 If you turn to Joshua chapter 1 at verse 10, we're going to be actually looking at verse 6 because we remember last weekend we left off at verse 6. We couldn't go anymore because of the fact that it was a little too long for the study. So tonight we're in chapter 6, chapter 1 verse 6, sorry. My mind's a little off today and it's not even hot so I can't blame the weather. Okay, let's read verse 6. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying, pass through the camp and command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you will cross this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess. And to the Rubinites, the Gettites and the half the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke saying verse 13. Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you saying, The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives, your little ones and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. You shall pass before your brethren armed all your mighty men of Valor and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest and as he gave you. And they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. You shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it which Moses the Lord servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward a sunrise. So they answered Joshua saying, all that you command us we will do and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heated Moses in all things so we will heed you only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words in all that you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. Only be strong and of good courage. Let me start by saying something to you. You are a leader. You're like really? Yes. You are a leader. You may not be the president of the United States. You may not be a manager at the company that you work for. You may not be anybody in that kind of position but you are called to lead others. And that makes you a leader. In fact, if you teach a Sunday school class with the kids here at the church, you're considered a leader. If you have a job, you're considered a leader. If you have friends, whichever one should have friends here, you're considered a leader. When it comes to leadership, when it comes to leading, no matter who you are, others are always looking at you and you are influencing others. And so you have become a leader, somebody who is looking to you to follow. Someone once said this, that a good leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. That could be well said or really defined in the leadership skills of Joshua. Joshua was a man who was just like that, who knew the way, who knew the way he was to go, and he was one who showed the way. And you're going to see that here tonight. He knew the way because God had told him where to go. God made it very, very clear on what he's to do. And not only that, but he also knew the way, he also knew the way he was to present this perfect will of God to the people that he's going to be talking to here. And it's interesting because again, God was the one who provided the ability that Joshua needed to lead two million-some Jewish people across this land. You know, God commissioned Joshua to achieve three things. Three things, and here they are, I'm going to post these on the screen. One, he said, you need to lead the people into the land. Two, he need to defeat the enemy. And three, he's to claim the inheritance. If you're going to look at the book of Joshua, you can kind of sum it up in those three points there. Because God had him basically just, he gave him this duty to take care of these three things. He commissioned Joshua to achieve just three simple things. Now, as we learn these valuable lessons of leadership, keep in mind that the people here are going to be following his example. And as we come to this place here in Joshua, where Joshua now moves forward and he begins to bring this will of God to his people, to his officers, he's going to go there and he's going to basically present them very clearly what God spoke to Joshua. And so he's ready to go, he's ready to move forward. And so let's pick up there in verse six, because that's kind of like what we left off last week. Notice what he says in verse six, he says it very clearly, be strong and of good courage. Actually, four times in this chapter, you have that phrase, be strong and be of good courage. Three times God told him that, and the last was the people themselves said this to Joshua, only be strong and of good courage. So four times you have this phrase kind of going through these few verses here of chapter one. And the interesting thing about this here is that it reveals something about Joshua. Why would God tell him this three times, be of good courage, be strong, be of good courage? Because obviously, and I'm just speculating which I think is probably, I'm pretty accurate on this, a lot of commentators believe this, is that Joshua was scared. There was some fear set into Joshua's heart. I mean, when you have a big task like this, there's always fear that settles in the heart, right? When your boss tells you, listen, I'm going to promote you and your job now is going to be this, you're going to be excited, right, because there's more money, right, in this whole thing, right? Because you know it's like, okay, promotion means X amount of money, right? This is what I'm going to make. But there's also some fear in your life, right? There's some fear in your heart thinking, oh man, my responsibility went from here to here now. Now this is a little scary here. And so Joshua is given this command and now all of a sudden God is telling him be strong and of good courage. Be strong and of good courage. And you see this here very clearly that God was calling him to a very, very special ministry. But it was very difficult as well. It wasn't going to be that easy. It actually required tremendous challenges. And notice that we're going to see here in a moment that this basically went beyond