joshua chapter one. i love this. and this has been one of my favorites for years. listen to what he said. he said to joshua, have i not commanded you to be strong and of good courage? he said, don't tremble or be dismayed. the lord your god is with you wherever you go. be strong and courageous. and listen to what he says in verse seven. only be strong and very courageous. be careful to do according to all the law which moses my servant commanded you. don't turn to the right or to the left. so you may have success wherever you go. this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. you don't read it once a week. but you shall meditate on it. day and night. so that you may be careful, listen, be careful to do according to all that is written in it. then you will make your way prosperous. then you'll be successful. how many of you believe the whole bible amen? you believe all of it is true? you believe that passage is true? he says, he will bless you in all that you do. but he says, you've got to be in the word. the word of god, the word of god is his, he says, it's a light to our path. and so, he's given us his word to give us guidance and direction. and so i think about people, for example, who never read the bible. think about it. they never read the bible. so they have to make up all these decisions they make up about themselves and situations. and then they wonder why something's don't work out. and here it is in just a very few verses, be strong and of good courage. reading the scriptures day and night. now, when he says, the law of moses, he's talking primarily about the early chapters when god was speaking to moses. you and i have more than moses had. we have the experience and the wisdom and the knowledge that god gave to all of these men. and to these women. so if i'm going to learn to be obedient. what? i've got to learn to do what next? where do i learn to do what next? in the word of god. then, of course, we must walk in the way that's not clear. look if you will in hebrews chapter 11. we must be willing to walk when the way is not clear. somebody says, here's my feeling. god's got to show it to me. write it in the sky. god's not in the business of writing it in the sky. look if you will in the 11th chapter of hebrews about abraham. verse eight. by faith, abraham when he was called obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going. you say what does that have to do with me? simply this. i lived long enough to know that many times if you'll be obedient to god, you've got to head out and you will not know exactly what's going to happen. i think about for example, we are in touch today because of so many of you who have prayed and given and so forth. we started out with a 30-minute program in atlanta on eight o'clock sunday morning. two little orange boxes we called tv cameras. and today you can hear it all over the world, see it all over the world. somebody says... [applauding] >> now somebody says, how did you plan it? i had nothing to do with it. i say that sincerely. never planned it. never programmed it. never said here's what we're going to do. here's how we'll get there. this is why what i want you to see is this. you cannot. you absolutely cannot foresee and foretell what god is going to do in your life until you obey him. suppose we just said we're not going to do that until we get expensive stuff. we're not going to do that until we have certain things we don't have and so forth. no. if god tells you to take a baby step, you take it. if you don't know where you're going next, listen, all you have to do is obey god today what he tells you to do today. he already has tomorrow perfectly in mind. perfectly in mind. so the reason we get in trouble is because if we can't see, watch this carefully. you listening say amen. if we can't see our way clearly we imply god can't. he says, my word is a lamp to your feet, light to your path. god sees the second step and the third, fourth, fifth. he sees all of this. all we have to do is be obedient to him. i can say to you. wisdom says, wisdom says it's always best to obey god. even if it's a tiny step or if it's a major leap. you can't lose either way because he is the one who is giving the guidance and direction. he's the one who has the goals in mind. and oftentimes i think people miss the will of god for their life and the blessings of god, because they can't see their way clear. well, you know, i can see some of that. i don't know. i just, i just, i'm just waiting. sometimes my heart is grieved when i see people who have ability, talents and skills and just laying them aside because they can't see how god will use them and they don't take the next step. you can't predict what he'll do. we know he answers prayer and will bless us if we do certain things. somebody says, well why doesn't god just show us the full story? here's where you go. here's what i'll tell you. here's the reason why. because god usually let's us take a step at a time. what is he doing? he's strengthening our faith. he says, i want you to follow me. trust me. you can't see your way clear. just trust me. as i take a step, and he does what he says, my faith will be stronger. the longer i walk in obedience to him my faith will be stronger and stronger and stronger. think about your children, for example, they watch how you live. if they see you in the word of god. and they see you talking about things of scripture, and they see you being obedient to god in decisions that you make and seeing how god blesses you, it's just natural. now they may get themselves in a mess for a while but they'll get back. obedience is trusting holy, righteous, omniscient, unconditional loving god to be in your life who he says he will be. and you cannot lose. i can give you personal illustration. i know that's what he does. now, another thing is this. i must be willing to experience conflict if i'm going to obey god, there's going to be conflict. every pastor in the world can tell you that. do you know what? everybody who lives a godly life will, can be conflict in your family. with your children. your husband or wife. and there's going to be conflict. conflict in the way we reason things. for example, when god told noah to build an ark, it was absolutely, totally ridiculous. when he told joshua to march around jericho and watch it fall down, none of that fit anything human reasoning had to do with it. go through the scripture and see how god challenged his servants to do one thing after another, and oftentimes it created conflict in their minds and hearts because they wondered how am i going to do this? come to the next thing, you must be willing to leave to consequences to him. if you wait until you can figure out the consequences, you'll not obey god. and every single day, think about this. you and i have the privilege of growing just a little bit more. every time we are challenged and we obey him, we grow. every time we obey him and we watch him work in our life, we grow. this is why i say, one of my mottos, obey god and watch him work. because if you watch him work, you're going to see him work out his will in your life in a way that will surprise you. it's just that simple. you say i want to teach my children to be obedient. and that's what god's been doing in your life