Courageous Obedience

But , uh , unfortunately I wasn't able to celebrate the new year very, very well. And I was at home on the couch, sick with a fever is everybody knows that's going around right now and still trying to beat it here with my throat and my voice, but feeling a lot better over all . But , so I was at home and I was just, you know , with my wife and son, which was good, but we, all of us felt pretty bad and none of us were really enjoying the new year because of that.

But as I was home, I was kind of bored. And so I said, you know, I'm going to turn on the TV and just check out some of these new year's celebration shows and just kind of see what the world's celebrating as we get ready to go into 2020 and as I, as I thought about that, I kind of knew what I was going to expect to see.

And what I expected to see is what I found is there was a lot of worship of man, there was a lot of worship of celebrities, you know , celebrity after celebrity band after band were coming to this stage. And they would, they would do an interview maybe before the, before or after their song, and then the host would kind of glorify those celebrities and talk about how great they were and how famous and amazing they were.

And so there's a lot of glorification of man, but then there was a lot of encouragement to kind of live your live whatever life you want to live. I mean, you know, whatever makes you happy, whatever it brings you the most pleasure. That's the kind of life that you should live until a lot of the eat, drink and be Merry kind of mindset that it's all about you. It's all about living for yourself and making yourself happy.

And unfortunately that's the world that we live in today that sadly most of these things are empty in the end and this morning I got good news is the church is Christians. We have an opportunity to live for someone and something greater than ourselves. Amen. I mean, if we were just living for ourselves and the the whole point of life, the whole purpose in life was just to live it up on this earth while we're here. That would be pretty sad.

But unfortunately that's what the world, the message of the world is without Christ. And so this morning we're going to be, as we go into this new season in the life of our churches , new year, this new decade as individuals, we're going to look at a man named Joshua who was called out by God to be a great leader and given some great promises and we too have an opportunity to live for something greater and to live out the promises of God in our lives.

And so there's a couple of questions I think that , uh , we need to ask ourselves that God is, has taken us through this time of preparation, this time of transition and he's prepared us and brought everything together for this time, for this new season he's calling us to enter into it . So the questions, the first one is, is that what will we do with this opportunity? What will we do with the opportunity that God is giving us?

Question number two, I think we have to ask ourselves is how does God command us to approach this opportunity? And we're going to see that in this passage this morning. Then the third question is, what are the promises associated with our obedience to these commands? So what God is calling us to do as we approach this, if we approach what God has called us to do in obedience, what are the promises that God will bring to us?

And so turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter one Joshua chapter one we're going to be in verses one through five getting started this morning. Joshua chapter one verses one through five and listen to what it says. It says now, it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of non Moses, his servant saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise cross this Jordan, you and all of this people to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel, every place on which the sole of your foot treads. I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses from the wilderness in this great Lebanon, even as far as the river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites. And as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all of the days of your life.

Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Let's pray together this morning. The God would just come to you this morning. We thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you for this great example in Joshua, the story in Joshua that we can follow in our own lives today. Lord, I pray that you would forgive me of my sin. Lord, I'm a sinner or I've saved only by your grace, Lord, that you would just make me a clean vessel.

Deliver your word this morning to your people, Lord, that it would not be my words at all, God, but it would be your words from your word God and Lord. I just pray that your spirit would move in a mighty way, Lord, that your spirit would fall on this place, God or that your spirit would fall in a way that we wouldn't just hear your word, but then we would act on your word, that we would do your word, Lord, that you would speak to us this morning a special way. We just ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. All right. As we look at these first five verses, I want to , I want to start by talking about the preparation of Joshua. After 41 years in the wilderness due to Israel's disobedience, it is now time for them to enter into the promised land and we have a little bit of a problem. I mean, it seems like a problem. It's really not as we'll see, but their leader, Moses has just died.

And so a new leader will be required to take them to the new land, to the new territory that God has prepared them. And Moses had an assistant and the assistant's name was Joshua. And Joshua had been prepared and groomed for this for a long time. He wasn't a rookie, he wasn't somebody that was kind of like a deer in the headlights, not really knowing or expecting that this was coming, but God had prepared him for this new season for this new territory that he would lead the people into.

