in Joshua, chapter 1, we're going to see that success marks the people of Israel here. I think that success is due in part to one person, and that is the person who is making the promises. This is one of the high points for the nation of Israel as we walk through the Old Testament, and I believe it is due in large part, or completely, to the person who is making the promises.

So, we have three points. They're going to be these: God keeps his promises in his perfect timing. Secondly, we are called but consistently fail to trust his promises. Thirdly, only Jesus is the perfect promise keeper. Joshua is an important book. This is where you see the nation of Israel start to move into and possess the land God has promised his people.

We've talked about this as we've journeyed through the first few books of the Bible. From the beginning of Scripture, God has always wanted a people in a place, experiencing his presence and fulfilling his purpose. That doesn't happen perfectly in the book of Joshua, but that is the direction that we are headed.

I want to tell you on the front end, before we start reading Scripture, we're going to read Joshua 1:1-9, then we're going to look, high level, at how those things play out in a couple of big stories in the book of Joshua, and then we will go directly into our points. So bear with me. We're going to start by reading Joshua 1:1 this morning. "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant…"

It starts out with "After the death of Moses…" If you've been tracking with us, this is a huge statement. It's a turning point in the story up to this point. Moses has been the leader God has used to lead the nation of Israel. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt. He met God in a burning bush, was given the Ten Commandments, and led through the 10 plagues. God uses Moses to part the Red Sea.

All of these incredible things happen through Moses' leadership, but just like the nation of Israel, Moses disobeys God, so he's not able to enter into the Promised Land. So, for 40 years, the people in the nation of Israel wandered. Now Joshua begins with "After the death of Moses…" Short words with really big implications to our story. Now we're going to read the next four verses. These four verses really outline the rest of the book of Joshua.

"Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites 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. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you."

This is the outline. God tells Joshua, "You're going to take the people. You're going to cross the Jordan." In the first half of the book, we see conquest. They go and take the land. Then, in the second half of the book, we see settlement. They begin to settle there. So, remember, we just talked about promises. I want to look, specifically, at verse 3. We see a mention of a promise. "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses."

It begs the question…What's the promise to Moses? Well, the promise to Moses was that God would fulfill his covenant through Moses, the covenant he ultimately made with Abraham. If we think back, in Genesis 12 and 15, God made a covenant with Abraham where he said, "I will give you three things: a land, a seed, and a blessing. A promised land, a great nation, and I will bless those people."

Now we come back to Joshua, and we see that those things are partially fulfilled. The nation has flourished. They are a large nation. His presence is with them. They've experienced blessing. But we are still waiting on the Promised Land, to find rest in this land. So now, after 400 years of these promises being in the making and 40 years after the people have wandered in the wilderness, God looks at Joshua and gives him those instructions.

Now let's see all of the times in this story where God uses the word I. If you were to look at the first nine verses, he uses the word I eight times. He says things like, "I am giving. I have given, just as I promised. Just as I was with, I will be with. I will not leave you. Just as I swore. Have I not commanded?" These are the promises God has made to Joshua and his people. The Lord makes it abundantly clear. "I am the one doing the work." Now we're going to see these promises play themselves out in two main stories in the book of Joshua.

In Joshua, chapter 3, the nation starts to cross over. We just read it. God tells them, "You are going to cross the Jordan." Well, there's one big problem. There are about two million to three million people who need to cross over this river with all of their belongings and their possessions. It's not just kind of, "Hey, let's wade across and we'll hold this rope," or whatever. It is a big thing to cross the entire nation over the Jordan River.

So, the Lord lays out the instructions to Joshua, because he has made a promise to him. He says in verse 7 of chapter 3, "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant…'" The ark of the covenant was the thing that symbolized God's presence with his people. It was really significant.

He says, "When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan." So, he instructs the people to take the ark and walk into the Jordan, and he tells them that the river will stop flowing completely. That is exactly what happens. Two million people cross over this river that has completely stopped flowing into the Promised Land. Remember back to the promises of God. "Just as I promised. Just as I was with, I will be with."

In chapter 6, we have another famous story. If you've grown up in church, maybe you've heard this one before. I grew up watching VeggieTales. This is a famous VeggieTales story. The nation of Israel comes up on the city of Jericho, this giant city with huge walls all around it, and God gives the people these instructions. He tells them to march around the city and that the walls will fall down.

