Yates Baptist Church

About Yates Baptist Church

We're a congregation in Durham, North Carolina, trying to live faithfully in ordinary life. Each Sunday, Pastor Christopher Ingram — and occasional guests from near and far — opens Scripture and preaches with honesty and care. Pull up a chair.

Publisher

Yates Baptist Church

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Nov 2017

Latest episode

26 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

450 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Jul 2026

   Until the Walls Fall Down

   The walls didn’t fall from a fight. They fell from praise — and the praise came first, not after the win. Click here to read the sermon “Until the Walls Fall Down” Joshua 6:1–21 Oh, thank you, Brother Watson. That was so, so good. Friends, we are in the third and final week of this three-week series we have been in called Onward: Moving Toward the Uncharted. In this series, we have been looking at the story of Joshua’s leadership of the people of Israel as they step into new ground, as they step into a brand new season, as they cross over the Jordan River into new lands the Lord has given them but of which they have not yet taken possession. There is a promise God has made to His people, but the people have not yet fully stepped into the promise. Two weeks ago, we saw this picture: that God had confirmed this promise, but it wasn’t just a promise — it was a principle. And a principle is a promise that is user dependent, meaning the promise God makes to Joshua is, “I have given you every place the sole of your foot treads” (cf. Josh 1:3, HCSB) [see “A New Dawn, A New Day (https://yateschurch.org/sermons/a-new-dawn-a-new-day/),” July 12, 2026]. Now that’s a beautiful promise, but it also means that if Joshua and the people of Israel stay where they are on the eastern side of the Jordan River, that’s all they get. But if they take steps of obedience, if they take steps of faith into a new land, if they follow a new journey and a new path to this new destination, God will be true to His promise to them. So we see it’s not just a promise, but a principle — a user dependent promise. And last week, we saw this picture: how the people, after forty years wandering in the wilderness, had finally crossed the Jordan River (cf. Josh 3–4) [see “Walk This Way (https://yateschurch.org/sermons/walk-this-way/),” July 19, 2026]. They finally had crossed, and the Jordan River is not a huge river, but the Jordan River was an obstacle in the way of the promise. It was an obstacle in the way of stepping into the fullness of who God had called them to be. And so He gave very specific instructions as to how they were to cross the river, so that God would be praised and the generations to come would know that God is mighty, and He would be teaching the people to walk in wisdom. And so as we conclude today, we’re going to do so with a message I have titled “Until the Walls Fall Down.” Until the walls fall down. Shock of all shocks, we’re going to be looking at Joshua chapter six and the Battle of Jericho. Now, how many of you grew up in VBS, and you know the Joshua and the Battle of Jericho song? Come on: “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.” [Congregation sings along.] I want to write each and every one of your names up on the chalkboard and give check marks next to you. I don’t think that means anything in heaven, but that’s how proud of you I am that you all knew that song so well. Now, here’s the thing. Many of us have heard the story of the Battle of Jericho in Sunday school and VBS growing up. But here are some of the things we may not have thought about when we were children hearing this story. Jericho is not a big city. Jericho was actually a relatively small town during this period of time. What Jericho had was two very important things, and in order to demonstrate those things, I need all of my youth in Passport shirts to come back up. I need all of your help. So youth and adults — if you’re an adult here in a Passport shirt, I need you too. You are my wall. I need you all right here, right across the front. And by the way, I do want to see that special high five y’all worked on together. All right, so here we go — I’ve got my Passport teens and adults. This is my wall. Now, here’s what’s true about having a wall in front of you: I feel a whole lot braver with them in front of me, right? Because you can’t get me — I’ve got the wall in front of me. Now, a wall is really great, but here’s the problem: if I’ve got the wall in front of me and you are the encroaching army, you outnumber me, but I’ve got a wall, so I can just wait you out. But in order for me to wait you out — the same problem siege warfare has had for thousands of years is this: if you are the larger army and we’ve got a big wall, you don’t have to tear down the wall. You just have to prevent anything I need from coming into the city. So the longer you surround the city, the more trouble I’m in. But Jericho had one thing going for it: Jericho had a spring in the middle of the city. So Jericho had fresh water and a wall. And if you’ve got fresh water and a wall, you don’t need much else, because you can’t get past my wall. And as long as I’ve got some animals and maybe some farming and fresh water, you can just keep hanging out out there — you don’t bother me one bit. So, how many of you — raise your hands real quick, and then I’m going to dismiss the wall — how many of you have seen The Odyssey already? How many of you went to the theaters and saw the new Odyssey? Yes, excellent, you get it. So of course it’s a bunch of men — Nolan made a new movie — that’s how it goes. So here’s the beauty of The Odyssey: The Odyssey is what happens after Homer’s The Iliad, right? It’s what happens after the Battle of Troy. And Troy was a walled city with a spring inside.1 So Troy could just wait out the opposing army — which is where the story comes from of the Trojan horse, because that was the only way you had to get someone to bring something into the city of their own accord. Otherwise, the people would just continue to wait and wait and wait — years waiting — because there was a spring and a wall. Y’all give it up for my wall! We’re going to go ahead and let the wall fall down. Y’all can head back. “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.” But anytime you have siege warfare, the goal is to wait out the people inside. In fact, there are a lot of stories of siege warfare throughout history where no battle was ever actually fought — the people inside the city simply ran out of resources and ultimately died without a battle ever occurring. Jericho was not a large city. Jericho was a well-defended city. So we’re going to read in Joshua chapter six, verses one and two — we’ll go back, please: Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites — no one leaving or entering. And the LORD said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you.” (Josh 6:1–2, HCSB) Now, they’ve always had a big wall, but it’s “fortified,” meaning they are in a defensive posture. And the reason they’re in defensive posture is that suddenly that eighty thousand to a quarter million people — the Israelites who crossed the river — suddenly that group is now surrounding them. So the people of Jericho are shut up inside. No one’s entering, no one’s leaving. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king and its fighting men over to you.” And if you’re Joshua in that moment, you’re thinking, “Not really — they seem to be doing just fine inside their walled city. They seem to be doing okay, God. You say You’ve delivered them to us, but here we are just hanging out outside. It doesn’t look like we’ve been delivered much.” But this is why it’s so important to remember that Jericho was not a big or powerful city — it was just well fortified. It’s not a big or powerful city. It’s just well fortified. And so this is our first point today that I want you to grab hold of: often in life, our obstacles are not large — they just appear insurmountable. Often our obstacles are not large. Often the obstacles you are facing are not crazy, they’re not scary — you’ve just accepted that you can’t do anything about them. Maybe that’s where we are today as the church. It’s easy to be the church in the world right now and look around and go, “Man, every church is declining.” It’s easy to go, “It’s not looking good.” And we’re not quitting — but we’ve kind of thrown in the towel on going further. We’re still going to show up, we’re still going to be faithful, but if we’re honest, we’ve lost a little bit of hope that there’s more to come. We’ve lost a little bit of hope that the best is yet to come. We’ve lost a little bit of hope that the next generation is going to go further than we ever thought possible. It’s not because it’s big or scary — we’re just looking around at the trends, and it feels insurmountable. But this is why what God says to Joshua next is so important. If we continue reading, we read these words: March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets. (Josh 6:3–4, HCSB) You know, I should have asked about this before — I don’t think we have a trumpet here, do we? We have the players, but not the horns. If there are any trumpet players in the room, I want to give you a moment to practice. Will you give me the sound you’d need to create the trumpet sound? Let me hear it — all the trumpet players in the room, any horn players in the room, let me hear it. There we go — it sounds a little bit like an elephant, doesn’t it? Sounds a little bit like an elephant. Now here’s the thing: I want you to imagine seven of those going off nonstop as an entire army marches around a city seven times. That’s big, and it’s loud, and it’s scary. We