I’m in the end of receiving my Masters Degree in Clinical Counseling and I have class on Tuesday nights when the Vine teaching team meets. I’m in the last phase of my Capstone Project for school and I felt the Spirit say relax and be still and to lay it aside for a time. 12 days ago it was February 28 and I looked at my phone it was 6:05 am (there’s a reason why I’m saying this) and Matthew called and asked if I would preach today about Joshua’s farewell address. I chuckled to myself and thought, yep, I’ll always answer the call, and it was God’s sovereign plan. Little did I know that I would be immersed for 7 days in this passage and it would be a tremendous comfort to me and that I would need it for what would happen 7 days later. It’s all God’s plan.
So we’re coming to the end of Joshua and the text tells us about the twenty years that have passed from chapter 22 to this chapter 23. Israel’s now established in the Promised Land, the military campaign is over, and Joshua is a very old man and he brings the leadership team together and he has a word to say. The title of this message is “Passing the Baton.” Many times Paul makes references to being a soldier and an athlete and talks about the race set before us. So this is a race set before us individually and a race with our loved ones and that at some point and some place we’re going to pass the baton. And it makes you think about yourself, what are you going to say if you’re in Joshua’s shoes one day and will your life match what you say? What would you say to your kids in the next generation? What would you say to your kids and those who would follow you? What would you really want them to know? To hold on to? What would be important to you to hold onto and want them to know?
When I was asked to give this message it took me to a place that I really haven’t been able to go without getting emotional so I went back to someone who was tremendously influential in my life—my mother. My mother has been gone now nearly 20 years. It was the first time that I’ve been able to read the journal that she left for me and my wife and read the journal and cards she left for my son (at the time we just had one child) and she didn’t know that two years before she started writing that journal in 2002 that in two years she would get sick and within six months die of cancer. So I’m looking at this for the first time with clear lenses without getting emotional. And her writings were reflecting on life and passing the baton and sharing some things to us—the things she learned that were important and to focus on the things that really mattered in life. This past week I noticed something I never saw before. Even though she emphasized and focused on the things she wanted us to do, the thrust and the gist of everything was on what not to do. As she shared things that she hoped we would avoid and the mistakes she made that she hoped we would not repeat. In many ways, that’s what this chapter is all about in Joshua 23. While I’m immersing myself in this passage, I thought about my mom’s writings. My father passed away on this Wednesday, March 8th, and that’s another layer to the differences of farewells and experiences in your life which I will explain a bit later.
So Joshua’s at the end of his life, he’s reflecting on things and he wants to call together the leadership team to tell what he’s learned, what really matters, what he’s discovered, what he wants us to focus on and what he wants us to avoid. He doesn’t want to see them repeat any mistakes and the reason he pulls the leadership team together is to be faithful and teach the people to be faithful. So godly leadership is so critical today to the people of God and it’s incredibly true all the time. So one of the questions I want to put on your hearts today as we go through this passage today is if we’re being intentional about raising up godly leaders? Not just the elders, the seed group leaders, the facilitators which is huge and a must, but are we intentional about raising up godly husbands, wives, young men and women, boys and girls? The old adage is, are leaders made or are they born? I think the leaders are made because of what I read in the bible. You see there’s a grain of truth where discipled over time Moses disciples Joshua, Elijah discipled Elisha, and most importantly Jesus discipled his followers and there’s an emphasis in the bible on raising up godly leadership and people. It’s such a call for us to be intentional about this with men and women, boys and girls and when we break down this passage we’ll look at what Joshua calls the people to do, but we’ll also look at the things that Joshua tells the people to avoid, the warnings.
There’s three things this morning we’re going to look at.
- Total obedience to the Word of God.
Joshua 23:1-3 “A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. 3 And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the Lordyour God who has fought for you.”
Joshua begins his address by giving all glory to God. It could have been so easy for him as a military leader to focus on what he had done, because it was very impressive, but he gave the glory to God. They were only victorious because God had worked through them.
Joshua 23:4-5 4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.
