Leaving A Good Legacy - The Book of Joshua

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holt.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

Alright, so you guys doing good?

Alright, I can tell.

I like it.

Alright, we're finishing up Joshua.

So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna finish up with the legacy of Joshua and how to leave a legacy.

And um, this middle section that I'm skipping is because it's pretty much genealogies and inheritances, which I mentioned last week.

But now we come to chapter 23 and 24, and it's the last two speeches of Joshua, this great majestic book that we've gone through.

If you're guests with us today, um, number one, I don't do 50 push-ups every week, nor 25.

I guess the first time since we did the world record thing months ago.

But uh, oh yeah, I get my breath, baby.

What are we at?

Uh about 7,000 feet here.

So I have an idea.

I know this has nothing to do with any.

Maybe it has to do with my legacy.

Um, but wouldn't it be cool to set a world record for altitude push-ups?

If I do a 14 or and knock off like 75 up there, that'd be pretty fun.

So, okay.

So anyway, we're in these last two speeches, and as I look at a man uh like Joshua, he's 110 years old, he's reflecting back, seen a lot of victories, and he's seen a lot of failures.

There's been some failures.

One of the biggest failures has been the tribal leaders and the tribes of the 12 not finishing the task, not getting the job done.

And it's almost like here you have an aged father, in this case a leader.

It might even be a way to think of it, it might be a president, president of the United States, who is coming to the end.

He knows he's coming to his end, and he's he's just um blessing and warning the people of America.

This is what I've seen.

This is what could happen if you don't follow God.

And I remember, I have I remember that when uh Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, he wrote a final letter.

Do you guys remember that?

It was in the Washington Post, New York Times, Newsweek, it was like everywhere.

It's a beautiful letter as he talks about going into the twilight, as he will now die soon, he said.

But in the same way, Josh was looking at the nation and he's saying, This is what I've learned.

This is what I've gained access to in my intimacy with the Lord, the pros and the cons.

So look at it in chapter 23, verse 1, and I love this first verse.

It's just so meaningful, it's so powerful.

It came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua's old and advanced in age.

Here's what I love about that is, and I have it underlined here in my Bible, the Lord had given him rest.

The Lord had given him rest.

And Joshua and advanced in age.

So, what a beautiful way to finish up your career, uh church.

Uh we all have a career, and sometimes we think it's just based in the resume.

But I'm gonna tell you, your career is also related to your eulogy.

And we live for our resume, we live for what we've done, but nobody reads your resume at your funeral.

And so some people have said, only make your biggest decisions in a graveyard.

And I think it's because you have to have an eternal perspective for some of the big decisions that you make.

And so, what what a resume is, what you did.

It might be how many houses you had, or what companies you work for, or how much money you made.

Nobody reads that at your funeral.

Nobody cares.

But who you are is your eulogy.

It's who you are, not what you've done, but who you are.

And who you are, no one can block the work you put in to be who you are and the character that you possess.

So people can stop you from getting a job.

People can fire you from your job.

You can lose a house, you could go through financial ruin.

But nobody can stop you from working on your character, from being a more honest person, to being more vulnerable and authentic about who you are.

Because that's your choice.

And in the in the command of life, in the command of life in our relationship with God, sometimes we overly focus on resume and underfocus on character.

Because the only person who can give the eulogy at your funeral is going to be someone who knew you well.

And if you were a faker and a poser, they know.

I'd like to get up and just express my thanks to my father, who is the biggest poser at the road that we know of.

Because we get this religious spirit sometimes, right?

And we have this fakiness that we project, and everything's fine at work, but then at home it's a struggle because that's who you really are.

And so that's the that's what Joshua has found rest.

He's found rest from his enemies because this, in a sense, even though it's his speech, is sort of like a eulogy of what really matters to Joshua.

And that's why I love it so much.

That's why I couldn't wait to get here and look at this.

So look what he says first.

This is really, really cool.

Look at verse two.

And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and their officers, and said to them, I am old and advanced in age.

You've seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations, because you, for the Lord your God, is he who has fought for you.

See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the Great Sea westward.

Now this is important.

Look at verse 5.

And the Lord your God will expel them.

So they have not all been expelled yet.