And we know that from scripture. And the first time we see Joshua mentioned in scriptures is in Exodus chapter 17 as a military leader that he would, he would be a great military leader for the people. And so he had a lot of military experience. And after all this campaign is a military campaign to go into fight against all of the pagan nations that occupy the land. We see some of his experience of seeing the movement of God have seen what God could do it .

We see he at least what halfway at Mount Sinai with Moses. We know that from Exodus 24 and chapter 32 we also know that he was in the tent of meeting with Moses when God would speak to Moses face to face, and he was one of the 12 spies that went to explore the land of Canaan. And not only was he one of the 12 spies, but we see his faithfulness as well.

He's already had been tested that Joshua was the only spy to join Caleb and encouraging the people to trust God for victory, even though there were giants in the land. And we even see finally the Joshua was formerly appointed before Moses dies, and according to God, Joshua is a man in whom is the spirit.

So we see this incredible preparation of this guy named Joshua that he was, God was using him, God was showing him and preparing him all of the things that he needed to see and to do, to be ready to take over, to be the leader that God would call him to be for the people as they went into this new territory. You know, reminds us of us. We've been going through transition as a church.

We've been in a couple of years of transition and God has also prepared us as a church and us as individuals to fulfill a role in this new season, to fulfill the calling that God has called each one of us to individually in this new season. And also the role that he's called us to as the church. So we see the preparation of Joshua, but as we go on, we also see the commission of Joshua.

You can imagine whenever there's change with a group of people, there's always that temptation to be afraid of the unknown. After all these people knew that 40 years ago at least there were reports of giants in the land. In fact, it was such a scary report that only two people, Joshua and Caleb are the ones that were willing to trust God, and they were the only two that came out of Egypt that were going to be able to see the promised land because of that.

So we see that, that whenever you look at, look at this command and you look at what God has called them to do, there could be the fear of the unknown or there also could be the fear of change. I mean, even though the promised land across the Jordan was so much better than the wilderness after all, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. You would think that they would be excited about that change to move forward.

But I'm sure there were still some people there were coverable where they were that were afraid of change, but they also remembered the sin of their fathers. And they remembered that their fathers were disobedient. They were afraid to go into the land. They were afraid to be obedient to the word of God, to trust God. And they, because of that, suffered in the wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience. And they were not able to see God's promises.

And I think that remembrance of that and learning from their history and learning from their past, allow them to trust God this time and to move forward and to go into the land that God had called them to. And the same thing is true for us today as individuals and as a church. We have to remember our past and learn from our past and not repeat the same mistakes of our past, but move forward into all that God has for our future.

So we see this command to go, to rise, to take the territory that God had already given them, but then we see what's incredible about God is when he gives a command. And then when people are obedient to that command, there's promises that always are attached to those commands. And we see in verses three through five we see those four promises that God mentions first. The first one is God has given you every place your foot touches that they're in that day and time.

Every place that they went, God had already given them that he's had to go and to take it. And the same thing is true for us today, that God has given us much territory. He has given us the neighborhood around the church and Collierville and Memphis and Tennessee and the United States in the world. And God has called us that the power of God always overcomes the power of the enemy and God has called us to go into the territory that he has put us in and to take that territory for his kingdom.

He's already given it to us. He's already won the victory, the end, but he wants to use us to take that territory. It's always given us every place our foot touches, but he also, we see, you see the second promise that no man will be able to stand against you, not even the giants in the land.

We see Joshua and Caleb faithful and now God is rewarding them with the promise that no man, not even the giants in the land, not even the most mighty nations can stand against them , that God will be with him. Can you imagine what kind of promise that would have been to Joshua that no one would stand against them? Only that. The third promise we see, he says, I will be with you as I was with Moses. It's a pretty loaded promise. Think about that. Think about how he was with Moses.

Think about how he was with Moses in so many different ways, starting with the burning Bush and how God spoke to Moses in a miracle through the burning Bush. And then God used Moses to send all of the plagues on Egypt and the Pharaoh and to bring the Pharaoh down to his knees and to free the people of God from Egypt with the mighty works that he used Moses to do with the plagues.

And then as they're leaving and they get to the red sea, and God uses Moses to part the waters, all the people go across and then all of a sudden the waters come back in and destroy the whole Egyptian army. And then God uses Moses to lead the people into the wilderness. And he gives the 10 commandments to Moses. And Moses sees the literal glory of God passed by. And so when he says that he will be with him as he is with Moses, not just with Joshua, all of the people.