Under Joshua’s leadership, the Israelites broke the back of the Canaanite occupation. In the same way God gives every believer an inheritance, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) and God has a definite part for all of us to play in coming to possess that inheritance.
Warning #1 from Joshua to the next generation is that you are a follower of God first and a leader second. The opening words of Joshua were on the death of Moses and Joshua as the successor. The baton gets passed. At the end of this book with Joshua’s impending death and no immediate successor what happened? DId Joshua fail? Was that wrong? Of course not, God wants to make it clear that he is the leader. Unlike all the nations around you who want a king, he’s teaching them, especially the leadership, you answer to Me. You are a follower first and a leader second. He drives this point home in two ways. In verses 3-4 he says, remember how I led you in the past, remember you are where you are because of me, and remember that’s why you’re here and remember you didn’t win the battles you just simply followed my lead. Period. When he transitions to verse 5 he says you’ll need to continue to do this in the future, because even though the campaign is over, the land hasn’t been completely conquered. There were still nations that had to be driven out. So the initial mission was over, but the mission was still not completed. So you’re wondering, why did they stop halfway? We don’t have the time to go through that, but if you look at Deuteronomy 7 you’ll see that they were to take the land little by little as the population grew and as the people were expected to advance and conquer. So God is teaching future generations. Generational challenges are there. Some of you here may be first generation believers and you think about all those things as the Lord is renewing and transforming your mind and you perhaps weren’t raised in a Christian home with a godly father or mother and so the Lord works amazing things through you. We don’t do all of it because we’re imperfect people. There’s elements and layers left for the next generation. My children are going to have to own their faith and my children are going to have to fight their battles and step out in faith, and step out in faith, and step out in faith again. This is what Joshua is telling the future generation. His concern is to the leaders is not to forget what made you successful in the past and it’s a legitimate concern. If you recall how the people became proud and started looking to themselves and said look at what we’ve done. So he hammers it home. You’re a follower first and a leader second.
The world is so desperate for this next quality. And here at Liberty High School we think about this quality on our leadership team, believer or not. The most important quality in a leader is humility. A humble person has an understanding of who God is and what God has done and will continue to do. A quote that has always made an impression on me is from a 6th century monk, John Clemicus, and he says, “Humility is the only virtue that no devil can imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there’s no doubt that humility could make angels out of demons.” That’s true of our leadership team here, of husbands of wives, singles, young and old. The Holy Spirit is attracted to humility and when we are on our knees in that secret place in that prayer closet is where we discover if we’re trying to lead ourselves or if we’re following God because in this place we not only see our dependence and need but we recognize we are nothing without God almighty.
Jesus as the greater Joshua, demonstrated what it means to live in complete reliance on God. Luke 5:16 says, “So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Humility. If you go to that chapter right now, you’ll see follower first, leadership activity second. In chapter 5 he’s calling the disciples, performing miracles, cleansing and healing the leper, then he withdraws in the secret place, just one quick line there and boom there’s action and activity again; he goes back to forgiving, to healing the paralytic, he calls Matthew, and he teaches and he schools the hardhearted religious leaders and scribes. If you go right through you’ll miss it. It’s the first time it jumped out at me. It’s embedded in all that activity and like our lives, like my life, I can go, go, go, go and lead from my natural self and not daily, preferably frequently in a day, withdraw. In his shadow, relying on him, depending on him, pushing my natural self aside, and that’s what we need today. Follower first, leader second. If you want to be in a relationship with someone, you need to learn that you’re a follower first and a leader second. Raising up our young people and teaching them to pray in the secret place, in that closet – not because it’s routine, not because it’s tradition, but because it’s life. It is life in that space and that’s where we’re followers first and leaders second.
