to the book of Joshua this morning. We are preaching some messages from the Gospel of John. You here weekly know that, but I've taken at the end of the year, beginning of the new year, a few sermons to do with Christmas and a few sermons to do with the new year. Some of the Christmas sermons came out of the Gospel of John, but this is something I wanted to preach on And last week I was sick and unable to be here. I appreciate Brother Glenn, he's ready to go on really short notice. He had 24 hours notice, I'm confident at least to give him that much. But wasn't that good last Sunday morning you were here? But Brother Glenn created a trademark here last Sunday morning. We jumped, stood over there and pointed back at himself and said, amen. Did y'all remember that? I'm thinking, brother, that's how, brother Glenn, 30 years, 37 years I've known Brother Glenn. And that was good, but my children come home and talking about, they about fell out of, They reminded us of a time that he did that, had him laughing one time, years ago, years ago, he says, do some of you need to go out and compose yourself? They never forgot that, that you told them to go compose themselves. But I just say this, and we're gonna read and we're gonna preach, but Brother Glenn said something about prayer last week. And I hope you think about what he said. We were talking about not just going down through a list and just saying the names. But I said, read a name and think about that person. And think about their life. You remember saying that? I sat at home and listened to him. I was listening to him while he was preaching, and sitting in judgment on everything he said. But I said, you know, that's so practical, and it's so good, and that's going to help me. Soon as I get over being too busy, that's gonna help. But that's great, I appreciate Brother Glenn and what he's faithfulness to this church, faithful to this church. Look at the passage, you're familiar with the passage, verse six. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide and inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Be strong, only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And then look down, verse 18, again, whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, and all that you command him shall be put to death, only be strong and of good courage. Father, thank you for this word, and we pray that you will bless it to us, our hearts and lives, we pray in Christ's name, amen. You be seated, please. The context of Joshua 1 is spelled out for us in verse 2. Moses, my servant, is dead. Moses has been the leader of the people of Israel for 40 years. He's led them through the wilderness journeys. And now he's gone. And they had looked to him. He had been their confidence in many ways. I mean, as long as you feel like you have a man like Moses, everything's going to be all right. You grew up with a good, strong father. You felt like everything's good. Everything's good. If dad's good, we're good. Well, that's where these folks were. But now Moses is dead. Moses is gone. And so the context is Joshua is the new leader. Joshua's going to lead these people. They're about to go into the Promised Land. They're about to cross the Jordan River. There are seven nations of people in the Promised Land that they're going to go and expel them. They're doing it for a couple reasons. One is God's giving to Israel that land. But the other, and this is a prominent teaching in the Bible, that God was judging those seven nations. It isn't just like God just went in and took some land and gave it to his people. What God did is he went in and took land that belonged to him from people who had went against him and gave it to people that they could represent him in this world. But that's what was about to take place. They're gonna go into what we call the promised land, the land of Canaan. And there are many battles that are in front of them. And there are things that he's gonna be called upon to do, such as dividing the land. I can imagine how that went. You have 12 tribes and you have a piece of land. And there's probably about three million or more people that are, they have an army of over 600,000 people. And can you imagine, now we're going to divide the land Don't you think there's some people that had something to say about how that happened? You try to divide anything. You can't divide a pizza without having a war. You start dividing things up. Many of you that are getting older, you better, I'm preaching to the choir right now, preaching to myself, do something so that the kids don't end up fighting about what you do have left, you know? So he's gonna have to divide that. He's gonna have to conquer and all this is gonna have to, and it's gonna take courage. And so that's what you have here, God is speaking. We'll see, in particular, who and how, and it'll not take too long, hopefully, in doing it. But we can say, without a doubt, the Church of Jesus Christ needs this same message. As we go through another year, 2025, we need the courage in the times in which we live. This is true