Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
Good morning, good morning.
Listen, turn to somebody tell them it is good to be at Back to School Blessing Sunday.
That's a mouthful.
Turn to somebody tell them that right now.
See if you can get tongue tied.
Tell them welcome to Back to School Blessing Sunday.
I saw some of you laughing.
You already got all messed up, right?
Listen, it is that time of year.
Some of you parents are rejoicing, right?
The kids are going back to school.
I got a couple of amens back there.
I saw some hands go up.
It is that time where students return back into the classroom.
And it could be you're going to public school.
It could be a private school.
It could be homeschooling.
It could be online schooling.
It could be you're getting ready to travel to a campus somewhere.
A university of some kind.
It's all going to begin.
Some of it has begun in some places and some spaces.
But we wanted to take this Sunday, we wanted to set it aside to pray over those who are
returning to the classroom, those who are returning to campuses, and those who are homeschooling.
If you're involved in any way in education, we really want to just take this time and
pray over you.
And I'm going to do that at the end of the gathering.
And it's going to be a time of prayer.
And a couple of things I want to pray.
I want to pray for protection.
And I want all of us to pray together.
This isn't just me.
We're going to pray together.
We want to pray for God's favor.
We want to pray for success.
Kids go to school.
Students go to school to be successful in what they're doing.
And we want to pray for the students, the teachers, and even if you're support staff
in any kind of way, we want you up here this morning so we can pray over you.
And I believe this.
I believe getting educated is a big deal.
Amen?
It's important.
It really is.
And it's important to pray over it because our children are there.
We pray because we want God's hand on them.
We pray because we want God to move in those that are attending school and those that are
educating and whatever endeavors are doing.
And we know this too.
We want to pray over our children because the enemy targets schools.
He targets children.
It's just true.
I'm not a devil behind every tree kind of guy, but I do know the devil exists.
Amen?
That's true.
And evil lurks in our country.
And unfortunately, it makes its way on the campuses at time.
And we want to pray for God's protection.
So at the end of this gathering, if you attend school, if you work in school, they're going
to bring some of the students that are next door here right up in the uptown room.
They're going to bring them back in and we're just going to take time and we're going to
pray this morning.
But before we get to that, before we get to the prayer, I want to preach a word.
And how many of you got a bracelet this morning?
Raise your hand if you got a bracelet.
If you didn't raise your hand and I'll sure will get you somewhere.
We'll get you that bracelet.
And I don't know if you took a look at it, but there's a little saying on there, right?
Out of Joshua one nine, be strong and courageous.
And I want to take some time and unfold in this scripture in Joshua what God was saying
to Joshua and kind of relate it to what's taking place with going back to school.
And I think it's going to apply to everybody.
This isn't just for students.
This isn't just for teachers.
This isn't just for administration.
It's for everyone.
The word of God's universal.
Amen.
It's very buddy.
So in this particular verse of scripture, God is having a talk with Joshua, who's going
to be the next leader of Israel.
And God makes him some promises.
And he lets Joshua know that God's favor, his hand is upon him in this discussion.
That's really what we want to draw out this morning.
If you'd bow your heads, we want to pray over the word of God.
Lord, we thank you for this day.
Thank you, Lord, for those who are listening online.
Those who are in the house and out of the house this morning.
And God, I pray that your hand would be upon your word as it goes forth.
God, I pray that it would move upon hearts, lives and Lord speak truth.
Lord, that we might walk out, live out in a different way because your word is truth
and because it is life and because it is light.
We just give you glory.
We give you praise in Jesus name and amen.
Amen.
So Joshua chapter one, verse one.
It says this after the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua,
son of none, Moses assistant.
And he said, Moses, my servant is dead.
Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites across the Jordan
River into the land.
I am giving them.
I promise you what I promised Moses.
Wherever your foot, wherever you set your foot, you will be on land.
I have given you from the Negev wilderness in the south to Lebanon mountains in the north,
from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all
the land of the Hittites.
God really gives them each direction.
He tells them north, west, right north, south, east and west.
