Success God's Way

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. We'll be finding in the Old Testament the book of Joshua, and we are talking about success, God's way. Now, it is God's plan that we be prosperous and that we be successful.

We just want to make certain that it is real prosperity and real success that we get. And I don't think you could talk about genuine success for very long without coming to the first chapter of the book of Joshua. Now, the book of Joshua is a gigantic object lesson. Now, it is actual, literal history.

It happened, but it is more than history. It is the story of God's ancient people going into Canaan. That's the history, but beyond that, it becomes an object lesson for Christians.

The Bible tells us clearly and plainly in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 11, all these things happened to them, for example, to us. So, you can take these Old Testament history stories and read them and just shout your way all the way through. It's an adventure story. The Bible is incredibly interesting. It's not full of legends or fairy tales. These are true stories, but so interesting. Watch God's people as they cross swollen rivers and as massive walls fall down at the shout of victory and powerful giants are put to flight and there's the ebb and flow, the drama of all of these things.

History, yes, but also devotional literature. Now, learn this, that victory is God's gift to every child. When I say that, sometimes people just give me a sympathetic smile. They say, well, that's pulpit rhetoric. They don't really believe it, but if you're not living in victory, you are living beneath your privileges. You are to be living day by day in constant victory. The Bible says, thanks be unto God who causeth us always, always to triumph in Christ Jesus.

Now, what we need to do is to bring our attitude up with our theology. You see, the Bible admits the possibility of defeat in the life of a Christian, but the Bible never admits the necessity of it. We are to be living in victory. Now, the land of Canaan represented in that day, victory for the Israelites, the children of Israel, in a devotional sense, it represents the land of victory. Children of Israel had come out of the wilderness and into the promised land. If you're tired of being a wilderness wanderer and want to be a Canaan conqueror, then pay attention. Now, there are three things basically we're going to think about when we think about victory.

The first of these is that we need to visualize our victory, and then we need to vitalize our victory, and then we need to verbalize our victory. Now, you understand why I've chosen those words if you just take your Bible and look with me, and Joshua chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, that's N-U-N, not N-O-N-E, the son of Nun, he did have a mom and dad, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead, now therefore rise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give unto them, even to the children of Israel. Now, Moses died. Moses was the great general. He was the great prophet and commander. He was the great leader, but he died. Leaders come and go.

The leaders finally die. God's purpose did not die. You see, God's purpose is alive through all of the centuries, and God's plans don't die with individuals. Now, what did Canaan represent so long ago to those people who were just about to go into the land of Canaan? Well, for one thing, it represented to them freedom.

Up until this time, they'd been a nation of slaves, and Canaan represented the land of freedom. What's God's plan for you? Freedom. What did Paul say in Romans chapter 6? Sin shall have no more dominion over you. Sin should not have dominion over you.

You are to have freedom over the power of sin, for you're not under the law, but under grace. But not only did it represent freedom, it represented fullness. Before they went into Canaan, they were out there in the desert, and they were on a very meager diet. They were being fed with manna, and very frankly, they came to a place where they said, we're sick and tired of it.

Our souls loathe this light bread. What was in Canaan? Well, it was a land that flowed with milk and honey, corn and wine and oil and figs and grapes and pomegranates. It represented fullness, and all of that speaks to me and to you about the fullness of the Spirit. Those of us who are walking into victory, not only to have freedom, we're to have fullness and the fruit of the Spirit, the love, the joy, the peace, the goodness, the gentleness and so forth.

That is to be in our lives. A third thing that Canaan represented to them, not only freedom and fullness, but fulfillment. You see, up until this time, they had merely heard sermons about Canaan. Spies had told them about Canaan, but now they're about to come in and see for themselves.

Aren't you tired of just being a sermon sampler? Aren't you tired of just standing on the border, as it were, and looking over into Canaan? Wouldn't you like to get in there and walk around and pick a few grapes and do a little camping in Canaan's fair and happy land?

Wouldn't you like to claim your possessions? Now, I say claim your possessions because look, if you will, in verses 3 and 4. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon.

Now, watch very carefully how it says this. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, unto the great sea toward the going town of the sun shall be your coast. God says, there it is. There's the land. Here's the borders.

Here are the boundaries. Here are the blessings. And God says, it's yours.

