Choose You This Day

Joshua chapter number 24, if you don't mind, if you are able to stand for the reading of God's word.

Joshua chapter number 24, we're going to do a little bit of reading, alright?

So get used to standing for a little bit, okay?

We're going to read the first 15 verses, but if you don't catch anything I say for the rest of the sermon,

make sure we're getting what God has for us in His word today.

It says in Joshua 24, verse number 1,

And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem,

and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers.

And they presented themselves before God.

And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,

Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,

even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and they served other gods.

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,

and led him throughout all the land of Canaan,

and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau,

and I gave unto Esau, Mount Seir, to possess it.

But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

I sent Moses also, and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt,

according to that which I did among them,

and afterward I brought you out.

And I brought your fathers out of Egypt,

and ye came unto the sea.

And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers,

with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea.

And when they cried unto the Lord,

he put darkness between you and the Egyptians,

and brought the sea upon them, and covered them.

And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt.

And ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.

And I brought you into the land of the Amorites,

which dwelt on the other side, Jordan.

And they fought with you,

and I gave them into your hand,

that ye might possess their land.

And I destroyed them from before you.

Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab,

arose and warred against Israel,

and sent and called Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you.

But I would not hearken unto Balaam.

Therefore he blessed you still,

so I delivered you out of his hand.

And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho.

And the men of Jericho fought against you,

the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites,

and the Hitzites, and the Girgashites,

and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

And I delivered them into your hand.

And I sent the hornet before you,

which draved them out from before you,

even the two kings of the Amorites,

but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.

And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor,

and cities which ye built not.

And ye dwell in them of the vineyards and olive yards,

which ye planted not do ye eat.

Now therefore fear the Lord,

and serve him in sincerity and in truth,

and put away the gods which your fathers served

on the other side of the flood and in Egypt,

and serve ye the Lord.

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,

choose you this day whom ye will serve.

Whether the gods which your fathers served

that were on the other side of the flood,

or the gods of the Amorites,

in whose land ye dwell.

But as for me, in my house,

we will serve the Lord.

I have a very important decision

that we are going to talk about today.

Who are you going to choose?

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this day.

Thank you for this opportunity that we have

to come into this place here at Central Baptist Church

and worship and honor you.

Be with this service, Lord.

Speak to heart, speak to my heart in a special way today.

And if there be anybody in here

that has not asked you to be their Lord and Savior,

help them to get that right today.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you for standing.

You may be seated.

Man, we make a lot of decisions in a day, don't we?

Think of all the decisions that we make.

I know Pastor Tyler's used this as an illustration before,

the decision to go out to eat.

It's the age-old decision that couples have to decide

what they're going to do.

But a lot of times, households end up divided.

Okay?

And I'm going to use an illustration for this.

Right now, Miss Tiffany is going through a diet.

A diet plan set forth by Brother Cliff.

And a lot of things right now she cannot eat.

She cannot eat anything with sugar, flour, starches.

And there's probably more than that.

And me being the good husband that I am,

I was going to try and do the diet with her.

And then I realized that Coca-Cola has sugar in it.

And I quickly realized that I could not do that.

All right?

So a lot of times what we'll do at night for dinner,

my wife will make something just slightly different for her

so she can stick to her diet and me and the kids eat chicken nuggets.

Okay?

That's what we kind of do.

But right now, our house is divided on what we are going to eat.

Sometimes our houses are divided on certain things.

And I know we don't, like I said earlier,

I know we don't have a ton of sports fans out there.

But I was taught at a very young age.

Very young age.

We are to hate evil.

All right?

And I think that's a pretty commonplace thing.

We are to hate evil, aren't we?

And so my parents raised me knowing right from wrong.

So they raised me as an A&M fan.

All right?

They raised me liking the maroon and white.

All right?

And they taught me from a very young age

that the color burnt orange was very evil.

And we stay far, far away from it.

All right?

That's what I was taught.

Okay?

So don't be mad at me.

Be mad at my parents.

Okay?

I was taught that you hated Texas.

You loved Texas A&M.

That's just how I grew up.

And, of course, I met my lovely wife.

And she was not kind of,

she was not way out there as I was.

