Introduction – Book of Joshua

[00:31] 

Now in the Chinese service, I have started this year on a sermon series through the Book of Joshua. The Book of Joshua is a book in the Old Testament that is colourful and is exciting because they are very interesting stories such as how they cross the River Jordan, how the walls of the city of Jericho fell outwards, and how in one battle Joshua even commanded in prayer for the sun to stand still, and the Bible says it stood still. So, it is amazing! However, what does it mean for you and I today? And that's the question we need to ask because it has to be relevant. Now I understand that we can have simplistic answers to those questions. For example, God is great and God is powerful, so you just pray lah [Singapore slang]. You pray then God will answer and solve all your problems. Now that sounds really good and it's not totally untrue but some of you in your daily life may be saying, you know, I pray and pray every day so I won't be late for work, but the train and the bus never stopped for me. And then recently when the train stopped, it never starts. So, the confusion and the frustration can be very great for believers, if we only have very simplistic answers to the truth in the Bible. 

Years ago, the late Steve Job was answering some questions about how the new iPhone launch could not have proper reception and they couldn't connect well, and he audaciously said to people who asked him that, “The problem is you are holding it wrong”. Now we may not agree with him, I think most of us don't and that's why it became known as ‘Antennagate’. You know, it's like a scandal that you didn't produce a good phone and then you say, we got it wrong. However, it's good sometimes when we grapple with the truth of the Bible and we find that we cannot connect with it correctly, to ask ourselves maybe I'm holding it wrong. How can I understand this truth correctly? 

The Promise and the Victory

So, to help you I give you a very brief introduction to the Book of Joshua. As you have read earlier, the Book of Joshua is a book of transition in leadership from Moses to Joshua because Moses had passed away. The Book of Joshua is placed in the sixth order after the first five Books of Moses, also known as the Pentateuch, and that position means that the Book of Joshua records for us the fulfilment of the promises of God to the patriarchs, to Israel. And when we understand this perspective then what we need to realize is that, Israel under Joshua is going to enter the Promised Land, is going to conquer the Promised Land, is going to settle in the Promised Land, not because of their military might but because of the promises of God. So, it's important to realize that this is not so much a book about strategies, about geniuses, about how to fight your wars, but about how to appropriate the promises of God, of which there are many that will be fulfilled in Joshua. But a few of them are very salient, very obvious, very key. One of it would be how “No man will [shall] be [able] to stand before you…”, a promise of victory. You will inherit the land, the promise of land. But I believe that greater than all these promises, is what I highlighted here is the promise of God's presence because he told Joshua, “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” [Joshua 1:5] In other words, Joshua, you are going to experience success. You are going to have victory in conquering the land even though there are giants in the land, even though there is a raging river at the time of harvest that you cannot cross with the equipment that you have, even though there are cities fortified, in Deuteronomy it's described to the heavens, it's so huge and you don't have the expertise to bring it down. Yet you will have victory, not only that you will have victory to inherit the land and help Israel fulfil, live out those promises that I’ve given you simply because “I will be with you”. Now, what does that mean for us today? 

The Key to Victory

So, I'd like to share with you a simple message but an important message taken from Joshua, chapter one, verses seven to nine, which contain the central command to God that has for us the key to victory. You see, if we don't have this key, even for believers today the thought of the presence of God feels abstract and uncertain, and we tend to rely then on imagination, and perhaps our feelings to say that God is with me. However, when you look into Scripture, you are going to find that the presence of God and how you unlock it, is going to be very simple, straight forward and almost prosaic, is almost too ordinary and thus, so easily missed. Now in the Old Testament, we talk about victory in terms of conquest, in terms of inheritance. When we come to the New Testament, these truths are applied spiritually in Christ Jesus. And so, the battle and conflict for the Christian is spiritual against sin. And so, when we are in Christ and we are applying this key to victory, we will begin to experience victory over sin. And in the New Testament, it also describes our inheritance in Christ which is eternal life, which is the kingdom of God, which is to live out a life restored to the presence of God. So, when you understand this, I want to share with you from this passage, this simple yet important truth, the key to victory is obedience to God's Word, “Obeying God's Word is the key for believers to appropriate the promise of God's presence that leads to victory.” So, we're not talking about something mystical here. [07:37] We're not talking about something that is the figment of our imagination. We're not talking about something that is like esoterical or hypothetical, theoretical, an imagination of our minds. We're talking here about how we can by simple obedience to God's Word, appropriate this promise of God's presence and because God is with us, we can therefore have victory over sin and live out the gospel today. 

