The Place of Decision and Legacy | Pastor Sammy Rodriguez

Come on, let's put our hands together. How many guys

love pastor SNAs we all do. If you don't, you

could you could leave now I'm just kidding. No, stay here.

I'm so excited because we are ending our final verses in.

The Book of Joshua.

If you've loved the Book of Joshua, put your hands together.

It's been incredible.

And before we get into it, you know, if we

haven't had the privilege of meeting. My name is Pastor

Sammy and I'm the resident pastor here. My wife and

I are getting ready in a little bit to church plant.

But I've had an incredible time in this Book of Joshua.

Have you guys loved the Book of Joshua so far?

Yeah? You could talk back in church. It's okay, Yeah,

it's okay. And before we get started to jump into

these last few verses, I just want to honor the

pastors and leaders of this church, our senior pastors Adam

and Ashley Masa. Can we put our hands together for

our pastors? I love it because they have a vision

for even a team of pastors coming together and sharing

the pulpit. And we all of us say this, and

we're not told to say this, but it's an honor

to be on this stage to share this word with

you guys. Amen. Now, real quick, I want to see,

by showing of hands, how many of you guys you

feel like you've been to at least five Fresh starts

this year? Wave your hand, come on, wave your hand? Okay, cool,

good job, good job. How many guys have the actual

journals still? Wave at me, wave, look at this, look

at this. How many guys are faith how many guys

have no idea what.

This journal is?

You know, don't worry to put your hands down, all right?

How many guys feel like you've been to maybe you're like,

you know what, Pastor Samon, I think I've been to

like fifty percent of Fresh I'm loyal to the soil. Anybody,

anybody in here? Okay? All right? And how many guys

you're like, yo, this is my very first time, Joshua,

what first sent? Okay? Good good, first Wednesday. And here's

what's great is that, whether you've been to all of

them or just this one, you could catch it all

on our playlist on YouTube. But we believe God has

a message for you tonight, Amen, church.

And here here was my thing even worship.

Is that I was praying, is that I believe that

God has something specific for each of us individually.

God has a word for you.

You might have come in here, into this room or

in the courtyard or the cafe, and you might be struggling,

or maybe you came in here leaping with joy because

twenty twenty five has been incredible.

I don't know if you're like me, and some of

your new year's.

Expectations in twenty twenty five got pushed to twenty twenty six.

Anybody can just me okay, cool, and wherever you're at

in this walk with the Lord, I believe God has

something fresh for you. Amen. If you're taking notes, also,

I forgot to say this, if you're taking notes and

you bring it to the merch container, you get up

to sixty percent. No, that's a lie, just kidding, but

it's a good thing.

Still goats take notes, all right, all right.

So let's do this. I want you, if you're taking notes,

I wanted you to take a note of the title

of this message as we're ending. It is called the

Place of Decision and Legacy, The Place of Decision and

now here at Patria.

If this is your first time. Welcome.

What we do is we stand for the reading of

the words. So let's stand together as we finish out

the Book of Joshua. All together, we're gonna read. There's

about four or five verses, and they'll be up on

the screen. Let's put them up right now. It says,

after these things, Joshua, the son of None, the servant

of the Lord. Everybody say, servant of the Lord, died,

being one hundred and ten years old, and they buried

him in his own inheritance at tim Nath Serah, which

is the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain

of Gosh. Israel served the Lord all the days of

Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived

Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord

did for Israel. As for the bones of Joseph, which

the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried

them at Shechem.

Everybody says Schem.

So underline, if you do the word servant, underlie in

the word Shechem, because we're gonna talk about those two things.

And the peace of the land that Jacob bought from

the sons of him. Are the father of shechem for

one hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of

the descendants of Joseph and Eliezar the son of Aaron

died and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of

in the town of Finaeus, his son which has been

given him in the hill country of Ephraim. Everybody, come on,

let's put our hands together. We finished the book at Joshua.

That's incredible. Stay standing if you can. I want to

pray for you. Then we'll grab a seat. Lord, We

thank you so much for this book. We thank you

for every communicator, every pastor, every leader that's been up

here sharing through the Book of Joshua. I pray at

this moment, Lord, would you speak clearly through me. Lord,

whatever is from you, just bear fruit, and whatever is

not from you from me, we would be cast to

the side. We thank you Jesus in Jesus's name, and

everybody said, Amen and amen. Go ahead and grab your seats.

