Well, I'm very encouraged with all of the service that goes on in this congregation, and this is a passage, Joshua chapter 19, that I think can help us to continue to improve in that. Joshua 19, 49 through the end of the chapter. When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. According to the word of the Lord, they gave him the city which he asked for, Timnath-serah, in the mountains of Ephraim. And he built the city and dwelt in it. These were the inheritance which Eliezer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the country. Father, we thank you for your word and I pray that as we dig into it that you would quicken the word to our hearts and enable each one of us to continue to grow up into you in all things. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Maybe she did. During the American War for Independence, there was a group of soldiers that was struggling to get this very, very heavy beam up into a place. And the corporal who was overseeing the project was shouting different encouraging commands to these people. And about that time, there was a man who rode up on a horse. Maybe some of you have read this story in your history books. But a man rode up on a horse and realized that it only took one more person and they would be able to get this job accomplished. They had been really struggling. And he asked the corporal how come he wasn't helping out the crew. And he says, do you realize I am a corporal? And he said, well, excuse me, Mr. Corporal. And he got off of his horse, and he pulled up his sleeves, and he started helping the people. And when the project was done, he came back to the corporal, and he said, if you should need help again, call on Washington, your commander in chief, and I will come. Talk about embarrassing. But I think Washington was a good example of what leadership should look like. It's not leadership from afar. It's involved leadership. A true leader is a servant leader, not a person who just gives orders and knows exactly what everybody else needs to do. Servant leadership is defined by Jesus this way. Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. You could not get a higher position of leadership than Jesus had, and yet he was the greatest servant, giving his life for his sheep. He was constantly serving. And this set a high bar for those who wanted to enthusiastically follow him, enthusiastically serve like he did. A desire for preeminence is the exact opposite of biblical leadership. Leaders get elevated to leadership because they've already shown themselves to actually be the best followers, the best workers, the best servants in the very areas that they intend in the future to lead in or they would get promoted to. So leadership is more about proven competence, proven character, proven service, than it is about getting a position. Well, in these last verses of this chapter, we see that Joshua was a model leader. Now, obviously these verses are not going to tell us everything we need to know about biblical leadership. I've got a training, a seminar on our website that people can go to that looks at all of the different dimensions of biblical leadership. It's going to go much more in depth than we do, but these verses at least give some foundational principles. And by the way, lest you think that this is a sermon you can tune out to because you're not a leader, let me assure you that most of you are already involved in some kind of capacity of leadership or another. Fathers, you're leading your wives and your children, either poorly or well, but you are leading. Mothers, you are leading your families throughout most of the day when the dad is gone. And some of you children are already leading informally. Now, certainly you don't have the authority, but you still do have some influence upon other people, and it is a kind of leadership. Now some of you children lead others into mischief. That's not the kind of leadership that Joshua is modeling. But you know what? I have been so impressed, and Gary has as well, at some of the children who have just been leading in a remarkably wonderful way. And we notice and we appreciate it. So I assure you that the principles of this chapter can apply to all of us. Now, only going to be two main points this morning, that leaders look to the welfare of those that they lead and that all of us should honor and look to the welfare of our leaders. Now, in the olden days, Parents taught their children how to give very tangible signs of respect and honor, and older children were given increasing responsibilities over the younger children to test their leadership. And our leadership needs to be tested. It needs to be constantly tested and evaluated. You don't put a person into leadership until every aspect of leadership has been has been thoroughly tested. So test and evaluate your children on these leadership principles. Now, we're going to start with the first main point, that good leaders look to the welfare of those that they lead. I've got four sub-points to develop. First sub-point is that servant leaders put the needs of others before their own. In other words, leaders are in the habit of going last. Verse 29 says, when they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun." So notice the first clause, when they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance. Everybody else had already gotten their inheritance. Joshua made sure that everyone's needs were taken care of before his own needs were taken care of, and we're going to be seeing his needs were taken care of, but he was passionate about making sure that no one else was neglected. It's a simple principle, but do we live it out? Some of you children need to aspire to leadership by letting others go first. Believe it or not, Pastor Gary and I are always watching and evaluating what kind of character the children in our church are manifesting to see if the leadership is being developed by the parents. We're looking to the next generation and we notice that some of you children are just rising like cream to the top of the milk. Those are the children who