What directions he's going to give to him.
And no one will be able to stand against you as long as you live.
For I will be with you as I was with Moses.
I will not fail you or abandon you.
Be strong and courageous.
Say that be strong and courageous.
For you are one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors
that I would give them.
And it says it again in verse seven, be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you.
Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left.
Then you will be successful in everything you do.
Study this book of instruction.
Some of your versions will say the law continually, the law of Moses.
Meditate on it day and night so you will be able to obey everything written in.
Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
This is my command.
And the third time, be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Three times, say three times, three times in this passage.
God tells Joshua be strong and courageous.
And even on one of them, he throws in a very, right?
He says be very strong and very courageous.
Right?
Three times.
If God's telling you something three times in a row, how many know if your parents repeat something to you three times, they mean it.
Right?
You know, parents would do that all the time.
And we do that sometimes.
We want to bring a point across.
God's telling Joshua three times a row.
And I'm sure Joshua sat up and took notice.
Be strong and courageous.
You're about to go into a new phase of your life, Joshua.
You're about to head into a different season.
You're about to go into a new semester.
You're about to go into a new school year.
You're about to lead a group of people, the Israelites, a nation actually into a new place.
Right?
And he told him what that new place was and the borders of that new place.
You're going to about you're heading that way.
And you need to be strong and courageous where I am sending you, where you're going.
Why did I pick this portion of scripture for the back to school blessing Sunday?
Because some of you are off into a new place.
Some of you are going into a new grade.
It's a new season.
It's a new chapter.
It's a new place.
Some of it you're going to be stepping into places you've not been before.
You're going to go into something brand new.
There's going to be new challenges along the way.
All right.
You're going to be stepping into things that you've not experienced before.
And you could be just like Joshua.
Joshua was ready to head into the land of the Hittites.
They were enemies against Israel.
And you might be going into some hostile territory a little bit.
Right.
You might be heading into a place that maybe isn't maybe people don't believe just like you believe.
And I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but in our public schools and universities, they're not exactly following Jesus.
Right.
They're not exactly lifting up the name of Christ.
They're not exactly.
And there's almost a rejection of God in some of those places.
Right.
And even if you're a private school or you're homeschooling in a Christian setting and the conditions right and it's godly conditions, it's righteous conditions.
We have an enemy who has a very different agenda for us then and for our children than God.
I've used this verse a hundred times, maybe 200 times since I've been in the ministry and I'll continue to use it because it's so it's Jesus word.
And he so adequately describes the agenda of the enemy.
He says this in John 10 10.
This is a good one to commit to memory or or at least know in your heart.
Right.
The thief does not come except to steal, kill and to destroy.
Jesus said, I've come that you might have life that you might have it abundantly.
The enemy's agenda is to steal, kill and destroy.
He targets students.
He targets instructors.
He targets support staff.
He targets God's people in general.
Every evil part of the enemy is meant to steal something from you, to take life from you or to destroy something in your life that God has built up.
We need reminded of that sometimes.
It's my job as a pastor remind you sometimes we just get comfortable.
Right.
We come to church.
We do the same things throughout.
We go to work.
We go to school.
We do all those same things week after week, day after day.
But we forget that there's a spiritual war taking place, that there's warfare happening in the heavenlies and that there's an enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy.
And there's a God who wants to give you life and give it to you more abundantly.
So going back to school means that you need to be strong and courageous when you're going.
You need to step into that setting or you need if you're going to work, if you're going into wherever you wherever you're functioning, you need to be strong and courageous.
If you're a homeschooler, you really need to be strong and courageous.
God bless you.
OK.
You're doing the whole deal.
You're instructing.
It's a huge task to be a homeschooler.
Right.
If you're a teacher, if you're support staff, you need to be strong and courageous.
You don't have just a couple of kids.
You have hundreds of students.
It's a big deal.
All right.
You need to listen.
If you're a student, you walking into something brand new, new every year.
It's brand new for the student.
They're going into a different grade.
It's a whole different thing for them.
