In this lesson, David Capoccia looks at God’s instruction to Joshua as Joshua is about to lead Israel into Canaan. God exhorts Joshua to continually study God’s Word, to believe it, to obey it, and to, thereby, receive God’s reward and provision. David Capoccia explains how this process was exemplified in both Joshua’s and Jesus’ life and how it really should characterize the lives of all believers.
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first we will have finished looking through the Old Testament our themes for the next quarters are these first quarter obedience and disobedience we’re looking at the looking at Israel from the time of the conquest of Canaan through the judges period and to Israel’s first king Saul is the second quarter looking at wisdom from God wisdom from God looking at David and Solomon the Psalms and proverbs and some of the prophets like Jonah Elijah and Elisha and the third quarter this next year we’ll be looking at God’s justice and mercy looking there at the divided Kingdom God’s judgment on wicked Israel and Judah and then prophecies regarding the coming Messiah and in the fourth quarter of this year we’ll be looking at God protects and restores how God provides for Israel and exile how he brings them back to the land and how he gives he and the Prophet speaking with him they give Israel and expectation of hope and future deliverance in the coming Messiah so our first year was rich with spiritual food and helpful instruction and I believe our second year will be just as rich questions about what we’ve looked at and where we’re going okay well we begin the second quarter the first quarter of the second year today obedience and disobedience and specifically we’re looking at God’s call to Joshua that’s our lesson for today then our outline will be this our first going to examine God’s exhortation to Joshua in Joshua one then we’re going to compare what God says to Joshua to what we see in Jesus’s own life then finally we’re going to consider via an activity whether we ourselves are really following the examples of Joshua and Jesus let’s pray father I pray that you would help me to be able to explain your word it is rich and sweet and gives us necessary instruction I pray that you would open our hearts to believe your word that we would never excuse our sin by twisting what your word says but that we would believe and that we would obey that we would be emboldened and encouraged by the examples you’ve given us in your scripture in Jesus name Amen by the way if you signed up for a workbook and did not receive one yet please see me after class because I have your workbooks a number of you picked him up last week but otherwise please see me but regardless of whether you have one or not please open your Bibles to Joshua one that’s where we’re going to be starting our study today Joshua one looking at verses 1 to 9 this is really our main passage today a little bit of background before we read it at this point Israel has finished its 40 years of wandering in the wilderness now Joshua is about to lead Israel into Canaan just as God had originally intended joshua has been Moses’s helper up to this point and was with the original group of spies that 38 years earlier had gone into Canaan but as part of the previous generation why didn’t Joshua die in the wilderness do you remember because he was a faithful spy when 12 spies were sent 10 gave a bad report Israel and to gave a good report urging Israel to obey God and Joshua was one of them and therefore God made an exception for Joshua and Caleb none of the previous generation 1 enter except Joshua and Caleb why isn’t Moses or Aaron leading the people into the Promised Land because after all at that time of the spies they stood up and urged Israel to obey with Joshua and Caleb why is Joshua leaning and not either Moses or Aaron right that’s interesting I I’ll just repeat your comment talking about how how Moses represents the law and it’s not through Moses that one obtains the promised land God ordained that would be through Joshua or Yeshua I’m Joshua and Jesus his names are very similar or even the same so there’s like a symbolic reason why God ordained through Joshua I have to think more about that but there’s a there’s a more practical reason why it’s not Moses but it is Joshua yeah Judy that’s right you may remember that Moses and Aaron sinned in front of all the people and refused to give glory to God Israel was once again without water and God said you and erin go before the people speak to the rock and i’ll provide water but what happens is that not only does moses not speak to the rock he strikes the rock but even as he does so he gives glory to himself by saying shall we talking about Moses and Aaron shall we provide water for you and God says because you’ve done this and refused to give me the honor you will not see the land neither of you or you will not go into the land he wanted to make sure that his holiness was properly regarded by the people and not mr. Jeff not misrepresented by what Moses and Aaron did so they did not go into the Promised Land both died before this point here in Joshua one God did allow Moses to see the promised land however before dying and he even used Moses to lead Israel into its first military victories against the people of the land under Moses Israel annihilated two kingdoms on the eastern side of the Jordan you may remember that Jordan is the Jordan River on the eastern side of the land of Canaan there were some people’s already living there who came out to battle against Israel and Moses or rather Israel under Moses’s leadership they annihilated those people and that land