Attitudes for Success

Appreciate Tyler for leading our songs this morning. He always does a good job. Let me go ahead and plug our VBS one more time, and we’ve got this little booklet that we’re handing out now. We’d like all of our parents to read this with their children. It’s a story that goes along with our VBS.

It’s a chapter book, and so you might get some summer reading credits from reading it, and I think you’ll enjoy it. I’ve read about half of it myself. It’s a little adventure, but it kind of illustrates the things that we’re going to be talking about in our Bibles.

It introduces you to the characters that you might see on the posters in the hallways and that you’re going to be seeing in the classroom in Bibles. And it’s just kind of a modern-day parable, if you will, kind of help think about the topics that we’re going to be studying during our Bibles in relationship to the inspiration of the Bible.

And so if you don’t have one of these, go ahead and pick one up. They’re in my office. I’d be happy to give you one. And if you know someone who would like to have one, we might have some extras. I don’t know. We’ll see.

But if you know someone who’s coming to the BBS but doesn’t come here regularly, go ahead and pick one up for them and then give it to them so they can then take it and read it and be prepared for our Vacation Bible School, which is going to be on July the 12th.

And we’re excited about that. And so it’s going to be all Saturday morning event and lunch and a little bit of Saturday afternoon. And there’s going to be some fun things happening that day. And so I hope that everyone will make their plans to be with us July the 12th.

All right. Well, it is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to our fathers. And we’ve got a large contingency of the Thomas clan that’s not with us this morning. They’re out celebrating marriage. And so that is a good thing. We love it when people are married and they have children and they bring their kids to church. We like that a lot. And so we want that to happen. And we do appreciate them. And maybe they’re watching. I don’t know.

So they might be watching us right now as we are having our morning worship. And if they are, hello. Have fun. We hope you have a good time. But don’t forget to come back. We want you back. So anyway, but let’s think about some things related to attitudes for success. As I mentioned, it’s Father’s Day, and I thought we would think about this passage from Joshua chapter 1 and verses 1 through 9.

And there’s a tremendous amount of teaching that goes on here in this chapter as God is talking to Joshua, and Joshua is the succeeding leader of Israel. And you may remember the story that God told Moses, you can’t go into the promised land because of the sin that you committed in the wilderness.

And so he had to have someone succeed him in his role as leader, and that person was Joshua. And so it was kind of a time for uncertainty for Israel in a way. They had just come out of wandering in the wilderness.

They were now about to enter the land of Canaan, and they were told they had to go in and conquer that land, but that God had already given it to them. And Moses was no longer their leader. Joshua was a new leader. And any time you have a change of leadership, you can have some issues that are going to happen, but He was going to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Well, to whom was He going to turn? What would He tell the people? Where would He go first? Must have been a million questions going on in His mind as He thought to lead the people into this land.

And then God spoke directly to Joshua, just as He had spoken directly to Moses. And He tells Joshua that He wanted him to go over the Jordan and to claim the land that God had given to them. He tells Joshua to observe the law and keep it faithfully. He tells him to be strong and of good courage, not to be afraid, neither be dismayed because the Lord his God was with him wherever he went. In essence, he gives Joshua these keys to success. And that’s what we find here in this passage. Let’s read it together.

He says, All that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And that’s Joshua 1, verses 6 through 9.

And when we read these words, you know, Joshua being the leader of Israel and guys’ families being the leader of their families, fathers being the leader of families, we take these words to heart. We want our families to have good success and we want to have the right attitudes for success.

And so we’re going to drill down here on verse 9. Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And we’re going to see three attitudes that will help us be successful as leaders. And these attitudes, you know, they’re not just applicable to fathers or to men, But also to anyone who is in a leadership position, teachers maybe, or maybe business owners, or anyone like that. And of course, we all have an opportunity to lead at a certain time in our life in one way or another.

And so as we’re thinking about these things, we see these wonderful traits of leadership that God wants leaders to have. And let’s think about them this morning. The first one is this. If we desire to be spiritually successful as leaders, we must adopt aplomb.

And we’re not talking about going to a tree and picking a fruit off of it, aplomb, you know, like that. The word aplomb is a good word, and it’s a word we don’t use very much, but it means imperturbable self-possession, poise, confidence, courage, adopt aplomb, be courageous.

That’s what God told Joshua there in Joshua chapter 1 and verse 9, the very first thing, be strong and of good courage. And that’s what we need to do as leaders and as those who want to be spiritually successful. Adopt a plum.

Well, think about the situation that Joshua was in and he is there on the cusp of the Jordan River and they’re about to go over into the land of Canaan. Courage was something that he would need in facing his enemies. Strength. He needed that to be motivated.

We, who want to be successful in being leaders, would do well to adopt a plum. That is, to be strong and courageous. And Christians need to be courageous for the truth. Think about the apostles in Acts chapter 4, verse 29, when they were faced with the threat of opposition from the Sanhedrin council there.

