Father, we come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask, Lord, that you would be with your people tonight, not only here but around the world, everywhere, where your name is treasured and cherished and loved and where your people come to. to worship you and adore you. We pray that these things would be pleasing to you and that our service to you would rise up to you and that you would receive it because it is offered in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, we pray that the words spoken tonight would be true and that they would be preached in power because they have been given by the Holy Spirit. And so, Father, be with your people to receive them. Be with those that need your presence. And we pray, Lord, that these things would be done, that your people would behold you even more, and that your glory would be visible and seen by the hearts of your people, and that Christ is lifted up, that he's glorified, and that he is loved and embraced as he should. So, Father, we commit these things to Your hands, knowing that Your presence is with us, that You abide with us, and that You have promised to do these things that we have asked. And so, Father, we pray, do so now. Glorify Thyself and be with Your people tonight, we pray in our Lord's name. Amen. We've been going through the book of 1 John, and I've decided not to teach on 1 John tonight. Instead, I'd like to ask you to turn to the book of Joshua, which is right after the Pentateuch. It is the sixth book in the Bible, Joshua chapter 1. It is common for many churches to have a special message at the New Year, and so as thinking about this, I got to thinking about some things that will be new for all of us. This coming year will be new for us because we have a beloved family that is going to be moving to live with their children, to live with their family. And so, though we may have one less couple, Billy and Clyde, they won't be living here, but we'll be seeing them, I'm sure. If not up there, down here with a visit, but one day for sure in heaven. And so they're beginning a new journey and we were beginning a new journey. And so we're taking a look at the new year and what it has to bring to us. So I'm going to read Joshua chapter 1 verses 1 through 9. I'll be reading from the King James translation. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise. Go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide, for in inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayst prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, for thou shalt meditate therein day and night, and that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest." As you can see, this is the message that is ending the ministry of Moses, but it begins the ministry of Joshua as the leader of the children of Israel. But this is a whole new beginning for the nation. A nation that is in its fourth generation wandering through the wilderness. The first generation being born slaves in Egypt. And now after 40 years, they're about to go in. And as if you can imagine, the Lord is speaking to Joshua. And of course, the Lord is not informing Joshua that Moses is dead. Joshua knows that. But this is a commission that's being given to Joshua. Now that Moses is dead, Joshua Now it's your task to lead these people into the promised land. In the previous chapter, of course, you know, this is chapter one, the previous chapter in Deuteronomy, the very last chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses was taken up into a high mountain. It was shown the promised land. He was able to see it. His eye was not dimmed. He was healthy. But after 120 years, the Lord took him and it was time for him not to go in, but to lead them to that barrier, the River Jordan. Now the River Jordan has been mentioned by many theologians as that place where you cross over into the Promised Land, where sometimes they say this is where we go from this life to the next life, where we would go from being people of faith to living in heaven. Some people have even taken this and said this is where we go from living into a successful Christian life. The analogies or the symbolism there is quite accurate in both cases, I believe. But what we have here is a commission for God to Joshua, saying, my servant Moses was never going to lead these people over. Remember, Moses struck the rock and said, no, you should speak to the rock. And yet he struck the rock. And so he said that you will see the land, but you'll not go into it. Some people like to think that the Lord is sometimes harsh with these things. But He isn't. The Lord is good and kind and gracious. These things were done according to the decrees of God. And now we have Joshua given this great command to bring people to a new life. Now, sometimes things that are new scare us. Sometimes things that we're not too sure what's going to happen causes us to have fear. And remember last week we talked about that, talked about the fear of the Christian, how fear is not your friend, it really is not. But I want you to imagine this before we get into my review of last week, this, that they're standing there. They're having 30 days of mourning for Moses. And it's not as though they're weeping over him. It's more like God told them, 30 days you're going to mourn Moses. And then after that, you're going into the promised land. Now, it might sound easy for us, right? That is when I say, you're just going to go in. But you see, they're on the banks of a swollen river. It is huge. They