I think about what God sometimes gives us as a gift and we can sometimes forget what I’m talking about. This week I had an exercise in follow first, lead second. When I uncovered my father this Tuesday afternoon, I left work, he didn’t go to his dialysis appointment because he couldn’t and didn’t want to. I went to pick up some food for him and the state he was in when I uncovered him and in that state it was very natural for me, in this place in this building, I’m making decisions, my two guidance counselors are here now, they know constant decisions are being made, multiple times in a minute and so you’re programmed and trained to just get stuff done, grab the bull by the horns, grab the reins, it’s become very natural. And in my family, my wife would tell you, that’s the kind of stuff I’ve done. 28 years ago when I came back from college from doing my undergrad and my father was in a stupor and he was not well and basically he’d listen to nobody. I’m the person who said either you get up and you go with me right now or I’m going to throw you on my back (cuz back then I was a football player and I was lifting and I couldn’t do it now), but you’re coming with me and you’re going. He said alright I’ll listen to you. My dad would have died. His blood sugar was over 500, he had an infection, all crazy stuff was going on and he went. And it’s so easy for me now to just take charge. But when I came on that Tuesday after work and I saw him in the state that he was in, it is very natural for me to be influential with him, it is very natural to get things done, but in that space I had to follow first and lead second and in that space the still, small voice, a lot was put on my natural self and I had to respect the prompting of the Holy Spirit and know this is probably the last time you’re going to see him and so much in my natural self said I know I can call 911, I know I can take him in the car, and think that we can play God and prolong his life. This is the civil war that was going on. In that moment, the Holy Spirit, that still small voice was wooing me to respect, put a lock on my natural self. I had to follow first and lead second. As we said our goodbyes, it was like God gives you just enough, but not all of it because in my natural self I want to take control. But God gave enough glimpse to know that this is the last time. I had to practice follow first and lead second and that’s really hard sometimes when God has given you certain traits. Follow first, lead second.
From Joshua 23:6 “Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left,”
You have to be courageous to be obedient and to follow God because it isn’t for the faint of heart. Our job is to believe what you find in the Word. We want to focus on obedience. Sometimes we want to focus on the parts we like and skip over the parts that attract me less. With the help of the Holy Spirit – obey it all. Unless you turn aside from it, because the enemy doesn’t care which extreme he’s going to push us – legalism “chosen frozen” or the other extreme, a nice big word – licentiousness among God’s people. Where anything goes among God’s people because God will forgive me.
So the 2nd exhortation is: Don’t make peace with the enemy!
Joshua 23:7-8 says “…that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.”
So Joshua exhorts the people to not make mention of the false gods of the Canaanites. Instead of learning about them, hold fast to the Lord your God. Be loyal to God, but not compromise with the world. We’re living in the world, but not of the world like John 17:11, 16 says. We have to be distinct and reflect his character.
Warning #2 is don’t compromise with the culture around you.
The Israelites had not driven out all the nations, so they lived in close proximity to other nations, other religions, other gods. Through Moses, through Joshua, God drove home this message, “Don’t compromise your faith on account of the culture around you.” It’s such a critical message for us today. Would you not agree? There’s 3 things that Joshua says don’t compromise and the 1st one is, “Don’t compromise the Word of God. This is what separates the denominations. The very thing God shares with them at the opening of this book, Joshua shares with his successors. This is God’s instruction. His playbook for life on how to live. Hold fast to the Lord – it’s so critical for us today because we’re living in such broken, dark, and difficult times. I’m trying to reconcile the fact that I’m in this band room on Sunday which is so beautiful and graceful versus what it is Monday-Friday. Let the Word of God be a lamp unto your feet. You remember the story of Christ as he’s tempted by the devil in the wilderness. The punk of darkness says, “You can have this or I could do this or that for you.” And all three times Christ responds with “It is written” “It is written” “It is written” and he quotes the Word of God and he shows us how to face trials and temptations. He’s basing everything he says and does on the Word of God and not compromising. How is our conviction with this and our willingness to compromise or not, our commitment to spend time in it. That’s my prayer for this body, this church – that as we grow, we continue to grow deep roots in the Word of God, that marriages are driven by the Word of God, that young people grow up in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding from the Word of God and not from TikTok and Instachat and Snapgram – I changed up those names on purpose – meaning the culture around them. That the Word of God would drive them and relationships and friendships would be driven by the Word of God. That passion and value for the Word of God is the primary fuel to renew and transform our minds. Amen?! Don’t compromise who you worship!