continue reading: When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear it sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. (Josh 6:5, HCSB) Let’s practice our mighty shout. Here we go — three, two, one. [Congregation shouts.] You scared me! Let’s try it again — three, two, one. [Congregation shouts again.] Okay, okay, all right. Now imagine that you are somewhere between fifty thousand and a hundred fifty thousand strong. Imagine that sound. Now, I’m from Florida — we have really great college football teams in Florida, and so that fifty to a hundred fifty thousand people screaming, I’ve heard a lot of that. Now here in Durham, I imagine we have to associate it more with college basketball — but imagine you’re inside Cameron during Duke-UNC. It’s tied with three seconds left. Can you imagine what it sounds like in that building? Can you imagine how loud it sounds? There’s power in that. But here’s what’s interesting in God’s command here in Joshua 6:3–5: nowhere is there a command to grab a weapon. Nowhere. God doesn’t say, “Here’s what I want you to do — I want you to spend some time, I want you to build the trebuchet, we’re going to take that wall down.” He doesn’t say, “I want you to get all the horses you can find, or the chariots you can find” — there’s nothing military-related to what we’re hearing. It’s: walk around the city once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, walk around the city seven times. And what’s going to happen? They’re going to blow horns. Now, for the people of Israel, blowing horns was part of a celebration — it was part of praise to God. In fact, if you go through the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, you’re going to find specific instructions for the horns that are supposed to be played during different parts of the worship service and the tabernacle. You’re going to find different examples of how you are to worship and praise God.2 God does not command the people of Israel to pick up weapons of violence. He has them pick up weapons of praise. So we’re going to skip ahead to verse twelve, and we’re going to find out what Joshua does in response to God’s command. “Joshua got up early the next morning” (Josh 6:12, HCSB). By the way, notice this in your Bible — whenever you’re reading, especially in the Old Testament, you’re going to find a continual pattern: when God gives a command to one of His people, the people who are our models of obedience tend to do this — they get up early the next morning. They get up early the next morning. Now, I don’t know about you, but I like sleep. I really do — I love sleep. But on days when I’m really excited about something, on days when I know something good is going to happen, I’m that person who can’t even stay asleep through my alarm. I’m up an hour earlier. There’s so much energy, so much excitement — I’m so ready for what’s about to happen. And we see this continually in Scripture: when people are excited about obedience, when they’re excited about what God is about to do in their life, they get up early the next morning. They are preparing themselves to experience all that God intends. So Joshua got up early the next morning; the priests took the ark of the LORD, and the seven priests carrying seven trumpets marched in front of the ark of the LORD. And while the trumpets were blowing, the armed troops went in front of them, and the rear guard went behind the ark of the LORD (cf. Josh 6:13, HCSB). On the second day, they marched around the city once and returned to the camp, and they did this for six days. Now imagine — you’re the people of Israel. Joshua’s received this command from God, Joshua has relayed this command to you, the people. And here you are, day after day, just going for a walk around the city. And you know God has commanded this, but let’s be honest — you don’t really understand it. And I can’t be the only person in the room who has been led by God to do something that didn’t really make sense to me. I can’t be the only person in the room who has found themselves in a situation where obedience to God seems ridiculous in the face of whatever’s going on in your life. And if we’re honest, if we’re real with one another, I think many of us have come face to face with that struggle. God is asking for obedience, and you’re looking at the situation — you’re looking at your bank account, you’re looking at your relationships, you’re looking at your marriage, you’re looking at your kids — and you’re going, “God, that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. God, I know You’re calling me to be obedient here, but I’m struggling to get it.” And this whole series, this whole three weeks, has really been about the idea that God is calling us into a new land. God is calling us into a new territory. God is calling us into something we did not think was possible before. And so, in order for us to reach that new land, in order for us to reach that new destination, it’s going to require some different things from us. And I think, first and foremost, it’s going to require a different kind of faith — maybe than we’ve had before. It’s going to require a faith that is deeper, a faith that trusts more. And another way to say that would be a faith that risks more — the kind of faith that says, “If You don’t show up here, then I don’t have any other options. You’ve called me into the kind of faith, God, where either You are who You say You are, or I’ve got nothing.” And if we want to reach a new destination, if we want to be a people who are following a new path, it will require of us a new kind of faith — because following a new path will require a new kind of faith. We’ve got to trust God enough to continue down a new path toward a new destination, even when it doesn’t always make sense to us. In those moments, we’ve got to trust: God, You know what You’re doing. God, You know what You’re doing. Because if we’re real — and I’m just being honest — I’ve been in ministry for twenty years, and I’m just telling you what I have experienced: most of the time, my faith looks like one foot in and one foot out. Most of the time, my faith looks like, “God, I’m really hoping You’re going to come through, but I’ve also got a backup plan. God, I’m really trusting that You’re going to come through, but please don’t ask me to risk too much, or give too much, or do too much. God, don’t ask me to take on a position that is outside of my comfort zone. God, don’t lead me to volunteer for a ministry where I don’t really know what I’m doing.” For most of us, faith looks like, “God, I really, really believe You about sixty percent of the time.” And that’s not — please, please don’t hear a judgment in that. Please don’t hear me say you’ve only got sixty percent faith. I’m saying I’m there with you. I’m a pastor, and I’m there with you. But what I also know from my own testimony, what I also know from your life, is that the moments your faith has deepened the most have been the moments where you have trusted God in such a way that there was no Plan B. There was no backup. It’s “God, I am one hundred percent all in with You. God, I’m not holding anything back. I’m not being careful about what I’m going to do if this doesn’t work out. God, I am believing that Your way is the best way. So I’m going to live in such a way that the whole world will know: he really believes that God is faithful.” That’s not what my life looks like most of the time. But I know that when God has moved the most powerfully, those are the moments I have trusted Him fully. There’s a pastor who passed a few years ago — I mean, we could talk about his influence on my entire generation of Christians. His name was Dr. Charles Stanley. And Dr. Charles Stanley said these words, and I love them: God will take full responsibility of the life fully entrusted to Him.3 And I know in my life, those rare moments — those rare moments where I’ve had a new kind of faith, those rare moments where I say, “God, I am trusting You fully” — I have seen Him take full responsibility and do more than I ever thought was possible. Church, if we want to reach a new destination, if we want to follow a new path, it will require from us a new kind of faith. As we continue reading, we’re going to read verses fifteen and sixteen, and then we’re going to skip to twenty: Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way. That was the only day they marched around the city seven times. After the seventh time, the priest blew the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city.” (Josh 6:15–16, HCSB) So, church — one more time. We’ve made our way around this city seven times. The priests have blown the trumpets. Let me be Joshua for a moment, and you be the people of Israel: “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!” [Congregation responds.] The Lord has given you the fortified city. Let’s try it again: “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!” [Congregation shouts.] So the people shouted, and the trumpets sounded. When they heard the blast of the trumpet, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. The people advanced into the city, each man straight ahead, and they captured the city. (Josh 6:20, HCSB) Now: seven times around the city, trumpet blasts, the people shout. Trumpet blast, the people shout — and then what happens? “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.” Now here — Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho? The walls didn’t come down because of a fight. The walls came down because of praise. You see, praise — the praise preceded the victory. The praise preceded the victory. And let’s be honest — come on — how many of us are waiting for the victory to give the praise? How many of us, time and time again, in every circumstance