have a huge multitude. The number of people is very, very large. They have soldiers. They have a standing army. And they have families with senior citizens. They have young children and infants and babes. All the things that they own. And they're looking at a river that is a barrier. I mean, the banks have overflown, overswollen. And there they are. They don't know They have no pontoon boats. They don't have a bridge. They don't swim. They have everything. And they're supposed to say, you know, you have armies that you're going to go over and defeat. And everyone is probably thinking, we don't even know how we're going to get there. You know, right now we're looking at an expanse of water that's flowing over its banks and it's deep and you're just saying, go, just go ahead and go over this river that stands in their way. Many times our lives will be like that. The Lord will say to us, I just want you to go, this is where I want you to go, but there seems to be like This is impossible to even start, to even begin this journey. there is an impassable barrier in front of us. And so we're going to address that. Last week we looked at, John, of course this is not going to be a review into this lesson, but I will take this. Last week we talked about fear being a horrible master. It can only have dominion over us if we seek to overcome it in our own strength. But if we seek to understand that our God is an Almighty God, and He says, you look to Me, and because He's promised to help us. Therefore, do not depend upon the strength of your arm. Do not depend upon your own strength. Because as you grow older, you will become aware that your strength is not there. You should have known it as a young person. They should have known it from the very beginning. But sometimes when we're just able to, it seems like we're just invincible. Invincible to what? What type of problems have we solved? You know, what type of things have we actually overcome? The Lord is going to expect great and mighty things of us. Impossible things. But with our God, nothing is impossible. And we must stand. We must take courage and have strength, but not our own. We must stand in God. If we take refuge in Christ, we will know that it is He alone that's going to keep us. This is the preserving power that enables us to persevere. The doctrines of perseverance, where we hold on is enabled by the doctrine of His preservation, where He keeps us. We persevere because He preserves us. And this is done by just having faith in what He has said. So, tonight we're looking at how Joshua is going to lead the people of Israel over the Jordan and engage in all the nations of Canaan, all the different tribes, some of them quite fearful, some of them they know are giants, Some of them are very formidable, and yet they are to take strength and courage. It was mentioned three times in just nine verses that the Lord said, I want you to be strong. He's speaking to Joshua. As a matter of fact, if you look at it, in those nine verses, it says, verse one, this is what the Lord said to Joshua. And those are all the words of the Almighty to Joshua. And then Joshua relates that right to the people. He picks up that mantle and he continues on. And so this is what I want you to walk away with tonight. After the message is done, I want you to know this. The Christian life is to be lived with courage and strength. Not ours, but his. And what I mean by that is that you can have courage and strength. knowing that it is God who has commissioned us and told us, and He is not going to tell you to do something to fail. He is not going to tell His people to go forth and fail, because it is His failure if He does that. God will never fail. He will never fail, and if He sends us, we will succeed. All we have to do is to make sure that we don't confuse the actions that we do with success when it isn't, or failure when it isn't. We have to see the mighty hand of God in the works that he does. Because his kingdom is not of this world. His successes is not what the world says is successes. His successes has to do with victory over sin. Victory over death. Crossing over that Jordan, one day we're all going to cross that barrier. One day we'll all be changed. These bodies are all going to just drop down to the dust. We'll have brand new bodies. We'll cross over that Jordan. And if you want to take the other metaphor, moving into Christian life in a very successful way, where you go from spiritual death to spiritual life, and you start conquering sin in your life. That's one way to look at it. I prefer to look at that way more than I do just going from life to death and going to heaven. Because Joshua goes over to conquer the sin in the new Christian life. And to take it away from those who were in charge. Now we are in charge. Why? Well, let's take a look and see. I want you to consider the life of Joshua himself. Remember that four generations have already gone. That is 40 years. If you wanted to say how many generations, that's not quite four generations, but I'll say this. Joshua the man was born in Egypt. He was born a slave. Now, if you look at Moses, the man that he just replaced, Moses also was born a slave, but he was raised in Pharaoh's house, wasn't he? That's a little bit different, a little bit different being raised in Pharaoh's house. There was a different purpose for Moses. Moses was the giver of the law. He was the one that brought them out of Egypt. However, Joshua was delivered. Joshua was a man that he knew what it