Old Testament in a Year: Joshua 1-18

I would imagine that there are some of you that are here that you have taken out a second mortgage on your house in order to buy a LEGO set for your child.

Or maybe you've had the wonderful experience of stepping on a LEGO piece in the middle of the night and really bad words coming to your mind or maybe coming out of your mouth.

Interesting. Last this past Monday, I was at a mall in Curitiba, Brazil, and there was a LEGO store in the mall there. Back in the early 2000s, Lego as a company was about to close. They were in serious trouble. As a matter of fact, they were losing over a million dollars per day.

They had decided somewhere along the line that they wanted to be this kind of all inclusive, generic lifestyle brand. And so they branched out from just plastic bricks that could make toys into video games and clothes and theme parks. But it led them into a place that they were hemorrhaging money every day and facing the difficult decision of closing their doors. In 2004, they appointed a new CEO, a guy by the name of Jorgen Nerdstrupp. And this guy stepped in and he made some.

He made some really hard choices. He didn't promise some new product, but what he did promise was a return to the essence of play. He believed that the basic plastic LEGO brick, an old toy in a digital age, was still what children and adults really wanted. So he decided they were going to sell off the theme parks and he cut the number of unique LEGO pieces in half to simplify the business. Now, these were painful decisions because it meant that they had to lay off thousands of people.

They had to completely overhaul their supply chain.

But what happened over the next few years is that the LEGO company went from hemorrhaging a million dollars a day. Fast forward to the year 2014. Ten years later, after Knock over, is that they became the most powerful toy company in the entire world. They surpassed Mattel and are still to this day the most powerful toy company in the world. Now they had to make difficult decisions and they learned some leadership lessons along the way.

And here we are today in Joshua, chapters one through 18, and what we're going to discover and what we're going to talk about. There's some very tough leadership lessons that the Israelites had to learn in order to move from the place of promise to the place of possession. How many of you know that receiving the promise is really the easy part? Like the word of God is full of promises. Maybe in your prayer time, God speaks a promise over you.

That's the easy part. But how many of you know from the moment that you receive a promise from God to the moment that you actually possess that promise, a lot of difficult things can happen in between. And it's in this space in between the promise and the possession that a lot of people give up, a lot of people quit. And the Israelites had to decide they had received a promise from God. I'm taking you to a land that flows with milk and honey.

And then all of a sudden, what should have taken two or three weeks now has gone 40 years. And in those 40 years between the promise and possessing that land, there were some difficult obstacles and trials and lessons that they had to learn. That's what I want to share with you today. Seven leadership lessons that apply to every single one of us. Whether you're leading your family, maybe you're leading a business, maybe you're leading a small group, maybe you're leading a serve team here at the refuge, maybe you're leading children and refuge kids.

Maybe you're a single dad or single mom and you're leading your children, maybe your grandparent and you're leading the next generation. Maybe you're serving with refuge youth and you're helping to train up the next generation. Maybe you have volunteered with RDS and you're training up the next generation. Regardless of what your leadership looks like, these seven lessons apply to each one of us. Here we go.

You ready? Number one. All leadership requires courage. All leadership requires courage. Leaders are called to lead others into places that are unknown.

Melanie and I became parents for the first time at the age of 26. We did everything we could to prepare. We read books, we read articles, we watched videos from organizations like Focus on the Family. We talked to other people that were already parents. And when we became parents for the very first time, we were as prepared as we could possibly be.

But once we became parents, we discovered that there was a world of unknowns. Hey, little did we know that overnight we would need to become doctors. We didn't know that overnight we would have to become financial experts and psychologists and behavioral specialists and educators and event planners. We didn't realize all that. Some of you have started your own business.

You quickly realize you got to wear many hats. And then there's a lot of unknowns when you start a business now in our reading plan, and hopefully you're still following along in our reading plan for 2026 as we as a church are reading through the entire Bible over a two year period. But if you're in the reading plan, then a week or so ago you would have read at the end of Deuteronomy where Moses died. And now what we discover is that this guy by the name of Joshua takes over the leadership. He takes over the reigns of leadership.