Joshua's own skill and ability. And this is one of the things that I'm sure was pretty scared to death thinking, okay, how am I going to do this? You know, Joshua has been around when Moses was alive. And Joshua experienced the murmuring and the complaining of the people, right? Now I get it. This is the kids from that first generation. The parents passed away. They're gone, right? Now it's their kids. Now you're like, okay, how many of these parents affected their kids now? Their parents were complainers and murmurers. Now I'm thinking, okay, are they going to do the same thing to me? So there's all these things that perhaps were going through his mind. And the interesting thing here is that as Joshua is going to take this group, this huge group of people across the Jordan into the promised land, we see it very clearly here that God is going to give him the ability, the skill to do it. You've heard this saying before that God is not looking for availability, right? He's not looking for ability, rather, but he's looking for what? Availability. You know, sometimes as Christians, we feel like God is calling us to do some things and things that are kind of perhaps over our head. And we're like, that's not God calling me. How do you know? You see, God wants your availability. God wants you to say, yes, I'm ready to do it. Lord, you know that I'm totally not for this. I'm inadequate. I have the desire to do it, but it's like over my head. So because I trust you and that you're going to give me the ability to do this, I will make myself available. Go for it. And this is what we see here in the life of Joshua. You see, God is going to give him the ability that he needs to do this job, this task, this commission that he's given him. You know, Moses experienced the same thing when God called him out from the desert Midian. And Moses was the one who told God, he says, Lord, I'm inadequate. I don't feel like I have the power, the ability, the kind of, you know, I guess the energy to be able to go back to Egypt and to talk to Pharaoh. There's no way I can do that. That guy is big. He's the king. And you know, the whole story with Joshua and with Moses and God, how they went back and forth, back and forth. Eventually Moses ended up going to Pharaoh and standing before Pharaoh and saying, let my people go. But Moses was just felt so small. And sometimes we feel so small to tasks. And we think because of that, we're not going to do it. And that's not good. We miss out on a lot, as you're going to see here in a moment, that Joshua could have easily just excused himself from all of this. And he would have missed this amazing ministry that God had called him to. If God calls you to do something that's beyond your skill or ability, God will give you the ability to do it. You just got to trust him. You got to trust him because God has the power to do it. See, when we go through this chapter one here, this passage is not just for a special class of leaders and pastors, missionaries, because you're thinking, okay, this is only for the pastor. This is only for the missionary. This is only for those that are in ministry. But listen, God has called each of us to ministry, all of us here, all Christians if you're a Christian here. And we are all gifted people. God has gifted all of us here. There's not one person in this room that does not have a spiritual gift. It's just whether you know it or not, I'm sure some of you are like, well, I don't know. What is my spiritual gift? You have one. And the interesting thing here is that we are all leaders in some sense with personal responsibilities to others. And what I mean by that is whether you're a church leader, whether you're a manager at a job, whether you're a mom, whether you're a dad, whatever you are, you are a leader, you're leading people. And so without God's strength, without God's personal courage, it will be hard or you will fail to take on the responsibilities that God calls you to. You need His encouragement. You need God to say, you can do this. You know, sometimes young adults, couples, married young adults don't have kids because they're afraid to have kids. Because like, what if I fail? I don't want a kid's right. You know what I mean? It's like, if you've never had kids, you'll never be ready. There's no such thing as that, right? It's like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. Well, if you've never had kids, how can you know if you're ready or not? You just go with it, right? Jump in it and trust God. And so we see that God is telling Josh, we're here to be strong and of good courage. Now let me say something about courage here. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is not the absence of fear. It doesn't mean that you are a weak Christian or it doesn't mean that you are faithless if there is fear in your heart when it comes to moving forward and accomplishing tasks that you feel God is calling you to do. There's always the element of fear when it comes to these kinds of things. Someone once said this, fear can paralyze but faith propels us to follow God. And so if we allow fear to just kind of dwell in our heart, it's going to paralyze you. You're not going to move forward. You're going to stay in one place. But if you can get past that fear and having the Holy Spirit giving you the courage to move forward, it's your faith in Christ that's going to propel you to follow God's plan, right? And that's what Joshua had to do. Perhaps he was scared and yet God is bringing this courage, this encouragement to him. He says, listen, you're going to go take the land. Go for it. Do it. And so notice in verses seven through eight, God gives him the courage to obey his word. He says this in verse seven very clearly. And I love how God puts it here. He says, only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go. And then he says, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. I love it. Prosperous success. God's word to Joshua here is very clear. He's saying, you