was settled later settled by some of the Israelite tribes but Moses is gone he had functioned as the leader of Israel he was a he had a special relationship to God but he’s now dead and Joshua is to be the next leader he was called out by God’s be the next leader but would he be a good leader would he be able to do all that Moses did and would he succeed where Moses failed the great burden of God’s people had fallen onto the shoulders of Joshua but before Joshua Leeds Israel in conquest against the strong people of the land remember they’re still just as strong 40 years later as they were previously they still have their fortresses there are large cities but before Joshua even sets out God has words for Joshua and that’s what we’re going to read now in chapter 1 verses 19 so follow along with me first one now came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of nun Moses servant saying Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise cross this Jordan you and all this people to the land which I’m giving to them to the sons of Israel every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon even as far as the great lip the great river the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the Sun will be your territory no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life just as I have been with Moses I will be with you I will not fail you or forsake you be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful too do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go right pretty pretty awesome section here let’s start as we do always in our analysis of scripture with some basic observations let’s see what’s in the text God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses where exactly is Israel at this point they’re right next to something getting ready to cross it the Jordan River God says to him in verse to cross this Jordan so they’re on the side of the Jordan they’re right next the Jordan River looking west into the Promised Land O God reminds Joshua that God Himself is giving the land to Israel God also reminds Joshua what are the extent of the land of Israel the extent of their inheritance Israel southern extent will be the wilderness the desert how far north will Israel’s land extend Lebanon up to Lebanon that will be the extent of their northern land holdings how far east to thee to the great river the river Euphrates and how far to the west think I heard a couple of you people mentioning it the Great Sea the Mediterranean Sea so he reminds them of this huge amount of land that is all being given to Israel and he had said these things before now God gives number or gives Joshua a number of promises in this section specifically in verse 5 how many promises does God give Joshua how many promises we might be able to stretch it into four but definitely three and we’ll know each one of those promises he says no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life that’s one promise second promise i will just as I’ve been with Moses I will be with you God says I will be with you and then in the last part of verse 5 he says I will not fail you or forsake you what command does God repeat to Josh with three times in this section be strong and courageous one time he says very courageous and then the universe on the anniversary is kind of like a or the end of verse 9 is like another way to say it do not tremble or be dismayed so maybe we could say four times but really three times he says be strong and courageous what other commands has got to give Joshua here what’s another one Jay there are a number of things related to the law handed down to Moses you’re right shame he says be careful verse 7 be careful to do according to all the law and then he also says do not turn from it to the right or to the left do not let the law depart from your mouth now that’s a figure of speech God tells Josh with the law never ought to leave Joshua’s mouth what does God mean by this what is he saying to Joshua who says that long it should never leave your mouth how what does it mean have a law in his mouth yeah it’s about declaring I think you’re right also implicitly his holding to the law with what he says but declaring the law it says don’t stop doing that you should be declaring my law all the time and I think yeah that’s partly by teaching always be talking about always be holding to always be declaring God’s law with your mouth it should never the law should never leave your mouth never depart your mouth and then also as you said Shay he used to God commands him to meditate on it day and night and what does it mean to meditate on something just means to think about it right don’t think something super mystical here just means to think about to ponder in your mind to analyze something in order to better understand it that’s what it means to meditate Joshua’s told to ponder God’s law day and night or in other words when all the time all the time now why why the constant reading and thinking about God’s Word I mean couldn’t Josh would just read it once or twice and be good why day and night could he just read it once no he couldn’t why not what’s one reason Roy yeah we know even in the beginning the Old Testament we know how easily people are led astray from God we also know in the rest of the scriptures that the old nature the lust of the flesh there in us they can lead us astray from the word so we have to be refreshed in it what else yeah Danny yeah you have to exactly he has to know it really well if he’s gonna be careful to do what the law says he has to know it really well can’t just be something I got the gist of it no he has to know it’s super well which means