Okay, they haven't been expelled yet, and yet he is with expectation, with faith, with hope, he's pronouncing over the children of Israel, your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight.

So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you.

Look what the Lord has done, is what he this is how he starts.

Look what God has done.

He has driven back these enemies.

He has given you the inheritance that we fought for.

But he didn't say it.

He could have said, but you didn't, you didn't take on all the enemies and push them all out.

No, he says, I expect, this is another way he might say it, I expect and I believe that all these enemies are gonna get pushed out because you guys are warriors.

You guys are worshipers and warriors, and I am believing that God, working through you in partnership with you, are gonna drive out your enemies.

You know, my dad, he's 93.

My dad, as far as I know, has no enemies.

Talk about a guy who's rested, in a sense, for the last 30 years.

He he, I think he was 65, so almost 30 years.

65 is when he retired as a Lutheran pastor.

And he just watched the development of his life.

He finished the Appalachian Trail when he was 72.

Uh, what's that?

20, I don't know, 2,000 miles, 2,100 miles, or whatever it is, you know, going up the coast, the east coast, and all of that.

But he is a man who has, I think he has three Bible studies.

He goes to McDonald's for a Bible study.

That's McDonald's needs Bible studies, you know.

Maybe they change their menu if God's spirit came.

But um anyway, so dad, this is one of my dad's little things.

He goes, he goes, Steve, I always do my push-ups and my sit-ups in the morning, and he does that, and then he says, if I have gained five pounds when I weigh myself, I don't let myself have sausage when I go to McDonald's.

I said, Dad, let me ask you, you you still have the pancakes?

He said, Yeah.

And I go, there's a problem here.

He says, but I don't like the pancakes that much.

I really like the sausage, and it makes me lose those five pounds.

I'm like, whatever.

But dad's at rest.

And and when dad, and the reason he's at rest is because with all of us, as is with my brother and I as his children, but then with the grandchildren, I think dad would say this.

He would say, I expect that in your life, God's gonna mightily use you.

It's not about me anymore, it's about you.

You're the next generation.

And I'm trusting and I'm believing and I'm excited that God's gonna use you.

And I remember how excited he was with different uh monumental experiences of each of my kids and each of David's kids when they uh had some things that happened to them that were really cool.

Dad was the most excited.

I think Joshua is the most excited because he really does believe that they're going to see breakthrough in the promised land.

Therefore, be very courageous.

So, since this is gonna happen, and I believe it's gonna happen, verse 6, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left.

So this reminds me of Joshua 1:7.

Joshua 1:7

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

That must have been one of the favorite phrases, favorite speeches that Joshua gave, because he's saying it again.

We're at the beginning of the book, Joshua 1.7, here at the end of the book.

This is how you show yourself to me to be courageous, is that you are a man and a woman of God's word.

You're a man and a woman of God's word.

So I was studying this morning, looking at um this passage again, of course, and I thought, you know what, I'm gonna pick up my first Bible that I had as a Christian.

So this is the Bible when I got saved at the University of Georgia.

Look at this thing, man.

It's just, it's it's all tattered now.

And um, I was just looking at it, I hadn't looked at it in years, but it had all these appointments with guys that I was witnessing to.

A guy on the football team named Rosie Gillam, a guy named Ronnie on the football team, Don Adams on the golf team, Jody Glenn, who's a manager for the team, Sid Callaway, blah, blah, blah.

All of them are on here.

And then I was still, I was learning stuff.

So I had I have things, categories of things that I was learning.

But this was the Bible that mom and dad gave me at my confirmation.

See, he's got my name on it, Steve Holt.

Isn't that cute?

And it's got it's got pictures.

It's even got pictures.

See?

Look, it's a picture Bible.

Okay, but that's what moms do to their kids and stuff.

And so I'd had this all I had, and then later I got a new American standard.

I think this is a revised standard version.

Yep, revised standard version.

That's what the Lutherans all use back in the day.

But church, be courageous.

It takes courage to spend time in God's word.

And I would venture to say that the more torn up your Bible is, the more untorn up your life is.

That the more we spend in God's word, the more courage, because it takes courage.

Right?

Hello?