need to commit yourself to my word, commit yourself to my law. And that is the way he's going to experience success. Now let's talk about that word prosper. Because when we think about prosperity, we're thinking about material prosperity, right? We're thinking about, well, man, if I follow Jesus, I mean, I get to drive that latest Mercedes. If I follow Jesus, you know, I'm going to get that Tesla that I've been wanting with those suicide doors, right? You're like, man, because there's the theology that talks that way, right? It's like you come to Jesus and you're going to have all of this stuff here. You know, you get on your license plate frame, you know, trust Jesus, right? Well, you're driving your Tesla, right? I mean, seriously, that's the prosperity theology that it's all about the material things that are on this side of heaven. This word has nothing to do with material possessions. I'm going to define the word for you. So you're not thinking, oh God, God has given them this wonderful promise of prosperity. It's going to be rich and have mansions. No, it's not. The word prosper here is a very interesting word. It means to have insight to literally prosper in our knowledge of God, in our relationship with God. And it has nothing to do with basically material prosperity. The word means to have insight. The word means to have this deeper knowledge of God, the prosperity of that. That's what he's talking about here. God is telling Joshua that when you obey my word, you will have a deeper knowledge of me and our relationship. That's what he's saying. That's what the word means there in the Hebrew. You know, it reminds me of a prayer that Paul prayed back in Ephesians chapter one. Paul prayed this prayer for the Christians in Ephesus, and it's a prayer for us as well. And this is what the prayer says. Ephesians 117, he says, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Did you see that? Paul is saying, I pray that your knowledge of God will go deeper, that you will get a better understanding, that you have a better grip of God. That's what he's saying. That you may prosper in your understanding of God. And here's a question for you. Are you prospering in your understanding of God? Can you say to yourself as a Christian that you are gaining a deeper understanding of your Savior? And if you're like, well, I'm really not. I'm kind of like right here, surface. I'm very superficial when it comes to God. Listen, there is a wealth of knowledge that you can gain from going in a direction that will put you in a place where you're learning more about God. I mean, here is a good start, right here. Coming to church and stuff. This is a good start here. But you can do a lot more to get more deeper with God. And we see here that our desire is to prosper in our knowledge of God. And we are to grow in our understanding of Jesus Christ. There's so much that you can do today to grow in your knowledge of Christ. Did you know that? Apart from church, aside from church, which is important, I mean, there's podcasts out there today. One of the things that I do, that I love doing is I'll find five or six podcasts, favorite ones, and their theology podcast, podcast on leadership, podcast on culture and church and whatnot. And I'm just turning them on as I go to work and as I come back from work, as I'm out and about. I'll just put my phone up on a little iPhone holder, hit play, and I'm driving, listening to a 20, 30, 40 minute podcast about something for me to gain more understanding, for me to go deeper in my knowledge of God. You can do that. There's a lot of good stuff out there. There's also book reading. There's also Bible studies, personal Bible studies that you can open up your Bible, study Bible, so just to gain more knowledge of who God is. We have a bookstore here at our church where it's got all kinds of commentaries and workbooks and things about God and theology that you can buy and learn more. It's really, there's no excuse in our nation, and even in our state, in our country to say, I don't have the opportunity to grow deeper with the Lord. There are people in China, people in Africa, people in other countries that don't have the resources that we have here. They have the excuse to say, can you send me a commentary? Because you guys have bookstores everywhere. We don't have that excuse. It's just either laziness or we just don't want to do it. We don't want it. And so we see here that God is telling, Josh, well, listen, success is going to be based upon my word. And when it comes to Christian success, Christian success is not measured by the same standards as the world's success. Because the world's success is basically just make money, climb the corporate ladder, right? And so there's a common desire within every person to feel successful. We all have that. And we often measure our worth on the basis of how successful we are. I mean, I think that's what we see today. And so, success in God's eyes is knowing Him and knowing His word. That's success in God's eyes. If you know God and if you are studying His word and you know His word to God, He's like, you're more successful than Bill Gates. You have more spiritual wealth than a man who's got material wealth in a bank account. Because when you die and he dies, without Jesus, Mr. Bill will miss out a lot on a lot. While you die, you go to heaven and you get the glory of Christ. There's a big difference there. And so what we see here is that this is an important principle that God is establishing with Joshua. And notice in verse 9, he reiterates what he said in verse 5. He says in verse 9, he says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And so he gives them this encouragement. What will it take Joshua to be a successful leader? Well, it's very simple. We got the answer here. It's not his military background. It's not his ability to lead. What will make him a successful leader is obeying God's word, not turning from it to the left or to the right. It's just staying right on