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And with that, we give God all the glory, all the praise, all the honor. Can we make some noise for Jesus in this place? He's worthy of praise. He's awesome. We just want to say a great big welcome here in all of our campuses joining in today. We're so glad you guys made it out to church for the last Sunday of 2025. Who's excited for the last Sunday of 2025? It's going to be an amaz. And the scriptures say this, that Jesus could do very little miracles in his hometown due to the lack of honor. And whenever I travel and preach the gospel across America in different churches, I always start and lead with honor. And here's what I want to do. I want to do something special today. This year in our church, we celebrated over 30 years of ministry since River Valley Church was planted and started by Pastor Rob and Becca Ketterling. In just a little bit here and at all of our campuses. I'm gonna ask that we all, collectively as a church, stand and honor them. Not yet. Because I not only wanna honor Pastor Rob and Becca for their faithfulness, I saw this posted yesterday on our Instagram that in just the last 16 years, we as a church have given over $100 million to Kingdom Builders around the world. Can we clap and give God an honoring praise for that? That's incredible. We've all been able to play a part in that. But you don't acc a God sized dream without leaders who believe God for God sized things. And Pastor Rob would say this, but we not only have amazing lead pastors, we have amazing support staff, we have amazing pastors, amazing leaders. And so collectively at all of our campuses right now, can we stand up and can we honor our lead pastors, our worship pastors, our youth pastors, our kids pastors, our administrators, our coordinators at all the campuses and thank Jesus for these leaders. We pray for them, we bless them and we honor them. Thank you. Now here's what I need you to do here and at all of our campuses. I need you to do this, okay? I do this wherever I travel and preach. And you'll probably thank me later for this, but here's what I need you to do. I need everybody at all the campuses, I need everybody to put both hands out to your side like this. Everybody, everybody in the audience, both hands outside like this. On the count of three, I need you to clap above your head, okay? One, two, three. One, two, three. One thousand two, three. All right, good. I got River Valley Church to keep being Minnesota Vikings fans. There you go. There you go. I am a born and raised Minnesota boy right from here. Okay? I got a lead pastor who called me from Wisconsin. He said, would you come preach for me? I said, pastor, where are you located? I'd love to come. He said, we're located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I said, pastor, I'm coming right now. I'll be there. I show up to Green Bay, Wisconsin. I preach Sunday morning. I got all the Packer fans to be Vikings fans that morning. I have never seen so many grown men in flannel shirts with beards go to their pickup trucks to grab shotguns to kill the guest speaker that morning. But I made it. I'm alive. I'm still here. Okay? No born and raised Minnesota boy. However, I did marry a small town Wisconsin girl. And this is a picture of my wife, Stephanie Joy. We just celebrated 13 years of marriage going on 14 in the month of March. And I always, always, always. Because without her, there is no travel ministry. Without her, there is no ministry to be able to go around the world and travel and preach the gospel. And so we met at North Central University in downtown Minneapolis. We got married, and then came a baby. Here's baby Everly. My wife is a worship leader, and I've never dressed a baby in my life. Okay? And my wife looked at me and she goes, could you dress our baby this morning? I gotta get to church early to go lead worship. Could you dress our baby? And I'm thinking to myself, how hard is it to dress a baby? It really can't be that difficult, okay? So I dress my baby like that. I bring her to church, and I'm feeling proud of myself. I'm feeling real good. Kay. And these group of moms are in the lobby, and they're staring at my baby, okay? And I'm like, why are they staring? Maybe, you know, maybe I did a good job. I don't know. And so these moms, they walk up to me in a very Minnesota passive aggressive way. And this mom, she looks at me, she goes, micah, did you dress your baby this morning? I said, I sure did. And I did a good job, didn't I? And this mom goes, micah, I just need to let you know something, okay? When you dress a baby, the first thing you do is put on the onesie, and then you put on the pants, okay? If you're a man in the audience and you saw nothing wrong with that photo. Well, neither did I. Neither did I. Does the baby have clothes on it? Yeah. Then the baby's just fine. Is the baby warm? Yeah. Then the baby's fine. I'm a man. When I wake up in the morning, I put on my pants and then my shirt. Here's an updated photo of Everly. She's in third grade. There she is. And then here's our little boy, MALACHI David, who's 7, he's in first grade. And I always show my kids wherever I travel and preach, because if you can do the math, the last eight years we've traveled and preached the gospel across America. And my kids are 9 and 7. And so they've almost known a whole life of just living on the road in airplane suitcases, hotels. And I love my family. They're here today with us. And can we honor my family just a quick second for their help and their partnership with that, you can open your Bibles today to Joshua, chapter three, 24. Joshua chapter 24. If you do not have your Bibles today, there will be the verse that comes on the screen. I have one verse for you that I'm going to read and then I'm going