And look what we read in Joshua chapter one, beginning in verse one. After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of nun, Moses, assistant. He said, moses, my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to leave these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan river into the land that I'm giving them. Here's the promise.

I promise you. God says to him what I promised Moses. Wherever you set your foot, you'll be on land that I've given you. From the Nedjah of wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates river in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites, no one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. Here's another promise from God.

For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. Listen to me. Something you need to understand about courage as a leader is that courage is. Is not the absence of fear.

Let me say that again. Courage is not the absence of fear. God makes it clear to Joshua that he's going to be with him every step of the way. But there were still many unknowns. Listen to me.

Courage, while it's not the absence of fear, is the ability to move forward in spite of the fear. God gave Joshua all these promises, promises he had given to Moses. But in spite of those great promises, Joshua still dealt with fear. How do we know? Because over the next few verses, verse 6, verse 9, verse 12, God still has to say to Joshua, be strong and courageous.

He says in verse six, be strong and courageous. Verse nine, this is my command. Be strong and courageous. Verse 18. So be strong and courageous.

All leadership requires courage. Courage to do what? Leaders have to make hard decisions. Number one, if you're a leader, if your goal is to be liked by everybody, if your goal is that everybody's your friend, if your goal is that you're popular, you're not going to be a good leader. Why?

Because leaders have to make really tough decisions. Number two, leaders have to move first. We see in Joshua, chapter three, as they are on the banks of the Jordan River, Joshua gives the priests the instructions that they are to take the Ark of the Covenant and they're to move first. Here's the challenge in that the Bible Tells us in Joshua, chapter three, that the Jordan river was at flood stage. Just a few months ago, I had the privilege of baptizing some of you in the Jordan River.

Going to do the same this November. But the challenge is the Jordan is at flood stage, which means this. You can't just wade in like it wasn't. Where you step in, the water's up to your ankles. You step a little further, it comes up to your calf muscles.

Step a little further, Touch your knees, step a little further. It's mid thigh. No, here's what that meant. That as soon as you stepped off of the bank into the Jordan river, you were all the way in. And chances are you would be in over your head.

So Joshua tells the priest, take the Ark of the Covenant and you go first. And they knew once they stepped in, they were all the way in. And that's what leaders do. Leaders don't play it safe. Leaders don't have a backup plan.

Leaders don't say, well, I'm going to wade in and if I don't like it, if the water's too cold, I'm out. No, leaders say I have to go first and I'm going to be all in. Here's the third thing that leaders do. They have to have the courage to move in faith, to trust God's word, and to believe that God's word works all the time. It works in good times and it works in bad times.

It works when things are easy. It works when things are hard. But let me tell you something. Faith takes courage. Here's the second leadership lesson.

Integrity beats pedigree. Let me say it again. Integrity beats pedigree. Look what we read in chapter two, beginning in verse one. And then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove.

He instructed them, scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan river, especially around Jericho. So the two men, Joshua and Caleb, set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab. And they stayed there that night. But someone told the king of Jericho, some Israelites have come here tonight to spout the land. So the king of Jericho sent orders.

Notice that. Sent orders. Not a request, not a suggestion. Orders from the king to Rahab. Bring out the men who have come into your house.

For they have come here to spy out the whole land. Rahab had hidden the two men. Listen to me. When it comes to leadership, God does not look for perfect people. Anybody thankful for that?

God doesn't look for people that have got it all together. Here's what he looks for, he looks for people with integrity. He looks for people who are going to fear him more than they fear man. And such was the case with a prostitute by the name of Rahab. Verse 8.

Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. She said this. I know the Lord has given you this land, she told them. We're all afraid of you. Everybody in the land is living in terror.

We've heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did in Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan river, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear. No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord, your God is the supreme God of the heavens above the earth below.

Rahab knows Jericho is about to be wiped out. We've heard. We know what the Israelites are doing to these surrounding nations. And the same thing is about to happen to us.