God's word. And so as we move on to verses 10 through 18, after Joshua has been commissioned as a leader, he now finds himself navigating through a major transition in leadership and a major realignment of their 40 years of all these old practices, these old ways that they were going through. So in other words, Joshua is about to make big changes. He's about to make big changes. When I came to this place in my study, I don't know why something in me said Google this. Google making big changes in life. I got basically there were over 300 million hits on just that phrase. You could probably get more mixing up that phrase. What came through some of the top sites that came through basically were things like seven ways to make big changes in your life. How to overcome the fear of big changes. How to make changes when you are stuck in life. Things like that came in. Why are there over 300 million hits on that phrase? Because change is a fact of life, isn't it? We all go through changes. Do you know that? All of us here. Whether you like it or not. Because I know a lot of you guys freak out when it comes to big changes in your life. If God came to you tonight and said to you, I'm going to change your life here in a big way in about a week. You're going to be like, whoa, wait a minute, hold on. What do you mean? You're going to want to know everything about it, right? Can I keep this? Does that mean moving out of my house? What does that mean? God, big changes. It scares me. Change is a big part of life. I mean, when you look at the Christian life, the Christian life is all about change. You can't get away from that, to be honest with you. Listen to what 2 Corinthians 3, 18 says this. This is the change of the Christian life. There's a big change coming for us. He says, all with unfailed faces, beholden as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. Did you see that? We are being changed, transformed. We are becoming more like Christ. We're becoming more like Christ. The Holy Spirit is working this process that we call sanctification. We're being set apart. And God is doing a work in our lives. And so the closer we get to Christ, the more change is going to take place in our lives as part of the Christian life. That's the cool thing about the Christian life is that there's always change happening. Now, there are changes outside of that, of course, when it comes to life. Change of jobs. Relationship changes. There's different kinds of changes that we experience in life. There's changes that are initiated by God. Some changes we initiate ourselves. And so change is part of life. And so what he's telling Joshua here, and Joshua is about to make this big, big change, in verse 10, he basically tells Joshua, time's up, time's up. And so Joshua begins to move forward and he starts by talking to his officials. Notice what he says in verse 10. Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying, pass through the camp and command the people, saying, prepare provisions for yourselves. For within three days, you will cross over this Jordan to go in, to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess. And so he goes to the first group, the commanding officers, his officers, he commands them. The nation of Israel was so well organized under Moses, it was crazy how he organized the nation. In fact, let me just read you Deuteronomy 1 verse 15, how Moses kind of organized this whole leadership structure for the nation of Israel. He said this. He says, We see here that in order for Moses to communicate to the people of God, he had these leaders in Deuteronomy 1, he established this leadership structure that if he wanted to reach the people right away, he would go to these guys and these guys would get the word out right away. And so these are the leaders that Moses had. And now Joshua goes to those that came up underneath him and now he's going to these leaders and he's commanding them what's going on and what's going to happen. The interesting about this is that notice that Joshua here is not giving them an option or he's not even asking them, hey guys, what should we do here? He's telling them what to do. Why? Because he heard from God clearly. He already knew what he was supposed to do. And so there are times when leaders need to be consulted and we need to kind of come together and all, but this was not one of those times. God had spoken to him clearly what they were to do and so he comes in and he gives them the truth and he begins to give them the truth here. So what does he say? Notice in verse 11, he says, hey guys, we're going to pass through the camp. He says command the people saying prepare provisions. Verse 11 is interesting to me. He says to them, we're going to cross the Jordan. The first question I would have asked Joshua is how? What do you mean, cross the Jordan? How? By boat? Are we going to swim across? You're missing out some information, Joshua. We're going to cross the Jordan. This is not a little creek we're crossing either. How are we going to do this? I mean, this is interesting because what you see here is that Joshua here is not given him any information or any more detail. Joshua knew the God who parted the Red Sea will be the same God who's going to part the Jordan River for them. What faith, huh? I mean, maybe some people would think you're weird and crazy. What do you mean? Well, God did that back then, but how do you know God's going to do that again? Now, as we go through the book of Joshua, you're going to see he did do that. Joshua was full of faith to say that, to be that bold to say, we're going to cross over the Jordan, guys. Oh, really? How? Well, don't you guys remember when your parents went across the Red Sea? God parted the Red Sea and they walked on dry ground to the other side? Don't you remember that? Why couldn't God do the same thing here? And so he's bringing this challenge to them. Joshua knew 100% in his heart that God can do it. Though he trusted God for a miracle, Joshua still prepared. This