Now, listen carefully. God said, you see it? I have already given it to you. It was theirs before they went in and got it.

Our duty, listen carefully, precious brother, dear sister, our duty is to possess our possessions. Now, victory is not something that God will give you. He's already given it to you.

You have it now. You say, well, if I have it, how come I don't have it? I'll tell you why you don't have what you have, because you have not possessed your possessions. God didn't say, I will give you the land of Cain. He said, I've given it to you. And what we need to do is to put the foot of faith on the promises of God and say, this is mine, Lord. You said it's mine, so I claim it. You say, how, I don't understand it. How can I have it if I don't have it? Well, let me ask you a question. How many of you have books in your library you haven't read yet?

Are they yours? Well, yes, in a sense, but what you need to do is to possess your possessions. Do you know what the life of victory is? It's simply walking on conquered ground. And who has won the victory? God has won the victory.

He says, I have given it to you. The victory is a God-given victory, and for you and for me, those of us who live this side of Calvary, that victory was won by the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and Jesus facing that cross said, now is the prince of this world cast out. When Jesus died upon that cross, Satan's kingdom came crashing down, and Satan sails a sinking ship. He rules a tomb domain. His back has been broken by Calvary. He doesn't want you to understand that.

He does not want you to understand that he has been rendered helpless by Calvary. Now, what we need to do is to put the foot of faith on the blessings of God, the victory that is ours, and claim it. You know, I love that passage over there in Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 3, where it says that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now listen, he has blessed us, not will bless us, has blessed us. How many of you have all the love you want?

All right, well, let me back up. How many of you have all the love you need, or all the patience you need, or all the courage you need, or all the faith you need, or all the wisdom you need? How many of you have all that you need? Hardly a hand would go up unless you understand where I'm coming from, and yet the Bible says in Ephesians, chapter 1, that God has blessed us with A-double-L, with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Well, why don't we have them? Because we haven't possessed our possessions. We need to begin to put the foot of faith on the promises of God and say, that is mine. All right, now, how is the victory won?

Not by trying, but by trusting, believing God. God said to Joshua, it's yours, now go take what I've already given you. You see, God is the one who's given the victory. Look, if you will, in verse 5, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all of the days of thy life.

Well, is it because Joshua is so great? No, listen, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. You see, in living in victory, it's not our responsibility, it's our response to his ability. God says, there's the land, go take it, and I will be with you. You see, now let's translate that over into the New Testament. Now, remember, all these things happen to them, for example, to us.

In Romans 8, and by the way, if I had to be shipwrecked on an island without just one portion of the Bible, I think I'd take the book of Romans, and if I could only take one chapter, I believe it'd be Romans 8. And in Romans chapter 8, verse 37, here's what Paul said, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. You see, our victory is in Christ. We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. And actually, what that means, more than conquerors, it means we're not just simply conquerors, we're more than conquerors.

It is literally not super conquerors, but supra conquerors. It's not that we win with a field goal the last three seconds. I mean, friend, there's not even a contest. Satan is vanquished. I'm still on my way, and I know when that finger points out, the three pointing at me right there. I need to learn this truth. I'm telling you, we need to visualize our victory. We need to see what God has promised.

All these things happen to them for examples unto us. There is a land of freedom. There is a land of fullness. There is a land of freshness. It is ours and fruitfulness.

It is ours. Now, not only do we need to visualize it, and I hope you are visualizing it right now, don't you want to be victorious? Don't you want to live the way the Bible says that a child of God ought to live?

Now, secondly, not only do you need to visualize it, but what you need to do is vitalize it because you need to take this off the page and put it in your life. Now, let's read verse 5 again. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

Now, watch your principle here. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. Now, what's he saying? He's saying, Joshua, the promises didn't die with Moses.

I'm going to tell you something else. The promises didn't die with Joshua. The promises are for all saints and for all seasons.

Look again. He says, I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Time cannot erode the promises away.

You know what we're apt to do? We're apt to take those people that lived back yonder in Bible times and we'll say, yes, that was another age. That's when God did miracles. That's when God worked with his people. That's when those people breathed a different air than we breathed.

That's not for us. No, God says, look, Joshua, I was with Moses. I'll be with you and he'll say to me, Adrian, I was with Joshua and I will be with you. Psalm 119 verses 89 and 90, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.