was to be a slave. He knew what it was when he woke up in the morning, his parents were born slaves. He was born a slave. He worked for the glory and for the benefit of someone else. And the world is doing that to all of Satan's people. Everyone does the will of their father, whether it be Satan or whether it be God, the father. And the world serves like slaves, because they are slaves. You are a slave and a servant to the one you obey. And Joshua was born a slave. He knew what it was like. After Moses was able to see the plight of the people in Egypt, identified with his people, and as the scripture says, was willing to deny that type of life for the glory of God, to say, I can give up the pleasures of Egypt, so that I might live for the glory of God." He saw that the pleasures of Egypt were just temporary, but that the Lord Almighty is an eternal reward, and that He Himself is worthy so much more than the things He would have had had He stayed a prince in Egypt. And so when the people were pulled out, they came, the first thing that happened is that they could have went right into the Promised Land. They came up to Kadesh Barnea, And what happened? Joshua, along with 11 other men, went to spy out the land. And what did they see? They saw a land that flowed with milk and honey. They saw a land that had all types of wonderful things in it. You know, the grapes were huge. All the fruit of the land, it flowed with milk and honey. And yet, they did not see this land as something that they could possess, because there were giants there. The sons of Anak were there. other people, fearful people. Ten of them came back and said, we look like grasshoppers in their sight. There's no way for us to defeat these people. The only thing that we know is how to make brick. is how to serve Pharaoh. I mean, we work for the Pharaoh, and he gives us food, and that's what, that's the way things work. Are we warriors? And what did Caleb and Joshua say? The Lord gave us this land. The Lord gave, we need to go right now. We need to go right now. That was Joshua. He had the courage, and he had the strength, because he knew if God had sent him, that God would deliver those things into his hand. And that's why he was courageous. That's why he had strength. And this is what we need to look at in our new coming year. If God wants us to continue in this town, if he wants to have his word preached, there is no stopping us. What can stop us? Nothing. If God be for us, who can be against us? But we all know what happened, right? They wandered in the wilderness because the people fainted. They did not see the hand of God or its strength. Now, later on, during this time in the wilderness, Joshua attached himself to Moses, and he stayed in the tabernacle. While others went and listened and visited the tabernacle, the scripture tells us that Joshua stayed there. He stayed in the tabernacle with Moses, and he was mentored by Moses. Now, many times people look at Moses and they say he was the greatest prophet that Israel ever had. He is the lawgiver. Of course, the Lord is the lawgiver. It was Moses who was the prophet that received it. However, when we look at Joshua and we look at, you know, the division where we have Moses coming up to the promised land and Moses does not enter in, you think that's just a coincidence and just the result of Moses' sin? No. There is a relationship in the gospel of Jesus Christ where the law is critical. The preaching of the law is, it opens the eyes of the slaves to sin and says, you are a slave to a harsh master. Your heart is enslaved to loving that which is not right and good. But what takes over after that is the grace of God. Now, Joshua's name means Yahweh is salvation. And so when the law of God opens the eyes of slaves, it is Joshua. Just as we read in Hebrews where the Greek really translates Joshua as Jesus. And that's why it says in Hebrews chapter 4, if Jesus had given them rest, then he never would have sought for a future rest. And he's speaking of the Psalms then, speaking of how the Lord would say he would give his people rest. And what kind of a rest is that? A rest in the righteousness of Christ to never seek to offer God works for salvation, but a rest where we can depend upon His strength and His power and say, we will go forth and conquer the sin in our life and we will conquer this world. When I say conquer, we're talking about conquering sin and overcoming all the hearts that have been opposed to God. All the Hittites and all the Giants and all the ones that would live against God. Now, this gospel barrier right there, crossing over, leaving the idea that the law is going to present you to God. It isn't. But remember how the Lord told Moses, do not deter, do not leave teachings of Moses. Don't go to the right. Don't go to the left. The law is critical. Why? Because it tells us the character of God. It opened your eyes in Egypt. It showed you your slavery to sin. It is the most important thing. But the courage that we have comes from knowing that Jesus Christ kept that law for us. Joshua salvation is of the Lord, but do not leave the law of God Now sometimes when I read some people believe that going to the left and going to the right was more like this Do not add to it nor do you take away from it? not just leaving its precepts, but always living in its precepts, but do not add and do not take away. Do not become the right hand, do not become the left hand. Go right down to straight and narrow, right in its teaching. Joshua was then