Joshua 6:2: "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days.'" On the seventh day, they march around it for the last time, and the walls fall down flat. Think about the promises of God. "I am giving. I have given, just as I promised."

These stories were 400 years in the making, a promise God made to Abraham. For most of these people, they've waited over half their life to see these things come true. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, but God made a promise to his people. He promised them two things, specifically, with the land. He said, "I will give you a land, and I will give you rest in that land."

I just want you to stop and think about running a race. When I was in high school, I ran hurdles, 300-meter hurdles. I wasn't that great at it, but I was tall, so it was fine. I ran these races all the time in high school. One thing I noticed was every time I would run a race, the same thing would be true for everyone when they crossed the finish line.

After every single heat and every single race, we would finish, and I noticed the same thing was true every time. We would cross the finish line, and everybody would fall down. It was this moment where you cross the finish line… You're running so hard, and you cross it, and you're like, "I have nothing left. I've given it all I have." Maybe you make your way over out of the way of other people, but then you just crumple to the ground.

I want you to think about that. If you were to finish running a race like that, a half-marathon, or whatever it is… I don't do long distances. I was the hurdles guy. But think about finishing your race and someone looking you in the eyes and going, "Hey, you're not finished. You're going to have to do it again. I need you to get back up, head back over to the starting lines, and you're going to run the race again." You'd be crushed. You would have nothing left.

That was what was true for the nation of Israel here. They were standing on the brink for 40 years, looking into the Promised Land. For 40 years, they're wandering around in the desert, and day by day, they're going, "We've got to do it again. We have to wait. We can't go in. We can't cross over." But God made a promise to his people. In Deuteronomy 12:10, he says, "But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives it to you, you will rest from all of your enemies around so that you will live in safety."

God fulfilled his promise. Ultimately, he had them wait for 40 years because of their disobedience, but I think he also had them wait so they would not fall in love with the promises of God more than the God of the promise. How often do we do that in our lives? Here's my point in saying all of this.

1. God keeps his promises in his perfect timing. How does this change our lives? How do we live differently in light of knowing that God is a God who keeps his promises in his perfect timing? I think it changes our lives in a big way, because for many of us, we can slowly drift into believing two specific lies. Maybe think of two bigger buckets here.

The two lies are, first, "God's promises are not good. I'm in control of what I get to do, and my life is better when I'm in control of what I get to do." The second lie we can believe is "His timing is not perfect. Life is better when I'm in control of what happens and when it happens to me."

So, if his promises are not good, then you and I can start to live lives where we go, "I just need more. I need more money. I look around at my closest friends or my Community Group or people around me, and I'm making the least amount of money. I need more money in order to be happy.

I need more stuff. Do you believe this family? They just bought their second house in Colorado. We need that. I need more. They go on all of these vacations. If I could just go on more vacations and truly rest, then that would be best. I just need more free time. I can't tell you how many soccer practices and cheer tournaments we're going to. If we just had more free time, then we would finally be happy."

Or you can believe his timing is not perfect. "Will I ever get that raise? Does God actually see me in my singleness? Will my spouse ever grow in that area? I wish I could just skip this season of my life and into the next one. I just need more. He's not good, and his timing is not perfect." I believed both of those lies for the first 20 years of my life. I grew up as a Christian. I grew up going to church every Sunday and Wednesday, but I fell into believing the lies of the world more than the truth of God's Word.

I didn't just come out and say, "Hey, I think my way is better," because I grew up in church. I said, "Okay. I need to plant one foot in the church and one foot in the world. If I can just hold on to a little bit of both of those things, then I'll experience joy. When I'm around my Christian friends, I'll act like them, and when I'm around these other things and things of the world, then I'll go all in there, and that's where I'll experience more life and joy." It's kind of getting the best of both worlds. That's what Miley Cyrus says. You get the best of both worlds.

So I went for it. After 20 years of putting on a mask and living a double life, the things I had to show for it were that I was addicted to or struggled with pornography daily and weekly. I was fearful of what others thought of me. I craved deep friendship, but I found it nowhere. I binged hours of social media, TV, and video games, looking for a life of distraction anywhere I could find it, because it left me empty, straddling these two things, trying to get a little bit of both.

What promises inform your life? Whose truth do you live by? Do you believe his promises are good and his timing is perfect? It will shape and influence the way you live your life. Second Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." Hebrews 10:23 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."

2. We are called to but consistently fail to trust his promises. Let's read in Joshua 1:6. "Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful 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."