She didn't hate A&M.

But she liked Texas.

So the very first time we met at Chili's,

that was one of the things we had to talk out.

All right?

Because that was an obstacle.

Okay?

You cannot have obstacles in your marriage.

It's just not a good thing.

So we talked about it and she said,

man, I guess one day maybe I can like Texas A&M.

And I...

Appreciate that.

Yeah.

And she did start watching A&M with me a little bit.

But she does not hate Texas yet.

All right?

I've got her on the side of liking A&M more.

But she says she still roots for Texas.

All right?

I told her you can't have good and evil.

All right?

You can only have one.

But...

So I have tried to eliminate the division in our house.

But occasionally when A&M and Texas play each other in whatever sport,

she has to make a decision.

And sometimes she decides that she's going to root for both teams.

And I hate that.

All right?

You can't ride the fence.

That's what God taught us.

Okay?

But our house is divided.

All right?

I like A&M.

And against my wishes, she still likes Texas a little bit.

All right?

Our houses are divided on certain things.

On certain silly things.

Right?

We'll compromise with each other if it's not a huge, big decision.

But today, we are going to discuss a decision that cannot be compromised.

These little things like sports and the food that we eat, our likes and dislikes, our interests,

they can divide our household and we can have a fun time with that.

But the decision that we're making today, our entire household needs to decide today what way we're going to go.

It can't be compromised.

We can't compromise the way that we're going.

And that's kind of where Joshua's coming from here.

Just to give you a little back story of where we're at here in Joshua chapter number 24,

this is Joshua's last charge to the children of Israel.

This is his last time that he's going to stand before them.

He's getting very close to death.

He's getting very close to dying in his last breath.

So he is now thinking of what is the best thing that I can leave with the children of Israel before I die.

The children of Israel have had two great leaders in Moses and Joshua.

And now the second of those great leaders is going to pass away.

And he doesn't know how to make sure to get through the Israelites' heads that regardless who's leading you,

you should be looking at God.

And he's not really sure how to do that.

So I imagine this is how my brain works.

He's got a little feather pen that he's writing out his speech.

Okay.

He's writing on paper, what should I say?

And then he realizes something.

No speech that he could possibly give could really top everything else that has happened over the last several,

several years that he has led the children of Israel.

So he doesn't really know where to go.

And then he realizes something.

I'm not going to be able to say anything to get these guys to follow Christ.

I'm not going to be able to say anything to get these guys to truly follow the Lord.

If you followed the history of Israel at all,

these guys, they do some wrong things.

They follow idols.

They're not always following God.

So what Joshua decides to do is he decides to remind the children of Israel who got them there,

who led them to where they are at right now.

At this point in time, the children of Israel are experiencing many blessings.

They've experienced many victories.

And sometimes when we experience victories in our lives,

we tend to look inward and say, man, I can't believe I did that.

Man, that was a great, that was a great job that I just did.

So what Joshua takes here is I'm going to remind him who got him here.

By the way, it wasn't Joshua.

It wasn't Moses.

Great men of God, great leaders for God.

But the only one that got the children of Israel where they're at today is God himself.

And it says in verse number two,

And Joshua said unto all the people,

The very first words that Joshua says,

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.

He puts a disclaimer over everything he's about to say.

This is what God did.

Not what you did.

Not what anybody else here did.

Not what our great fighters did.

This was God.

Joshua's nearing the end of his life,

and he figures that the best thing he can do is point everybody back to God.

Point number one here is remembering God's faithfulness.

The only way to point our household,

to point our lives back to God,

is remembering what God did for us to begin with.

Sometimes it's easily forgotten.

I was saved now, I guess, 16 years ago.

And you know, right when you get saved,

that period of time when you get saved,

you are on fire for God.

For a couple weeks, maybe a couple months,

even a couple of years.

And before too long, if we're not careful,

we forget what God did for us,

and we say, I'm going to live my life my way.

We're humans.

Short-term memory loss.

I've watched Finding Nemo.

You ever watch Dory?

He can't remember very much.

Oftentimes we're like that.

We forget what God has done for our lives.

We forget where God has brought us out of.

