AS FOR ME

Hi everyone, this is Emma from Encounter Church,

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Okay, there

we go. Tim said you can take a seat and I'm an

obedient person and I almost sat down. So we're

starting. We are starting great today, friends.

I am looking forward to bringing you the word

today without a child on my head. This will be

wonderful. So when I was 24, I stood in front

of a really large group of friends and families

and loved ones, and I made a declaration of intention.

With these words, I said, I take thee, Kara,

to be my lawfully wedded wife. to have and to

hold, bless you for still wooing, to have and

to hold, to have and to hold from this day forward

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,

in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish

until death do us part. And then at 36, I stood

in front of a really large group of my friends

and family and loved ones. my children, my now

wife, and this time God. Look, there's a whole

thing. We did pray and promise, make promises

to God at our wedding day. We were not yet Christians.

It's a whole thing. We'll talk about that later.

But this time, in front of God, and I meant it,

I said these words publicly. I turn away from

all sin and turn to Jesus. I will trust God as

Father Jesus is Saviour and Lord with the Holy

Spirit as counselor and guide from this day on.

And moments later in Horseshoe Bay I was fully

submerged and baptized in the ocean. Woo again,

thank you. We can get, you know what, we can

get woo heavy today. I'm for it. Tim's mixing

up what we say when we do Bible readings. We've

got kids writing on the back of our heads. We've

got all sorts happening today. You guys can go

crazy. It's gonna be a good time. Now since those

two days, since... I married Kara, and since

I declared my faith publicly and got baptized,

I have obviously been the perfect husband. The

woo's stopped. Having never caused Kara any frustrations,

and I have also lived a flawless and sinless

life. But of course I haven't, because that's

impossible. But, woo with a question mark survive.

But, those declarations weren't made purely to

specifically commit to a series of actions. Those

declarations were made to commit to choices that

would echo my heart's intention. To ensure that

even on my worst days, when my actions didn't

match my words, that I had kind of like a central

point to come back to, that hopefully my intentions

were still incredibly clear even in my worst

moments. Now I am blessed to have a wife that

affords me an awful lot of grace. And I am also

blessed to have a God that covers me and a grace

that is given regardless of my efforts. Because

despite the fact that I meant each and every

promise that I made on those days, my success

rate will vary by the literal hour. And as I

reflect on those milestones as I was writing

this and putting this together, I recognize...

That the real power that came out of those two

moments was not necessarily like the promises

That I made the intentions that I promised have

power the intentions that I promised have power

because I meant them But I think where some of

that power comes from is the fact that they were

they were promises that I made and they were

choices that I made They were things that I had

chosen to commit myself to Now studies will show

us that when provided with autonomy, so just

the ability to make our own choices, we're dramatically

more happy and satisfied than when we are when

we're forced into or coerced into a decision.

So again, thank you, Cara, for also choosing

me. But, oh, that was the saddest word. However.

Too much autonomy can lead to something I love

when science just takes a thing and they're like,

no, this is an effect. Like, this is a thing.