for us corporately, that is as a group. It is true for us individually. It's true for the pulpit. It's true for the pew. It's true for the public proclamation of the gospel. But it's also true for our private practice, as we live, to have the courage. It's true in the assembly, but it's also true in our homes. You come to a church like this, and we're gonna proclaim things. It scares people sometimes. They say, well, you know the government may come down. Yeah, they may treat us like they treated the New Testament church. They may treat us like they treated Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They may even treat us like they did Isaiah and Amos. Where do we stop with this business, you know? So the church begins to trim its sails, it begins to watch its message, because some people have made these issues politically. And I hope that you know abortion is, when we speak to that issue, we're speaking to one of the most egregious sins that America's ever been involved in. I don't know that Hitler was involved in anything worse. I don't think he was. Killing babies. I know they did some awful things with testing on children, and that was terrible, terrible, but can you imagine any nation like ours that would allow a doctor to go in and kill a baby in the womb of a mother? I can't, it's beyond my understanding. And we're supposed to keep quiet about that. They say, you don't bring, no, those are moral issues. Those are issues against God. And some of the other things that are happening. So we need courage as a people and we need courage individually. You're out there, you don't go to work to pick a fight. But surely, my friend, opportunity comes. You're gonna take your stand on what's right. That's amazing. You're on a job where people do not mind blaspheming, they don't mind promoting all the things they do, and Christians are afraid to say anything. They're afraid. I like my friend Gordon. I don't know if I don't see him here. I'm sure he's still here somewhere. But he wears this hat right down there. He wears this hat out here. He gets in all these fights, all this trouble wearing these hats. Got the gospel on his hat, and he says, I hope that don't offend you. I don't think he's worried about offending anybody, but he does it. If you want to wear a hat like that, why should you worry about that? You make a bigger difference than that wearing a MAGA hat, that's for sure. I mean, you tell them about Jesus, you know? And I'm not speaking against the MAGA hats. I probably own one. But anyway, when you think of courage, courage isn't the absence of fear. One of my great experiences I had in ministry was talking to a man that was at Iwo Jima when they raised the flag. And he was one of the men that charged, came out of those boats, you know, and charged up there. And he was an old man when I met him. It was a nursing home. They moved him to Waverly Nursing Home for a while because the Dixon was shut down for a while. And I just kept going to Waverly. I moved from Dixon to Waverly. I enjoyed talking to this man. And I said, how in the world did you keep going? How did you go? He said, you had no choice. They were walking over bodies. The people beside him, he said, would get killed. And one to the left would get killed. He said, any second, you knew you were just going to go. They were going to kill you. I said, how could you do that? He said, you had to do it. You had no other choice. And they were afraid. Don't think there wasn't fear. There was fear. He'd tell me that. But in spite of fear, they went on. That's courage. Courage isn't the absence of fear. If you've got any wisdom about your brain or a sense of anything, I mean, you understand the dangers and there's, life is fraught with fears. So courage isn't the absence of fear, but courage would be overcoming the fears, overcoming pressures, overcoming adversities to do what's right, to do what you ought to do. Courage is facing that adversity and accomplishing or trying to accomplish what you know you should do. It's choosing to face your fear, to make decisions in spite of the ramifications of those. Make decisions in spite of how it's gonna affect you personally. And you follow the people of the Bible. They did what was right in spite of how it affected their life. We are in this idea, we've got to decide how this is going to affect our life. Our first obligation is to God. Our first responsibility is to God. Our first responsibility is do right before God. Someone told me the other day, we was talking about something, and he said, they'd like to do it, but see, if they do it, it's gonna cost them all of their work, and I can't do this little job, something to do with the church, whatever. And I said, I'm gonna tell you this, I wouldn't let somebody bind me like that. What kind of life is that, where somebody's determined what you can and can't do? They're binding you, they're controlling you. You might as well put a chain on a man. Might as well train a man. Say, I can't do a job because if I do a job for you, I lose another job. Well, what kind of man holds you and won't let you work on one thing for another? Well, we can debate that later. That's not, I didn't come to debate it. Courage is the strength to face pain or grief or what frightens you even to do what you ought to do, to do what's right. Hemingway says courage is grace under pressure. I don't know what that means to him, but anyway, courage. Look at this passage. It takes courage to stand before our enemies. Verse five. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Courage to stand before their enemies. There's a verse in the New Testament, often misrepresented, 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5. You'll recognize the verse as soon as I find it in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5. It says, in verse four, it says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments or imaginations, the King James says, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity into the obedience of Christ. Now, I mention that verse because that verse is not focused on you in your mind. but it's focused in the church living in a world where its philosophies are against God. They're not right. And we ought to be able to speak the truth and stand for, let me give you one. If you've been here long, you'd know what we think about evolution. Evolution is a direct assault upon the Christian message. The Christian message says that God created man perfectly, and man chose to sin and fell from his imperfection. He fell fatally, and he must have a savior. Evolution tells us no man started in a very primitive state, and he's evolving to something better. If evolution is right, you don't need a savior, you just need time. That's all you need. It's an assault upon, and the man that came out with it knew he was assaulting Christianity. And that's a philosophy. We have pagan philosophies. The ideas that are behind transsexual ideas, those are philosophies that Satan is raising up. And it's the church's business to speak against those things that exalt themselves against God. That's what he's talking about here. The church is not silent. Our business is to minister to the saints, and we know that, and to rescue the perishing and be involved in sending people to the ends of the world. But the church doesn't hesitate. Christianity claims to be the truth. Did you know that? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and life. The one thing that's true in this world is the Bible you hold in your hand. There's not another book you can pick up that you can have the same confidence, not even close to the same confidence. I opened the Bible, I know it's right. I just have to try to understand what it's saying and do what it says to do. So we're called to stand. Not only these are physical enemies that Joshua is facing, but we're facing intellectual enemies. Oh my friend, academia in America is against God. Rest assured, there's not many schools in the whole country that you can trust if you're careful about the minds of your kids. They can make doctors out of them, and they can make nurses out of them, and at the same time, they can try to destroy their faith, what they believe. It would be better off not to be a doctor or a nurse, and we're four doctors, and we're four nurses, and we're four engineers, and we're four lawyers, and we're four But my friend, you're better off, before you let somebody destroy the mind of your kid, your child, you'd be better off than not be so well off. Well, it takes courage to stand against your enemies, courage like you see David when he faced Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, when everyone else was afraid. David says, I'm gonna go out there, and I'm gonna fight this man. I'm not gonna fight him with your weapons. I'm gonna fight with this sling, and he has the courage. The courage is Daniel, and when he's taken captive to Babylon, and they try to force a diet on him that went against his Jewish diet, and the Bible says in verse eight of chapter one, he purposed in his heart, he's not gonna defy himself with that which goes against God and his way of believing. Then you go to the sixth chapter and they say to him, if you pray to anyone but the king, if you ask any prayer of any god or any authority except for the king, for 30 days you're gonna be cast into a den of lions. Daniel the Bible says when he knew that was a pass and we knew that was in that was the ordinance That was what it was he went to the same window that he'd been praying three times a day Just like no, that's what we're talking about courage courage to fight and to stand You read Jeremiah 37. Jeremiah, his enemies have taken him and they put him in prison. And the Bible says in a dungeon they put him. And so the king calls for him. And the king says to Jeremiah, in verse 17 of chapter 37 of Jeremiah, he says, is there any word from the Lord? Now my friend, that'd be the question. You've just been brought out of prison. You've just been brought out of a dungeon. And now the king wants to know if there's a word from the Lord when that's the very reason you're in the dungeon. That's