(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, similar to what we did last week, I am not going to be going through each verse that we just read, and for pretty obvious reasons you probably realize, okay, what are you going to say about each one? I'm not going to go through and go in depth on each one of these kings, because quite frankly there's not very much information in the Bible about them anyways. So what I'm going to cover tonight, obviously what we see here now is, you know, in the first ten chapters of the book of Joshua there's a lot of action going on, a lot of fighting, a lot of testing, and the children of Israel are going through these great battles and great wars, and we get some insight into a few of them, right? We see some very specific details of what's going on with Jericho and with A.I., right, and some of these other battles, and they fight a few of these battles and we see a lot more into them. But then we get to, like we were last week, in verse 18 of chapter 11, the Bible says Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. So it starts to summarize, you know, Joshua's fighting and fighting and fighting, and these wars that we read over very quickly are like, here in one chapter you've got tons of work and battles and fight and year after year after year after year of battling and fighting is all just summed up into one chapter. And we have to realize these, I think this is great, first of all, I think it's great to go back and to just list off all of your victories. And it takes the time and just says, the king here won, the king there won, this king won, and it counts up all of the different victories, all of the kings that they beat, all of these great triumphs that they won through the power of God to go in and win all of these battles. And what we see in this chapter, we see him, he split up the battles that Moses won and then the battles that Joshua won. Now ultimately, God's the one who wins all the battles for him, but we see here he's given this credit because this is the book of Joshua, Joshua writes this book and he's given a credit to Moses and all the work that he had done up until they crossed over the River Jordan and then they go in and then the battles that Joshua had led. And in verse 23 of chapter 11 as well, it's the last verse of chapter 11, the Bible says, so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes and the land rested from war. So essentially what we see here is that there is an entire lifetime of war because chapter 12 was another summary chapter, as is chapter 12, chapter 11 and 12 are kind of summary and then chapter 13, it starts off telling us, and we'll get into this a little bit more next week, but it tells us that Joshua was old and stricken in years in verse number one, and the Lord said unto them, thou art old and stricken in years and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. So Joshua is fighting a lifetime of battles, of wars, of fights, and what does God say to him? There's still more to do, there's still more. We need to remember that, you know, we are living this life here and our life here is temporary, it's short, it's actually a very short time. Even if you live to be a hundred years old, in the grand scheme of things it's very short. The Bible says what is your life is but a vapor that appeareth for a short time and vanishes away. That's how the Bible tells us about our lives, and you know, the younger guys, the younger crowd of guys, women, whatever, it's harder for you to understand this, but the older you get, man, the faster time just seems to fly, and every single day and every single year just goes faster and faster and faster and faster, and you start realizing, oh man, where did all the time go? Where did it all go? Because when you're young you've got this great vision, hopefully, you've got this great vision of all the things that you can do, and everything's open for you, and you've got all this time, and oh man, I could do this and I could do that, and I could do these great works and great things. But be careful that you actually work to do them, because before you know it, you're going to turn around and say, what happened to the time? Where did it all go? It's not really that long. We have a short bit of time to work at, and you know what God wants us to do? He wants us to work. He wants us to get in the fight. He wants us to get in. He wants us to do something that really matters with our life. We need to get involved in the spiritual. The Bible says that our fight, our battle, we see here in the book of Joshua, Joshua was fighting physically. He was fighting physically to physically conquer the Promised Land and to inherit that land. Obviously there's a spiritual application here. With all the fighting that he's doing and inheriting that Promised Land, we need to battle. We need to fight until we can enter into the rest of our Lord. The Bible says that our battle is not a physical one, but we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the spiritual darkness in high places, and the rulers of the darkness of this world. That's who our fight is against. It says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but that means we do wrestle. We still are in a wrestling match. We're still in a fight. As the Bible says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand, that we need to be able to stand, we need to be able to fight, we need to be prepared. It is a fight. It is a battle. Don't be disturbed or brainwashed by the people that are brainwashed themselves, the Christians that want to tell you that, oh, you're not being very Christian because you're involved in some conflict, because you're involved in some things that make people upset. They have this idea of Christianity that, like, Jesus would never say anything that might offend somebody, and that he would just go along to get along. Well, that's a false Jesus. They don't know Jesus