God lays out for Joshua, "Here's how you find success. I will bless an obedient Israel. If you meditate on my law, if you live it out daily, then it will go well for you." Verses 7 and 8 specifically make it clear to Joshua that he has a responsibility for how he responds to the laws and promises of God. God has given us promises to live by, and we know that because we have his revealed will. We have God's Word. This is God's will to mankind that instructs the way we live and operate in relationship with one another and in relationship with the Lord.

I remember having a conversation one time with a friend of mine, and he told me, "Nowhere in your Bible does it tell you to read your Bible." Before you walk out, here's what he meant by that. Nowhere in your Bible does it tell you to read your Bible. See, when Scripture talks about God's Word, it uses words like study, meditate, and hide. We don't read this book the same way we read an email or a text message or the news or another book. We are to study this book. We are to hide it in our hearts. We are to be in relationship with God through his Word.

Psalm 119:9-11 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." We're called to hide his Word in our hearts, and it should shape the way we live.

Our structure of community here at Watermark is based on the "one anothers" of Scripture. What does it look like for us to live out the things we're called to in the lives of the people we are in relationship with? There are 59 "one anothers" in Scripture: "Love one another. Confess your sin to one another. Pray for one another. Forgive one another. Care for one another." I won't list off all 59, but you get the idea.

It is clear in Scripture that our convictions should shape the way we live, but you and I and the nation of Israel have one big problem with that. We fail. See, what happens when you don't perfectly carry out the commandments of God, when you don't love one another perfectly, when you can't forgive that person, when you don't confess your sin? What happens? If God only blesses obedience, you and I are in big trouble.

That is exactly what we see even in the book of Joshua. There's a man whose name is Achan. God instructs the people. Before they go and take the city of Jericho, he tells them this in chapter 6, verse 18. "But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it."

He instructs the people really clearly. "Stay away from the devoted things, these things that have been devoted to other gods. Stay away from them lest you bring trouble upon you and the nation of Israel." When Jericho falls, a man named Achan goes in. He believes, "God is not good, and his timing is not perfect," and he takes the devoted things.

Israel goes into battle after that, and they fall. They lose the battle. Joshua looks around, and he's like, "What's going on, God? You said we were going to have success and win all of these battles. Why did we just lose this?" God tells Joshua, "It's because there's sin in your camp. You did not keep the law. You have a man named Achan who has taken these devoted things." So, Joshua goes and confronts Achan in Joshua 7:20.

"And Achan answered Joshua, 'Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.'"

So, he goes in, he takes these things, he digs a hole in his tent, and he buries them in the ground. Why? Because his way was better than God's way. What happens to Achan is separation from God. See, these are the same words we see in Genesis 3 when Eve takes the fruit. It says she saw that the fruit was good to eat. It was desirable, and she took it and ate it. It's the same pattern here. The same thing that happened to Eve, separation from God, is what happens to Achan, and he is stoned to death.

You might hear that at first and go, "Wow! That is so unfair. How could this man be punished to death for his sin?" A few weeks ago, we looked at the book of Numbers, and TA spent a lot of time talking about the God of the Old Testament and how the thing you have to start with is his holiness. An imperfect people cannot be in right relationship with a perfect God. His holiness sets us apart from him.

That is bad news for you and me, because, again, we fail, and our fate would be the same as Achan's. But while the cost of sin is still the same, a much different price has been paid for it today for you and me. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death…" That is what we have all earned: death. "…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Because Jesus came… He kept the promises perfectly. He died on a cross, and he was the one who ultimately took all of our sin, our shame, and our guilt, and it was laid at his feet.

He took it so you and I might be back in right relationship with that holy and perfect God. This is why Paul says in Galatians 2, "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God." Paul. This is the Pharisee of all Pharisees. He says, "I died to the law." Meaning, the law has literally killed him. "I tried to keep it as best as I could, but I couldn't. The law did not make me justified; it actually condemned me." Paul says in verse 20:

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

If righteousness, meaning, the state or condition acceptable to God… If you and I could gain righteousness through the law, Christ came and died for nothing. Martin Luther is quoted on this passage of Scripture, and this is what he says. "Did the Law ever love me? Did the Law ever sacrifice itself for me? Did the Law ever die for me? On the contrary, it accuses me, it frightens me, it drives me crazy. Somebody else saved me from the Law, from sin and death unto eternal life. That Somebody is the Son of God, to whom be praise and glory forever."