is important. Though he trusted God for a miracle, Joshua still had the people prepare everyday necessities of life. And that's what it says here. He says, notice, prepare. Each family had to prepare for this journey. Now, what's interesting about this, and maybe you probably don't know, is that you guys remember when God provided manna from heaven? You know, the word manna means because that's what they say when they came up to this thing. What is it? Manna, what is it? Manna, what is it? Manna, right? And so this stuff was still falling from the sky on a daily basis. In fact, the Bible says, and let me read it to you in Exodus 16, that this manna was to continue to fall on the ground until they got to the border of the Promised Land. So here's the end of manna. And so what Joshua is saying, also make sure you take care of the manna. Get the manna for your family because it was supposed to be a daily thing because after we cross over, manna is over. There's no more manna. Notice what it says in Exodus 16, 35. The children of Israel ate manna 40 years until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. That's where they're at right now. 40 years of manna. Would you be bored of that? Would you be like, God, can they give some ketchup or something on this thing, you know? 40 years of manna. I could probably do 40 years of in and out. But 40 years of manna, all the nutritional supplies was in this manna. Everything was in this manna. God provided everything they needed through this manna. And now it's coming to an end because now they're at the border at Canaan. They can see the Promised Land. They're on the east side of the Jordan. They're on the west and they see the land. And Joshua says, okay, everybody, tell all the families, prepare for this journey. Because notice what he says here. He says, basically, in three days, three days, he said, we're going to cross over. It was very important for the people to stay strong and to be prepared for this journey. Why? Because they were about to enter into some serious battles. They were about to experience some big time battles just to possess the land. Listen. It kind of reminds me of the Christian life. Because you become a Christian, it doesn't mean that life is going to be easy. God will still provide like he provided manna. But when you become a Christian, when you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and you're coming out of this troublesome life, you've been set free from sin. But it doesn't mean that life will be trouble free. Now, I'm not discouraging you because you're like, well, then I'll stay where I'm at. No, I wouldn't do that. Because your eternal destiny pretty much hangs on that. But what I'm saying is that because we live in a fallen world, there will be still battles that we have to fight. Spiritual battles. You know that. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 Paul says, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers, principalities and these evil forces in the heavenly places. It doesn't say that we only experience a spiritual battle once, once we become a Christian. If you've been a Christian long enough, you know that you've experienced battles over and over. I mean, it happens. There are days that you're up in a mountain top and if you're in a mountain top right now, I would encourage you to enjoy it. Enjoy it for what it's worth right now. Enjoy it because there's always that time when you come back down from that mountain, when Moses came down to that mountain, what did he see? He saw some stuff that was not encouraging and sometimes that happens. You know, there are mountain tops. There are valleys in our Christian life. Listen, because I'm a Christian, I don't mean that my life will be free from trouble. I'm mingling with non-Christians. I walk around non-Christians. I drive on 91 non-Christians. Freeway? Right? As long as there are freeways, there's always going to be battles, right? I mean, seriously, right? But it's going to be a battle and we see that Josh was saying, we're right there guys, the promised land. Once we get to the promised land, we're free, there's no more trouble, there's no enemy on the other side. He says, prepare for battle here. And you're going to see as we go through the book of Joshua, man, they were going after battle, after battle. Even when the walls of Jericho came down, that was one of the enemies they had to conquer. And so what we see here is that he tells them, he reminds them, hey, prepare for this journey, gather up all the food, the manna, because after this, there'll be no more manna. And so we walk over and notice what he says. Three days, three days, we're going to cross over. There's a time, a few days here. You know, it's interesting because I think when you look at three days, I'm sure they were excited. Moses didn't make it. He didn't get us to the promised land. We just went to the border. I'm sure there was an excitement to be like, wow, we are about to possess the land that God gave Abraham. Our fathers, our patriarchs, now we are going to, we're the generation that will experience this promised land, the land that flows with milk and honey. What does that mean? It means that it's going to be a productive land. You can plant, you're going to have food. Everything is going to be right there for you, but there's going to be battles. You're going to have to beat up on those enemies that will be in that land because they're going to still kind of cause trouble there. But then he says in three days, it must have been very hard for them to wait three days when they were right there. They can see the land. The waiting for God is often the most difficult part in the Christian life, don't you think? Waiting for the Lord. How many times in my walk with Christ I had to wait on the Lord for something to either happen, for me to either move forward. There's always that waiting period, but I want to say something about that. The days of waiting are always days of preparation. If