very well if you think that that's how Jesus would act. I'm not saying they're not saved, but if that's how they think Jesus would be acting, they don't know him very well. They don't read their Bible very much. Maybe I have to remind you, you know, Jesus was put to death for the things that he said. I think that offended people. If you offend someone to the point that they want to kill you and they're conspiring against you to put you to death, yeah, you're saying some things that people don't really like. Even his own disciples, in the book of John, when he's saying, you know, I'm the bread of life that came down from heaven, he says, you've got to eat this bread and eat my flesh and drink my blood and all this stuff, and people are just like, whoa, what are you talking about? And a lot of people got offended at him when he was preaching that sermon, and a lot of people left. A lot of people who were following were just like, whoa, I don't know about this guy. You know what he said to his disciples? He said, does this offend you? You offended? You want to go? Go ahead. You're going to go follow someone else? Go ahead. And they're like, Lord, who else are we going to follow? You got the words of life. We know you're the Christ. They followed him, and they knew better. But a lot of people get offended, and the thing is, when you're in a war, when you're in a fight, you know, we're not, we're not, especially a spiritual one, how do you fight a spiritual battle? How do you fight a spiritual war? You're not picking up guns and arms, but we're definitely attacking, we're definitely doing something. So how do we do that? What do we have to use? Our voices, right? Our actions, our voices, what we do, what we stand for, how we live, needs to be public, needs to be made known. Otherwise, who are you even fighting, what are you fighting against? We need to be able to stand up, stand tall, and stand out for what we believe, and not allow wickedness to prevail. I believe it's Satan's plan to get Christians to think that they're so humble and meek that they won't even say anything when wicked people are just pushing and trying to get their way and perverting minds and just, you know, trying to get you to shut up. Because that's how they'll act. And a lot of people these days, unfortunately, a lot of pastors, a lot of Christians, they are scared, they've gotten to the point of now they're scared of what someone else might think or do or say if they were to speak up against wickedness, against the vile affections of the wicked that we see in our society today. People are being programmed into just being tolerant. Just be accepting. Oh, you just need to love, love, love, welcome anybody and, you know, you don't want to say anything that might turn somebody off or might offend somebody and make them not come to church. Well, what's the point of even coming to church then? If you're not going to say anything, think about this for a minute. Because people will say, well, but you don't want them to quit church. You don't want them to leave church. Look, I don't want anyone to live to quit church or leave church. Right? I want people to come and to grow. But when you stop saying things that are going to offend people, you stop saying things that's going to maybe convict somebody about something that they're doing wrong, something that they're watching that's wrong, something that, you know, some aspect of their life where they're in sin, you stop saying those things because you're worried about offending them, you're worried about them maybe getting offended and not coming back to church, then how are they even going to grow at all? So what? You get a bunch of people to come in here and sit around in a group and sing some songs and we can all just say how great everybody is, but there's going to be no growth. And what is the purpose at that point then? There's going to be no learning going on because as a pastor then I'll have to just censor the Bible because I don't want to offend anybody. I'm going to have to censor the parts of the Bible that talk about hate. I'm going to censor the parts of the Bible that talk about sin and wickedness and fornication and adultery and all these things. Well someone might be guilty of that. That's not my job to censor God's Word. We're here to stand up for God's Word, defend God's Word, and boldly proclaim the Word of God. Jesus said, you know, we need to be shouting it from the rooftops. We don't want to hide it under a bushel. We've got it and we need to speak out about it because, you know what, the wicked, they are speaking very loud and trying to push their agenda and trying to get you to be ashamed or embarrassed for what you believe. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of that. I decide, wow, I'm not going to keep my mouth shut. We need to be in the fight, but one of the things that we see in this chapter, I think this is very motivating. I think it's great to be able to list off all these victories, to take stock in what you've done. If you notice in our bulletins, one of the things we do, we take stock in what we do as we're going. Yes, we count right here, salvations. We use numbers and write them down and count out the work that's being done and the people that we're reaching and the souls that are getting saved as a result of our work. Some people criticize that and they'll say, oh, yeah, you're getting all the glory. No. There are a few things that we're doing. One, we're edifying one another, we're encouraging one another because, you know what, it gets exciting when you start seeing a lot more work being done. That one victory, that one battle, that's exciting. Battle of Jericho, that's exciting. It's a great victory to be won. You should celebrate that. Battle of Ai, that's exciting too, but you know what? They're all exciting. And when you can start listing them off and just be like, wow, the power of God is involved in this one battle