They need all kind.
There's all kind of reasons they need to be strong and courageous.
We need God's favor.
We need God's hand and we need God's protection and we need God for success as we go forward.
Now, we want to be successful in that walk.
We want to be strong and courageous.
But how does that happen?
How do you you don't just wake up one morning.
I don't know if you do this or not, but I didn't just wake up one morning and say, you know, I think today I'm going to be strong and courageous.
Put my hands on my hips.
Look in the mirror.
Right.
That's the super pose.
Right.
You can do this.
You whatever it is.
We don't we don't just get up one morning and go, I think I'm going to be strong.
I think I'm going to be courageous.
Anybody do that this morning?
One.
All right.
Awesome.
That's great.
All right.
Get the power pose going.
We need to know how how's this happen?
You know, Joshua, he probably just didn't wake up and look in the mirror.
So I'm going to be strong and courageous now.
One of the ways that we become strong, crazy is one of the things that we can learn out of this portion of scripture is that we should know God's promises.
God spoke to Joshua and he began to remind Joshua, hey, the promises I made to your predecessor, the promises that I made to Moses.
Guess what?
They're your promises.
I'm giving them to you.
Moses is God.
He's dead.
He's not leading anymore.
He's now with me.
And I want you to know that these promises are yours.
He says this in verse three.
He says, I promise you what I promised Moses.
Wherever you set your foot, you will be you will be on land.
I have given you.
And then he lays out where that land is and where that land isn't.
The Lord spells it out to Joshua.
The promises of God in great detail.
This is where it's going to end in the north.
This is where it's going to end in the east and in the west and in the south.
And I think that as Joshua heard the word of God and as he thought about walking into the Hittite territory and into the enemy, I think in his mind, he was thinking, you know what?
I got the promise of God in my life.
God promised me that this was going to take place.
You walk in.
I think all of a sudden, Joshua's faith began to arise.
All of a sudden began to say, you know what?
This isn't me just stirring something up inside of me, right?
Beating myself in the chest, getting the power pose, right?
Hitting myself in the head, yelling out a few things to get me motivated.
That's not what this was.
He says, I got promises to stand on.
I got a God who is mighty and cannot, right?
Cannot fail.
I know.
I know what God can do.
He knew the promise.
It is important to understand the promises of God.
It's important to know what God tells us in our faith and in the word of God.
He promises some things to those who follow him.
He promises some things to those who call him by Lord and by name.
But if you don't know the promises of God, you're going to think this is all on me, right?
I got to deal with this all by myself.
And you can do how many do a big gulp right now.
Right.
You got to go, you know, like, oh, your heart's sinking.
Your heart sinks.
You get a little nervous.
Right.
You start to think about all the things that could happen.
It might happen.
I mean, we do that.
Right.
We go through all the scenarios in our minds and we begin and and instead of leaning on
God's promises, we're figuring out how we can work it all out.
We need to know his promises.
We didn't know that he keeps his promises.
God's a promise keeper.
He's not like us.
Sometimes we keep promises.
Sometimes we don't.
I've used this before.
Well, let me ask you this.
Anybody ever keep 100 percent of your promises you've made?
Anybody do that?
Nobody.
Right.
Nobody's done that.
We're some timers when it comes to promises.
Sometimes we keep our promises.
Sometimes we don't.
I told Dixie we got married after one year.
I was going to take her on a cruise.
I was delusional.
OK.
I know I was thinking big.
I was thinking all those things.
We didn't have enough money to cruise across the Susquehanna, let alone cruise across an
ocean somewhere.
We really did it.
Right.
I had good intentions.
I had grand illusions going on.
Right.
But I but it didn't happen.
It didn't happen for a long, long time.
People break promises all the time.
And it could be grand illusions that you break promises.
It could be that you come in with good intentions, but bad planning.
Right.
They break promises.
Sometimes they just lie to make themselves look good.
Right.
They'll make a promise.
They get distracted all the time.
Promises go unfulfilled.
But that is not God.
God doesn't run like that.