God has provided this great church,

this great church building,

where we can come in and worship God.

Did you know around the world,

a lot of people don't have that.

A lot of people don't have the blessings

that this place has been blessed with.

But let me just tell you,

it has nothing to do with any man.

God gave it to all of us.

We need tonight, or this morning,

to remember God's faithfulness.

Remember God's faithfulness.

Underneath this letter A,

God chose them.

God chose them.

I find this very interesting in verse number two,

continuing on.

Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood

in the old time,

even Terah,

the father of Abraham,

and the father of Nacor,

and they served other gods.

Do you notice that the household

that Abraham came from

was not a godly household?

The household that Abraham came from,

as a matter of fact,

worshipped other gods.

They worshipped other things.

They did not worship the true God.

That's where Abraham came from.

Did you know,

I imagine there are a lot of us in here

that maybe when we were children,

grew up in households

that did not honor God,

that did not worship the one true God.

But eventually,

you have to make the decision for yourself

and your household

that you are going to serve God.

That's what happened with Abraham.

Abraham was not brought up in this.

He was not a part of a Christian family

in the slightest.

But,

God called him.

He saw Abraham.

He said,

Abraham,

I want you to come to me.

I want you to work for me.

I want you to serve me.

Abraham had a choice.

God chose him,

but Abraham still had the choice,

and Abraham chose God.

There was a young man

back in 1862

is when he was born.

This man was a great athlete.

He was very, very fast.

He was one of the faster men alive at the time.

He'd run across all parts of the world

racing and such.

And by 1882,

at 20 years old,

this young man was drafted

by the Chicago White Stockings baseball team.

Now they're the Chicago White Sox.

This young man got so hung up

in the success,

the fame,

the fortune of the day,

he got into things that he shouldn't have.

He was heavy,

heavy drinking alcohol.

He got into things that he shouldn't have been in,

and by 1886,

four years after he was drafted,

this man stumbled with some of his teammates

into a street meeting

held by the Pacific Garden Mission.

As he listened to the gospel

and heard believers singing hymns

that reminded him of his godly mother,

the Lord convicted his heart.

This young man,

five years later,

after he was saved on this day,

five years later,

he gave up baseball.

He gave up everything

to follow God with his life.

That man's name is Billy Sunday.

If you have never heard of this man,

this is one of the

great preachers of his day

that, by the way,

was living in sin,

that was worshiping other gods.

God called him.

He was in sin,

and he still left his sin

to follow God.

Get this.

Sin never stopped God from calling us,

but sin can still push away the call.

At the end of the day,

it's our decision.

Choose you this day.

What are we going to choose?

Billy Sunday's ministry

reached many, many, many, many people

for Christ.

He was a great baseball player.

He had his life in front of him.

He had fame, fortune,

all the works,

but he chose God.

Not because he grew up in God.

Not because he grew up around it,

but because he realized

he had to make a decision for him.

It wasn't based on

what his parents had done.

It wasn't based on

any of his family.

He had to make an individual decision

to trust God.

God chose Billy Sunday,

but Billy Sunday

still could have pushed him away.

We have that same opportunity today.

Did you know,

as a Christian,

God's calling you?

You say,

well, I'm not going to be a pastor.

I'm not going to be a missionary.

I'm not good at public speaking.

I can't do it.

God's not calling me.

If you are a Christian,

God is calling you.

God wants you to follow him.

God wants you to live your life for Christ.

So God is calling you.

Now, I'd be a fool to think

there aren't one or two people,

maybe more in here

that are called into ministry.

Answer that calling,

but as a person

that maybe isn't called into that,

maybe God's calling you

to reach your coworkers for Christ.

Maybe God's calling you

to tell your friends about Christ.

Maybe God's just calling you

to be an example

that others around you can see.

God's calling you.

God's chosen you,

but is your sin pushing him away?

Is your sin pushing that call away?

Today we need to answer that call.

If you are in here and a Christian,

God is calling you.

Answer the call.

Pick up the phone.

Answer the call.

Don't leave this building today

without making the decision

that you are going to follow Christ.

The very first thing

at the end of chapter number,

or verse number 15,

says,

but as for me,

but as for me.