constant attention to a constant reading constant thinking about it may forgotten something or maybe in this first couple of read throughs he may have missed something or maybe he didn’t have his deep of an understanding of a certain part of the law in his previous reading so by constantly going back to it reading it thinking about it talking about it he’s going to know it really well he’s going to understand it deeply and therefore he can be careful to do it those are some other important commands here God does also say do not tremble or be dismayed and he also tells The Joshua in the beginning cross the Jordan cross the Jordan with the people one final observation question I guess maybe two there’s some purpose clauses in here so sentences that give Joshua reason for why you should be doing something we’ve already noted one of them God tells Joshua to meditate on God’s law all the time so that Joshua will be careful to obey it there’s a reason you’re not just meditating on this to pass an exam or for fun that there is an aspect of joy to it it’s so that you will do it so that you will be careful to follow it totally but there’s another purpose clause in this section of scripture that is actually repeated a couple of times whatcha Joshua expect as a result of his careful observance of God’s commands yeah success verse 7 says success verse 8 says a prosperous on you will make your way prosperous and conversate also says verse 8 again says that you will have success other translations might say good success so there’s some purpose clauses in there that we want to note now we’ve made these observations let’s ask some interpretive questions now move on to the second step of analysis God commands Joshua to be strong and courageous but if we really think about that that’s kind of a weird command he’s commanding Joshua to feel a certain way or in his actions to have a certain characteristic about him strength and courage what will enable Joshua to be strong and courageous yeah Roy yeah ultimately we just say basically it’s because of his reliance on god and god has given joshua specific specific words that he can rely on what words verse 5 yea presented by God a number of promises on the basis of those promises be strong and courageous I’ll be with you I am giving you the land no one will be able to stand before you believe that if you do you’ll be strong and courageous and what else would motivate Josh would be strong and courageous as a result of his obedience you will receive you will see blessing here we’ll see if God’s promise provision and it will be blessed Joshua can be confident because God has given him promises and God has promised Joshua reward now does believe in God’s promises mean that Josh will no longer have any sort of temptation from his flesh to doubt God once he believes whip no more temptation Rob no no it doesn’t mean that rather it means that whether those tempting feelings are not whether the flesh as wait you can trust God look at the situation what it does mean is that because of God’s promises Joshua will choose not to believe what his flesh is telling him or what unwise counselors are telling him and he will instead my faith believe God’s Word he’ll believe God’s promises and believe what God offers for what action does God call Joshua to be strong and courageous as you need to be strong and courageous yeah Danny exactly I mean this is the original situation of approaching the land before right everyone’s like oh the people the land are too strong for us but God tells Joshua you want to be strong and courageous as you believe in me and you will be able to accomplish the task that is set before you this really difficult task that looks like it cannot be done be strong and courageous as you invade Canaan now is it possible for Joshua to obey God by being strong and courageous without actually invading Canaan no it’s not why not I mean God did just command him to feel a certain way couldn’t he just feel a certain way and then not necessarily do anything Danny ya know we know from the other scriptures that it’s not those who hear the word or who affirm certain things about the word who are justified as those who do it and let’s not kid ourselves when you believe something truly it changes you if Joshua really does believe God’s promises and is strong and courageous he therefore will obey God if he’s not willing to obey but he doesn’t believe because that belief automatically is going to produce action in him and this is true in general true belief is always accompanied by obedience where there is no righteous action there is no belief in God now in parallel to God’s command to cross over the Jordan and attack cannon God also command Joshua to be careful to obey all the law Moses we’ve already noted how Joshua will do this by reading by thinking about by talking about God’s law all the time God also gives the same motivation for that action as with crossing the Jordan and attacking Canaan namely the Lord will be with him and the Lord will bless him Joshua will be blessed he will have success he will know the right thing to do in each situation as he meditates on God’s law so we can see then that there’s actually a parallel between these two main commands from God to cross the Jordan attack and two met her and to be careful to do all of God’s law there’s like a sequence you have to know what God actually said what did God promise what did God declare then as a result of that Joshua is to become confident in god’s provision and because he’s confident he automatically obeys he obeys and as a result he receives what God promised he received God’s provision and reward as we’ll