Joshua 24 Remembering the Faithfulness of God

Dr. Mann reflects on the importance of the Book of Joshua and how it's often overlooked. He discusses the faithfulness of God during challenging times, using personal experiences like a grandfather's passing to highlight this faithfulness. In Joshua 24, the Israelites gather at Shechem, recalling their history and God's role in their victories. The speaker compares life to a player piano, where God is the true musician behind our challenges and victories. The significance of Shechem as a gathering place for the Israelites is also noted. Alright, it's great to be with you guys again today to finish out Joshua, the book of Joshua. It's been just a wonderful study. I hope that our walk through Joshua has been something that's been helpful for you. It's not a book that we typically look at a whole lot, unfortunately. I mean, we have our favorite verses right out of Joshua, Joshua chapter 1, talking about looking to the Word of God and not turning from the right or to the left and our dependence upon the Word of God. Of course, we're going to look at probably the most well-known verse in the book of Joshua today. But hopefully you've enjoyed the time that we've had to spend going through the book of Joshua. You know those seasons that we go through in life where things are kind of challenging and we go through maybe a lengthy period of challenges, maybe an illness, it may be a struggle of where there's family upheaval and things of that nature. But then after it, it seems like we've just really been tested. Our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our thoughts, the way that we view the world after they've been tested. We make our way through those seasons of challenge and then we get to that moment where we realize that even though it's been the most difficult thing perhaps that we've ever been through, God has made Himself faithful. God has shown Himself to be faithful. And we have these seasons where maybe we gather together as a family or with our loved ones and we talk about how challenging the season was. And yet, God by the Spirit has shown us and reminds us in those moments that God's been faithful even when we didn't know where God was. It happens at funerals. I remember when Sammy's grandfather died, I don't know, what, ten years ago? How long has it been? I remember when he died and just a wonderful man, right? One of those guys that you wish you could be like. He was always joyful, always happy, just seemed to have life figured out. He was really the stability of the family for so many years. And yet, when he passed away after a lengthy health battle, we gathered together after the funeral service and we sat around and what do you do? You laugh. You remember the things that you learned from him. Oh, you have the tears, but when we're believers, it's funny how the tears are always mixed with a smile, right? And all the tears do is they tend to make the twinkle of the eye that is fueled by hope even that much brighter. And we sit around and we think about the challenges and we remember, you know, as hard as it was, God was faithful. And we learned things that we did not anticipate. We celebrate things that we didn't recognize that they were really things to be celebrated when we were going through them. And there is just an emotional, spiritual, mental, physical relief when we gather together and we celebrate the faithfulness of God in the middle of the battle. And that's what Joshua chapter 24 is. They've wandered through the wilderness for 80 years, this being now the second generation. They remember the words of Moses. They remember the times of challenge where, you know, they lamented that God had led them out of the land of slavery. They worried about food. They worried about water. They worried where they were going. And now, in Joshua chapter 24, they reflect back on the battle. They say, you know, even though we had seasons of doubt, God has shown Himself faithful. We know that the greatest hope that we have that God is going to be faithful tomorrow is when we reflect back on yesterday and we see that God was faithful every step of the way. That is what Joshua 24 is. The faithfulness of God. I want us to read, as we begin, Joshua chapter 24, verse 1. And I want us to read these first 13 verses just to kind of set the stage for where we're headed. Joshua 24, beginning in verse 1. Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. Now, that's going to mean a whole lot more than what we realize right now. But Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and he summoned Israel's elders, leaders, judges, and officers, and they presented themselves before God. Think about that scene for just a moment. Here's all the Israelites, 80 years of wandering in the wilderness, all this time battling to gain the land that God had promised them, even though it was God who was actually fighting for them. And here they are, assembling together at Shechem in the presence of God. Joshua said to all the people, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they worshipped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River and led him to the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants, and I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob, and to Jacob Esau. And I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau, the