These fake gods – don’t bow down to them, don’t serve them, don’t worship them, don’t swear by them. Hold fast to the Lord your God and don’t compromise who you worship. God must be the uncompromising worship of your life. Be careful that the greatest wound in your life doesn’t become a stumbling block. How do we avoid this? Through the Word of God, prayer, and our fellow brothers and sisters – our Seed Groups – where we work out our faith with trembling and fear, respect and knowing our dependence is how you can break down fear and trembling and we work out our salvation to our source of salvation – His Word and we renew our minds and our hearts as it says in Romans and coming into his presence. And so as I shared earlier with you, how does this apply and make sense to you today? For some of us men here, we have to push back and battle back the idol – the god of achievement. Yes, we’re not called to be idle, we are called to do some things, but where am I in that department, with the god of achievement? Or how about this, I see this all the time in my job – the god of family? Family is beautiful, but if you’re coming from a place of a wound you can turn your family and your children into holy vessels of self-esteem and be that hovering idol parent that we face everyday here Monday-Friday. Are you making your children or family an idol? And what I mentioned earlier for myself. The god of control – the god of ‘me’. So these are things for all of us to think about with our hearts.
Joshua 23:9-13 For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. 10 One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. 11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you,13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.
So verse 9 – as they continue to abide in the Lord, He would do great and mighty things through them. There’s a biblical promise in verse 10 about one man of you shall chase a thousand and when God fights for us we don’t have to worry about the number or the odds. If you’re on God’s team, the odds are always in your favor. Amen? It says love the Lord your God. It says, “If indeed you go back and cling to the remnant of these nations and make marriages with them and go into them and they to you – I’ll explain that in a moment. And he talks about scourges and snares and traps and thorns. If you don’t separate yourself from the ungodly influences, then those influences will become places of torture leading to destruction but they never parade or advertise themselves like that – of instruments of eventual pain and torture. They present themselves as wonderful things, but you have to see with your spiritual lens through all of this. I want to make a reference to when Joshua exhorted the Israelites in verse 12 not to intermarry with the surrounding people. Let’s get this straight, I know this body knows, there is no scriptural prohibition against marrying someone obviously of another ethnicity or race – at all. Joseph and Moses both had interracial marriages in that sense and I can give you the scripture verses for that if you would like afterwards in Genesis, Exodus, and Judges. And all people descended from Adam and Eve and are of equal worth in God’s eyes. Amen? In Genesis and Acts it clearly shows that. But here’s what he’s saying in that, there’s a prohibition in marrying somebody of another religion, that’s marrying someone who believes in and worships other gods rather than the one true God. So if you’re a believer and I know there’s some young people here, who may be going through pre-marital counseling, this is the only thing you need to remember. If you’re a believer seeking a spouse you need to marry someone who’s going in the same direction spiritually. And this is the reason for God’s intermarriage prohibition for Israel – you ignore that and they’re going to turn your heart away from Me. So about the only original thing I ever came up with is right behind me and this is what I’ve told them, and my son checked the box, he’s accomplished that, now I’m prayerfully praying for our two daughters and they better. So what I have to say here for young folks is “Marry someone that loves Christ at the very least as much as you do, preferably more than you.” Everything else is secondary. Honestly, I’ve never read that, but that’s it and it really is a foundational piece.