So she goes and she talks to these two men who have come, and she asks them to guarantee the safety of her family and of herself. And verse 14 tells us they agree to that. So when Jericho's conquered in chapter six, and we'll get there in a little bit, verse 22 and 23 says this. Meanwhile, Joshua said to the two spies, Keep your promise. Go to the prostitute's house and bring her out along with all of her family.

The men who had been spies went in, brought out Rahab, her father and other brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her. They moved her whole family to a safe place near the camp of Israel. Listen to me. God rewards the integrity of Rahab. God rewards the integrity of a prostitute.

Here's what I want you to notice. She did not have the pedigree that would cause her to stand out. She was not known as a model citizen in Jericho. But the thing that stood out to God was her integrity. Her past did not disqualify her from leadership, and neither does yours.

Because God looks for integrity more than he looks for pedigree. God's not impressed by how many college degrees you have or how much money you make. God's not impressed with what hangs on your wall or what vehicle that you drive. God is impressed by integrity and character. And that's what he looks for in leaders in the last days.

And here's a prostitute by the name of Rahab who catches the attention of God. Why? Because she feared God more than she Feared the king of Jericho. Now, I want you to notice this. If you go to Matthew chapter one, you find listed the genealogy of Jesus.

In the genealogy of Jesus, there are five women who are mentioned. One of them is a prostitute by the name of Rahab, who would later become the great, great grandmother of King David.

A prostitute in the lineage of the Messiah. Listen to me. No matter how many mistakes you've made in the past, no matter how long the addiction was, no matter how many of the years of rebellion that you lived in, God does not disqualify you because of the mistakes that you've made.

God promotes integrity. Here's lesson number three. Leaders model and demonstrate consecration.

They model and demonstrate consecration. Joshua, chapter three, verse five. Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do great things among you. That word consecrate comes from a Hebrew word called ash. It means to set apart, to dedicate, to declare.

A synonym would be the word reserved. Reserved for the purposes of God, reserved for the work of God. Joshua tells the people, as a leader. Listen, leaders model and demonstrate consecration. He says to them in Joshua, chapter three, verse three and four, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the Levitical priest carrying it, you're to move out from your positions and follow it.

Then you will know which way to go. Since you have never been this way before. In other words, in the midst of unknowns, if you follow the presence of God, you're going to end up in the right place. If you reserve yourself for the purposes of God, God's going to use you to accomplish his purpose. Now, consecration positions you for clarity.

Let me say that again. When you consecrate yourself, it positions you for clarity. So that your ability to hear the voice of God and to hear the spirit of God is heightened. It's sharpened in that moment. It focuses your heart on the presence of God so that you'll be presence led.

And here's the thing we see in Scripture. Consecration comes before the supernatural. The instructions of the priests were clear. Consecrate first, see the miraculous. Second, consecration today in your life leads to the miraculous tomorrow.

Notice he said, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. What was he going to do? He was going to actually part a river. That was that flood stage. So they would walk across on dry ground.

And if you consecrate yourself as a leader, leading your family, leading your business, leading other people, leading your peers at school, if you consecrate yourself you position yourself for the clarity of God, for the Isaiah 30, 21 reality, for the Spirit of God to direct your steps, and for the supernatural to manifest in your life.

Listen, leaders don't tell people, do what I say. Leaders say, do what I do. They model that for others. That's why the Apostle Paul said to The Corinthian Church, First Corinthians 11, he said, follow me as I follow Christ. Leaders say, follow me.

Not because I've got it all together, not because I figured it all out, not because I'm perfect, but follow me. Why? Because I am following Christ. We model that for people. How do we consecrate ourselves three ways?

Number one, through prayer and fasting. That's why for 22 years this church has woven into the DNA of our culture, prayer and fasting. It's vital for you to set yourself apart, for you to position yourself for the clarity of the voice of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we consecrate ourselves through holiness. Not legalism, but holiness.

