Amen. How are you in church? Hope you well. I know that's heavy. Super heavy. And if you have come

to looking for kind of a happy, happy New Year's sermon, you're really in the wrong place.

But what if? What if 2016 was the year, the year that everything changed? What if 2016 was the year that

by the strength and power available only through Jesus Christ,

that you ripped off the band-aid and exposed all of who you are to all of who God is?

And this was the year that you began to step into the life that God dreamed up for you

when God came up with the idea that is you.

What if this was the year?

That the fake you was put to death fully and finally. And by faith, you stepped into what God

had for you. That's what we're studying over the next 11 weeks. We're going to be studying

the book of Joshua. If you've got your Bible, I'd love for you to go there. We're going to spend

11 weeks talking about this person that is Joshua, not some character in a story

in a land far away in a time long ago, but just a regular guy like you and me that God called

to do incredible things. And if you've been around Bible study with us for a while, you remember

back in our ancient future series

in Numbers chapter 13 was our first introduction of Joshua. That's where we meet him. And back

then, Joshua was a spy, and Moses sent 12 spies into the land of Canaan to spy out the

promised land. And two men came back full of faith, Joshua and Caleb. And that's why we remember

their names, because they were men of faith.

We name our kids after them, you know.

And then there's a list of 10 people, and you have no idea who any of their names are.

A part of it is because they were full of fear, and they were on the list of the forgotten.

...