to break the rest down in just a minute. Joshua 24, verse 15. This is the final message of 2025. And this is the message I have for us today. It says in verse 15, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me, in my household, we will serve the Lord God. I pray for every person who's listening to the sound of my voice would not walk out these doors without committing to end the year. That as for me in my house, no matter the age, that as for me in my house, we will be a family that serves the Lord in Jesus name, Amen. And Amen. The title of my message today is titled Final Words. Final Words. It was a beautiful summer night in Minnesota. And if you're joining in from the online campus and you live out of state and you're a part of our church, if you don't know anything about Minnesota, we have beautiful summers, okay? But it's a summer night. It's about 8 o' clock at night. I'm driving down the highway, I got my windows down, I got the music blasting. The smell of bonfires fill the air. The smell of people grilling for late night dinners, smoking some meat or just having a good night. Some of you listening to this right now are like, dear Lord, let summer come Right now I'm ready. Let it come. But I'm driving down on a summer night. It's beautiful. And I noticed something that catches my eye. As I'm driving down the highway, I notice a man in a field. He's wearing a full kilt, and he's playing a bagpipe. So if you're not from Minnesota and you're tuning in online from a different state, us men in Minnesota, we don't wear kilts for fun. Okay, we don't do that. All right. But here's why it caught my attention. Because for those of you who don't know me, my father and I, we share a deep love for this instrument called the bagpipe. And so I turn around on the highway, and I pull off to the side of the road, and I turn down my music because I want to know what he's playing. And on the other end of his instrument, I hear this song. Amazing grace how sweet the sound an amazing grace begins to fill the air. If you've never heard the bagpipes play before, when it's played incorrectly, it sounds like a flock of geese that are dying. When it's played correctly, it is one of the most beautiful instruments you could ever hear. And I immediately think to call my dad, because I knew how much my dad would love this moment. So I call my dad. It goes to voicemail. I call him again. It goes to voicemail. I go, hey, Dad, I don't know where you are tonight, but it's like, the most beautiful night in Minnesota. And, dad, you're not gonna believe it. There's a random guy in the field with a kilt, and he's playing the song with a bagpipe. Dad, listen to this. And I hang it out the window, and Amazing Grace is filling in the other end of the airwaves. And I pull the phone back to my head, and I just say, dad, I just want you to know this made me think of you. I just knew how much you love this moment. I knew how much you love being right here next to me, wherever you are. Dad, I just want you to know I love you and I'm thinking of you tonight. And when I hung up the phone, little did I know those would be the final words that my dad would ever hear me tell him. My dad would get on a motorcycle later that night, and he would pass away in a motorcycle accident. My dad, who was at a bar restaurant at the time, was listening to the voicemail. And I guess when my dad was listening to it, he was crying on the other end of the voicemail, hearing Amazing Grace coming in through the other end. And here's the truth. One of the most sobering facts any human can ever witness is someone who was once living right there in front of him and now all of a sudden passing away and leaving this earth. I don't know if you've ever been around the bedside of someone that you love dearly and you're in those final moments with them. Oftentimes what happens is if you're around loved ones and someone's about to pass away, they will often share with you some final words that they want to leave behind to their family members and their loved ones. And one of the most sobering facts is that one day, you and I potentially will have some final words that we leave behind. And I have a question for us today. Will the final words that we leave behind, will they match a life that lived them and lived them to the full? Or will they merely be words that when our family members hear them, they begin to roll their eyes on the back of their head because they know all it was was lip service? Because here's the truth for every single person here today. God has good works prepared in advance for you to walk in. And God did not create you to merely just survive and just make it. God created you to give you his holy Spirit to fill you, to baptize you, to renew you, to give you his holy Spirit to live life to the full. And Joshua in this text, gives us some final words in Joshua 24 that I believe are the blueprint for us to live this life out that God's called every single one of us to live. In Joshua 24, he's 110 years old. In Joshua 1, he was 90 years old. In Joshua 1, God looks at him and says, be strong and courageous. Moses has passed. You're gonna be the one to lead the people into the promised land. He's 90. Okay? If you are still breathing and you have breath in your lungs, God is not done with you yet. He's not done with you yet. He has plans. He has purposes for you. But here is Joshua about to pass away at 110. He has seen some of the most miraculous victories in the last 20 years. And he leaves us some final words that I believe is the roadmap for you and I to live this thing out the way he's designed it all along. In Joshua 24, verse 1, it's coming on the screen. It says, then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, the leaders, the judges, the officials of Israel, they