possession. Jacob and his sons, however, they went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I defeated Egypt by what I did within it, and afterward I brought you out. And when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen as far as the sea, and your ancestors cried out to the Lord. And so he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and he brought the sea over them, engulfing them. Your own eyes saw what I did to Egypt. And after that you lived in the wilderness a long time. Later I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought against you, but I handed them over to you. And you possessed their land, and I annihilated them before you. And Balak, son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel, and he sent for Balaam, the son of Baal, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam. Instead, he repeatedly blessed you, and I rescued you from him. You then crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. And Jericho's citizens, as well as the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hethites, the Girgashites, the Hethites, and the Jebusites, and all those otherites, they fought against you. But I handed them over to you. I sent hornets ahead of you, and they drove out the two Amorite kings before you. And it was not by your sword or bow. I gave you a land that you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them. You are eating from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. Isn't it amazing to reflect back on everything that the people had been through, the Israelites had been through? And when they come down to the culmination of this moment, God shows up and speaks to them and says, Do you know all that stuff that you thought that you did so well? Let me tell you how it happened. You know, one of the things that I was fascinated by as a kid, I had zero musical ability whatsoever. I'm pretty good at turning on the radio, and that's about the extent of things that I'm able to do. Brother Jimmy, one time I was preaching, I don't remember what passage I was preaching, but I just felt led of the Lord to sing, Holy, Holy, Holy, one time. When I saw the music minister walking up behind me, I knew it wasn't going well. And so thankfully he came up behind me and he started helping me out, and so I was so grateful for that. Because I have no musical ability whatsoever. And when we think about these people that have great amounts of musical ability, I'm fascinated by them. That's why when I was a kid, one of the things that I loved was those player pianos. You know what I'm talking about? Then you'd put the little scroll or a little part of whatever it was in it, and it'd have all the little dots in it, and it'd run through, and that piano would sit there and play. And I loved to sit down at that piano and act like I was the one that was able to play all that. I'd tell everybody else, y'all stand over there on the back side of the piano and listen to what I can do. Acted like I knew what I was doing. You know, you and I sit at this instrument of life, and we may look like we're the one who is actually making the music, but the reality is that there is someone that is actually playing the tune of our lives, making the challenges and the victories into a beautiful song of praise unto Him. And He's saying to the Israelites, y'all think it was you. You think it was maybe under the great leadership of Moses or the wonderful warfare of Joshua. Y'all think it was you that was accomplishing all of that. And I'm about to let you see behind the scenes. You may have been the one sitting at the piano, but God says it was me that was making that beautiful music that has brought you to this crescendo where you are enjoying everything that you have been given. Notice that this takes place in verse 1. Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. Now, Shechem is a wonderful, wonderful place in biblical history. It's interesting that these events take place at Shechem. The only other national gathering or the previous national gathering of the Israelites that we had seen back in Joshua chapter 18 was at Shiloh, right? You remember the story? And it was there at Shiloh that would initially become the capital city of the Israelites before they would eventually, through a series of events, make their way into Jerusalem where there the ark would be carried to Jerusalem. Initially it was at Shiloh. But here they're having this national gathering not at Jerusalem, not at Shiloh, but at Shechem. What's going on? Did I just lose the microphone or did they turn me down? Every now and then. Do we need some? Oh, it's back on. Yeah, probably the battery getting a little bit weak. You notice I wasn't surprised by that because I'm accustomed to people wanting to turn me down. Yeah, she starts punching the remote control. No, she does not. She does not. Only when I sing. But anyways. It's like when you go into a song. That's right. That's right. When I go into a song. I think this happened to me last time too. Was that me? I don't know. That might have been you, Brother Jimmy. Who did the mic? That might have been, I don't know. Jimmy doesn't remember and I don't either. I'm going to pretend that it was me just so that you'll feel sorry for me. It's a conspiracy theory. Anyways, they gather at Shechem. What's so prominent about Shechem? Matter of