How to find success that will last

Irvington Bible Baptist Church

For today’s encouraging word, we will be in Joshua, chapter one. We will read about the first nine verses You see something here in these first nine verses, and specifically at the end of verse eight, there in Joshua chapter one, we’ll build up to it and get down there to it, But here you have where the Lord tells Joshua: then thou shalt have good success.

the idea of being successful

People are. Overly preoccupied with the idea of being successful. And I mean, you go to the bookstore and you get reams and reams and reams of books on how to be successful and what success means and all those types of things. I have numerous books that I have. I have one shelf of my bookcase, maybe two. I think it’s this one, though, right now, but I have another bookcase in my office at work. It’s got stuff on it too, about how to be successful, you know, in business and how to lead people properly and, and all these kinds of things. And I’ve read books, you know, that are mostly, you know, allegorical or whatever. And I’ve read books that are, just like, you know, basically like reading a textbook or what have you, and all this stuff. It’s a success, success, success, success. We, as people, are just overly occupied with success and how to become successful, and what it means to be successful.

Success comes up once in the Bible.

I’ll just tell you that, you know, God’s not all that concerned about your success. You say? Well, what do you mean by that? I mean. He mentions it once in the entire Bible. Success comes up once in the Bible. That’s it. One time. Now I’m going to talk about what it’s going to take for you to be successful. Having said everything that I just said. But my point is, that the overreaching theme of the Bible is not, how you can be successful. The bottom line is if you want to be successful, you need to follow the book.

Spoiler Alert!

Spoiler alert, If you follow the book, you’ll be successful. You can go home now. You can’t, That was a joke. You can’t go home. We’ll chase you. I won’t chase you because I don’t run. I have other ways of making sure you don’t get away. But somebody will chase you. But my wife Catherine was watching this goofy show yesterday over at my mom’s house. Maybe my mom was watching, and Catherine was just a victim, but I don’t think so.

There’s some, Christmas story about some old guy who had a Christmas tree farm, but he doesn’t actually sell the trees. He gives them away for free because his dearly departed wife thought that everybody in the world should have a free Christmas tree. So they got millions of trees on this farm.

And there’s this family that’s down and out. This dad lost his job, got another job, lost that job, lost like 3 or 4 jobs. He’s just like a loser. You know, lost everything. Homeless doesn’t have anywhere to go. And this tree farm guy, you know, invites them onto the property and into his house and all this stuff. And early on in the show, I said, look, here’s what’s going to happen. The old guy is going to give them the house. He’s going to give them the farm. The only thing they’re going to have to do is they have to continue giving away Christmas trees for free. Change the channel. But oh no, we have to watch the whole thing. And what happens? The old man dies. He leaves them the farm. They have to continue to give away Christmas trees for free. I could have saved her two hours of her life, Spoiler alert. But, The journey is fun.

Joshua 1:1

1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,

That’s something good to be remembered for, being the servant of the Lord. There are lots of things that Moses could have been remembered for, that the Lord could have remembered Moses for, and not all of them good. But the way the Lord puts this and leaves it is that the thing for him to be mostly remembered for is that he was a servant of the Lord.

Joshua 1:2

2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

Maybe. The politicians the UN and the media. All of them ought to read that verse.

Joshua 1:3–9

3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.

7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

We are already victors in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God clues Joshua in on a few things here and by extension, he clues us in on a few things here as well. He clues Joshua into some things that Joshua needed to know because he was now the leader of God’s people. And there are some things he needed to know about that. The Lord tells Joshua that everywhere that he would walk, everywhere that he would step whatever land his foot touched, that God had already given it to him. He tells him that in verse three.

Now we know today to to apply this to ourselves. Devotionally or what have you? We know that we’re already victors in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that if we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we trust him and only him for our salvation, that we are saved. We have Heaven as our home. Is done. It’s finished. Jesus said when he was hanging on the cross, it is finished. He didn’t say it is started. Tag in. It’s your turn. It’s not a tag team championship. He said it is finished. It’s a done deal.

You have everything that you need to be successful.

God tells Joshua here that he can’t be defeated. And sometimes You might feel like you’ve been defeated, but you can’t be defeated. You already have the victory. Christians all the time walk around like they’re just beat up and torn down and oh, life is so awful. Life is so terrible. And you look at their Facebook posts and their Twitter or “X” posts, I don’t even know what you’re supposed to call it anymore. Everything is just so awful and terrible and my life is just in ruins and life isn’t fair. And my boss is mean to me and I’m not making what I should be making and join the club. Big deal.

But you know what? we’re supposed to be presenting To the world that we have something that they don’t have. But most Christians don’t. Most Christians social media posts, and conversations with their coworkers friends, and everybody. Show that they are no different than anybody else.

We’re supposed to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. But nobody can ever see that there is any such hope that they’re going to ask us where it comes from, because you forgot that you have everything that you need to be successful.

You forgot that you can’t be defeated. You forgot that you already have the victory. So I just want to remind you of that today. God said in order to have success. You need to speak, think about, and obey God’s Word. And if you do those things, you will have success.

Are you going to have success the way the world measures success? Maybe. Or maybe not. But if not, just hold on because they’re going to change their definition in a few weeks anyway. Because they have to change their definition.Because their definition of success isn’t based on a final authority. It’s not based on anything solid. It’s based on society, and it’s based on all these feelings and how much money is or isn’t in the bank and all those kinds of things.

Our success is based on a final authority. And if we will follow that, if we’ll read it, if we’ll meditate upon it, we’ll think about it. If we’ll obey the things that it says. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. What James said, if we’ll obey it; Then the Lord will show you His definition of success. And at the end of the day. That’s the only one that matters.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.

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