Resolute: Living in Light of the End

With all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings. You are my everything and I will adore you. Father, we thank you so much for your love. Thank you that we get to have the privilege of singing before you as your children. We love you, Lord.

We know that you are the awesome, holy God that Isaiah saw. He beheld you and your glory and your splendor, your majesty. He saw you on the throne. And Lord, in our mind’s eye, we too see you on that throne. And we exalt you.

And we ask that you would just give us even a small taste of heaven this morning from your word. Teach us what we need to hear. We honor you and thank you all and for all you do for us in Jesus name. Amen. >> All right, you may be seated.

All right, good morning. And children are welcome to take off to kids church. We love you kids. We’ll see you later. All right, we are in our final.

Got to love the sound of kids voices trickling out the sanctuary. We are in our final sermon here in our series Battle Ready. We’ve been in the book of Joshua in this summer together. We’ve been learning more and more about what it means to to trust God, to look to him as we fight our battles. And there is no shortage.

Amen. Of all the battles we face, there’s there’s always going to be more to come. But I believe and I I give God the credit for this, but I believe that this book is just has been the perfect timing for Grace Point to go through this book in so many ways. And I know that as soon as God called me, I knew that God was calling me to Grace Point. I knew this book of Joshua was just on my heart from the get-go.

And so I’m I’m thankful that we’ve had the time we’ve had here. So, we’re coming to the end of the book, and this is really going to be Joshua’s farewell message. This is his final sendoff, his his farewell to the nation of Israel. He’s been leading them for a good long while now. We don’t know the exact number of years but at least probably in the neighborhood of somewhere around 30 or more.

And here Joshua was basically saying I have led you for all these years. I’ve led you through so many treacherous events. We’ve overcome battles together. We’ve seen God act in taking down the walls of Jericho. We have seen him stop the sun in the sky.

We’ve seen him allow us to cross the Jordan River in a powerful way. And now I I want to Joshua is saying this. I want to reaffirm who God is for you because I’m not going to be around forever. And he’s he’s showing his love. And by the way, as I’ve been studying Joshua, I’ve been impressed with what a godly leader Joshua is.

I’ve been taking notes. This is what a godly leader looks like. He he stays faithful and he loves his people and he cares about what happens to them long after he’s gone. And so if I was to sum up Joshua’s address here, he basically says,”I want you to be resolute, to be firm in your commitment to the Lord, to not depend on any man, to not depend on me just because I’m going to die. You need to know that you still are to be committed to the Lord.”

This is a a great mark of a a leader. A great leader cares about what happens to his people. He cares about those he’s shepherded long after he’s gone. He’s not going to be just come and go. He’s firm to the end.

And he says basically this, you need to resolve to trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Know his character is good and that no matter what happens, come what may, God remains the same and he loves you and he’s still fighting his battles, your battles for you. And I would add that doesn’t mean that questions won’t come along the way. We all have questions.

We have challenges to our faith and things that kind of bumps along the road where we wonder why is God not changing to circumstances. Why are things not different than I would hope? But the thing that you need to remember in those times is God is the one that gets us through all of those challenges. He remains faithful always. Here’s the big idea this morning.

A person of single-minded devotion to the Lord lives with the end in view. Lives with the end in view. I’m going to read from Joshua chapter 23. So, if you are able to, please stand for the reading of God’s holy and perfect word. This is what God has for us this morning.

Joshua chapter 23. It says, “A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. And you have seen all the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake. For it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain along with all the nations that I have already cut off from the Jordan to the great sea in the west.

The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land just as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you, or make mention of the names of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. But you shall cling to the Lord your God, just as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day.

One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you, and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them, and they with you know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. And now Joshua is speaking. Now I am about to go the way of all the earth.

And you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you. Not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them, well, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given you.