and this one victory, now look at how many victories there have been. That is encouraging. That is exciting enough to keep you rallied and continuing to move forward. Every single soul that we save, praise God, that is exciting. That is great news. The power of God to work in someone's heart and for them to put their faith in Jesus Christ, and their eternity is sealed and saved forever. That's exciting. That is good news. And then how much the more when you start seeing, wow, look, there's a lot more being done. And then other people want to join in the fight. Other people want to get in the battle. Hey, I want to be a part of that. We start posting these up, these numbers, and we put them in here so other people could be like, wow, you know, I'm seeing other people getting involved. I want to get involved in that too. It's exciting. It's fun. It's good. It's a good fight. Joshua's listing off all these victories. I'm sure he picked up more soldiers along the way. People just wanted to fight and get in the battle more. Some people might take, you know, some people are there from day one going, man, I'm ready to do this. Let's go. Other people might take a little bit of time, but then they're like, you know what? I want to do that too. There's always going to be people like that that need a little bit more persuading or build their confidence up a little bit or whatever. That's why I think things like this are great. I don't have a problem with it at all. And anybody that knows our church knows that we are not boasting of ourselves when we talk about people getting saved. Our glory is in the Lord. Our glory is in the work of God. But we love to see what God is doing. We're not going to hide the fact that God is working among a group of people here. No one's going to stand up and be like, haha, yeah, those are all because of me. That's a pompous, proud attitude and that's wrong. And that's not the way you should be. And if you start doing that with the numbers, then you've got a problem. But the reason why we post these here is for encouragement, for edification, and it's to get people excited and worked up about this stuff because we're in a fight. We're in a battle. It's a good thing to do. I mentioned this recently, but I might as well bring it up again. And I've got a few Bible verses here that I reference because people also don't like the terminology saying, oh, you got somebody saved or, you know, we put our salvation here, people that you led to Christ. It's completely biblical language to use. You don't have to turn there. Of course, the famous passage, Proverbs 11 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. So you ought to know why we call them soul winning times. Because the Bible says that if you win souls that you're wise. We're trying to be wise. That's why we have a soul winning time. We go out and try to win souls to Christ. Win them over. Persuade them. Yeah. Some people need persuasion. We're going to try to persuade them with the truth. Give them the scriptures. Tell them about Jesus Christ. Persuade them to stop believing whatever false teaching they're believing, whatever false God, whatever they have in their mind, and win them over to Christ. First Corinthians 4 15 says, for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel, wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. The Apostle Paul is saying, look, basically he's saying, I gave birth to you through the gospel. That he's like a spiritual father to them. Even though, look, of all people, I think the Apostle Paul knows there's one heavenly father. Right? Or you know that there's God the father, and the Apostle Paul's not trying to make himself God, but he's also saying that because of his work and because of his labor, that he's working together with the Lord to bring someone to Christ, that he is travailing in birth, in a sense, to get that person saved. And also, even in Romans 11 14, the Bible says, if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, it might save some of them. The Apostle Paul is talking about other Jews, other people who physically have the same nationality or heritage as him, that he wants them to be saved. So he's saying, I wish that I could get them saved. So he uses that terminology. That's why we use that, because it's biblical language. Now, it's not just the souls that we lead that we want to keep track of and support. Those aren't the only victories. We also mark the maps of the streets and the cities that have been conquered. Right? We don't have one up now, we don't have a regular meeting place, but we're going to get a map put up of the whole greater Atlanta area, and we're going to be marking off on that map all the year. I mean, we're doing it right now, it's just digital. We have a map that's being marked and updated, all the streets that we had, all the doors that we knock, and the areas that we're conquering with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because we want to know where we've been and what we've done. We want to be able to list off these places like Joshua did. Say, hey, remember this fight and this fight and this fight, we beat this king and this king and this king, and look, they're fighting against kings. A lot of forces. These are tough battles. Strong adversaries, opponents, they're kings of nations. They list them off. Turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 3, because one of the things we want to make sure that we don't do, though, as great as these lists are, as great as it is to bring up these victories and encourage people, we don't ever want to get to the point or the place where we feel like we've done it all. I've arrived. I've arrived spiritually. I beat every battle. I've got every victory. I got all the sin out of my life. I've got all those victories. I preached the gospel to every single creature, and now I'm done. You're never going to get there, all right? But unfortunately, some