This last session this morning, I'm going to take, and I'm going to take and share at least one message. Pastor Cleary will be preaching and teaching the other sessions. But take your Bible, and you will turn to Joshua 24. I wasn't sure when I would share this message, so if your book is the last outline, Actually, I do have some notes, but I'm not going to have as many notes as he does at the top there. I'll have to jot down more things. But I did give you an outline, if you will, there in the booklet. So you can take that and kind of jot notes in between the... You can put some meat on the skeleton there. last year and then some into this year as we, this was our theme for our church, being courageous, and it felt like we came out exhausted the theme, so we just kept on going with it, and it's been good this year as well. So the theme verse, We chose, and I shared this last year, a lot of you weren't here last year, but look, just page, we're gonna get across the page, Joshua 23, okay? And verse six. And chapter 23 ties in with 24, so we're, you know, these go together. Joshua's challenging the people towards the end of his life after they had possessed the majority of the land. He says in verse 6, chapter 23, Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, and turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. And Joshua, our God had told Joshua to be courageous all throughout the book. It started that way. Joshua chapter 1, to be strong in the Lord and be ye therefore very courageous. And I felt like we as a church and we as men, you know, also, Last year, we need to have that same challenge. In your mind, be courageous. Amen. And I think that continues this year. And hopefully you've found that challenge to encourage you, that God has used that to help you to be bold. And I just want to encourage you to continue on this year. The things that Pastor Cleary is sharing with us are things that we all deal with as men. Temptation, anger, and the other things he's going to bring up. Obviously, you know, prayer. That's something that we deal with as Christian men. Finding that time to spend with the Lord. We need to be challenging that. And we need to help in that area. And so I want you to rise to the challenge to be courageous. Amen. In this little bit of time we have here, I want to remind you that being courageous is a choice. It's not something you just grow into. It's not something that you'll do just because your pastor does it, or just because your pastor brought you to a men's meeting. You have to make the choice. And every day, we have to make the choice to just rise up and be courageous. Amen? Let's look, and we're going to kind of look through the whole chapter 24, not all of it, several sections of it at different times. Let's just read, though, the verse you probably all are familiar with. OK, verse 15, 24, verse 15 says, if it's evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you to stay whom you will serve with the gods, which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods, the Amorites, whose land you dwell. That's for me and my house. We I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that verse, but that's where it really hinges. We're going to, again, look over the whole chapter in general here this morning. There's three things I want to point out in this chapter. We see there's a presentation that Joshua makes. There's a place where they are. And then the proclamation that he makes. And, again, we must choose to be courageous in the Lord. It's a choice. It's not something that just comes by default. Even as Christians, You think, oh, I'm unsaved, and it's just going to be a natural thing. No, we have to choose to let God be in control. Amen. Because we still have a wicked sinful nature. We still deal with the flesh. And if we just coast, it's going to take control. We have to make that choice. Let's have a word of prayer to get started with our service and our message, and then we'll get into the scripture. Lord, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the fellowship we've had. Thank you for the preaching and the teaching of your word. In that word, as we look at this passage, we pray, Lord, you would again teach us and help us, Lord. Lord, help us to be committed, to be men of courage, to be strong, Lord, in the faith and, Lord, to stand for you, Lord, even when it's difficult. And I pray that, Lord, we would each draw closer to you and, Lord, have a stronger faith in you and a stronger stand for you as a result of this time. Help me, I pray, as I share your word now in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first thing we see is in verse 1 of chapter 24. It says, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called the elders of Israel for their heads, their judges, their officers, and presented themselves before God. This word says they presented themselves. And that's the first thought I want to point out here. They presented themselves. There in Romans 12 verse 1, one of my favorite New Testament verses, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable unto the Lord. There's a phrase that if you've served in the military, you've probably heard this, you need to be present and accounted for. Are you going to be AWOL with God? Are you going to be present and accounted for? When God's looking for a man to stand in the gap, when God's looking for a man to serve, God's looking for someone He wants to use, to be a witness, to lead