fact, jump back to Genesis chapter 12 for just a moment. Go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12. What really is one of the linchpin verses in not Genesis but in the entirety of the Old Testament. Genesis chapter 12 and let's just read it verse 1. You know this covenant with Abraham. I want to show you something that occurs within this covenant of Abraham that perhaps you've not noticed before. Verse 1. Verse 1. Now we talked about that a few weeks ago but we see here where God promised Abraham a land, a lineage and a legacy. Right? I'm going to take you to a land that you don't know. I'm going to give you a lineage that you can't even begin to comprehend how it's going to occur and how broad it's going to be. And I'm going to give you a legacy. If they curse you, I'm going to curse them. And if they bless you, I'm going to bless them. A land, a lineage and a legacy. But notice what happens in verse 4. And so Abraham went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. And Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran. He took his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot and all the possessions that they had accumulated. And the people they had acquired in Haran. And they set out for the land of Canaan. And when they came to the land of Canaan. Notice the journey. When they came to the land of Canaan, verse 6, Abraham passed by the land to the site of Shechem. And notice what happens at Shechem. At Shechem, at the oak of Moriah, at that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land. And so Abraham built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. In other words, the very gathering that has taken place in Joshua 24 is on the exact same spot. Where approximately 800 to 1000 years earlier, God had promised Abraham, I'm going to give you this land. And Abraham was so moved by that promise of God that he built an altar there. And he worshipped God. And now depending on how you count, 800 to 1000 years later, they're standing on that very same land. Celebrating what God had promised, let's say 1000 years earlier. Is that not the very nature of faith? Faith is that we take the promises of God and we believe in them as if they are occurring today while we wait for their fulfillment in our experience. And notice that this was a lengthy season, right? We'd had 400 years of enslavement in Egypt. We'd had 80 years of wandering out in the wilderness and all the challenges. And now the very lineage of Abraham is standing on the spot where God made the promise. And Abraham responded in worship. And this is what they're saying. God has been faithful. You know, it doesn't matter the challenges that we're facing today. And I would imagine that every one of us sitting in this room today is facing a challenge. Maybe it's health. Maybe it's relationship. Maybe it's any numbers of struggles that we face here in this fallen world. But we can know this. No matter how great is our struggle, our God is greater still. And that's why the Bible says, Though the promise tarries, wait for it. Those who wait upon the Lord, Isaiah says, will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and they will not be weary. And they will walk and they will not faint. And that promise is what God gives to His people for those who wait upon the Lord. Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a problem waiting. Y'all probably don't have a problem with patience. I do every now and then. But God fulfills His promises while we live with patience. Well, as we continue to read through the text, the Bible, God recounts everything that He had led them through, right? Verse 3, I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates, led him through the land of Canaan, multiplied his descendants. I gave to him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave the hill country of Assyria to Esau as a possession, Jacob and his sons. Jacob and his sons, however, went down to Egypt. And He walks through all of this history that their people had lived through. We even get a reminder of something we don't read about very often. In verse 9, Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam and said, he repeatedly blessed you and I rescued you from him. Remember, this is the Tonkin Donkey story, right? And so when I think about the Tonkin Donkey story, it always reminds me of an old guy by the name of Martin Luther, right? You're familiar with Martin Luther, great reformation and all of that. And when everybody adored the way that Martin Luther was preaching because he was actually bringing to them the Bible as opposed to what they had experienced before the reformation, they would commend him for how great of a preacher he was. And Luther one time responded, it doesn't matter how great of a preacher you may think that I am for when I begin to think that I'm a great preacher, I reach up and feel my ears and I'm reminded I'm nothing but a donkey. And the God that we serve is a God who's willing to speak through donkeys. He speaks through donkeys. Yeah. You see, God has a way of reminding us that everything that we receive is purely by His grace. He makes this strange comment down here in verse 12, I sent hornets ahead of you and they drove out the two Amorite kings before you whether or not by your sword or by your bow. We don't read anywhere where that happened in the book of