1. The Command to Obedience

So first, let's look at the command to obedience, the command to obedience. The Scripture tells us here in Joshua, chapter one, verse seven, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you…” The phrase here, “being careful to do”, repeat itself in the Old Testament 40 over times with reference to the Word of God. Now if you take a step back and understand the context that Joshua is in, he is facing a raging river, he is facing enemies in the land, fortified cities, giants, enemies he couldn't overcome, and he will be thinking of perhaps how many swords he needs. Does he need to build battering rams? How is he going to cross the river? What bridges? What materials? And God didn't say a single word. Those are real, practical, pressing concerns if they are going to advance. But God said, “Listen, this is the most important thing. It's not physical. It's not military. It's spiritual. You have to be careful to obey, to do everything I have commanded you and that, Joshua, is the key to victory. That is the key that will unlock my presence, and as long as I'm present with you, you are going to succeed. You are going to advance; you are going to move forward.” 

Be Strong and Courageous

And to underline this, underlie this, the Scripture in Joshua, chapter one, gave us threefold repetition of being strong and courageous in this way. 

Victory

In verse six, it says, “Be strong and courageous, for you will [shall] cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” This is the promise of victory because you will only inherit the land if you are successful in battle, and then you can settle down to inherit the land. 

Obey

Now the second time it appears in verse seven, it says, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.” In other words, if you want to be victorious then this is what you need to do, you need to be strong and very courageous to obey what I ask you to do. 

Promise

And then the third time it appeared is in verse nine, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, [and] do not be dismayed, for the LORD, your God is with you wherever you go.” This is the promise of God's presence. 

So, if we focus on be strong and very courageous, you may run away with the idea that Joshua is very scared. Is he very timid? Is he shivering in his pants? Is he quaking in Moses’ big shoes? And you're wondering whether he has a personality weakness, and that is foreign in the Scripture, because the repetitions are like three pacts that hold this truth, telling us that sandwich between the victory that Joshua is going to experience, is going to come with his presence, and in order to unlock that you need to obey my Word. And therefore, it tells us today as Christians that no matter what we face, whatever challenges we have in our lives, in our marriages, in our homes, in our careers, that you have to consider what God has commanded us to do. And so, the Scripture tells us “…to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you…” [Joshua 1:7] This refers to the Pentateuch or the first five Books of Moses and they are not just a set of rules and regulations. They are actually laws that touches upon every aspect of the life of a believer in how he is to respond, how he is to think and how he is to relate to God. In other words, all the law that Moses has commanded is intended to shape our lives. It's intended to mould our minds in order for us to think about what God really expect of us every single day, and that is what we need to focus on. 

Keep God’s Word Central

The Scripture also goes on to tell us, in order for us to understand how key this command is, “Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left,” [Joshua 1:7] God anticipated that when the rubber meets the road, when Joshua faced with these challenges, there's going to be a tendency to veer away to his own thoughts and imagination about that situation. God anticipates that Joshua may be tempted by what other people may think and how they feel strongly against what is commanded. And God told Joshua, when that happens keep the Word of God, central, keep what I command you to do right in front of you. And in order to do that, not turn to the left, not to the right. Notice that here in the “strong and courageous” is added the word “very courageous,” you see, friends, it's easy to talk about God's Word. It's actually not very challenging to be listening to God's Word. Of course, you have to gather in the morning and make your way here, and for young families with young children, that's a battle, that's not easy, I can understand all that. However, studying, talking, thinking about God's Word, though it takes hard work, it doesn't take a lot of strength and courage until we want to obey, until we are looking at how this applies to my life. What does it mean for my career? What does it mean for my marriage? What does it mean for how I'm going to raise my children? What does it mean when I plan for my retirement? When those moments come, there will be so many voices out there in the world, and don't forget the one inside that the Scripture calls the flesh that lusts against the Spirit. And at that moment, God says, “Be strong and very courageous to obey”. So, we are not talking about having an intellectual knowledge, building a more academic depth, understanding to the Scripture. We are talking about increasing the degree of our obedience to God and that requires courage. And so, this commentator, he tells us this, he says very simply, “Accepting an alternative to the centrality of Scripture, in the church [and] in the Christian, producing fear and dismay, is forbidden to Joshua in verse 19 [correction, verse 9].”, even though Joshua only has five books of the law, he is supposed to understand what God desires and therefore make the effort to obey it. Today, we have 66 books of the entire canon of Scripture and yet we are tempted to wait for a vision, for a dream, for a spectacular sensational experience before we say God has spoken to me, before we are willing to obey. And as a result of this chasing after winds, emptiness, we end up having fear and dismay in our lives. 