your family, to serve in your church, are you going to be better? Or are you going to be missing in action? Yeah, here, the nation of Israel was gathered together. They presented themselves before the Lord. Sometimes we just are able. Yeah, there's an opportunity, there's a need, and I'm busy, God. Sorry, I missed that. How many times have I seen as a pastor, and obviously I've seen other times too, but especially as a pastor, people that, they miss a service, and then they find out what was announced at service, that we're gonna be doing a special ministry or something, and of course we try to get people informed, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's not just an optional service. You need to be there. Study is important. Study school is important. Visitation is important. All those things. These are opportunities to serve. Be present and accounted for. Amen. The children of God in the nation of Israel, they were present. They said, we are here, Joshua. What does God have to say to us? What does God want us to do? Amen. They presented themselves. Being courageous takes commitment. The second thing I want to point out But then this place, Shechem, and it's not the first time we've heard of Shechem in the Bible. Shechem is a familiar place for the children of Israel. This is where Abraham first received a promise that God would give his seed to the land of Canaan. And it was there that Abraham responded by building an altar. This was back in Genesis chapter 12, verses 6 and 7. Those verses that read, I'll just read them. It says, Abraham passed through the land of the place of Sikkim, Shechem, under the plan of Moriah. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. Abraham built an altar. This promise is being fulfilled. The nation of Israel is conquered by Him. Amen? There they are. No doubt they could see this altar that Abraham had built in the distance. But no, it wasn't this landed place where Abraham had built an altar. It was where Jacob, and he stopped in Shechem, and buried idols. Genesis 35, verse 4. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands. all their earrings, which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shadrach. And then this was a familiar place to the nation of Israel. Now here they were, okay? Joshua chapter 8. They had gathered here before. Just not too long before this gathering. And Joshua, Joshua chapter 8, verse 30. Joshua then built an altar under the Lord God of Israel in the Mount of Evos. As Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man had lifted up any iron. They offered thereupon burnt offerings unto the Lord, and they sacrificed peace offerings. They had built this altar when they had conquered the majority of the land. They're in this very same area. These altars, memorials. You men who've been up here the past several years, you know I believe in memorials. And man, I have a stone garden. It's not just for beautiful things. It's memorials, reminders of what God's done in my life, in our family's life, and how God is here in New Zealand. And I've shared many times the rocks. I've been brought in the rocks. You know, I don't want to just stop with visas though. I've taught our church. I've shared with you men many times. I believe God brought us to the fire with those visas. as a church because He's got bigger things in store for us. I'm not gonna divulge any information right now, but I will tell you this, God's gonna do some big things in the north in the next few years. I am so excited for Calvary's church. We have a future like we've never imagined. Our men are pumped up about it. Amen. It's going to take some faith though. It's going to take God. God's going to do it. God's going to do it. And when He does, we're going to set up some stones. We're excited to see what God's doing. What about your life? You know, here in our booklet, I know you're taking notes, alright, but back in the first Some of you men will remember we had this resolution we offered. Now we, I didn't print these out last year, or this year, and we printed out, I had an A4, some of you wanted an A3 of it. I have an A3 of it in my office. And this resolution just goes through and it's a commitment. And you sign and date it. And several of you took this home, and it's been about almost 12 months. You have a memorial. somewhere, hopefully you still have that. Mine's in my office, maybe it's hanging in your lounge, maybe it's in your study. You made a commitment in this place. Say, God, I'm serious about being a man of God. I'm serious about leaving my home, my children. I'm going to be a man of integrity. I'm going to not hold on to anger. I'm going to forget the bitterness. I'm going to forgive and move on. You're back in this place. Is the stone still there? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. who had to be revived. The nation of Israel, their covenant with God had to be renewed. And just like God had made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham had received the blessing of that, then it had been passed on, Moses had received that promise, and Moses' generation had received that promise, they had committed themselves at Mount Sinai to their covenant, and sadly they didn't keep the covenant. They failed in the wilderness. They didn't receive the blessing of a promised land. And now this generation has come and received the blessing. Now it's time for them to make a commitment to God. Will they keep the promises, keep the covenant? That's what Josh was challenging them with. Will you serve the Lord your God? I ask you this morning. Are you going to renew your commitment to be courageous and stand for the Lord? Amen. Don't let this be a piece of paper. Don't let this be another meeting. Hey, get serious with the Lord. The things that God challenged you when you went through the preaching and teaching of His Word, that this weekend, take it to heart. Amen. Don't let this be a meeting and, you know, I'm here to get the fishing in. I'm here to get the fellowship. No, you ought to be here to get older. Amen. Amen. And all of that, that's the secondary. Amen? Yeah. I love the fellowship. I love coming together. But we need to be seeking the Lord first. We need to recommit our lives in this place to being courageous. And then, what did Joshua challenge them with? The proclamation. Well, first of all, through the first half of this chapter, verses 2-13, God reminds them He reminds them of his deliverance. 17 times the Lord refers to himself as he who delivered them. Joshua is giving all this, but the Lord is the one who gave it to Joshua. And God is saying, this is who I am and what I've done. Again, I think God puts us up against the wall sometimes, so to speak. He brings those mountains into our lives so that we never forget. Yes. There was no way God had to do those things. Amen. Amen. Amen. You always want to remember what God has done. We've been studying the crossing of the Red Sea on Sunday nights. And that's one thing that's come out that God, for the nation of Israel, God did this for them because it had to be so big and so miraculous that there could be no doubt and they would never forget it. Every time that there was, you know, they didn't be reminded of who God was, it was the God who brought you out of Egypt, the God of the Red Sea. And it was that reference point. And you know, God will do that in our lives. God has done great things in our lives. He said, well, Pastor, you know, I'm just saying, yeah, if you're saved, God's done some great things in your life. God saved you, pulled you out of the pits of hell. That's a great thing. He set your feet upon a rock. He loved you with everlasting love. He said, my life, I'm not some preacher, I haven't had some spectacular life. If you're saved, you've got a spectacular life. This just gets started. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you a story. you bear fruit. Amen? 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Which in time past you were not a people, but now are the people of God, which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. That's who we are in Christ. I didn't get my reference in this one, but there's another thing here in our booklet. A few more pages in. This autobiography. We were talking about autobiography. I've shared this in years past. I enjoy this. I thought, I'm going to put that back. I'm going to lay that in there. Who we are in Christ. I'm a child of God. I'm a child of the King. I am forgiven. I'm saved by grace through faith. I am justified. I'm sanctified. I'm a new creature in Christ. Partaker of His divine nature. Accepted into below. Adjoiner with Jesus. We're overcoming the world, overcoming the wicked ones, overcoming the spirit of Antichrist, overcoming good with evil, overcoming through the blood of the Lamb. We are more than a conqueror through Christ. All these things. And this isn't a complete list, this is just something to highlight. Hey, never forget what God's done for you. God's delivered us. Amen. And that should motivate us. Back here in Joshua, God was reminding them. It's interesting, in this time period, with the nation of Israel, other nations, they would often, when they would come together with a treaty between two nations, it was structured much like Joshua 24 is. And it's almost like, God was making a treaty with them. He said, this is what I've done for you, and this is where we are. This is our standing, so to speak. And now, if you will do this, I will bless. Again, it was renewing the covenant for this generation. And here, God wants to bless us. Does that mean that God's blessing means we're going to be wealthy, that we're going to have health and wealth? No, that's not what God's guaranteeing, OK? He's promising a spiritual blessing to those who will follow Him and pursue Him. God will grant peace and God will work in our lives. He wants to make that commitment to us if we'll be committed to Him. He reminds them of their deliverance. And then the last thing we see here then is the verse we read, verse 14 to 15. Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the floor, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. That therefore, you gotta go back and see what it's there for, right man? That's what we just looked at. All those things that God did, brought them out of the land of Egypt, and brought them through the wilderness. through all the trials of that previous generation. He mentions even verse 9, Balak, and Moab, and Balaam, all the things that God did. He brought them into Canaan and did all the miracles. Jericho, and Ai, all those things that God did for them. Helped them make the sun stand still for 24 hours. Then God says, because I've done all this, For all these things, therefore, put away the gods your father served, and serve evil. And if God saved you, you owe Him your allegiance. If He saved you from hell, then what more should we do than just serve Him? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Are we courageous all the time? Or just, yeah, when it's convenient? No, let's be strong in the Lord. Let's be courageous. Let's stand with integrity. Let's stand, you know, in the truth all the time. Amen. I said when we opened up, we must choose to be courageous. I'll ask you three questions just in closing. Okay, this is a simple phrasal point. Number one, are you present and accounted for? Are you available for God to use? And you, as we sometimes say, is your all on the altar? Have you made everything available to God? Or is there something you're holding back? You say, God, I'll do this. This is available. But you can't have that. That this is my thing. Or that this is what I do and this is it. No, it's got to be all on the altar. Hey, these altars that Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, that they built, they were places of sacrifice. It costs to be courageous. We miss that. But we need to make ourselves available. And it's not that God is trying to hurt us or hold us back. God wants us to make everything available so that He can load us up with everything He has available. I remember a teacher years ago in a Bible school. He gave us this notice about how it's so good. He said, you know, when we surrender everything to God, we lay our arms wide open, our hands wide open. You're holding on to nothing. You just let it all go. That's when your arms will light up and receive everything God has for you. You have to let go. Are you available? Number two, are you leaving memorials, reminders of your decisions and past victories for other generations to follow? What a blessing it was for the children of Israel to be in Shechem and to see in the distance the stones. This is the same place Abraham was. This is where he come through. This is a pill. And God promised him one day we would be here centuries later. Here we are. I'm not going to get into that. I'm not going to get into that. One of the things I've challenged our church with, and in fact, you see it here in Joshua. I didn't write the verse down, so it didn't want to turn there, all right? But one of the things that Joshua challenged the children of Israel with in the closing part of his life was they had been recipients of so many things that they did not earn themselves. The houses, the lands, all that the Canaanites had, God had just given it to them. And yes, they did have to go out and fight, but then God did the fighting. God gave them the victory. It was God who gave the victories. They engaged themselves, but God gave the victories. And they inherited lands and houses and vineyards that they did not plant. Houses they did not build. Cities that they had not built. God has been so good. Hey, what are we going to leave behind for the next generation? I've challenged our church, what are we going to leave? So, we have received many benefits from the previous generations of our church. We have a building, we have facilities, all these things, and we are blessed, greatly blessed as a church. But we cannot just live on the past generation's blessings. Yeah, God was good 10, 15, 20 years ago. God had to start this church. What's God going to do for the next generation? Well, what's God doing today that the next generation will talk about tomorrow? We've got to build upon the foundation. Let's leave some things for them to see that, hey, God was faithful back then, but God was faithful yesterday, and God This year I almost put in a, in the booklet I wish I had, I almost put in a prayer journal sample. You know, it's good to have physical reminders of what God's doing. Our church prayer list, we have a sign on it where we date the answer. I think that's important. And oftentimes we'll take, you know, every six weeks or so we have a praise night. Our Wednesdays is a prayer meeting. But every couple months or so, six weeks or so, we'll have a praise night. We don't pray, request, we just give praise. We stop and think about what God has done, the answers He's given. And when we do that, we're jotting down the answers. And I keep an ongoing record of that, and at the end of the year, I'll print it out and I'll show the church, hey, look what God did this past 12 months. Look at how God's worked. We need to remember that, hey, God is at work. That's right. And we forget that. If you don't have a written prayer list, get one. And one of the best things to do with a written prayer list is not only do you write down what you're praying, you can write down specifically what you're praying about, you can pray more specific, but then you can write down the answer. You can write down when God gives the answer. And keep it. Hold on to that. It's not my notes. I'm talking off the top of my head here. Orphanage in England. Bristol. Mueller. Yeah. The journals of Mueller. The prayer journals of Mueller. Just hundreds of pages of answers to prayer. And it wasn't just that he prayed. And how much he prayed, although that was tremendous, but then to see all those answers That's right. He recorded it. Hey, set up a memorial, amen, of what God is doing in your life so that other generations will follow and see that. And then the last thing, number three, will you choose in the present time to be courageous? Just choose. It's a choice every day, amen? Present yourselves and make yourself available to the Lord. Choose to be courageous. It's simple. But it's true. It's simple, but it's hard. If you try to live for the Lord, you know that, don't you?