churches as a whole allow themselves to get to a point to where they're living off of their previous fame and their previous glory, where in their heyday they were going out and they're doing the work and they've got these spiritual battles, and then they kind of fizzle out and they get to the point where all they could ever talk about is what they've done in the past. I mean, you know these people. It's the same type of people where, to put it not spiritually speaking, but people want to go back to, oh, all the things I did in high school, right? The glory days. Oh, man, I had so much fun. Oh, I did this. I was such a good athlete, and I did this and that, and it's like, well, what are you doing now? What are you doing now? That's great that you were so cool like a long time ago and you had these great accomplishments and victories 20 years ago, but what are you doing now? Because really that's what matters. What are you doing right now? You might have a lot of failures in your life, but what are you doing right now? You may have a lot of victories in your life, but what are you doing right now? Are you serving God? Don't forget our time here is short. Don't get into coast mode where you just want to coast through the rest of your life. Revelation chapter 3 is a warning. It's a warning to churches. Verse number 1, the Bible says, and unto the angel of the church in Sardis, right, these things saith he that at the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. He's saying you've got this great reputation. You've got this great name that you're this great church that's alive and thriving. He's saying, but you're really dead. This is where you say, oh, but you're going to offend them, right? I can't believe he's writing this letter to this church. What if they get offended and go, oh, man, I'm not going to this church in Sardis anymore. They're trying to say that our church is dead. Well, look at all the people we have here, huh? Don't you know? We're the first Baptist church of Sardis. We've been here for hundreds of years. It doesn't matter. He doesn't care that they were great at one point. They have a name that they're great. He's saying right now you're dead. Look at verse number two, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. There was a few things still that were good about the church, but very little. He's saying you need to strengthen those. Focus on that again. Get the focus right that are ready to die. These things are ready to die. The very few things you have that are good, they're ready just to pass away and just be completely gone. Strengthen those things. He says, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Verse number three, remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. He's basically saying to you, I'm going to take your candlestick away. You're not going to be a legitimate church anymore at all unless you repent. You look through, read through all the different warnings to the churches. In Revelation chapter two and chapter three, you can read through all of them. There's some hard preaching in there. There's some tough things being said that people need to swallow. But that's the whole point of going to church is to hear these types of messages and get right with God and turn around, repent, get right. Change what you're doing to do what God wants you to do. That's what it's all about. That's why we're here. And if people end up leaving because they can't handle it, that's not my problem. My problem would be if people are staying and not getting any, not being fed at all, and not receiving any instruction. That's my problem. My problem isn't how are you going to handle the word of God. That's between you and God. My problem is I better be giving you the word of God. We better be looking at this stuff and saying, hey, let's not get a name that we live, but then we're really dead. Let's actually be alive and doing all the good work that God's going to say, well done. You're doing a lot of great works for us. I know that Satan's attacking you because of your hard works, and Satan's going to cast you into prison, but you know what? Be thou faithful in the death, and I'll give thee a crown of life. We need to be focused on that, too, because with the church that's doing the good works, you notice that's the one that Satan's attacking. Satan's not attacking Sardis. He already did that, and now they're dying and almost dead, but he doesn't need to worry about that anymore unless they repent, unless they get zealous again, unless they get right and start doing the works again. Don't ever get to that point where you think, no, I've done enough. In Joshua, we already read this verse, Joshua 13.1, now Joshua's old and stricken in years, and the Lord said unto him, thou art old and stricken in years. He said, I know you're old. I know you're a very aged man, but there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. No matter how much work you do, cities you conquer, souls you save, Bible you memorize, people you help, prayers you make, churches you plant, people you baptize, there's always more work to be done. Always more. The work doesn't cease until you breathe your last breath, and then guess what? God still has more work for you to do. But that's another story. We'll worry about the afterlife later. We will have a chance to enter into his rest, though. I mean, think about it. What's going to happen in Millennium? When the saints, you get to rule and reign with Jesus Christ, you'll be ruling and reigning. There's some work to that. You rule your house at home, there's some work to be done there. You rule in a business, you rule anywhere, that's work. What if we go to Philippians chapter 3? Philippians chapter 3, it's going to be a shorter sermon tonight. Because ultimately in this chapter in Joshua, obviously we can learn something from every single chapter of the Bible, every verse. The word of God is great. And you know, I'm