Too much autonomy, too many choices, too many

options can lead to an effect which is called

the too much of a good thing effect. I'm not

joking. In which, you guessed it, left to our

own devices, we will continue to choose more

and more things that we think are beneficial,

but will increase stress, emotional exhaustion,

and eventually will lead to, again, you guessed

it, bad decisions. So what we really need is

the autonomy to make a really big choice, but

then we need to recognize that in making that

big choice, if that's what we're going to use

as our kind of central structure, what that then

does is limit our further choices, right? So

this isn't in here, but I'm just going to go

with it. I know that some of you nerds play RPGs

in here. I know. I know some of you nerds have

played Dungeons and Dragons, right? It's the

idea is, like, once I choose this one bigger

thing, like, I can't be a warrior and also good

at magic. Do you know what I mean? Like, I can,

once I've chosen a thing, I haven't played since,

like, I haven't played since, like, seventh,

whatever, the edition thing. Anyway, the idea

being, Jordy's gonna make me do this, fine, when

you're playing, like, Final Fantasy and you choose

this one little dot, then you can only go down

the other further series. A bigger choice effectively

will then limit the following choices that you

can or will or should make to reflect the larger

choice that you have made. This is what happens

when I go off script, Jordi immediately is like,

no. The reality is that once you've made that

one bigger choice, you are kind of forced to

make a series of other choices, or you should,

to follow that choice well, make another series

of choices that reflect and honor that first

choice. and the reality that every choice that

we make is a decision not to choose something

else. For example, if my choice, if my bigger

circle that I simply chose was love, it's a really

lovely choice, but I didn't choose love through

the prism of love represented by marriage to

and service of Chara. Amen. if it was just love,

I wouldn't continue to make choices that act

in response to the prism that I've chosen, which

is love through the form of marrying Kara, of

honouring Kara, of being married to her and serving

her. If I simply chose this like bigger bubble

of faith, that in itself is not bad per se, like

that's okay. but it could be misconstrued to

mean a bunch of different things. It's kind of

almost too big to make very specific decisions

from there. But what I chose on the day that

I got baptized was faith through discipleship

under Jesus. Which then generates a much more

specific set of choices with which to choose

from. It generates a much more specific set of

rules to follow which inevitably leads to a deeper

relationship with Jesus and that's a stronger

faith. So you see we go this big and then we

kind of start to narrow it down. Our decisions

kind of help to be shaped by that initial first

decision that we make. Now I became a husband

and a follower of Jesus based on a declaration

of intention of my actions. I didn't become them

as a result of my actions. I wanted to make it

clear that I was choosing in each of those circumstances

to leave the person that I was behind in favor

of a new identity with its own list of expectations

and choices within that. And as we come back

to today's scripture, in the book of Joshua,

we can see exactly how powerful the choice of

a public and bold statement of intent can be.

You can see exactly how that will help to dictate

what comes next. So Joshua, we'll get a little

bit of background here. Joshua was Moses' chosen

man to lead the Israelites as they transitioned

from exiles to conquerors. But now Joshua is

an old, old man. At least a few years older than

me. And in chapter 23, 14, we hear him tell the

elders of Israel, like, now I am about to go

the way of this earth. His knees and his ticker

ain't what they used to be, and he knows that

his earthly time is coming to a close, like it

is coming. And as one of his final acts, he's

assembled all of the leaders and elders of the

tribes of Israel together for one last big public

address. Now with a list of credentials like

Joshua has, you would be forgiven, and it would

be tempting, I'm sure, to give yourself a little

bit of shine on the way out. Make sure people

remember you. Make sure people remember what

it is that you have done. But Joshua doesn't

do this. He wants to use this final public address

to remind, to affirm, to establish his intentions,

and with his final act to draw another line in

the sand. And not only to draw another line in

the sand, but he wants to invite others to do

the same. Now he begins this address by listing

out exactly what God has done to help bring everybody

to here, to this moment. The enemies they had

faced and defeated, and that with God's promise

and God's power, how Joshua had helped to lead

the Israelites to victory over the Amorites,

the Moabites, the Parasites, the Canaanites,

the Hittites, the Girgashites, and the Hivites.

He has, there has been this like long, long campaign

of just victory after victory after victory.

Joshua 24, 8. reaffirms it says, they fought

against you but I destroyed them before you.

I gave you victory over them. The idols that

their ancestors had served and the gods and the

idols of all of the nations they had defeated

had served had all failed. God had succeeded

and God had also fulfilled every promise he had

made up until that point. And at the end of this

retelling, an affirmation of God's faithfulness,

Joshua wants to offer his people, God's people,

an opportunity to reaffirm their covenant with

God. Now we touched on this at the beginning

of the year. A covenant is basically like a promise,

an affirmation of relationship between you and

God. So he's offering all the people there. He

wants to remind them and give them the opportunity

to kind of recommit to that covenant with God.