And I'm thankful that in Gospel Light Christian Church, since we shifted to Punggol several years ago, we have held to the accurate and faithful teaching and preaching of the Bible. Now, when we shift here with this big hall, we didn't have that many people come. It's very tempting to say, how about having some performances? How about having some entertainment? How about having some creative ideas? Now we are not close to all that but we want to keep the Word of God, central. We do not want to turn from it to the left hand or to the right. We want to trust God to work as we faithfully teach and preach His Word. And I'm so thankful to hear after all these years, of people coming into the church getting saved, not because of our performances but because they heard the gospel clearly communicated to them so [17:13] they can obey. And I'm so glad to hear of Christians coming from other churches where they didn't get that rich teaching and understanding of Scripture and they come here and their minds are open, and they begin to understand so that they would no longer veer to the right or to the left, and they could be strong and courageous to obey. And that is the key to victory over sin and to live out our lives in Christ. 

Obedience to God’s Word

Now, some of you may be wondering, does this really apply to me? Because this is all so…Old Testament. Let's look at what Jesus said in the New Testament, in Matthew 28 verse 19 to 20, the great commission that some of you, many of you are familiar with, “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…” [Matt 28:19] careful to do all that I have commanded you. And when you do what God commands of us, Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [Matt 28:20] In other words, the key to victory did not change in the New Testament. It is no new phenomenal. There is no new spectacular sensation experience we should seek apart from an obedience, detailed, disciplined obedience to God's Word. 

Experience God’s Presence

I show you a picture of one of my breakfasts. This was taken in year 2021, 29 of July. Now, why did I show you this picture? Is it to tempt you to hunger? Not quite. I'm thankful that I could have this meal on the very first day I began my treatment, for having been diagnosed with cancer years ago. And I'm thankful to my wife for providing me with a good meal, nice focaccia bun, egg protein, you know, help to regenerate the cells, help me with my journey. Of course, along the way, I ate less and less and less. However, behind that is my computer and that's where my Bible is open. Some of you may have heard my testimony in camp when I shared on Psalm 23, of how the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want and that path of righteousness include the valley of the shadow of death, and even though through that valley, I will not fear because You, God, are with me. Now that may sound very abstract and uncertain, but you see, I believe that in no small part as I begin that journey in 2021, reading the Scripture every day, being careful to do what God has commanded me, it enabled me to experience his presence every part of the journey. There is no lessening of the pain. There is no lessening of the fear and the uncertainty. But through it all, I experienced the presence of God not through special dreams of vision, but simply because I fed on the Word of God. Only twice, I did not continue reading. Once after my major surgery, I was so weakened that I couldn't even focus clearly on the words of Scripture for about a week before I could continue. Another time when I was going through my chemotherapy, my body crashed and I was very weak. I couldn't even crawl out of bed and then I stopped again for about a week until I recovered. But when I recovered, I got right back into a good meal for my physical well-being and the Word of God for my spiritual well-being. And so, what Jesus has commanded us in the great commission, what God commanded Joshua in Joshua, chapter one, remains true for all of us if we are to experience His presence. This is the key to victory. 

