Sir uh Ernest Shackleton was part of the uh imperial trans Antarctic expedition in the years 1914 to 1917. And uh he led various expeditions to Antarctica. And in 1916, the ship that he had taken with his men called Endurance was hopelessly frozen in packed ice in Antarctica. For several months, the cruise supplies dwindled and all hope seemed lost. Then Shackleton made an impossible decision which was to take a single open lifeboat, the James Kur as it was called, and sail 800 miles across the cold and roughest ocean with 30foot waves, freezing spray, and near total darkness to reach. Imagine 10 men huddled in that tiny boat, drenched, teeth chattering, raves crashing overhead with no land in sight. Day after day, however, Shackleton he stood at the helm and he navigated this tiny lifeboat by a brief silver of sun that gleamed through the sky. And at one point, one of the ores snapped, leaving them at the mercy of the storm, and Shackleton's voice calmly rang out, assuring his men, saying, "Men, we are going to make it." And they did. Against every natural barrier, they pressed on and were miraculously rescued. You know, this is a incredible story of grit, survival, and endurance against all odds. But we have a greater narrative than this in the book of Joshua that we read today. As we are walking our way through the Bible and we are landing at pivotal texts trying to extract vital spiritual truths that can be applied to us, we've finished the first five books of the Bible. And today we are moving towards the next section of books. These are called the historical books and especially it's going to unpack for us life in the promised land. And I've titled my sermon today as unshakable call, command, and covenant. We're going to look at the unshakable call of God, the unshakable command of God, and the unshakable covenant of God. The unshakable call of God. You know the very first verse in Joshua 1 begins by saying after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun Moses's assistant. You know here are Israelites. They've navigated 40 years in the desert and a new era is about to be birthed. and their leader Moses who was the main character through which through whom God did mighty acts in the four books after Genesis covering 40 years is dead and as fear grips as uncertaintity abounds and people's faith are shaken the Lord wants to assure them He wants to assure them. And the reason he wants this to be captured in this book that Joshua writes, which was to be read to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and all the way to you and me today, is to remind them that we have an unshakable God. God wanted the nation of Israel to know that anything that happens cannot disrupt God's call in our lives as individuals in the life of his church and in the life of the world. You know, God's call to the nation of Israel was greater than the mighty emperor. We saw that in the book of Exodus that even the greatest emperor, the Pharaoh, could not stop God when he called the Israelites and told the Pharaoh to let his people go. So the book of Exodus demonstrated the power of God and the might of God to accomplish his call in the life of his covenant children. And now they're encountering a bigger obstruction, what could be a bigger obstruction, which was the death of their leader. And God is assuring them that when he calls, his call is even greater than death. Even if Moses is dead, he will still accomplish his call for the nation of Israel by raising another leader who is Joshua. And we read that verses two onward says, "Moses, my servant, is dead. Therefore, arise, go over this Jordan." Nothing stops or freezes or disrupts God's call or action in our lives. He says, "Now therefore, go arise. go over this Jordan, you and all these people into the land that I am giving to them to the people of Israel. Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. So God wants to reaffirm to them his plan is going to go on. He's going to give them the promised land. He also wants to remind them that his call is not only greater than the greatest power is not only greater than death. It's even greater than the imperfections and falls and failures of his children. If you remember God's fall first call first came to Abraham in Ur. Abraham had absolutely nothing to merit being called by God. He was a pagan worshipper. God told him and called him and said he's going to make him a great nation out of him. And we see how Abraham was not perfect. He failed several times, but he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Isaac and Jacob also many times were not faithful, but they still believed God and did not abandon his plans. The nation of Israel even after Exodus after seeing the great miracles and the power of God were not faithful. They created other idols. But God still not still did not abandon his plan and his call upon them because it was about him creating a people like you and me whom he could call that we are his people and he is our God. And now this call comes to Joshua. Again, nothing great is known about Joshua. Very little information is there. The only personal detail we have is the son of Nun and Nun was not some great mighty person either and from the tribe of Ephraim and was picked as one of the spies. That's his resume. So you see God's plan continues despite people's failures through weak and imperfect people. We are going