Cling to the Lord - Joshua 23

I have this memory as a child, I was probably maybe six, seven, eight years old. I don't remember the exact age. Someone had given me a $10 bill as a gift. Now it would have been the late '70s, and we were on our way to Kmart. Late '70s you're a six, seven year old boy with a $10 bill walking into a Kmart, you are a king. And I was so excited about what I was going to spend my $10 on them. I was probably thinking, I probably headed that time of my life, I was probably headed to the Star Wars action figure section of the toy department at Kmart with my $10 bill. excited to buy a brand new toy. Driving down the road, we didn't have air conditioning back then. Many of you remember those days. Had all the windows down. It was a hot summer day, and for some dumb reason I had my $10 bill out the window like this, just watching it flutter in the wind. You know, We didn't have car seats and worried about the backseat. You just climbed all over the place, you know, back then, and I was just hanging out the window with my $10 bill, and sure enough, the wind tucked, pulled it out of my hand and off my $10 bill win out of the neighborhood somewhere. I hollered, my mom stopped, we turned around, we went back, we never found it. But that gift that I was so excited about was suddenly gone because of my carelessness, because of my carelessness, my inability to hang on to that gift that I was so excited about. today, we're going to be in Joshua chapter 23, and we're going to see the risk that the Israelites faced of losing the promised land God had given them if they got careless, if they got careless. The Israelites had been given this gift, God had promised this thing land. He'd led them to this land, he'd given them victory in the land And now the land has been divided among the tribes. Joshua is at the end of his life. He's going to give them a final challengeenge in chapter 23, another one next week in chapter 24, and he's going to challenge them to cling to the Lord cling to the Lord, lest they risk losing what he had given them. You could risk losing this if you do not cling to him. Joshua chapter 23 is where we are today. You say, "Wait a minute, weren't we just in Joshua chapter 14 last week? We were. You say, "Why did you skip from 14 all the way to 23? Well, take time to read it, and you'll see why. You should read it, all right? I'm not suggesting you skip over parts of the Bible. If you've been reading the Bible with us this year, you've already read through the bookook of Joshua, our reading plan, but it would be pretty doll preaching for the next several weeks if we walked slowly between chapter 14 and chapter 23, because here's what happens. What has happened now, they're in the land, and now Joshua is going to divide up the land He's going to say, "To this tribe, you guys are going to get from this river to this river and this tribe, you're going to get from that mountain to that city. And it's kind of like, it's exciting reading for Old Testament scholars, but most of you would be pretty bored if we spent the next few weeks walking through that. So we're're going to skip to the end. You go back and read that to see what we're skipping over. But what you'll see when you read that is the land has now been divided among the tribe the tribes. After a series of victories, a strong foothold in the land has been established, the wide spread battle campaign was over. The land has been distributed, yet there's still going to be pockets of resistance. I was thinking about if you continue reading the story out of Joshua, continue you to read through the Old Testament? You'll see how there's these little battles and conflicts that continue to pop up. It's not over at this point. I was reminded of the war in Iraq that our country went through back from 2003 to 2001. If you remember history during that time, they marched into Iraq and looked like victory was achieved. It was a strong foothold, the invasion was successful. And a couple of months after the war started, if you remember, then President George Bush declared victory. I think the banner said mission accomplished or something that he declared. But then for another eight years there was still conflictflicts. We were still losing soldiers. We were still facing pockets of resistance in the country, even though the massive campaign appeared to be over. That's kind of what we have here. They swept into the country. There was a massive victory, there was a strong foothold, but they're going to face pockets of resistance, and Joshua's going to say, "Here's what you need to do, to hold on to the Lord, to cling to the Lord our God in the face of resistance, in the face of temptation in the face of idolatry in the land. Here's what you have to do to remain in the land that God has promised you. So the book ends much the same way it begins. If you were to compare chapter one of Joshua to chapter 23 of Joshua, you're going to see a ton of common themes. For example, it opened in chapter 1, verse 3. God says, every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon. I've given you. I'm going to give you every place you go in this land. Chapter 23 verse 9, "The Lord has driven out before you the great and strong nation. So what was promised in chapter 1 has been delivered in chapter 2. In chapter 1 verse 5, "No man shall be able to stand before you In chapter 23, verse 9, "No man has been able to stand before you. Just what I promised I've delivered on. In chapter 1, the Lord, your God is providing you a place of rest." In chapter 23, verse 1,The Lord