Tell your neighbor, hey, make sure you're taking notes. Come

on to say, I want I want that merch. You know,

I was thinking about that that word decision, but also

legacy and how those things do those two things come together.

You know in life there are big decisions and that

there are also small decisions. Right there might be a

decision of what am I gonna eat? That might be

a small decision, but later on in life it'll catch

up to you in a big way. Amen. It might

be what you're gonna wear. But there's also big decisions

like who am I gonna put my trust in? Am

I gonna put it in Jesus? Am I gonna put

it in some other God? In myself? Or or Another

great big decision is who am I gonna marry? Where

am I married?

People at?

Come on, say give me an amen? All right? Where

are my single people at? Don't raise your hand yet.

Don't worry. Don't worry. I'll get to you. Some people

were like me right here, okay, So I want to

put a picture up on a great hand on not yet,

not yet, team, not yet. I'm gonna put a picture

up in a second of One of the greatest decisions

of my life that I made was the very first

time I met Chandler.

My wife.

My wife's name is Chandler.

You're like, who's Chamling my wife?

Chandler? Put the picture up right here?

Put the picture up right here.

This is Outcry Tour twenty sixteen in Florida. Now, my

wife at that time was working for a church and

she was also working at Disney World. Yes, she was Tinkerbell.

Talk to me about it later. It's cool, you know,

moving on. So she's true, that's not a lie, that's true, right.

And my wife had grown up with one of my

team members that shot media for me, and he would

always travel with me. And I was working on this

tour and what happened was my wife text my buddy,

who was my kind of content creator, catching all the videos,

and she was like, Hey, I heard you're gonna be

on this Outcry tour. Will you be there? And now,

my buddy David, you always need a wingman in every

good situation. Can I get an amen? Come on? And

my buddy David said, no, I'm not gonna be there,

but my boy Sammy's gonna be there. Okay, you can

take the photo, but down in a second, we'll go

to the next one and end this up texting both

of us together. Now, I don't think much of it.

I think, ma'am, this woman is beautiful. I think she's amazing.

But I'm so busy. I'm working for the Lord. Can

I get an a man? Okay? And so I'm working

for the Loyd. And so we get to Florida and

I completely forget that we're supposed to meet. We didn't

get texted to each other.

Our friend just said look out for each other, all right.

So this is an arena in Florida at the University

of Central Florida. So there's about fifteen thousand or so

people in the arena. Now, my job is the host

different pastors. I was speaking at the time and different

a few different things as well.

So was Chad Beach from Zoe and So.

I remember five minutes before the show gets started, what

I'm doing is I have to interview a certain person

from the show to ask them, Hey, what's your name,

where are you from, what are you expecting for, and

then talk to them about the future. Now, five minutes

before the show starts, one of my buddies on the

tour bus that was with me, he said, hey, let

me introduce you to my friends. Now he kind of

had a crush on Chandler, but a bye boy, you

know what I'm saying. So, but they just met, you

know what I mean. So yeah, you can't get mad,

you know what I'm saying. Uh, And what happened was

I run into Chandler, my wife channel. So you can

put the next picture on the screen.

Oh, look at it.

So that's Chandler and the circle right there, and that's

yea boy getting her to dance on stage. You know,

I gotta put on all the tricks, you know what

I'm saying. But the first thing she said was I'm

supposed to be looking for you, And you know what

I said.

In my mind, I said, girl, I've been looking for

you my whole life.

You know what I'm saying.

But poker face, right, poker face, and I don't want to.

Scare it away. So I said, oh, yeah, I remember.

And then I thought, how can I talk to her

as much as I can throughout the night. So that's

the picture. At the very end, we're dancing on stage,

and you know, I'm from the era of Kobe's my goat,

Jordan's great, Lebron's great, Kobe's micro moving on. We're not

gonna argue, So I shot my shot like Kobe, I said, Kobe,

I said, hey, have you ever prayed about moving out

to California? To the Promised Land. Do you want to

come out here? Well, listen, we've been married for eight years,

we got two kids. Can I get a praise back? Hallelujah?

And again we're having fun with this, we're enjoying it.

But that decision to talk to her, to make a

recorded video, to even shoot my shot, to say, hey,

you got a boyfriend, because I don't want to disappear,

and I'm just kidding. I want to do that. I

want to do that. That decision, though, led to my legacy.