Don't let 2,000 years keep you from a blessing. I mean, if God has said it to those folks and he's not canceled or abrogated the promise, then you can claim it for your own. It's for all saints. It's for all seasons.

It's for all situations. Now, when Joshua was about to go into that land, that didn't mean it was going to be all honey and no bees. There's a land flow of milk and honey, but every place you have honey there are bees and every cow has to be milked. There's going to be seasons of difficulty and there are going to be situations of hardship and Joshua did not go into Canaan in a rocking chair, but God was with him and God said, Joshua, I will not leave you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Now, in the New Testament, the writer of the book of Hebrews picks up this theme and in one of my favorite verses in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews chapter 5, God reiterates this promise.

This verse is incredible in the Amplified. I want you to listen to it and it's been a great blessing to me, Hebrews 13 verse 5, for he, God himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down, relax my hold upon you, assuredly not.

Isn't that great? I mean, God says, I'm not going to leave you. I am not going to leave you as I was with Moses, so I'll be with you and the writer of Hebrews says, hey, and that applies to us too.

He will never, never leave us nor forsake us. So, what we need to do is to somehow vitalize this. Now, watch verses 6 and 7. How do you vitalize it?

Here's the command. You want to be victorious? Listen. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shout thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto thy fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. You say, now, Pastor Rogers, that's the trouble with you preachers.

You just told us it all depended on God and God had already given us victory and all that. Now, here's the hard part. I'm supposed to be strong and I'm supposed to be courageous and I'm supposed to keep the law and I'm not supposed to turn the right hand to the left hand.

How do you expect me to do all of that? You're just giving me double talk, Pastor. No, I'm not.

No, I'm not. Now, listen to me, folks. Behind every command of God is the promise of God. God is not going to command you to do anything you cannot do as he is with you and God fills you and equips you. Now, what did Joshua need? Same thing Adrian needs. What did Joshua need? He needed strength, be strong. He needed boldness, be courageous. He needed obedience.

Do all that I tell you. Well, how many of us in our flesh have those three qualities of strength and boldness and obedience? We don't have it. And yet this is what he's commanded to have, which is to be victorious and yet on the other hand, we said the victory was God's and not ours. There's no contradiction here, folks. Listen, every demand upon my life is not a demand upon me. It is demand upon the God in me. Now, you must understand this, that if God tells me to do something and God does not equip me to do it, he becomes a tyrant. Every demand upon me is a demand of the life of God that is within me. And so the same God who makes these demands upon us is the same God who supplies them to us.

But that's not double-talk. This same Joshua told the rest of those people, choose you this day whom you will serve, as me and my house will serve the Lord. God does it, but we must allow God to do it. Did you know that weak people can choose strength? Did you know that cowards can choose boldness? Did you know that unfaithful people can choose obedience?

It's not that we do it. We cannot do it without him. He will not do it without our yielding to him. Now, God said, there's the land.

It's out there. I want you to have it. So take it, but we must choose to obey him. Now, you must visualize this victory.

You must vitalize it. You must say, God, I know that you're with me. I know I need this courage. I know, dear God, that I need this boldness, this strength, this obedience.

So now, Lord, by faith, I choose. You visualize it. You vitalize it. Here's where it really begins to work.

Then you verbalize it. Look if you will now in verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous. That's the reason why I chose this text.

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Now, once we understand what God has done for us, we visualize it, we see it. Then we vitalize it. We say, oh, God, it's mine.

I want it. Then we begin to verbalize it. We begin to speak victory. Now, the Word of God is to be in your mouth. It's very, very important that the Word of God be in your mouth. Look at it in verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. Let's get a New Testament text that'll fit that.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. The Word of God verbalized minister's grace. Do you know what we need to do as a congregation?

We need to be ministering grace one to another, and that's the reason we need to be speaking the Word of God one to another. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, was converted. Do you know how he was converted? John Bunyan was eavesdropping, and he was listening to several women, and they were talking about their love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was listening.

I wonder if anybody would ever get converted eavesdropping on you and your conversations. We need to verbalize our victory, not let the Word of God depart out of our mouths. Verbalize your victory. Take the Word of God and say it, announce it, because he hath said, we may boldly say. Now, if the Word of God is to be in your mouth, then it follows as night follows day, it must be in your mind. Look again in verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein. So, you want to live victoriously?