see and as you probably know Joshua does exactly what God commands him to do here he is strong and courageous as he leads Israel into Canaan in fact Joshua is one of the great examples of faith in the scriptures to my knowledge there’s no time where Joshua does something evil that’s recorded I’m sure he wasn’t completely perfect but he was someone who was consistently righteous he did pay careful attention to God’s Word he did meditate on it he did talk about it all the time by faith he obeyed God’s law and went into Canaan and conquered it you know this moment where God encourages Joshua with this call it was important for him but it’s also recorded it’s recorded in the Tanakh that is the Old Testament Scriptures Joshua under the guidance of the Holy Spirit wrote down these words from God why would he do that I mean God was just speaking to him why write it down what would be a purpose of that between exactly there are principles in what God says to Joshua that would be examples for others to follow all of Israel to follow the people of Israel are going to need to be strong and courageous themselves not just during Joshua’s time but after new challenges were going to arise more battles would need to be fought remember God says I’m not driving out all of them all at once because then the beast would become too numerous for you and we see later on the scriptures that God actually wanted those nations to stick around a little bit to test Israel to see you with it whether they would follow God or not more battles will need to be fought more actions we need to be done by faith so God directs Joshua to write this down for Israel telling them you need to hear understand and believe the Word of God through diligent steady you need to carefully obey God and then you need to wait patiently for God’s provision and blessing if it was an example for Israel then of course it is an example for us if you’re believer this morning then you must do you must follow the example of Joshua you must hear and believe the word of God as you subject yourself to steady instruction and meditation of God’s Word and how often are you to do that day and night it shouldn’t be departing from your mouth it should be so characteristic of you it should be happening all the time and as you believe the word that you’re subjecting yourself to you must carefully obey the commands of God as your habit it should be the pattern of your life and as you do that you must wait patiently for God’s provision and his reward because it will come so God is speaking to you and me this morning through Joshua commanding us to be strong and courageous and to obey what he has commanded us so let’s take a moment to ask ourselves ask yourself this morning are you doing this do you meditate on God’s Word day and night all the time are you thinking about it reading about it talking about it does the word of God not depart from your mouth are you careful to know to believe and to obey all that is written in God’s Word do you wait on God’s promise provision and blessing in your life because my brothers and sisters this is the Christian life this is what it means to be a Christian because we’ve come to believe God’s Word we love to steady it to know it to understand it and therefore to obey it as we believe and to receive God’s blessing just like Joshua righteousness was the pattern of his life is righteousness the pattern of our lives as we are informed by and permeated by the word do not excuse we must not excuse any habit of sin in our lives by saying oh it seems like I keep going back to the same sin but I’m covered by God’s grace I still believe do not excuse your lack of attention to the Bible by saying I know the important stuff already and I really need to learn more I don’t need a refresher no we see with Joshua that those who know God those who actually believed him are automatic naturally or it’s a it’s a logical natural outflow that they are marked by a lifestyle of meditation on God’s Word and by obedience it’s just what the Spirit does as it works to produce faith in God’s people yeah hmm right that’s that’s a worthy comment I’ll just repeat a little bit of what you said bill that specifically the success and the blessing that Joshua would receive involved a lot of physical blessings along with Israel he was going to actually inherit land and got a given israel number promises related to that land like they would never have droughts and they would never have disease and all their animals will never miss Carrie and things like that God hasn’t given us those specific promises but the principle of God bless his people and providing for them what is good and necessary for them is still true for us we will receive God’s blessing though it often is not in material form but we do receive the joy of the Lord we do receive God’s provision for the different needs of our lives and ultimately we receive eternal provision we receive covering for our sins and we receive the inheritance that is to come so yes so our challenge looks a little bit different where many of us are not actually going into battle but in terms of principle we do go into battle and again in terms of principle we are looking to God’s provision and reward just as Joshua was so we have to ask ourselves are we following Joshua’s example if we cannot or do not want to meditate on god’s word all the time believed God and obey Him then there’s no reason to think that we believe God at all no reason to think that we’re really a disciple of Christ because that’s what it means that’s what it means to be a believer true belief is always accompanied by a change life not perfection we’re not