It takes courage to spend time each day in God's word with the busy schedules that we all keep.

Everybody here has a busy schedule.

That's just the way it is in America.

But do you set aside time to be courageous and spend time reading God's word?

Not just hearing a sermon once a week, but you eating God's word.

You feasting on God's word.

Because there's nothing like you getting excited about something that God has said to you.

Not something you heard, because God spoke to me, and I gave something that God spoke to me about for you, which is great, but it's secondhand.

But firsthand revelation, firsthand intimacy with God, firsthand rahma.

Firsthand revelation of God means you, for me it's in the morning.

You get up, I do my exercises, sometimes I get a cup of coffee, sometimes they don't.

Um, but then just buckle down and spend time in God's Word.

And you say, Well, I don't have much time for that.

Well then just do it with the amount of time you have.

Just do 15 minutes, maybe just read one chapter.

And you guys know we call it PB and J.

Prayer, Bible, and journal.

Prayer Bible and journal, prayer, Bible, and journal.

You hear it again and again from Steve Holt.

That's what we believe in.

Prayer Bible, that takes courage.

That takes courage.

You know where courage comes from?

Core.

C-O-R, core.

Cardiologist, heart.

It takes heart to spend time in God's word.

It takes heart to be a disciple.

It takes heart to put aside some things that you normally do and say, I'm gonna not look at the news.

I'm gonna not look at my phone yet.

I'm gonna I'm gonna spend time in God's word.

So that's what he's saying.

He's he's giving his child the children of Israel, kind of in a sense, his kids.

He's saying, be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.

Unless you go among these nations, verse 7, now he's moving into a warning.

This this speech, in a sense, kind of his own self-eulogy, is a blessing and a warning.

It's gonna have a blessing and a warning nature to it.

Unless you go among these nations, those who remain among you, and you could say, lest you go among America and the values of America, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them.

You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them.

Now, why would he say that?

Because that's the tendency.

The tendency with all of us, and we all do it, is to let materialism and busyness and the resume take over and become like an idol in our life.

Don't serve them nor bow down to them.

And by the way, everybody here who's been with me for a few years knows that I'm a big believer in being successful.

I'm a huge believer in being the best that you can be at the vocation God has called you to be.

Absolutely.

That's kingdom revolution stuff to me.

As you go in and you be a kingdom businessman, you go in and be a kingdom mom.

You go in there and you be a kingdom dad.

You go in there and you be a kingdom mechanic.

Whatever God's called you to do, be kingdom.

Bring the eulogy.

Bring the eulogy.

Bring your character with you.

So I'm not saying that this is some kind of monastic view of life that the really the holy ones are the ones who are called to be pastors.

Very, very, very few are called to be pastors or in full-time Christian work in that sense about who pays the bills.

But all of you in this room are called to full-time Christian work.

All of you are called to full-time Christian work.

Doesn't matter who pays the bills.

I think it's cool.

I'm not a big fan of the government sometimes, but I'm glad that some of you have paychecks from the government.

They're paying for you to do full-time Christian work in their companies.

And so I don't care.

I mean, I see the road church, I mean, I don't see the check, but you know, it's deposited now.

But when you used to see checks, you know, you took a picture, well, whatever.

When you you see it, it was the road church.

But listen, this is what Liz and I've talked about this so many times.

Doesn't matter who pays the bills, doesn't change anything that we do.

So if I was working as a mechanic, if I was working as a gymnastics coach or whatever I'm doing, whoever pays the bills and whoever signs the checks doesn't matter to me.

We're still gonna have Bible studies at our house.

We're still gonna feed the hungry, we're still gonna preach the gospel, we're still gonna love those who nobody loves, right?

So it doesn't matter who pays the bills.

So he's saying here to them, look, hold fast to the Lord your God, verse 8, as you have done to this day.

For the Lord is driven out from you before you great and strong nations.

But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.

One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is he who fights for you, as he promised you.

Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God.

So what he's saying here is be a person of virtue.

Be a virtuous kingdom person.

Here's the definition of virtue.

Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good.

One who pursues good and chooses it in concrete actions.

So you see, virtue is not a theory, virtue is how you act.

Virtue is saying, I'm gonna do good.

I'm gonna do good to others.