given the mentorship or the mantle of leadership from Moses to go across this Jordan. Now, it is interesting to see that Joshua would go out and he would tell the people, and he would say it in the same words, be strong, be courageous, we're going to go over this river. And did he tell them how? No, he didn't. But preparation was made during that time of mourning, and he was told that he would take the Levites, the priests, and they will go down to the very brink of the river, and the people would stay far away. But what would happen when they said, go across? As soon as the sole of the foot of the first Levite hit the water, that's when they divided. That's when it dried up. Now, that's a little bit different than the first time when Moses did this, right? Moses parted it, and their eyes became big, and they say, we can go. But the difference is that they had to go before they saw it. They had to go and step right into the water, right onto it, not knowing if they were supposed to walk under the water, or through it, or what. But what did they do? They obeyed. They obeyed. And remember what He said about owning the land. Wherever your foot goes, wherever the soles of your feet go, that's what I have given to you. So, there we have the immediate obedience of God saying, I want you to go. And as soon as His foot hit, the waters rose up on heaps and spread out. And then they continued. That's what happened. Now, with that in mind, they didn't know how they were going to cross today. Now, Joshua knew. I don't know if he told everyone. I'm not too sure about that. But I know this, the water was there and remained there until they took their first step. Now, this coming year, we're going to take some steps. We need to move forward. And we may say, doesn't look like it's going to work. Well, if we just use our common sense, So how do we know what direction? Well, the Lord says, wherever our feet go. If we follow the word of God, and do not go from the left or the right, do not take this word and change it at all. Wherever that book leads us, belongs to us. Now, we don't own Caesar's world. We don't own his money. We don't own this world. But, we own everything that God gives us. So, whatever this book says to do, we will do. Joshua was also told to divide the inheritance. Now, as you can see, what Joshua has been commissioned is very similar to what the Lord Jesus has been doing for us. We have an inheritance in heaven and the Lord himself You know the word testament the word testament itself is a will that he gives Like this is all you know, we have a will don't we not when you know when you're old enough you say well I better write a will so that I give my possessions to my younger children and so on and so what we have is a dividing of our inheritance well, we have a testament that God has provided and It is an inheritance, a dividing of the promised land. And Joshua was commissioned to do that. So, that is the brief history of Joshua. Now the significance that Joshua has is that he is a representation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see this by just looking at what the history about it says. He was the one that has the name. Jehovah is salvation. He is the one that provided, says, we are going to go and we are going to take this land. And when we get there, we will rest from all of our wanderings. We will rest from all of our battles once these things have been done. But as we can see, the battles of our rest, we rest in Jesus Christ. Now, just a brief word about that rest. There were two and a half tribes that decided to stay on the east side of that Jordan River. But you know what Joshua said? You will go over the river and you will fight No one will have their rest until all have their inheritance. So, we may say, this life is hard. I don't feel like I'm resting too well. Well, when the last soul is saved, that God has purchased by the atoning work of Christ, then we will all rest in heaven. God will come back and when that last person is saved, we will all be taken and we will all rest permanently with new bodies in the promised land. But until then, we rest by faith. We are engaged in the battle of faith. We are engaged in conquering and subduing this present evil world by living by the faith of Jesus Christ. So, the message that Joshua has is very simple. Number one, he says, be strong. This is what the Lord told Joshua. This is what Joshua told the people. to be strong, and the second thing he said is to be courageous. Now these two particular words, they're very similar in concept, but they're different. You know, if I told you that, oh, so-and-so thinks he's so high and mighty, Well, you know, I'm using two words that are different, but they almost seem the same. OK? And so strong and courageous, if you look at the meaning of these words, sometimes you can get the idea of being courageous by looking at the word strong. And sometimes you can get the word strong by looking at the word courageous. And so we kind of have to take these at the same time. But the word strong has to do with latching on to something and holding on tight. Holding on tight. So what do you think is really strong? Would say the thing you're holding on to is strong and you are made strong by holding on tight to it You have this strength to hold on to what is strong You have this ability to to lean and to maintain now another phrase that I found very interesting about this word is that It means to play the man. You know what that means? It's like, you know