Thank You may be seated. Well, one of my favorites from American literature is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. And Tom Sawyer, I’ve been reading this book to my boys, and you know, it’s just got so many classic moments, but one of my favorite scenes is the funeral scene. Tom Sawyer is a very mischievous, but also kind of brilliant kid. And at one point in the story, he and his buddies decide they’re going to run away from home.

They’re going to they’re going to live life on their own. They’re going to be pirates. And they they get on this raft, they go off. Well, before long, their families believe that they have drowned. And so, they hold a funeral and everybody’s weeping and it’s a very sad time for the people.

They’re they’re weeping for Tom Sawyer. And and the irony of that scene is they they start eulogizing all the things about Tom and his buddies that they would normally be condemning about them. And and then it happens where Tom and his buddies, they suddenly walk into the church and everybody there’s this realization where everyone realizes these are the boys we’ve just been eulogizing. And it’s this this genius scene because what it does is it gives you this glimpse of what it would be like to attend your own funeral. And you think about that.

You ever think about what will people say about you after you’re gone? What will people say? As you approach the end of your life, I think it’s only natural to look around and and say, you know, what have I done with my life? How have I spent my days? Was I wise with the use of my time, the allotted days that God gave me?

What I noticed about Joshua is that as he approaches death, he’s deeply concerned not about himself, but about those who remain. He shows this love for them and this this care for them. And he wants to make sure that they are on the right road after he’s gone. He says this, he starts off his message saying basically, I’m old. I’m an old guy.

I’m not going to be around forever and I I care about you and what happens to you after I’m gone. He says in verse four, “And you have seen how all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you.” So he puts the spotlight on the Lord. Even though he’s this military commander, this great strategist, he says, ‘It is God who fought for you. He is the one who gives you the victory.

And then he says in verse 14, “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth.” Joshua strikes me as someone who is prepared for death. You know, many people they approach death in different ways. Joshua, he’s like this soldier who’s accomplished his mission. He’s fulfilled his orders faithfully and and he comes and he’s ready to be dismissed now.

He knows he’s about to die. He’s faced that reality, but he’s not afraid. This is the unavoidable appointment. In your notes, the more you are prepared for death, the better you can live a life of purpose. Now, as a culture, we try not to think about our own death.

We would rather kind of push that thought out of our mind. We we’d rather not think about it. And honestly, our culture because there’s so much entertainment and so much technology, it’s really easy to find distractions to keep you from focusing on the fact that this life is limited. We we won’t be here in this life forever. On the one hand, our culture also seems fascinated with death, though.

It’s it’s interesting. TV shows that have to do with zombie apocalypse and you know murder mysteries. They’re very popular. They’re all the rage. People love watching shows about that.

But notice that’s all in fantasy land. What people don’t like to be reminded of is I am going to die someday. The Bible talks about this. Hebrews 2 says many people live their whole lives enslaved to the fear of death. And I think when you you think of all those phobias we typically think of as fears, ultimately I would say all of those can be in a way traced back to this bigger fear of death.

In previous centuries, death was more of a constant companion. You know, death was in the home. It was very common that you would lose family members, lose many children. In fact, growing up, I was reading recently about one guy in particular, just one example, Cotton Mather. Cotton Mather lived in the 1600s, faithful guy, served the Lord, and he had access to the best medical care at his time.

And yet, he ended up burying 13 of his 14 kids. Can you imagine? In the past, churches had cemeteries right outside and, you know, there’s this constant reminder. You go into church and you’re reminded of all the people who came before you, and you’re reminded that, yeah, one day I’m I’m going to join them. I will be one of those buried here today.

We have cemeteries, but we typically call them memorial parks. A little bit softer. Death is just as inevitable as it’s always been, but we have less ways of being reminded of our own death. Medical advancements have come a long way. We talk about surviving certain diseases and living a certain length and this is the thing we want to keep finding more years from.

But the reality is death is still looming over all of us. You know, that’s that’s just the reality. Medical advances, I’m thankful that our medical science has come so far and and that’s a great gift of common grace. We can thank God for that. But the reality is that our statistic is still true.