What I love about this is that Joshua doesn't

try to force anyone gathered to make that choice.

But he is incredibly clear that there is a decision

to be made. There is a choice that needs to be

made. If you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose

today whom you will serve. As for me and my family,

we will serve the Lord. This is Joshua's public

declaration of intent. This is an affirmation

of his choice. with all the power and with all

the influence that Joshua has, he uses his final

big public address to commit his family and those

who are to come after him to a life of servitude

to God. Why? Like why would he take this big

momentous occasion and choose to commit to a

life of servitude, commit his family, his lineage

to a life of servitude? And I think there's two

main reasons that he comfortably places his and

his family's intention toward that of serving

God. And why he wants to do it publicly. Why

public? And I think the first reason is because

Joshua wants to, again, reaffirm that this is

something that he is choosing. This has not been

forced upon him by God or anybody else. This

is something that he wants to choose. He sees

that much value in it that he is choosing it.

Read again. Choose whom you will serve. Joshua

knows we are going to serve someone or we are

going to serve something. Now in ancient Israel

it was gods of conquered nations. It was idols

of golden calves. Now in modern culture we've

replaced golden calves with basically insert

vice here, right? We've replaced it with money

and fame and comfort and greed and self -satisfaction.

The list goes on and on and on. We don't build

golden calves anymore, but we certainly worship

at the altar of them. Joshua knows, he doesn't

mince words, we are all going to serve someone

and if we don't choose who we serve, we will

end up serving something regardless. And isn't

it better to have a say? Isn't it better to make

a choice rather than to just let it happen to

you? Because if it's not God, if you're not going

to serve God, then who are you going to serve?

For many of us, and I see it, we all see it,

Many of us are trying to turn our partners into

that person who supports and affirms and sustains

us. Like we're trying to turn them into this.

They were trying to make a partner fill the place

that God is meant to fill. And I gotta tell you

man, they're simply not up to it. They weren't

designed to, they weren't created to. That is

not their purpose. And if we're not going to

serve God, And if we accept that our partners

aren't going to fill that gap, and that if our

national identity, our jobs, our friendships,

our bosses, our celebrities, all these different

idols that we've created in our lives are not

going to fulfill that space in us, then kind

of what I think tends to happen is that when

you work it down the line, the person that we

are left to serve instead is us. We end up serving

ourselves. And I'll be honest, I don't actually

think we're up to it either. I make horrible

decisions. So do you. 2 Corinthians 3, 5 tells

us that not that we are sufficient in ourselves

to claim anything is coming from us, but our

sufficiency is from God. Joshua is asking us

and letting us know that he is choosing the one

person who has never failed. the one person that

had sustained the Israelites as they were in

exile and as they conquered themselves. Joshua

had no reason to believe that God wouldn't continue

to do so, and that's the very reason that Joshua

wants to pledge a life of servitude for God for

him and his house, because God, he's watched

God already fulfill all these promises. God has

already taken them from slaves to rulers in a

generation. In Joshua 23, 15 we see not one of

all the good promises the Lord your God gave

you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled,

not one has failed. Joshua can safely commit

himself and his family to God and choose God

because it's not a punt, this is a safe bet.

Joshua has already seen God fulfill these promises.

Joshua has already seen God do everything that

he said he was going to do. And so had everybody

else there that was gathered. So now Joshua,

no doubt it seems pretty obvious to do this,

to make this choice, to live a life in servitude

of a God that just succeeds, that continues to

succeed, continues to win. But as George Orwell

once told us, restatement of the obvious is the

first duty of intelligent men. Joshua has genuinely

no idea what will follow here on earth, what

the future will hold here on earth. But he was

there when the Israelites were in exile. He saw

the results of the people who knew God. but grew

weary or tired when circumstances didn't suit

them and forged idols from gold and he saw the

results of what happens when that happens and

he saw what happens when those idols fail. Joshua

has seen it and has no desire to see it again.