to see how Moses was not able to enter the promised land but God was still leading his people into the promised land. We are going to see how even Joshua was not able to realize all these promises but God was still moving forward in redemptive history and has accomplished everything that he has said. And the same way my dear friends I want to encourage us this morning that God has a call for each one of us. He has a call for you and me individually. He has a call for us as families. He has a call for us as a church. You know, as a church, we are called, we have a very specific calling. And it is because of that God has placed us in Silicon Valley. It was God who provided this space for us so we could worship, which is not easy. You know, I was just reading an article from BBC last week which said that California just as a state, our state uh overtook Japan to become if it were a nation the fourth largest nation with the greatest GDP in the world only next to United States um China and Germany. We are living in one of the most richest, wealthiest states that is even bigger than hundreds of countries around the world. Now despite the affluence, we are also living specifically in Silicon Valley surrounded by giant corporations, political powers that do not submit to God. And it can be intimidating just as intimidating it was for the nation of Israel. We are going to see they had to now cross the river Jordan. Then they had to go and take down big and mighty cities with great walls. And in the same way, it can be intimidating for us as a church. And as we have shared before, San Francisco Bay is the only place that has never witnessed a revival. But I believe God is moving. You know, as Andrew Walls noted, God is bringing people like us from nations where missionaries served who have come to love the Lord and is bringing them here to these large cities in the global west. And we can we are beginning to witness what might be the seeds of a revival that is going to come. It is not going to come from the big and mighty mega churches. It is not going to come from big and mighty mega programs or events. It is going to come as God's power takes ordinary, imperfect, broken people whom the world does not recognize and unleashes his power through one person at a time and one family at a time and one church at a time. And that's why we have a multigenerational vision for our church. And as a church, we not only want to serve our communities, but we want to engage the powers and principalities that are around us. And we want to reach the nations in Silicon Valley. And that's why we are called the Creed Church. a church which can be a place to help all people connect to Christ to see all our lives transformed and as a family God has a call too for each one of you God's call upon every family is to first live as servants of the Lord live lives that are pleasing to him but also working as families not building our own kingdoms but God's kingdom because only that will remain and it's a very odd thing here in the valley isn't it where suburban upper middle class places families chase success wealth and power but how much money do you need how much power do you need how much education do you need you know what happens when you Why? None of that is going to matter. Moses knew it more than anybody else. You know, there is a psalm, there is only one psalm in the Bible that is attributed to Moses that David included in the psalter. Perhaps might be even another psalm. It is Psalm 90. And this is what Moses writes. Moses who has died through his rich life experience talks about the nature of life in this psalm. If you have your Bibles uh please turn with me to Psalm 90:9 says, "For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh." and verse 10. The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80. Yet their span is but toil and trouble they are soon gone and we fly away. So my dear friends, it is absolutely essential for you and I to find our calling early in life. And there is always a call. Somebody is always calling us to something all the time. Isn't it? There is a worldly call and there is a godly call. The worldly calling is always to get more and more and more, work hard, study hard, especially when it's targeted to families, you know, pursue and top schools for our children and then end up with a 9-to-five job or perhaps in the Bay Area, it's a 9 to9 job. Nobody works 9 to5, isn't it? a job that you will end up hating. And no wonder three out of four people in the United States believe they are in the wrong jobs and then encourage our children have to become doctors or engineers or software professionals. Though there's absolutely nothing wrong with all of that, but what God is calling families to encourage their children is to be missional. You know, you can be a missional doctor, you can be a missional engineer, you can be a missional software professional in the marketplace. And if you are a doctor or an engineer or a software professional, God calls you, you have to be the world's best doctor, the best engineer, displaying excellence in what you do. And you have to be creating redemptive goods with technology. create products that can actually serve four to five billion people who are on the bottom of the human pyramid to ask ourselves what products am I building? Who am I serving? Who am I using my gifts? Am I using them to serve the weak