what a man should do, right? With an act like that. Play the man. Play that part. And a lot of times, we're told by our society, there's this toxic masculinity. Men should not be acting like men. Yeah, they should. Men should act like men. Women should act like women. And we should know this. But all of us, as Christian, We should know what a good Christian is and be that person. Play that part. Not as though your hypocrisy is condoned here. Not as though you're playing a part. But you know what it is. You know what it should be. And be that person. Be that person. Play the man. Do that. And do it courageously. This word courageous has to do with the idea of what's in your head. The idea of approaching a problem without fear, that you are, you have a, well the negative way of looking at it would be obstinate. You know, the word obstinance is usually what people describe as when you're wrong and you won't give up, that's obstinance. But if you're right and you won't give up, well, that's conviction. Well, we want that conviction idea, right? We want the idea that you will not bend. You will not go to the left or to the right. And the Lord has told him, you will be strong and you will be courageous. So, take that foot, move forward. Go into the land, and no matter what it looks like, even if it looks like great walled cities of Jericho, even if you have giants in the land, even if they... Now, remember, these people have been warned. They know that the people are coming. It's not like this is a surprise attack. They have heard about them for years. They have heard about how the waters were dried up in the Red Sea. They have heard about the plagues of Egypt. And they know that now these people are on their borders. And they're told to move in. Now, they're ready to fight. They've made alliances with each other. They have made pacts with each other. They're ready to go. But God's people are told to be courageous, and to be strong. Now, at the end of Joshua, the book of Joshua, we have Joshua retiring after he has divided all the land, and it moves into the area of service. Be strong, courageous, and serve the Lord. This is what we are going to be doing here, serving the Lord. The most famous verse that I think that anybody that ever studied the book of Joshua, everyone knows these verses, in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 15, let me read this. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, I'm going to be coming back at the end of the message a little bit more into that, but the gist of it works like this. You have come from Egypt, and you have moved here to the promised land given to you. Now, if you think it's a good idea to serve the gods of the Amorites that you have just conquered, you think about that. But for me, I will serve the Lord. Do you think it's a good idea? You know, that's one of those, you know, questions that don't need an answer, isn't it? We will serve the Lord. Now, I have three or two simple applications of this. Actually, I have three. Number one, coming into this new year, we need to put aside our fear. We're a very small congregation. We're kind of a feeble congregation. We can't go out and and do mighty earthly things. Sometimes I'm just glad we're able to get here, you know, just to show up. It's like a success story, you know, just, you know, we have In the world's view, you are a feeble lot, really. Not much to brag about from the world's point of view, but from God's point of view, we have some sergeant majors, we have some colonels, we have some generals, we have people that have been around the block a few times. We have people that know how to pray. We have people that know how to love God, how to serve God, how to depend upon God. This small congregation can do much more than what we see with our eyes, even with our spiritual eyes. Only the Lord knows that. And therefore, don't ask, what are we going to do? You know what the Lord says? Wherever your foot goes, that's what I've given to you. Whatever we are able to do, that is where the Lord is going to give us success. This is the only chapter that has the word success in it in the entire book. Why? Because we're not told to be successful. You know, it's not as though we're supposed to be... A good Christian is a successful Christian. No. But, God says to Joshua, you are going to see this land that looks like you'll never get it, but you will be successful. You just must be strong and courageous and go. Go. Remember what the phrase is. Do not just believe, but the Lord says, all those that take the book of Moses, do not go to the left or the right, but do it. It actually was long before this shoe company got that slogan. It's been in the book. Just do it. You do the book. So, the first lesson we look at is this. Do not be afraid of the future. Fear not. There's that phrase that came to Joshua. Do not be afraid. Fear not. We need to see the future for what it really is. It's an opportunity that God has placed there, and he has told us to go and cross this river. Now, the first thing that we see is the river, right? Well, the armies are one thing, We might drown before we even get the battle. No, just take that first step. The future is a provision for us, not something to be afraid of. What God has for us is a provision. What you have to do now is not to be afraid of what God is providing you. Do not be afraid of what the future holds for us. Do not be afraid of tomorrow. or of next month. Ah, but I'm going to retire. Will I make it? Oh, I'm