2. The Conditions for Obedience

Now, God is so kind to Joshua that he not only gave him the command, He also explained to him how he's going to get there. So, we're going to look next at the conditions for obedience, the conditions for obedience. The Scripture tells us here, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth,” [Joshua 1:8a] we're going to stop there for a while. Now, when we read the word ‘mouth’, you may be thinking of food and eating because I just show you a picture of my bun. And you may be now thinking about what you had for breakfast and what you may be having for lunch, and so, wow…I love the Word of God, I'll eat it. Well, there is that metaphor, that imagery, somewhere in Scripture but this is not found here. The Bible is not talking about hiding God's Word in your heart or having the knowledge in your head. The Bible is not talking about some solitary reflection of the Scripture. The Bible is not talking about your personal depth and grasp of Scripture after a very intensive study. The Bible is talking about speaking with your mouth, talking about God's Word. Perhaps a clearer picture of what this means is found in the command in Deuteronomy to homes, what Israelites are to do when they finally settle in the land, they should remember that “[And] these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” [Deut 6:6-7] In other words, what God is commanding Joshua to do so that he can be careful to obey is that he should be discussing Scripture, not just to understand its meaning but to know how to apply it, to know how to do what is commanded. 

About three weeks ago, I brought my discipleship group on a two-day, one night retreat to JB [Johor Bahru, Malaysia]. And in that retreat, I had about six sessions, in which of about two hours each, in which I would be discussing Scripture with my men. And in the first discussion, I opened up First John, chapter one, verses one to four, talking about our fellowship with God, our fellowship with one another, and how this is the Word of life, this is eternal life. It's more than just knowledge. It is about having a real walk with God. And I remember as we were talking about it in the Coffee Bean that we were sitting there chatting about it, that the men were saying this and I was having this response to it. Another man had another contribution and we are just sharpening one another's thoughts on how to obey what was being said. One of the four men that I had in my group was very silent throughout the time. And suddenly he looked up with eyes blazing, and he said, “Wǒ Hěn Shēng Qì [我很生气]”, that's Chinese, alright? And what he meant is I'm very angry. Then he corrected himself and he said, “No, not with you, Pastor, not with you, Pastor”. He said, “I've been a Christian for 20 over years. I have been attending services. I have been reading Christian books. I have been serving the Lord but until you guys are talking about, I didn't see how far I am from obeying it.” That is what God is telling Joshua, it's not just about having it in your mind or hiding in your heart. There needs to be conversations centred on how we are going to obey. And I'm so glad that we are starting this movement in our discipleship groups and we are now trying to spread this focus of spiritual conversation, talking about God's Word into our Care Group that is centred, rooted in Scripture. And I hope that you begin to see that just as you always discuss what is important to you at work and at home, we need to be talking about God's Word if we are going to be obeying it. 

Meditate on God’s Word Day and Night

Now, the Scripture also tells us that “[but] you shall meditate [on] upon it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” [Joshua 1:8b] Now, the problem with this word meditate is that we have been so influenced in the modern day by Eastern mysticism that we think that to meditate equals I will empty out my mind and I'll focus upon that flower, or that spot in the sky, that fish in the sea, and then are you one with them? So, we think that this is meditation. Now in the Scripture that is totally foreign. The Scripture never asks us to empty our mind in meditation. It asks us to fill our mind with God's Word, so that we are thinking about the Bible, thinking about Scripture, what it means about God, His Word, His work, His truth to us. In other words, we are to be constantly thinking about what the Scripture says, what it means, and how it applies, what am I going to do about it? And the Scripture says, “Do it day and night,” Some of you will be thinking…whaa, siao liao [crazy in Singapore slang], cannot already, what is that? How can I possibly, crazily be thinking about day and night, [27:09] because I got work to do? You don't understand, my life is so busy and hectic. Now, don't misunderstand, it's not telling us that Joshua all he did was sit under the coconut tree and meditate about God's Word. No, he is a busy man. He has battles to fight. He has rivers to cross. He has a lot of work to do. But the Hebrew word or phrase simply means that from day to night, there isn't an area of your life, an issue of your heart, in which you should not ask, what does the Bible says? What does God want me to do? In other words, you're not going to live your life from day to night without thinking and asking, what does God want me to do? Because I am supposed to be careful to do, and so if we fail to do that, then we wouldn't be able to obey. That's why this commentator, he explained, “Constant, careful absorbing of the Word of God leads to obedience [to it].” That's a simple outcome. “Lack of study results in lack of obedience.” If you understand study as simply thinking, chewing on its truth and then learning how to apply it, you find that if you don't go through that mental process, you are not going to know what is the next step, and that's why we never take it. Now some of you may be looking at this and saying, wow, that sounds good and great. But again, is it limited to Joshua? because he got such a special commission from God. Do other believers have to do this? Do they have to think about God's Word all the time? Do they have to talk about God's Word all the time? Look at what Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man...” [Psalm 1:1] All believers in the Old Testament and including the New is the one whose “…delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” [Psalm 1:2] And when we come to the New Testament, our Lord Jesus tells us, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” [Matt 4:4] There is no change. That the conditions for obedience demands our thoughts and our talk. It demands that we meditate and not letting it depart from our mouth, so that is incorporated in our 24-hour day constant pursuit of the truth for the purpose of obedience. 