There are 3 things not to compromise on and I’ll touch on these verses. Don’t compromise with how you live. So Joshua is pleading with the next generation – look at what God has done for you and look at the power God has given you. One of you fights a thousand and look at what you’ve done in His strength. Love the Lord and live like you love him! He continues, “If you align yourselves with these other nations, you’ll end up being just like them and I’m not going to be with you. And that’s the simple warning, don’t compromise how you live. That doesn’t mean today that we don’t engage with the culture. Don’t go home and think we need to go to a remote island – although I do joke around about it that I’m going to go back to Greece on an island, but I’m just kidding. You go to a remote island and construct a little blessing community with a little fortress like we’re in Waco, Texas. That’s not what we’re saying here. We’re not doing that – Jesus engaged with everybody in love and in truth. Here’s the deal, he was inclusive in all his interactions, while sharing the exclusivity of his truth. He loved them all, but he was not going to compromise on the exclusivity of what he was sharing. There’s two things we need to take seriously from this passage and one of them is that if we don’t handle the culture around us with wisdom through the Word of God, it’ll become a snare, a trap, a whip for us and thorns in our eyes. And secondly, we need to live distinctly—bold, underlined—distinctly Christian lives to be set apart, to be holy, to be agios – as in the Greek word to be set apart, to be holy. He called us to be light in the world, very distinct from darkness. In the early church, specifically Peter and John, were filled with the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem and they were preaching the gospel. At some point, the religious order—the Sanhedrin—is already concocting in their minds how they want to bring these two guys in on charges of blasphemy and then we’re going to torture them and we’re going to murder them, just like we did to their leader, Jesus. And listen to Acts 14, this is how the Sanhedrin responded when they heard Peter and John, these untrained, uneducated, country bumpkin, backwater hicks from Galilee with our version of a G.E.D. or maybe just a high school diploma if you’re lucky addressing the Harvard religious leaders of their day (there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way, we have ivy leaguers here, I’m just making a point). Acts 4:13 says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” They thavmase—they marveled in the Greek. When people see my life, when people see our lives, should they see a life that looks exactly like the culture around us? Of course not. Marriages. When people look at our marriages, would people say, “Those are two ordinary people, but I can tell you what, they’ve been with Jesus. When people see our young people, maybe at a job or in school, maybe people say, “Maybe he or she isn’t that experienced in life, or schooled, but I can tell that he or she is different. They’ve been with Jesus. As Paul says, “Examine yourself.” If someone were to look at you from the outside, a different vantage point, would they say, there’s a person who’s been with Jesus? So don’t compromise with the culture around you. Amen? God’s faithfulness works both ways.
Joshua 23:14-16 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
He’s repeating the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience that was a specific part of Israel’s covenant with God and you’ll see that specifically in Lev 26 and Deut 28. He emphasized that God would be just as faithful to judge as he’s been to bless and to enjoy the promises of land that people would be required to give your loyalty and your commitment. And Joshua knew something, here’s the spoiler alert, one generation later and in the next book of the bible, in Judges, specifically Judges 21:25 it records a time of anarchy, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” You know what that parades itself as today? Two words: “My truth.” So Israel fails to do this and they would lose their land, they would lose their blessings and eventually they’re going to lose their freedom, and so closing with this (I have about 3 closings – just kidding.)
Verses 14-16 – Don’t take God’s grace for granted! That’s a word that’s been abused and doesn’t even have the right connotation in our world anymore. The closing words were heavy words that were just read. It’s a heavy way to end an address as you’re going the way of the earth – he’s ready to die. But it’s a warning, it’s a warning against apathy, it’s a warning against laziness, and a warning against Christian cruise control because the idea that just because I’m in a covenant relationship with God, that everything is fine and I don’t need to worry about a thing, or worry about how I live. And Joshua comes down so hard on this idea of Christian cruise control because he knows that if apathy and entitlement creep in among God’s people it’s going to be a cancer and God’s going to root it out in no uncertain terms. Verse 14 is talking in covenant language about the promises, the obligations, the blessings, and the curse. Make no mistake about the fact that God is faithful to the curses as well. Make no mistake about it – God didn’t have to include you or me, he didn’t have to call us out of darkness into the light. He didn’t have to pull us out of the miry clay as he did to the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. If you don’t hold fast to Him and love Him above all else as your first love, then He doesn’t need to include you.
