Joshua 24:19-28 | The Book of Joshua

Wonderful Praise God. How many of you are glad you

came to church tonight. See like what we just experienced

with gifts and worship. You can't duplicate that. You can't

get that at home. You can't even sometimes respectfully experience

it in its totality online even though if some people

are restricted, I understand that they have to do that.

But I don't know about you. I'm very rarely when

I'm watching something online one percent concentrated on it. I'm

usually doing a multitask kind of thing. And when God

begins to move like that, you know to really it's

I describe it like when you go to the beach

and you boogie board or you surf, you have to

know how to catch that wave and ride it in

does Is there any surfers or boogie boaters out boogie

bird boogie borders out? There? Only three of you the

rest of you. There's a place. It's on the east

side of our country and on the west side. It's

called Ocean Front Beach, and there's this thing called water

with current and it's really beautiful and you'll see people

on little boards and you'll see people on long boards.

And if you go out there. You just can't ride

that wave in. You have to be able to read

the current to see as it builds as a build,

and then you've got to put your back to it,

and you've got to go really really fast to be

ahead of it so that when it breaks, you can

ride it all the way in. That's the way it

is with the movement of the Holy Spirit. And I

just think that that is what happens sometimes within the

four walls of the church, that I just want to

make sure that I'm where God wants me to be.

And would you just throw your hands up to Heaven. Father,

We just want to take a moment to honor you God,

in the midst of our protocol and procedures of our services. God,

would you see the hands that are lifted right now?

They represent jobs and finances, and children and grandchildren. They

represent God responsibilities obligations. God, would you just come and

visit them, Visit them in unexpected places, visit them in

expected places, Visit them in their car, visit them in

their dreams. I asked it you become more real to

people than ever ever before, Oh God, And that we

have a hunger to draw closer to You. God, through

your holy scriptures and through prayer and through fellowship of

Churchill God, we come out from the world, O God,

and fully commit our lives and consecrate our lives to you,

Oh God. We don't have to be geniuses to see

this fallen world around us. God, everybody God is so

volatile and so fragile, O God. We see last Day

signs all over the place, with division and strife and

political division and racial division, Oh God, And crime and

violence and famine, and signs all over this world, Oh God,

with nations rising up against nations. And God, this time

of total morality seems to be gone. Censorship seems to

be gone. Values seem to be gone, Oh God. And

just ungodliness and just evilness and wickedness is prevailing. Yet

You've kept us here for a reason. God. So Father,

I just thank you today, Oh God, I thank you

for your special hand to be on every single person

and navigate throm through life's difficulties, through life's choices, and

through life's decisions. God, we don't want to lean on

the arm of the flesh. God. We don't want to

be like a lot and choose the land that looks

attractive to us and not understanding that in a few

years that place called Sodom and Gomorrah will be burned.

And that's what this earth is. God, We've got to

choose heaven and the things of heaven, Oh God, Eternity,

O God, and so I thank you for that in

Jesus' name. Amen. Sometimes I have to close it down

because I'll just start into prayer. And so if you

know Friday and that prayer, you know that. Let's stand

on our feet. Let's get into this really quick. We

are almost at the end of Book of Joshua. Next

week we will say goodbye Siena. And if you started

in January, thank you. If you just started today, thank you.

But all this year we were in the Book of Joshua,

and next week is the final verses of Joshua. So

I pray that you have learned a lot. And so

let's read a few verses to see where we're going

to go today. In Joshua twenty four in verse sixteen,

so the people answered and said, far it be from

us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.

For the Lord, our God, is he who brought us

and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from

the house of Bondage. How many of you have heard

that statement before in the Bible. Okay, I just want

to ask you who did those great signs in our

side and preserved us in all the way that we

went among all the people through whom we passed, and

the Lord drove out from before us, all the people,

including the amirits who dwelt in the land, who also

served the Lord, for he is our god. But Joshua

said to them, this is really strong. You cannot serve

the Lord. You're not going to do it, for he

is a holy God, and he is jealous, and he

will not forgive your transgressions. Know your sins. If you

forsake the Lord and serve foreign god's, then you will

turn and do excuse me, he will turn and do

you harm and consume you after he has done you good. Okay,

you could be seated. Oh I have one more. And

the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve

the Lord. You could be seated. I want to talk

a little bit about these few verses that we navigate through,

and next week will be the final three verses that

will navigate through the Book of Joshua, and I think

about Joshua. You know, they say that a great leader

is somebody who knows how to ask questions. You could

tell the caliber of a person by the questions they ask.