I'm gonna build up others and bless them with my life.

I'm gonna be a man or a woman of virtue.

Virtue is not talked about very much.

I could do a whole sermon series on virtue, but virtue is Jesus being embodied in you.

It's you being a little bit of Jesus each day.

Just being a good person.

My grandfather, my ranching grandfather would sit around and and then I would, and I was new to the area because we had come in, dad was going to graduate school in South at the University of South Carolina, and we were staying at one of granddaddy's cabins, and we were staying there for two years, and so I got the privilege for a couple years before he died to be with him at the dinner table.

And I was meeting all these kids that had never met before, and I would ask him, Hey, I met um Tommy Ailish.

Do you know the Ailish family?

And then granddaddy, obviously, three generations in that area of South Carolina, would say that the Ailish family are good people.

And then sometimes I'd say, Well, what about so-and-so?

And he would just get quiet and say, Pass the beans.

Because there were some issues there, right?

But he did not want to speak evil, he didn't want to speak negatively about anybody, but when he said he was a good man, or that's a good family, that spoke volumes.

That's what virtue is.

Virtue is being good by God's standards, being a good person, being one who wants to be good, desires to be good, prays to be good, but then it actually cascades into concrete actions in our life.

That's virtue.

That's what Joshua is talking about.

Look, you're going into a land with idols, you're going into a land that's going to try to rob and steal and kill your relationship with God.

Be a person of virtue.

Or else, verse 12, or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, this is important, and make marriage with them.

And go into them and they to you.

Know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you.

But they shall be, look, if you're an underliner in your Bibles, I've underlined it in my Bible.

This is like such a powerful warning.

He says, They will be snares, I underlined it.

They will be traps to you, underline it.

Scourges, underline it, on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Wow.

Amazing.

How many marriages do we know?

And I have to be careful here because some of you are probably in them.

But you married a non-Christian.

You married someone whose values were not yours.

Or maybe you're coming out of those old values, and that's the reason you're here, and we're so glad you're here.

And by the way, for any of you that fall asleep in church, it's the best place to fall asleep.

I'm so glad you're here.

Just come, you go, ah, I can barely make it.

Steve puts me to sleep.

Bring a pillow.

We will we will tap, we will just pat on you and let you know the service is ended so you can leave, so you're not taking up a whole row.

But it's okay to sleep here, all right?

Now, do many people sleep in my church?

No.

But some of you do, and I know who you are.

I can see you really good, okay?

So just a little, talk about blessings and warnings, right?

Blessings and cursing.

So I guess the pilgrims, you know, back in Puritan days, they had a long stick with a feather on it, and they'd go up and and and get that person to wake up.

But if you read some of those Puritan sermons, they're awesome, they're wonderful.

I love to read Puritan stuff, but I guarantee you, if they did it like Jonathan Edwards, where he got up there and he just read it and he was very nearsighted, so he read it like this, and the first great awakening of the Holy Spirit came in spite of that, I'd have fallen asleep too.

That's the reason they needed a first great awakening.

Because everybody was falling asleep in America, because it's the boring pastors, but but here's what he's saying is that be careful about marriage, you guys.

Verse 12.

So for you in this room that are not married, be careful.

Marriage is awesome if it's the right person, it's really sketchy if it's the wrong person.

It can be a snare, it can be a trap, it can be a scourge, it can be thorns in your side.

Now, last week I talked about how important I think it is to normalize hard.

So marriage is just flat hard.

And if somebody, if I said raise your hand if your marriage has sometimes had some difficulties and hardships, everybody's gonna raise their hand, and the rest of you are liars because we know that's not true.

Because we that's hard anyway.

But why make it harder by marrying a scumbag?

Okay, there's scumbags out there, folks.

And the prettier you are and the more handsome you are, there's more of them because they're after you, man.

And if you're trying to meet them in the bars or you're trying to meet them in at uh parties and all these things, I'm just telling you, unless it's a Christian party, the best place to meet your partner is at the road church.

This is the best people.

These are the best-looking people.

We have the best-looking women in town, we have the most handsome men in town.

So you keep coming, and if God wants you to meet somebody, you will.

So don't go running off to what the world tells you to do.