All right. You verbalize your victory. And why do you verbalize it? Because you vitalized it.

Why did you vitalize it? Because you visualized it. It's all right there in the Word of God. God has promised it. But you can't verbalize that which is not first in your heart, so you meditate on the Word of God day and night. And your spoken word speaks to your heart, and your heart speaks to the spoken word, and there's a sympathetic vibration that gets to going. Meditation is so wonderful. Meditating on the Word of God is like getting a tune in your mind and you just hum it all day long.

You just can't get it out. Meditation just absorbs the Word of God in your heart and into your life. Over and over again, we're told to meditate on the Word of God. When you meditate on the Word of God, you become a man of wisdom.

Do you know where wisdom comes from? Meditation. Do you know what meditation is? Meditation is just thinking God's thoughts after him. Meditation is letting your soul soak in the Word of God. And over and over again, that's the reason the Bible says in Psalm 1 verses 1 and 2, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And then this Psalm, wonderful Psalm says, and whatever he does will prosper.

Why? Because he soaked his soul in the Word of God. Now listen, this word is to be in your mouth. It is to be in your mind. A good illustration of this is where young David was fleeing from wicked, jealous old King Saul. And Saul was chasing him for his life. And the scripture I'm reading to you is from Psalm 63 verses 3, through 6.

David is wondering whether or not he's going to be killed. And David says this, because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands unto thy name, or in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

How could David be so victorious like that? He'd been meditating. Do you know what a constant habit of mine is? I like to get a verse of scripture and go to sleep with it. I like somewhere just before I go to bed to get a Word of God and carry it to bed with me. And I'll lie there and I'll go to sleep thinking about that verse of scripture. And I'll run it through my mind and chew on it and soak on it.

It's just a wonderful thing to do. Let the last word be his word. And just go to sleep thinking about the Word of God. That's what David did. David said this is the meditation. It was in his mouth because it was in his mind and because it was in his mouth and in his mind it was in his manner of life.

Now watch it very carefully. This book of the law, and Joshua also, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that, watch it, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success in your mouth, in your mind, in your manner of life.

It's got to be in your mouth. It's got to be in your mind before it can be in your methods. We're talking about living in victory. Reading, speaking, memorizing, and meditating will give you knowledge about God. Now listen carefully. Obeying will give you knowledge of God.

I want to say that sentence again. I have it written here in my notes. Reading, speaking, memorizing, and meditating will give you knowledge about God. Obeying God will give you knowledge of God.

Here's the verse that explains that. John 14, verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Don't say you love him if you don't keep his commandments. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father.

Now watch it. And I will love him and manifest myself to him. Study gives you knowledge about God. Obedience gives you knowledge of God.

When you have his commandments and keep them, that's when he makes himself real to you. Meditation leads us to the door of success, but obedience is the key that opens that door. We say, I don't have what it takes to obey. Yes, you do. God has given it to you. It's yours. Possess your possessions. Choose courage.

Choose boldness. Choose obedience. You can if you will. You need not live a defeated life. The Word of God was not given to satisfy your curiosity and to scratch your intellectual itch. It's given to lead you to obedience that leads you to knowledge of God that leads you to victory. The real proof, folks, that we believe the Bible is that we obey it. And when we obey it, God reveals himself to us in such a wonderful way. You see, you're saying to God, God, I trust you so much that I'm going to obey you in everything you tell me, and God says, and I'm going to manifest myself to you. Now, in these days when we're talking about finances, let's realize that in finances and in all of our life, victory is ours.

Take this first chapter of Joshua. Visualize it. Vitalize it. Claim it. Verbalize it. Begin to speak it. Let it be in your mouth.

Let it be in your mind. Let it be in your manner of life. And you're going to find yourself walking on conquered ground, come out of the wilderness and on into Canaan. Now, when a speaker, a preacher preaches, there's what the preacher says, and then there's what God says to you personally. God speaks to individuals. It may be something I didn't even say in my message, but God's telling you to do something, speaking to your heart. Would you just tell Lord that you'll obey him, whatever it is he said to you right now? Father, I just pray that you'll help us to be obedient, and Lord, that we will begin to walk in victory, because, Lord, you've already given us victory, and we want to claim it in the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus, or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, LWF.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at LWF.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.