If God promises it to you, you can take it to the bank.
You can believe in it.
You can stand on it.
You can move ahead with it.
You can walk in courageous with it because what God promises, he will do.
Now, you can't make up God's promises for him.
I know people that do that.
Right.
Well, like God promised me and I'm like, they said they tell me what it is.
I'm like, I never seen that scripture anywhere.
You know, there's like, oh, yeah, well, God promised me.
And if God says it in his word, he'll do it.
If what he if what you've got in your heart mind lines up with scripture, he'll do it.
But make sure it lines up.
God knew Joshua needed to hear the promises.
He knew he was coming into a new season.
He knew he was going into a new place.
He was stepping in and he needed to know he needed to know.
And if you want to if you want to walk into the future and knowing that you can succeed, if you want to go forward,
then you need to know what God has promised you.
Can I give you just one of the promises that God gave Joshua that actually applies to you?
You got to you got to weigh that out in scripture.
Sometimes God's talking to an individual in scripture and it may or may not apply to you.
But there's if you can find it in other places in scripture, then it applies to you.
And you got to look where that's at.
Joshua 1 5 says this.
No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live, for I will be with you.
Say that I will be with you as I was with Moses.
You can stand on that promise.
I want you to focus on that.
I will be with you part.
Right.
Let me read Matthew 28 18.
This is the Great Commission.
And Jesus came, spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.
Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing him in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He still is what we need to go do, teaching them to observe all things that I have command
you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
That's all of us.
If you're following Christ and if you don't like that one, go to Hebrews 13 5.
Let your conduct be without covetedness.
Be content with such things as you have.
Dixie preaches this one to me once in a while.
Right.
I want to get something new.
Be content with such things as you have.
All right.
For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So we may boldly say the Lord is my helper.
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
That's the word of God says Psalms 145 13 says the Lord is trustworthy in all his promises
and faithful in all he does.
He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you.
I am with you wherever you go.
You can't run away from if you're following Jesus, you can't get away from it.
He's going to follow you wherever you go.
Whatever new season you're stepping in, whatever new chapter you're going.
This is just one, just one promise.
Do you know that there are seven thousand plus promises of God in his word?
That's one one.
Ten thousand plus promises in his word.
We need to know if we're going to step through, if we're going to be strong and courageous,
if we're going to walk into a new season, confident and I call it God for that.
Right.
You got confidence in God.
If you're going to step into that new season and you're going to walk through, you got
to know his promises.
You got to stand on his promises.
When it gets tough and the enemy is walking up to you and you're getting ready to get
in a fight because that's how it works.
You know, when you step into something new, you're ready to get into battle.
Maybe it's just a battle in your own head and in your own mind.
You got to stand on his promises.
You got to speak his promises.
Don't speak what you're speaking to yourself.
I'm going to let you up sometimes.
Right.
You're saying the wrong thing to yourself.
It'll mess you up.
Speak his promises.
Something else that I caught in this as you go into a new season in Jesus, as you go into
school, strong and courageous.
I know this.
I know that if I'm walking in God's favor, I will be strong and courageous.
If I know that I have God's favor on my life, I will be strong and courageous going into
the next season of life.
I'll be strong and courageous going into the next semester, the next battle, the next hill
that I've got to climb, the next challenge that's before me, the next maybe even enemy
that I have to face.
I will be strong, courageous if I know God's favor is upon me.
New territory always say always.
New territory always comes with challenges.
There are always battles attached to something new.
When you're walking into something new, now you can just park in comfortable, right?
You can just stay where you're at and it's probably going to be comfy.
It's going to be nice.
But you're actually listen, if you park, you're actually kind of going reverse somewhat.
You're just going to be stagnant.
You're just going to...how many of anything stagnant stinks, right?
If you're going to move forward and you're going to go ahead in something, new territory
always comes with challenges and we want God's favor in the new territory.
I want his favor on me in the battle.
I want to know that his favor is going to rest and his grace is going to rest on me
so that I can walk in and succeed at something.