Ridiculous.

So Liz was at UCLA, I was at the University of Georgia, so the only place we could meet was on the Great Wall of China.

On a mission trip.

So you never know what God's up to to orchestrate us meeting the right person.

All right?

But marriage is important because if you marry the wrong person, it just is just horrendous, right?

And many of you have been through divorces.

You know what I'm talking about.

It's just hard.

So I always use this triangle.

I did it at a wedding this past week, but and you've probably seen it before, I didn't put it for the PowerPoint, but if you can imagine a triangle and you got the man over here and the woman over there, and God at the top, that's what we want are marriages where as we draw closer to God in our pursuit of God, we're growing closer to each other.

So listen, men, single men out there, you're not gonna marry a queen if you don't become a king.

Women, you're not gonna marry a king if you don't become a queen.

So your virtue is your choice.

Don't let anyone cause you to compromise your virtue for the sake of sex or marriage or something else.

And they will, especially men.

I'm a men, I know what a men's like.

Men are up to no good.

Half the time.

Alright?

So watch out for characters, watch out for men that think they're so cool.

Tell them to come.

If you can do more push-ups than Pastor Steve, I'll be interested in you.

And you read your Bible more than him.

No, marriage really matters.

That's what he's saying.

He's saying, look, this is how they're gonna get them.

This is how the enemy's going to get you.

A lot of times in the culture is involved in this arena of relationships that have to do with marriage and stuff.

Verse 14 Behold, this day I'm going the way of all the earth.

He knows he's gonna die.

He's 110.

And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that this, I love this, I underline this, put a star by it.

Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you.

All have come to pass for you, not one word of them has failed.

Write this down.

True success is doing what God tells you to do.

True success is doing what God tells you to do.

And if God hasn't told you to do anything, then wait on him.

Wait on him.

Every mistake I've made, every mistake I've made, and I've made a ton of them, is because I didn't wait on God long enough to hear his voice before I took action.

And when I've taken action as a leader, when I didn't take enough time to wait on God and hear what God wanted to do, it's been a big mistake.

And all of you have that story.

And it's not, by the way, it's not how many failures we have, is whether we learned from the failures that we've made.

And so God's always at work in our lives, and Joshua's coming to the end and saying, look, whenever I did what God told me to do, it always worked.

It always worked out.

And I think he would say, in those places where I didn't, remember?

Remember I?

Remember we looked at I in the first part of Joshua, where he didn't wait on God, Israel didn't wait on God, the leaders didn't wait on God, and they got defeated in that battle, and it actually costs some men their very lives.

When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, verse 16, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he has given you.

So, so if you go to Hezekiah's Tunnel, some of you have been to Israel.

I've been to Israel a couple times, and we had a trip planned during COVID that got canceled.

Um, so we'll do it again in the days ahead.

We'll have a we'll have a great trip to Israel.

Uh I'll guide it with probably my brother or something.

It'll be so much fun.

We'll have a blast.

But anyway, you go to Hezekiah's tunnel.

I've been in Hezekiah's Tunnel, and you can see the ash.

There's still the ash there for when the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar came in and burned, burned Jerusalem.

It's still there.

The ash is still there.

You can go to Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the archaeological studies and archaeological work that had been done on the tell there for where Sodom and Gomorrah was, you can still find the ash.

That's what our lives turn out to be if we don't follow the Lord.

When we choose our own way and we go the way of rebellion, it's going to be ash, man.

And we don't like to hear that.

We like that God is love and God is grace, and he is all those things, and they're the most important things, but he's also a judge, a judging God.

And when you, here's the thing: when we rebel from God, we create the judgment on ourselves.

God doesn't have to do anything because you're just judging yourself.

You're putting yourself in a position.

I can't believe God did that.

Well, you took the drug.

I can't believe God did that.

Well, you, you know, so you create either blessing or you can turn your blessing into a cursing, you curse yourself.

Because there is a demonic power, there is a satanic kingdom, kingdom of darkness, that steal, kills, and destroys.

So if we could talk about a New Testament cursing and blessing, it would be John 10 10.

John 10 10.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, cursings, but I, Jesus speaking, I came to give you life and give you life more abundantly.

That's blessing.