presented themselves before God. What's so important about Shechem, you ask? Shechem is vital. It is where God promised Abram that he was gonna make him into a great nation. And it was in Shechem that God said, one day your offspring will have this land. And at the time, the Canaanites were there. What's impactful about this? Joshua is leaving his final words not only with what he's passing away, but trying to remind them of the promise that God gave in Genesis chapter 12, that he was going to show up and provide the promise that he was going to do all along. So here he is at Shechem, and what does he do? He says, get everyone. Doesn't this sound like someone when you know they're going to pass away? What does the family chat line say? Get everyone. Everyone get here. He's about to go. He's got something to say. And when Joshua gets everyone, what does he do? For the next 10 to 12 verses, Joshua begins to recount the story of God. And he begins to tell them not his successes. He begins to tell them not his achievements and what he did and how amazing he is. But for the next 12 verses, he literally tells them all the things God has done for them. When we are in old age or when we are on our final moments, we will have either one or two things to leave behind. We will have empires that we built ourselves that was built upon us, that all turns to dust. Or we will be able to testify to the amazing God and what he's done and how faithful he's been through our entire life. And I don't know about you, but I would rather pass along what's eternal than what's temporary. And here Joshua is saying, God did this, and God did this, and God did that. So how do we do this for ourselves? Number one, if you're taking notes, is this is that we are called to gather our families and gather ourselves around the story of God, around God's story. And here's how we do this. Every single day, God's breathed and given us his written word to get into cause. When we get into God's word, what happens? We're reminded it's not our story that matters. We're reminded that it's his story that matters. And when we put ourselves in his story, we find victory, redemption, forgiveness of sins, healing. We find everything we need just to make it one day. God has called us to gather ourselves around the story of God. River, Valley, Church makes it real easy for us. Cause right on the app is soap every single day for you and I to get into our Bibles and open it up for ourselves. Not only do I do that, but I read one chapter of Psalms a day, one chapter of Proverbs a day, and one chapter in the Gospels a day. And here's why. I read one chapter in the Psalms a day. Because I'm a human being and I'm full of grief. And I love that God dedicated grief literature because he knew human beings would be emotional wrecks. You know what Psalms does? It validates your emotions but doesn't let you stay there. It validates them and then it says, begin to worship me through it, it puts our eyes back on God. If you're battling anxiety, depression, any of that, live in the Psalms. And then one chapter of Proverbs a day. Why? Because a proverb a day keeps the devil away. God knew we were sheep, and sheep were one step away from stupid. And he gave us something called godly wisdom that we would need every single day. If you don't know where to start, look at the camera. The calendar has 31 days in it most times. There's 31 chapters in Proverbs. There you go. And one chapter in the Gospels today. And here's why. Because I always want to be near the words of Jesus. You know, another way we do this is not only opening up our Bibles every day, but you want to know how else we do this is we make it a commitment and a priority to show up to church every time it's open. We make showing up to church a priority. If church is open on Sunday, I'm there. If church is open on Saturday, I'm there. We make it a priority because here's where, why, when you come to church, you will not be fed opinions of the day. You will be fed the very word of God. And here's why. Because Pastor Rob know if the church is going to make it, they're going to need God's Word to stand on, live on, breathe in, be corrected by, be encouraged by. It's going to be God's Word that upholds families in this church. So when you show up here, guess what you're getting. You're going to get the word of God. Not only that, but in River Valley kids, they're getting the same thing. True story. I was out of town one day and my wife calls me all frantically. I go, what's going on? What's going on? She goes, micah, it's Malachi I said, what happened? She goes, he came home, he grabbed your golf clubs, he started smashing rocks outside with your golf clubs. I'm like, he did what? He's smashing rocks with my golf clubs. I go, tell him, stop. I go, yeah. I said, malachi, stop. What are you doing, Malachi? And Malachi yells back to my wife, mom, I'm thirsty. I'm Thursday, mom. They were at church that morning. She goes, malachi, stop. Get water inside. He goes, no, Mom. God told me to strike the rock, mom, and water would come. My son destroyed my golf clubs cause he was thirsty. You wanna know why? Cause he was in River Valley. Kids hearing about a God who does the impossible. I will gladly take destroyed golf clubs, knowing my son's faith is being built up and raised in a God who does the impossible. When you make your local church a priority and showing up here every Sunday and every weekend, your kids are being gathered around the story of God, it's worth it. Can I just tell you? I come from a broken home. My parents divorced after 17 years of marriage. Can I tell you what a best decision a single mom ever did? A best decision a single mom ever did is she picked up a phone and she said, where's a great church where I can bring my kids to? My mom