or build the strong? You know the stereotype that exists of how Asian families applies also I think to South Indian and Indian families want all our kids to either be doctors or engineers or especially doctors and it's not for altruistic purposes. They don't want their kids to become do doctors with an altruism that they can go and serve the world. It's more for social prestige and money, isn't it? you're honest about it. There are exceptions but by and large this is what it is. If only our missionary doctors who came to the countries we came from thought that we will not have those hospitals. You know we have a partnership with CMCOR Foundation. Um and I speak to the president every now and then and uh so impressed and thankful for all of you who have supported the work that we did in Jawadi Hills and other places. Remember if I scar didn't have that vision we would not have this impact that exists right now. You know the power of a vision they say lies not in what is accomplished or not does not lie in how great the vision was or mighty it was. The power of a vision lies in if it outlasts the life of the visionary. Nobody is going to remember you and me for how much money we had or education we acrewed or other things we did. But a life that is lived faithful to the calling that God has called us will be remembered. So encourage our children to have God-sized vision. Don't worry about the money. It will follow. You follow God's dreams and he will always provide. He's a God who makes water come out of the rock. He's a God who could split the Red Sea. He's a God who could bring down the walls of enemies without having to lift even your little finger. And I have a challenge for our parents here. You can ask yourself this question. Have you ever honestly thought, considered, or dreamt if one of your children, just one, could be a missionary serving God somewhere? Have you? This is not to make you feel guilty, but really that's also a calling, my dear brothers. And for those who are young and you have graduated, who are in school, let me ask you, are you living your calling? Do you even know your calling? This is a great time to find your calling, pursue it and to live. You know, Frederick Bushner made this statement says the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. And when we do pursue God's call, there is a promise that he gives. He says, "I will not leave you nor forsake you." God will often call you into unchartered territories, risky situations, places where you're going to engage the powers and principalities. And it will look hard. It will look fearful. And it is for them. And in those situations, he gives this promise. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Sadly, this is used as a proof text by people when they want to do everything except that whatever I do, God is going to be with me. No, if he live for you, if you live for him, he will not leave you nor forsake you. Jesus promised the same in his command. the the great commission that he gave in Matthew 28 where he told his pe his disciples, "Go and make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing them in the name of the father and son and the holy spirit. Lo and behold, I will be with you always to the ends of the earth." William Kerry our missionary who did great things in northeast India made this famous statement expect great things from God attempt great things for God. So my dear friends, my question and challenge for you this morning is are you expecting great things from God for yourself individually, for your family, for your children and are you attempting great things for God in the same way? You know when we were in Germany and we had this house church, I was just looking at the pictures recently. I shared with our missions team too. Uh we have this incredible team of young bright German students who are in their early 20s. They just graduated college. You know, Haiko, Andrea, Esther, Anna, Morena, they they had already desired at that time that they wanted to be missionaries to different countries. And just in the last two three years we reestablished contact with most of them after nearly 20 years and found that they did faithfully pursue that. You know Haiko is a eye surgeon. He spent the last 12 13 years in subs Sahara and Africa in villages that have vitamin A deficiency restoring eyesight one patient at a time and now leads the Christian blind mission training surgeons in whole of Africa. He could have had a very lucrative career doing eye surgeries for the rich and famous in all of Germany, living in flamboyant big homes. But he chose and went that. And the sad part was while he was serving there and his parents visited him, the very people some of whom he were serving, there were some who broke in and hurt his parents. And still he continued to do that. Esther dreamt of going to Japan which has less than 1% Christianity. She ended up going and she still lives there as a teacher. Andrea, she was a girl from Black Forest, very strong. She could break an apple with one hand and she had a passion to go to Papa New Guinea and she is there and working with Wliffe translating the Bible in several languages that are yet to be translated. and Anna and her brother, you know, she wanted to go to Central Asia and she did and serves in her gista. They are my heroes today. I'm I haven't really seen a lot of people in their early 20s having