Joshua. We don't read where there was this swarm of hornets that would come and overtake them, but we could go back to Exodus 23, verse 28 and there God promises that He's going to drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites, but we don't see anywhere where the hornets play a part in that. Probably what this is in reference to is those seasons where God brought panic upon much stronger armies. And the hornet is a metaphor for the panic that ensued because of what God was doing to their enemies that caused them to flee. And in verse 13, if you don't have this underlined in your Bible, you ought to put a mark on it. I gave you a land that you did not labor for. I gave you cities that you did not build. Though you live in them, you are eating from vineyards and from olive groves that you did not plant. Isn't that a true testimony of all of us? Everything that we think that we possess, we possess only because God in His goodness has baptized us in His grace. He has immersed us in His grace. And as they reflect back on what God has done, they are reminded that they are merely the recipients of God's grace. And after God, through Joshua, recounts all of this, reminding them and showing them what God has done, then Joshua calls them to make a decision. Verse 14, Therefore fear the Lord, and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. You know, when we see the great magnificent power of God, it always comes with an invitation for us to respond to what God has done. That is true in the challenges through which we have struggled. When we've gone through these seasons of testing, these seasons of trial, a sickness, an illness, a relationship difficulty, a life issue, and we reflect back, and God shows us how great He has been, but what always follows that is an invitation for us to respond. Well, that's what the very gospel itself is. God says, I love the world so much that I gave to you my only Son, that if anyone will believe in Him, they will not perish, but they will receive everlasting life. And when we see the cross, we are invited to respond. With faith and repentance. And we see that invitation throughout Scripture, whether it's Elijah saying to the people, if God is God, then worship Him. But if Baal is God, then worship Him. How long will you waver between two opinions? Make a decision. John the Baptist preaching on the banks of the Jordan River. Preaching for people to come and repent and be baptized and pointing them to the land that takes away the sins of the world. An invitation to respond. And so Joshua here issues this in verse 14, an invitation to respond, and he says it's going to be evident in three things. First of all, do you fear the Lord? Do you fear God? Think about the Hebrews, what they had witnessed. They had seen the Red Sea parted. They saw God provide water from a rock and manna from heaven. They saw many of their own countrymen die from the bites of the serpents because they complained about what God was doing. They saw God do these magnificent works. And when the Bible talks about fear, it is reminding us what God is able to do to those who rebel and reject Him. We are to fear the Lord because what He did to the Egyptians, He can also do to the Israelites except for His promise of grace to them and to us. We are to fear the Lord. Secondly, we are to worship, in verse 14, the Lord. To worship Him in sincerity and truth. The word that is used here is the word for faithfulness. To me, it means to worship Him wholeheartedly. To give Him all that we are. That is, not just to be people who worship God on Sunday for that one hour when we are in the worship service, but for our very lives to be acts of worship. To be a living sacrifice like the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 12. Make our lives a living sacrifice. You know, one of the things that helps us to carry ourselves through those challenging seasons is worship. It's worship. It's the words of Job. Though the Lord slay me, I will worship Him still. It is the recognition that God is worthy of our praise no matter our experience. No matter our challenges. God deserves our wholehearted worship. To worship Him in spirit and in truth. The word for truth is the word emeth. It means firm. They are to be and we are to be firm in what we believe about God. Is our faith in Him, is it firm? That's why the Bible tells us, Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, not to build our house on shifting sand, but to build it on rock. To build it on Jesus Christ. To worship Him in faithfulness and in truth. And then finally, they fear the Lord, they worship the Lord, and then finally, they must get rid of their idols. In verse 14, get rid of the gods your ancestors worshipped. Because the one thing that God was showing them through all of these events was that as the Egyptians worshipped a multitude of gods, as the Canaanites worshipped a multitude of gods, there was only one God who was worthy of worship. That's why we see the ten plagues. As God's getting ready to lead them under Moses out of Egypt. Because in each one of those ten plagues, God was showing Himself to be more powerful than the Egyptian small g gods. So get rid of those idols, He says. There is no one who deserves our worship more than God. And then there is a sense of urgency that we read in verse 15. If it doesn't