This is why Jesus looks at the Pharisees in John 5 and says, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life…" You think you can keep this law perfectly and earn your way to God. "…it is they that bear witness about me…" We've seen that God keeps his promises in his perfect timing, and we are called to but consistently fail to trust in his promises.

3. Only Jesus is the perfect promise keeper. He's the only one who could allow an imperfect people to be in right relationship with a perfect God. Now we follow the law, not because we have to or it earns us a place in heaven; we follow it because he died for us, because he loved us first, and he has given us his will that we might experience life and life abundantly.

There's a really fine line of you hearing me say that, of hearing us talk about that last point and going, "Yeah, Jesus is the only perfect promise keeper. That's good. I agree. I've heard that." But there's a really fine line of you hearing that, leaving this place this morning, and going right back to a life of trying really hard to make it back to God and be in right relationship with him.

If you have a low level or underlying shame of going, "Man, I just don't know if I can do good enough today. I feel like I just don't measure up. I keep trying to read my Bible, pray, and do all of these things so that I might be closer to God…" I say there's a fine line there because I walked it. I mentioned for the first 20 years of my life, I missed it completely.

I remember I came into this room in 2016. I came to The Porch one night, and I sat in that corner. There was a man teaching that night. His name was JP, Jonathan Pokluda. He stood up here, and he asked a question. JP asked the question, "On a scale of 1 to 10, if you were to die tomorrow, would you go to heaven…10 being you're positive you would go to heaven, 1 being you'd go to hell?"

I'd grown up in the church my whole life. I'd heard the gospel so many times. I had my answer instantly. Easy. I'm really glad he didn't ask us to say our answers out loud, because I quickly, in my head, said, "I'm a 7. I know all of the answers. I'm a pretty good person. I look around this room. I'm probably better than 90 percent of these people." I don't know. I'm just making up a number, but that's probably what I thought, which is a really messed-up thought.

But I really did believe it. I was like, "I'm a pretty good person. Again, I have one foot in the church." But as he talked more and more, I understood, "I have a wrong view of grace." See, if your number is high, but it's anything other than a 10, then you think you've done something to earn your way into heaven. You think if you're good enough, that on that day, when you look face-to-face with God, you can go, "I was pretty good."

If your number is low, then you don't understand the grace of God. Every single one of us, regardless of whether we're a 9 or a 1, regardless of our past… We deserve death. If your number is anything other than a 10, you don't understand the grace of God in our lives, that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift… It's a free gift. You can be a 10, not because of what you've done but because of what Jesus has done on the cross on our behalf. The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

That changed my picture and view of eternity that day. I remember, as I sat up there, going, "I have had a wrong picture and view of grace." So, for the next few months, I started to figure out, "What does it now look like to walk daily and be in a relationship with God?" I remember the first verse I memorized was Joshua 1:8. I memorized it in the NLT. It says, "Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do."

I wanted to be a successful Christian, so I did just that. I experienced flourishing. I went all in with community. I went all in with God's people, and I studied this book of instruction continually, but… I don't know how else to describe it to you except for there came a day in my life when it just stopped working.

See, when I got married and I had a kid and another kid and my ministry and my work collided, anxiety hit me like a train. All of these things in my life came, but my formula just wasn't working anymore. For my whole life, I had studied this book for this amount of time. I'd prayed for this amount of time. I had done life with other people in this way. If I just kind of followed this formula, then my life was up and to the right.

But what happens when your life is no longer up and to the right and you go back to the formula but it doesn't feel like it works? What happens when you study this book of instruction but your parents get a divorce and your family falls apart? What happens when someone close to you gets a terminal diagnosis, when you lose your job, when your spouse cheats on you, when the budget doesn't seem to be adding up?

You turn right back to studying and going back to your formula, and you go, "Okay. God, you're going to have to get me through this. I'm just going to do what I've done in the past, and this is what's going to have to get me through." I want to be really clear. I'm not saying here that you shouldn't read God's Word.

But I remember in this season of feeling like, "I don't know what to do; these just don't seem to be adding up," a friend of mine looked at me and said, "Jonathan, I wonder if God is less trying to change your formula…" Reading God's Word, praying, memorizing Scripture… They're not bad things. Those are all good things which we should do.