notice needs, they quickly jump in and they take on those needs even without being asked. They just notice needs and they take care of it. They've got eyes of servants. And that's one of many qualifications for being a leader. And if your children are not being trained to do this, it actually reflects poorly on the parents' leadership. It does. But Gary and I are very impressed by some of you children. We can tell that you are not engaged in ministry just to impress other people, okay, and we praise God for you. We can tell that you have an eye that looks to opportunities to serve, and it's our prayer that all of the children would aspire to this. But every one of us can actually keep improving on this. For example, try once in a while waiting till others have an opportunity to go through the dinner line before you go through yourself. I tend to notice the ones who always dash to the front of the line or even cut in front of other people to get the choicest pieces of food in the dinner line. And I would encourage you to, once in a while, put yourself last. You don't have to always do that. For example, you might be looking out for the needs of a visitor and say, hey, you need to go through the line, and they're a little bit shy. Here, I'll go with you. That would be a good thing, a good way to go through first in the line. That's great. Another example, when you're engaging in hospitality at home, try once in a while giving up your best seat to the visitors who are older or other people who are older than you. It used to be a given that younger children would defer to older children, and the older children would defer to the adults, and the adults would constantly be deferring to each other. Here's another example. Children, once in a while, try to anticipate the things that need to be picked up in the living room or other places of the house without being told to pick those up, without making the parents say, this is now your chore. just seek to be helpful. What an incredible blessing it would be if the parents, you know, come to a child and they say, here's a job that I would like you to do. And the child says, oh, it's already done. And you look, wow, it's been done incredibly well. And the child's now ready to take on a new chore from the parent. That would be just an incredible blessing to the parent. That's imitating Joshua, but more importantly it's imitating Jesus who was symbolized by Joshua. You may remember from previous sermons that Jesus is just the Greek form of the name for Joshua, and the book of Hebrews says that Joshua was in many different ways a symbol or a type, of the work of Jesus in the future. In any case, back to our point, if you have a hard time putting yourself last, ask Jesus to change your heart and to put some of His characteristic, His leadership characteristics into your heart. Jesus washed His disciples' feet and He called them to follow His example. Well, what was His example? It was humility. It was noticing the needs of others. It was putting others first. Let me read a passage from Mark 10 that illustrates the exact opposite of Joshua, beginning to read at Mark 10, verse 35. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, grant us that we may sit, one in your right hand and the other on your left in your glory. And Matthew indicates that the mom came in and she chimed in that she wanted them to be at the right hand and the left hand as well. So it wasn't just the kids that were problematic here. But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drank and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And here comes their overconfidence. They said to him, we're able. So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drank. With the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared. Now, why were they not ready for leadership? You need to remember that the three years that those disciples walked with Jesus, they were being trained for their roles in leadership, but they were not ready for leadership yet at this point because they wanted to be first. And don't think they were the only disciples that wanted to be first. The very next verse says the other disciples had the same attitude. It says, and when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. Why were they displeased? Was it because the others wanted to be first and they wanted to be last? No, no, no. It's because they were jockeying for this position of being in the first place rather than serving best. So Jesus, the greater Joshua, gave them instruction of what good leadership looked like. He said, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So Jesus put himself last. He washed the disciples' feet. He modeled self-sacrificing service. He was the greatest leader of all, but he modeled being the greatest servant of all. And parents, one of your main roles in life is not to have fun with your friends and consider the children's interruptions and misbehavior, you know, when you're having a cool conversation at the table to be a constant irritation. No, see those as opportunities to be training these children. to be good leaders. But they can only lay hold of that principle if they see that you have their best interests in mind, and their best interest is not letting them do whatever they want to do. That's not the point. It's to be cognizant of their sinful inclinations and to disciple them out of those things. But doing that is going to take your own sacrifice of time, attention, emotional well-being, and once in a while being interrupted from the cool conversations you're having at the table. Parents who put themselves last are actually in the best place and position to train their children to put themselves last. It's an essential component of biblical leadership. I read an interesting story of a business manager who modeled this kind of leadership. This is actually an example to the extreme, I think, but I found it very interesting. I loved it. Ernest Bud Miller was the president of Arvida, which was one of the biggest real estate and development companies in the United States of