please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today. Don't wait. Don't tarry. God has not promised tomorrow to any of us. So make a decision, Joshua says, today. And then Joshua exhibits the very essence of biblical leadership. I want you to make the right choice. My choice is made. I'm not taking polls. I'm not tabulating votes. It's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. I want you to come with me, he says. But it doesn't matter whether you do or not. I'm serving God. We find ourselves in those situations sometimes, don't we? Where maybe someone wants us to compromise just a little bit. Joshua exhibits the essence of biblical leadership. I'm going to do the right thing, even if I'm the only one doing the right thing. I'm going to serve the Lord. And the people, in verse 16, they reply, well, we will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods. For the Lord our God brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. And He performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us all along the way that we went among all the peoples whose lands we traveled through. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples including the Amorites who lived in the land. And we too will worship our God. But Joshua told the people, you will not be able to worship the Lord because He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. And He will not forgive your transgressions and sins if you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods. He will turn against you and harm you and completely destroy you after He has been good to you. Notice that Joshua follows up the extension of God's grace where you worship Him with a warning. Now, if you abandon God, and what is the rest of the history of the Hebrews, the Israelites? Over and over and over again. And the only thing that we see that is occurring here is it is setting us up for what Judges is going to show us. Every man did that which was right in his own sight. And the very people that made the commitment to follow the Lord after Joshua dies, they unlock the closet doors, they pull those idols off the top shelf, they blow them off, and they set them back in a central place. And they begin to do that which is right in their own eyes. And Joshua warned them of the patient holiness of God. It might seem like we are reading about two different gods. As a matter of fact, there have been some crazy theologians throughout the years that there is a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament as if there are two different gods in the Bible. That is not what is going on here. What we are seeing is we are seeing the point where God's holiness and His love meet. Because what God is actually saying here, what Joshua is saying about God is actually itself love. You see, God is not 50% holy and 50% love. God is 100% holy and 100% love. You know, the Bible only attributes, well, the Bible attributes these two words to God directly. The Bible says, God is holy. Be ye holy as I am holy. And the Bible says in 1 John, God is love. Because holiness and love are not different. They are the same. James Leo Garrett, if you read it the second time, it's James Leo Garret-er because my editor apparently took the day off yesterday. You'll find some more in there too, by the way. Sandy pointed out, she said, Garret-er? She was very kind. She said, Garret-er? I said, well, I was a little tired by that point. I found about three or four other errors that I didn't point out to her. I might go see if you can find them now. He said that these two primary attributes of God, holiness and love, they belong together, not separate. For example, wrath and love go hand in hand. God has blessed me to be a girl dad and now a girl doc or granddad. That's all I've got is girls. I had a boy dog one time. His name was Starbucks. He was my study buddy. Went through a few different degrees with me. Always at my feet. That's as close as I ever got to a boy. There were many times that Starbucks and I left ourselves locked away, English Fosstown, left ourselves locked away in the room because there was girl drama going on with high school girls and all of that. So I was content to be reading a book or something. Very blessed by the Lord to be a... I used to think I'd like to have a boy. But then I began to realize, I'm kind of getting all the attention with all these girls around. I'm okay with that. And the most loving thing that I can do for my girls is that if they feel attacked, I get a little bit of divine wrath that builds up against the attacker. Because that righteous indignation is itself an act of love for those that I have been given to protect. And what God is saying here, is He is saying, I love you so much that I'm going to protect you. And sometimes what I've got to protect you from is yourself. We have met the enemy. And it is me. Sometimes what God has to protect us from is Himself. And so that's why God will issue these stern proclamations. I can't wait to hear how Brother Jimmy is going to handle Hebrews chapter 6. It's going to be fun, Brother Jimmy. I'm looking forward to it. We'll see. But that's a difficult verse to do just like this one right here. So we have this idea that this is what's going to happen. They commit themselves to follow the Lord. And there they enter into a covenant. They set up ordinances. They set a stone. Because there is