Sermon Tone Analysis

Obedience to Brings Success in Life

God defined success for Joshua and the nation of Israel.

Success for them was to give the land promised by God.

This was going to be difficult because there were many obstacles in their way and the odds were stacked against them.

Obstacle 1 They had a new leader that had not proven himself and was not sure he could effectively lead and the people were not comfortable with at the time He was commanded to take possession of the land

Obstacle 2 They were going into a land that they were not familiar with to take possession of it.

If they were going to take possession of it they would need to know the lay of the land so they could strategically position themselves to conquer the land.

They had never been there, so they did not know the lay of the land .

The people that lived in the land knew it and how to defend it.

Obstacle 3 They were going to take possession of a land that someone else didn’t want them to have.

They were going to fight against the Israelites to keep possession of the land.

God defines success for us.

God desires us to take possession of our promise land.

The promise land for us is eternal life in Heaven.

There are obstacles in our way.

Obstacle 1 We have the wrong leader in our lives.

Our leader is self.

If we try to get to heaven on our own we will fall woefully short.

We must transition leadership of our lives from self to Christ.

This is done by repenting of sin and trusting in Christ for forgiveness of sin and salvation.

Obstacle 2 This is going to cause you to walk into territory that you are not familiar with.

You are use to the life you live and comfortable where you are.

When you come to know Christ as your Savior your life will radically change.

Not only will you stop doing things that are not pleasing to the Lord, But you will begin doing things that are pleasing to the Lord.

This is the exciting Christian life!

God calls you out of your comfort zone and puts you into a God zone that will bring about victory in your life.

Obstacle 3 There is an enemy that want to keep you from taking possession of the land that God has for you.

He will attack you by telling you that you are not good enough.

He will manipulate you to think that you are Okay with God, when you have never trusted Christ.

He will use pride and what others may think about you if you give your life to Christ.

He uses fear to keep you from the promise of God.

Do according to all the law of Moses and do not turn from the right or to the left.

If the Israelites were going to have victory and success they had to do what God commanded Moses for the people to do.

As long as they were doing what the Lord commanded they would not suffer defeat.

They would continue to have victory by following the instructions of the Lord.

We to have victory in the Lord when we follow the instructions of the Lord.

Confessing Jesus as your Lord is repenting of your sin and making Jesus Lord of your life.

Believing God raided Him from the dead means you receive the forgiveness and salvation that He provides from His resurrection.

Continued Obedience Brings Continued Success.

You shall meditate on it day and night.

The law of the Lord at this time was Genesis through Deuteronomy that Moses had written.

It was Joshua’s responsibility to read it, understand it, live it, and teach it.

In order to do this He had to meditate on it day and night.

Meditate- to meditate (religious) v. — to think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes.

Meditating on Scripture is more than reading and comprehending.

It is to think deeply on the true meaning of the Scripture and how it is suppose to change you.

This takes time and effort.

It is kind of like solving a problem.

You identify the problem and think deeply of a solution to correct the problem.

We are to engage God’s Word daily.

We should seek the original meaning of the author and how that meaning should apply to us.

It is one thing to look at scripture, understand the principle taught, and say that applies to someone else; it is something totally different to engage God’s Word and say this is God’s instructions for my life, I will understand that it is appropriate for me, so I will obey it.

Life is about the choices you make, not the choices other’s make.

You can choose to meditate on God’s Word and have peace in the midst of your circumstance or neglect His Word and try to figure things out on your own and find that your road is rocky.

You will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.

Living God’s word will make one successful and prosperous.

This is not always materially speaking.

Obedience to God affords you opportunity to experience God.

Obedience brings about tangibility of God.

When you engage in the commandments of God you experience the promise of God that come with the obedience of the commandment.

The Lord will be with the Obedient

Whenever the people were obedient to the Lord they found themselves unstoppable.

As a matter of fact you will find the Lord fighting a lot of the battles for the Israelites.

It is when they became disobedient to God that they would find themselves defeated.

It is not because God had left them, but that they had left God.

Friend where are you with God this morning?

Are you experiencing his wonderful presence in your life and the success that comes with it or are does God seem distant or even non-existent in your life?

I have great news for you this morning if God seem distant or non-existent.