It’s holding steady. 100% of people have to die. It’s the unavoidable appointment. Now, many people would say, “Hang on a second, Pastor Jason. This is sounding kind of morbid.

You’re talking about death, and you know, this is something you need to be thinking about.” But I would say if you just read through the Bible, just let the text speak for itself, you’re going to be reminded of your own death over and over and over. How many times does it say, “And then he died in those early chapters.” All through the Bible, though, this subject comes up. God wants us to to think about this to be reminded that we have this unavoidable appointment.

Joshua says, “I’m about to go the way of all the earth.” In other words, even if it is taboo to talk about it, even if it’s an unmentionable, it’s no less unavoidable. I’m going to go the way that everybody goes. The Bible says it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. Now, the point is not that we should be comfortable with death.

I think some people sometimes would say, you know, death is no big deal after all, but really the way the Bible frames it is it’s always seen as an intruder into God’s good world. It’s a foreign invader. It’s it’s a malformed part of the creation. When we hear about things like school shootings, for example, like just this last week in this Catholic school in Minnesota, and and we think about those parents, those parents that had to bury those two children, we recognize there is something wrong here. This is not the way it’s supposed to be.

See, that’s a God-given reminder. Death is not part of God’s original creation. The Bible says in Romans 5 that death is the result of the world turning its back on its creator. Paul even calls death the last enemy that will one day be destroyed. Jesus did vanquish death in his resurrection and he will vanquish death from all the earth one day.

Amen. But the Bible reminds us of our mortality because we need to be thinking about the fact that this life is limited so that we’ll live a life of wisdom. We’ll be ready for what comes. Joshua coming to the end of his life. He is ready.

You see that in the way he speaks, he’s saying, “Look, this is what happens to everybody. I’m about to die. I want you guys to be prepared for it, too. I want you to think about the life ahead.” This was true of Moses, David, Jacob, Joseph.

All these guys gave their final words to the people they were leading. Even Jesus did that. The night before he was betrayed, he gave his final message to his disciples. And just recently, we had a couple of great stalwarts of the faith. John MacArthur, James Dobson.

These were two guys that faithfully served the Lord for the long haul, and they’ve gone to be with Jesus in heaven. And many people when they looked at their lives, they they didn’t just look at their life. They reflected on their final words. And John MacArthur’s son at the funeral said, ‘You know, my father’s final words to me were, “Be faithful, son. Be faithful.”

Not, “Go write a book or make sure you’re attending this conference and speaking here and there.” No, it’s be faithful to the end. And so, these are Joshua’s final words to the nation. And he points them to how God has been writing the whole story. History is his story.

In your notes, there is tremendous value in reflecting on all the ways God has led you to where you are now. Joshua says, “Remember what God has led you through. Think about all the ways that God has been faithful. He has promised you this good land. And just as he promised, he brought you in.

He vanquished the enemies. He drove them out. He gave you this land just as he said he would. And then when you go on to chapter 24, he goes on to say, “Think about how we were formed as a nation.” Go even farther back.

Think about what came before you were born. Look at 24:2. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, “Long ago, your ancestors, including Terara, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.” So in other words, father Abraham, we think of him, he is the paragon of faith, right? But when God came and found Abraham, he was not this righteous, faithful guy.

He was a moonw worshipping pagan. He followed other gods and he had no idea who the real god was. And so Joshua is reminding them it’s only because of God’s grace that Abraham was chosen, that he was saved, and that he was given this life of purpose. The same message is repeated in Deuteronomy. God tells Israel in chapter nine, “It’s not because you guys were so great and amazing and always made the right choices.

That’s not why you’re going to inherit the land. And then in chapter 7, he says, “It’s not because you were so mighty and impressive that I I wanted you guys because you were so cool.” No, he says, “I chose you because I set my love on you.” That’s all it is. That’s the only explanation.