the very reason you are a prisoner. And he famously answers with two words. You Bible readers will recognize it. Is there any word from the Lord? There is! That's what his answer was. Yes, there is. And you know the story of Jeremiah, what happened to him. Well, look at the passage, verse seven. Verse six, be strong and of good courage. For this people you shall divide an inheritance, the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. It's gonna take courage, as I was talking about earlier, to divide this land. Verse seven, only be strong and very courageous that you may be observed to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn. to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, and that you may observe to do according to all that is written. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success." Listen to me. It takes courage to obey God's commands. It takes courage to do the will of God. That's what got my attention as I was reading devotionally from Judges Joshua about a month or so ago. It was this point that got my attention. I understand it takes courage to face enemies. And I understood if he's gonna divide the inheritance, and that's not a big piece of land, and you got three million people, and you got 12 tribes, it's gonna take courage to tell this one, no, this is where you're gonna be, and this is where you're gonna be, and this is where you're, takes courage. But my friend, I saw right there, he's talking about obeying the commands of God. He's saying about being diligent, don't turn to the right, don't turn to the left. You meditate in this word day and night, you find out, you find out what you're supposed to do. Young people, it takes courage to be a true Christian. Any young person can put on the face of religion, but courage is when you know what's right. You know what's right. And the group is gonna go against what's right. And you have the courage to say, no, you don't have to fight them, just say, no, I'm not going. My mother and my father don't allow that. That's not what we do. That takes courage to stand up and say that. It takes courage for men at work. You don't have to carry your big Bible in there. My father carried his big Bible to work when he was first converted. They set it on fire, they burn it up. That's what they did. I heard that story all my life. But it's good to have a Bible, good to do it, but to carry it. I remember the last public work that I was involved in, my brother and I, I was between churches, big job up in Kentucky. We was working a big iron job. And they hired somebody that I felt like he must go home at night and think of filthy things to say it was so bad. I mean, I'd never even heard that thing and I wasn't born saved. And my brother and I, we said, I remember telling him, I said, if I wasn't saved, if I wasn't a heathen, if I was a heathen, I wouldn't listen to that. And so lunchtime came and break time came and we had to Separate ourselves. It wasn't I wasn't trying to be more righteous than anybody The Bible says not to do that. Don't be to do that. Don't be right, but my friend at the same time There's some things you you gotta stand where you should stand Somebody comes up to you and says you're not one of them Religious fanatics. Are you'd like my friend Bobby Leonard? He's on an airplane one time and He's reading a Bible and his old Bible didn't have covers on or whatever I know he could buy him a good Bible be like the old one the covers gone and And the lady sitting next to him said, you aren't one of them religious Christian fanatics, are you? And he took that Bible and kissed it, and he said, that's exactly what I am. That's exactly what I, I'm a Christian. He wasn't trying to start a conversation with a woman, he just wanted to read his Bible. She provoked it, you see. And I'm telling you, on your job, you'll have that. You don't have to go in there and sound a trumpet before you. put up some incense to say, well, that represents my prayers to heaven. I just want you to see them. You and I live in such a perverse and wicked world. You just try to do what's right, and it's gonna be your family. See, you got your family beside you, but most of us have a bigger family. It's gonna take courage, courage. when things go, I've had to do that in things with the ministry. I said, no, I'm not gonna be part of that. I remember a particular time, I just, I had to walk in, the person told me they didn't want the gospel preached at the funeral. And the person said, you got a problem with that? I said, yes, I got a problem with that. The one they were burying, I said, that person was saved by the gospel and they loved the gospel and they lived by the gospel. And the next day, I had to go by there and just say, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be able to do this funeral. There was somebody else to do it. We're forced to some issues, is all I'm saying. We're forced to them. I'm not talking about your particular little idiosyncrasies. I'm talking about when it comes down to an issue, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? I'm