Spiritual Success

Pastor Esther Tham
23 & 24 September 2023

Today, we would like to look at the Book of Joshua, chapter one.

From Exodus chapter 3 to Deuteronomy chapter 34 (the whole book of Deuteronomy), the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Bible focuses on the ministry of Moses, God’s chosen servant to lead Israel. But Joshua chapter 1, mentioned that Moses died. And a new servant of the Lord will take his place.

Joshua was born into slavery in Egypt and was given the name Hoshea. Moses later changed his name to Joshua. Joshua belonged to the tribe of Ephraim and was the firstborn son of Nun.

He witnessed several signs and wonders that God performed, and he knew that God cared for His people.

One was where the Lord parted the Red Sea, closed the waters, and drowned in the Egyptian army. Joshua was a man of faith who knew the Lord and trusted Him to do wonders for His people.

Throughout that wilderness journey, God was preparing Joshua for his ministry as successor to Moses. Thus, when Moses preparing to die, he asked God to give his people a leader, and God appointed Joshua.

God spent many years preparing Joshua for his calling. Joshua was not randomly selected to lead but he was aware that this was coming.

Many passages in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy tell us how Joshua was prepared. Despite the training, mentoring, and learning, we know that the secret to Joshua’s success was his faith in the Word of God (Joshua 1:7-9), its commandments, and its promises.

Now, let’s turn to the Book of Joshua chapter 1, verses one to eight.

Joshua 1:1-8,
¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ² “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them – to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates (U Phre Tis) – all the Hittite (Hit Tide) country – to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
⁶ “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

In this passage that we just read, I will focus mainly on one verse, which is verse 8,

“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” The title for today’s sermon is Spiritual Success.

Success. This morning, I have this very simple question for us. What does it mean to be successful?

There are three definitions from the Oxford Dictionary. First meaning: The fact that you have achieved something that you want and have been trying to do or get. Second meaning: the fact of becoming rich or famous or of getting a high social position. Third meaning: A person or thing that has achieved a good result and been successful.

Who wants to be successful?

Children, youth, students, young adults, and older people. We all want to be successful. Students want to be successful in their studies, and adults want to be successful in their careers.

In everything that we do, we want to have achievement and accomplishment. Then, how do we define success? Would it be graded? Would it be in our possession? Would it be our status or our social status?

Joshua 1 verses 1 through 8 serve as a reminder to us to really think about what it really means to have success spiritually. It is not wrong to want to be successful in life. It is a blessing, a wonderful blessing from God. Jesus never said that material wealth or earthly blessings were bad.

Instead, He wants us to think about how we use the material blessings He gives and be good stewards of those blessings.

Taking King Saul as an example, in 1 Samuel 9:2, “He (referring to King Saul’s father, Kish) had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.

1 Samuel chapter nine verse two describes King Saul as a handsome young man, there was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than him.

He was the tallest among the people. You imagine this: a tall young man, handsome, who says there is no other man in Israel who is more handsome than him.

So, King Saul is the most handsome person, tall, probably strong, and muscular. And he was wealthy. He was a king; King Saul had everything. 

If we look at him from our perspective, Saul had it all – he had the look, he had the body build, he had money, he had material possessions, and he had power. If you will him, what more can you ask for? What more would you want than what Saul already had? We look at Saul, the person most people wish they would be like. Handsome, tall, and wealthy, he has the power. He is the king of Israel. Stood tall with a striking appearance. He is known for his courage and generosity, too. Saul’s life from the perception of the people, the outward perspective, had success. He had it all.

But here, 1 Samuel 15:23 says this, “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

King Saul had everything that the world would probably desire, yet, God had already rejected him. Saul had everything, but he didn’t have God. Therefore, his life was not successful. God had rejected Saul, and from just looking at Saul, many of us would define that as success, yet everything without God is a failure. Everything we could accomplish, but without God in it, it is a failure. God desire us to live a life that is prosperous and successful. Then, how do we live a life that is prosperous and successful in the Lord?

