Joshua 1:5-8 | Episode # 1210

June 5, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Joshua 1:4-8

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. We are in Joshua, chapter one, and we're working through Joshua. What a fun book. It's very hard for me to parse this out before we get started and decide how far I'm going to get with the Bible study because there's so much meat here that. Well, it just takes me. It takes me a minute to figure out in my own mind whether or not I want to really, how deep do go into it. The truth is, is that Joshua is full of teaching about how to live the Christian life. It is probably the book that takes a narrative story of what God is doing with his people and best translates to the New Testament in the sense of you can just take it and go, okay, there's a process, there's a process, there's a process. This is, this happened. And that is how we deal with different aspects of our walk with God. And you really see this right here in verse 5, because God begins the book of Joshua with a promise to him, and then he defines how to live out that promise. And so it is. I mean, that's basic Christianity. That's basic New Testament Christianity here back in Old Testament Joshua. And so it says, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Now, what God's promising is that nobody's going to be able to defeat him. He is going to be a conqueror. He is going to take the land that God has given him and he's going to be able to have all the places that he places his foot. He's going to be able to take Possession of the promises of God. And that's critical. Taking possession of the promises of God. Well, you're saying, well I thought that when God gave me a promise that he did, you know, he carried that promise out. I want you to hear me. Sometimes that's true, sometimes that, that is true. When God promises to redeem us, he does redeem us, we don't do anything for it. But when we're talking about the Spirit filled Christian life, there are conditional promises that are about that, that, that, that, that define it. And so the, the promises of Joshua about, about him taking everywhere he places his foot, by definition that promise is you got to place your foot somewhere. So it's a conditional promise. It, it has a condition built into it. I'm going to give you everywhere, but you got to place your foot everywhere. So it's got, both sides have got a duty in it, both sides have. It's really a contract from a legal sense. If you'll walk, if you'll take place your foot everywhere, I'll give it to you. And that is the classic contract. If you'll walk across this bridge, I'll pay you this much money. And if I begin to walk across that bridge and you tell me to come back, stop, come back, don't do it, you still have to pay me. Why? Because I began the process of walking across that bridge. I was beginning to live up to my, my, my side of the agreement. And so this is a promise that has a condition. And so he says, if you'll, if you'll take the land, nobody's going to be able to stand against you. Nobody's going to be able to take what you have. Nobody, nobody's, nobody's going to be able to stop you from having my promises. And by the way, that's an intensely New Testament Christian principle too, that those whom the Father gives me, no man takes away. What he's saying is the end result is a metaphysical guarantee. It is something that is guaranteed in the physical realm, in the world we live in, in the space time continuum that we operate in. When God makes a promise, it is true and yes and amen. And if it's a conditional promise, if we walk through it, he gives us all of it. And by the way, most of the promises of God that we seek, the big promises, the things that are really, really big, not the things that create the relationship. God does the things that create the relationship and those promises God carries out because we can't really create the relationship because we're separated from Him. And we have no ability to get there. But once we get there and have the relationship with him, most of the big things that God promises in scripture have a condition with them of us, well, trusting him, walking in faith. And that's what it says here. Be strong and of good courage. He's going to say this a lot. And by the way, it's always said a lot in the Pentateuch and we're now in Joshua. And it just intensifies in the book of Joshua. He says, be strong and of good courage. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. So he's saying, be strong and of good courage. Because having that strength, and that's not a strength that Joshua finds in himself. He's not telling you, be strong in yourself. What he's saying is, be strong in my promises. Be strong and of good courage. Meaning. Meaning I'm not only strengthened by what God says, but I'm courageous based off of what God has promised. Be strong and of good courage. For I'm going to give my promise that I made to your forefathers. I'm going to give it to their children. What he's saying is, I'm not only fulfilling the promise that I made to you and to Moses and to the children of Israel when I took them out of Egypt, but that's a fulfillment of a promise that's way back in the day, that's a fulfillment of promise that I made to their forefathers hundreds of years ago, four or five hundred years ago. So this, you know, if you go