You are a chosen people because my love has been set on you. And so Joshua says, “Think of all the ways that God brought you to where you are now, where he brought us as a nation to this place. He he brought us not only through the the ancestors of Abraham, through Joseph, but also he rescued us from Egyptian bondage. He sent those 10 plagues, destroyed the gods of Egypt. He brought us through the Red Sea.”

He says, “Remember, he canceled the curse that Balam tried to curse you with. He brought you all the way to this land. He He opened up the Jordan River. He stopped the water from flowing. He brought down the walls of Jericho and gave you victory after victory.

He even stopped the sun in the sky. This is the God who has done all these things. And he did this because he loves you. That’s why you didn’t earn it. It’s it’s not because of you.

It’s because of him. God is that gracious. And in the same way, if you are a follower of Jesus, you can look back at your own life and you can you can trace God’s hand and look at all the ways that he has brought you through various circumstances and you can even think farther back than that to your ancestors. You know, how is it that you heard the gospel? Who who brought you up and who raised you?

How blessed have you been? And have you thought about that? Have you thought about the lineage of faith that came to you? Israel had a checkered past just like we do. We haven’t made perfect choices and and there’s been times when we’ve been mistreated, but sometimes we need to see how God allows these trials in our lives.

Not because he’s an unloving God, but because he’s teaching us that he is where the true joy is found. He had to teach the nation of Israel that they were constantly looking for other ways to be happy, looking at other gods or looking at other attractions in the world. He says, “No, you’re meant for me.” Augustine said it so well. Oh Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

See, if you were made for God, nothing else will satisfy. It doesn’t matter how much time and energy you put into other pursuits. Nothing else will give you true happiness apart from God. And Joshua is at the end of his life, he’s saying, I want you to remember this. And he’s telling them, look, I I’ve seen the way that you’ve been stubborn.

You know, Moses went through all this, too. He he said, you know, these are the curses that will come upon you if you disobey. And he’s he’s warning them. I don’t want that to happen to you. He tells the people this.

He lays the choice out before them in 24:14. He says, ‘Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers serve beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers served whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

See, Joshua sets that example. He says, “This is what I’m asking of you is the same exact thing I am asking of myself. What God asks of all of us to serve him faithfully with the time we’re given. So, everyone worships something. In your notes, the question is not whether you will serve something or someone, but whom you will serve.

Not long before he committed suicide, David Foster Wallace, famous novelist, gave an address to the graduating 2005 class at Kenyon College. And this is what he said. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. Worship power. You will end up feeling weak and afraid.

And you’ll need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect. Being seen as smart. You will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is they’re unconscious.

They are default settings. See, this is the lesson that many people learn too late in life. God created you and designed you to be a worshipper. And so, no matter how it turns out, you will worship something. It’s only a question of what you will worship or whom you will worship, but as David Wallace says, most people don’t even realize that’s what’s happening.

They don’t realize that they’ve made something the center of their life and that they’re actually worshiping that thing because it matters so much to them. So Joshua says, “So make the choice.” See, don’t don’t let the the whims of your fleeting desires dictate what you will worship or whom you’re going to worship. Make the choice. Be resolute in your commitment.

Who will you worship? That’s Joshua’s question for them. Because something’s going to capture your heart. Something will be right there at the core of your life that you’re going to kind of mold every other part of your life around. That thing that you’re going to live for, that is your God.

That is what you will worship. And Joshua says, “Who are you going to worship? You choose. I’m going to choose to worship the Lord.” Now, if you know Israel’s history in the Old Testament, you know that they constantly were going off and following other gods of the surrounding nations.

But they practiced what’s called synretatism. Synretatism is is not just worshiping other gods. It’s saying, “I’m going to worship Yahweh. See, I’m worshiping the true God, and I’m also going to worship these other gods because they make some pretty good promises, too.” That’s synretatism.

Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters.” It’s it’s it’s a lie of the enemy that you can serve God and live for God and also worship these other things. And notice Joshua says, “If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord.” And I wondered about that wording. What does he mean evil in your eyes?