Now he can't choose what will come next for everybody

around him. He can't actually choose what will

happen for his family but he can absolutely choose

and declare what his intention for them is. And

He knows that He can make that choice. He knows

that He can commit Himself to serving that God

because that God has proven that it can be safely

placed in Him. And that desire to serve God requires,

like we were talking about before, this series

of choices. It's not just like a one -off choice

to serve a God, to serve our God, but it is a

continual and regular choice as it requires intentionality.

As Angus spoke about last week, we're so often,

we as people are so often looking at what is

directly in front of us. But Joshua is safely

placing his family and his servitude into a God

that has eternity in mind. What I love here is

that Joshua doesn't force the Israelites what

to choose, he presents it to them. This is basically

how you guys You guys do what you want to do.

In the light of anything that can happen, you

have no idea how this would be received and he's

like, you know what, you guys do what you want

to do. I don't actually care because this is

where I'm going. This is what I'm doing. I'm

confident in this. What I love this is because

it mirrors, it mirrors exactly what God does

for us. Do you think God doesn't have an idea,

doesn't have a plan for you, for me, for what

it is that we have in mind and what does He say

to us? He doesn't go, you must. We are presented

with a choice daily, hourly, by the minute, for

how we want to respond to that. Do we want to

choose to serve that God or do we want to choose

to serve something else? But it's a choice, never

forced upon us. I think it's because God just

loves us too much to choose for us. He allows

us that autonomy because He loves us enough to

allow us to be autonomous. God loves us endlessly

in our mistakes, in our uncertainty, in our sin.

And there's that beautiful expression which is

love preserves choice. We have the ability to

choose because we are loved enough to receive

that gift. And again, I told us all off before

for being really bad at making choices. So I

thought I'd better try and give you guys some

different ways to work at how we're making good

choices. Green light choices, what do we call

them in kids' minimum? Green light choices, I

got the thumbs up from Emma. Or it could be a

one again, I don't know, my vision's not going

so strong. So how do we ensure we are making

good and faithful choices that honor and serve

a loving God who permits us the right to choose?

How do we repay that well? Just for something

different and in counter handling, we are going

to start with pray about it. And why do we always

start with prayer? Because everything should

start with prayer. Otherwise again, it's just

us making our own decisions. We pray about it.

We pray, we seek God's will for our life, for

our family's life, and then we seek that out.

We commit ourselves to pursuing that. And once

we think we've heard from God, once we've got

a vision of how we think that God may want to

use our life, we need to establish our non -negotiables.

Once we've made that big -picture decision, once

we've got a big -picture vision in mind, remember

we need to limit our choices to make sure we're

honoring that vision. And those are what I call,

these are, I've got so many textisms from the

last couple of years, but non -negotiables, establishing

non -negotiables is something that I talk about

all the time. What are you not willing to commit

to? In order for Joshua and his family and his

lineage to serve the Lord, they are going to

have to have a series of things that are in their

family's life that are just completely non -negotiable.

Start by asking yourself this, and it sounds

pretty heavy, but start by asking this. Is this

choice consistent with God's vision for my life?

Welcome to church. Sounds heavy and it should

be, because that's really what we're pursuing.

Important decisions normally are not easy decisions.

Write them down. If you have things in your life

that you are like, I will not stray from this

because I know that it is bad for me, I know

that it is not helpful to me, I know that it

does not serve the goals that I want to achieve,

write them down. The third thing I'd love you

to do as you look to see if your choices are

serving God is to identify your idols. Again,

sounds pretty heavy. But idols are really just

anything that you are putting ahead of your relationship

with God I Would start with this if you're not

sure how to work out like I don't have any idols

I don't have a single golden calf at home You

might just check in the back of the cupboard

No, if you're not sure how to start with this

do do what I call a personal audit I know some

some spreadsheet nerd in the room is like yes

Do a personal audit. Now when I say that, here's

the two things I want you to ask yourself. Where

does your time go and where does your money go?

