Joshua 1:16-18 | Episode #1214

June 11, 2026

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

Joshua 1:16-18

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, chapter one, verses 16 through 18. We're dealing with the. Well, the Reubenites, the Gadites, the half tribe of Manasseh. They are the ones who had already settled the land on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Now, as the Jewish people, and many of y' all don't even know, really have a good understanding of the map. Basically, the Jewish people came into Israel as if they were in Georgia. If we're gonna deal with Georgia, Alabama, they came into the Promised Land from what would be in Georgia, and then they crossed the Chattahoochee river and came into Alabama. And Alabama would have been the Promised Land, if. If that's how you kind of correlate or you kind of understand how it happened. They came from what is now called Transjordan, but was already settled by the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. They came in, and then they crossed the Jordan river, and then they went into the Promised Land. Now, crossing the Jordan river is a picture of walking by faith in God's promises and receiving the full power of the Holy Spirit. The full power of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. As far as the church that's seen at Pentecost, it is a clear picture. Jesus, when he left them, he told them to tarry in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high. What he did was he said, stay here and wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon you in power. Really? And you go, well, is that when they got the. No, they received the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed on them in the upper room, which is another picture, Old Testament picture of when he formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. So you have the picture of when God breathed into Adam and made him a living creature. He had a spirit inside of him. And then that spirit dies. And then in the upper room he breathes on them and he says, receive ye the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes in and conceives in them a new spirit. And that's the picture. I'm not sure exactly who and how and all. Because you don't know all that. You don't know exactly who's born again and who's not born again and when that happens. In fact, the Bible quite clearly says it's hard to tell. The Holy Spirit's like the wind. You can tell it's here, but you don't know where it's coming from, where it's going, and you don't know exactly what it's done until you see it manifest itself in believers lives. And so understanding that these pictures we're working through and we're gonna spell out so that you can kind of see the work of God and the, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament kind of given us a picture of it in the Old Testament. And that's really what the book of Joshua is all about. And so one of the things that is really rudimentary, it's, it's just, it's just the, the, the basic important things to understand is, is that God does all this stuff that he's doing, all these things that he's doing that we talk about, all the wonderful things that he's doing to include giving us a spirit filled Christian life. All those things are done in the context of a relationship. God exists in a relationship. We live in relationship with him and we live in relationship with each other. And living out the Spirit filled Christian life, living out a life that is such that you know, you see, you understand, you walk with God is done also in the context of a relationship. It can't be done any other way. It's got to be done in the context of a personal relationship with God and a personal relationship with other believers. Because we do this as the church, we don't do this separately. Although your walk with God is very personal and separate. Okay. And his revelation to you is very individualistic and very personal. Okay. So I'm not discounting the personal aspect of your walk with God. That being said, we all come together as one body, as the church. And when that happens, there are certain gifts and there are certain offices, there are certain positions, there are certain ways this is done. And I don't want to discount this because oftentimes my ministry is very, my preaching, my teachings, very, very personal and individualistic. Because I believe that a person who gives in to the Holy Spirit, that gives in to God, that walks with God, a person that does that and does with, with a childlike faith in who God is, and a person who does that receiving all the knowledge and insight and wisdom. So they come as a child and they leave as a mature, understanding, growing believer. I believe that is those, those individuals who do that, they are powerfully placed in the world to change the world that we live in. I believe that. I believe that 100%. It's a important part of what I preach and teach. Once we do that, we do come together as a body, we come together as a church. And God has placed people in leadership positions. And one of the keys that you see in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and in Joshua, that whole process of God redeeming us out of Egypt and into the promised land. One of the things you see is God chooses a leader. He does, and he chooses leadership. And that's not something that is done based off of merit. In fact, I'm quite sure it's not done. God's original test is not done based on merit. Meaning you're somehow more special than someone else. It's not based on you having more of an anointing than anybody else. Because we all have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is based on God's divine will and his plan. And when that happens, the church is dynamically organized in such a way that God can maximize His Holy Spirit's power in his people when they come together and work together as a church. And he's the head of the church, but there are under shepherds, there are those who he's placed in charge in their physical, human existence. He's placed them in a position to lead. And when that happens, there's some important things that need to take place. When you recognize, and this is not just for our church or our setting, but it's for everyone down the road. When you recognize that somebody has been gifted and called by God for a leadership position and to lead because they innately do it by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can just see that they are moving in the direction of kingdom work. They're leading people, they're causing people to walk. And in that kingdom work. When you realize that, when you see that, well, you probably ought to respond as the Gadites and the Reubenites and the half tribe of Manasseh when they hear Joshua say, we're going to cross over. Y' all come, all you, all the mighty men, all the warriors, all the men of fighting age, y' all come and go with us and help us take the promised land because you've already received your inheritance. You come with us now. Oftentimes what happens in, in the world and what happens in a lot of churches is, well, you know, I've done that. And so now it's time for me to, to take a break. And, and, and let me tell you something. That is a heavy temptation that we get as we get older and older. Well, I've already done that, so I don't need to do that anymore. I've already been a part of that, so I'm not gonna invest in that, you know, so it's time for somebody else to step up and take. And let me say this. Sure, there's always a time for people to step up and take on greater roles. And in fact, if you're moving forward as a church and as a body of Christ, a local body of Christ, if that's going on, God's going to raise up people to do that, but he's not raising them up to replace you unless you're dead. He's raising them up for you to disciple so that they can take on a role that's going to be grown by God, something that he's going to do