A FEW YEARS BACK, when I was still serving as pastor at another church, we had two visitors show up at our church, a father and his son. These guys are from British Columbia in Canada, and they were on a road trip through the southern states. They are both men of God, and there was no question in their minds but that, come Sunday morning, wherever they happened to be on their journey, they would be in church. As it turns out, Sunday morning found them at our church.
Following worship, I had an opportunity to visit briefly but nevertheless at some depth with the dad. I learned that he has a passion for seeing young adults come to the Lord and grow in their faith. He told me that, every Saturday night, he has a Bible study in his home, and a growing group of twenty-somethings show up to be mentored by this man, who, by the way, is probably in his 60s or 70s. Neither he nor his son is an ordained minister. They are laymen who have a sense of urgency about discipling others. And what they have done is, they have pressed upon those they are discipling the importance of growth in Christ. And they have identified four areas in which they aim to help young people grow. These four areas are abiding in God’s Word, prayer, killing sin, and giving your life away.
As I listened to the dad describe what he urges upon these young men and women, I was taken with the clarity and simplicity of it. “Of course,” I thought to myself, “how obvious this all is. This is what we all ought to be working on all the time. These are the basics.” I might add one more, which would have to do with Christian community or fellowship, but that is probably a by-product of pursuing the other priorities. If we’re studying the Bible together and praying together and helping one another defeat sin and if we’re giving our lives away in the service of God and others, we’re going to experience community—genuine, life-transforming community.
What it amounts to is that this man has a plan for growing in Christ. And it struck me that we don’t grow in Christ without a plan. We don’t accidentally slip into Christian maturity. And if we’re not growing, it’s because we don’t have an agenda for growth. So, what I want to do is: If God should grant me the opportunity and if you are agreeable, the times I am with you I want to look at these four areas.. And the first one, the first part of the plan, is abiding in the Word.
Now, notice: I didn’t say, “Reading the Bible” or even “studying the Bible.” Of course, you can’t abide in God’s Word without reading it and studying it, but we need to go deeper. We need to abide in it. We need to immerse ourselves in Scripture so that we are drenched in it, so that its outlook and its principles seep down into us at the cellular level, so that it becomes a part of our DNA.
That’s what God is telling Joshua here in chapter 1: “This Book of the Law”—that is, the Word of God—“shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night” (v. 8). What God is talking about here is total immersion in the Bible, so that the very structures of my thinking, the way I view the world, my whole being is shaped by Scripture. Scripture becomes the lens through which I see the world. It becomes the filter through which every thought passes. This is essential. The Word of God is essential to growth in Christ.
And so, we need to abide in God’s Word. We need to read it up, soak it in, and live it out. But why? Is it really that important? The Book of Joshua says it is, and it gives us three reasons. The first is: The Word of God gives us purpose for living. The second is: The Word of God gives us assurance for living. And the third is: The Word of God gives us direction for living.
I. THE WORD OF GOD GIVES US PURPOSE FOR LIVING | Joshua 1:1-4
The first reason, then for abiding in the Word is this: The Word of God gives us purpose for living. And that’s important to keep in mind, because it’s easy to lose our sense of purpose.
Some Things in Life Change (vv. 1-2)
And why is that? It’s because some things in life change. I heard an ad on the radio one day that started with the words, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” We’ve all heard that, but then the announcer went on to say, “There’s one other thing we may be certain about, and that is change.” And it’s true, isn’t it? Things change.
They certainly did for Joshua and the Israelites. You will recall that God’s people were unjustly enslaved in Egypt, but God called Moses to lead them out of slavery and to guide them through the wilderness to the Promised Land. But it wasn’t Moses who led the people into the Promised Land. In fact, he died before the people made their entrance. That’s what we read in verses 1 and 2: “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead.” That meant that things had changed. Now the job of leading the people was in the hands of Joshua. The Lord said to Joshua, “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.”
Someone once said, “All change brings grief.” And it does. And sometimes it brings fear. Did you notice, as we read this passage, that God says repeatedly to Joshua, “Be…courageous…. Do not be frightened.” Because we are sometimes. The bigger the change, the more likely it is to be so.
Some Things in Life Never Change (vv. 3-4)
But look. While some things do change, some things never change. And what never changes is God’s purpose in our lives.