3. The Consequence of Obedience

And if that were to happen, we are going to see next the consequence of obedience. Now this is going to be a real challenge for the English readers of the Bible. I say this because the Chinese translation of the Hebrew words are different, but the English translation of these two words we are going to look at often trip us up because we our minds run in a different direction. So let me show you what I mean when we talk about the consequence of obedience. 

Prosperity and Success in God’s Will

The Bible tells us “For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” [Joshua 1:8b] Immediately, we are happy because prosperity and success. Who doesn't want it? But what are you thinking of? If you are going to McDonald's, you may be thinking of the prosperity burger. If you are reading Fortune 500 you will be wondering, when am I going to make it to the magazine or one of those atas [high class in Singapore English], high class one, where they will report of my financial success? And so, we apply then these two words in our English mind, because we read the papers, we read the magazines, we hear the talk, and we begin to shape and mould the Scripture to our understanding in this way. I obey God's Word, I think about, I talk about, and then God will bless my life. I will have wealth and I will have health, and that is where we go wrong. Why is it so? It is so because in the Hebrew Bible, the 69 times the word ‘prosperous’ comes out, the majority of it has nothing to do with financial success. The word ‘prosperous’ in the Hebrew text points to being prosperous in one's proper endeavour, in other words, whatever you need to do for God. The word ‘success’ in the 78 times it appears in the Hebrew Bible speaks of having wisdom or insight or understanding in how to deal with a matter. So, the whole idea of having health and wealth and blessing and having our children going to the right school, getting the right grades and etc, and making it in life, fulfilling your dreams here in Singapore is not the idea here at all. This is not a formula for physical, material success, and this is what this commentator explained to help us, “These two words we find here in our passage in Joshua [1:7-8], speaking of prosperity and success are almost never used in the Old Testament to speak of financial success. Rather, they speak of succeeding in life’s proper endeavours. This happens when people's lives are focused entirely on God and obedience to Him.” In other words, the prosperous way, the good success in Joshua has nothing to do with our sinful, selfish desires and dreams in this life, but everything to do with what we would do or live when we are in obedience to His Will. Because when His Will, you will experience His presence and He will prosper you. He will give you good success to achieve what He asked of you. 

Now I'm going to give you some examples in the Old Testament, so that this thought and this truth can come to light and life for you. So, we're going to go into a little interactive quiz, quiz mood. I'm going to ask you questions like, who is this person? Where is he? And if you answer correctly, I'll let you go. You answer wrongly, I'll keep you here. Just kidding but do your best, alright, it's not that hard. 

Genesis 24:40

So, here's the first one, Genesis, chapter 24, verse 40, “But he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father's house.” Question, who said what to who, for what?... Who? Abraham to his servant to find a wife for Isaiah. Excellent answer. You are saved. Round one. Beautiful! But can you see that there has nothing to do with financial success, nothing to do with building a career here, making your mark in this world and society. He has everything to do with what God wants Abraham to do for his son, Isaac; to get him a godly wife. And he's saying that in this endeavour, a proper endeavour, you are going to have wisdom and insight on how to do it and you will succeed. You will make it. You will have victory because God is with you. 