gonna tell you, we need to take a stand. We just have to take a stand. on these things. And so, particularly for you young people, I know what you're up against. And the influence of the world, and Satan is very powerful and real. And it'll come at you like he did Peter. Remember what he did, Peter? You aren't one of his disciples, are you? That made it real easy for Peter to say no. And they'll come up to you, you don't really believe, you're not against that, are you? My friends, the things are so wide awake, you gotta say, yes, I'm against it. There are gonna be times to deny, to deny is to deny Christ himself. Just take, where the light of the church shines, and the people have the courage. You see, they're gonna create these hate crimes, and they've done that. What's the church going to do? The church's going to do nothing but what it's been doing. And I'm thankful that there are people across this country that are gonna do that, they're gonna stand. Have the courage, here he is, to do that which is right, to do the commandments of God, and to meditate in them to make sure you know what they are. And he says, you will prosper, you'll be blessed. And I say to you young people, there's more blessing to life than riches and wealth. You can be very rich and miserable. I sometimes think we've got to build the bigger houses, and it seems no end to some of the big. And I think what it is is they want to live in different neighborhoods in the same house. This person lives in the West neighborhood, and this one lives in the East neighborhood, and some in the North and South. They all have their own TVs, their own everything, and they live their own lives, don't even eat supper together. It doesn't matter if you're rich. If you're a miserable person, you're a miserable person. Are you listening? What does it matter what you have in the bank? What does it matter what you drove up to this church, and I don't even know what you, and I wouldn't know if you pointed to me, I wouldn't know what it is. My boys would tell me what it is. You might have the nicest truck they sell out here in the parking lot right now. And I wouldn't know it. I mean, I'll be honest with you. If I saw you getting in it, I wouldn't know what you was getting in. I wouldn't care one bit. But my boys used to tell me later, hey, that car right there, it's worth it. They tell me that ugly car that, you know, they burnt up that car. The guy blew up that car in Las Vegas in front of the Trump International Airport. You know, are you guys familiar with that? That's the ugliest car. If you got one, I'm sorry, I wouldn't speak against you. I wouldn't hurt you for nothing. I wouldn't hurt you for nothing, but that's the ugliest car they've ever made. And they tell me it's over $100,000. What kind of, I got to be careful, because you might be sitting here. I was starting to say, what kind of lunatic would do that? At least make it look good. And if you got one, you're not a lunatic, you're just, you're better off than I am. But what I'm trying to say, you understand something. Some of the most unhappy, miserable people in this world are the most successful people in this world. They don't have peace in their heart. They don't have joy in their soul. What does what you drive and what does where you live and what does, it's kind of like someone fighting the King James Bible issue. And someone said to me, Aaron Terlacke, he said to me one time, my nephew, we were talking about it and he says, he said to me, he says, what does it matter what Bible you preach from if when you open it you're not gonna preach it? And I knew exactly what he means. These people hollering about the King James Bible, they make the Bible and the text say whatever they want it to say. Nobody has the right to say anything in the Bible means what they think it means without it does mean that. You understand that? I'm not a big fan of some of the translations, but I'd rather hear a person use the worst translation they can get a hold of and at least try to be faithful to what the Bible says than to make up something. You understand what I'm saying? Me and Aaron, he was telling me that and I forgot it. I've used that different places. You don't get to go back once you use that. It's a one-time deal. People that worship the King James Bible, if you don't worship it with them, you're just done. Well, it's courage to fight the Lord's battles. It's courage to stand before our enemies. But this is the one that really is driving me this morning, the courage to do what God says. In a world that doesn't care and is against what God says. The courage of conviction, young people. Let me just tell you this, listen very carefully, young person. Leadership always comes to the top. If this place is going on fire right now, we'd find out real quick who the main leader is. We'd find it from maybe one of you out there. Crisis would reveal it. And my friend, young person, listen to me. You think you're alone, and you may very well be, but if you stand for what's right, you'll find some people now, they