Somebody say legacy. Someone touched someone say legacy. And there

are certain things in our life where we're making great

things about certain decisions. We're majoring on certain decisions that

need to be minor right, and we're minoring on certain

decisions that need to be major. Decisions determine your legacy.

So the first point I want you to write down

in this moment as we talk about the place of

decision and legacy is is this on the screen. Faithfulness

is the legacy. Faithfulness is the legacy? Put up verse

twenty nine in Joshua twenty four. I love this. I

told you to underline it. But he said, after these things, Joshua,

the son of none?

Though, what's that word right there? What does it say?

Come on, say it like you mean it. Come on,

we ain't in a library. What does hey, Joshua, this

son or none to what? Come on say it like

I mean? One time, Joshua the senate under what the

servant of the Lord died being one hundred and ten

years old? Look at Joshua, one one, Look at Joshua

one one for a second? What is this? Are here

said after the death of Moses, the what of the Lord?

The Lord said to Joshua, think, have you ever thought

about this?

Just for a second? Have you ever thought.

About the pressure of falling up one of the greatest

In Jewish contexts, Moses is the greatest leader of all time.

Moses is the goat. He has passed away.

And now everyone says, Joshua, I know you were dwelling

in the tent when the glory fell, but you never

talked to God face to face? Can you actually lead us?

And that title servant? We don't have enough time to

go into it. But it was only referred to Moses,

and at the end of Joshua's life it was referred

to him that same exact title. God calls Moses servant God,

Joshua's servant, and Jesus calls us to serve. What I

love about it is that it's not saying all the

accolades and all the amazing things. You know, Moses the

bringer of the ten plagues with God, the one who

split the Red Sea. No, it says Moses, the servant

of the Lord. If you were here last week, Pastor

Diego talked about someone else coming up, and he was

in his greatest title. How he reflects to Joshua for

the Book of Joshua says the greatest title that he

wants over his life as one as a servant. But

so much of the times we're worried about other titles.

But the true title that God gives us is this.

In Matthew twenty five, check it out, Jesus says, the

title I'm giving you is well done, good and what

faithful servant. Faithfulness is our legacy. I love this because Joshua,

he didn't just finish famous. Yeah, he might have been famous,

but he also and he finished faithful. And here's the

thing that we gotta do, is that God isn't worried

about what your name is or what your title is

or well done, influential pastor well done, influential business leader,

well done, mom, well done, dad, well done doctor, feeling

the blank. What we get at the end of the

day is well done, good and faithful servant. And I

feel like the invitation that was shown from Moses and

throughout this Book of Joshua, essentially Jesus was saying God

was saying to Joshua. In verse one, he was saying, this, Moses,

my servant. That's the greatest title I could give. Now,

what's your turn to walk it out? And here's the truth.

A lot of us know, especially if you've been in ministry.

I'm next year will be twenty years for me in

full time ministry. It's really easy to start a race,

it's very difficult to finish. One says in the Bible.

It says you were running well. Who hindered you from

believing the truth? It's easy to start it, it's harder

to finish it. And what Joshua models for us is

not only was he a servant of the Lord, but

everyone who knew him followed God. He was one of

the greatest leaders in the Old Testament. Amen, legacy is

not what you build for God. But what God builds

through a surrendered life. I believe there's an invitation for

us tonight to say, God, of all the titles that

I could get, Lord, would you mark me as a servant.

To dig even deeper into this.

In John thirteen, right before Jesus is getting ready to

go to the cross, one of his last, very last

acts that he does after he's in the upper room.

You know what he does is he washes the disciples

feet and he says, if you want to be great,

you must be a servant like me. And I believe

there's an invitation for us as some of the things

that's blocking or fruitfulness, some of the things that's brought

blocking our joy is because we've given up on saying

yes as a servant. And I believe what God wants

to do is it's not just even about serving here,

serving there, but saying, God, ark my life to be

a servant of the Lord. Amen. Here's a little quote

I have for you from Basal the Great. He's one

of the church fathers that says this. It says it's

not the one. Uh. It is not he who begins

well who is perfect. It is he who ends well.

Who is approved in God's sight. My invitation to all

of us and myself included, is would you ask the

Lord God make servant my greatest desire? And I don't

know if you're ever like me and you want to

be a servant and then someone cuts you off in

the in the freeway and you want to you want

to serve something. You want to serve these hands. You

know what I mean.