This is an incredible promise, an incredible promise that Joshua would have understood fully what that meant because Joshua was there to see all the ways that God used Moses and the same thing is true for us today and that we see the fourth promise. I will not fail you or forsake you the no matter how difficult it may get, no matter how many giants there may be in the land after all, you've got to remember this is a military battle that they're getting ready to go fight.

This is people are going to die. Nations are going to be wiped out because of their pagan beliefs in their godlessness and their desire not to serve the true God, but to serve those false gods. It's going to get messy. It's going to get difficult. It's going to get dark at times, but God will never leave the people or forsake them. And the same thing is true for us today as we enter this new territory, this new season, this new year, there's new decade. We don't know what's coming.

And I know God's got some incredible plans. He wants to do some incredible things, but there could also be some hard times. There could also be some dark times. There could also be some life and death situations and isn't it great know that God will never leave us or forsake us even in those times as well.

Let's continue to read on in chapter one verses six through nine look, there's a second command, so we have the first command to go to arise, to take the territory that God has already given you, but look at the second command in verse six it says , be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to your fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make prosperous your way and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

We see this incredible command, this famous command in scripture for Joshua to be strong and courageous. Not only that, but he says it three different times and we know in the Hebrew Bible that when something is emphasized twice or even three times that it's saying pay attention. This is important. Listen to what God is saying here.

You can't miss it, and we see here that the people are called are commanded to be strong and courageous, but not just strong and courageous, but strong and courageous in obedience. Look at what we've got here. We've got some similar commands and promises over the next few verses that are built upon and expanded with each verse .

We want to start with a command that's expanded the command of being strong and courageous, and then it's expanded in verse seven to explain what that means, to obey the law and to do not waive and to do not, and do not waiver from it. Do not go off to the right or to the left. In our world today, the world is trying to compromise the word of God.

The culture is telling us we don't need to follow the word of God, that we can veer off of the center of God's word, that we can veer off a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right. It's okay to tweak it a little bit for, you know, for the preferences of our lifestyle or the things that we want to do or the things that we like. You know, let's just kind of change the word of God a little bit to fit our lifestyle, to do what we want to do or to do what we believe or what we think.

But God doesn't say that God says that we have to stay fully committed to the word of God. The key to our success in this new territory, in this new land. The key to the promises of God being unlocked in our life is to be fully devoted to the word of God. Goes on in verse eight to to reinforce this, it says , speak the word of God. Meditate on it day and night and not do most of what it says or much of what it says, but it says to do all that it says every single word of God.

We must be faithful to , to be obedient to God and to see his promises in our life and in our church. And then in verse nine he commands them is a good command. Do not be frightened or dismay that if we stick to the word of God, if we are strong and courageous and taking the territory that God has called us to, if we are strong and courageous in obeying every bit of the word of God and not straying from it and not wavering from it, he says that there is nothing to be afraid of.

There is nothing that we should be dismayed by.

So we see this command and we see this command expounded upon by following and being faithful to the word of God. That is the key to the promises. And then we see once again the promises of God that are given to Joshua. Look in verse six again, he says, you will get, you will give the people the promised land I swore to your fathers the Joshua and the people will be able to go into the promised land.

And the same thing is true for us today, that we too in our obedience, if we are courageously obedient to the word of God, God will use our life of obedience as individuals and as a church to bring other people into his kingdom, to bring other people into the kingdom of God, that he has promised for all those who believe. But not only that, in verses seven and eight we see another promise that you will be prosperous and have good success.

This is not the kind of success that we were talking about earlier of the world, but this is the kind of success that truly matters. Success in God's eternal purpose and plan for our lives that we have all been created for a purpose. We have all been created to glorify God with our lives and anything short of that, anything that we live for, for ourselves or for the world is empty.

In the end, the only thing worth living for is to follow the Lord and for his glory and for his kingdom, and then we will have success and be prosperous and all of the things that God has called us to. And then the final promise we see here is that the Lord your God, once again we see he is with them wherever they go that he has with them wherever they go.

We see this in verse nine and even when life and death seems to be hanging in the balance, even in the darkest times, God will be with us wherever we go as a church, as individuals, if we follow his commands. Remember these promises are tied to completing and following the commands of God to take the territory that God has already given us and to be faithful to his word and courageous obedience.