Because the standard of God's Word calls for us to live a certain way. God said, you shall be holy as I, the Lord your God, am holy. Now listen, there might be people that call themselves Christians that are doing certain things, acting in certain ways, visiting certain places, participating in certain activities, and they see nothing wrong with that. But if it opposes the Word of God, you have a responsibility as a last days leader to commit yourself to the holiness of the Word of God, regardless of what somebody else might say about it if it contradicts Scripture. Come on, are y' all with me today?

Then you have a responsibility to say, I don't care who says it's right. I don't care what respected leader is doing this or saying that. If it's not in Scripture. My responsibility is to live a holy life. Here's number three.

We consecrate ourselves by staying in the Word and doing what it says, being doers of the Word, not hearers only. One of the reasons we have a Bible reading plan this year is to help you, to equip you, to train you, to consistently be in the Word of God. Because the sad reality is that most Christians have never read this book cover to cover, and we've decided we need to eliminate that. We as a church need to be in the Word of God and we need to do what it says. If you agree, say Amen.

Here's leadership lesson number four. Y' all still with me?

Leaders leave stones of remembrance, not statues of recognition.

Somebody say preach.

Say it again. Leaders leave stones of remembrance, not statues of recognition. We find that here. Joshua, chapter 4, verse 1. When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, now choose 12 men, one from each tribe.

Tell them, take 12 stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out, pile them up at the place that you will camp tonight. Verse 6. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future.

Your children will ask, what do these stones mean? Then you can tell them. They remind us that the Jordan river stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's covenant went across. These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever. Listen to me.

Joshua was not concerned about people recognizing him for centuries to come as the one who led the Israelites into the promised land. Joshua just wanted people to marvel at the greatness of God. Joshua's goal was not to build some statue of recognition so that hundred years later, people would come walking along and go, ah, look at there. There's a statue. What does this mean?

And the parents would say, oh, that's Joshua. Joshua took over after Moses died and Joshua led our ancestors into the promised land. No, no, no, no. That was not Joshua's goal. Joshua did not want a statue that paid honor to himself.

Joshua said, we're going to put stones out of the river. We're going to stack them up right here. So 200 years later, people come prancing along and they go, ah, what are these stones about? And the grandparents, the great grandparents would say, oh, let me tell you about these stones. These stones are here to remind us that when the Israelites were moving into the promised land, that God.

God supernaturally stopped the waters and they stopped flowing and they walked across the Jordan river on dry land. And so that the generations later would go, oh, wow, God, you are incredible.

Listen to me, church. The legacy that you and I have for others should point people more towards Jesus than it does to ourselves.

Stones of remembrance, not statues of recognition. Verse 14. This chapter says, that day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. And for the rest of his life, they revered him as much as they had revered Moses. It would have been easy for Joshua to really call attention to himself, but he understood the value and the importance of future generations marveling at the greatness of God.

And that's what end time leaders do. Here's the next lesson. Number five. Leaders put God first.

Listen to me. Jericho was a city that stood in a mountain pass that was the gateway into the promised Land. And in order to possess the promised land, they had to conquer Jericho first. But God made it clear. When you move into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, all of it is yours except for Jericho.

God said, that belongs to me. It's the concept of first fruits. And God makes it clear to the Israelites, crystal clear. He says to them in Joshua, chapter 6, verse 17, watch. Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed.

Watch. As an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies. Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed and you'll bring trouble on the camp of Israel. Watch.

Everything made from silver, gold, bronze or iron is sacred to the Lord must be brought into his treasury. It's a theme that's carried throughout scripture. It's the concept and the theme of first fruits. The first of what we earn, the first of what we have, the first of what God entrusts us belongs to him. It's consecrated, it's reserved, it's set apart for the purposes of God.

We give that to him, and God says, the rest is yours. You can have the rest. But for some reason, especially in our culture, this concept of firstfruits for many believers is viewed as optional, not essential. Well, that doesn't really apply to me. It applies to others.