But you gotta be like no, Jesus.

No, you know. And why I say that and why

I'm joking is because the truth is is like we

feel like we gotta be perfect all the time, and

the truth is we drift from different moments. But that's

why the Lord said no, I paid the price.

I paid the way to show you how to serve.

And if you've ever rifted from being a servant, maybe

you're you're your desires that to be a servant.

You want to be a superstar.

But the truth is whether you're a superstar or not,

you're saying, God, would you would you mark my heart

as a servant? Amen? Church, I believe that faithfulness is

the legacy. And here's my question for you. If you're

writing down notes, I want you to ask yourself this

question later on today or even now, are you building

a legacy? Heaven applause or a legacy people notice? Let's

be honest, right, because it's not even about Oh, you're

building something people notice. Oh that means that you've got

a lot of impact. No, there's a lot of people

that are doing nothing that are just waiting for people

to notice them. So it's not about whether you're doing

amazing things, or you're doing big things, or you're doing nothing.

You could be building for people's applause, if you're if

you're broken down, or you could be a CEO wherever

you're at in that place, are you building for people's

applause or Heaven's recognition? And I feel like many of

us right while we're here, I mean, come on, fresh

start midweek services. You know we building for heavens. Come on, legacy?

Can I get an amen in Heaven's applause? The second

thing I want to highlight in this moment of not

only of.

This place of decision and legacy.

Not only is it faithfulness in servanthood is our legacy,

but our second point is this is I want you

to write this down. I want you to write down

shouldering the Covenant. Somebody say shouldering the Covenant, and yes,

that is a word. We looked it up. Shouldering the Covenant.

Everybody say shouldering the Covenant. I love this because it

speaks about multiple times. It speaks about this city called

scheck Him and we'll get to it in the second

what it means. But many scholars believe and even if

you look at Joshua twenty four, Joshua brings the whole

assembly of Israel together to give his final speech, right,

and one of the most well known verses in that

moment is when Joshua says, asked for me in my house,

we will serve the Lord. Right, and in the same

place it says later on in the verses, we read

that Joseph's bones were buried in Shechem. Although he died

in Egypt, they were buried in this area. So not

only that, is that Joshua you gotta think of when

you reread Joshua twenty four. This is almost like his benediction,

his final moment. He's burying Joseph and he's given a

final benediction, and what is he saying in Joshua twenty four,

He's saying.

Don't go after other idols.

I've set up this, I've set up these rocks of

remembrance to remember, don't go after other idols. And all

the people said, we won't, but we know what happens.

They end up a generation dies off and they end

up doing that. Well the worst Shechem. Everybody says, Shechem.

All right, Shechem. This is what it means, the city

of Shechem. This is the literal meeting. Shecham means shoulder,

upper back, a place of bearing a load. Okay, the

city means shoulder, upper back, place of bearing a load,

and it symbolizes authority carried, burden is born and covenant responsibility.

So shechem means right, it means shoulder, it means upper back,

but it symbolizes what a covenant is. And I wrote

this down for you to hear, is that Shechem is

not just a geography.

It's a metaphor.

It's where God places his covenant on the shoulders of

his people. And here's what's beautiful about this because it

has history to it. We've talked about it before, but

I want to show you six different instances where Shechem

is mentioned. And one of the things that I love

about this church that passed the diego founded in Pastor

Adams carrying is that we're a multi generational church. How

many guys love that? And yeah, yeah, you could clap

for that. It's okay, you can clap in church. God

says he's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's

not just the God of Abraham. He's not just the

God of Joshua. He's a threefold god. He man.

And here's what I love about it.

Because the city of Shechem, the land speaks here. The

land the word Shechem means shoulder, means covenant. So when

I wrote down shoulder in the Covenant, here's the six pies.

I want you to write this down or you can

take a picture. Here's where it starts. It starts with

the promise. Everybody say, promise with Abraham when God speaks

destiny over a generation. When Abraham's walking and wandering, when

he left.

His father's house. He has no house.