So Joshua first,

before anything else,

he has to make a decision

in his own life

that he's going to choose the Lord,

that he's going to serve the Lord.

First,

he has to make a personal decision

that he is going to follow God.

Not only did God choose them,

God delivered them.

God delivered them.

In verse number five,

it says,

I sent Moses also and Aaron

and I plagued Egypt

according to that

which I did among them.

And afterward,

I brought you out

and I brought your fathers

out of Egypt

and you came unto the sea

and the Egyptians pursued

after your fathers

with chariots and horsemen

under the Red Sea.

Joshua was going through

everything

that God has done for them.

Remember that time

God did this for you?

Remember that time

God did this for you?

I don't like it

when I'll tell,

I'll explain Christ to somebody,

he preached the gospel

to somebody individually

and they'll say,

man,

I'm living in sin.

I've done too much wrong.

There's nothing God can do for me.

God can deliver you.

God delivered the people of Israel

even when they didn't deserve it.

We've heard the stories

about the Israelites.

They wouldn't stop complaining.

They worshiped golden idols.

They did a bunch of wrong things

and God delivered them

every single time.

Every single time,

God still delivered them.

Egypt's bondage,

the Red Sea,

Pharaoh being destroyed,

bringing them Moses and Aaron

when they had nobody to lead them.

Over and over and over,

time and time again,

God delivered them.

God can deliver you too.

You might be living in sin today.

You might be saved,

but you might be living in sin.

A lot of these Israelites

probably saved

and they kept on failing

time and time and time again.

We're human,

that's going to happen.

But you know what they had to do?

They had to turn back to God

and say,

God, can you help us?

God, what are we going to do now?

Where do we go?

Verse number seven,

it says,

and when they cried unto the Lord.

It didn't just happen.

They had to go to God

and say,

God, we need help.

Deliver us.

God wants to help his people.

God wants to help those

that are in trouble.

God wants to help those

that are mired in sin.

But we have to go to him and ask.

We have to ask God

to deliver us.

God chose us

and he also wants to deliver us.

Thirdly,

God defended them.

Verse number eight,

we won't read all this

because there are a lot of places

that I'm not keen on saying again.

And I brought you

into the land of the Amorites

which dwelt on the other side of Jordan

and they fought with you

and I gave them into your hand

and that ye might possess their land

and I destroyed them

from before you.

Don't miss this.

The battles that you're fighting

cannot be won by you.

You must lean on God

to win those battles.

And that's what Joshua was saying here.

Remember all those battles that you had?

He lists out all the ites

in a few verses later, all right?

All the Hivites,

the Girgashites,

all these guys,

probably pretty big armies,

maybe bigger than Israel.

And Joshua said,

remember how God defended us then?

Remember that?

Remember how it felt

to watch God take over like he did?

Do you remember that?

I do.

God defended them.

Victory over the Amorites.

By the way,

they weren't supposed to beat the Amorites.

Protection from Balak.

God turned Balaam's curse into blessing.

Sometimes God protects us from dangers

we'll never even know existed.

But the only way that happens

is if we are walking with the Lord.

If we are walking day by day with God.

God wants to deliver us.

God wants to defend us.

But we have to walk with him.

And fourthly,

not only did God choose them,

God delivered them,

God defended them,

and finally God provided for them.

Over and over and over again,

we find for the children of Israel,

God provided for them,

even when they didn't deserve it.

You know what's amazing?

I'm a sinner,

and I don't deserve salvation.

God gave it to me anyways.

I'm a sinner.

I don't deserve to be a part of God's family.

But God provided it for me anyways.

The children of Israel show us

that even God's people

are so oftentimes stuck in sin

and stuck in their own ways,

and God still wants to help them out.

He still does.

And today,

I think it's time that we just remember

how good God's been to us.

As a church family,

if we just gather around

and think of all the blessings,

think of all the times

that God has provided for us

when we did nothing left,

no help, nothing.

Even since I've been

at this church here at Central,

I've seen how much it's grown,

how the Spirit has grown in the Lord.

That's a God thing.

That's no man.

That's no one person.

That is God providing

for Central Baptist Church.