probably missing some other great teachings in this chapter, but one thing that just stands out is, you know, they're listing off all these great fights, all these great accomplishments, and we can learn from that. It's not a bad thing to go through the list and kind of take stock. Say, where have I been? Because that's encouraging. I'll tell you what, the longer you fight, Joshua was in battles, I mean, his whole life. He was living a life just full of battles, and if we're doing what's right, we'll have all spiritual battles. And that can wear on you. I brought it up last week, you know, we talk about these battles and it's like, you know, one fight, one round, one little, I mean, that can really get you exhausted. But then you've got, you're going from fight, to fight, to fight, to fight, and remember that, I forget if it was last week or the week before, some of Israel were going from battle to battle as they were chasing all these kings, and then they were going back to their cities, and then they finally come back to the camp after just destroying like all five, you know, they just went on this big route, this big circuit of these fights and these battles. That can be weary. It gets you tired. So it's good to take a step back and take stock and be like, okay, I'm really tired. Because when you get tired, you might feel like quitting. You might feel like getting out of the fight because man, I've just been fighting so much. I just want to get out of the fight. You're going to take a step back and make the list and see all the victories that have been done, because that's encouraging. And then you remember what you're fighting for. What is it all about? It's all about these victories. It's about winning, winning for the Lord, winning those spiritual battles, helping people out, doing whatever it is your spiritual fight is, standing strong for the Lord so that even when you get tired, you can take a step back and just look and say like, yep, you know, I guess I've come a long way. I don't know about you, but personally, I could look back 20 years and say, wow, I was a completely different person back then. And praise God, I'm glad for that. But it doesn't happen overnight. It takes a long time of struggle. You know what? I'm not, I haven't arrived. I hope in another 20 years I can look back and be like, wow, it's a completely different person. You know, just more and more and more because you've grown so much and hopefully not for the worst, right? You've grown so much and you've gotten so much closer. You've gotten so many other sins out of your life. You're continuing to hopefully grow and win battle after battle and victory after victory and get more effective and more efficient in the work that you do and the fighting that you do. And you're more skilled. You become this experienced warrior to just, man, you're killing it, but there's always more to be done. But anytime you get tired or weary, you can look back and be like, yeah, there's been a lot of victories. That's great. I mean, it's way better than being able, than looking back and be like, wow, I didn't really do anything. And you think about that too, if you don't really feel like you have any victories. Get in the fight. Philippians chapter three, we're going to look at verse number eight. The Bible says, yay, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Now this is the attitude that the apostle Paul has. And earlier in the chapter, it explains, he's talking about how, you know, people, if you have where of the glory, he says, I'm more, and he talks about, you know, I'm of the seed of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, right? He's like, I'm of this stock and I was a Pharisee and a Pharisee of the Pharisees and all these accolades and I achieved so much in my, you know, and he's like, all that stuff, I count it but dung. He's like, it's nothing. All these worldly rewards and recognition and renown, that means nothing to God. And if it means nothing to God, then it means nothing to me. This is the attitude the apostle Paul has. We all have the same thing. Who cares? Who cares about how much money you have? Who cares about this other stuff? Who cares what the world thinks about you as far as whether they like you or hate you? Who cares? We ought to care about what God thinks about us and if we're doing a good work for him. If there's other stuff, pfft, whatever. Well, I have a degree from Harvard. Okay? I want a degree from the Holy Ghost. You really know the Bible, right? That's where truth and wisdom is going to be found anyways. So as we read this, just kind of digest or envelop what the apostle Paul is saying here with his attitude. And this is the mindset that we need to have. He's saying, he says, for whom, so we'll read verse 8 again. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. So he's saying, he's lost everything for Christ. See, the world looks at that and be like, oh, you're a fool. You had all of this stuff. You had the respect of men and everything and you just threw it all away for religion? For Jesus Christ? That's the way the world looks at it, but Paul's saying, yeah, yeah, I did. Isn't it great? It's dung because it doesn't matter. Yeah, I'm willing to get rid of that stuff. I count it but loss. He says, I do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. See, he's saying, I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to be conformable. He says, the fellowship of his suffering, he's saying, Jesus Christ suffered, I want to suffer too. I want to have that fellowship with Christ to be able to go through like what he went through. I want to have that be conformable unto his death. Jesus had a very, very painful, difficult death being crucified on the cross and the apostle Paul is saying, I want to be so close to Jesus. I want to be with him so much. I want to go through his sufferings. I want to be with him on the cross. I want to do all these things. I'm