were looking for somebody like that. They were looking for somebody that knows what they believe and stands for what they believe. And they begin to follow. It's a weak person that just goes with the crowd. And I don't mean to insult you. Why does it take courage to do the will of God? It takes courage because of the world in which you live. You will be the exception. You will be the exception if you do the will of God. And it takes courage to stand there. You'll have to stand alone, often, like Daniel did, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Jeremiah did, and Amos did. You not only be the exception and have to stand alone, but my friend, you'll be condemned. You're the one that they're gonna condemn. You're judgmental. As soon as you say anything's not right, you are condemned. I like what Lloyd-Jones said. He said he was asking a bunch of liberal preachers that he'd been talking to for a long time, and he finally asked them, he said, is there anything for which you're prepared to stand? That's what his issue was. Is there anything that you men are willing to stand on? He was talking about the gospel. Are you willing to stand on John 14 6? Jesus said, I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. Are you willing to stand on that? Let me move over there where Glenn was and say amen. Last week when he moved over and said amen. Are we willing to stand on Acts 4 12? There's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Are we willing to stand on 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, where it tells us very plainly that there are folks that will not inherit the kingdom of God? On and on. So you'll be condemned. You'll be condemned for being right. That's what it is. And you'll be constantly condemned for judging. You and I live, and we have the world, that's the world that the Bible says the God of this world is the devil, Satan. That's what the Bible says. And he's blinded the eyes of the people in this world. You say, I don't think these people really believe what they believe. Oh, they believe what they believe. He blinds them. People believe lies. The devil lies and people, he deceives. And so you got the world, you got the flesh, that's our fallen nature. And you've got the world, the flesh, and the devil. So here in this passage is a call for the leader to have courage. And if there's ever a time, I pray for our president, he'll have courage. Because he's gonna have to do some things that aren't gonna be popular. He's got a whole world of the media against him. And I felt so sorry, sorry ain't the right word, but those people going up in front of those committee members, I mean it's just sad to see, just sad to see great people being mauled by people that you know are crooks. But the pulpit, if you want to get a direct line from this passage, Joshua is the leader, Moses is dead, Now, Joshua, what are you going to do? And the leader must have the courage of conviction. I think somebody wrote a book on that, The Courage of Conviction. And then there's the call for the people. That's what's happening here in the 10th chapter, 25th verse, same thing, where he says, be strong and have good courage. It's calling the people to this. The people are being called to courage. Second Corinthians 10.5, the people are being called to cast down every imagination against God. There's a call for the individual. Joshua, in a sense, is an individual. He's an individual person. But the Bible, over and over again, we see this same call to courage. David calls his son Solomon. First Chronicles 28 verse 20, be strong and of good courage. And you find this same thing in Psalm 27, verse 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage. He shall strengthen your heart. Psalm 31, 34, be of good courage. Isaiah 41, 6, be of good courage. So if you look, you have the leader that's called to courage, the congregation is called to courage, but the individual is also called to courage. Well, let's close with how a person does then have courage. And I think what you can see here in this passage, it's inseparable from your faith in God. Look at verse five. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and have good courage. It is your belief that God is with you. It is your belief that you're standing where God would have you to stand. That's where courage comes. Courage comes. I used to have a brother that gave me a lot of courage. In fact, I got the wrong kind of courage because everybody was afraid. In the neighborhood I grew up with, our parents didn't allow, we didn't have TVs. I don't know if we had many radios even. When you go to school and they were talking about, what did you watch last night? We'd make something up, really. It was embarrassing, our faith. I'm right where some of you are. When I was a kid. So what my father did, he goes out and buys a bunch of weights, and he buys boxing gloves. And we grew up boxing gloves. My oldest brother, he would beat the boy right in front of me. That's Monty. Jerry would beat him up. And then the gloves would go from Jerry to me, and Monty would