So where we're going with this is that Joshua is leading up to who are you going to serve?

Who are you going to be after?

So now, second speech, chapter 24.

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges and their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

So here's what Shechem is.

Shechem is in this valley, famous area.

Jacob's well was in Shechem.

Joseph's tomb is in Shechem.

This is a place where Abraham made a covenant with the Lord in Shechem about who they were going to serve.

And the covenant was renewed with Abraham and God in Shechem.

But here's the most important thing, because you can't see it here.

You have two mountain peaks right there in Shechem.

One is Mount Gerizim, and the other one is Mount Ebal.

So if you've read Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 27, 28, 29 is the blessings and the cursings passage.

So Moses saying, Who are you going to serve?

Do you want to be blessed by God as you go into the land, or do you want to be cursed by God as you go into the land?

Mount Ebel was the mountain of cursings.

Mount Gerizim was the mountain of blessing.

And I think the reason they've used that is because in that valley, it was so easy to give a very visual understanding of blessings and cursings, saying, there's Mount Ebel.

Follow the ways of the Canaanites, cursings.

There's Mount Gerizim.

Follow the ways of the Lord, blessings.

That's where he's speaking now.

So it's another blessings and cursing speech, the final one by Joshua.

Verse 2.

And Joshua said to the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods.

Now, seventeen times, Joshua is going to say, Thus saith the Lord.

So imagine, if you would, with me, that there's a mantle of the prophetic that's now on Joshua.

So there was a mantle of leadership, but now there's actually a mantle of the prophetic over him.

So we were recently talking with the pastors, and we were talking about worship protocol and prophetic protocol at the road.

And we put in some protocol.

And the prophetic protocol, some of you have come up to me, for example, and wanted to, you know, say, I got this word, I think it's for the church.

And what you're gonna hear me say moving forward is write it down, give it to me, and if I'm speaking, I'll give it.

Because whenever I get behind the pulpit, I'm the chief prophet of that day.

So people are not gonna be getting up and giving prophetic words.

It's going to be whoever's the speaker, they can decide whether that's a prophetic word for our church or not, or whether to give it or not.

In worship, in worship protocol, sometimes some of you are very, very exuberant.

And we love that.

Be exuberant unless it's a distraction to others.

Unless it's a distraction.

So if somebody is dancing all across the front and it's a distraction, we may have to come up and say, love your zeal for God, but it's a distraction to others.

Dance at home.

Dance and jump around at home.

That's fine.

We're not judging it at all.

We're just saying that when we come to the road, our worship and our prophetic is for the whole church, and we will we will be guiding that.

So, does that make sense?

So, what's happening here is that Joshua is getting he's putting on the mantle of a prophet.

So then, verses 3 through 11, he talks all about, 3 through 13, are all the great things that God has done.

Let's pick it up at verse 14.

Now, therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and pull away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.

Serve the Lord.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves.

And this is the this is the key passage of our sermon today.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell, and here it is, but as, and we have this over our house, many of you probably how many have this plot?

Yeah, okay.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

So you remember that great Bob Dylan song, you gotta serve somebody.

So that's true.

Who are you gonna serve?

Are you serving the God of Israel, the God of Jacob and Esau, Abraham, the God of Moses and Joshua, or do you want to serve the American gods, the idols of America?

Who are you gonna serve?

That's what he's saying before them, there at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, right there.

He's saying, decide, because one will bring a blessing.

And let me tell you, at the end of my life, at 110 years old, Joshua's saying, nothing that I that I did that God told me to do has failed.

Or you can serve the gods of Canaan, you can serve the gods of America, and there'll be a cursing.

There'll be cursings that go with that.

And so he concludes in verse 24, and the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and he took a large stone, and he set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it this is very interesting.

It kind of almost sounds a little new agey.

Okay.

Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it, meaning the stone, has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us.

It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.

So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance.

Now it came to pass that after these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old.

Wow.

So may it be said of us that we were servants of the Lord, and that those things that we made a covenant with the legacy that God has for us was based in a eulogy of character rather than just a resume of what we've done.

Because at the end of the day, what people remember the most about us is who we are, not what we did.

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.

We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.

That's therode.org.