America. But it had gotten to the point where it was going to become bankrupt if something radical did not change very quickly. And so Mr. Miller closed regional offices, he reorganized departments, and he laid off 1,300 employees. That was like half of the employees. And you might say that's not being very considerate to those 1,300, but he saw the big picture. By laying them off, he was able to preserve 1,300 jobs for others. And if the company went bankrupt, everyone would lose their jobs. So by making these radical adjustments, he turned the company from being a money losing operation into being a money making operation that was so successful that I looked it up on the web this week, and just recently they got bought out by big conglomerates, so it'll be very interesting to see if leadership philosophy changes or not, or if it goes downhill. But back to the story. The president, Mr. Martin, realized that in the best interests of the company, he needed to give up his own job. It was a job that was not needed. He realized you don't put people into leadership just because they're available and they want to be in leadership, and he applied the same principle to himself. He was now geared, after all of this thinking, he was geared to thinking in the best interests of the company, not just his own best interests, and he said this, I couldn't justify me to me. I couldn't look at the people I let go and say that I applied a different standard to me. Every fiber of my person wanted to stay, but professionally, this was the decision that had to be made. And it had to be made in the best interests of the company because he realized that removing his position would actually make the company better. So he gave up what he called an upper six-figure salary package. In other words, he was earning more than half a million dollars. He didn't say how much he was earning, but if it's upper six figure, it's a lot of money anyway. It was way up there. But he did it because he wanted what was best for the team as a whole. He put himself last. Well, brothers and sisters, I think a lot of us can grow in imitating Joshua and Jesus by putting ourselves last, and looking to the long-term best interests of the family as a whole, the church as a whole, or maybe your business as a whole. The second point is that good leaders are more concerned about God's will than they are about their own will or their own desires. Verse 50 begins with these words, according to the word of the Lord. His inheritance was not simply about him getting his own will or his own way accomplished. He knew that if God wanted to bless him, he was okay with that. If God did not want to give him something, he was okay with that. He knew God's calling and he sought to be faithful to that calling, no matter how difficult that might be. When I first came to Omaha, it was definitely not for reward. Several people in Canada, including my former pastor, Doug Codling, whom I very, very much respect. He was like another Mr. Miller. But he begged me to come back to Canada, which is where I came from, and he was willing to step down and have me take that senior pastor position with a beginning salary of $65,000. And I turned that down. I turned down another high-paying offer. In 1987, it was a high-paying offer. And some of my friends rebuked me. They considered me absolutely crazy, especially since I knew I was going to be going into somewhat of a stressful situation. It was definitely not a better job, definitely not better pay. In fact, the salary that I accepted was $27,000, and that salary did not increase for the next decade. But our family prospered in many other ways. Why? Because we were following God's will, not our own desires, not my will. I was perusing my mission statement during those years, and it's a statement that I have reviewed every year and I continue to hold to, and I want to read the whole mission statement to you. It says, I want to live out my callings as husband, father, pastor, writer, teacher, and reformer with a constant dependence upon God's authority, presence, and power, and with an eye to pleasing Him rather than man. I want every facet of my ministry to be characterized by the overflow of the Spirit's power. I want to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection in all that I am and do. I want to model what it means to love and lead my family in the Lord. I want to enable my whole family to feel that they share in my ministry and to find satisfaction in the sacrifices that they make. I want to prepare my children to find God's purpose for their own lives. I want my wife and I to provide an inheritance of spiritual values, skills, and resources that will enable them to stand on our shoulders and go beyond what we will be able to achieve in our lifetimes. I desire to pass on a heritage to my children's children. I also dedicate myself to extending the kingdom of God through the local church in outreach, discipleship, teaching, writing, and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. Beyond the work of the local church, God has also given me a burning passion to pray and work towards seeing the whole bride of Jesus Christ strengthened, united, and better resourced for the culture-transforming work of discipling the nations, Matthew 28. When God brings such revival upon the world that nations as nations are discipled, I want to be used by God to help in the process of teaching them to observe God's biblical blueprints. That has been my calling since 1987. Now, God's got a calling on every one of your lives, and your calling's going to be quite different, probably, than my calling. But here's the thing. There is going to be financial shortfalls, discouragements, difficulties, all kinds of things that are going to make you want to give up on your calling that God has placed upon your life. And I would encourage you to look to God's will through the Scripture. And I can show you how to do that, by the way. There is a master planning personal timeline that gives you this sense of drive and purpose, what God has in your life. It's a wonderful