But he looked at me and said, "I wonder if, more, the Lord is trying to change your heart as it relates to the formula. I wonder if, more, God is trying to get you to see him through what you're doing." I had slowly, over time, taken my eyes off of Jesus, off of the Spirit being the one inside of me doing all the work, and I had gone, "Hey, if I just do these things, if I just study this book of instruction continually, my life will be up and to the right."

But what happens when it's not? If I could go back, I would still memorize Joshua 1:8, but I would also memorize Joshua 1:9, which says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." He's with us.

I cannot live out a formula. I cannot connect, please, or do anything in order to be in right relationship with God outside of God working in my heart. Why did the nation of Israel experience success in the book of Joshua? It's because in Deuteronomy 34:9 it says, "And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses."

Joshua was successful because the Spirit was doing the work inside of him. We should look at Joshua and go, "He's a really great character in the Bible. He's a great leader." But we have to look through Joshua and see the better Joshua, Jesus. Joshua was successful because the Spirit was inside of him, and the only way you and I will be successful in our lives… Not successful in terms of health, wealth, and prosperity. Successful meaning no matter what life throws our way, we can be rooted and grounded in Christ. We can be successful because the Spirit is inside of us.

I want to close with a quick story. When my wife and I got married, we thought we were really, really similar. I don't know if that's true for some of you in this room. And we were in a lot of ways, but as we got married, in the first few months, we realized, "We're actually a lot more different than we realized."

See, my wife loves design. She loves colors and patterns. She watches home tours for fun. I didn't know that was a thing, but that's a thing. I would have described my style back then as "chic Christian bachelor." I loved dark colors and pleather. I had, like, three pieces of furniture I was bringing from college into our marriage, and I thought, "These will fit perfectly in our house." They didn't. I'll just tell you on the front end they did not.

I wanted things like this in our house. Maybe you've seen some things like this before, just the generic Christian art. I wanted to hang these things all around our house. I loved this. You wake up in the morning. You walk by. "Be strong and courageous." "Yes! That's so good! I can go take on the day. I can be strong and courageous right now."

But over time, I've had more and more of a problem, not with Christian art but art like this. If you read this, what's the emphasis on? "Be strong and courageous." I wake up in the morning, and I'm reminded, "If I can just be strong and courageous, I can go to my coworkers, and I can say what I need to say. I can tell them the gospel. If I go into this conflict with this person, I can say what I need to say. I can be strong and courageous today."

Unfortunately, that's not the point. You and I cannot be strong and courageous. That's not the point of Joshua 1:9. The point is that God is with us. Because he is with you and in you, you can be strong and courageous. You can study this book continually. You can live a life living out the "one anothers" of Scripture, not because of your own effort but because the Lord your God is with you. This is what allows Jesus to stand at the end of his life, after he has been crucified and raised from the dead… He looks at the eleven disciples, and he gathers them. In Matthew 28, he looks at them and says:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

What amazing, incredible, life-changing news. "I'm with you always." This is how we become a missional, maturing, shepherding, and community church. It's by first being a Spirit-led and gospel-saturated church. That's why in our mission statement we are abiding with Jesus, making disciples together. The abiding comes before the doing or the making. The only way we will be effective if we walk out of this room today is not by getting amped up to be more strong and courageous; it's by abiding in Jesus. Then we can live a life of making disciples and doing life together.

Even in stories of man's success, God is the hero. You and I make and fall for empty promises every day of our lives. Just like a 12-year-old who thinks he knows best to make empty promises to his parents, we think we know best. If you are tired of not measuring up, if you're tired of feeling like you try harder and harder to get closer to God every single day, but you just can't, and it's just not working, I have really good news for you.

God fulfills his promises in his perfect timing. We are called to but consistently fail to trust in his promises, but only Jesus is the perfect promise keeper. Do not leave this morning if you do not know or do not have a relationship with that perfect promise keeper. If you do, then let's go. Let's make disciples. Let's do life together. Let's remember and know that it only comes from abiding in Jesus. It only comes because he is with you and in you. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for the truth of your Word. We thank you that you've given us your will to understand how we might do life rightly with one another, that we might see how to be in right relationship with you, that you sent your Son to die on a cross for us because we could never perfectly trust in or keep the promises.

God, we thank you for who you are. I pray that you would help us be reminded continually of what it means to abide in Jesus, that you would be the only thing in our lives that gives us true rest and satisfaction and we would trust your timing even when it doesn't make sense and that you would help us walk in a relationship with you and relationship with others. We pray all these things in your name, amen.