A Word of Encouragement | Daniel Bentley

And I wonder if we could say the same thing. Like, what if you could have everything your heart desire? What if you could have heaven? I mean, with streets of gold and no death, no war, no disease, no and nothing nothing bad, all that stuff gone. You could have heaven, but Jesus isn't there. Could you be satisfied? For Joshua and Moses, they would say no. The presence is everything, and without the Lord, I have nothing even if I possess everything. [00:36:04] (29 seconds)  #PresenceOverParadise

God has given you everything that you need for victory, for abundance, for for a godly life. It's all there, all for the taking. Yet, sadly, how many of us settle for a fraction of a percentage of what's available to us? Think of it like this. What if, you know, you ran into Bill Gates, he decided he liked you and decided to, you know, deposit a billion dollars into your account? He's got enough money where he wouldn't even notice it was gone. Like, he's got that in loose change in his car. But for you, it changes your life. [00:32:26] (31 seconds)  #ClaimYourInheritance

And he cripples us or paralyzes us with fear. But if that doesn't work, then he circles back around, and he seeks to discourage us from finishing what we started. So he uses both fear and discouragement. Let me give you another point on fear. Fear will always attract whatever information is needed in order to support its existence. You'll always find logical reasons to be afraid. And and certainly that was the case with Joshua. [00:12:20] (30 seconds)  #FearFindsReasons

And it takes courage to lead, to go against the grain, to go against the popular opinion of the day, to step out in faith, trusting the word of the Lord when that's all you have to go on. And so the Lord tells Joshua, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, be strong and courageous. That is not just the word of the Lord to Joshua in that day, but that is the word of the Lord to you in this day. Now if you look at verse nine, he flips it essentially, and he says, and don't be afraid or become discouraged. [00:10:41] (40 seconds)  #CourageToLead

Now I love that scripture for a lot of reasons, but you'll notice with me, it doesn't say if you pass through these trials. It says when. But God will be with us, and if you know he's with you, then the tentacles of fear that wrap themselves around your heart, they are released, and you can move into those trials with confidence even to the point where you can face death without fear. The the really scary thing for the believer isn't death. I mean, it's just a translation from from here to heaven. Right? The Bible says you fall asleep here and you wake up in the presence. That's not bad. [00:37:35] (35 seconds)  #GodWithUsInTrials

So God's given you everything that you need for godly living, a godly life, a victorious life. How do you tap into that? By by grabbing hold of these great and precious promises. There are over 7,000 of them. They're sprinkled like Easter eggs throughout your Bible, and every time you find one, you can grab hold of it, you can stand upon it, and it's like a blank check that is just waiting to be cashed. But you've gotta walk in those promises, and God has given to them to you to encourage you. [00:34:07] (29 seconds)  #ClaimGodsPromises

And it takes courage to lead, to go against the grain, to go against the popular opinion of the day, to step out in faith, trusting the word of the Lord when that's all you have to go on. And so the Lord tells Joshua, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, be strong and courageous. That is not just the word of the Lord to Joshua in that day, but that is the word of the Lord to you in this day. Now if you look at verse nine, he flips it essentially, and he says, and don't be afraid or become discouraged. [00:10:41] (40 seconds)  #StandOnGodsWord

And I would say hope and confidence in the future in these days is at an all time low. And perhaps that describes how you're feeling today. You're here and you came and good on you for that. But if truth be told, you're barely hanging on by a thread and you're starting to lose hope. And for anyone in here who might be feeling that way today, you're like, I don't know how much more I can take. You picked the right weekend to come to church. God has a word for you, and he wants to speak life over you, and he wants to fill you with new strength, new hope, and encouragement. [00:07:02] (39 seconds)  #HopeForTheWeary

This world abounds with discouraging words and circumstances. Right? All you have to do is flip on the local news or perhaps pull out your phone and begin to scroll. And what happens? Your your heart rate increases, your anxiety goes up, and your hope for the future diminishes. In fact, the definition for the word discouragement according to Webster's dictionary is a feeling of having lost hope or confidence. [00:06:29] (32 seconds)  #GuardAgainstDiscouragement

And it takes courage to lead, to go against the grain, to go against the popular opinion of the day, to step out in faith, trusting the word of the Lord when that's all you have to go on. And so the Lord tells Joshua, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, be strong and courageous. That is not just the word of the Lord to Joshua in that day, but that is the word of the Lord to you in this day. Now if you look at verse nine, he flips it essentially, and he says, and don't be afraid or become discouraged. [00:10:41] (40 seconds)  #FourTimesCourage

But David had learned to walk so closely with the Lord that in Psalm 23, he could say, yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil because you are with me. And when you walk so closely with the Lord, I've been there in the room with so many people over the years who were transitioning from here into the next life, and they had a peace in their heart because they had the abiding presence of the Lord with them, and I hope that encourages you today. The Lord is with you. [00:38:15] (29 seconds)  #PeaceInHisPresence

And all they had to do was walk in it. And you see that in verse three. Every place you put the sole of your foot is a place that I've given to you. This is what the Lord says. And yet they stopped short. They settled for less. And it would be easy to point our finger at Israel and say, how could you? But aren't we guilty of the same thing? You see in Ephesians chapter one verse three, the Lord speaks through the apostle Paul, and he says that he, that is God, has blessed us, that is the church, in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. [00:31:46] (38 seconds)  #HeavenlyBlessings

You see, this book is not here just to provide you with some tips and tricks on how to maximize your joy. This book exists to introduce you to the heart of your heavenly father, and the more you get to see how good he is, the more encouraged you will be. Your faith will grow too when you read this book. As you open the word, faith comes from hearing, and it's like a muscle that gets strengthened through use. And so as you just sit under the teaching of God's word, your your faith is being built. [00:41:07] (31 seconds)  #FaithBuiltByTheWord

My dad was not only the pastor of this church for the better part of four decades, but he was also my my own personal hero. And so when I was tapped on the shoulder and anointed as the next senior pastor of this church, oh, you better believe there was some insecurities that bubbled up within me. And I would stand side stage for months getting ready to come out and stand behind this pulpit that I had heard him preach from hundreds of times over the years, and the devil would assault me with all of these these attacks. And he would say, you're an impostor. You're a fraud. Nobody cares what you have to say. Who do you think you are? You don't have what it takes. [00:17:13] (38 seconds)  #OvercomingImpostorSyndrome

And it takes courage to lead, to go against the grain, to go against the popular opinion of the day, to step out in faith, trusting the word of the Lord when that's all you have to go on. And so the Lord tells Joshua, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, be strong and courageous. That is not just the word of the Lord to Joshua in that day, but that is the word of the Lord to you in this day. Now if you look at verse nine, he flips it essentially, and he says, and don't be afraid or become discouraged. [00:10:41] (40 seconds)  #CourageCommanded

It wasn't until Uzziah was taken off the scene that Isaiah could see the one whom Uzziah represented, which was the Lord. And Joshua, in a similar way, needed to get his eyes on the Lord so that he could lead the people into this new season. The Lord said this through the prophet Isaiah, and this is Isaiah forty three nineteen. Let's read this together out loud. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. [00:21:05] (33 seconds)  #IAmDoingANewThing

These are the words that Jesus echoed in the great commission, lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age. The God of the Bible is the God who never leaves us nor forsakes us. And when Joshua heard the Lord say that, it must have been like music to his ears. You see, he had learned from his predecessor, his mentor Moses, to value the presence over and above everything else in this life. Moses cherished the presence. We we talked about that a few weeks ago in our study, talking about lingering in the presence. [00:35:00] (33 seconds)  #ImWithYouAlways