Joshua 23:1-5 | Episode #1256

August 10. 2026

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

Joshua 23:1-5

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 to. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Joshua, chapter 23. Only two chapters left. Hope to be finished with this book by the end of the year, and then we'll be off to Judges at the start of the year. So it's actually gonna be really, really a cool time because we'll be doing Judges in the morning and then we'll have four Friday nights where we'll go through one Timothy and we'll get in a deep dive into God's message through a mentor to a mentee, Timothy being mentored by the apostle Paul as to how to lead, about leadership and about the church and how the church operates and how to deal with issues in the body. Looking forward to Judges, which is really the book in the Old Testament that is about the church age. In fact, the key verse in the Book of Judges is each man did what was right in his own eyes. And what that is speaking of is being led by the Holy Spirit and the autonomy of the believer. Each believer has their own relationship with God, and each believer has to navigate that relationship with God on their own so that they glorify God uniquely. So you've got a lot going on as far as that's concerned. Now we're in Joshua, chapter 23, and this is Joshua. Well, the book's about to be over, and so Joshua is about to be. Well, he's about to pass from the scene, and so this is his farewell address. This is where he. He gives instructions to the children of Israel before he moves on to His. Well, his reward. And so it says now it came to pass, verse one. A long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies. Roundabout, this means that this was a long time after they had gone in and occupied the land. So Joshua got to enjoy being a part of the occupation of the land and got to enjoy the rest that came from it. And remember, rest is not sleeping here. Rest is the peace of God. It is the result of walking and trusting in God. It is the rest that we have, knowing that God is in control and in charge now that does not obfuscate us from doing his will. It's not a rest such that I do not do the works of righteousness, meaning the works of faith that God has for me. That's not what's going on. It is a rest that is ultimately from God about me doing his ways and will and experiencing his peace and goodness that come from that. And so it says, and Joshua called for all Israel, for all the elders, for all the heads, for all the judges and for all the officers and said to them, I am old, advanced in age. Now notice Joshua says to him, I'm old. These things are getting to the time of the end for me. Now. It's not the time of the end for God's plan. It's not the time of the end for what God's going to be doing, but it is the time of the end for him. And so he says, I am old, advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. What he's saying is you've seen what's happened. You've seen what's going on with all these nations. For the Lord your God is he who fought for you. You've seen what God's done. You have experienced the movement of God in your life. You've seen what God has prepared for you. Now that is a picture of the Spirit filled Christian life. You get to actually experience the work of God around you and through you in the world you live in. He's saying that they have experienced the spirit filled Christian life. They know what it is to see the hand of God at work. He says, and God has fault for you. This is not just a situation where you've been struggling alone. God has been doing the fighting, you have been advancing. God has been winning the victories. You're a result of the clear will of God and the clear work of God. And that's what he's saying here. See, I've divided to you by a lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes. What he's saying is, I've given you the land and I've given you structure. I've done my job. My job was to take the land and my job was to give structure to the people so that the nation could continue past me. By the way, that's what most believers are supposed to do. That's what we're in the business of doing, right? We're in the business of doing things that last far beyond us. We're in the business of building not only an inheritance, but glorifying God in that inheritance. We're building an inheritance in the kingdom. And he says, the Lord's fault for you and you're experiencing the things that God has done. And you have done it by your righteousness, by your faith. See, I've divided it by you to the nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I've cut off as far as the great sea westward. So it's from the Jordan all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. And that's the land that God had given them through Joshua. Now the Reubenites and Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh were on the other side of the Jordan river. And Moses gave them that land. And so Joshua had taken what we know to be Israel today. He'd taken most of what is modern day Israel today. And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out, all out of your sight. Now remember, not all the tribes had totally subdued the land. Not all the tribes had, had gotten rid of the people that lived in the land. And you go, well, you know, you gotta leave something. No, you don't have to leave them. They practiced a form of paganism that God would not, would not even entertain, allowing to be around his people. And so this is a, there is, there is an element of warning here. And that element of warning is that God's saying, you got to keep driving them out, you got to get rid of them. He says, the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out. Which means that the work of taking the promised land is a continual work. The work of the spirit filled Christian life is not a work that has an end to it. You need to continue to be expelling. And that which is fully expelled is yours. But that which is not is what is next for you to be able to experience and to take. And so he says, so you shall possess their land. As the Lord God promised you. Now we first, in order to really experience the Christian spirit filled Christian life is you got to know what your promises are. You gotta know what the biblical promises are. That gives us a foundation for God's will for us. You've got to read and intake God's word in such a way that it resonates with your spirit and that you begin to in your soul, your mind, your sukho. Your mind begins to know the promises of God. Then those promises are applied directly to the life that you live. And you have to. After you've laid the foundation of the promises, you have to. Well, you have to. You have to see how God is making those applicable to you, how, how he applies them in your life. And once you've done that, you have to begin to walk in his promises applicable to you as your promises and take them. And that's what Joshua is saying. That's what this book's all been about. Taking the promises of God, taking what God has promised you. And that's a lifelong process. But if you get to work on it today, then you're going to begin to reap the benefits of it soon thereafter, if not tomorrow. You've got to begin to know the promises of God, learn from the leadership of the Holy Spirit, how those promises apply to you, how they work out in your context, who you are, where you're at. And then you have to exercise them and expel that which is not from God and experience him in his fullness. If you don't do that, you're just treading water. You're just back where you began when you were converted, when you turned to God. There must be an advancement in the kingdom. And if you're not advancing, you're slowly sliding back to your conversion. Okay, that's where it all began. You're slowly sliding back to the time when you actually had your heart and mind turned toward God. But when you're advancing, you are changing things. You are building God's treasure, His benefits in your life. You're taking the land and you're glorifying Him. That's what it's all about. And that's what Joshua is saying here. He's going to give some more instructions. We're going to go over those instructions for sure tomorrow and, well, maybe even the next day. And then we'll see what he has to say about the end. And then we'll be done with the book of Joshua. 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.