He's in Canaan and he's passing through Shechem. And that's

where God gives him a promise. You have no kids,

but you're gonna be the father of multitudes. And then

it moves from Abraham to another generation. It moves to Jacob,

Everybody say payment, Say like you mean to come on,

Everybody say payment. It's where faith pays the price before

fulfillment comes. And I just gotta park here because we

don't have too much time. But many of us are

in a place where God has spoken words, but we're

not for it. We're not owning the words. We're just

renting the words. Come on, Jacob, when he moved past there,

it's when he had conflict with his brother Esau, and

he goes to this place and he buys this well

and he puts one hundred dollars on. He said, I'm

gonna put it down payment on the promise and the

blessing of my forefather. My encouragement to you is that

when God speaks to you a word in this moment,

I'm not gonna go on along. But when God speaks

to you a word, have you invested into it? Maybe

your family's dealing with addiction? Where are you investing in God?

You know? As for me and my house, we are

not gonna deal with addiction. We're ending the line here.

Maybe your family's dealing in a financial crisis. You're saying,

you know what that's for me? And my house. I

might not be able to buy this land, but I'm

gonna put it down payment right here, saying in the future,

my future generations will own this land. I don't know

wherever you're at, and the words of God, and you're

wondering what to do. You need to, just like Jacob,

make a payment on your promise. Then what happens Joseph's prophecy.

Everybody say, prophecy is when hope is carried for generations,

not buried in and not buried in bondage, but in

the land of the living. I love this because Joseph

tells everybody. He says, when I die, take my bones

out of here, and I want you to bury me

in the Promised Land. He could have stayed in Egypt.

He did his thing. He actually had a great life

in Egypt, but he knew that he didn't want to

stay in the land of bondage. But he prophesied to say,

my people are going to inherit their promised land. Amen.

And where you're in a place of this place where

you're prophesying over your future. And Joseph, you got to

think about the twelve tribes, Ephraim and Manassa, they're carrying

his bones all over for forty years in the wilderness.

They're carrying his bones and camping with them. And not

only did it symbolize that that life was short, but it.

Was a prophecy of a promise to be fulfilled.

Many of us in the same way this Joseph was

buried in Shechem. He was buried in Covenant, and for

many of us, maybe you're towards the end. You're you're

at a sun setting of your calling and you haven't

walked in it. Can I encourage you with something? You're

in good company Hebrews eleven. It says many of them

didn't walk in their promise, but they saw the land

far come out preaching to somebody tonight and that I

saw the promise. I saw the land in the future,

and I'm walking towards it. They left what was comfortable

and they walked into their future. Some of us in

this room and the rooms that are watching, maybe you're

not gonna inherit your prophecy, but you're saying, hey, when

my family does take my bones and bury him by

my promise, he believed for it, he felt for it.

I love this next one where Joseph or sorry. Where

Joshua he has a partnership. Everybody say partnership. This is

where God invites his people to choose the covenant. Joshua says, listen,

that's for me in my house.

We're gonna serve God.

And everyone else says we will too, We will too,

we will too. But we look at judges and it

says that everyone who knew Joshua died away and they

did what was right in their own eye. Joshua symbolizes

where God invites people to choose, and there's an invitation

for many of us, and we've already made where we're

saying I give you my life. But there's also an

invitation to say, God, I'm choosing the covenant. I'm choosing

to walk with you. Amen. Briefly, in first kings, we're

not going to go to there, but there's pride that

enters in a king named Ria. Baham is where arrogance

destroys what obedience built, and check him is where it

was split. The kingdoms were split, and a few years

later they go into captivity.

But how many of you guys.

Know that what is divided Jesus brings back together.

Can I get an amen? Check this out.

I love this because it's one of my favorite stories.

Everybody say presence and this is what Jesus and John four.

It is the woman at the well when Jesus says, hey,

can I have a drink? And she goes, who are you?

And jesaid, if you knew who was asking you, you

would ask me for a drink and I would give

you a living water. Where living water returns the hee

with history broke. That was in Shechem. That was where

the Covenant was restored. So this story and where Joseph's

Bill and all this stuff, there's history and there's context

to it. Amen, Church. When Jesus says, if you looking

John forward, later on in that scripture, the disciples come

back and the disciples are wondering, man, why is Jesus

talking to a Samaritan woman. And later on the verse

it says, you know that in four months the harvest

is coming, But I tell you open your eyes and

look through the fields, for the harvest is ripe. Harvest

is ripe. Jesus restores the presence, and actually it's the

very first place that he reveals himself as Messiah to

one woman. It was in Shecham there's history in the land.