That is God defending

Central Baptist Church.

Let's remember today

what God has done for us.

Remember.

Because when we remember it,

it's a lot harder

to go back into sin.

Because we remember

how much God has done for us

and how much we should be doing

for the Lord.

So first,

I see remembering God's faithfulness.

Secondly,

we need to reject

every rival.

I did not come up with this point

in thoughts of rejecting

the Texas Longhorns,

but we are to reject

every rival.

We are to reject

everything that can get

in our way

from serving God.

It says in verse number 14,

Now therefore,

fear the Lord

and serve Him

in sincerity and in truth

and put away the gods.

Put away the gods.

And ordinarily,

when we look at Scripture

like this in the Old Testament,

we think of,

as in gods,

we think of the golden calf

that the Israelites worshipped.

We think of the golden images

that Aaron built up

for the children of Israel.

We think of these

as gods and idols

and we say,

Well, I would never do that.

Joshua names

three kinds of false gods.

Let's see if we fall

into any of these categories.

The very first point

underneath this

is the gods of the past.

Continuing on in verse 14,

And put away the gods

which your fathers served

on the other side of the flood.

Those past sins,

maybe they were

before you got saved.

Maybe they were

before you got into church.

We're a new creature now.

We shouldn't have to deal with that.

Friend, we're sinners

and we have flesh.

There are still things

that come up

that I remember

before I got saved,

I was living in sin

and that sin,

every now and then,

it'll pop its ugly head up.

Put away those gods.

Put away the idols.

Put away the things

that are just in our lives

that are keeping us

from truly serving

and honoring

and worshiping God.

That's what a God is.

And a God or an idol

is something

that takes the place

of the true God

that we should be worshiping.

So first of all,

what's that sin?

What's that thing

in our lives

that we tried to put away

but every now and then

it'll pop its head up?

Put away those gods.

That's what Joshua says.

Secondly,

this is where

it gets real for us.

Let her be

the gods of the present.

The gods of the present.

It says in verse 15,

and if it seem evil

unto you to serve the Lord,

choose you this day

and me will serve

whether the gods

which your father served

that were on the other side

of the flood

or the gods of the Amorites.

By the way,

right now,

they are living amongst

where the Amorites lived.

That means these gods

are in the camp

right now.

Joshua isn't preaching

against something

that had been

that your fathers did

that was passed.

Now he's getting

into the things

that are a little bit convicting.

The right now.

What god do you got

right now, guys?

Put them away now.

This is a little bit

harder to listen to.

Man,

things that are in my life

that are taking time

away from God,

you say still,

well,

I don't have any gods

or idols.

I'm not worshiping

anything else.

You got a TV?

You got video games?

You got a career?

You got all that stuff?

There are other things, too.

A god is something

that is taking the time

that should be gods

and putting it

into something else.

So oftentimes,

this is how our

Bible reading goes.

And man,

this can be me, too,

if I'm not careful.

Our Bible reading

and time with God

can go something like this.

We have a very busy day

of doing certain things.

When we get home,

we want to unwind,

watch a little bit

of television,

we get in bed that night

and we say,

man,

I didn't get to spend time

with God today.

Hopefully tomorrow.

God gets the end of it.

God gets,

if I have any time left over.

The television,

if that's taking time

away from God,

your priorities

are out of whack.

If certain things

in your life

are taking time

and effort away

from serving

and honoring God,

something is wrong.

And that's what

Joshua says here.

He said,

guys,

you're putting your time

into all these

different things

and you're giving God

a little bit

at the end of the day.

You're giving God

a little bit

if you can find

the time for it.

That's not what God wants.

Those are gods.

Those are idols

that we're using

in place

of who we should be

honoring and worshiping

and serving

in God.

So first,

I saw the gods

of the past.

Then I see the gods

of the present.

And then thirdly,

I see the God

of convenience.

The God

of convenience.

It says

in verse number 15

a little bit earlier,

it says,

and if it seem

evil unto you

to serve the Lord.

This is actually

a pretty big statement

here.

Because Joshua

is not saying

serving the Lord

is evil,

obviously.

I imagine

if I asked anybody

in here today,

who thinks it's evil

to serve the Lord?