process to go through. It takes a while to go through it, but I can show you how to go through that. But let me give you a statistic that illustrates why this is so important. Did you know that more than 70%—in some years the statistic is closer to 80%—but more than 70% of seminary-trained ministers quit the ministry after just a handful of years and the reason they quit is almost always the same and has nothing to do with competencies. There have been many studies that have been evaluated. Why is there such a burnout in the ministry? They had the competencies, but they lacked many of the leadership qualities that I outline in that that seminar, that leadership seminar on our website. The point is, God's call upon your life, and let me clarify, as defined by the Bible, must come first. Now, we saw earlier in the book of Joshua that there were others who had already given up on their calling. It was way too hard for them, and so they settled for something less, and that something less that they settled for, the book of Judges tells us, came back to bite them and to bite them hard. Anyway, when I made my mission statement way back in 1987, I kept some verses before me that acted as a warning and a caution in my life, and I also had a verse of encouragement. One of the two verses of warning was John 15, 5. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. It was a caution that I needed to depend upon Jesus in everything that I did. And I have to keep growing in that principle because God keeps bringing more impossibilities into my life. And I want to assure you that if you can do what you think is your calling in your own strength, without Christ's strength, you're probably not pressing into the full dimensions of what God's calling you to do. The second verse of caution that I gave to myself is 1 Corinthians 2, 4-5, which says, And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And then my key encouragement was Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And so, brothers and sisters, I would encourage you to showcase this point to your children and help your children to find all of the resources that they need in God's Word and in His grace to become great leaders themselves. Now the next phrase says, the city which he asked for. And I think that phrase shows that Joshua did not have a false humility. He asked for what he believed God's Word would consider just and right. Now that was actually one failure that I had during the decade that the previous church underpaid me, didn't get a raise for ten years. The church was filled with wealthy people, but they apparently believed in keeping – and to this day, they believe in keeping their pastors poor. That first year, even, I was paid a third of what the denomination recommended pastors in my position would get. But I felt that humility required that I be passive about this part of my calling. Well, that's a counterfeit humility. And it prevented me from buying the books and the tools that would be needed to carry out God's calling in my life. Now, we were super frugal, so we still managed. and God multiplied the loaves and the fishes, but I fail to realize there is nothing righteous about false humility. And false humility can keep you from pressing into the high calling that God is calling you to. Now, I'll admit, it is a very difficult balance to maintain. Figuring out the balance about putting yourself last, which I was pretty good at, and yet, at the same time, pressing for the appropriate reward, man, that's hard. That's a hard balance to maintain. But good leaders have the kind of confidence that avoids selfish, self-centeredness, and avoids the opposite extreme that hurts the family and prevents you from achieving your calling. Actually, I'll tell you, be quite honest with you, my tendency toward false humility made me not want to bring myself up in this at all, but the Lord led me to do so. I very rarely bring myself into a sermon, but I bring this up just to point out to you, there's areas I've had to grow in, and I want to keep growing in my character until the day I die. Leaders should never stop improving themselves. Okay, I'm going to quit talking about myself as a negative example. We'll move on. Fourth sub-point is that good leaders never retire from service to God, even though they might retire from one kind of service. Joshua was no longer needed as a commander-in-chief of the national army, so he retired from that position. A-okay. But he did not retire from taking dominion. And so just by way of application, I would say, yeah, it's perfectly OK to retire from your company, get a pension, and then continue to serve God in other ways. Let me expand on this. A lot of the Israelites got already cultivated land that could be instantly occupied. Not all of them did, but most of them did. But Joshua had his work cut out for him in fixing and cultivating what he asked for. Verse 50 goes on to say, Now I'm not going to get into the fact that he asked for a city. rather than asking for thousands of acres of farmland. I think there is plenty could be learned from that. I'm just going to stick to this point here. He was an Ephraimite, so he dwelt within the inheritance of his tribe. But this verse says that he built a city. Why would Joshua need a city? He didn't need it just for himself, no doubt. developed part of that city for his descendants, but I think that he was welcoming fellow Ephraimites into that city. He had to clear the forest, since it was a forested area, he had to repair damage to the city that was apparently destroyed, and then he took on a new job as mayor of that city. Now since Joshua was, let me get the figure here right, he was 85 years old in chapter 14, many commentators assume that he was at least 90 years old in this chapter. And he lived to the age of 110, and Joshua 24, we're going to be seeing, tells us that he was buried in the city where he had spent the rest of his lifetime serving. By the way, archaeologists have not too long ago discovered what they think was the huge tomb that was built in honor of Joshua. It's