that's bigger and more than he's doing right now. So anytime you see leaders coming in, anytime you see people being raised up as leaders, when you see that happening, when you see the natural state of people rising up and doing the things that God has called them to do, and they, they innately, you can tell they have the gift of leadership by the Holy Spirit. Not a, not a human gift of leadership, but a spiritual gift of leadership that they lead spiritually, that people innately follow them because they, they chase after. When you realize that when you, when you, when you get that and that person is, is, is coming up, if you're a leader, you're supposed to help them expand their ministry because their ministry is going to expand the kingdom around you, and it's going to expand the work that's being done around you. They're not coming to take your place. Okay? Your place. I tell you, when your place is taken, your place is taken. When God gives you the, the final promotion. And that's the promotion to, to enter his kingd. We're not. We don't retire in the kingdom of God. We may retire from earthly work, and there's nothing wrong with that, praise God. But we don't retire from kingdom work. We do not retire. There's no, you know, I may, I may one day not be a judge. And when I'm not a judge, I'm sure not going to be a lawyer again. But, but I'm never not going to be a pastor, okay? Even when I'm incapable. If I was physically incapable of it would not mean that I was not a pastor, okay? That's just the way it is. And whatever you're gifting and whatever you're calling, whatever your ministry is, when you get older, it's still your call in your ministry. Now, if God wants to expand that ministry, and I pray he does, I pray he does, he's going to send people who, you may even say they're more capable than I, and they probably are, and praise God, that means he has honored you. You have worked beyond your capabilities. You've worked in the supernatural rather than the physical. And if that's the case, and he's sending people that are greater than you, that means you have done a great job at whatever kingdom work you've been involved in. Because he's sending people that are clearly going to expand it because you have been faithful in doing what you've done. We don't retire in the ministry. And we also take on the mindset of those who Joshua called. Notice what they say. So they answered Joshua saying, all that you command us, we will do. Notice we're following you, he says, and wherever you send us, we will go. What a powerful statement that is. That what they're saying is, we know you are called by God to lead us, and we are going to follow you wherever you go. Now, they're going to put. They're going to put some, some fences around that they're going to make sure he understands that there's, there's some preconditions to that. And those preconditions are found in 1718. Just as he. We heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. What he's saying is we're going to follow you, just like we followed Moses. And that's the kind of leadership we need. And not only that, that's the kind of followership, that's the kind of people that build big kingdom work. They say, we followed Moses, we're going to follow you. And that's critical for the kingdom to really be advanced and for you to benefit the most from the Spirit filled Christian life that God's given you, is that you be under strong leadership and that you follow strong leadership and that if you're called to leadership, that you follow after those who have gone before you. And let me tell you something, I've been behind a, I followed in many positions in many places. I've followed some really good leaders and it's nothing like it because they usually have laid a framework and a foundation that is. Well, it's just cool to be in. It's cool to be able to operate in because, you know, they have done the hard work and now I get to come in and reap the benefits. What a wonderful opportunity that is, a kingdom opportunity that is. And so when I follow somebody else in a leadership role that has done a great job, boy, I love to talk about what a great job they've done because they make it easy for me. It says, just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we'll heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. And what they're saying is, we want God to be with you just as much as he is with Moses. And let me say this, that's an important point of view to have when you're dealing with the people who are leading you in the church and in the body of Christ. If you're living the Spirit filled Christ Christian life, you want them to be living it out, you want them to be working it out and you want them to be walking in it. And you want them to have all the goodness that comes from it. And he's saying, I want, they say, I want the Lord to be with you as he is he, as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words and all that you command him shall be put to death. Now they're hardcore about this. They're saying, if they don't follow you, we're putting them out. And let me say this, that's important. That's an important mindset for the Spirit filled Christian life. If you're going to take the kingdom, you can't have folks undermining what God's doing. You can't have that. And, and, and any, any army that's not solid in its command structure is going to fail. And we've seen that, we've seen that throughout history and we've seen any organization that's not solid in its, in its leadership structure, it's going to fail. And if, if, if you clearly see God is moving in it, and you clearly see that the Holy Spirit's leading you to be a part of it, you need to get in and get a part of it. You don't need to sit on the sidelines. You need to join and you need to do what God has commanded you to do. Because when God speaks by his spirit to his people, well, that's, that's a important, important time in the life. And we have that opportunity every Sunday for God to speak and for us to hear and to move forward. He says only, and this is all they ask of, all they ask of Joshua only be strong and of good courage. What he said, what they're saying is you use your gift and you use them in strength and be courageous about it. If you'll be strong and of good courage, we're going to follow you. And you really need to learn that as an aspect of ministry. Also, if you see God moving in a leadership structure, if you see God moving in a body of believers and you clearly see that the anointing of God's on the leadership, then you need to take that point of view about them, that you're going to follow them and you're going to allow them to be all that they can be because you're backing them. And all you should ask for them is that they be strong, they strongly use their spiritual gifts, they use them completely and strongly and powerfully and that they be courageous, be of good courage, be of sound or valuable courage, and that they not back down from what God has given them to do. When we do these things as individual believers, when we do these things in the Spirit filled Christian life, and then when we come together under the leadership that God has placed over us, when we do that together, great things happen in the kingdom and when we don't, we miss out on them. And that's one of those things that probably everybody needs to hear and needs to understand and needs to know. It's a great importance for your Christian walk. Not just that you walk with God. That is really, really important. Remember, that's one of those things I talk about all the time. But ultimately, when you come together as body of believers, you got to choose to walk in the fullness of what God has for you. And the way that's done is done with other believers in the context of our spiritual relationships. And the only way that's done is that you follow the strong leadership that he's giving you. 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.