What's amazing about the book of Joshua is that it's a very simple book in that it gives the commands, it gives the promises, and then the rest of the chapter shows that the promises being fulfilled as God's people are obedient. And so we see owners . I want to continue this morning by showing you some of the things that God did. I want to show you the results of their obedience to inspire us this morning, to also be obedience a week and see God's movement in our own lives and in our own church.

As we enter a new territory, we see courageous obedience delivers God's promises every single time. Courageous obedience will deliver and unlock God's promises. You can take it to the bank, you can count on it. It will always come God's promises when we're obedient. Look at what happens. Look at what God did with their obedience as they crossed the Jordan. His people took the promised land in the name of the Lord and they clean house.

They wiped out all these other nations and it wasn't even close because of their obedience to God and trusting God and being strong and courageous and not being afraid. What a great witness to God's people and of his mind and his power. What a great witness to us today as we sit here and our story is not over yet. Our story has it final Finn had been finished or been written yet all the way.

And to see the history of what God did, what an incredible example for us to follow as a church and as individuals this morning. Look at what God did in the rest of the book. In chapter three we see that the Jordan stands still in Israel, crosses on dry ground. I mean, can you imagine what that would been like? Can you imagine what it would have been like to be there and to see those miracles of God and then a chapter six, the walls of Jericho come down from shouting and trumpets.

I mean, can you imagine to see that site ? Can you imagine just picture what it would have been like to see God's promises fulfilled if you would have been one of the people that was there. And how about this one? In chapter 10 you remember the story of the giant hailstones that come down from heaven begin to hit and knock over and kill all of the enemy soldiers.

And not only that, but the Bible says that the sun stood still for about a day, so the Joshua and the army could continue to wipe out all of the people before it got dark and the five Kings and the five kingdoms that attacked give , given were completely wiped out from the miracles of God, from the promises of God coming true in the lives of these obedient, courageous people.

He would turn over to Joshua chapter 21 I want to read a couple verses to you this morning to show you that even at the end of this conquest, even after all of them was over, it is very clear in scripture that God's promises came to fruition. Look at what it says in chapter 21 of Joshua starting with verse 43 says, so the Lord gave Israel all the land which he had sworn to give to their fathers and they possessed it and lived in it, and the Lord gave them rest on every side.

According to all that he had sworn to their fathers and no one of all their enemies stood before them. The Lord gave all their enemies into their hand, not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel, failed all came to pass. We see the faithfulness of God that he was true to his promises in this story, and he will be true to his promises. Today.

What is required of us is that we have courageous obedience to take the territory to these given us and to obey every single word of his word in obedience to him. You know, there's a caution for us this morning that I think is very important for us to mention. In chapter seven of Joshua, there's the sin of Aiken . There's sin in the camp, and we see how one man sin can really bring down a whole group of people.

We see this man Aiken who decided that he was going to waiver from the, what the Lord's word was, that he was going to go off to the right or to the left, and he knew what was best for him. After all, he thought he was wiser than God and he didn't want to trust what God said and he wanted to do it his own way and he thought he was wise enough to figure it out on his own. And so he decided to take some of the vote , devoted things of the Lord.

He decided to take about 200 cheque shekels of silver and about 50 shekels of gold and to hide it in his tent. After all, he must've thought, this must be what's best for me and my family. Forget God's way. And we see the 36 men were killed in the battle of I of Israel's men because of his disobedience. And not only that, but he and his whole family were stoned and burned to death.

Can you imagine how this one man , sin wrecked all of the people of God at this point and the people were only restored when he was destroyed and all of his family with him. And we see that there are, there are sins of commission, there are sins that we commit. There are things that we do out of the will of God where we're not following the word of God that can greatly bring us down as individuals and as a family. But there are also sins of omission.

There are things that God is calling each of us to do, and if we are not willing to be obedient to his call, if we're not willing to act and respond in obedience, that it can affect and destroy the whole family. And we see that with this sin of akin , this caution that we must have this morning, that one person's sin of disobedience can greatly damage the whole family of God.

And once again, it shows us, it makes it clear that it's not about just one person or one leader is great of a leader is Joshua was, it wasn't just about Joshua, but it was about every single person. It was about all of the people of God being faithful to the commands of God to be able to realize and to see the promises of God. You know the word, the name Joshua and Hebrew means Jesus, and it literally means y'all way saves or Yahweh delivers.