The first is to be obedient to the word. God desires obedience from our hearts, not mere religious rituals.

1. Be obedient to the Word

Joshua 1:8, ^“Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Here, God gave Joshua a commandment; it is also a commandment God is giving to us: we are to be guided by the Word of God and God’s commandments. Then, now we need to ask ourselves: are we being guided by God’s commandments? Are we being guided by God’s Word? The verse says, do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, do not; this is an instruction, a command.

For example, having children is a great joy. They give us great joy. They make you laugh; they make you smile. Even when we want to sleep longer on a weekend or public holiday, they come and wake us up at 6 a.m. We still feel worth it with their hugs and kisses. It is a great joy to have children, but there are times when they just drive us crazy.

As parents, we tell our children that they always need to listen to Daddy and Mommy. When we, as parents, tell our children not to climb up the table. The next moment, you will see our children start exploring and climbing up the table. Our normal reaction, when we see our child climbing up a table, we say, stop, do not climb! Do not do that. As parents, we say a lot of these phrases to our children, do not cross the street by your own, do not fight, do not make noise. We use a lot of do not. Parents want the best for their child. We want what is best for them.

We want them to listen, and we want them to be the best children in the whole world, probably it won’t happen but we still wish. We parents want them to be better. Same, God desires for us to be the best we can be, but surely not in the worldly sense.

The world tells us what the best is and what success is, it is measured by the material, status, possession and so on. But for God, being followers of Christ is to know Christ, that Christ is the Lord. God desires us in the same ways, He desires us to be followers of Christ and walk a deeper walk with Him. And that starts with being obedient to the Word.

Joshua who now was the great commander of Israel, was to be guided and completely governed by the Book of the Law. It is not just maybe, not only govern 50% of the time, but for Joshua, he needs to do it wholeheartedly. 100% to be guided by it.

Just like using GPS, when we need to go to a place, but do not know the direction, we will simply follow the GPS leading us to where we want to go. Likewise, for us, our lives, it has to be God who guides us and leads us. Listening to His voice, guided by it, and following it.

A verse before this, Joshua 1:7, “God tells Joshua do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that he may have good success wherever he goes.”

Here, simply remind us that don’t get distracted, be focused on the goal, be a leader who is obedient to the Word, and lead the people of Israel into the promised land. We easily get distracted, and it will cause us to be further away from the Word of God. Thus, we need to be free from this distraction of our lives, and faithfully trust and be led by God in our obedience. Let us faithfully walk in our obedience to God. God desires for us to live a life that is prosperous and successful in Him.

1 John 5:13-14, “¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if you ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Here it tells us to be confident in Jesus Christ and his Word. That is why the pulpit is in the middle at the front of the sanctuary because it is a symbol of saying it’s God Word that we are attaching ourselves, it is God’s Word that is leading us. We need to have confidence in God’s Word, which leads us to obey His Word.

If we talk about our experiences in real life, we might say that we have a tough time being confident about anything because we can’t simply trust anybody. In one or another, we have been through such situations, that have led us down.

That has made us disappointed and started not to trust anyone. If we are true to ourselves, we have to confess that we ourselves in one way or another have also damaged other people’s confidence by our words, by our actions. We are all here today, not because we have perfected ourselves but because we trust that God is gradually perfecting us, sanctifying us.

We can have confidence in Jesus. We trust that God continues to renew us; redeem us and sanctify us. Ultimately, there is only one word which is reliable and that must be God’s Word. Only one person is reliable, and that is Jesus Christ Himself. He alone is trustworthy.

That is why we worship Him, we read the Bible, and we pray. Continue to trust in Jesus to lead us to spiritual success. Spiritual success requires not only a commitment to Christ, and His will but also a measure of confidence in Christ. Hence, when we are confident in His Word. it leads us to also meditate on the Word of God.

2. Meditate on the Word of God

The first part of verse 8, tells us to meditate on it day and night. This is something that many of us struggle with. How are we going to find time in our busy schedule, not just to read the Bible, but to pray, to soak ourselves in the goal and the Word of God.