has given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies. So now what? Now what? He gave us victory, he's given us the land, no one was able to stand before us. We have now the opportunity for rest in the land. Josh was going to say to them, "Don't mess this up. Don't mess this up. You can get careless, and you can foolishly put at risk what God has given you. He stands before the people and gives them a farewell address. begins at at verse 1, a long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua was summoned to all Israel. Its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, "I am now old and well advanced in years." It opens with the phrase a long time afterwards. So a lot of times has passed, probably about 30 years have passed from when they first marched into the land in the beginning of Joshua, to where we are now in chapter 23. It took us a few weeks. It took them about 30 years for that time to elapse. Joshua tells us now that he's old and well advanced in years. We'll learn next week in chapter 24, that he's going to die at the age of 110. And so he summons them together, knowing that he's at the end of his life to give them some final challenges. Final words are powerful. If you've ever lost a loved one, you might remember the last conversation you had with that person. And those last words they shared with you are very memorable and very powerful as you think about it. What makes final words even more powerful are final words when you know they are your final words At some point, I'll get to preach my last sermon. And I don't know when that will be. And you might remember, I remember the last sermon he preached. If I knew this were my last sermon, imagine what I would be thinking if I knew this is the last time. So this is Joshua's mindset. I'm at the end of my life and I got one more chance to challenge. You're going to get one more next week. We've got two farewell addresses that we're putting together here. At the end of a long and full life. And what a full life it was. I was thinking about my great grandmother. She lived to be 103. She died just shy of Joshua's length of 110. But she was born in 1898, and she died in 2001, and not only does she have a long life, her life spanned three centuries. That was pretty cool. She got to see the 1800s. She didn't remember much of it And she saw the 2000s, she didn't know much about what was going on then either. But she got to experience three centuries of life. Joshua's life of 110 years has spanned a lot of significant events. Think about this. He would have been born in bondage in Egypt. His beginning of his life goes all the way back to when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt If you go back and read the story in the book of Exodus, how God raised up Moseses to lead his people out of bondage and the plagues that came upon Egypt. Joshua would have been alive during that. Joshua would have been one of the first people to step foot into the promised land, when they first got to the edge of it. If you remember the story there, there were some spies, Joshua being one, who said,Let's go and take the land." Others, though, said, "No, we're not going to be able to do it, the people are too big, the walls are too big." And so Joshua hung out in the wilderness for 40 years and watched the unfaithful generation die out one by one. And then Joshua, when the unfaithful generation has died out, he's allowed to now go into land. So he's seen the Exodus, he's seen the wandering in the desert, and now he has seen the entry into the promised land, the victory of the promised land. He's reached the end of a full life and he said, "Guys, God has done so much from releasing us in slavery, to the wandering in the wilderness, to the victory in the land, don't scream this up now." He likely feared that his life's work could be in vain if they failed to keep the covenant. If they failed to keep their the law of God, they could forfoot the promises of God. And so he assembles the nation together to give them one final challenge to be faithful to the Lord. Put him first. Live faithfully before him. Keep his word, love him with all your heart lest we lose our grip on this gift God has given us. Verse three, you've seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. Here he begins to remind them of all that the Lord had done for them, how he had fought for them. He'd given them victory And he's calling them now to remember God's faithfulness, to motivate their obedience to the Lord. verse 4, Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes, those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I've already cut off from the Jordan to the great sea in the west. The Lord, your God will push them back before you and give them and drive them out of your sight, and you shall possess their land just as the Lord, your God promised you. Again, previous chapters, he's divided up the land. Here he's sin, the Lord has pushed them out He's given you the land, and now you get to possess the land that God has promised you. What he's going to say is, "When I depart, I do not want this all to be in vain." He's going to lay out for them in these following verses, the keys to complete and sustained victory in the land, and right at the center of it. We're going to skip down to verse. Right at the center of it, right at the center, in the middle of his speech, we find the heart of his message, the essence of his message, and that as he says, cling to the law, your God. cling to the Lord, your God, just as you have done to this day. The God has been