back to Abraham, maybe even 600 years ago. And so when we, when we, when we look at this, God says, be strong of your courage because I'm going to fulfill the promises to you. And in the process, I'm fulfilling the promises to your forefathers. I am fulfilling the promises. I'm continually filling, fulfilling the promises. Now, God gave the land, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they lived in it. And then he's given it back. And by the way, that's just for present tense. Once he gives it, it can't be taken back. Okay? It's a gift. And so even if they're. They're not there as a nation for a thousand years or 2,000 years, it's still theirs. And so he says, do not, he says, only be strong and very courageous. That you may observe. That you may observe to do according to the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn to it from the right hand or to the Left, that you may prosper wherever you go. Now, now notice he, he's. He's saying, okay, the condition is, is that you be strong and courageous in the promise and that you follow my word, that you hear my word, and that you follow my word. That seems like a new. Seems like some I might preach on Sunday morning, right? He says, do not turn for a minute to the right hand or to the left hand that you may prosper wherever you go. Don't, don't turn from my word because by the way, that's the only way that you know anything is by me revealing it to you, by my revelation to you. You can't have it any other way. And so you can't. You don't. You can't be turning from my word because my word is going to be the source of the revelation, the revealed promises that I've given you. He says the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe it to do according to all that's written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. Notice he's saying you've got to meditate. You've got to. You've got to ruminate in it. You've got to. You've got to. You've got to let it. You got to soak in it. You got to. You got to. And notice he didn't say own it, but you got to get into it. You got to dig into it. And if he says if you'll dig on to it, to it, it'll make you prosperous and then you will have good success. He's explaining, he's explaining that, that the promises of God, the things that. That God says in his word are going to bring about. They're going to. They're going to well up into you. Well, good success. They're going to. They're going to bring about a harvest. They're going to produce a product. They're going to. They're going to. They're going to ignite, ignite a truth, a power in you. And understanding that is important. Understanding, understanding that. That when we get to a conditional promise, most of the time the conditional promise is, is to obey his revelation. In fact, I'm trying to think in my head. I can't think of a conditional promise that doesn't require obedience to his revealed will. That's what revelation is. It's his revealed will. He's revealed his will to you. That might be a very Personal revelation. It might be a revelation that comes from His Word. It might be a revelation to his church. It might be a revelation that comes from his creation. Wherever revelation happens, God's revelation comes from what he made. We know that. That's a scriptural understanding that I've brought up many, many times. God's revelation comes through His Son. Obviously, he's the Word made flesh. And that's why God says we need to observe His Word, his law, his decrees. He's the fulfillment of all these things. We gotta observe those things. Okay, so obviously, Jesus is the specific revelation of God in Himself. And then you have the revelation that comes to us personally. And that would be derived from his general revelation in the world, his specific revelation of Himself. And then it would get down to the very core of things. Me personally, he would reveal himself and he would have a revealed will for me personally as I walk around and as I live my life. And if we do that, then we have the promises of God. And by the way, it's easier to be strong and courageous. It's easier to be that way. It kind of builds on itself. I read God's Word, I believe God's Word. I act upon God's word. I receive his promises. I'm strong and courageous because of it. My strength and courageousness causes me to seek His Word, seek His will, have his will, act upon his will, get the promises, which causes me to be more strong and courageous, which causes me to hear His Word, believe His Word, act upon his revealed will to me, and then I receive the promises. And that causes me to be what? More strong and courageous. You go, well, if it was that easy, why don't we just come up with a process? Well, is easy, and that is the process. But it's got to be carried out individually because you individually glorify Him. And so it's it. You got to work it out yourself in your own walk, because your own walk uniquely glorifies God. And that's what you do as a part of the process. So isn't a lot of fun. I think it is. I think. I think as the more I study this, the more it just. It just confirms everything that I know. And you know it's true. It's yes and amen. And it's relevant for today. A message given, you know, 3,000 years ago, 3,500 years ago is relevant for today. Isn't that a wonder and a beauty for us? As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.