and situation we face in life, we’re waiting for the victory? “God, once You bring me the victory, I’ll give You the praise. God, once we have won, I’ll give You the praise.” That’s not how the Battle of Jericho goes. Praise precedes the victory. Praise precedes the victory. What would your life look like if you brought to mind the biggest obstacle you’re facing — if you brought to mind the biggest battle that’s ahead of you, if you brought to mind the biggest fear, the biggest anxiety, the biggest worry you have — bring that to the forefront of your mind. And what would happen if right now, here in this place, you said, “God, I’m not waiting for the victory to give You praise. I’m not waiting for the win to declare Your glory. God, I’m not waiting until this church is overflowing with people and we’re doing four services — I’m not waiting for that to give You praise right now.” Let’s be honest, church, I know where you’re at. How about, “God, I’m not waiting until we have it all figured out and all the answers to give You praise.” What would it look like? What would it look like for you to say here and now, “God, You get every bit of my praise. You get every bit of my praise, You get it here and now. I’m not waiting for the victory to give You praise.” Because here’s what’s true — here’s what’s true. No matter what battle you are facing in this life, no matter what circumstance you are coming up against, what is true is that death has already been defeated. Sin has already been defeated. The blood of Jesus has already purified you from all unrighteousness. You are covered in the grace of God before a bit of victory has been given in the circumstance you’re facing in this moment. You’ve already got more victory than you could ever ask or imagine. You have already won. So yeah — you might be facing some confusion about what comes next for you as a church. You may be facing some tough decisions in your personal life regarding your finances. You may be battling — I mean, man, at this point, you can be battling just by ordering a salad. It’s bad out there, y’all. Whatever battle you are facing — you’ve already won. Church, hear me when I say this: you’ve already won. You’ve already got the victory. Yes, there are situations in your life that you’re afraid of. Yes, there are situations in your life you’re nervous about. There are circumstances going on in your friends and in your family that you are worried about. But I want to let you know: in the middle of that anxiety, in the middle of that worry, in the middle of the unknowns for what comes next, we can praise God right now — because praise precedes the victory. Praise precedes the victory. And here’s what the enemy wants for you: the enemy wants you to forget that you’ve already won. The enemy wants you to forget you’ve already been victorious. The enemy wants you to forget what God has already done for you — and to get you so wrapped up with the thing that is five feet in front of you that you become blinded to everything else. That’s all the enemy wants. But church — what would happen? What would happen in your life if you said, “I’ve already won. I am praising God”? And victory may or may not come in this situation, but I’m praising God either way, because I’m already victorious. Church, are you willing? Are you willing to give your praise before the victory? Are you willing to give your praise before the victory? And here’s the thing that I don’t understand — there’s so much in Scripture that I don’t get. I don’t understand how, in God’s economy, ninety percent goes further than a hundred percent. I don’t understand how, in God’s economy, six days goes further than seven. I don’t understand how it is that in God’s economy, sometimes when we praise, victory follows. It’s backwards to the way the world works. Church, God has called you to be a different kind of people, following a different kind of path, with a different kind of faith. Church, are you willing to give your praise before the victory? Because I believe — I believe for Yates Baptist Church, and I believe for every man, woman, and child in this room right now — I believe if you will give your praise, you have no idea what God will do next. If you will give your praise, I believe there is a victory headed your way, church. I don’t want you to miss it. I don’t want you to miss it. I don’t want you to miss out on the destination. I don’t want you to miss out on the new lands. I don’t want you to miss out on the life that is ahead of you if you’re willing to give your praise first. If you’re willing to be a people of praise, no matter the situation, no matter the circumstance, I believe that victory comes quickly on its heels. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, Jesus — we give You praise in this place. We give You honor and glory in this place. God, we’re going to hear music in this place. God, we’re going to sing songs of praise in this place. And so, God, we’re not holding back. God, we’re going to give You praise today like victory is dependent upon it. We’re going to give You praise today as a people who have already won. We’re going to give You praise today like a people who know that if we praise until the walls fall down, we will see Your victory. We will experience Your grace and Your mercy and Your goodness. Jesus, we want a taste of Your victory, and so we give You praise here and now. We don’t know what the future holds, but You do. We don’t know what the next step is, God, but You do. So God, would You give us the kind of faith that praises You before the victory? Would You give us the kind of faith that is obedient in such a way that if You don’t come through, God, we have no hope? Would You give us the kind of faith that fully entrusts our lives to You, believing that You will take full responsibility of that life? Jesus, we pray this in Your name. Amen. Endnotes 1 The image of “a spring in the middle of the city” draws loosely on Homer’s description of twin springs feeding the Scamander near Troy’s walls (Iliad 22.147–152: “κρουνὼ δ’ ἵκανον καλλιρρόω· ἔνθα δὲ πηγαὶ / δοιαὶ ἀναΐσσουσι Σκαμάνδρου δινήεντος,” “they came to the two fair-flowing fountains, where well up the two springs that feed eddying Scamander”). Homer locates these springs outside the city walls, on the plain, not within the citadel, and describes two springs (one warm, one cold) rather than one. Archaeological excavation at Hisarlık, the site identified with ancient Troy, has not confirmed a spring inside the fortified citadel matching this Homeric image. Excavated water features there consist chiefly of cisterns and a rock-cut channel rather than a documented intramural spring. 2 The trumpet/horn vocabulary sits in three Pentateuchal locations: Numbers 10:1–10, where the instrument is חֲצוֹצְרָה (chatzotzerah, “[silver] trumpet”) and the war-signal is תְּרוּעָה (teru’ah, “shout, alarm-blast,” Num 10:9); and Leviticus 23:24 and 25:9, where the instrument is שׁוֹפָר (shofar, “ram’s horn”), again paired with teru’ah. Joshua 6 itself uses shofar for the priests’ horns (שׁוֹפְרוֹת הַיּוֹבְלִים, shofrot ha-yovlim, “ram’s-horn trumpets,” 6:4) and teru’ah for the people’s shout (תְּרוּעָה גְדוֹלָה, teru’ah gedolah, “a great shout,” 6:5, 20). This is Leviticus’s pairing, and the same shofar/teru’ah pairing recurs as a holy-war type-scene in Judges: Ehud sounds the shofar to muster Israel (וַיִּתְקַע בַּשּׁוֹפָר, Judg 3:27); Gideon does the same to summon his army (Judg 6:34), and; At the battle against Midian the shofar blast and accompanying cry again precede the enemy’s collapse rather than follow it (Judg 7:16–22) The repeated formula forms the same liturgical praise-before-victory pattern the preacher interprets from Jericho. 3 The challenging line, “God will take full responsibility of the life fully entrusted to Him,” conflates language from two sources rather than quoting either: Andrew Murray (“God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him”), commonly attributed to Murray in devotional compilations though without a confirmed primary-text citation, and Charles Stanley’s Life Principle 11 (“God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him”), as taught through In Touch Ministries. A third variant, “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly devoted to Him,” also circulates under Stanley’s name in popular quotation collections. Rendered in the body as the preacher’s own synthesis of these related sayings. Works Cited AZQuotes. “God Takes Full Responsibility for the Life Wholly Devoted to Him.” AZQuotes, https://www.azquotes.com/quote/735429 (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/735429). Accessed 26 July 2026. Bible Apologetics. “Andrew Murray – Quotes for a Deeper Walk with Jesus.” Bible Apologetics, 23 Sept. 2024, https://bibleapologetics.org/andrew-murray-quotes-for-a-deeper-walk-with-jesus/ (https://bibleapologetics.org/andrew-murray-quotes-for-a-deeper-walk-with-jesus/). Accessed 26 July 2026. The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2004. Homer. The Iliad. Translated by A. T. Murray, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1924. The Odyssey. Directed by Christopher Nolan, Universal Pictures, 2026. Stanley, Charles F. “Life Principle 11: His Promise to Provide.” In Touch Ministries, https://www.intouch.org/watch/sermons/life-principle-11-his-promise-to-provide (https://www.intouch.org/watch/sermons/life-principle-11-his-promise-to-provide). Accessed 26 July 2026. “Troy: New Data from Old Excavations.” Archaeological Institute of America, 9 Nov. 2023, https://www.archaeological.org/troy-new-data-from-old-excavations/ (https://www.archaeological.org/troy-new-data-from-old-excavations/). Accessed 26 July 2026. © 2026 Rob Stone. All rights reserved.