faithful in the past. God's going to remain faithful in the future. Our responsibility is to remain faithful to Him. He's delivered on his promise We must not forfeit it, and we must stay true to him. What does it look like to cling to the Lord? That's what we're going to answer this morning, to look at Joshua's farewell address. He's going to say several things about what it looks like to cling to the Lord. I want you to see five five elements or five aspects of clinging to Lord. I want you to think of it, like the fingers and thumb on your hand. When you cling to something important, you cling to it with everything you have. You watch a little kid, you give a little kid a a helium filled balloon tied to a ribbon. And when they walk out of this building, if you gave that to them, they would cling to that thing with their entire hand, wouldn't they? They don't want that thing to slip loose. If young Matt would have clinged to his $10 bill with all of his fingers, first of all, maybe not hold it out the window, but even if you want to do that, hold on with everything you have. When you're walking with your child they' holding your hand and they get scared, they're going to cling to it with their entire hand. We want all five fingers five digits of our hand wrapped around the Lord here. We want to cling to the Lord. What does that look like? Number one, we cling to the Lord completely We cling to the Lord completely. Verse 6, Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, keep all of it. Do not deviate it deviate from it. Total, complete obedience to everything. Do not deviate, do not veer to the left, do not veer to the right Again, this is a theme that we started the book with, Joshua chapter 1, verse 7, 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. So again, just multiple times, 23, mirrors one, continue to stay true to all of it. Don't veer to the left to the right. Are you being completely obedient to the Word of God today? You know, we treat the Word of God sometimes like a self help manual that we get to go through it and pick the parts we like and ignore the parts we don't like. And you can do that with a lot of things. Maybe there's a financial financial expert that you listen to podcasts of or on the radio or you follow on social media and you say, wow, that advice is really good. I'm going to do that." And the next day, you say,Eh, I don't really like that advice. I'm not you have that luxury. Listen to advisors and use the stuff that they say is good and ignore the stuff that you don't think is good for you. Maybe with your health, maybe there's a fitness coach or a health coach that you listen to or follow. And you say, "Wow, that exercise would really work for me. That diet would really work for me. This thing, eh, not so much. That's fine. You pick the stuff you think will work for you, you ignore the stuff you don't think will work for you. You pick up a book and you read through a book about some selfhelp book, and you say, "I I really like chapter 2, I'd really help me. Chapter 3, I don't think I like that so much. You have that luxury. Here's the deal You don't have that luxury with the word of God. You don't get to come to the Word of God and say, "Ooh, I really like that verse. I'm going to apply that verse.Ah, I don't so much like that part, I'm going to ignore that part. We're to do, look at verse 6, all, all that is written in the book of the law mostly you've seen, complete obedience Don't pick out the parts you like and ignore the parts you don't like. He also says, don't deviate from it. We need to stay locked in and focused on all that the word of God is calling us to do. You know, the old expression, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. You know, that expression? It's true with the Bible. You don't get to go, "Oh, I'll get kind of close to how God wants me to live." If you would have stood here and I said, " walk in a straight line from here to that exit sign, and you kept your eyes fixed on that exit sign, and you walked in a straight line, you'd get right where I told you to go. If you say, " I'm going to move just like one degree this way just that slight. You may not even might even be noticeable standing right here, but over time, when you begin to walk, you're going to find you're far from that exit sign by the time you get to that back wall. One little adjustment, and we're going to end up far from where God wants us to be. We must daily have a focused commitment on the Word of God, in his Word daily, seeking to hear him daily, seeking to obey Him daily, so that we might not turn to the left or the right. Let me ask you this morning, is there an area of compromise in your life today where you veered from the Word of God where you'd say, "Hey, I do pretty good with this part of it, not so good with this part of it." I got kind of close to doing what he wants, but I've veered a little to the left, a little to the right. Are you clinging to the Lord completely today, fully devoted to all that His Word has set before you? Second, he calls us on them to cling to the Lord courageously, looking at verse 6, how it begins. Bee very strong. Be very strong to keep and to do what the Lord has commanded. Again, you see the connection, you remember chapter 1, If you remember chapter one, Four times in chapter 1, the book opens with, "Be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous." Four times, he's told, to be strong and courageous. And here, chapter 23, there it is again, the call to be strong as we seek to cling to the Lord. Why? Because obedience