Genesis 39:23

Here's the second one. Let's see how we fare for this one, Genesis, chapter 39, verse 23, “The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.” So, here's a question, where is Joseph and what is his position there? He's where?... In prison and what's his position?... He's a prisoner. He's not the warden. Alright, he's not the towkay [boss in Hokkien] there. He's not the one calling the shots. He is a prisoner. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine saying, wow, so good ah…successful, you want? So, you see, the Hebrew Bible doesn't give you that picture of worldly success, material success, so that you'll be the talk of town. The Bible is saying, even if you are in prison, Joseph, even though you are suffering and injustice in prison as a prisoner, because I'm with you, I'll give you, wisdom, I'll give you, insight, I'll help you do My Will. 

Isaiah 53:10

Here's the third one and the last one, perhaps the most challenging, but you have done well so far. Alright, this is the third round, the Scripture tells us in Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 10, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” Question, who is this? What do you think he is doing? [37:05] Oops…Who?... Jesus, okay, good. He's on the cross. He's right there, hanging there, being crushed for our iniquities, paying the price for our sins. His life is ebbing away. He is in great suffering and pain. And look at what the Old Testament described that scene, he says, when exactly at that moment when Jesus in his deepest agony, when he was crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Matt 27:46] When the sky was darkened in that horrible moment, when the Son of Man bore the sins of the world, God said, “My Will, will prosper in his hand.”

Nothing to do with financial success, nothing to do with having a healthy life, nothing to do with healing of the body, everything to do with God's Holy Will. And that's the same picture in the Book of Joshua as you read on, that Joshua by this time, if you think about it, he's not a young strapping man. He's probably above 80 years of age. So instead of retiring, he's leading the entire nation across the river doing battles after battles. And God said, “As long as you are careful to obey my word, if you think about it, talk about it in every situation, I will be with you and you will prosper. You will succeed in fulfilling my promises, in winning the battles, in inheriting the land.”

Example of Nick Vujicic

And in our modern day of age, I'm thankful to God that He constantly raised up such examples to contrast with the worldly thinking of men. And here is a man by the name of Nick Vujicic, he has no arms; he has no legs. And for someone born like this, the Chinese say, “Sǐ Le Suàn Le” [死了算了]. What does it mean? Might as well die. And that was exactly what he thought, he tried to kill himself several times. He tried to drown himself in his own bath water. He found no reason or purpose for his own existence in this form and shape. And yet, when he finally repented and obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, when it was not just mere knowledge but became something that he embraced and he was careful to do. God entered into his life and turned a tragedy into a victory, so that though he had no healing, no miraculous arms that grew out, no legs that extended out, yet his spirit was set free from depression and grief, from sin that besets him, and he can have the victory and begin to live for God. 

The Promise of God’s Presence

And this is what the Scripture is telling us, friends, that the greatest promise is the promise that “…your God is with you wherever you go.” [Joshua 1:9] It doesn't matter what you're experiencing, what you're struggling with, what are your challenges? You need God's presence in your life and the way to unlock it is not to hope for some mystical experiences, but it is to be careful to obey what God has commanded us. Think about the Word of God, talk about it, seek it, obey it, because obeying God's Word is the key for believers to appropriate the promise of His presence. And it is not our cleverness or knowledge that leads to victory. It is God's presence when he is with us then will our way be prosperous, will we know good success because that is the outcome of our obedience. 

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for Your Word. So often we come to church filled with ideas of our own but we thank you that the entrance of Your Word gives light. And I pray for those of us who are struggling with life, with it up and down, with the frustrations of the faith, wondering how it all ties together, that we would stop hoping and pining for something unusual or miraculous to forever change our lives, but commit ourselves to a disciplined, detailed, daily obedience to Your Word, so that we can begin to appropriate the promise of Your presence and then know the victory that is for us in Christ Jesus today. We ask all this in Jesus’ name, Amen.