And God tells Joshua exactly what he needs to get God's favor and success.
And this is interesting to look at.
We're going to do a little Old Testament, New Testament comparison in this.
But in Old Testament, which is what this is, in the Old Covenant, God speaks to Joshua
when he says, study this book of instruction.
He says this in verse eight, which is the book of the law, which is the law of God that
was given to Moses continually.
Meditate on it day and night so that you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you only then say only that come on only then will you prosper and succeed
in all you do.
God's speaking to Joshua.
He tells him, study the book of the law, meditate on it day and night, only do what's in the
law.
Make sure you walk in that and you'll prosper and succeed.
And I'm reading this and I'm thinking, to be honest, I kind of like the whole God promises
part.
I don't like the list of rules part so much.
Right.
We all love the promises.
We're like, well, I got to do the list of rules.
Right.
And we're looking at this, but Joshua tells God tells Joshua, follow the rules, follow
what I gave to Moses.
And you say, well, why did God say that, you know, to gain his favor, to be successful?
Because that's what God said.
Right.
Is our success dependent upon, you know, was Joshua's success dependent upon his obedience
to the rules?
And he answers that.
Yeah, it's true.
So I had to think like, OK, as I look at this, does God have some kind of rule counter up
there?
Right.
Is there like some kind of Brownie points system?
If you get enough of the rules, right.
If I'm following enough of God's rules and I get just enough of them, is there some kind
of line?
Right.
And when I hit that line, you know, I get above that line, I got just enough of the
rules, right.
All of a sudden, I hit the favor line.
I hear I hit the success button.
You know, if I get just enough of them, because that's kind of what it sounds like.
Right.
It sounds like if I get just enough of these right.
Well, then I'm going to have success.
If I follow God's law just enough, I'll be successful.
But if I don't make it to that line, what happens then?
Right.
I get buzzed.
Right.
Success denied.
All right.
Favor denied.
You're out.
Sorry about your luck.
It's a bummer.
Right.
I started asking, do you ever ask questions?
I ask questions sometimes.
All right.
Does God award success if there's enough obedience on our part?
And it sounds like it when you just read this verse and you just look at what spoke to Joshua
alone.
But let me change your perspective just a little bit.
Maybe I can give you a little bit of a shift so you can see what's clear here in scripture
as you look at the whole council of God.
There is guaranteed success with God if we keep ourselves from the things that separate
us from God.
OK.
Different I'm saying some of the same things, but there's a perspective shift.
There's a guaranteed success with God if we keep ourselves from things that separate us
from God.
Now, let me explain that a little bit.
The book of the law that was given to Moses was instruction given to them so that they
would stay away from sin.
God said these are things that cause sin in your life.
And sin always separates us from God.
We remove ourselves from God when we participate in sin.
And the more we get engrossed in sin, the more we move ourselves away from God.
We step away.
God doesn't go anywhere.
We move.
We start stepping away from God.
So God told Israel over and over again, you need to follow the book of law.
You need to listen to what I'm saying in the law.
Right.
But one of God's attributes and to understand as fully as you come into the New Testament,
one of God's attributes is that he cannot fail.
All right.
He does not fail.
He can't.
How many know that's true?
That'll help me if I know if you agree with me.
I can't fail.
He really can't.
It's my attribute.
I fail sometimes.
Right.
The failure thing sometimes is a is a problem for me, but it's not for God.
So if we want to stay in a place of success, we want to stay near God.
You can never run from God's love.
You can never get away from God's love.
But we step away sometimes from his presence.
Sometimes we step away out of his presence and we remove ourselves from a God who cannot
fail.
The word of God says this in Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth will pass away.
But he said my words will by no means pass away.
What God says, he says it's established forever.
So if I want Godly success, notice now I didn't say the world success.
That's two very different things.
I don't got time to on for that.
I must stay clear and close to Holy God.
God wants us to stay close to him.
It was told in the Old Testament to stay close to the law, study the law, because that was
how you had access.
But we have access to the father.
We have access to God through Jesus Christ, who never leaves us, never forsakes us.