kind of cool. But the point is, he faithfully served for another 20 productive years. Imagine what would have happened if he had said, you know, I've put in my time, I'm 90 years old, I'm just going to do golf and I'm just going to enjoy myself the rest of my life. There would have been a lot that would have been missed out on. Now, it was okay that he left one job as a stepping stone, but he never retired from service to the Lord. And it's my opinion that good leaders should never retire from service to God. And you say, what about if you're wheelchair bound? Even if you're wheelchair bound, you can still serve God through conversations, phone calls, letter writing, prayers, counsel, strategic giving, and other work. Unless I am comatose, I plan to continue to serve until the day that I die, and even then I plan to serve for all of eternity with a glorified soul, and after the resurrection with a glorified body. God made us to serve him throughout eternity, and we cannot allow laziness to defer us from that. Now, there is a place where God tells us, hey, you have to take a break as well. That's what the Sabbath is all about, right? And there is a place for vacations. But if you are tempted toward laziness, you really need to crucify that. And if your children are tempted to laziness, crucify that. I urge you to imitate Joshua and Jesus on these four principles of leadership. And again, it's only four of many, many principles of biblical leadership that you could get into, but they are important. Now, what about followers? All leaders must also be followers. So don't think that the second section does not apply to you because you own a business, or you're a dad, or you're an officer. No, all of us need to be followers. First principle that I see is that good followers seek to know what pleases their leaders. This is true if you're a follower in a business. You should aspire to being the best follower that you can be so as to ensure that your leader's business will prosper. Envy should have absolutely no place in our vocabulary. In verse 49, it says, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua, the son of Nun. And how did they know that this is something that would please him? Well, they made sure that he told them. Verse 50 says, they gave him the city, which he asked for, Timnaserit. Number one, he asked for it, but number two, they delighted in giving him this location. But knowing how to please your leaders takes some thinking. When you're trying to figure out, you know, this peer or this parent or some other leader has really, really blessed me. How do I bless this person in return? Don't just assume they're going to like what you like. There are different languages of love. And it takes some thinking to figure out, what is the best way that I can bless my parents? They have sacrificed so many years for me. I want to be a blessing to them. Good followership is not grudging followership. It is enthusiastic and seeking to bless and prosper those whom they follow. The next sub-point is somewhat related. It says, good followers are not stingy with their leaders. Joshua had been such a devoted servant that they gave him a big inheritance. Now, did Joshua need a whole city for himself? Obviously not. But they gave it to him knowing Joshua has been such a perfect steward of everything that he's done in the past. He's going to use this to God's glory. He's going to be a good steward of it. And thus they blessed him in a way that would benefit not just Joshua, but his descendants, and as I read the text, many other Ephraimites. Good followers don't just receive ministry from those who lead them, they also minister to their leaders. And I think this congregation has actually been splendid in doing that. I'll brag on you. I think I've been to many, many churches over the years, and I think that this church has got some of the best body life that I have seen anywhere. And I love the way you guys engage in sharing. I love the Discord channel, you know, where I forget what it's labeled, but selling, sharing, trading. Seems like it's mostly sharing that people do. The banquet that happened on Friday night, I think that's another great example of thinking of how you can bless leaders on the music team, and it was an incredible blessing to them. It's living out this principle. But there are many other ways that this congregation shows, I think, that it has a big heart, a generous heart. Back to the main point, leaders who labor long and hard should be rewarded accordingly And it, to this day, troubles me. I just found out about four months ago what the pastor at my previous church is getting paid. It's stunning that a wealthy church would impoverish pastors. Maybe I shouldn't be rebuking other churches from the pulpit, but it just, it blows my mind. It blows my mind. You guys have blessed Gary and me. You've been such a blessing to us. When Gary and I die, We hope that the following leaders, should they prove worthy, will be blessed as well. But verse 51 also shows that good followers imitate their leaders by taking an interest in the welfare of the whole body. And again, Johnny and friends, and there's just so many other ways in which this church, I think, exemplifies that. Gary and I, let's just think of the local body. Gary and I put in a fair bit of time, seven days a week, trying to think and act in ways that will benefit the local body and the body at large. And so we meet with pastors. of other churches, and we seek to bless them, and we know that this congregation as a whole seeks to bless the church at large, and I praise God for that. Well, the same spirit is hinted at in verse 51. Verse 51 is actually a summary statement of the whole land distribution process. It's the conclusion of the previous chapters. It says, these were the inheritances which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the country. The word these refers back to all of the allocations we've looked at in the previous chapters. And it's clear from these chapters that it wasn't about what one family could get. The welfare of the entire