takes strongngth. obedience takes courage. It's not easy to follow the Word of God. It's not popular to live our lives, according to the Word of God. It's not well received by those around us when we begin to live our life for Jesus and for His glory. We must have the courage to be obedient, regardless of the cost, regardless of the consequences. Are you courageously following the Word of God today? Are you with great strength cling to the Word of God today, calling upon him, depending on him for the strength to cling to to him and walk in what he's called you to walk in, takes courage to stand for Christ when those around us judge us. It takes courage to share Christ when people reject us. It takes courage to step step out in faith in a ministry that's going to call you to leave your comfort zone in some way. It takes courage to sacrificially give of our time and our resources to serve other people. that God puts in front of us. Where has fear kept you from being faithful? Where has fear kept you from being faithful? Has God put something before you and your failure to be obedient is a lack of strength of courage. Would you pray today that God would give you the strength to do what he's calling you to do, that you would be strong to keep and to do all that he's set before us. Third, we cling to the Lord exclusively. Cling to the Lord exclusively, notice verse 7, You may not mix with the nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them or bow down to them. But you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. The greatest threat they would face and cling to the Lord would be the gods of the nations in that land. And the most likely thing to knock them off course, and if you've read the whole story, you've seen that that has happened. The thing that will knock them off course is the temptation to follow after the other gods of that land. Faithfulness to God will avoid the rejection of idolatry. You shall have no other gods before me, God God commanded them. This is why God wanted them to eliminate those nations. That's why we dealt with this throughout the book. You guys are going to let them hang around, and they're going to hang around with their gods, and pretty soon, you're going to start marrying with them, and you're gonna start taking on their gods, and that idolatry is going to lead you away from the Lord. If you've read the Bible the Bible this year if you're following on our plan, we've been reading through the Bible all year, the new bookmarks are out, by the way, out in the lobby, the August bookmarks are here. If you've been following our plan just recently in the last few weeks, you've read through first and second Kingsings and first and second Chronicles. And if you recall your reading, do you remember what happened? It's just a cycle of then they went after these idols, and then the new king came, and he tore down those idols. And then another king came and they started to worship these idols, and then another king came, and he tore down those idols. And this is the cycle we've seen. It is always going to be plagued by the idolatry around them. Joshua was saying, "Don't let that happen. You guys are going to lose the land. You're gonna lose your grip on the promises if you fail to cling to the Lord, and you let these other idols get in the way. When you're tempted to drift, hold on tighter. One scholar wrote this, to cling firmly to Yahweh is to embrace him so tightly, to observe such exclusive loyalty to him as to leave not even the smallest crack for other gods between the two of you. Are you clinging so tightly to the Lord that you're leaving no space for idolatry, nothing else to come and wedge it itself between you and your love and obedience of the Lord, our greatest defense against idolatry is to hold fast to him. It's this isn't like, okay, go out and learn every heresy, every call, every false teaching, every wrong worldview. No, it's get to know Jesus and spend time with Jesus and abide in Jesus and love Jesus and walk with Jesus, and it c crowds out the space for this idolatry that would find its way in. He continues verse 12, the same theme. For if you turn back and cling to the reminant of the these nations, see the contrast there, verse 8, cling to the Lord. If you stop clinging to the Lord, verse 12, and start clinging to these idols of this land, this is when you're going to run into trouble. He says, donon't intermarry with them. Don't make marriages with them, so that you associate with them, and they with you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a s and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. Now, what he's saying here? He's forbidding them from marrying with people from the other nations in the land. Why? Because he's concerned about their faithfulness to the Lord. It's not a condemnation of cross cultural marriages or interracial marriages. We see the Bible, Moses, Joseph, Boaz, we see examples of interracial, cross cultural marriages in the scripture. This is not about, don't marry someone who's from a different nationality." He's saying, "Don't marry someone whose God is going to take you away from your devotion to Yahweh. This is what he's talking about. Do not mix with people whose religion, whose idolatry is going to be a snare to you. Yes,, the gal from the nation down the road is very attractive, but her God is going to be a trap to you. Yeah, that guy from that other nation is very attractive, but his God is going to be be a thorn in your eye one day if you allow that relationship to draw you away from God. Consider the consequences