When we say we're going to follow Jesus, he puts the Holy Spirit in our lives and he's
active in our lives.
And I want to stay as close to God as I can so I can be as successful as I can.
Because when I start walking away from God, when I get in or when I start messing around
and sin and I start doing the things that God says don't get participate in.
Do you know what happens to my hearing?
It gets really bad.
It's the strangest thing.
When you get caught up in sin, the more you get caught up in sin, do you hear God?
You listen into everything else.
You're caught away.
It's everything else.
And I begin to remove myself because I can't hear God the same.
I can't walk the same in him.
And it's not a God.
It's not a Brony point thing with God.
It's a relationship thing with God.
It has nothing to do with hitting the mark.
How good is good enough?
I don't know.
It doesn't even tell us that in God's word because it doesn't matter.
It's about getting in relationship with God.
It's not a Brony point thing.
So as I walk with God and I remove as much sin as I can out of my life, I hear God, I
get in his presence.
I start to hear what he's saying.
You're tracking with what I'm saying.
It's a perspective thing.
It's a relationship thing.
I want to stay in close proximity because relationships always have conditions.
They really do.
Right.
My Dixie and I, my wife loves me.
She really does.
Even when I even when I'm just having a lousy day and I'm not so very lovable, she loves
me.
Right.
She does.
It's a yeah.
Man.
She was waiting for the amen.
All right.
But there's conditions in this in this relationship.
That's why you go and make wedding vows.
That's why I stand before him and we make wedding vows when I do officiate a wedding.
Right.
There's conditions in the relationship.
They keep us.
They keep me in close proximity with Dixie and good.
Her good graces and in her good favor.
But if I go date another woman, how many know I'm going to be out of favor in a real hurry?
Yeah.
Right.
I start ogling over other women.
How many know I'm going to be out of favor?
Amen.
That's right.
All right.
Right.
I'm talking about my wife and how I talk to her, how I act towards her.
You know, she's not OK if I call her names every day.
We get up and I just call.
Right.
I call her names or I constantly behave in a rude manner.
It doesn't mean I don't mess up.
Sometimes it may maybe be rude or something.
But I'm talking if I consistently live that way, how many know that begins to pull the
relationship apart?
How many know the favor begins to wane?
How many know that I begin to walk out of her good graces because of what I'm doing?
Come on.
You hear me?
It happens in friendships.
You got a friend who betrays your trust.
Right.
God's love is completely unconditional.
You cannot get away from God's love.
Can't do it.
I don't care where you go.
You can go to the depths of hell.
You cannot get away from God's unconditional love.
But his favor and his blessing is completely conditional.
And I can prove it to you.
It's as easy as salvation.
God's love, he loves every person with unconditional love.
But do you know that salvation is a conditional thing?
Right.
Because in salvation, the condition is this.
That first of all, I have to acknowledge that Jesus is actually Lord and Savior.
That's what the word of God says.
I have to believe that in my heart.
And that's the condition of salvation.
God loves me.
He wants me to come in faith.
He wants me to come to a place of salvation.
But there's a there's a condition in this.
Right.
I got to recognize where my stand in this relationship.
That my sin has caused separation from God and that Jesus was the only one who paid the
price for that.
Right.
For that condition to be remedied.
So then I come to Christ and I said, Lord, forgive me of my sin.
I want to come into relationship with you.
That's condition number two.
Right.
That's the condition of the relationship.
Then I confess that he is Lord and I repent.
I turn from the sin and I turn towards God.
There's conditions.
That's salvation conditions.
It's what I believe.
It's what I do.
If you want to be strong and courageous, you you need to know God's promises and you keep
moving yourself in a position of yourself where you can hear God.
You want to get close in his presence.
Avoid sin because it'll pull you away.
It'll dull your hearing.
It'll dull your senses to God.
You can't get away from his love.
You can't get away from who he is.
He wants to give you success in favor.
It's all through his word.
I'm going to ask you to stay.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.
We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.
If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with
us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.