We come up with all kinds of reasons and excuses why that doesn't apply to us. But we see the consequences in chapter seven when a man by the name of Achan decides he's entitled to keep some of the spoils. Look, Joshua, chapter seven, verse one. But Israel violated the instructions about the thing set apart for the Lord. Wait, time out.

Notice that it doesn't say, but Achan, it was one man, one guy. But. But guess what? That one man caused there to be ramifications for the entire nation of Israel when we read there in verse one. But Israel violated the instructions.

Let's go on. A man named Achan had stolen some of these dedicated things. So the Lord was very angry with Achan. No, it says with the Israelites. Now, for some reason, Achan decided, and it happens to many of us, I'm entitled to some of this stuff.

Sure, sure, sure. God said it all belongs to him. But. And in his mind, Achan justified taking some of the things for himself. And I want you to notice that his decision had a ripple effect.

Many of us do the same thing. For whatever reason we decide in life, I'm entitled to do this, I'm entitled to have that. I'm entitled to go there. I'm entitled to date so and so I'm entitled to whatever it is. And we make the decision thinking it's my decision.

And God gives you the liberty to make decisions like that. But what you need to understand is that it doesn't just affect you. It always affects other people. And the same was true for what Achan did. He take some of the things because he felt entitled to it, but it affected everybody.

It affected the entire nation. And we see that when the Israelites go up against this little bitty nation called AI and they're thinking, hey, we don't need to send many people. They're weak, they're small. Send 3,000 soldiers. We're going to mop the floor with them.

And the opposite happens, because there was a curse on the Israelites, and The people of AI chased them away and killed 36 Israelites. And all of a sudden, the leadership of Israel is going, what in the world? What has happened? And they ask God, and they realize there's a curse on the nation because somebody violated the instructions of God. You can read the rest of the chapter.

You can discover how God, out of some 2 million people, pinpoints one guy exposes Achan. Can I just remind you, the Bible says, be sure that your sins will find you out.

So Achan is exposed. But I want you to notice if you go back and read the rest of that chapter, chapter seven, it says the Israelites then brought Achan and his entire family and stoned every one of them, not just Achan. Why? Because what you do affects your family. It affects the people around you.

Listen to me. It affects this entire church.

And once they stoned Achan and his family, God lifted his wrath from the Israelites. They went back to AI and God gave them great victory. Now, Malachi tells us that if we take some of the consecrated things of God, called the tithe, that there's a curse that comes on our family. I'm not telling you that because I'm trying to get something from you. In fact, quite the opposite.

I'm telling you that because I'm a pastor who truly loves you and I don't want things from you. I want everything that the word of God has for you. But I know this. You cannot ignore what the Bible says. You cannot push that aside and view it as optional because it's essential to living under the canopy of the blessings of God.

Y' all still with me? Got kind of quiet there on point. Number five, for some reason. Here we go. Leadership lesson number six.

We're about to wrap up. Leadership lesson number six. Leaders consult God. Leaders consult God. There's a lot of people today who choose to live by calculation more than they do by revelation.

And because of that, they default to their intelligence, they default to logic, they default to their emotions, they default to their past experiences. Some lessons in life just seem like that's a no brainer. I know what to do here. But in Joshua chapter nine, we discover this valuable leadership lesson that should challenge all of us. That in big decisions and in small decisions that we're going to consult the Lord.

Look what it says in Joshua chapter nine, beginning in verse three. But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI, they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old patched wineskins. They put on worn out patched sandals and ragged clothes, and the bread they took with them was dry and moldy. And when they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, we've come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with with us.

Now watch. By all appearances, they saw no harm in doing this. The Israelites, they just took everything at face value and said, all these people are no threat to us. They're not a close neighbor, they're not going to try to attack us. They've come from a far off, distant land.

Now, they did ask some questions. And we see that in chapter nine, verse seven, the Israelites replying to these Hivites. How do we know you don't live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you. They replied, we're your servants.

But who are you? Joshua demanded. Where do you come from? They answered, your servants have come from a very distant country. We've heard of the mind of the Lord your God, and of all that he did in Egypt.