such a missionary heart and it is my dream one day that in our church we will send those missionaries that we will not just s support missionaries in other countries and partner that our children will be the haikos and morenas and Esther and Anna and parents please encourage them please dream with them and that would be wonderful to continue God's calling because God's call continues even today in establishing his kingdom and when you yield to his call don't have your fears he will never leave you nor forsake you now let's move on to the second point the unshakable command of God this verse is one of the most famous verses several of us have used this at several times verse six be strong and courageous for you shall cause people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. It's a very big call that is upon Joshua because the first big obstacle like I said they have to cross is the river Jordan. You know the geography of Israel and the river Jordan is something we need to understand to get an idea of how big a challenge this was. Unlike the river Nile which was on flat land, the river Jordan crossing it can be very treacherous. You know, the river Jordan ran through a deep gorge uh which may be called the earth's deepest valley and it flows into the dead sea which lies 1,286 ft below the sea level and it runs through a wider trough called the gore within which is a narrower depression of 100 ft or more in depth. You know, every 20 ft the atmospheric pressure doubles and there are very few devices even that can penetrate that depth till today. In addition to these forbidding features, the absolute level of the river valley is greatly enhanced by mountains on both sides. The slopes are generally steep and sudden, sometimes forming huge precipaces. And we read in Joshua 3:15 when they were going to cross the river Jordan, it was swollen at the time of the crossing. That's the first obstacle that awaits them. And obviously, no matter who you are, if that's the mandate you are given, you're going to be needing courage and strength. And it's not that once they cross, it's life is going to be great. Then they have to take down big fortified cities like the walls of Jericho. that have to be breached. And Joshua who was a spy has practically seen this and knows what is awaiting on the other side. It is one thing to be an intelligence agent and gather information but a totally different thing to lead people into that. And that's the reason this phrase be strong and courageous is repeated three times in this passage. And every time the phrase be strong and courageous is written, it employs some of the literary feature of the Psalms which is called parallelism where every time it is reiterated, it is expanded and enhanced with additional descriptions. And the very and the Hebrew word for be strong and courageous, it actually has a deeper meaning. You know when you are in such a very challenging situation if you don't have the strength and courage to come from within you need to look at someone or somewhere to draw your strength from. And this phrase is always used in scripture to denote an inner strength that comes from God. Just like we saw in the expedition you know um Sir Raymond Priestley who was a contemporary of uh Sir Ernest Shackleton he said this about the world's famous people who were pursuing expeditions those times he referred to another uh famous expedition expert Scott he says Scott is known for scientific methods and another one emenson for speed and efficiency. But when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. And that is what Shackleton was known for. He had those skills and and the resilience and the ability that can inspire a bunch of crewmen to trust that he's going to take them through. That gave them the strength to ride those storms in cold weather. And that is what the people of Israel needed. It's not just an empty pep talk, you know, that a coach gives a team during a huddle in a basketball game. It is way more than that. Says he's not simply telling them, "Oh, just be strong and courageous." He says, "Let me tell you how." He answers three questions. First, why they should be strong and courageous. Second, how they can be strong and courageous. And third, to remember who is with them when they are strong and courageous. And each of the three times this phrase be strong and courageous is used. The first time we read actually about Joshua, we get an um insight about who he is not in the book of Joshua. It comes all the way back in Exodus. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Exodus 17:E 9. say, "So Moses said to Joshua," choose for us men and go out and fight with Amalcch. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. Joshua had seen how God gave the Amalachites over to them in battle. He knew very well though he was fighting. He was picked to fight that battle. He knew that the Israelites were winning not with their might or power or tactical skill. They were only winning as long as Moses had his hands lifted up in prayer and two people had to hold him and he had to sit down. So he had already known that it is God's power that will give the victory and God is promising to give it to them and he gave it to them through the intercession of Moses. So for Joshua looking at these people, absolutely untrained ordinary men and women who do not have any war skills who do not have mighty weapons, he knew that they have an unshakable God. And when he's going to win those battles, not by might, not by power, but by the power of God through prayer. And they literally happened. We remember the story of Jericho. So that's the first reason why it says the first time be strong and courageous for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. The second time the phrase is used is he says how they are going to be able to make it. He says by being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. You know, we read again going back to Exodus, the second time we read about Joshua. He has enough to learn and appreciate this. In Exodus, uh, in verse 13, it says, "So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God, where God was giving the Ten Commandments, the law. Moses took Joshua alone and went, and nobody could go near, including Joshua." But it says, we read in verse 11, it says, "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent." So even after Moses came down, when he goes into the tent where God's presence would condescend, Joshua was there watching what was going on. And he would see when Moses came down from the mountain how his face would shine. And he had to use a whale because something happened when Moses was in God's presence. He could see that God's glory was shining through the face of Moses. And so now he knows that our strength is only going to come by being in the presence of God through his word. That is the command that he is giving him. He says be careful to follow everything in the book of the law. You know if you and I need strength and courage to live such lives where do we turn to? It is not in any self-development or improvement strategies. It is being in God's presence where we can experience his power and his glory. For most of us this seems a tall order, isn't it? especially living in a place that is so busy with the hustle culture. You know, last week I went to Michigan and we got down, we were walking in the airport and suddenly um realized that everybody around us were walking slow. We were the ones walking the fastest. We were still walking in San Francisco pace in Michigan. I realized very quickly we should not do that. Because people there have a life. They just take things slow and easy and and relish. It was a warm sunny day and I do not know whether because sun is so rare they were just in that mode or if that really is their lifestyle the rest of the season but that's just you know being just slowing down and taking it in. But for us, God wants us to have that experience every day. You know, you might remember I was sharing with you how um Pat Gellzinger was the former CEO of Intel. I remember when I was at his house for dinner, he gave me a tour of his house and and he told me his schedule. He wakes up at 4:00 a.m. every morning and he showed me a room. The first thing he does is to ride his bike for 45 minutes. And at 4 to 4:45, like a clock, he gets off his bike and he spends 45 minutes in God's word and in prayer and leaves to work at 5:30 is the first person in his office at 6:00 a.m. every day. And he's a CEO of one of the world's he was at least of one of the world's largest companies. So if he could do that, you and I don't have an excuse. We are not as busy as those people, isn't it? And that's what we are going to draw our strength. Many times we complain, oh I feel weak, I am depressed, I don't have the motivation or I tend to fall. I tend to do and then the question is always simple. How how is your time with the Lord? And if you you ourselves can ask yourselves in your seasons of life when you felt dry, I can guarantee you the missing element would be this. And Joshua had seen that through his mentor Moses of what being in God's power can do. And in Deuteronomy 3 21 another time Joshua is mentioned Moses says and I commanded Joshua at that time your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. You shall not fear them for it is the Lord your God who fights for you. And this is the third time when he says to him uh don't be afraid be strong and courageous. The last verse it says for the Lord your God is with you. And before they entered Canaan, Moses had to fight the battle with two kings. And when God gave the victory, he used that as an object lesson to remind Joshua. So this command of be strong and courageous doesn't exist in a vacuum. We can remain strong and courageous knowing that this strength can come only from God. And we need that relationship with him. When we seek to live out our calling, we need to be in God's presence daily. And if it is true that Moses indeed wrote Psalm 91:2, he captures that vividly that he wants to pass on to the people. He realizes the strength of his power was not in his might, was not in his skill, though he was trained in the Pharaoh's palace. He says in Psalm 91, a psalm that many of us have perhaps memorized, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Moses learned that hard way by being in the desert for 40 years where you have nothing and shadow is a precious commodity. He says, I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. After giving his brief testimony, he turns and tells the Israelites that if they do that, verse three onwards, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is the shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastess at noonday. A 10,000 