brought me to a church just like this, and we showed up in the parking lot. I said, mom, I'm not going to that church. Mom, I'm staying right here. She goes, mikey, you better get out of the van and come to church. I said, mom, no, I'm staying right here. My mom looked at me and she said, if you don't get out of the van and come to church, I'm gonna go get a man from the church and he's gonna drag your butt into church. I said, mom, I'm staying right here. I learned a lesson that day. You don't mess with crazy church moms. You know the moms that when they stare at you and they just know all of your sin? Those moms? Yeah, that was my mom. Okay? Sure enough, she grabs a giant man, he drags me into church. And little did I know, little did I know I would end up meeting the best man in my wedding who'd become my best friend. And know what I realized is it'd be impossible for me to make it as a young, broken teenager in a broken home without being gathered around the story of God. Because you want to know why? When I guest preach in churches across America, I don't see you as people. I don't know even though you don't know me, I see you as people I don't know. And here's why. Because when I see you, I see men who showed up and invited me into their homes to show me what a family dinner looked like. I had men who showed up and showed me what it looks like, how a man should treat his wife. I had people who would show up around Christmas time, knock on the door and drop envelopes of cash off to a single mom who couldn't afford Christmas presents for her kids. When I see you, I see people who gave to Kingdom Builders, who allowed me to go on a missions trip because a single mom couldn't afford it. When I saw you, I saw people who gave to Kingdom Builders so that four kids from a single mom could go to summer camp because we couldn't afford it. When I see you, I see a church who believed in me, me, raised me, sent me. And all because a single mom decided to gather her kids around the story of God. And I'm old enough now to realize that my mom knew if her four kids were going to make it, they were going to need God's story in their life. We're called to gather our families around the story of God. And then number two is this. We're called to rid our homes of sin. In Joshua 24, he says, in light of what God's done for you, in light of the victories God's brought in verse 14, here's what I want you to do now. Fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. In other words, Joshua is saying this. Here's the deal. God's done amazing things for you that you didn't deserve. This sounds like the New Testament, but we're still in the Old Testament. God brought victory after victory for you. God gave you things you didn't even work for. God gave you the blessing of just being chosen. And here's deal. In light of how amazing God is, run away from the sin that tripped up your parents. Run away from the sin that tripped up your grandparents. The family lines of dysfunction, the family lines of sin, they no longer need to be your sin too. And I just have a question. What is under our roofs right now in our home that God has clearly called us to get rid of it? Or let me put it a different way, what's allowed on our screens and devices right now that God has clearly said, get rid of it? Can I just Tell you, my dad divorced my mom and left my mom for another woman. And he watched his dad divorce his mom and leave his wife for another woman. There is generational sin patterns in my life. And know what psychologists would tell you is that he's probably more prone to follow in the ways of his father because of what was modeled to you. But you know what scripture would tell you, in light of the grace of Jesus, that no longer needs to be my path too. And it no longer needs to be any of our paths either, in light of what Jesus has done, in light of God's grace that we too can rid our homes of sin. God is cheering you on. God is wanting that for you. God has amazing things for you. And you do not have to follow in the ways of your ancestors. You do not have to follow the same gods. There can be a set of partners, something that Jesus has done for you. So he's called us to gather ourselves around his story, to rid our homes of sin. And then number three is this. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. Joshua says in verse 15, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, the gods of the and in whose land you're living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. You know the Hebrew tense of the verb that's used here to serve the Lord. It's unique. It's a tense that represents a past tense, a present tense, and a future tense. In other words, Joshua is saying this. In my youth, I chose to serve God. As a young adult, I chose to serve God. When I graduated college and went off and started a career, I chose to serve God. In my present age, at 110 years old, we will serve the Lord. And whatever comes my way in the future, we will be a household, we will be a family that chooses to serve the Lord. What would it look like for our families in our church to say, as for me and my house, we're gonna serve God. We're all in. There is no other option. There is no other way apart from Jesus. If Jesus said it, we're gonna do it. If Jesus wants this for us, this is what we're gonna do. Lord, speak. We're listening. We'll follow. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You know what they say? They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? This is a picture of my grandpa, Grandpa Dave. He's my mom's dad. He just looks like a grandpa, doesn't he? Like when you look at him, he looks like a grandpa. If you've ever seen the Pixar movie up and wondered where they got the grandpa for that movie, it's my grandpa. All he needs is some balloons and Russell and he'll fly away. That's my grandpa. Here's what you don't know about him. He was a Lutheran minister in Missouri. And he couldn't make it financially being a pastor. He moved to the inner city of Minneapolis. He had eight children, four boys and four girls. They attended a small Lutheran church in Minneapolis. He began to have people over in his home for extended times of worship and prayer. And the Holy Spirit showed up and began to fill these meetings. The Lutheran board and pastors found out about this and they kicked my grandpa out of the church, his wife, all eight kids. Because of what God was doing through the Holy Spirit in these meetings. Can I just tell you, my grandpa was hurt. My grandpa was devastated. And know what he could have done? See kids, there's the church full of power, greed, their ways, what they want. See kids, that's what happens when you go to church. You know what my grandpa did that next Sunday? He looked at his wife and all eight of his kids and said, get ready for church because we're going to church. You know what my grandpa knew? He knew that people might fail him, but he know Jesus never would. My grandpa did not allow hurt from church leadership to keep him and his family out of what God wanted for him. And he made showing up to church a priority. Where do you think a single mom learned it from? Where do you think a single mom saw it modeled? But she saw ahead of a household decide to show up even when it was hard and even when it was hurtful. As for me, in my house we will serve the Lord. My grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he knew he was about to pass away. And my grandpa, in his final moments, you know what he did? He called every child, he called every grandchild over to his house. And as we showed up, one by one, he called each child and each grandchild individually to his bedside. And you know what he handed us? He handed us a note card with an individual scripture verse on it. And my grandpa's final words over his kids and grandkids lives. He wanted it to be the very scripture, the very God breathed word of God that would be prayed over as his final words over his kids and his grandkids. My grandpa did not know I would be an evangelist that traveled the world. You know what my grandpa's Bible verse was for me? That he prayed over me before he passed away. It's right here on the screen. Daniel chapter 12 says this. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever. My grandpa did not know that one day we would see thousands of teenagers, thousands of young adults coming to know Jesus. But my grandpa did know something. That if he was gonna leave final words to leave behind to his family and his kids, it would be the words that would endure forever. The words that never pass away. The words that test the stand of time. The words that are eternal and live on forever. So what will our final words be? What will we choose? Can I just speak real quick to everyone in the room? If you've walked in here and as you're about to leave, if you walk out of here beating yourself up, that man, I'm just a bad dad or man, I'm a bad mom man, and you're just sitting there thinking about all the ways that you've blown it, all the ways you've blown it as a parent or a grandparent. If that's how you're walking out of, then please don't miss what I'm about to tell you right now. Please don't forget the final words of Jesus as he was hanging on a cross. The final words Christ left for you was, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. In fact, I'm convinced if Jesus could have you meditating on a song to end 2025, it might sound a little bit like Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found. Was blind but now I see. Don't you see? It's the amazing grace of Jesus that calls you to him. It's the amazing grace of Jesus that invites you to him. It's the amazing grace of Jesus that propels you in him. It's the amazing grace of Christ that saw you at your worst and still wanted you. What kind of love is this that will look at someone and still choose him even when they deny him. What kind of love is this? I'll tell you what kind. It's the amazing grace of Jesus that is given as a free gift to all who will call upon his name and repent from their sins and follow him with every head bowed, every eye closed across this room and Here in all of our campuses, this is a moment between you and Jesus. At all of our campuses. If you could bow your head, close your eyes, this is powerful. If you are here and you are stuck, if you are here or you are in a dark spot, if you are here and you are lost, if you are here and you are broken, listen to me. You're in the right spot today. You came to the right place today. Because the Amazing grace of Jesus does not look at you and deny you based on your works. But the Amazing grace of Jesus offers a free gift of salvation through faith in him. If you are here and you are not right with Jesus, or if you're here and you're in a dark place, or if you're here and you're saying, I need the Amazing grace of Christ, then on the count of three, I just want you to put up a hand. One, you're far from him. Two, you need his Amazing grace. Three, just put up a hand wherever you are, across this room. See, I need his Amazing grace. I need that Amazing grace of Jesus. Praise God. Praise God. If the whole church can pray with me, everyone pray this with me. At all of our campuses, just say, jesus, I am lost. I am a wretch. But because of you and your amazing grace, I believe in you, that you are the Messiah. I no longer need to live in sin. Would you forgive me of my sins? Would you help me to follow you all the days of my life? Thank you for saving me, delivering me and healing me. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.