Here's the question that nobody has ever asked me. If

you're to say, pastor diego, what is the one question

that you wish people would ask you that they have

never asked you? I said, well, thank you for asking me.

That that kind of says something about the caliber of

who you are. The one question that nobody has ever

asked me that I wish they would ask me is

what character in the Bible do I identify with the most? Okay,

the one that I identify with the most. My oldest

son is Nathan. His middle name is Joshua. My middle

son's name is Caleb, and I'm Caleb, and his middle

name is Joshua Adam. My third son was supposed to

be named his middle name Joshua, but my lovely Cindy

would not allow me to name a third child Joshua,

so we named him after her brother, Daniel. That's his

middle name. You know why I named or we're gonna

name all three sons Joshua because that's the character in

the entire Bible that I identify with the most. Now,

if you want to know why I identify with that,

then you got to come to me privately and ask me.

And then but when you do that, know all in turn,

ask you what character in the Bible do you most

identify with? And we'll have a wonderful time fellowshiping with

one another. And I'll tell you. So I'm just going

to leave you with that little cleffhanger there and we'll

move on. But the thing that I know about Joshua

is that this man was born into slavery. He was

a slave for forty years. He lived in Egypt, ruled

by a task master. So in spite of your beginnings,

it doesn't have to hinder you for the rest of

your life because he becomes a military giant and leading

one million people into the land of Canaan, conquering thirty

one kings. Now, some of you are athletes, some of

you used to be athletes. By the way I'm looking

at you today, Israel's record. Get ready if you're a

sports fan, Israel's record in the Land of Canaan was

thirty one and zero thirty one wins zero losses. Now,

technically they lost for a minute to Ai, but they

came back and whipped their butts. So that's why I'm

saying thirty one and thirty one and oh, how many

of you'd like to be part of a team that

was thirty one? And oh, come on, I don't know

how you how you guys act on Wednesday night, but

for me, you got to talk back to me. You

gotta make some noise. Come on now, I don't know

about you. I would love to play on a team

that was thirty one. And oh, no loss. That's Joshua.

That's Joshua. And there's many other things that we could

highlight about his life. That he's the one that went

in spite of the land. Him and Cayleb were the

only ones that had had the good report. And he

was the one that was Moses' assistant that stood by

the Mount of Sinai as the man of God went

up there and got the ten commandments. There's many feats

of contemporaries of her err Her and Miriam and Aaron

and Eliezar that were contemporaries that exist. Rayhab was a

contemporary of Solomon. Solomon was the spy that went into Jericho,

that married the Ones Harlot called Rahab, the ones prostitute

that became Jesus's great great grandmother. It's a fabulous man

that I identify with, But I can't tell you why

I chose him, because my colleague next week will tell

you why I identify with him. So you got to

come back next week. But there's one thing I love

about him is his life is a summation of faithfulness.

Is there anybody in here that's twenty four years old?

Literally twenty four years old? Okay? Could you just stand

on your feet anybody who is twenty four years old,

female or male, I don't care, male or female. Just

stand on your feet, twenty four years old, just for

a minute. Okay. I want to talk to you. Guys.

I started ministry, full time, ministry at your age. So

look at them. Look at look how young they look.

Look all cute, all their hairs dark, no gray hair,

no wrinkles. Look at them. That was me. That was

me forty years ago. I was in I started ministry

at their age. You guys could be seated. When I

was twenty four years old, wet behind the ears, with

no experience, other than volunteering in a church that I

had been doing and having two years of Bible school,

I didn't have much. An old man I can still

remember today, I'm most saying his late seventies. I'm going

to guess that he was. He could have been in

Black Domee crack, so he could have been in his

or eighties. I don't know. But he came up to

me and he looked at me at twenty four years old,

and he pointed his finger at me and said, I

want to give you a scripture, young man, Proverbs twenty

eight to twenty. A faithful man will abound in blessings.

And he walked away. I knew that God was using

him to speak into me, and I knew that God

was challenging me through the lips of that man, that diego,

if you be faithful, God's going to take care of you.