going to achieve that in his life but a consistent pattern of righteousness questions or comments so far yeah Roy yeah that’s right yeah thanks thanks for mentioning that we’re going to talk about actually some of those questions a little bit later on that are in the workbook but as you do see what God actually calls you to do according to his word you can’t take those light light they are his commands he has not suggested these things said oh you know that might be a good idea but he has called you to do them you may say well wait I thought the purpose of God’s commands was just a convicted of sin and and just make us covered by Christ well in a certain legal sense yes it’s to show you you can’t meet that standard but if you’ve come to believe in Jesus Christ and you’ve been in dwell by the Holy Spirit and you are now freed from slavery to sin and freed to slavery to righteousness you will now obey God you will do the things that you could not do before not to earn salvation not to achieve perfection and therefore gods favored but as the natural outworking of your love for God and faith in what He commands or faith in what he promises so you are going to be changed other questions or comments well Joshua is a great example for us of one who study God’s Word obeyed God and waited on God’s provision and blessing but there’s another example an even greater example let’s turn now to the New Testament briefly to Matthew chapter 4 you are probably familiar with this passage Matthew chapter 4 we’re going to look at verses 1 to 11 at one with a very similar name to Joshua Jesus himself verse 1 chapter 4 Matthew then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and after he had fasted forty days and forty nights he then became hungry and the tempter came and said to him if you are the son of God command that these stones become bread but he answered and said it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone jesus said to him on the other hand it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test again the devil took him to a very high mount and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said him all these things i will give you if you fall down and worship Me then jesus said to him go Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only then the devil left him and behold angels came and began to minister to him we won’t study this passage as much in depth but some quick observations when and where does this event take place when in Jesus’s life exactly right after he was baptized by John Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted and these temptations come the ones written in the scriptures they come at the end of 40 days and nights of fasting Mary’s in the wilderness aka the desert very barren place wild place he’s fasted for 40 days and nights who approaches Jesus Satan is actually identified a couple different ways here the tempter and verse 3 is called the devil in verse 5 diabolus slanderer and Jesus calls him Satan in verse 10 Satanas accuser Satan attempts to cause Jesus to sin by tempting him and he gives him three specific temptations what characterizes Jesus response to these temptations exactly he quotes scripture he uses scripture and he uses the phrase it is written each time and Jesus not only quote scripture but he obviously knows it very well because he’s able to discern Satan’s misuse of Scripture to Satan quote scripture to but jesus knows it better than to fall for Satan’s twisting Jesus does not falter at all and his obedience and his belief in the father and how does God vindicate Jesus faith what happens at the end it Jesus does overcome the temptation but as Danny was just saying God sends angels to minister to Jesus I mean part of we know that Jesus was hungry at this time and that temptation to produce bread was basically jesus or satan set telling Jesus don’t wait on God to provide for you don’t trust God provide for you just do it yourself she says no I will trust the father I know that he is ordained this situation that he will provide at the right time and that’s exactly what God does in verse 11 angels come sent by the father to minister to Jesus needs I’m sure giving him food and refreshment so let’s interpret a little bit now we see the same thing with Jesus that we saw with Joshua jesus knows and believes the word of God obviously by art we’ll talk a little bit but about in a moment how he does that Jesus obeys God and then Jesus waits to receive God’s provision and reward and not only is he provided for in this passage but this is part of the life of obedience of Jesus that results in his greater exaltation his his uh his exaltation I’ll just leave it at that we can talk more about that another time but how does jesus no scripture he knows it obviously but how does he know it what do you think that’s right we might be surprised by that Jesus had to learn the wisdom of God they say but he is God well yes that’s true Jesus is the word of God incarnate as John chapter 1 says as God he was never not intimately acquainted with and aware of truth he never stopped being God and therefore he never stopped being totally one with truth however in his humanity it is right for us to say that Jesus still had to learn the wisdom of God and we can see specific evidence of this in the Bible where can we see that yeah Ron exactly exactly Luke chapter 2 you remember after that instance where Jesus is nearly lost by his parents they find him in the temple and what does Jesus doing he is listening and asking questions I think we often get that confused we think that he’s asking her but he’s testing them but he’s he’s listening and at the