of mixing with people whose idolatry will lead you astray. He knew that their intermarriage would turn their hearts away from God. And so we look closely at our relationships today. Amm I loving the Lord exclusively? I want no spirit space in my life idolatry, nothing that would take me away from him. How do I guard the relationships in my life so that this doesn't creep into my life? Doesn't mean that we would draw for the world? Does't mean that we're not friends with people who aren't following Jesus, but it says we guard carefully our relationships. Are there relationships in my life that draw me away from God? Let me speak just from a moment to the single people in this room. There is a word of caution here for you on who you seek to date. I've dropped this knowledge on you before. This is so profound, and it will blow you your minds, but I'm going to tell you again. You will marry the last person you date. Yeah, let that sink in. You always marry the last person you date. And so if I want to guard my heart and say, I want to be in a marriage with someone who loves Jesus, I'm not talking about the guy that put Christian on his dating profile to tap into a whole new prospect pool. I'm talking about the guy or the girl who truly loves Jesus You want to spend your life with someone who loves Jesus with all their heart. You make a commitment right now that you only date people who love Jesus with all their heart. And if you're single, make that commitment. If you're young, and so I don't even thinking about dating right now, we'll just lock it away. When you start thinking about dating, think of this statement right here, all right? You say, "Where do I find them? You find them at 6:30 tomorrow night in the lobby for the young adult gathering." And I think there's one spot left on the retreat. You might find one there in August. You jump on and register for the retreat. Let me know I've got a whole chart. I' I'm gonna help you all out here, but you got to work with me. Make the commitment today. There's no space in my life for someone whose spiritual views will draw me away from Jesus. That's what he's saying here. I'm so exclusively clean to him that I'm going to guard the relationships in my life that might be a stumbling block for compromise in my relationship with him. Fourth, cling to the Lord confidently, confidently. Here's son verse, I love this. Right in the middle of all this. He says, "Let me remind you again what God has done for you, verse 9, for the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. One man of you puts to flight a thousand since it is the Lord, your God, who fights for you, just as he promised. Why do you cling to him? Because he's the one that brought you this far. He's the one who gave you victory. He's the one that with his strength, one of you could put to flight a thousand of them. I think what he's saying here is, "He's brought you to this point. Why would you switch sides now? Why would you turn from a God who gave you such victory? Why would you turn to a God who was powerless? Why would you switch sides now? Continue to cling to the Lord with confidence that when we cling to the Lord, the Lord gives us victory? He put to flight a thousand before you. He can give you the strength, if you cling to him. Get on his side, St.' talked a lot. This is a thing that's come up a lot through the study of Joshua. Are we on God's side? I love how every few weeks, some new thing grabs our attention on social media So a few weeks ago, it was do you remember this? Some of the early service did, some didn't.body follow follow the debate, how many men would it take to beat a gorilla? I follow that? You Nobody? Okay. Some of you, right? Okay, thank you, Jason. I see that hand. There' a question on TikTok Could 100 men take out a gorilla? And it led to like, lots of rabbit holes in every social media platform and all kinds of scientists weighing in on this and experts weighing in on this. I'm going to sit there's a fight between a man and a gorilla, I want to be on the grilla's side, right? Choose carefully whose side you're on. And he's saying, "You want to be on the right side here, Israel. Stay on Yahweh's side." When I was a kid, and number off in gym class, and the teacher would go, "One, two, one, two, one, two, what are they doing? They're getting ready to say, "All the ones get on that side, and all the twos get on that side." And I'd look down the line and see, who was getting where the good athletes were going, right? And I'd want to get in the right order so I could be on the team with the good athletes. So this he's saying, "Hey, when the sides get picked you better get on Yahweh's side. Because remember what he did? He put your enemies to flight. And so cling to him and cling to him confidently that he's the one who will give you the strength to walk with him, be obedient to him, and continue to live in the promises he has for you. Finally, he said, cling to him wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly. Be very careful, thereforefore, to love the Lord your God. Love the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 65, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. This is part of what the law was that Moses had given them. You know, oftentimes, I realize that our failure to keep the law is directly related to our failure to love the lawgiver. My failure to walk obediently before the Lord can be directly related to my relationship with the Lord, and how much I love the Lord. and how much I'm seeking to love the Lord with all my heart Do you see