In the same way I feel like there's history here

where we're at a men church. What land are you

walking in? What p are you walking? And maybe you're

in the promised moment, maybe you're in the prophecy moment,

maybe you're in the payment of wherever you're at in

that place of Shechem. I want to encourage to carry

that covenant, but not only that. When I was thinking

about covenant, when I was thinking about carrying stuff, I

was thinking about the yoke. And in this Bible verse

it says here in Matthew eleven and the New Testament

it should be on the screen, verse twenty nine to thirty,

it says, take my yoke, everybody, say yoke upon you

and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly

in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is what, and my burden is what.

And here's the thing.

What we do.

Some of us we say God, I'll give you my.

Life, but we don't realize it doesn't. That Bible verse

doesn't say that there isn't a yoke. It says the

yoke is easy. It doesn't say there's no burden. It says,

the burden is light. Can I talk to you about

what a yoke is just for two seconds? Can I talk?

Can I talk to you about a yoke for two

se guess? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Check this out on

the screen. The yoke. Yokes were always meant, were always

built for two oxen, never just one. Many people would

understand this at that time. But for some of us

that aren't you know, agriculturally, you know, understood or don't

have a green thumb, or don't understand the fields and

plowing right, people would know when Jesus said, my yoke

is easy, my burden is light. They would immediately go

to two oxen plowing a field. The stronger ox carried

the heavy end and the weaker one or the younger

one learned right and the younger ox learned by walking

in rhythm. I want you to look at this picture.

This is this is you know, shout out to to

online making us picture. I almost had Hobby build me

a yoke without have been too hard, you know what

I mean. But look at this. There's two and Jesus says,

I'm the stronger one. I want you to be yoked

to me. And here's what's really cool. This is what

I thought was really fun. When it says, when it

says my yoke is easy, that word easy means in

the original language, custom fit means, every yoke that God

has for you is the greatest, uh, you know, plowers

of the field, whatever you call it. The greatest. People

that were creating these yokes would custom fit it to

each oxen, so it didn't rub and it didn't hurt

the oxen. Jesus says, the yoke I have for you

is custom fit for you. When Jesus says the burden

in his light, he's saying in that original language, says

he's carrying the heavy part, and we get a walk

with him. Amen, Jesus shoulders the covenant with you. He

carries the weight you cannot.

And real quick, I want to, I want to.

I want to show you something real, real Briefly, Pastor Heron, Gabe,

can you come up here, come on, give it up

for these guys. Well, I haven't staying here. So Pastor

Hern's gonna represent Jesus. Doesn't he look like Jesus? Amen, Hallelujah,

halleluj He's gonna right, he ain't Jesus. We ain't gonna

represent Jesus, can't get a name of okay, and Gabe's

gonna represent someone I'm walking with who's disciple to me.

Just just pause, everybody say pause, okay, pause real quick.

So check this out. What God wants to do in

this verse is he wants to invite us into carrying

that yoke and carrying that burden. And I think the

breakthrough for some of us tonight is gonna be where

you said, God, I want to walk with you, but

I don't want a yoke and I don't want a burden.

Doesn't come that way because walking with Jesus always involves

a yoke, and walking with Jesus always involves a burden.

The yoke is easy, though, and the burden is light.

And I think here's the breakthrough for some of us.

And this is why I brought them up many times.

Let's say Gay brought me to church, or Gabe was

a good friend and he's discipling me and he's walking

with Jesus.

So walk slowly around the cross and I'm.

So excited right because I'm Wow, this is beautiful. I

feel so close to Jesus. I just gave my life

to the Lord, I just got baptized. That just went

all in right, and we're walking through right, and we're

walking in it's amazing.

And maybe some hiccup happens where.

Gabe is is and I get frustrated with each other,

or maybe I move away right and I move somewhere else,

or something comes up. Okay, pause right there. I'm like,

I'm blaming Gabe. I'm like, I used to be close

with God. But my disciple he didn't keep discipling me,

or my church didn't keep pastoring me, or my mentor

didn't keep doing that. No, but the truth was is

I was walking with somebody who was walking with God.

And my question for you and question for me, is this,

are you walking with Jesus or are you walking with

someone who's walking with Jesus? Keep walking, keep walking, walk

off the stage. You're okay, sayah there, Sarah, keep walking.