end of that passage and says that Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men so even though he’s always God and never loses his intimate connection with truth in his humanity he had to learn truth he had to meditate on it he had to devote himself to it just like you and me it was pleasing to God to have the Sun learn wisdom and study the Word of God that he might carefully observe all of God’s commands one other thing to note Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations here by quoting scripture well reciting scripture also deliver us from temptation let me word that a little bit more specifically well reciting scripture itself well that automatically deliver restaurant temptation it will not not by itself let’s not understand the words of Scripture are not like a spell or incantation it’s not like you just recite certain verses and all of a sudden that temptation just disappears your fleshly desires just suddenly dissipate but it is extremely important to know and be able to recite scripture to yourself because as you do so you are reminded of what God really says what is God’s right way and therefore you were given greater opportunity to believe and obey so by itself reciting scripture will not deliver you but it is helpful to recite scripture to bring it back to your mind so that you know what the right way is and you rien firmed it with what truth is so that you may believe but if you don’t believe it does not matter how much scripture you recite but as you recite you expose yourself to the mind of God once again and that should encourage you to believe right yeah I’ll repeat your comment we have to submit ourselves to scripture that’s that’s another way to describe what our belief is if we do not put ourselves under the scripture we do not submit to what it says what it calls us to do and what provision it promises and we will fail and we won’t receive the blessing yeah Duane hmm right yeah thank you for that comment we now repeat it so Jesus even points out by quoting the scriptures that man lives by the words of God man lives by God’s promises in God’s directions and it’s not just something he quotes but it’s something that it’s actually necessary for his life and his to characterize his life so yeah more than recitation here it is submitting to it is living by it’s putting yourself under it so even better than Joshua jesus is our example to follow not simply to aspire to as like an unreachable ideal but to actually imitate to actually do if you are follower Christ then you will naturally do or you I use natural in the sense that hopefully you’re not confused by that it is the it is the the outworking of what the Spirit does it’s just what happens if you really do follow Jesus if you really do believe you will do what he does you will believe what he believed Jesus loved to know God’s Word and know it well Jesus believed God’s Word as proven by his what his obedience remember belief and obedience they are always connected Jesus received God’s perfect provision and blessing enough for each day of ministry in his life and now in full as he sits at the right hand of the Father note the Sun did not rely on other sources of wisdom to show him the right way to walk he did not consult the most recent surveys or statistics or scientific claims Christ relied on the greatest source of wisdom the only infallible one God’s Word so let’s ask ourselves also this morning as we consider application remember interpretation always should lead to application are you like your Lord Jesus are you subjecting yourself continually to God’s Word or do you feel like you graduated it’s not important anymore do you rely more on other sources of so-called wisdom then you do God’s book of wisdom do you believe God’s Word as proven by your putting to death gladly patterns of sin in your life and therefore walking in patterns of obedience to help us appreciate these questions a little bit more we’re going to do an activity now that comes from the workbook if you have your workbooks turn the pages 12 and 13 might not be able to get through all of these at our time but we’ll least get through a few of them what we’re going to do here now is look at some life scenarios in which a believer would experience temptation to sin tempting what we want to do is for each situation we want to identify some scriptures that will show us the right way to go and motivate us to do so and then we’ll think about what it is that we what a believer should actually do now what a believer should do is somewhat maybe not that difficult to discern for each of these situations but I think will be useful for us to think about what scriptures are relevant and that will help in each one of these situations because if we are going to be like Jesus then we need to know the scriptures we need to be well prepared for any situation that we experience the first one I want to look at is actually situation number two this is the activity back it up pages 12 and 13 in your workbooks here’s the situation you’re running late for an important meeting because you hit the snooze button three times if you just go 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the interstate you just might make it besides everyone else is speeding so you probably won’t get pulled over what do you do again you might say well Dom here’s what I’m going to do but let’s think about the scripture what scriptures show us the right way to go here what’s one if you don’t know the chapter in verse that’s okay as long as you can think of the words maybe we can direct you to where that passage is very good what does Romans 13 describe for us okay that’s a