We are reminded here to read the Word of God, to meditate on it and to soak inside the scriptures. It was important for Joshua to meditate on the book of the Law, day and night. So do we.

The Hebrews word of meditate means to mutter, it was a practice of the Jews mentioned in the Book of Acts chapter 8, to read aloud. And to talk about it to themselves and to one another. This is why, here God warned Joshua that the book of law was not to depart from his mouth in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. Day and night, it does not mean that it is 24 hours a day, and if we think of it 24 hours a day, it will kind of scare us.

But here, it means to always have God’s Word on our minds. Joshua needs to understand the importance of meditating on the book of the Law, day in and day out to really be able to continue to think about what God want from him, and how to lead the people of Israel to be obedient, to be faithful.

The excuse that many of us sometimes give is that we just don’t have time, where our day is already full, already packed. We have no time. For students, they have classes, then extra classes, and the school’s extracurricular activities. For adults, we might say, we work all day, have back-to-back meetings, have children to manage, and always run errands, even to the extent of lack of sleep. For retirees probably, we

might say, I have many things to catch up on, I have too much to do; I need to help my children manage their home while they are at work. If we are true to ourselves, if we look back, and reflect, it is not the lack of time, but of heart for the things of God, to set our priorities right. I am not pointing fingers at anyone, I myself sometimes feel guilty about it too, but today, may this message remind us, you and me to set our priorities right.

Here, we read that for Joshua to succeed and to be prosperous, and spiritually successful, he needed to have a heart for the things of God. Joshua understood what most occupies the heart will engage the mind for our thoughts always follow our affections.

King David writes, in Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

David knew what it meant to live a life that was prosperous and successful, and Joshua understood the same too. Hence, today, let us be encouraged to know it too.

I would like to quickly list down a few ways for us to spend time with God.

These are just serves as some of the ways, and the list is not exhaustive.

a) wait on God in a quiet place – prepare ourselves to listen to God’s Word

b) start with prayer – asking God to clear our minds, no distractions

c) read the Bible – for example, we can follow a Bible reading plan

d) meditate on it, the Scripture – spending time thinking about what we just read, any conviction, is there anything that caught our attention Example:

Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Psalm 107:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

When we go through trials, we can meditate verses to bring us through.

Proverb 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

We can also,

e) keep a journal – writing down what we just read, what God is saying to us, to remember how God is teaching us, and working in our lives

f) pray and listen – asking God for His help – to put that into practice in our lives

g) we are to be doers of the Word

3. Doers of the Word

Joshua 1: 8, also tell us that you may be careful to do everything written in it.

In this verse, first, do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, then it continues saying to meditate on it day and night, now it says so that we may be careful to do everything written in it.

To be prosperous and successful on the Lord, we ought to be doers of the Word. For example, just like when we want to learn to play badminton, we read books, and manuals written by experts in badminton, that teach you tactics and ways.

We will also watch badminton game matches, to learn the playing tactics. All this will just be head knowledge if you don’t go down to the court to start playing. We can learn all about badminton, but it will remain as head knowledge if we don’t start playing. You need to go down to the badminton court to start playing, to practice. We have the theory, and the same time, to master the game, we need practical too.

Likewise, reading the Bible, we can read the Bible day and night, 10 hours a day, it gives us the head knowledge, we know who Jesus is, His miracles, His sacrifice, His nature, His character and so on, but if we don’t put it into practice, it is just the head knowledge.

We need to become the doers of the Word. We become people who practice. As followers of Christ, we are to put into practice what we have learned and to meditate the Word. Sometimes, we pick and choose what we like to do. And we do what benefits us at that particular moment.

However, the Bible is very clear, it tells us that is to do everything written in it. It is not just a little part of the Word, but all that is written on it. We are called not to be just audience of His Word, but also to be the participants of His Word. How incredible is that when we are obedient, we meditate, and become doers of the Word. And we faithfully follow Christ, and then other people are impacted by our lives, and they come to know Christ and they sing praises and honour to God Almighty for eternity.