You can walk down the steps, down the steps. Because

here's the thing is I need to be yoked to Jesus.

I need to be yoked to him. And what happens

so much of the time is get we get frustrated

and we get broken down. Because what happens is I

get distant from Gabe, and I blame Gabe, and I say, man,

it's actually Jesus's fault.

But the truth was, as I had a relationship.

To Jesus through Gabe, I didn't relationship to Jesus through

my church, right, I had a relationship Jay, and I

never was truly walk over here. I was never truly yoked.

Come on, and God has called us to be yoked

to Jesus and some of us to break through tonight.

Is this is Jesus saying, what'd you take my yoke?

Would you take my burden? Can I get in and

give it up for these two? Can it incredible? Give

him the award? Already, give him the award. I want

you to put that question back up there. Are you

walking with Jesus or you're walking with someone who's walking

with Jesus. It's a great question to ask. It's a

great question for us to ask that question to saying, Lord,

am I walking with you? Or to have a relationship

with you through someone else, through another person, through another ministry.

And that's great, that's how it starts. But Jesus invites

each and every one of us to follow him. Amen.

I feel like this is that God has invited us,

just like in check him in those six piece to

carry the covenant. But it's something that what I love

about this verse is that we were never meant to

carry it alone. And then the final point we're wrapping

up here, I want you to write this down to

point number three, The Leader who lives forever, The Leader

who lives forever. As we get the keys going so

the Holy Spirit can come in Hallelojah, The Leader who

lives forever. I like this ending of the verse, and

I'm honored that I got to preach it because the

truth is at the very end of it. Joshua dies

right at the very end of it. Joseph dies, at

the very end of it, Elias dies, and our question

is this man, well, then, who could truly lead us?

Because in Judges I don't have time to go to it,

but if you go to Judges too, it talks about

josh Joshua's death, and then then later what it walks

into is that people rose up and did what was

right in their own eyes and they started serving other idols.

The last point I have on the screen for you

to write down is.

The Leader who lives. Jesus is the greater Joshua.

Every picture, every book in the Bible is pointing from

the Old Testament to Jesus, and then the New Testament

is pointing back to Jesus and forward to his second coming. Amen,

And what Jesus wants to remind us in this story,

even as we went over the book of Joshua, saying.

That great leaders, although they are great, they.

Will pass away, but there is one who will never

pass away. Amen. And Hebrews seven, verse twenty five, it

says this. It says he always lives to make intercession

for them.

Talking about Jesus.

What does it say he would sometimes no, no, no, no.

What does it say he does it on weekdays, five

days a week.

No no, what does it say?

He what somebody say, tap someone hey, everybody says somebody

say always he always lives to make intercession for them.

In Romans eight thirty four, it says this, it's on

the screen Christ, Jesus is at the right hand of

God interceding for us. Amen wrote this down. I want

you to hear. This is that Joshua was buried, but

Jesus got back up. Joshua led them into the land,

but Jesus leads us into life. Joshua's leadership may have ended,

but Jesus's leadership will never end. Joshua's voice fell silent,

but Jesus's voice still speaks.

Come on, I want you to hear this.

We don't live under yesterday's leader. We live under today's intercessor,

the one who went to the cross, who three days

later he rose again. Amen, Church, the leader who lives forever.

I love this because as we end this moment and Joshua,

as we talked about Joshua's title as the servant greatest

one of the greatest leader, He's definitely in that mount

rushmore of great leaders in the Old Testament. But even

someone like a Joshua or Moses couldn't hold people back

from survying other idols. There was a limit to his leadership.

Jesus shows us that he's the greater Joshua, that he's

the one who makes intercession for us, that he's the

one who paid the price for us.

And tonight here's the invitation.

Is what we say yes not only to Jesus as

our Lord and savior, which we'll get in a second,

but what we say yes to shouldering the covenant of

promise that God has asked us to yoke in. He says,

I got a yoke just for you. I got a

burden just for you, and I promise I'm ending. I promise,

I'm ending. But some of us look at this. I

don't need props because I got props right here. We're

carrying something we're never authorized to carry. You follow me,

because some of us need to carry something and other

people need to let certain things down.

And there's some of us.