very relevant principle here right Romans 13 127 is the whole passage but I’ll just read a couple of verses Romans 13 1 to 2 says every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for what’s the reason there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God therefore whoever resists Authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves there are other verses that say similar things Titus 3122 says remind them to be subject to rulers to authorities and second Peter 2 13 to 17 says submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution whether to the king is one of the authority which the governor sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right for such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men so let’s meditate on this a little bit why does God want us to obey and show honor to human governments and their rules why does it matter to God that you obey the speed limit yeah George yes the the most important reason is that by showing honor to the authorities you show honor to God because God put those authorities there the authorities are not perfect and some of their laws are not perfect but you have an opportunity and the calling to worship God by honoring the authorities it’s the same reason why children ought to obey their parents it’s because God set them up as authorities so when you honor them you want our God so that’s an important principle here and then along with that we heard from second Peter that when you do that you take away the occasion for people to slander you say oh look at those Christians they’re not very good citizens no actually you proved yourself to be an excellent citizen of course you don’t obey a government when it tells you to go against God’s Word so we see that principle but all their other biblical principles that are important here very good right right that’s like um yeah you even right now I’m not sure if I can I can think of a specific instance but we do know that throughout the Scriptures there’s the idea of what other people are doing well they’re walking according to the to a pattern of wickedness so we’re looking to them for an example is terrible idea there’s at least one and that will quote a little bit later I’ll bring it up right now talking about how we don’t do the same things at the Gentiles first Peter 4 verse 4 says this and all this they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you but they will give an account to him who’s ready to judge the living and the dead oh it’s a mark of a Christian that they don’t do what other what the Gentiles do with those who don’t know God too so there’s that we could also add here any the verses that talk about loving your neighbor John 1335 by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love from one another and in the Old Testament Leviticus 19 18 just quoting the latter half of it but you shall love your neighbor as yourself for I am the lord it is important to honor the authorities but it’s also important to love your neighbors the governing authorities set up speed limits that help keep people at help keep people safe therefore going many miles over the speed limit whether other people do it or not is unsafe for you and others and it could result in their hurt so it’s unkind to do that it’s not loving to do that finally the whole reason that one would be tempted to speed has to do with another temptation or has to do with another issue and that is worried you’re worried that if you do not make it on time to this meeting that somehow everything is going to go wrong you might just you get under the displeasure of your boss or lose the certain project or maybe even get fired so say I have to do it I know it’s wrong but I think God understands what scriptures should show us that no we don’t need to worry is there one that you can think of Danny yeah the Sermon on the Mount talked about it not too long ago Matthew 6 Jesus says multiple times in that passage do not worry for this reason for that reason for this reason God takes care of the birds of the field God takes care of the lilies other or the flowers of the field and they’re not that important but he delights to do it will he not take care of you if you’re more important to him and Jesus ends that passage Matthew 6 34 by saying so do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself each day has enough trouble of its own the pressure to disobey the law is there because of anxiety the doubt of whether God will take care of you he’ll be able to take care of you if you come under the displeasure of your boss but remember God is able to provide whether your boss is pleased or displeased whether you are fired or not fired like Joshua he says I will prosper your way i will give you success i will give you what you need and we’re talking about the principle for us we’ll give us whatever we’re what we need for our situations we’re going to say bill yeah yeah that’s a that’s another issue that we get into you could say well even if you messed up well what do you do after that yeah we would also talk about scriptures relevant to hitting the snooze button three times and the preparation that you can do so you don’t have to do that anyways but the number of scriptural principles here that are all helpful for showing us the right way we know what the right thing to do here is if you believe God’s Word and our follower of Christ you will obey the law you’ll drive safely and in consideration of others and you’ll trust God with the outcome you’ll trust God with your job let’s look briefly at one other one and we have known the number that we could choose from I was one here about gossip there’s