may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. That was the experience of Moses. And that's the unshakable command that God gives us when we choose to call follow his call in our lives. And I want to conclude by talking about the unshakable covenant of God. You know, all this God's call in your life and my life individually or as a family or as a church or even as a nation is all connected to his grand redemptive salvific plan that he started in the Garden of Eden and it will end in the new heavens and the new earth. It's because God is unleashing his plan based on the eternal covenant that was made. It is unshakable. And he reiterates that at three places in this text we read. He said verse two, Moses my servant is dead. Therefore go arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them to the people of Israel. It's it's written in a past tense. He says it's already yours. Verse three, every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you just as I promised to Moses. And verse six, he says, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them." The word swore is a covenantal word. God's covenant cannot be breached. And you know Moses is given this phrase. He's called the servant of the Lord. A very significant name given to someone who was not always serving God. You know Joshua very humbly when he writes this starts this in the first verse he identifies himself in an as an assistant to Moses. But by the end of the book, you read the same phrase gets ascribed to Joshua too that he also is called a servant of the Lord. And Moses was unable to lead the people into the promised land. And Joshua, we read, the territory that God promised was vast and huge. How many of you have a physical Bible today? If you have your physical Bible, I can guarantee you most of your Bibles, if you turn to the back, they have um these interesting maps. You see, do you have those maps? Please take a look at them. It will show you definitely what were these regions that Joshua was talking about and how huge and vast they were. And here is mine in my Bible. It shows the length and breadth of the regions people settled and what it was at the time of David and Solomon. And what will strike you if you look at that map and this is why you shouldn't have a digital Bible and actually carry a physical one. And I will not display maps in our proresenter any time so that you can read your Bibles physically and avoid the digital temptations and all of that. You can see even at the greatest peak of Israel empire during David and Solomon, they never had this much of territory. Joshua did help them to see great victories, but they were not complete. So they were restless. They had to fight, keep fighting and go into exile and come back because the same phrase, the servant of the Lord, surfaces again in the book of Isaiah. The same phrase, the servant of the Lord is now ascribed to someone who was greater than Moses, to someone who was greater than Joshua, the real mediator, Jesus Christ. We read in Hebrews 4:8, "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The rest that Joshua couldn't give the people of Israel. The rest that Moses even could not experience. the rest that you are desiring and seeking for in your careers or in your successes or in your academics or in your performances or in your looks. There is only one who can give you that rest. There was Jesus Christ. And he can give you that rest because he fought all the battles that you and I could not have fought and do not have to fight. He fought the battle of sin for you and me by taking our sin upon the cross. He fought the battle of overcoming death. And Paul says, "Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the heavenly realms which Christ conquered on the cross." And he reigns in his resurrected power like we saw in Easter. And that is the ultimate victory that was won by the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the bigger Moses, the ultimate Joshua whom God sent to lead us to him into the promised land. And if we have this Christ in Christ, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Amen. And God's call can never be thwarted by the forces and our weaknesses within ourselves and our failures or by the powers and principalities outside of us. In Ephesians 2:es 4-5 we read I want to conclude with these two verses and another one but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dread dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved we have already tasted victory through Christ by grace. And in verse 10, it calls us to a call of action. It says, "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." So my dear friends can be strong and courageous. And may I encourage you this morning to pursue God's call in your life as individuals and as families. There are so many resources that are out there that can help you find it. Now, please talk to your small group leaders or our elders or myself. We'll be happy to help you in that journey. And may I remind us this morning that if you're going to have to win those battles in your careers, in your professions, in your relationships, you are going to get that strength only from God by being in his presence. And lastly, may you encourage us to always have our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who has won our battles and is offering them to us when we pursue that relationship with him. Shall we