1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The purpose of worship is that we might become more and more like Jesus in His character and conduct. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 tells us about some instructions for living our day more like Christ. There are a few verses in the chapter, chapter 5 before verse 23, that I would like to quickly reference that can shape us to be more like Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 (11 verses), “Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. ¹³ Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ¹⁴ And I urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. ¹⁵ Make sure that nobody pays back wrong from wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. ¹⁶ Be joyful always; ¹⁷ pray continually; ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ¹⁹ Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; ²⁰ do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹ Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²² Avoid every kind of evil.”

Then come the verse we read in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is telling us that there is something that we need to practice, and God in the process is sanctifying us making us able to live holy lives. When we are obedient, we meditate and become doers of the Word that we live a life that is prosperous and successful spiritually.

The world thinks that prosperity and success come from having power, status, money and influence. But to gain real prosperity and success in the Lord, God taught Joshua to be against these thoughts on what the world thinks.

Romans 8 guides us in this direction too. That says, God’s purpose is to work out everything according to his will for our good and for His glory. That is why we pursue holy living, righteousness, our commitment to God’s glory.Spiritual success happens only if that is our objective, our purpose as God guides us according to His will.

2 Corinthians 6:1, “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.”

We are fellow workers, co-workers, and co-labourer with our divine marker, our creator, the One who redeems us. So we are cooperating partners with Christ Jesus. We are on His team, doing what he is doing, He is the decision-maker, and we follow what he has asked us to do.

We are the ambassadors of Christ. This is a high honour. Majority of us have been employees of different companies, and we all know that when a company has an employee who is bad-mouthing that company, usually will not be in the company for long. We know that as employees, we are employed to work for that company, to work hard for the company to make the company successful. That is also how we regard our life as Christian.

So, let us give our best doing the work of fellow workers with Christ. Cooperating as a partner with Christ.  It is a blessing to be able to do that. The verse says, “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.”

In the life of believers, prosperity and success are not to be measured by the standard of the world. The world standard of prosperous and success is the pursuit

of money and possession; pleasure experiences and power over others and recognition or desire for popularity.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

In all our achievements, and accomplishments, our feelings are temporary. Our security and self-worth are not found in these accomplishments, in these achievements. Another pathway to our spiritual success is contentment. Be content. Be grateful for everything God has given us. Be content does not mean that we are lazy, or lack back.

That doesn’t mean that we are not pursuing the causes of Christ.  Be confident in Jesus, and committed to the will of God, we are cooperating partners with Christ. God says, to succeed spiritually, to be strong and courageous because the road ahead is not easy, do not be discouraged, then be obedient, obey the book of law and constantly study the book of the law and finally be doers of the Word.

Joshua chapter 1 puts us in the right direction, who God’s people should be. We want to strive to be like Jesus. To follow Jesus in His footsteps. We are redeemed for a purpose and a cause. To have spiritual success in the Lord.

Roger Youderian a missionary, once said,

“I must read the Bible to know God’s will. At every point, I will obey and I will die to self. I will be alive unto God. That I may learn to love Him with my heart, mind, soul and body.”

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon shows us that we should enjoy life, but this does not exempt us from obeying God’s commandments. To end, may this verse written by Solomon, who normally we refer him as the wisest man in the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

We must work toward the single purpose of knowing God, and may we be spiritually successful in the Lord. May His Word characterize our speech, control our thoughts and direct our behaviours. May the Lord be praised in our lives.

This is His goodness for all of us, as His people. Being successful is not wrong. God is the giver of all things. But at the same time, when we have success in life, we are not to neglect the spiritual success in the Lord. God measures success differently than the world does.

The biblical success that pleases and glorifies God is being known by Him and knowing and serving through faith in Jesus Christ. Obedient to His Word, we meditate and become doers of the Word so that we live a life that is prosperous and successful in the Lord. Amen.