2. 

   19 Jul 2026

   Walk This Way

   The Jordan was at flood stage when the priests waded in — before the water moved. Obedience came first. Click here to read the sermon “Walk This Way” Joshua 3:1–4; 3:14–16; 4:18–24 It's such a treat to be back with you. My name is Rob Stone. If we haven't met yet, it's so good to be with you. This is my second of what will be three weeks preaching for you here at Yates Baptist Church. And we are in a series we started last week called Onward: Moving Toward the Uncharted. Onward, moving toward the uncharted. And of course we're walking through the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua is one of my favorite books of the Bible, because Joshua finds a people in the middle of a dramatic change, a dramatic shift. The people of Israel, if you follow from the book of Exodus, have been set free from their captivity, from their slavery in Egypt, but they have spent the better part of the last forty years wandering in the wilderness. They essentially lose a generation in the wilderness. But God is raising up a generation that's going to lead them into the promised land. So after the death of Moses, Joshua finds himself tasked with leading the people of Israel into the promised land. They're going to cross the Jordan River and make their way into Israel. I'm very excited about where we are today, because last week we discovered the what. Last week, we discovered the what: that God has called Joshua to lead the people into the promised land, and He made a lot of promises. We saw that Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits — Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits, which is another way of saying God's promise to Joshua is that every place the sole of his foot treads, God has given to him (cf. Josh 1:3, HCSB) [see "A New Dawn, A New Day," July 12, 2026]. And we talked about last week how that can be a promise, but it's not just a promise — it's a principle. And a principle is a promise that is user dependent. It's a promise that depends on whether or not you live it out, because God's promise to Joshua is a promise that depends on Joshua's action. Joshua has to take steps of obedience in order to receive the blessing that comes with God's promise. But if Joshua keeps his feet planted exactly as they are, if Joshua is not willing to be obedient, then the promise becomes a curse for him. Joshua has to take action. Joshua has to take steps of obedience. And I believe that is what God has called us to as well, because as we talked about last week, I believe God has not brought us this far just to bring us this far. There is more to go. There is further to go. And I believe, by God's power, that the best is yet to come. So before we jump into the second week of the series — looking not just at the what, but the how — because the what is great, but a what without a how leaves us all feeling a little confused. It leaves us lacking clarity, especially if we don't know how to get where we're going. Now, we live in 2026, and I have my phone right here — it has some points of the sermon that I'm going to cover. How many of you have your phones with you? Raise your hand if you have your phone, lift it up high. There we go. We are a smartphone people. Okay, let's try it this way — just for my own interest: if you're an iPhone user, raise your hand. Okay. If you use anything else, raise your hand. [Laughter.] Look at you. Come on now — a bunch of green dots showing up in the group texts. "So-and-so reacted to a photo." We can see it now, all you green-dot people, you non-iPhone users in the room. But here's why I mention it: a smartphone is beautiful, especially if you are lost. And really, with a smartphone, how could you ever truly be lost? But I want you to journey with me back to 2001 — December of 2001. I'm a college student at the University of Central Florida. I'm from Florida, by the way — I don't know if there are any other Floridians in the room. Come on, Sunshine State, look how far we've made it. I was a junior at the University of Central Florida, working with a campus ministry called Campus Crusade for Christ that now goes by Cru. Cru has Christmas Conference every year — our big regional conference. Because I was a student in the Southeast, Christmas Conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia. And there are lots of things to love about Atlanta, Georgia — Waffle House, Chick-fil-A, it's all wonderful, I appreciate it. But here's the thing I can't stand about Atlanta: driving in Atlanta is awful. Amen? Around the city of Atlanta is a circle, the perimeter, if you will, and it is a ten-lane highway that just forms a circle all around the city. And depending on where you get on this circle, the directions you're following make no sense, because there's an inner circle and an outer circle. Here I am in Atlanta before the invention of the iPhone. I want you to remember back in the days of a road atlas — you're pulling it out, maybe you've got it hidden in a map somewhere, and you pull that map out and try to figure out, as you're driving, where you're going. None of it is safe. We're going to our service project — how many of our youth went to Passport, by the way? Raise your hand if you were at Passport last week. Come on, vámonos, I love it, great job. So here's the thing: we're doing our service project as part of this conference, and we're headed into a place in Atlanta, and my friend who lives in Atlanta is like, "I know exactly how to get there." And then he proceeded to tell me — and if you don't live in a city, someone telling you the roads and the various points along the way isn't really helpful. So I do what dumb young men do: I go, "Got it. Gotcha. Totally see you there." And I take off, and I'm getting on I-285, this giant thing that goes around the city. I hop on I-285, and I know I need to go two exits west of where we are on the northern part of this highway. So I follow the sign that says west. But the west sign takes me in the opposite direction, because it's telling me where I'm ultimately trying to end up — not where I'm immediately going. Again, a highway that makes no sense. The fine folks of Atlanta, Georgia need to get their stuff figured out. But I turn the wrong way, and now I spend the next hour just looping around the city, seeing all the sights all the way around Atlanta. Finally, someone in my car has a cell phone — I don't own a cell phone yet, this is 2001, this is pre–cell phone days for me. Someone in the car has a cell phone: "Where are you all at?" "We're still on 285, looking for the exit." We eventually make our way there. This time, as we're going back to the hotel from the service project, I didn't just listen to what my friend told me when he told me how to get back. I said, "You go first, and I will follow you." We got back to the hotel in about five minutes. Now, there are wives in the room being very sweet about not elbowing your husbands right now — I appreciate that, I'm grateful for that — because if I had been married at that point, my wife would have said, "Hey, you don't know where you're going. How about you follow someone who does?" You don't know how to get there — why don't you follow someone who knows how to get there? I knew the what. I knew what we were going to do. I just didn't know how to get there, and I thought I could just figure it out. And of course I didn't, because you can't just figure out everything. Sometimes the only way to learn is to watch someone who knows what they're doing, who knows how to do it. And so here we are in week two of the sermon series Onward, with a message I have titled "Walk This Way." Because just like Joshua and the people of Israel, and just like us today, we need to know not just where we're going — we need to know how to get there. And so this is what we find as we open up Joshua chapter three and Joshua chapter four. We're not going to read the entirety of the two chapters — we're going to read some selections of Scripture from these two chapters. But beginning in Joshua chapter three, verse one — this is Joshua 3:1–4: Joshua started early the next morning and left the Acacia Grove with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and stayed there before crossing. After three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical priests, you must break camp and follow it. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the ark. Don't go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven't traveled this way before." (Josh 3:1–4, HCSB) I love how practical this section of Scripture is. It's this beautiful thing — it's Joshua saying, "Hey, we're going to follow the ark. We're going to follow God. We're going to follow God where He is leading us, but we're going to let God lead the way. We're not going to jump ahead of God," because sometimes in our lives we try to jump ahead of God's will, and we find ourselves not in the place we wanted to be. Amen? Sometimes we go, "I know what God wants for me," and we find ourselves in a place we never thought we would be — in a circumstance we never imagined we would be in. And here's Joshua, and he's saying, "Come on, we're all going to be ready. You're going to get ready to follow." And the reason you're going to follow is because you don't know where we're going — you've never been there before. There's a French philosopher who said these beautiful words: "If we want to reach new lands, we must be willing to lose sight of the shore.”1 I don't know how many of you have maybe been out on a cruise ship — have you been out on the water? There's something terrifying that happens when you get out in the ocean, and suddenly you look around, three hundred sixty degrees, everywhere you look all you see is horizon. That's a scary spot to be, because if all you have is horizon, you don't really know where you are, you don't really know where you're going. For Joshua, he's saying, look, so much of our wandering, so much of the place we've been stuck in for the last forty years, is because we didn't know how to get out of it. We didn't know how to take the next step. We didn't know how to move forward. And here's Joshua saying: we're going to follow God, and God is going to lead us into a new place. But in order for God to lead us to a new place, we're going to have to walk in a brand-new way. We're going to have to go to a place we have never been before. To put it another way: if we want to reach new lands, we must follow a new path. Church, I want you to hear me when I say this. If we want to reach new lands, if we want to be in a new place, if we want to go where we have not been before, then we're going to have to take a brand-new path to get there. Because all the paths that are familiar to us, all the ways that are known to us, all the directions we are comfortable with, just lead us to the places we've already been. If we want to reach new lands, we've got to follow a brand-new path. We've got to be willing to do some new things and move in a new direction. And if we're honest — new is scary. New is scary, and let's be real: I'm in my forties now, I have three kids, I have teenagers at home. New isn't just scary — new feels sometimes a little irresponsible, because I've got people who are counting on me, I've got kids I'm trying to pay for college for. The older I get, new feels like more and more of a risk. So the older we get, new seems to be a bridge just too far. But God didn't bring us this far just to take us this far — which means it's time for us to get used to new. It's time to get comfortable with new. It's time to get comfortable with the risks that come with new, because we want to reach new lands, and you only reach new lands by following a new path. We're going to skip ahead to verse fourteen — this is Joshua 3:14–16: When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. (Josh 3:14–16, HCSB) I want you to track what's happening here. There has been a command from Joshua to the officers for what all the people are going to do: hey, we're going to follow a new path, we're going to go a new direction. And the people are being obedient — the people are saying, "I'm ready, we are ready." They have broken camp. The people are leading. The priests carrying the ark step their feet in the water, and the water stops. Now, here's something to know: the Jordan River is not a large river. If you look at pictures of the Jordan, through most of the year it's about the width of this stage — so crossing it through most of the year is not really a huge deal, especially this far south, because once you get this far south, this is the lowest-lying region on planet Earth. The Dead Sea is just south of here. But it's flood season, so we're not talking about just crossing the stage — we're talking about a flood. In October 2024 (sic) [Hurricane Helene's catastrophic inland flooding in Western North Carolina occurred primarily September 26–28], Hurricane Helene came through Western Carolina and dumped an amount of rain the region had not seen in nearly a hundred years. What happened to all the rivers there? They immediately flooded. The problem is, in any mountainous terrain, you build roads next to rivers, because rivers do what water often does — they follow the path of least resistance. If you're engineering roads, you also want to follow the path of least resistance; otherwise, you're going to spend tons of time, energy, and resources cutting roads into a mountain. So when these rivers flooded, it didn't just flood the rivers — it flooded the roads, it flooded the homes, it flooded the businesses. Suddenly you have this whole area of Western North Carolina destroyed essentially by rain, by floodwaters overflowing these rivers, and you become acutely aware of how powerful floodwaters can be. So we get this detail — this is what the Jordan River was like as they're getting ready to cross. Now again, we've got to be comfortable with new, we've got to get comfortable with the risk associated with new, because let's be honest — if any of us was part of the team with Joshua that day, wouldn't we go, "You know, Joshua, if we could just chill here for another three months, this crossing would be much easier. Joshua, you've picked the worst time to do this — these are flooding rivers. We've waited forty years to do this; another two weeks ain't gonna kill us." That's what, let's be honest, that's what we would say if we were with Joshua that day. But we get this detail, and the reason we get this detail is to understand the power of what comes next: "But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge, and the water flowing downstream stood still." Now, what does this immediately remind you of? [A member of the congregation responds.] Q: And what's your name? A: Gail. Y'all give it up for Gail — Gail had the right answer, come on, that's right. This is the same group of people who, forty years earlier, was fleeing Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, and they get to the Red Sea, and what happens when they get to the water (cf. Exod 14:21–22)? Here they are — an entire race of people, an entire ethnicity of people, fleeing their enslavers, and they get to a body of water they cannot cross. It looks like it's over. It looks like this is the end of the story. Surely the people in that moment are terrified for their lives. But God tells Moses to stand up, and what happens to the waters? They part. Now here we are, forty years later, Joshua leading the people to cross the river — a much smaller body of water, but still a significant body of water in flood season — and the priests are carrying the ark, and their feet hit the water, and when their feet hit the water, a wall of water stands. I don't know about you, but when I am afraid, nothing comforts me faster than remembering how God has rescued me before. The older we get, the harder new becomes. But the older we get, the more testimony we have in our rearview mirror. The older we get, the more we have seen, time and time again: "I didn't think there was a way out. I didn't think there was any hope in this situation, and God came through." How many of us — the greatest testimony of our life is something we would have never asked for, something we would have dreaded if someone said it was coming, and yet we can look back on that season and go, "God, thank You. Thank You for bringing me to it, and thank You for bringing me through it. God, thank You, because now I know what You're capable of." There's this beautiful thing that happens before the people step into a new land, before they take this new path to their new destination, to their new future: before any of that happens, God reminds them of His past faithfulness. Church, we need our memories of God's past faithfulness. We need our memories of God's past faithfulness. We need that. [Addressing the media team.] This is the time for that slide to move on — thank you. We need our memories of God's past faithfulness. We need it. Every one of those stories you have — those stories we call your testimony — every one of those stories of God's past faithfulness, we need them. We need every one. We need the stories from the previous generations of God's faithfulness. If you were lucky enough to grow up with a mother and a father who worship the Lord, then you have generations of past faithfulness to talk about. Some of you in this room know what it's like to have generations and generations go before you, and you can tell the story of God's past faithfulness to those generations. And when you hear the stories of God's past faithfulness, it should not lead you to be afraid. It should not leave you suddenly more conservative in your decision-making. The more you are aware of God's past faithfulness, the more boldness you should have to take steps down a new path to a brand-new destination — because God has proven it time and time again, in your own story, in the story of your family before you, in the story of the generations that have gone before. God has been faithful time and time again, and He's not about to quit right now. He's not about to stop! This should be so encouraging for us, church, because seeing this story is the reminder that God is always true to His promise — He is faithful yesterday, today, and forever. So church, when we find ourselves at a crossroads where we've got to pick — hey, are we going to do the same thing we've always done and end up in the same place we've always been, or are we going to do something brand new? Are we going to have enough