What was God’s purpose in Joshua’s life and in the lives of the people of ancient Israel? It was to give them the land that He promised. And whatever else changed, that wasn’t going to change. Look at what God tells Joshua in verse 3. He says, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.” You see, it would be just as God had promised.
And what does that mean for you? It means the same thing. Everything that God has promised you—His purpose for you—will come to pass. He will deliver on His promise. So, in Philippians 1:6 we read, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” No matter what else changes, that won’t change. In fact, God will use all the changes in your life to accomplish His purposes for you and through you. You may not see just how He is doing that, but I assure you, that’s exactly what He’s doing.
You would never know that—or, more importantly, you would never be persuaded of that—without abiding in God’s Word. Because, if you’re not looking at your life through the lens of Scripture, if you’re not abiding in God’s Word, when things do change—and when they change for what seems to be the worse—you will panic or lose heart or get discouraged or be afraid. But if you’re abiding in the Word, you know that, no matter what else changes, God is working His purposes out, and you don’t have to be afraid. You can be confident.
II. THE WORD OF GOD GIVES US ASSURANCE FOR LIVING | Joshua 1:5-6, 9
And that brings us to the second reason for abiding in the Word. We’ve seen that the Word of God gives us purpose in living, and now we see that the Word of God gives us assurance for living. And that translates into confidence—confidence before others and confidence before God.
We Are Assured of Confidence Before Others (vv. 5a-6, 9a)
Look at the first part of verse 5. The Lord says to Joshua, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.” There is always plenty of opposition to God’s agenda, and if you’re pursuing God’s plan, there will be people who will not like it. And they may not like you. And in some instances they may oppose you or even try to prevent you or derail you.
It’s then that you will be assured by what God promises in His Word: “No man shall be able to stand before you.” That’s doesn’t mean that you will always win or prevail. You won’t. Joshua and the Israelites certainly didn’t. Neither did any of the other people we meet in the pages of the Bible. It doesn’t mean that, but what it does mean is that God will always accomplish in you and through you exactly what He plans to do. He will even use your defeats, when they occur, to bring about His will.
We Are Assured of Confidence Before God (vv. 5b, 9b)
And you know that…how? You know it because of what God says in the last part of verse 5: “I will not leave you or forsake you.” And he reiterates that in the latter part of verse 9, where He says, “The LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” In other words, we are assured not only of confidence before others, but we are assured of confidence before God.
What difference does that make when your biblical principles are challenged at work or at school or even at home, or when you’re out with your friends? What difference does it make to be assured that God is with you? If you are abiding in the Word, then you have this confidence. If you’re not abiding in God’s Word, it will be like being on your own. You won’t have the confidence you need to stand firm—to “be strong and very courageous,” to know that you do not need to “be frightened” by challenges to your faith. But abide in God’s Word, and you will have the confidence and courage you need. You’re assured of it.
III. THE WORD OF GOD GIVES US DIRECTION FOR LIVING | Joshua 1:7-8
That brings us to the third reason for abiding in God’s Word: The Word of God gives us purpose for living. It gives us assurance for living. And it gives us direction for living. And, when we look to Scripture for direction, we learn two things: first, that the Word of God must have first place in our actions, and, second, it must have first place in our thoughts.
The Word of God Must Have First Place in Our Actions (vv. 7, 8b)
Look again at verse 7. The Lord said to Joshua, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.” What’s God saying? He’s saying that the Scriptures must have first place in our actions. We must behave according to the Word of God.
The Word of God Must Have First Place in Our Thoughts (v. 8a)
We must also believe according to the Word of God. So, in verse 8, God says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.” Put another way, the Word of God must have first place in our thoughts. We must meditate on Scripture. Not just read it. Not just study it. As important as those things are, they’re not enough. We must meditate on God’s Word.
And all that meditation is, is thinking—thinking about Scripture, thinking through Scripture, thinking about what Scripture says about my life. Now, don’t confuse biblical mediation with Eastern meditation. Eastern meditation is all about emptying the mind, but biblical meditation is about filling the mind. And when our minds are filled with God’s Word, we will have the direction we need for living.
The first part of any plan for growing in Christ is abiding in the Word. And we need to do that because, as Joshua 1 tells us, God’s Word gives us purpose for living; it gives us assurance for living; and it gives us direction for living. It’s not enough just to read the Bible, although that’s an important discipline. And it’s not enough simply to study Scripture, although that, too, is necessary. But we must go further. We must abide in God’s Word.