We know that Joshua was a type in the old Testament, a type of someone that point to some somewhat something else or someone else in the future, and the person that Joshua pointed to his life, his example was pointing to was the savior Jesus Christ. In the new Testament. Joshua was an example and pointing to the coming savior that he was used as a savior militarily in the old Testament to save the people from all of the pagan nations.

They're occupying the land, but he was ultimately in the word of God and the Bible for us to point to Jesus Christ, the ultimate savior, not a military leader who came as many believed he would, but as an eternal King, as an eternal savior. And so this morning, I know we don't always like to talk about this, but we have to remember that hell is a real place and real people are going to go there if they don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.

And we might be thinking this morning that, well, this isn't really a military thing. This is not about life and death and that would be the furthest thing from the truth because we are too in a battle. Eternal battle for life and death and not just earthly life and death, not just temporary life and death, but eternal life and death and everything that we do, whether we're obedient or not has an impact on eternity. And we must remember that we are in that battle.

And so this morning we must realize the only true savior, the only one that can save us eternally is Jesus Christ. Do you know the savior? Do you know Jesus Christ this morning? Because you cannot begin to be obedient to the word of God and do all that. The word says if you don't even know the savior, if you haven't taken that first step of obedience to Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, what? What better time than this morning to come down to the front.

We're going to have some people in the back and the front that would love to pray with you and lead you to Jesus Christ to make him your savior and your Lord. But what about you believers this morning, just like Joshua, we too are called to bring people into the promised land and take everything that our feet touch for the glory of God for the kingdom of God. Think about what is your territory? Think about your workplace. God has put you in that place every single day.

Your feet touch in that place every single days, but people around you every single day to take for the territory of God, for the kingdom of God in your church and the area surrounding our church. God has put us in this place for a reason. He has put us here for a purpose, to take the territory that he's given us for his kingdom, to share Christ with the people around us. Think about your family and friends. God has given you those circles, those influences to take for the kingdom of God.

And remember that the kingdom of God is always more powerful than the kingdom of the enemy and we just have to be faithful. We have to be obedient to what God has called us to do. So are you taking the territory that God has already given you for his kingdom? As we talked about earlier, the world is in desperate need of churches and people who are willing to stand on the word of God and unwavering on the word of God. There's too many churches.

There's too many people that claim to be Christians in today's world that are compromising the word of God, that are tweaking the word of God, that are twisting it, that are moving to the right or to the left, as it says in this passage, and the sad part is, is that they're missing it. They're missing out on the blessings and promises of God because they're not willing to stick to the word. This is the key for us as we move forward.

If we hear nothing else this morning, let us hear that we must be faithful to the word of God as we enter this new season, that everything we do, we must rally around that. That our foundation is the word of God and we must rally around unity in the word of God and nothing else. The world is in desperate need of it. Isaiah five 20 says that, Whoa to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.

Isn't that an incredible picture of our world and our culture today that all over the place on TV and all over the place in the world, we see people celebrating evil and calling evil good and then calling good evil and God has called us to stand firm on his word in the midst of an unbelieving world. And when we do, we will be able to see his promises. Are you standing on the word of God and courageous obedience?

You know, as I think about life, there's some things that it really impacted me over the last couple of months. And one of those is that my mother had cancer about five years ago and founded a couple of months ago that her cancer came back. And the first couple weeks of that was very, very difficult because we had no idea how bad it was. And so in our human nature and our sinful nature, we begin to think worst case scenario.

And although that's not a good thing and we're doing our best to trust the Lord, and she's gotten a lot better report recently that the drugs that she's gonna , that she's going to be on there really expecting to work well and they really believe there's a good chance of getting into remission. And we're, we're hopeful and we're praying and we're thankful for the good report that we've gotten during that time, that difficult few weeks of just not knowing.

The really began to tell me, think about life and to remember that no matter how long we live, whether it's 80 or 90 years or a hundred years, the Bible says that life is short. It's like a vapor and then it's gone. You know, just reminded me of how short life is that we only have one life to live.

The other thing that I'm really thinking a lot about, it's got me thinking about my life a lot is that my wife is eight and a half months pregnant and we're going to be having our second son here, hopefully at least in a couple more weeks. Hopefully no sooner than that. But uh , you know, as I think about my, my son Logan, he's two years old and he's getting to the point in life now he kinda knows what's going on. He's starting to really know who his father is.