faith to take a new path to a new destination? If you're struggling with that today, if you're like me, if you're someone who — the older you get, the more you struggle with that kind of decision — I want to encourage you to take a moment today and just remember God's past faithfulness. I want you to remember the ways God showed up time and time again when people were willing to trust Him enough to follow a new path to a new destination. Joshua and the people of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel, make their way across the river. Historians disagree on the predicted size of the nation of Israel at this time, but somewhere between eighty thousand and two hundred fifty thousand people is what we're talking about, and they have made the journey across the river. Now, moving across a river, especially when it's dry because the water has stopped, doesn't take forever — but when you've got that many people, it takes a while. It takes a while, and I wonder how many people got to the river, saw the water standing still, and still rushed, still ran — "Hey, it's been hours now, it was good for that tribe and that tribe, but I'd better get working fast, I'd better run my way across this river." The people of Israel make their way to the other side. And before they get out of the river entirely, Joshua orders each tribe to choose one person and send that person back to the riverbed to pull a rock out of the dry place they have crossed on. Joshua orders the people to go back, take twelve rocks, and bring those rocks to the west side of the river. They've crossed from the east side to the west side, and here they are on the west side, and they stack up these twelve stones as a monument. And the monument was not to an event. The monument was not to a thing that happened. The monument was about God's faithfulness. When we turn to Joshua 4:18–24, this is what we read: When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan and their feet stepped out onto solid ground, the waters of the Jordan resumed their course, flowing over all the banks as before. The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern limits of Jericho. Then Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan, and he said this to the Israelites: "In the future, when your children ask their fathers, 'What is the meaning of these stones?' you should tell your children, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over. This is so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord's hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God." (Josh 4:18–24, HCSB) I want to stop here for a second. Look at the Scripture — "This is so." Now, last week we opened up and talked about the what: it's God coming to Joshua — "Joshua, you're going to lead the people into the promised land, into the land I am giving them as an inheritance. You're going to do it, Joshua." There's the what. We started this week looking at the how: here's how we're going to do it. We don't know the way, so we're following God, and God is going to lead us on a new path to a brand-new land. So we've got the what and the how. But as Simon Sinek would say, the most important thing in your life is not the what or the how — the most important thing in your life is the why. Why are you being faithful? Why are you here in church this morning? Why do you give? Why do you sacrifice? Why do you do the right thing when no one is watching, when no one will ever know if you didn't? What's your why? I love that Joshua hears from the Lord — this is the why: "so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord's hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God." There's a lie we can get sucked into if we're not careful — the lie that everything God has done in the Old Testament is about giving one ethnicity a place to call home. I want you to know that what God is doing in the Old Testament is so much bigger and so much greater than that, because what Joshua is doing is not about a people receiving this plot of land — it's about the whole earth knowing that the Lord's hand is mighty, and so that we may always have fear of the Lord our God, which is what Solomon will say is wisdom (cf. Prov 9:10, HCSB). God's why in getting a group of less than a quarter million people from one side of the river to the next, God's why in what He's going to do next week as we look at the Battle of Jericho, God's why in everything that happens in the rest of the Old Testament is the same: that all the earth may know the Lord and have wisdom, because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. God's why is that the whole earth would know Him and have wisdom. I wonder today for us — we've got a called business meeting right after the church service. There's a lot going on at Yates Baptist Church, and let's be honest, I think there's still some confusion. But what I want to let you know is this: if we focus too much on this, we'll miss the whole story, we'll miss the bigger picture, we'll miss what God has come to do. And what I want to let you know is this: everything God has done in your life, everything God has done in this church, everything God has done in every church that has ever been, has been the same as God's why in Joshua chapter four — that the whole world would know Him and walk in wisdom. God's why is that the whole earth would know Him and walk in wisdom. And I wonder today, if that became your why — if that became your why, that everything you did was so that people could know God and walk in wisdom — how would it change things? How would it change your life? How would it change your choices? How would it change your community? How would God bring dead things to life all around you if we adopted that as our why? I love that Joshua gives the why to the people this way — he says, "In the future, when your children ask you." Do you see what's happening? It's Joshua saying, right now, I want you to prepare yourselves to remember, prepare yourselves to remember what God has done, because the day is coming where the next generation is going to ask you what this means, and you go, "I'm so glad you've asked" — because my why, my motivating factor in my whole life, has been to tell you this story. Let me tell you about my God, and let me give you all you need to begin walking in wisdom. So church, we've celebrated two weeks in a row of children and teenagers spending time in camp, spending formative time in community, hearing more about the God we worship. You've got to be a part of it — you've gotten to be a part of it already, in the last two weeks. In the future, when your children ask, you've been able to send your children to places where all they've done is learn about who God is and how to walk in wisdom. So church, today — are you prepared? Are you prepared to remember what God is about to do? Because the testimony of God's might and His work is not just a story for yesterday — that's a story for today. Tomorrow, you have no idea what God might do. You have no idea what God might do. So the question for each and every one of us: are we prepared to remember what God is about to do — what has not yet come to fruition, but which we see by faith and not by sight (cf. 2 Cor 5:7, HCSB)? I believe that's our why, and I believe if it becomes your why, it just might change the whole world. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we love You, we praise You, God. We are people who have testimony, who have story after story of how You have been good, how You have been faithful, how You have delivered us when there seemed to be no other way. And so God, we are asking the same right now, and we are believing by faith, not by sight, that You are about to do a new thing. Would You give us the obedience? Would You give us the courage? Would You give us the boldness to follow You on a new path to a brand-new future? And would You prepare our hearts now to remember what You're about to do, so that as generations come, we can declare Your faithfulness to each and every generation. God, would You help us to live with a why like Yours, like Joshua's? Would You help us to live with a why that says everything I do is so that the whole world will know Jesus and walk in the wisdom His Holy Spirit provides? Jesus, we pray this in Your name. Amen. Endnote 1 This is a summary of the French novelist and essayist André Gide's words as they appear in dialogue near the end of his novel Les Faux-monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters), spoken between the characters Édouard and Bernard. The standard English rendering, from Dorothy Bussy's translation, reads: "One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore." The French original reads: "On ne découvre pas de terre nouvelle sans consentir à perdre de vue, d'abord et longtemps, tout rivage." Works Cited Gide, André. Les Faux-monnayeurs. Paris: Gallimard, 1925. Gide, André. The Counterfeiters. Translated by Dorothy Bussy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. The Holy Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible. 2004, rev. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers. Sinek, Simon. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. New York: Portfolio, 2009. © 2026 Rob Stone. All rights reserved.