this visible representation that signifies their commitment to the Lord. So let me touch on this before I've got to get to the end real quick. Think about the visible representation. These stones are set up. They have the ordinances. They have the covenant. They establish all of this in verses about 21 all the way through 28. And they set all this up to remind them just like they had set up the memorial stones when they crossed over to Jordan earlier on in Joshua, I think, chapter 4. They set up all those memorial stones. And all this is going on is a visible reminder. We have our ordinances as well. When we celebrate the taking of the Lord's Supper, we are reminding ourselves that the bread that was crushed and the blood that was spilled is signified in those elements. An ordinance. A gospel. This is the blood of the new covenant. We do so in baptism where we are buried with Christ in Romans chapter 6 and raised to walk in a new life. And these are visible representations of the commitment that we have made to follow the Lord. And they're doing something similar right here. Now, I've got to get to this end because this is great the way Joshua ends. You see, the book of Joshua seems to end on this positive note. We read in verse 29, after these things, the Lord's servant Joshua, the son of Nun. We haven't heard his full name since the beginning of Joshua. He died at 110 years old. They buried him in the allotted territory at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gosh. And Israel worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua's lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua who had experienced all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. In other words, notice that Joshua's statement back in verse 15, Choose for yourselves whom you're going to serve. That's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. The people got on board with that. And they worshiped the Lord in verse 31 throughout Joshua's lifetime and thereafter because he has established this legacy. And so he is buried in the land of his inheritance. But then we see something interesting in verse 32. Joseph's bones. Remember Joseph? All the way back in Genesis chapter 50 where we close out with Joseph. 400 years of slavery. And they gathered up his bones and they brought those bones and they buried them in the land of promise because it reminds us that we may not always possess the promises of God in this lifetime, but friends, there is the knowledge that the end of this life is merely the beginning of eternal life. And so Joseph received his promise even after his life had come to an end. But God showed himself faithful. But there's a third burial. Notice this third burial. Verse 33. And Eliezer the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah which had been given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim. So we read about all these wars and we read about all these challenges and that's the way it ends? Seems kind of dull, doesn't it? Until you realize what God is doing. Who is Aaron? The lineage of the priests. Eliezer, who himself would become a priest, the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah which had been given to his son Phinehas in the hill country. And so we have a lineage of priests. And there's two things about these priests that we need to keep in mind. Number one, these priests, though they are priests, they still fail. And number two, though they are priests, they still die. But God has promised us a priest who will not fail. And a priest who will not die. And we will read about that great high priest in the book of Hebrews. You see, even though they thought that it all had come to an end, God was signifying what He was going to do hundreds and hundreds of years later. And He was going to use a perpetual priesthood to point toward an eternal priesthood. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And we see interwoven throughout the book of Joshua at least five threads. God blesses His people. God is faithful to His people. God honors His covenant. God is holy. And God gives rest. And I would end with the words of J.I. Packer. God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, but we may learn thankfully to lean on Him. Therefore, He takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in Himself. In a classical scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly life, we are to wait on the Lord. And that's what Joshua shows us from chapter 1 to chapter 24. Amen? Father, we thank You that even when we have questions, even when we have struggles, even when we may even have doubts, You are faithful still. Thank You, Lord, for the book of Joshua. May we learn from it and may it apply to our lives as we seek to be faithful toward You. Bless us, we pray, as we continue to serve You. In Jesus' name. Amen. Good to see you today. Oh, I've loved the book of Joshua. This has been great. I don't know where you got it, but I got it out of my heart, too. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Were you supposed to also include Jesus? No. That would have been a good idea, yeah. Did you do it? No. There's a place up there that has a provision for something like that. It's not set up for that type of thing. Okay. All right. Grandfather. Oh, thank you. We're enjoying your teaching. Thank you, Pastor. I appreciate that. Thank you.