You've been carrying this pain for ten years. You've been

carrying this offense for twenty years. You've been carrying this

person for so long, and you feel like you gotta

be Jesus. You got that savior complex and Jesus saying,

there are certain things I want you to carry, but

there's other there's other weights that you're not authorized to carry.

And you're asking God, God, would you free me from it? Oh,

it's my burden to bear. God says, no, it's not.

I've actually paid it on the Cross. You can lay

that burden down. And for some of us, tonight we're

gonna get the realization, Wow.

God, you paid.

For that burden already.

I can let that.

Burden down amen, Church. Okay, we're ending and I wanted

just a few questions, few thoughts for you. The question

is is your faith anchored to a leader who can die?

Or or to Jesus who lives forever? Say again, is

your faith anchored to a leader or church or something

that could die, that could pass away that's just human

or mortal, or to Jesus who lives forever. I want

you to if you can't take a picture of or

you could write these last three questions, I want you

to ask yourself. This, ask your family, this, ask a

good friend. This is the first question I want you

to ask as we're ending, is what are you caring

today that Jesus is meant to carry? I want you

to think about that. What are you caring today that

Jesus is meant to carry? The second question I want

you to ask is whose voice is leading you? The

voices of yesterday or the voice of Jesus today? And

the last question I want you to ask yourself is

this what decision is Jesus calling you to make at

your chechem, at your covenant moment. Hey men, Church, here's

what I want to do. We're gonna give an opportunity

to surrender your life to Jesus. But I also want

to give one more kind of invitation for everyone in

the room. So I know we got our kids and

we got to move. Just just stay for one second,

if everyone could bow their heads and close their eyes.

And you know we do this in every service. We

always give opportunity for people to surrender their life to Jesus.

And we believe that our life is sacred and Jesus

paid the price for that. But the truth is, we

also know that tomorrow isn't promised. And when we talk

about the place of decision and legacy, the greatest thing

you could do, the greatest thing you could do, is

surrender your life to Jesus. And so if you know that,

you know that, you know you got to get right

with God, whether for the first time or for the

very last time. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna

count a three and I want you to shoot your

hand up and we want to agree with you on

the greatest decision you can make in your life. All right, Church, One,

Jesus loves you so much. Two, this is the greatest

decision you can make in your life. Three. If that's you,

I want you to lift your hand up right now,

lift your hand up right now. Come on, incredible, come on,

thank you so much, thank you so much, thank you

so much. Come on, it's incredible. Let's pray this out

all together as one family. Say this with me. Say Jesus,

come on, say he let me. They say, Jesus, we

thank you for the price you paid on the cross.

Three days later you rose for the grave. So tonight, Jesus,

I confessed my sins, I asked for forgiveness. I receive

your forgiveness, and I declare Jesus that you are my

Lord and that you are my savior. Come on in

Jesus' name, And everybody said, amen and amen and amen.

Here's what we're gonna do. Let's stand together for a second.

Don't move, just stand with me real quick. We could

all stand together. And if you surrender your life to Jesus,

our senior pastor, Pastor Adam wrote this book following Jesus,

it's a faith journey. And what we want to do

is we want to put it in your hand so

at all our major exits, you could pick this book up,

you know, if you made that decision tonight. And what

we want you to do is we want you to

open up and write your name here and write the

date that you made that decision. And this is just

a little gift on getting started and walking with Jesus.

Say man, Church, we want to put this in your hand,

and we're just so grateful that you made the greatest

decision of your life. Amen. Last thing I want to

pray for you and then I'm gonna let you go,

is that if you just want twenty at the end

of this year, but into twenty twenty six to be

marked by carrying his covenant, to walking with him in

his yoke, to walking with him in his burden.

But you're saying God, I want.

To say yes to you, just like Joshua said, as

for me and my house will serve the Lord. I

want that over my life.

And if that's you, can you.

Lift both hands in the air, lift both hands in

the air, and I want to pray for us together. Lord,

We thank you so much. We take these moments as sacred.

We thank you for the Book of Joshua. We thank

you for the legacy that Joshua left. But Lord, we

want to be walking as a servant who want to

carry your covenant and we trust as you are the

one who lives forever, God ma Arcas in a real

way and moving our lives not just at the end

of this year, but moving into twenty twenty six in

Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen and amen and amen.

If you need additional prayer, you could come up to

the front and remember to pick up your book on

your way out. I love you Church, thank you for coming,

and we will see you this weekend.