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   12 Jul 2026

   A New Dawn, A New Day

   God already gave you the land. The catch? You still have to walk on it. Joshua 1 on comfort, courage, and the cost of staying put. Click here to read the sermon A New Dawn, A New Day Joshua 1:1–9 Heavenly Father, Jesus, we come before you this Sunday morning, and we lift up your holy name. Jesus, we invite your presence, your Holy Spirit power, into this moment and into this place and into our lives and our hearts and our minds. Jesus, we pray prayers of gratitude for our children who came back from camp this week. We pray prayers of protection and grace over our youth who are headed off this week. We pray a prayer of clarity for Yates Baptist Church. Jesus, we ask in your holy name that you would give us clarity over confusion, that you would cast vision for the future of your church, and that that vision would lead us where division stirs. And finally, Jesus, we declare boldly this morning that whatever you may have in store for the future of Yates Baptist Church, we know that the very best days of the kingdom of Jesus Christ are still to come. The best is yet to come. And so, Jesus, we come before you this morning, and we give you the honor and the glory and the praise that is rightly due to your name. Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, it is such a treat to be with you today, Yates Baptist Church. I want you to know the last time I was in this building was a few years ago, when I had the opportunity, as the head of the communications team for the Tri-West Baptist Network, to come in here. You hosted our annual meeting, and I got to give a report. So it is a very different experience being here preaching rather than giving a business meeting report. This is far more enjoyable, and I'm so glad to be with you today. Knowing that I'm going to be with you for the next three weeks helps me, because it allows me to preach a sermon series rather than try to squeeze everything together into one message. So we're going to get you to that meeting and that lunch earlier than you had hoped. That's the plan. So we're starting a series today called Onward. Onward. This series is going to be all about — and you can go ahead and throw that up on the screen, there we go — moving toward the uncharted. Moving toward the uncharted. We're going to be looking at the book of Joshua, and Joshua felt like an important book for where you are right now in the life of Yates Baptist Church. So before we jump into the first chapter of Joshua today, I wanted to start by looking back at the end of the Mosaic books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy — those are the five books we call the Law, or the Pentateuch. These are the first five books of the Bible, and they are written by Moses. When we get to the end of Deuteronomy, Moses, after forty years leading the people through the wilderness, has died — before he was ever able to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. There's something powerful about that, because Moses was a good and faithful leader for the people of Israel, but Moses was not able to experience where the people of Israel were headed. Moses died before the people had stepped into all that God had for them. One of the things that is true in the life of every church is that there are changes, there are shifts that happen in churches. Any church older than seven years has probably had more than one pastor — it's just the nature of how that works. A church has a vision that is bigger than any one person. The church has a vision that is bigger than any one generation, because the church of Jesus Christ is multigenerational. It continues, and you and I are standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us, generations and generations and generations, and we get the opportunity to be the people the next generation stands on the shoulders of, to go even further. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful that the kingdom of God never stops with a person or with a generation. For the people of Israel, they had been in the wilderness for forty years, and Moses had been leading them faithfully. When Moses dies, there is a moment of utter chaos and confusion for the people of Israel. Suddenly they find themselves in a spot where they don't know what to do, they don't know what's next, they don't know who to listen to, they don't know who to follow. And that's where we find ourselves at the beginning of Joshua chapter one. Today we're going to read Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine. If you have your Bibles with you, I want to encourage you to pull them out. If someone wants to give one to Keith, I know he didn't have his up here, but I want to make sure everyone has their Bible. I do want to say what a treat it is to be here with Keith. When I first moved to Durham, I moved here to pastor Durham Memorial Baptist Church on the east side of town, and for the three years I was there, I had the wonderful privilege of spending every Sunday with Keith's lovely wife, Kathy. That was an incredible joy to me, and I love, Keith, that you're still here — it's so, so meaningful to me. So let's go ahead and open up your Bibles. Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine — I'm going to be reading out of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, but whatever translation you're reading out of is just fine. After the death of Moses the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses: "Moses My servant is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites. I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses. Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great Euphrates River — all the land of the Hittites — and west to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or forsake you. "Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their fathers to give them as an inheritance. Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Josh 1:1–9, HCSB) That's nine verses to start off the book of Joshua, and three times in nine verses we get the instruction from the Lord to be strong and courageous. [Addressing the person running the slides.] We're not ready for that yet, but you can come on back — thank you. Be strong and courageous. Hey, I do want to take a second — can we give it up for the AV volunteers in the back, for how they've had to handle everything today? Thank you so much. Yeah, we're not ready for that slide yet, but I appreciate it. So, Joshua chapter one, we get this important message: be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous. Be strong, be courageous. And I'm wondering why it is that God would have to tell Joshua, this leader who's about to take over for Moses — why he would have to be told to be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. And I want to just say, I think it is because to lead is hard. To lead into uncharted territory is impossible without God. And I wonder today — I wonder today, as you are preparing for an important meeting today and an important business meeting next week, as you prepare for today — are we a people who are afraid? Are we fearful? Are we full of doubt about what could be, about what might happen? Or are we a people who are strong and courageous? Are we a people who are ready to say there is more to do, there is more to come? The battle is not over yet, and it is time to be strong and courageous, because as long as the Lord has given breath in your lungs, you and I have work to do. The story's not over, and it's going to require that we are strong and courageous. Now, that is what I have always taken out of Joshua 1:1–9. If you've ever been involved in a church youth group, or you've ever been to a Bible study, or — strangely enough — if you've ever been a member of a sports team, Joshua 1:1–9 is not an unfamiliar passage of Scripture. And one of the things that can happen as we spend time with Scripture we're familiar with is that our familiarity can sometimes lead us to miss something that's right there on the page. Maybe this has been your experience — you've read over a passage of Scripture time and time again in your life, and something happens, whether you were at the right moment or it spoke into the right instance in your life, but something happens. You go back to that Scripture you maybe even know by heart, and suddenly something jumps out at you that never has before. And so, in this sermon that I have titled "A New Dawn, A New Day," I want to talk about what we see by looking at a principle and a promise. What we see by looking at a principle and a promise. Now see, there is a promise from God in Joshua chapter 1. In fact, there are a few promises. God is reasserting the promises he made to Moses, and he is letting Joshua know: the promises I made to Moses, those promises are true for you too, Joshua. These promises are not just for Moses. These promises are for you. But they're not just a promise — there's also a principle at play, and a principle is a foundational truth. A principle is a foundational truth. Maybe to put it a different way: a principle is a promise that is dependent on the user. A principle is a promise that is dependent on the user, meaning a principle is a truth that requires your obedience. And because of that, a principle can be a blessing or a curse. If you receive the promise, and the promise leads you to step out in obedience, then that promise has been a blessing. But if you receive the promise and do nothing with it, then the principle there is — man, that's kind of become a curse to you. So here's what I want to do this morning. I need three volunteers, and I'm going to go ahead and say this now, please take it in the loving way it's meant: I need three spry volunteers. I need three spry people. Come on up — who's ready? I need three people. If you make me start pointing at people, it's not going to go well. So, my friend right here in gray and black, I'm going to have you come on up. My friend over here in the blue shirt with the white stripe, come on up — I've got to have you come on up. And then, hey, my friend Matt Griffin is here — I'm going to have Matt come up. Come on, y'all. Oh, sir, I apologize, I'm sorry — all right, I'm going to have you stay there. I need one more volunteer who's ready to raise a hand. There we go, thank you, my friend, you can come on. Actually, you guys come on up on stage. Hey, I'm Rob. What's your name? Jeff — so good to have you come on up. And you are? Watson. Love that. And Matt, it's so good to see you — as I knock over this microphone stand. I'm going to have all three of you guys come over here. So — Matt, Jeff, Watson — Matt, Jeff, and Watson. Now, I want to take you back to the Scripture — in reading this passage recently, this is what jumped off the page to me. This is verse three: "I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses" (Josh 1:3, HCSB). I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses. So, Watson, you get to go first. I've given you — I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. What's your first response? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Okay, wonderful — are you staying right there? Okay, well, let's see it, come on. You've been given — Jeff, what about you? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. You're going to get moving. Matt, I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Where are you going? Come on. Now, thank you, thank you. By the way, give these guys a round of applause. [Congregation applauds.] Thank you so much. Okay, let's be honest here for a minute — can we be honest? How many of us have received this promise from the Lord, and we are the blessed, frozen, chosen? I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. "God, thank you for this, that's so awesome. I'm so grateful, God, thank you that you've given me every —" but, man, I'm comfortable right here. Oh, man, I'm comfortable. I mean, there's air — come on, y'all, there's air conditioning. There's air conditioning, and it is too hot. Oh, man, and you know, I've got this thing in my back. Oh, all right. I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, and we are good right here. So let me tell you the principle. Let me tell you the principle here: "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses" (Josh 1:3, HCSB). It's a promise, but it's not just a promise — it's a principle. Because if we are the frozen chosen, that's it. This is what we get. God's made a promise. God said, come on, I've given it to you, let's go. Thanks, God, doing great right here. And we get to the end of our lives, and despite the faithful promise of our God, we look around at what we've done for the kingdom, and we go, yep, I had it — God gave me all of this right here. It was a promise, but the promise turned into a curse, because we didn't do anything with it. Watson, I loved your reaction: "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — well, let's dance in time then, come on, let's go. "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — well, then there is no way you are stopping me from taking ground. "I've given you every place where the sole of your foot treads" — so get moving. Because I don't want us to come to the end of our lives and go, I could have gone so much further, I could have gone so much further, but the more comfortable I got, the easier it was to go, man, I'm going to take those steps tomorrow. I'm going to take that ground tomorrow. I'm going to have that conversation tomorrow. I'm going to invite that friend to church tomorrow. And tomorrow turns into tomorrow turns into tomorrow. I know I'm not the only procrastinator in the room, right? Come on, someone else there with me — you know what it's like to see your days turn into tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And you get to the end of a week, or a month, or a year, or a life, and this is all we've got. And the truth is: if God has promised Joshua to give him every place where the sole of his foot treads, just as he promised Moses (cf. Josh 1:3, HCSB), and Joshua were to stay still on the east side of the river, it's not just Joshua missing the opportunity. It's Joshua looking back at Moses's faithfulness and saying it didn't matter — because for all the steps you took, I'm not taking any. And that's the reality of the church. And by the way, this isn't unique to us. This has been the reality of every single generation of the church. Every single generation in the history of the church is constantly fighting against our human nature for safety and security and comfort. But God hasn't called you to that. He hasn't called us to that. God has called us out into the great wide open. God has called you to go further and do more and reach more people. Generation after generation of faithful believers who have gone before us have taken steps so that we could be right here in church. I say to you today, let's not come all this way just to stop. Let's not have come all this way just to make it this far. God has more for us. God has more for you. God has a bright future ahead — but the bright future ahead will not be easy, and it will not be safe, and it will not be comfortable. It will involve taking steps. And here's the truth — I did not do this for the sake of today's message. I went with a men's group Friday and Saturday up to Galax, Virginia, for a little two-day camping trip with some guys I know from another church. And yesterday morning, we decided, hey, let's go for a hike. I don't know if you can tell by looking at me, but I don't go on a lot of hikes. It's five and a half miles, and there's a significant amount of elevation change, but we're not running, right? It's not a race. So I'm like, yeah, we'll just take the whole morning and we'll do it. But every step was harder, and then it got to the point where all the muscles in the backs of my legs started clenching up. And the muscles are like, no, we're done. And you're like, well, we're not back to the car yet — so you're kind of grabbing your legs along the way, you're like, come on, we've got to go. And I wonder today how many of us, in our faith, need to just grab our legs — even though it's hard, even though it's not comfortable, even though it's pushing us further than we thought we could go — and just say, nope, God has given me every step, so I'm not stopping. Because here's the principle for Joshua: Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits. Joshua will only inherit what he inhabits. Let me put it to you another way — Joshua will only receive what he steps into. Right now, Durham, North Carolina, and the greater Triangle remains one of the fastest-growing areas in the country — second in the Southeast in growth behind the suburbs of Atlanta.1 But what makes this place unique, among all the other places you could be living, is a set of universities — regardless of which color blue you may wear — a collection of research and tech companies based here that is pulling in people from all around the world. Right now, there are more people coming from places in the world where Christianity is illegal, and those young adults are coming here to attend school or to work jobs. You are right now living in one of the few places on earth where, without leaving your zip code, you can impact the whole world. There's a student right now at Duke University who doesn't know Jesus, comes from a family that doesn't know Jesus, and comes from a country where people don't talk about Jesus — and God brought them to your doorstep. He brought them to you. Right now, there are teenagers in the vicinity of this church who are part of not just the least Christian, but the least faith-based generation in American history. In the history of the United States, "no religious affiliation" — the "nones," as we call them — has never been the predominant group within a generation, until my kids' generation. The largest and most rapidly growing religious affiliation in the United States among my children's generation is "none."2 And they're right here. They're right here. They live next door and across the street, and some of them are children in the developmental center. And they're part of families that don't know Jesus, that haven't heard the engaging and compelling story of what Christ has come to do for you and for me. You are right now in one of the most unique positions that any group of Christians has ever been in, in human history. The question is: are we going to stand right here and be comfortable, and watch the opportunity pass by? Are we going to find ourselves at the end of our lives with the Savior saying, "I brought them to you," and we say, "Yeah, but we were really comfortable"? God has given you a promise. I have already given it to you. I've already given you the land. I've already given you every step that you will take. Over the next two weeks, we're going to be hearing more about Joshua leading the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the promised land. But for right now, at the end of Joshua chapter one, the people have not yet made that step. They have not yet stepped across the river. They have not yet crossed their lines of comfort and safety in order to follow God's vision and mission for their lives. What better place to end today's message than to leave us with this question? Just like Joshua and the people of Israel, we are standing on the shore of a river. We are standing on the border of where we have been and where we are going. Church — has God brought you this far just to come this far? Or is there a step to take? Is there a step to take that is worthy of the sacrifice of the generations behind us? Is there a step for us to take that says, it's not going to end here, but we are moving forward — even when it's not comfortable, even when there's no safety and security in it? Are we willing to be the kind of people who have enough faith to say, just like Joshua, we will only inherit what we inhabit? We will only receive what we live into. Church, how is God calling you to be obedient today? And are we taking those steps of obedience? Are we taking those steps like our lives depend on it? Are we taking those steps like our legacies depend on it? Are we taking those steps like the kingdom of heaven is in the balance? Because everything that we're about to read in the rest of the book of Joshua is incredible — beautiful stories of God's faithfulness. But here's what was true for Joshua, and here's what's true for you today: if Joshua didn't cross the river, he never would have seen any of it. We woke up this morning with breath in our lungs, which means God has purpose and mission for us. And I don't want you to miss it. I don't want you to miss it, because the best is yet to come. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, Jesus, we are so grateful for the power of your gospel. We are compelled by your Holy Spirit to take faithful steps of obedience, even when it's hard, even when it makes us uncomfortable, God. We are willing to take steps of obedience. So, God, when everything in us wants to pursue comfort, safety, security, God, will you give us the boldness to believe that the best is yet to come? Would we not make choices from a scarcity mindset, God? Would you give us an abundance mindset? Would we be a people who believe that you have placed us here and now to make a difference in the whole world? God, what could be more deserving of the name Yates than that we would go — that we would cross borders and lines of comfort and safety and security, that we might see those who are far from Christ become sons and daughters of the King? Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen. Endnotes 1 The greater Research Triangle region (Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill) is widely recognized as one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan economies. The UNC Kenan Institute's "American Growth Project" ranks the Triangle's economy third-fastest-growing among the fifty largest U.S. metros and fourth-fastest among 150 extended metropolitan areas, while also noting that the Triangle is North Carolina's second-largest regional economy by GDP, behind Charlotte. Census-based analyses of metro population growth similarly place Raleigh–Cary in the national top tier — roughly tenth-fastest in recent rankings — and highlight that many of the country's fastest-growing metros are in the Southeast. These data support the general description of the Triangle as a leading growth center in the Southeast, though the sermon's specific claim that it is "second in the Southeast behind the suburbs of Atlanta" generalizes across the precision of the available rankings. 2 Recent survey data show that today's youngest adult cohort is the most religiously unaffiliated in recorded U.S. polling. The 2024 PRRI Census of American Religion reports that about 38–39 percent of Americans ages 18–29 identify as religiously unaffiliated ("nones"), a substantially higher share than among older generations. PRRI's breakdowns by age and gender likewise show that young adults — especially young women — have become significantly more likely to claim no religious affiliation over the past decade, rising from 32 percent in 2013 to 38 percent in 2024. The Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study finds that roughly 44 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds now identify as religiously unaffiliated, making the "nones" the single largest religious category in that age group and larger than any individual Christian tradition — a pattern not seen in older cohorts in prior survey waves. Works Cited Baptist News Global. "PRRI: Growth of the Religiously Unaffiliated Is Slowing." May 15, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://baptistnews.com/article/prri-growth-of-the-religiously-unaffiliated-is-slowing/. The Holy Bible, Holman Christian Standard Bible. 2004. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers. "Markets with the Most Population Growth in 2025." RealPage Analytics, April 1, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.realpage.com/analytics/population-growth-markets-2025/. Pew Research Center. "Religious 'Nones' in America: Who They Are and What They Believe." January 23, 2024. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/. Public Religion Research Institute. "2024 PRRI Census of American Religion." PRRI, April 14, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.prri.org/spotlight/2024-prri-census-of-american-religion/. Public Religion Research Institute. "Gen Z, Gender, and Religion." PRRI, March 4, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.prri.org/spotlight/gen-z-gender-and-religion/. "Southeast Metros Lead US Population Growth as National Gains Slow." Becker's Hospital Review, March 26, 2026. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/strategy/southeast-metros-lead-us-population-growth-as-national-gains-slow/. UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. "From Tobacco to High Tech: Manufacturing in the Piedmont Triad and the Research Triangle." March 18, 2025. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/commentary/from-tobacco-to-high-tech-manufacturing-in-the-piedmont-triad-and-the-research-triangle/. © 2026 Rob Stone. All rights reserved.

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