And and I think he basically means something like this. When something is evil in your eyes, it’s it’s loathome to you. It’s not something you desire. It’s it’s an undesirable thing. And so many people when they think about serving God or following God, they think that sounds terrible.

They think of it as like I would be put in this moral straight jacket. I wouldn’t have any freedom. I I if I follow Jesus and I give my life to Jesus, then I can’t be me. This is the lie. That’s what the average person thinks though.

They think that Jesus would be the great restrainer of freedom, the great bondage maker. And if you drill down and ask people, you know, what is it that keeps you from following Jesus? If they’re really honest with you, you’ll find out what their idol is. You’ll find out what their true God is, what they’re worshiping. If they don’t worship Jesus, this is why so many secular people you meet are averse to Christianity.

They think of it as this this thing that takes away my freedom. I want to make my own choices. I want to do my own thing. I don’t want to be under the authority of Jesus. M.

Scott Peek tells the story of counseling a woman named Charlene who gave her reason for not becoming a Christian. She said, “There’s no room for me in that. That would be my death. I don’t want to live for God. I will not.

I want to live for my own sake.” This is why I tell people it always comes down to a question of truth. See, if Jesus really and truly is God incarnate, come among us. If he really is the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord of the universe, and right now he is reigning over everything, then the only response that makes sense is to surrender to him. Well, first of all, it only makes sense because if Jesus is king, who would want to pit yourself against the king?

Who would want to go against him? But secondly, if he really is everything he claimed to be and he really did die for you because he loves you, then he’s the only one worthy of your devotion and he’s the only one who’s going to give you true freedom. The reality is we were made for God. And so if we’re going to have freedom as his image bearers, true and lasting genuine freedom, it has to be in union with him. It’s only in union with him that we have wholeness and healing and all the things that we truly hunger for in life.

Jesus put it this way. If you try to hang on to your life, you’re going to lose it. If you try to make yourself the center, if you you try to worship the idol of self, you’ll lose yourself. You’ll lose your soul if you worship yourself. It’s like being spiritually homeless.

But he says, “If you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. If you surrender to me, Jesus says, wholly and without reservation completely. Give yourself fully to me.” That is when you’ll find your true self. That’s you don’t need to go find yourself and all these other expeditions around.

You need to come to me. Jesus says, “And then you will know who you were always made to be. And then you’ll experience true freedom. The ultimate priority. Fourth, compromise is inevitable if you do not resolve to love God first.

See, Joshua warns them. He says, “Look guys, I’m telling you at the end of my days, I’m telling you that if you worship anything else, you’ll forfeit all the blessings that you’ve had up until now. All that progress and growth that you’ve seen, all that will be for nothing if you go away and worship other gods. And of course, the people say, “Oh, no, Joshua. We love God.

We won’t abandon God. We will be faithful.” And Joshua is thinking, “Yeah, but this is exactly what the people told Moses right before carving that golden calf and worshiping that golden calf.” Joshua knows talk is cheap. He even tells them in verse 19, “No, you aren’t going to stay true to the Lord.

It’s not much of a pep talk.” But I think Joshua understands the human heart. See, he’s been around 100 plus years pushing 110. He understands that human beings are very fickle. That they will pledge allegiance to certain things and they will they will say, “I will follow God.”

And then they turn around and go their own way. Joshua is a man of integrity. Not perfect, but he’s a man of integrity that we could follow his example. But if you look at the biblical record, most people aren’t. Most people can talk a good game.

Many of the people of Israel and their history said, “Yes, we’ll follow the Lord.” Many kings of Israel said, “I will pledge to follow God.” And yet, when the pressure came, they bow out. They fold. I think Joshua would get along with James in the New Testament who says, “Don’t be like a double-minded man.

Don’t don’t be that guy who who prays to God and says all these great things about Jesus when he’s actually trusting in something else.” Don’t be that guy. James writes, “Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” unstable.