And they were arrested, and then they were let go, and they went back to a group that was praying for them. And what was their prayer? Acts 4.29, it said, And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness. That’s adopting aplomb. That is, having courage in the face of adversity.

We think about the Apostle Paul and what he wrote in Ephesians chapter 6 and verses 19 through 20 about his preaching and teaching the gospel. He said that he wanted them to pray for him on his behalf that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in change, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

There’s courage, there’s confidence, boldness, and as those who want to be successful leaders, we need to be confident and bold and courageous to adopt aplomb and have that good attitude of going forward in the face of adversity. You know, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going to face some adversities, but leaders are going to face more adversities than others, I think, because they’re in the position of setting the path, right?

They’re in the position of chopping away the obstacles so that others can follow. And that’s something that we need to be thinking about as well as leaders and as Christians. We are leaders of those around us in the world. We need that courage and strength to live faithfully and to encourage one another.

Think about Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10, which says, “…Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, and put on the whole armor of God,” we read in the Scriptures. And that whole armor is something we need to be strong, to gird our loins with truth, to put on the breastplate of righteousness, To put on our feet the preparation of the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, and strength can come from the unlikeliest of sources when we think about being strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10, “‘Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.'” That is to say, I think when we are faced with adversities, when we have to look at our own weaknesses, when we have to look at our own problems, our injuries, and overcome them, That’s when we get stronger, and that’s what we need to do. We’ve got to face those things so that we can come out on top and overcome what we are challenged with in this life.

Think about Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13 with Christ. We should be able to do that because Paul said, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13. Think about Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 6, which says, So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Yes, with God on our side, we can be strong and of good courage.

Let us adopt a plum, that indomitable spirit, with imperturbable…I can’t say that, I guess. Inperturbable. That’s what I get for taking my words from the dictionary, right? Inperturbable confidence. That’s what we want. Confidence, strength, courage in the face of adversity.

And we need that in order to be successful leaders. But then secondly, we want to avoid anxiety. And I know that is so much easier said than done. Avoid anxiety. What is anxiety? Worrying about those things over which we have no control.

That’s a definition that someone gave to me years ago, and I’ve thought about that definition over the years and I really like it. Now I know you can describe anxiety in a lot of other ways as well, and I’m not trying to exclude anything else, but I think, you know, just on the surface of it, worrying about things over which you have no control, that’s the root of anxiety, right? Which leads to fear and dismay.

And Joshua was told by God, don’t fear. Don’t be dismayed. Don’t let anxiety control you. When we are controlled by fear, we will fail to act. And when we fail to act, we’re going to fail to be the kind of people that God wants us to be. It’s like a deer looking in the headlights.

You know, you just freeze up, and then you stop, and then what happens? Destruction comes because you’ve let fear control you. We need to overcome our fears. We need to overcome our challenges. As Christians and those who want to be successful leaders, we need to avoid our anxiety.

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, God told Joshua. And when we think about what causes anxiety, you know, a lot of what causes our anxiety is what Jesus discussed in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. And maybe you remember there when He said, don’t worry about the things that you need, you know, what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to put on or where you’re going to stay, things like that. You know, God will provide those things. What is our job? What do we need to focus on?

Not our anxieties, not on the things that we have no control over, but rather, “…seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6 and verse 33. So many things are out of our control, really. So many things. And it’s easy to focus on those things. And a lot of times, we want to focus on those things because it makes us feel good.

It makes us feel good to focus on things that we have no control over because, after all, we can say anything we want about that, right? And guess what? Nobody’s going to argue with us because they usually don’t have control over those things either. And we just complain about the things we have no control over all day long and make ourselves feel better about our situation and have done nothing to improve it. Well, that’s not what we What we want to do is we want to think about the things over which we do have control. Something that I can do something about. That’s where I want to put my focus. And avoiding anxiety is largely about doing just that. Focusing on things that I can control. What can I do? I can go for a walk. I can get out and exercise. I can read my Bible.

I can engage in prayer. What are the things I can do? That’s what we need to focus on as Christians to avoid our anxieties. Think about Philippians 4 and verse 6. In nothing be anxious, in nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.

And then what does the rest of that say? The peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, right? You want to avoid that anxiety? You want to guard your heart and your mind? Get into prayer. Talk to God. Let Him know what you’re thinking about. And you can let it go and cast all your cares upon Him.

We’ve got to avoid anxieties. And we need to think about our relationship with God. And specifically, how we need to obey God and fear God in our lives. We don’t fear man and what man can do to us, but we do fear God. And we want to make sure that we’re acting appropriately in our relationship with God.

Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 28, “…Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” Don’t be afraid of people who can’t control your eternal destiny. Don’t worry about them. Think about your relationship with God. That’s what we need to focus on. If we’ll do that, then God will take care of everything else.