you're in a waiting mode right now, if God has you waiting, God has already spoken to your heart about something and you're just waiting. Listen, there is no wasted time with God. There's no wasted time with God. God is preparing you in some way. There's preparation going on right now before you enter into the promise, before you enter into what God has called you to do or where God is wanting you to go, what direction and whatnot. It could be months of preparation. Sometimes it could be months of preparation. It could be years of preparation. It could be days of preparation. Here it was three days, three days. But remember, they were out in the wilderness going in circles for 40 years. It didn't take that long to get over to the promised land. It was because the first generation disobeyed God, did not want to embrace the promises. So they were just going in circles. If you were to look at a map seriously, they would just go like this and always border the land. And they would do this for 40 years. Boy, sometimes life feels that way, right? When you're not really right with God, you're kind of like spinning your wheels mentally. And you're just kind of doing this, like, I don't know, I don't have any purpose in life. I don't know what God is doing. I don't know what God loves me. Because you're not in gear with them. There's something going on spiritually in your life. What's happening? And here we see very clearly that Joshua is saying, without faith that Joshua had, what an incredible leader, because he says two things here. He says, you will cross and you will possess the land. Not that hopefully we'll cross, or I'm hoping we can possess the land. No, he's a matter of fact. We will possess and we will cross. That's it. It reminds me of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 that says this, so please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That's Joshua for you. Joshua believed in God. You know, sometimes it's very hard for us to believe in the promises of God. Why is that? Why is it that sometimes Christians will doubt those promises? I mean, obviously, there could be a lot of different factors to that, but sometimes it's because we're not tuned in. We don't trust God with our lives. We don't trust God at his word. We see very clearly that Joshua heard clearly from God and now he's ready to move forward. So he talks to his officers, the second group of people he talks to, notice it's the Eastern tribe. Notice what he says in verses 12 to 15. He says, add to the Rubinites and the Gadites and the half the tribe look. Say, and remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, the Lord your God is giving you that is giving you rest and is giving you this land. He says, your wives, your little ones, your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan, but you shall pass before your brethren, armed all your mighty men of valor and help them. This is all about here, the Eastern tribes, Rubin, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh. Now, Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe. That's why it's a half, just Manasseh. Ephraim is not being mentioned here. Here's a story quickly. Let me give you the reader digest here because this is a long, you can read this more in Numbers chapter 32. These tribes these three tribes are two and a half tribes here, went to Moses and said to Moses, Moses, can we stay on the east side of the Jordan? There's great property here and we have large, we have a lot of livestock. This would be great for them to hang out, to graze, it could be very productive and so Moses was a little hesitant. In fact, he was kind of bothered by their request because in Moses' mind he's thinking, guys, God said to go past the Jordan go towards the west and get over to the Promised Land not on the other side of the Jordan which would be the east side of the Jordan. We've got to go to the west side of the Jordan. That's the Promised Land and you're asking me to give you property there so you can stay on that side while we cross over to the Promised Land. I don't think that's a good thing. But somehow they promised Moses and said, okay, listen when you get to the border we will help the rest of you guys go into the land and we will fight. We will bring in our men and our army and we'll fight with you guys, okay? So they promised that to Moses and Moses then said fine and Moses gave them that land that inheritance and they stayed on that eastern side of the Jordan. That wasn't a good thing. Now, they did keep their promise as you're going to see as we go through the book of Joshua. They did help them get over to the other side but once they got over they went right back to the east side and they kind of hung out there. So, Joshua's bringing this to them and he says remember what you said to Moses you promised to help us fight the enemies once we crossed over and of course, this is what they said. Now the eastern tribe as they helped we see something very interesting here because the eastern tribe apparently were more focused on material wealth, gaining more stuff through their livestock. One commentator said this apparently their first concern was making a living not making a life. I don't want to live my life on this side of heaven in Christ just making a living. I want to make a life. I want to influence lives. I don't want to just have a job to make a lot of money just for what? I mean, I don't want that. Is it wrong? No, it's not wrong. But I don't want to get stuck making a life rather than making or actually making a living rather than making a life and that's what these guys were doing. These guys were like we just want to kind of stay here tucked away. They preferred to have big flocks and cattle than to be with their brothers and sisters in the promised land and this became a problem for Joshua. You know why? Because the center of worship was on the west side not on the east side. So these guys were kind of like away from their brothers and sisters. These