willing to go that far in giving up everything to be like Christ. This is the mindset. This is the attitude. Verse number 11, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Now I want to explain these verses real quick because it's important to know what he's doing is giving you a mindset to have. Then work salvation is we'll look at this and be like, see, he didn't think that he was already saved. Not as though I already attained, see, but look at what he says, cause this is important. He says, but what he's trying to explain here is that as if it were possible for his works and his righteousness to save him, that's the way he's going after the works and the righteousness and just trying to do what he can do and live as holy and as righteous as he can. But he knows he's already been saved because he says, brother, but I follow after there in verse number 12, if that I may apprehend, like if I can actually get that for which also I am apprehended of in Christ Jesus. So he's working. He's like, I already know I've been apprehended of. I already know that I have it, but I'm working as if like, man, I just want to be able to get it. And that that's how hard he's working and seeking and striving for that type of righteousness and that type of selflessness and that type of Christ-like attitude. He knows he could never actually attain to it like physically by doing it, but that's what he's trying to do. He knows he's already been apprehended and he has the righteousness of Christ to satisfy the Lord and for him to be saved and to go to heaven. He's already been apprehended of, but he's working as if like his, his soul and his life depended on it. That's the mindset. That's the attitude. That's the striving. That's the goal. That's what's keeping them in the fight. Verse 13, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He's looking forward all the time, trying to keep focused on the prize. Keep your eye on the prize moving forward. Verse 15, let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. This is the mind he wants you to have, the attitude, the focus, the drive. And if in anything you'd be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. What a great mindset to have the apostle Paul had. Talk about someone who, and he even says in scripture, you know, I've, I've finished the course. He's run the race. He knows that there's a crown laid up for him. But the apostle Paul's life was full of battle, of fighting. He says without were fighting, within were fears. He was in the midst of perilous times and robbers and shipwreck and all the things that the apostle Paul suffered and went through. People you know, false brethren coming in and trying to trip him up and people trying to get him arrested and killed and all these dangers and everything that's going on in his life. Some of it brings fears because you know what? He went through it all and he, and he stayed the course and he didn't let any of that knock him out of the fight. And there's a lot that you even read in scripture about the victories in the apostle Paul's life, how God saved him through so many different events. I mean, he was stoned in one city and they drug him out and left him for dead and God delivered him and got him back to health and back out preaching the word again. In the world's eyes, it's not very exciting or glorious, it might look kind of foolish. People look at, the world will look at the apostle Paul and go, what a wasted life. But you know what, in believer's eyes and in God's eyes, that's what we're supposed to do. That is the life. Nothing could be better. You see, the disciples, they get brought before the courts and they're beaten for what they believe and they're commanded, don't teach in that name anymore. What do they do? They leap and count for joy that they were counted worthy of suffering for Jesus Christ's sake. That they were counted worthy to receive such beatings or whatever because they're just preaching the gospel. They're preaching Jesus. That's joy. That's the mindset. It sounds crazy. It sounds crazy to the world. It doesn't sound so crazy when you start reading the Bible. Keep stock of our victories. Keep track of them. Count your blessings. Count the victories. Keep track of the souls that you touch and the people that you help. Keep track of all this stuff and be able to look back at it to provide more encouragement. But don't ever get to the point where you just feel like, well, I've done enough. It's done now. Because I'll tell you what, if you get to that point, God may just say, well, what more good are you now? He's going to take you home and then you kind of lose out on more opportunity to gain even more rewards in heaven and to be a bigger blessing to people and help people out. So, you know, obviously that's up to God. He wants to deal with that, but we see we can learn. We learn a lot from these chapters, even these chapters that may seem to be, you don't understand exactly why that's recorded. There's a good reason why it's recorded. Thirty-one kings Joshua defeated over the course of his life. It's a lot. It's a lot. As far as I have a word of prayer, dear Lord, we thank you so much for these stories and it's just such a great encouragement to see men of God that can fight the fights and stay the course and really just dedicate their life to serving you. God, I pray that you'd help us all to become like Joshua, not to back down, not to be fearful for any of the battles, and to remember all the victories that you've given us and to be appreciative for them and give you thanks for everything and the whole path that you've led us on. Help us to be strong and not to back out of the fight and to quit and to give up, but that for this short time we have on this earth, we'd make the best use of our time and be able to stay strong. Lord, we love you. Thank you for the church and the people we have here. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.