You know, I’ve used this illustration before, and I like to think about it sometimes. And it’s this, that, you know, I have more relationships than I can do anything about in this life. In fact, for every person that you add to your life, that you include into your life, those relationships grow. The number of relationships grows by a multiple of so many. I can’t remember what it is, but it grows faster than the actual number of people.

So, for example, if there’s one person in your life, you have one relationship. If there’s two other people, well, then you get three relationships, right? If there’s four people, that’s, I think, five, six relationships. So the number of relationships grows faster than the actual number of people. By the time you get up to 100 people, it turns out that there’s something like 1,000 relationships. It’s crazy.

I can’t manage all that. I don’t know how to do that. But God does. He can manage it. He can take care of it. He knows every person. He knows every relationship. And I can trust Him to handle that. Now, I can’t. I can’t possibly. But I will trust Him to do that.

So, we need to trust in God. We need to put our faith in God. And we need to, Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. If we will focus on doing that, that’s something we can control. That’s something that won’t make us anxious because we’ll be focusing on things that we are doing and not on things that are outside of our control.

And so let’s not fear what man can do to us. Think about Hebrews 13, verse 6. So that with good courage we say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What shall man do to me? And 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are you.

And fear not their fear, neither be troubled. And so let’s avoid anxiety. First, adopt a plum, that courage that we need, that indomitable spirit to be good leaders. Avoid anxiety. Focus on what you can control, not on things that are out of your control. And then third, we need to accept assurance.

And a lot of times, you know, as leaders, this is one area where we tend to have problems, I think. We all, you know, once you get into this doubting mindset, right, and you start to doubt your decisions, you start to doubt whether you’re leading in the right direction, and you wonder, you know, well, am I doing the right thing, or is there something I need to change?

Well, we need to accept assurance. And when we have that assurance, we should plow forward and not look back. And so we’ve got to let God be with us. You know, God assured Joshua, He said, I will be with you wherever you go. Now think about that. What great assurance, knowing that God is on our side.

The Creator, the ruler of the universe, who’s all-powerful, He is here and He’s present with us, with me, and with you. Could Joshua have greater assurance than that? I don’t think so. And we have that same assurance. Think about what Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. There’s assurance. And we have that assurance.

What about John 14, verse 23? If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. There’s great assurance. We focus on what we need to focus on, right? We’re avoiding anxiety, and we’re focusing on the words of God and keeping His commandments, and when we do that, God will be with us, and He will assure us that we’re going in the right direction.

Think about Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, along with Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6. One of my favorite verses, what does it say? For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me? He will not leave us nor forsake us. Let’s be assured that we can do what the Lord wants us to do, that we can lead the way the Lord wants us to lead, that we can be a faithful Christian in the way the Lord wants us to be a faithful Christian. Accept assurance.

And as we think about that, think about Philippians 4 and verse 9, where Paul said, “…the things which you both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do, and the God of peace shall be with you.”

And when we do what God wants us to do, we get encouraged and we go forward and God is going to be with us. We have that one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all, Ephesians 4 and verse 6. Do we accept assurance when we go forward? Three attitudes for successful leaders. Now, I’m not saying this is everything that a leader needs. I got books on leadership in my library. If you want to read them, you can have them, take them with you and read them and drill down into it and all kinds of details.

But look, these are some fundamental basic things that good leaders need. First of all, adopt a plum, that successful attitude, that imperturbable spirit, indomitable will to go forward and to do what God wants. And then avoid anxiety. Not focusing on those things that we can’t do anything about, but things that we can do something about. Focusing on those and getting that done. And then accept assurance, knowing that as you’re going forward, God will be with us and He’s going to help us in ways that we don’t even know. And I tell you what, God has helped me in my life and He will help you in your life as well if you will give your life over to Him.

Now to do this, Joshua had to put all of his faith and trust in God. He couldn’t do it all by himself. He knew that God, but God said, I will be with you and I will help you. Do you have God in your life this morning? Is He there to help you and be with you? Maybe you need to get Him into your life today.

And to do that today, and with the aid of Jesus Christ, we need to hear His word and believe it, repent of our sins, confess Him as Lord, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. That’s how we start. We can be a successful person. We can be a successful Christian. We can be a successful leader.

Let’s adopt these principles, and it starts with getting Jesus in our life because we don’t have Him in our life, then it’s going to go any which way that the old devil wants it to go, and we’re going to be pulled this way and that. We’re not going to have direction. We’re not going to have good success, but when we get Jesus in our life by obeying that plan of salvation, God saves us. He forgives us of our sins.

He washes away all those things in the past that have troubled us and then we can go forward. Then we can start saying, okay, what kind of successful person can I be with Jesus on my side? And it will be amazing. And maybe you need to do that this morning. We’d be happy to help you. Or maybe you need prayers to get back into that attitude for success. Adopting aplomb, avoiding anxiety, and accepting assurance.

If you need to do that this morning, we stand ready to help you while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!