It says in that final verse 16 that you’ll be cut off and you’ll perish in the land. It’s such a heavy last verse because it’s such a serious mistake that I can make, that we can make. I started off with my father’s letters, cards, and journals, and if there’s one thing that these seven days have taught me, that if I’m going to write a letter to my own kids, my own son and daughters, to our spiritual sons and daughters, at the top of that letter would be to not take God’s grace for granted because He doesn’t just covenant with us as individuals, but He covenants with us as a family as a community and so whether you’re young, old, in-between, He’s calling you and He’s set you apart for service. There are promises that are extended to you and you enjoy the good things of the Lord. Think about this for a second: Vine Church, we’re growing up in a community where the Word of God is being preached. Amen? Many of you have grown up in homes where the Word of God is taught and that’s how God works by His Spirit. We were just singing His promises before. We teach the promises of God as parents. And some of you may not be able to relate to this. I didn’t grow up in a bible believing home. The Word of God was not taught, preached, modeled. I didn’t hear about these promises until I was 29, and in love, the person who most negatively influenced me spiritually was my dad. He came to the Lord at 78, but I grew up as a teenager with him blaspheming this Jewish mythology of this carpenter—the seeds that were deposited in myself and my brothers, and I praised God despite all of that and he got so angry when my wife and myself would try to minister to him and praise God at 78 when he was in the miry clay and the pit, in conversation, he crossed the line of faith at 78 and perhaps the sanctification process wasn’t fully flowing through him, but praise God that he doesn’t have to be in eternal darkness. We never know when it’s our time. We’re never going to know, like my father this past Wednesday and that’s why I’ve been sharing God’s good Word and His gospel with you because right here, right now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. Amen?
So Joshua’s warnings: Don’t take God’s grace for granted. The promises must be received in faith. The one thing that has plagued God’s people is Christian cruise control – Don’t do it! Receive these promises, don’t be like the generation before mine, that’s what he’s saying, and it’s not just Joshua, it’s the author of Hebrews in 4:2, “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” So he’s speaking of the generation of Moses. They heard the good news. They had it preached to them, but it was of no value unless it’s combined with faith. Today we’re in a covenant community. He still covenants with each and every one of us and it’s amazing the things that he does. It’s amazing that Christ is our High Priest and we have been called to a new and better covenant and by his blood he sets us free. Hebrews 10:29 says, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” So God wants to be in relationship with us and it’s a relationship built on love. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He promised that one day he’s going to take you and I to a good, good land—it’s where my baba is right now. Each and every one of us needs to decide and to hold that promise in faith. And I’ll close as I’m taking this baton here, because in one fell swoop, the baton was passed from my father to me, and I told you that story about putting a lock on it – following the leading of the Spirit, if you know anything else about my family, when these things happen, I’m usually the one that has a couple words to say and God was so clear on how I was supposed to be on Tuesday – it was to just let go. And he was clear on one more thing, that I would be passing the baton to my son on Monday, who is 21 years old and a seminary student and he is going to give the eulogy for my father at the viewing. I’m the one who did it years ago for our mother, everyone was expecting that, but I’m following first and leading second. The good thing about the next generation and the young people in our community is that there’s nothing greater than to look on a grandson giving that word, but I’m also learning as Joshua said to put them in these situations and train the next generation up. My son is used to preaching all throughout Virginia to a very cooperative group of people, if you will. But my son is going to have to give a message to individuals there who will be respectful, but in their hearts many do not believe what we believe and many will be despising his youth and many will be looking at him with the words in their hearts “unqualified” because you don’t come from a priest lineage. Hallelujah, how great is God? That’s okay. Because we know what we know what we know and as I train him up and as we joke around because we’re big Pittsburgh Steelers fans – you’re going into a hostile environment, Baltimore Ravens, baby! And guess what? There’s no better training ground for that because when he was 13 his verse that I spoke over his life was Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” And later on it says wherever your foot treads, I have given you. So remember when we spoke of one man fighting against one thousand, Jesus did that. I go back to, son, whenever you’re on God’s side, everywhere you go is home field. When he fights for us it doesn’t matter who’s against you, it doesn’t matter the numbers. With God you’re a majority. Amen? The odds are always in our favor.