are what I call borderline Christians. Borderline Christians what are you talking about? A borderline Christian is a Christian that gets very close to the inheritance they have in Christ but they never really possess it. They go to church they help out but they're not true committed. They keep God at a distance, you know what I'm saying? They're not against Christianity they're still Christians I'm not saying they're not saved but they kind of take the back seat approach kind of almost like the spectator approach. It's like dude, you're a Christian you have gifts, you have all this wonderful inheritance in Christ and you don't want to go any further you want to kind of stay kind of away from the action. Borderline Christians they only go so far they're not as committed there's not much commitment to them the Rubinites the Gettites and the half tribe of Manasseh were just that they were borderline believers Hey Moses we support you go to the promised land hallelujah, praise the Lord, isn't it God great let's go out to the east side hey keep in touch, you know send us a text or something and tell us what's going on out there we'll Facebook each other Instagram, that's what we would do now these guys were really a problem to Joshua, in fact unfortunately these tribes were one of the first to go into captivity to the Assyrians because of their idolatry and stuff so they really proved to be really bummed, kind of messed up they were not good tribes and yet we see here very clearly that Joshua is just coming to them and just say hey remember what Moses what you told Moses all I want is an amen that yes we're going to still help you and so what happens here notice verse 16 and 17 they promise their allegiance to Joshua he says all that you command we will do these officers had no hit and agenda at first they are willing to obey Joshua Joshua didn't have to explain or defend his orders they trusted him this is also confirming to Joshua all that God said to him because notice what they said there at the last part of Joshua I love it, they said whoever rebels against your covenant or your command and does not heed your words in all that you commanded him shall be put to death only be strong in a good courage isn't that interesting they're using the same phrase that God used three times to Joshua now they weren't there when God is telling him to Joshua all this now we don't know how God spoke to Joshua was it audible, was it in the mind how was, we don't know but it was clear and Joshua knew that God was speaking but it's interesting that they encouraged Joshua with the same words God used to encourage him and this must have been a confirmation of God's word to Joshua when they said the same thing only be strong in a good courage Joshua must have looked up to him and said you guys are on board and it's cool because I love it when God confirms his word to us don't you, when God confirms his word to us is awesome isn't it I mean we ask the Lord confirm in your word what I sense you want to do in my life and when he does that you're like woohoo, ready to go that's exactly what was going on here it helps build confidence we can move forward so Joshua had a solid group of leaders they were ready for battle he couldn't do this on his own but now in three days they're going to cross over I'm going to close with a few things here real quickly as we come to the end here when I was in the film industry I was in the film industry for for a few years was trying to be somebody at that time this was like last week no I'm joking I wasn't last week this was back in college years and so I experienced a lot of acting and I experienced a lot of PA work production assistant and what not actors and actresses when they make a movie it's the director who pretty much sees the big picture he's the one that sees the big picture he's the one that sees the overall direction and I was reading recently this actress was talking about her experience in a recent movie that she actually was part of and she said this and I'm going to quote her she said I found it very interesting to allow myself to be lost because I knew that I had this amazing guide he says you abandon yourself for a story and a director that will make it all work what does she mean by that she says you know what I'm trusting this director even though these things don't make sense to me he's the one that sees the big picture Joshua could have said the same thing similar here about the director of his life which was God God had a plan God didn't give him a detailed script but he gave him basically just enough assurance to move forward he didn't talk about the detail of the battles or the walls of Jericho he didn't say when you get to Jericho to have those walls fall down he didn't say anything like that but God gave him enough courage enough faith for Joshua to move forward you see God wants you and I to completely devote our lives to him and to surrender to his amazing guidance he is the director of our lives and perhaps you're in a spot in your life right now where you're kind of wondering what direction should I go listen he sees the big picture you just gotta trust him you gotta devote yourself to his word and surrender to him trust him he knows what he's gonna do there's no reason to worry there's no reason to question him you just gotta trust God because he sees the big picture trust God with your life he knows what he's doing even if you feel confused you just gotta get that and we see here that Joshua could have easily been kind of questioning God asking God questions kind of like what Moses did when God came to Moses Moses had all these questions for God and this and that what about this, what about that none of that Joshua here he's basically saying hey I trust you I'm gonna do it this is a promise that you've given now here's the kids I'm taking them over to the promise land I believe in your promises we have to understand this because we have to trust God as our director again he sees the big picture