beat me up. And then the brothers go from Marnie to Ronnie, and I beat Ronnie up. And there was nobody under Ronnie, and he had to grow up with a complex. Well, he didn't. So we were in the neighborhood. Everybody knew my older brother. He's the boy that, I tell you, he was in school, and they required dancing class, or you got what they called the bat. Now, I don't know where you came from, but I came from you didn't dance. I'm not against a wedding dance, but I'm against all these wild, I just don't, I think we ought to allow the bride and groom to dance, we ought to have the father-daughter dance, but my friend, if we're gonna have a bunch of heathen music to dance at, let's just call it a heathen wedding. Now, that's free. That's just free, that ain't gonna cost you anything. My brother, We were proud people. My sisters didn't wear pants and they're three feet of snow and they argued about whether you could wear snow pants. That's where we were. And so dancing is the same as going to hell, I mean. And my brother, rather than tell the people that his mama and his preacher wouldn't let him dance and his daddy didn't go for it either, he'd say, no, that's a sissy thing to do. That's what he said. And so he had a Korean teacher, and back then, now you don't even believe it, but he had a bat, a plastic bat. And so he'd say, bend over, you take the bat. Now he'd go to prison today, right? Would he go to prison for that? My brother would stand up there in front of all them, practicing their dance, and bend over, and that guy would swing at the backhand, lift them off their feet. He'd take the bat. Next day, no, I'm not gonna, that's a sissy thing. He wouldn't go tell them, and Mama wouldn't let him dance. Preacher won't let me dance and maybe my dad won't let me dance. Mom was stronger than dad on it. Next day he took it. And you know before it was over, there was a whole line of boys taking the bat. There was a whole line of them every day. No, we're not batting, that's a sissy thing. We're not dancing. And boom, boom, boom, boom. That, he become the leader. Taking the bat, courage. Look at life, but for us. He says, I'll be with you, verse five. I'll bless you. I'm gonna bless you, verse eight. It's faith in the ever-present God. It's faith that God is there, God is with you. It's what God is doing. Verse 15, you can see it. It's all through. The call this morning is to stand for what's right this year, to do what's right. I'm not justifying my brother, by the way. That's on my conscience already. I got into that by telling you, if you have the courage of conviction, You'll find there's other people are looking for somebody like that. In a family, it's that way. Strong person that says, I think this is what I ought to be. And sometimes they can be wrong. And I'm not saying to go for what's wrong. But as you face this year, the enemies you face, it's going to take courage. But it's going to take courage of the big thing. to do what's right in a world that refuses to do what's right. The call is for the leaders to do what's right. The call is for the people to do what's right. And the call is for the individual to do what's right. May God help us to search the book, as he says, day and night. Find out and live out our life. I think it's gonna be harder than it's ever been for a Christian to do what's right. It's harder for a young person, because what we knew as boys and children was wrong. Our culture has not a clue on, but it's still wrong. What's right is still right. Jesus is still Lord, and he's still, his cross is the only way. They're gonna say, you surely don't believe. You don't believe your way is the only way, do you? And you're gonna be forced to either deny it or to say, I believe Jesus is the only way. Isn't that what the Bible says? That's what it teaches, let's stand together. Thank you, Father. For those who've gone before us, that taught us about courage, And I pray, Lord, in our day, we'd have men that will have courage of conviction. And the church will have the courage of conviction. And these men and women that own their jobs, that you give them the courage to do what's right. And especially, Lord, our young people. I pray for every young man that's growing up in this church, that you help him to be a loving and kind person, but a person that's determined to do what's right, if he has to do what's right alone. For our young ladies, Lord, that are under pressure to look like the women of the world, to act like the women, of the world, dress like them every way. God help them to have the courage of conviction, to seek what would bring your blessing upon their life. And for every mother and dad that's faced with pressure from outside of their Christian family, maybe it's brothers, sisters, uncles, mothers, dads, grandparents, I pray that you'll help them to have the courage, especially with their young people, the courage to take a different route than our world's taking. Not to just turn them loose, but oh, to teach them the ways that will lead ultimately to prosperity and blessing. I pray in Jesus' name.