You’re no, you’re not at peace if you’re serving two gods or trying to. And so this compromise that Joshua is warning about, he says, “I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen it in your history. I want to warn you against that.” And so, how do we avoid compromise?

I think if you look again at chapter 23, Joshua lays this out for us. This is how you can avoid compromise. Verse six, he says in chapter 23, “So be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the book of instruction. Do not deviate from it, turning either to the right or to the left.” So the first step if you want to avoid the the compromise that is always going to be tempting you.

Stay in God’s word. Listen to his voice. Don’t turn to the right or to the left. Stay faithful. Stay in this word and and put it into practice.

Whatever you read in God’s word, put it into practice immediately. Second step is verse seven. Make sure you do not associate with the other people still remaining in the land. Now, this is the part that most people struggle with and and I would say this looks different now because, you know, many people would wonder, is this saying we can’t have friends who are non-Christians? And of course, it’s not saying that.

We should have friends. We should reach out in love to the lost. We’ve been given the great commission to make disciples of all nations. But I think the point here is that those you spend time with, those you spend the most time with will inevitably influence you. That’s how it always goes.

What you put in your ears, what you watch, what you who you spend the most time gleaning wisdom from, that will influence you. That will change the way you think. So make fellowship with believers a priority. That’s the takeaway. Third, Joshua says, “This is how you avoid compromise.

Do not even mention the names of their gods, much less swear by them or serve them or worship them.” Today, the application might be, “Don’t don’t even be curious about sin. Don’t don’t be curious about what that self-indulgent lifestyle is like. Don’t go after the other gods. Put it out of your thinking because curiosity will lead you down the road of idolatry and compromise.

In other words, don’t sit down and and watch something that you wouldn’t feel comfortable watching with Jesus because you’re always watching with Jesus. Don’t don’t do things don’t don’t go after things out of the sake of curiosity that you wouldn’t do with Jesus. If Jesus is right there by your side, don’t do those things. Verse eight, rather cling tightly to the Lord your God as you have done until now. He’s saying, love the Lord your God.

Love him. Remind you that he is remind yourself that he is present with you each and every step of the way. Spend time feasting at God’s table. Let him love you with all the blessings he wants to give you. Be in God’s presence.

Love what God loves and hate what God hates. Again, the goal is to be resolute in your commitment to Jesus. This is what Joshua is so passionate about as he comes to the end of his life. He’s saying, “I want you to stay firm in your commitment. Live life in light of the end.

Think about when you come to the end of your days. What will you want to look back and see?” Single-minded devotion to Christ comes from that mindset. I heard it this way. Live life as if Jesus just died for your sins yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow.

Live with that mindset. If he just died for you, if you just saw him bleeding and dying on the cross for you yesterday, think of how grateful you would be. What a gift. What a sacrifice. If he just rose from the dead this morning, think how excited you should be.

This is the greatest news ever. He has defeated death for you. Death is no longer something to be feared. And if he’s coming tomorrow, think of how much urgency you should have. He’s coming tomorrow.

I want to live for him today. Your story is for his glory. So lastly, in your notes, your legacy matters for both God’s glory and for the next generation. We see at the end of this book, Joshua dies at the ripe old age of 110. And it says in verse 31, Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua.

What a legacy. All the time that he was leading, people were following the Lord. That’s an awesome thing to be able to say. And all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel. In other words, everybody who served alongside Joshua even after Joshua died, those who outlived him, they continued serving the Lord.

That’s the legacy that we should all want to leave behind because each of us, we are marking the trail for the next generation. And so, we got to be thinking, what kind of legacy am I leaving for others? I’ll close with this question. What will you do with all the Lord has entrusted to you? We have been blessed and and just to the fact that we have this word available.

We have the gospel made available to us. We live in a in a part of the world where we have heard the name of Jesus. You have been given incredible blessings. And so the question is what are you going to do with the blessings that have been given to you? How will you use them

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