the commandments of the Word of God as those of sort of rigid requirements of an authoritative dictator Or do you see God's Word as the caring guidance of a loving Father, that perspectpective of our heart changes our perspective to obedience to God's Word. Are you finding obedience to be oppressive and difficult and burdensome? Maybe you ought to ask ask the Lord to change your heart. God, give me a heart that loves you, that desires to walk with you, to abide in you. What does your relationship look like through worship and prayer and abiding in his word? Are you growing in your love for Him? That impacts the grip that we have on his Word as we seek to obey it, cling to the Lord today completely, courageously, exclusively, confidently, wholeheartedly, cling to him, you say, well, what if I fall short? What if I fail? Well, good news for you. Kind bad news and good news. Bad news is they screwed it up. Have you read the story? Do you see what happens next when you turn from Joshua to judges? Right away, they start messing it up. And God sends them judges and they're still disobedient. You read past judges and you continue on. God's going to send him king after king, and they're going to keep screwing it up. God's going to then send him prophet after prophet as you read through these books of the Old Testament. and despite the judges and the kings and the prophets, they lose their grip, and the promise of the land slips through their fingers, and then God sends them Jesus. God sends them Jesus, and today, we cling to the Lord our God with the hope of salvation through Jesus. That Jesus did what we couldn't do. And here I want to see this really cool connection. Ver one, our passage started this way, a long time afterward when the Lord had given rest to Israel from their enemies. He gave them rest. It didn't last very long. So their disobedience will also ultimately lead to be exiled from the land. But we come all the way to Hebrews chapter 4. Listen to what Hebrews chapter 4 says in verse, for if Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also wrested from their works as God did from his. What does all this mean? What the Old Testament shows us is our inability to cling to the Lord completely and exclusively and all that we've said. And when we find ourselves failing to do what he wants us to do, we find ourselves away worn out from striving. We see that we have rest in Jesus. Jesus came to be the fulfillment of all of that. Jesus comes to be our rest. We have our rest in Jesus. We have our victory in Jesus. When we fail, we find forgiveness and grace in Jesus. And see, when we cling to God it's not our strength that keeps us safe, but it's His strength that keeps us secure. Think about this. When you hold hands with your child, let's say that you're walking across the street or through a very crowded place or next to a body of water, you don't want to fall in the pool and you say, hey, hold my hand, and your child reaches out and holds your hand. Who's really holding the child secure? It's your strength in that child's hand. It's not the strength of the child's script. It's the strength of your grip that holds that hand. And so when we cling to Jesus it's Jesus's strength clinging to us that gives us victory, that gives us rest, and And when we are tempted to wander, when we're tempted to prone to lapse into idolatry, to wander, to veer off course to the right or the left, we know that we have have the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness found in Jesus. Let's pray together. I want you to think for a moment about what we've read and how it might apply to you. What would be your prayer to God, this morning? Maybe it's a prayer to say, God, I have been guilty of picking and choosing the parts of the Bible I like and ignoring the parts I don't. God, your prayers, God help me to be completely obedient to your word. Maybe you've not clung to Him exclusivelyively. The idolatry of the world around you, the culture around you has wedged its way in. And you would say, God protect me from relationshships and temptations that would put a wedge between us. Maybe it's the strength you need. God obedience is hard right now. I need to be strong and courageous to walk with you. God, would you give me the strength? Maybe your heart has grown cold. It's God, let me love you with all my heart. so that obedience comes natural as the outflow of my abiding in you. Maybe, though, you've said, I've failed you, Lord, and I need your mercy. And I need your grace. And maybe today would be the day you'd come to Jesus, and you'd say, Jesusesus, I can't do this on my own. I know that you died on the cross so that I could be forgiven, in Jesus, I'm putting my faith in you. I want to rest in you. Find my victory in you and my strength in you, my salvation in you. Father, give us what we need to cling to you today. Convict us when we veer to the left or the right. Warn us when we enter into relationships that could become a trap for us. Help us to love you with all our our hearts so that obedience is not burdensome, but the overflow of our love for you. Strengthen us for the difficult things, the times that obedience is difficult. Let us not lose our grip on the promises that you have for us, for the joy that you have for us. And when we fail, remind us of Jesus that our rest is in him, our victory is in him. Thank you, that when all else when everything else failed, it pointed us all to Jesus in the end. we thank you for his death and the cross, that makes salvation and rest possible, and we pray this in his name. Amen.