another here about worship when you’re not subjecting yourself to the gathering of believers let’s look at this last one number five will have to do this kind of quickly while among a group of friends and acquaintances someone suggests the whole group should go see a certain movie you’ve heard that the movie contains violence and nudity and you say you don’t think you want to go well someone in the group asks what are you one of those Jesus followers who can’t go to the movies what do you do maybe they won’t say it that way but they may say something like it what are some relevant scriptures here yeah that’s yeah we definitely what we’re thinking about what yeah we’re thinking about what the right thing to do here is we know that honesty is part of it and right so let’s think about what some scriptures would be relevant for us here this has multiple parts to it just like the first question what’s a relevant Scripture exactly we do know the Scriptures tell us that looking on a woman with lust is the same as committing adultery but someone might say oh it doesn’t affect me or I’ll just be I’ll just look away when that comes up what scripture might help us redirect that person if adultery of the heart really matters if it’s serious to God or we see that it is serious to god it’s so serious that what does the scripture commandos are we going to say Dwayne effusions 5325 but immorality or impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among saints and there must be no filthiness in silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks there’s another verse there that’s relevant but it’s consistent with believers to keep or to make sure that there’s no impurity among them in fact they don’t even go near it proverbs 58 speaking of the adulterous woman keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house first Corinthians 6 18 flee in morality every other sin that a man commits is outside the body but the immoral man sins against his own body and Psalm 101 324 i will set no worthless thing before my eyes I hate the work of those who fall away it shall not fasten its grip on me a perverse heart shall depart from me i will know no evil it is folly to say oh I’ll just I’ll subject myself to that area of temptation but I won’t fall you know it God says if you really want to a big on you know if there’s a temptation coming you won’t go near it we’re going to save I’m yeah that’s a that’s a good verse Rob mentioning them blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god it’s not simply that you know that something terrible could happen that is you could be led into lust and so you stay away from it but it’s because you want the precious thing which is to see God to continue to walk with the Lord and receive His blessing yeah so that verse from Matthew is helpful that’s one aspect of this question which is you know that scripture says you are to keep yourself as far away from immorality as possible and if you don’t think that nudity represents the temptation immorality then you’re not thinking that is the harlots house oh it’s just a movie but that’s real nudity or it doesn’t even have to be real it could just be the computer generated and it would accomplish the same thing of course there’s another part to this question which is not being ashamed of Christ I’ll just mention one versed Jesus says Matthew 10 32 to 33 therefore everyone who confesses me before men I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven so as you were saying Donna I think we know what the right thing for the believer to do is here scripture emboldened us it shows us which is yes confess yourself to be a Jesus follower take the opportunity to give testimony to Christ and don’t go don’t go and if fellow believers are urging you to go or wondering why you won’t go explain to him explain to them what it is about the movie that would dishonor Christ and that would cause believers to stumble so that they too would not be led astray I encourage you to look at the other situations and think through those as well because if you’re not able to think of scriptures that be relevant for those situations or maybe you’re like I think there’s something but I don’t really know it and more encouragement for you to get in that word Joshua and Jesus show us that we should be meditating on it all the time so that we are careful to do it if you want to talk more about these situations that we mentioned please come see me afterwards we’re out of time for today but our memory verse a new memory verse is part of the passage we studied Joshua 1829 where God says we’re memorizing at a New King James Version the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in a day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it but 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 don’t be dismayed but the Lord your God is with you wherever you go next week look at Rahab my conquest of Jericho that’s bright father your word is sweet and precious Lord it hurts my heart to think of that bad teaching that urges believers are they can just continue in patterns of sin and God’s grace will cover them they can just rebel and how forgiving you are no Lord you make it so clear that those who believe and you follow you they will obey you that’s how they show their belief and you’ve enabled us to do that not so that we can become perfect in the sense that your son is perfect we can never do that but patterns of righteousness you freed us up to that they characterize believers so God I pray that you would move in your people to actually do what your word says to love it to meditate on it to study it and to believe it Jesus name Amen