nation was considered by all. And in the book of Judges, we see tribes sticking up for each other when one tribe's territory was being threatened. And you see clans doing the same thing with each other. And again, I see most of you as being exemplary and seeking each other's welfare and building up the church as a whole. I'm glad Gary and I can brag on you guys for all of these things. Again, the body life here does my heart good. But here's what I would encourage you to do. Many of you parents are passionate about giving yourself in ministry to others. Make sure that you cast that vision into your children's lives. These patterns of living don't automatically translate to the next generation without conscious planning and effort. Jared Lane just mentioned to me this past week when I was meeting with him that he just loves the idea of going to other people's workday parties. It's just a way in which the body can share together. So a workday party is a sharing of physical labor on projects that are too big for one family to take on. Now, those work projects are not intended to be a welfare program to help people who are lazy and who are not being responsible themselves. No, it's helping out families who are trying to do the best they can, but they've got a project that's just overwhelming. It's too much for them. And we did this sort of thing much more frequently, I think, earlier on in the church, and Gary and I would be delighted to see that continue. Now again, we understand you're super busy, but think of passing on your generous leadership spirit to your kids and involve them in the same selfless ministries that you have been involved in. And if you're interested in thinking through what kinds of workday projects could bless other people, talk to Jared Lane. and actually talk to the deacons, deacons we've been discussing. How do we strategize? How do we plan and think through how to organize and stimulate that kind of ministry inside and outside of the body? There's one more point. Good followers also want to see the project brought to its completion. They don't quit until everything is finished. Verse 51 ends, so they made an end of dividing the country. And it wasn't just the leaders, as commentators point out, And the phrase in verse 49 about the children of Israel giving Joshua his inheritance shows that everyone in Israel had a vested interest in making sure that these things happened. But I want to focus on that last phrase, so they made an end of dividing the country. The they refers to both the leaders and the followers, and the word end shows that they finished it. OK, let's apply this. Children, when your parents assign you a task, Do you finish half of the project and quit because you've suddenly lost interest? Let's say that your dad asks you to pick up sticks from the yard before he mows the yard. Do you do a thorough job? Or let's say that your mom asks you to put all of the dishes into the dishwasher and you say, okay, the job's done. Is she still able to find dishes here and there scattered that have not yet been put in? And how clean is the counter? You see, whenever we have been assigned a job as followers, we need to strive to do an excellent job and not quit until it is really done. And the reason is that we're doing all of our jobs as unto the Lord. We're imitating Jesus, who told the Father, I have finished the work which you have given me to do, John 17.4. We're imitating Paul, who said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. When we do our chores and everything that is our responsibility as to the Lord, we recognize that the Lord sees us, He evaluates, and He's the one that can bless us and reward us. So let me ask, what kind of excellence do you put into your work for your employer? It doesn't matter if your employer is a good leader or a bad leader. Are you a good employee, okay, who reflects the character of Jesus? What kind of excellence do you put into the church jobs that you volunteer for? Is it a half-baked job, or do you always want to do it with excellence? will need to train their children and retrain them and sometimes put them into boot camp because they're not learning the lesson quickly enough. By the way, if you don't know what boot camp is for children, talk to Kathy or me or Brian or Kit, or better yet, go to their parenting class, which is going to be, can I announce it, this November? Okay, they nodded. It's going to be this November, a parenting class. They do a good job and I would encourage you guys to go to that. if you have kids. But these are principles that good leaders pass on to their children because they themselves do their jobs with excellence. Warren Wiersbe wrote a poem on ministry that I think applies to both leaders and followers, and this is on the back side of your outlines, so you can follow along as I read it. It says, the foundation of ministry is character. The nature of ministry is service. The motive for ministry is love. The measure of ministry is sacrifice. The authority of ministry is submission. The purpose of ministry is the glory of God. The tools of ministry are the Word of God and prayer. The privilege of ministry is growth. The power of ministry is the Holy Spirit, and the model for ministry is Jesus Christ. I love that. Brethren and sisters, let's ask Jesus to help us to be models to the world and to each other of the fact that we live by the grace of the greater Joshua, Jesus, in everything that we do, including leadership and followership. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, I thank you for your Word, and I pray that your Word would stir up our hearts and our vision to increasing greatness. May we not have a horizontal vision, but a vertical vision of what you have called us to. Bless this, your people. I'm so grateful, Father, for the ways in which this congregation has excelled in both leadership and followership. But I pray as well that we would continue to grow until the day that we die. Bless us with your presence, bless us with your strength, your wisdom, and your grace to this end. We pray this in Jesus'