And I have this other little boy that's going to be born that I'm going to be responsible to be his father and to train him up and to teach him the word of the Lord and to teach him to be obedient to the word of God. And it really gets you thinking. It gets you thinking, asking the question, what kind of father am I the situation with my mom? What kind of son am I? What kind of son am I going to be? More importantly, what kind of man of God am I?

Am I really taking everything that God has given me and using it to the fullest for his kingdom? And we must remember that we only have one shot at life on this earth. We have one opportunity to live the life that God has called us to live the live the life that we were created for, to live the life that God wants us to live, to glorify him and to fulfill the purpose that we were created for. And I , I began to realize that I don't want to just, I don't want to just do the minimum.

I remember really was reminded of that, that my whole life I've always tried to reflect and think, am I really going all out for the cause of Christ? Am I really giving it all that I have in God just reached , challenged me and helped me realize once again that we want to be all that God wants us to be, all that God has for us. Anything short of that, and we're missing out on the incredible blessings and promises of God. We're missing out on what God has for us.

So the same question I want to ask you this morning is that are you truly living the way that God has called you to live, that he's created you to live? Are you doing everything that you can for his kingdom and to follow him and to serve him and to live for him? Or maybe are you not really completely given it your all? We only have one life to live and we must remember that we want to give it all for him. So that we can finish strong.

We see Joshua finishes strong and Joshua chapter 24 the question really becomes for all of us this morning, who will we serve? Are we going to serve the things of the world? Are we going to serve God fully? Joshua 24 14 through 15 look at what it says. We'll close with this.

Joshua has completed all the God is calling the duties, realize the promises of God as we saw in chapter 21 and we see that once again, he challenges the people to remain faithful in the midst of still all the pagan gods and false gods that the people could serve. Joshua challenges the people in these two verses, just like our world today, there's still all of these false gods out there that we can serve.

There's still all of these false gods that may be coming a little bit different form than they did back then that we can serve and the question for all of us today is still who will we serve? Look at what it says, Joshua chapter 24 14 or 15 it says now therefore this is Joshua. Challenging the people, my challenge to you this morning, fear the Lord and serve him and sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord.

But if it is disagreeable in your side to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today who you will serve, whether the gods which your father served, which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites or those or whose land you are living. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. That is my prayer for us this morning as a church and as individuals that that we will serve the Lord for me in my house. That we will serve the Lord. And the question this morning is, who are you serving?

Who is your house serving? Are you serving all of the false gods in our world and culture around us? Are you fully devoted to taking the territory and the commands of God seriously to take the territory that God has given us, these already given us that he's already called us to. And to take the word of God seriously and make sure that we follow it fully, that we do not depart from it. Dude , we do not turn from it, but we follow it with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our soul.

We all have a choice in this life, this one life that we get. We all have a choice on this earth, on who we're going to serve. Who will you serve today? God wants to use this church, this community to change the world. The kingdom of God is going to do incredible things and for God's glory in this place and in our lives individually, if we are faithful to his word, if we are obedient to God, the potential of what God could do in this church is overwhelming.

I mean, if you think about it, you think about the preparation of where we've come from and where we've come to and all that God has for us. If we are just obedient to his commands. If we are obedient to his promises and we take his call seriously as Joshua did and we have courageous obedience to God, then we can be guaranteed every single time, no question that we will also be able to see and realize and unlock the promises of God in our lives as individuals and as a church.

Dear God, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for this example in your word God of

God, I pray that you would use us to our fullest potential or that we would not sell short of, of halfway doing things or halfway living for you, Lord, but then we would give you all that we have or that we would remember. We have one life to live, that life is short and that we must completely sell out to you and that when we do, when the people of God are obedient, when the people of God truly give it their all for you, it's all about you, God. We're able to see incredible promises.

Lord, not earthly promises, not the things of this world, not because we deserve it, not because we've earned it, Lord, but only because you are such a good God. You allow us to be part of what you're doing and your kingdom and your [inaudible]

Lord, there's no better time than today, and then we want to see more of you and more of your kingdom and more of your working God and more of your [inaudible] . Let me just ask it all in Jesus name.