Nobody's hands going up.

Because,

of course,

we don't think

it's evil

to serve the Lord.

But man,

sometimes it's

sure not convenient.

When we got a busy day,

when we got things

going on,

sometimes it's easier

just to push it off

a little bit.

Sometimes it's easier

to say,

I'll do that later,

God.

God,

I know you're important,

but not as important

as this right now.

Not as important

as doing all these

other things

that I've got

on my plate.

God,

you'll get there

one day,

but right now,

I've just got a lot

going on.

The God of convenience.

Is it convenient

for you to serve

the Lord?

If the answer

is sometimes,

something is wrong.

We shouldn't be

looking at God

as a convenience.

God should be a part

of our everyday walk.

It shouldn't be

a convenience thing.

We should go to God,

number one.

We should plan

everything else

in our day

around our time

with God,

not the other way around.

And so often times,

it seems like we are

doing it the other way around.

I watched a clip

of a movie

last night

in preparation

for this illustration

so I could remember

it a little bit better.

Anybody ever seen

Facing the Giants?

Facing the Giants.

It's a very good movie.

It's a Christian movie,

actually.

And I went to

Christian school,

so there weren't

a whole lot of movies

we could watch,

so there for a little while.

This was the only movie

we watched,

so that was awesome.

So it did get old

for a little while,

but then I watched

a clip last night

and I want to go

watch the movie now.

But it's a football movie,

but really,

it's not really based

around football.

It is a very

God-centric movie.

And at one point

in this movie,

I'll give you

the background,

there's a high school

coach and he coaches

this high school team

that's not very good.

And if they don't

win this season,

he's probably going

to lose his job.

And then there's

this other team

that is state champions

for like three years

in a row,

way better than everybody.

They never lose.

That's kind of the background

of where we are here.

And this head coach

of this small little team

that can't find themselves

a win,

he comes to one

of his assistant coaches.

His assistant coach

had been called

by that really big school

to come over

and leave his job there

and come over

and be assistant

at this big school.

Much more money,

everything was going

to work out better,

but he wasn't going

to tell the head coach

until it was a done deal.

He was scared to,

he didn't want

to hurt his feelings.

The head coach

goes to the assistant coach

one evening

after practice.

And he asked him

about it and he said,

yeah,

I just didn't want

to tell you,

I don't really know

what I want to do.

And the coach

looked at him

and said,

Brady,

right now you're

on the fence.

And right now

you're not doing

anybody good

sitting on the fence.

Right now you need

to get off of it,

pick which side you're on.

Because I can't have you,

if you're halfway over there,

halfway over here,

go over there.

I don't need you.

Don't ride the fence.

Don't ride the fence.

We'll be a lot better

off with you

out of here

if you're halfway

over there.

Don't ride the fence.

You got to pick

God of the world.

At the end of the day,

that's what Joshua

says here.

Joshua gives them

a whole bunch of gods

that they can pick.

Like he said,

make your pick.

But for me

and my house,

we're not riding

the fence between them.

We're not picking

three different gods.

We're going to pick

the one true God.

We are going

to serve God.

As for me

and my house,

we will serve

the Lord.

Don't ride the fence.

So many Christians

do that

because they want

the benefits.

They want the benefits

of living in the world

and they want the benefits

that Christ can give them.

You can't live for both.

You got to pick

one or the other.

Do you want to serve God

or do you want to serve

the world?

Joshua wasn't really

mean about it

as you can see

in verse 15.

He just said,

guys,

it's your choice.

Like I'm going to tell you

what I'm going to do

but at the end of the day,

you have to pick

what you and your house

is going to do.

I can't pick it for you.

I can remind you

about all this.

I can tell you

about everything

that's happened

in your lives

and how God has provided

for you every step

of the way

but at the end of the day,

it's your choice.

Do you want to ride the fence?

Do you want to just sit

over there in the world

or do you want to ride

with me?

Do you want to get in

and work

and walk

with God?

Finally,

I see

a resolve

to serve the Lord.

It says in verse number 15

at the very end,

but as for me

and my house,

we will serve

the Lord.