sick. Will I ever recover? You know, I have the same thing my parents died of. You know, all types of things will come to their head. No, these type of things, they move us forward into the cause and the battle of holiness and righteousness that only God's people can engage in. The quartermaster of God, you know what the quartermaster is in the army, those are the people that provide you all the equipment, the food, the clothing, the weapons. The things that God will provide us in this life is given to us that we may have a successful campaign. And our campaign isn't just to get more supplies. It isn't just to get rich in this life. It is to overcome the slavery of sin that you were saved from because that's where we were born. We were born in Egypt as slaves and now we come leaving this life as free from sin and servants of the Holy God. That's what Joshua did. Born a slave and knew nothing more. And now he leads the army of the Almighty against the ungodly in the promised land. And he is a free man from sin. But he says at the end of his story, I will serve the Lord. I will serve the Lord. He is my new master. Now, that's quite a difference, isn't it? And that is the story of every one of us here. It's not as though we are nameless to God. Not as though we're unknown to God. Oh, if I was only famous like Joshua, God would pay attention to me. Every single human being is as precious to him as Joshua was to him. You have the apple of his eye. You know what that means? When you look in someone else's eyes so closely, so close that you can see your own reflection in their eye, that's what that means. And God has his eye on you that close. He loves you. You are a Joshua. You are one that was born a slave. But now you're crossing the River Jordan, and you are going to take the land You are going to do impossible things. You are going to walk through the Jordan. And you are going to conquer sin. Because God is with us. God is with us. Do not be afraid of the future. The next one, take courage in the mission that God has given to you. Take possession of the Christian life. Possess it. Don't just look at it. Don't just say, one day I'm going to do that. No, you need to do it. Take possession of the Christian life. Whatever you think one day you'll be as a Christian, that's what you need to do now. You need to play the man right now. You need to be the Christian right now. Stop thinking about one day I'm going to be that Christian. Now, time to put your foot out. Put it on the Jordan. Time to take your foot out and say, wherever this foot goes, God has given it to me. And take that life. Take it. Take the Christian life. Take the mission that God has given to you and seize it. Seize the opportunity. Seize the day. You have been given from the quartermaster all that you need to prepare for it. You have the knowledge of the promises. Depend Prepare for it. Then, here's the secret. You do it. Just go and do it. Take courage in the mission that God has given you. Now, the last point. Service to God. Sometimes people think service is something that the last thing they want to do. They don't want to provide any type of service to anything but themselves. You need to embrace the service to the Lord. You need to see what it is to be a soldier in the army of God. To take possession of the mission. To own it as your own. That your life should be lived to His glory. The beauty of God, your life, the promised land is a successful Christian life. The promised land, you can go and you can defeat the sin. You no longer serve it. You are no longer the servant of the devil, but you are the army attacking the world's way of life. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the army of God. That means that we are attacking hell, not the other way around. We are attacking the gates of hell. And we shall take those captives and present them to the Lord. Your service, you are not a mistreated slave as you were before. by a master who hates you, but you now have a master that has loved you so much, he has sent his own son to die for you. You are free from this life of service to sin, and you are now a new, uncoerced, willful, voluntary servant of God. whose heart has been freed from sin, but now you have the freedom to love God. Your service to God is a noble thing. It's a noble thing. It's a worthy thing. It is the life worth living. It is a life worth pursuing. It is a great honor to live for God. This, you are one of Joshua's soldiers. You are like Joshua. It is a great honor to serve the Almighty. And this is my conclusion, very brief. The Christian life is designed and provisioned to be lived with courage and strength. We were born slaves to sin, but we will lead this life as servants of the Holy. I'd like to read those two verses now from Joshua chapter 24. 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 flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. whether the gods which your fathers served, and were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. May this be the statement of our church. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your kindness, for your word, and we thank you for the future that you have provided to us. And may we, Father, be soldiers of the cross, may we be soldiers just as Joshua was, and our great Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is courageous and who is strong, and we will follow our Master, we will follow our Lord Jesus, and be His servants. We pray this by His grace, in the Lord's name. Amen.