This bread was hot from the ovens when we left our homes. But now, as you can see, it's dry and moldy. These wineskins, they were new when we filled them, but now they're old and split open. And our clothing, our sandals, they're worn out from our very long journey. Listen to me, church.

Our enemy is a great deceiver.

His goal is to trap you. And guess what? He'll use other people to do that. We cannot afford to take everybody at their word, because listen to me in life, from salespeople to pastors, to politicians, to scam artists.

People use deception to try to take advantage of other people.

Therefore, that's why the Bible tells us, be as wise a serpent harmless as doves. Because we cannot afford to take everybody at their word. We cannot afford to trust people emphatically. Because oftentimes the consequences are generational. Look what we read in verse 14 and verse 15.

So the Israelites examined their food. Watch. But they did not consult the Lord. They just took it at face value. Oh, this is a no brainer.

It makes sense. We can just trust what they're telling us. Look at their shoes. We see evidence they've come from a far off distant land. But that was not the case at all.

They were a very close neighbor who did pose a threat to the Israelites. They did not consult the Lord. Guess what they did? They said, draw up the paperwork, we'll sign the treaty and we'll guarantee your safety. Why is this so important?

Watch. We see in 2nd Samuel 21. Oh, you got to catch this. 2nd Samuel 21. 350 to 400 years later, the generations after them are still dealing with the consequences of a treaty that the Israelites made because they did not consult the Lord.

Look what it says. There was a famine during David's reign. Lasted three years. So David asked the Lord about it. And the Lord said, the famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.

350 to 400 years later. So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not a part of Israel, but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. And the people of Israel had sworn not to kill them. But Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.

Listen to me, church. End time leaders in big decisions and small decisions understand it's vital for future generations that we live by revelation and not by calculation.

End time leaders understand?

Even if it makes every bit of sense, even if at face value it looks like they're telling the truth. We have to consult the Lord. Here's the last thing. And then we're going to pray. Leaders never stop dreaming.

And we see that in chapter 14, verse 6, Caleb said to Joshua, remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh barnea. I was 40 years old when Moses, a servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and I gave an honest report. You remember the story? Moses sends out 12 spies 10 of them come back and say, no, no, no, we should not do this.

We cannot possess a land. The giants are too big. They're too strong. We can't do it. Two of them came back.

Guess who? Joshua and Caleb. And they said, yeah, they're big. Yeah, they're strong. But our God's bigger.

Let's go for it. Let's go for it. They brought back the favorable report, so watch this. So that day, Moses solemnly promised me, Caleb is saying, the land of Canaan, on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord, my God. Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these 45 years since Moses made this promise, even while Israel wandered in the wilderness.

Today, I am 85 years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me all on that journey. And I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. Do you really believe that? Does anybody believe that?

I don't. The dude's 85 years old. That's like me. Listen, in my mind, I can still step on the basketball court with a guy who's 18, and I can still destroy him. In my mind, I'm bone on bone in both knees.

I move a lot slower than I used to. It'd be crazy for me to say, bring it on.

But that's what Caleb's doing. He's like, I'm 85 now. I can still fight like I used to. I'm still as strong as I used to be. No, you're not, Caleb.

But watch this. I love this. Because he never stops streaming. He says, so give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You'll remember that as scouts, we found the descendants of Anak living there in great walled towns.

Watch. Here's the key. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said. Caleb says, in my mind, I can still fight. But then he says, give me that heel.

If the Lord's with me, we can take him out. And that's what leaders do. Leaders say, even though I'm older, even though I don't have the energy I used to have, even though I'm not as strong as I used to be, I'm never going to stop dreaming. And listen to me. All of you that are here, that are part of Young at Heart, and maybe you're new and you don't know what Young at Heart is.

It's our ministry to senior adults 55 and older. But listen to me, all of you that are part of Young at Heart, listen. We need you to keep dreaming.

We need your voice. We need your wisdom. We need you to cheer on the next generation. We need you to say, go for it. Go for it.

Our God is still able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what we can ask Him.