This is one of the greatest

scripture declarations

in the Bible.

Joshua was not hesitant

about saying

what his plan was.

He didn't see

what everybody else

was choosing

and then he chose.

He said,

I don't care

what anybody else does.

We're in a room

of 150,

170 people.

Our job isn't to look

and see what everybody

else is doing.

Our job is to say,

I don't care

what they do.

I don't care

what my best friends do.

I am going

to serve

the Lord.

And let me tell you,

this is,

I don't ordinarily do this.

This is for the men

in the room.

Men,

we need

to be the reason

our household

stands

for the Lord.

We should be the ones

that are declaring

it's never a question.

My parents always told me

growing up,

I never want it

to be a question

to you

whether we're

going to go to church

or not,

whether we're

going to read

our Bible as a family.

I never want that

to be a question

for you.

I just want you

to know

that's our job

as men

to lead our household

so that our kids,

they grow up

knowing we serve God.

It's never a question

to them.

They know for a fact

who we serve.

Our wives

follow us

and are able

to help

and direct

our children

to serve the Lord,

but it's our job

as men

to make sure

our household

is standing

on the strong

foundation of the Lord.

First,

under this point,

as I'm getting

close to closing,

it was a personal

decision.

I said the men

just a moment ago,

but right now

it is everybody's choice.

It is a personal

decision

to follow God.

Joshua,

before he could get

to his household,

he had to make

the decision

that he was going

to walk for God.

He had to make

the decision himself.

Growing up in school,

I loved group

projects,

because if we failed,

we were going

to fail together.

I didn't like

failing by myself,

so I was decent

in school,

but if we were

going to do bad,

at least somebody

else was going

to go down

with me.

That's the kind

of friend I was.

I wanted my best

friends with me,

so if we did do bad,

it was their fault

too,

not just mine.

Let me just tell you,

this isn't a group

project this morning.

You can't look over

and say,

hey,

are you going

to follow the Lord?

Hey,

are you going

to stand firm

for the Lord today?

I'll do it if you do it.

It's a personal decision.

It has to be made

by each and every one

of us.

And let me just tell you,

if you say,

well,

I'm going to put

this decision

off a little bit,

you've already made one.

If you want to try

to ride the fence

and say,

I'll stand firm

for the Lord one day,

but right now,

it's not going

to work for me.

That's the God

of convenience.

Right now,

I've got stuff

going on,

the gods

of the presence,

right now,

we need to make

a decision.

I love,

I enjoy

when I'm able

to close a sermon

with a firm decision,

like what you're going

to do,

like a firm calling.

Today,

the only decision

that it is,

is who you're going

to choose.

It's very,

very simple.

The most important

decisions normally

are pretty simple,

aren't they?

we make decisions

every single day.

We make decisions

to brush our teeth.

We make decisions

to go to sleep

at night.

We make decisions

all day long,

but this is the one

that's the most important.

A lot of us

are living

our day-to-day lives,

and I've never really

sat down and thought

about it and made

that decision,

but today,

God's calling you

to make one.

Today,

as we leave

the doors today,

there are going

to be two kinds

of people,

ones that determined

to follow God

with them

in their household

today,

and the ones

who decided

not to make

a decision

that decided

to follow the world.

There's no in-between

today.

That's it.

There's no in-between.

There's no wondering

who we are,

wondering what happened,

wondering what we did,

and by the way,

finally,

it was a permanent

decision.

If you're signing up

and determining

you and your household

are going to follow

God today,

let me just tell you,

it doesn't change

in a week.

It doesn't change

in a month

when things get hard.

It doesn't change

in a year.

It doesn't change

in ten years.

This is a forever

decision.

So,

like Joshua says,

if you don't want

to make it,

don't.

Joshua gave them

the choice.

God gave you

the choice.

God's not forcing

anybody into it,

but today,

I want to make

the decision

and say,

for me and my house,

we're going

to serve the Lord,

and I implore

you today,

whether it's

at the altar,

whether it's

at your seat,

make a decision

for the Lord today.

An easy one.

Decide if you're

going to follow him

and if you're

going to lead

your household

into following him

as well.

Go ahead and bow

your heads.

away.

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