I promise if you ask yourself those two questions,

you will likely find the biggest indicators you

can find to look at and see what or whom you

currently serve. Might have happened by accident.

That's how these things tend to happen. And once

you identify where your time and where your money

go, I'll give you this little piece of extra

advice. Any place you resist the hardest, they're

likely the ones you need to evaluate the most.

Now this one just kind of sounds fancy, but I'm

gonna say it anyway. Let your intentions become

a foundation for action. Once you've established

what you believe it is that God, what God's will

has for your life, once you've established what

the non -negotiables are to achieve that and

once you've identified the hurdles or the idols

that are potentially in front of you to do that,

now you want to use those to form a series of

actions that you want to take to kind of realign

with yourself with where you want to go. That

point one is not by the way about just like,

oh well, that'll do that and then we go on to

everything else. Everything is designed to kind

of funnel down that decision -making process

to be like, is this suiting? the life that I

want is this suiting the life of servitude that

I want is this pushing towards where I believe

God wants me to go. Use that to make changes

that reflect the vision that you see. Because

if I tell you I'm going to be a good husband

and then I talk poorly about Kara behind her

back when she's not around, am I upholding that

intention? If I tell you that I've turned from

sin, that I'm following Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,

but I'm following Jesus, and my actions never

change, and I remain the same person that I was,

and I act in the same way that I always did,

and my words and actions cause more hurt than

they do grace, my words and my actions cause

more division than they do, you know, just love,

and am I upholding that intention? I'll give

you the answer if you want, of course I'm not.

Our intentions need to speak to our heart's desire

and our choices need to reflect that. When Joshua

declared, as for me and my household, we will

serve the Lord, he was choosing obedience and

he was choosing faith regardless of circumstance.

He was committing to a life of choices that would

reflect that desire, that would reflect that

intentionality. Knowing that the only thing he

actually had to be certain of in that time was

the goodness of God. All he needed to know was

that that would be enough, and that everything

else would flow from there. I want to remind

you, because I think it's really important that

I say this at this stage, I'm going to start

coming to a close so Bandyou can come back up.

Your faith, your relationship with Jesus, your

very salvation is not based on your actions.

We have been saved by grace, not deeds. So I

just really want to reaffirm and make that super

clear, because I know I've hit with some pretty

heavy stuff today. This isn't about that. This

is about honouring and reflecting your intentionality,

the path that you want for your life. Are you

doing what is required? as servitude under God

to do that. Because when I said before that Joshua

all he needed to be certain of was the goodness

of God, that really is all he needs. Good, the

certainty, the goodness and the faithfulness

of God is all we have to be sure of. We can be

confident in our choice of servitude because

we have a God that modeled this for us. We have

a God that chose to send His Son Jesus to serve

us. For even the Son of Man came not to be served

but to serve and to give his life as a ransom

for many." Mark 10 45. Jesus chose service with

a repeated and daily series of choices. Jesus

chose to sacrifice comfort. Jesus chose to sacrifice

earthly prestige, Jesus chose to sacrifice His

own safety, all in the name of choosing to pay

our debt to ensure that our covenant with God

was secured forever through Him, the new covenant.

Jesus became not just an example of unimaginable

servitude, but in doing so became the very reason

we can be confident now today in God's goodness.

Because Jesus came to assure us and to show us

that we can still be confident of God's fulfillment

of His promises. Why we can be confident in a

decision to choose to serve God. Not just then,

not just now, but into eternity. Because the

greatest act of love of all time was born out

of a choice to perform the greatest act of servitude

of all time. An act of service that paved the

way for the ultimate freedom. A freedom in which

Jesus' life would be given as a ransom for us

and for our sins as He was sacrificed on a cross,

and in doing so that He not only chose to, but

continues to choose us. His last earthly act

in human form was a choice to serve. Serving

God, serving humanity, Serving me and serving

you. God bless you.