A faithful man will abound it. You'll never want for anything. Diego,

You'll never want for anything. And that word and that

promise has stood true. No, I didn't make nothing, And

though a McDonald's meal for my kids was everything, God

has royally blessed my life. And the secret sauce that

I would say in the attribute is Joshua, it's faithfulness.

It's faithfulness as you being faithful to your spouse, You're

faithful to your kids, You're faithful to church, You're faithful

to your promises. You're faithful. You're just faithful in everything

that you do. Now, with that in mind, I want

to share with you, what are the signs of faithfulness.

The signs of faithfulness will be on your screen. It

deals with your obedience, it deals with your servanthood, it

deals with your loyalty. And the scriptures are there. And

this is all in Joshua's life. So I'm not randomly

just choosing these words. This is the depiction that you

could look at when you look at the life of Joshua.

His obedience, he obeyed God. His servanthood. He just served

the community. He served God. He was very loyal, very

dependable and reliable. He was a man of great courage,

great promotion in his life, great responsibility, great power, and

great credibility. Before I go to the last section, last

week we read Joshua twenty four point fifteen, which arguably

could be the standout verse in all of Joshua. As

for me and my house, we have placards all over

we haven't marked as for me and my house we

will serve the Lord. But for me, I want to

take you back to Chapter one, in verse number six

and nine, because I think these verses are equally arguably

just as strong, and they have more meaning to me.

The Bible says this, be strong and courageous, for you

will distribute the land. He speaks, God speaking this to Joshua.

This one slave, who his master, his person that he served,

is dead, and now the leadership is handed to him.

For you will distribute the land. This promise that was

made hundreds of years before in Genesis twelve to Abraham.

I swore to their ancestors to give them as an inheritance.

Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully

the whole instructions. My servant Moses commanded. You do not

turn from it the right or the left, so that

you will have success wherever you go. The Book of Instructions,

your Bible, must not depart from your mouth. You must

meditate through your mind on it, day and night, so

that you may carefully observe everything, not something, not the

things you like, everything written in it, for only then

for then you will prosper in your marriage, on your job,

and your body, in your mind, and in everything, and

you will succeed in whatever whatever you do. And then

it ends have and I commanded you to be strong

and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the

Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Drop

the mica, let's go home. Say the prayer benediction. You

needed to hear be strong and very courageous. But maybe

you don't know what I'm going to be strong and

very courageous. You'd be strong and very courageous. It's there.

That's how he could be thirty one. And oh, that's

how you have victories in your life. That's how you

go from a slave to a leader. That's how you

go from owning nothing to having royal land and being

in the land of Canaan and promise. That's how you

outlive everyone. Caleb's dead, Her is dead, Aaron's dead, Miriam's dead,

Moses is dead. But Joshua said, I'm still alive. I'm

still alive, and I'm still in the service of God.

How because of what you just read right there, Well,

I had to take up the offering again, and you

ought to give some more money just for that revelation.

Because here's the reality of Joshua. He lived beyond his contemporaries.

This is what faithfulness looks like. You live beyond your contemporaries.

His contemporaries were those other ten spies that had the

negative report, and he separated himself. There comes a time

where if my friends aren't going the way of Christ,

obeying the Bible and following God. See ya, I'm not

going to let your bad report, your bad lifestyle affect me.

This is what made him successful is the fact that

he lived beyond his contemporaries. Number two, he lived above

his circumstances, and you got to live above your circumstances.

The defeat of Ai was a circumstance that could have

brought confusion to his life, discouragement into a life, and

could have gotten him to give up and thereby never

having all those victories. And so it made him so

faithful as he lived beyond his circumstances. You got marital circums,

they you got financial circums. You got to live beyond that.

He lived deeper than his calamities, the calamities of Jericho

and the calamities of Jordan. These are obstacles that had

to be overcome, but they would be overcome because God

was with him. And there are calamities in our lives,

whether there's a Jordan in front of us or whether

there's a mighty Jerichle in front of us. You got

to learn how to take courage. He lived around his capabilities. Again,

I said he was born a slave, but he didn't

let his slave pass the forty years hinder him. And

that's what great leaders do. They live beyond their capabilities,

their limitations, their restrictions. And the last one he lived

without his competition. He never competed with all those contemporaries

I told you about. You never hear him fussing or

fighting with him, or arguing with them, or competing against them.

He is just simply called from the moment he comes

on the stage at forty years old to the moment

he dies at one hundred and ten. For seventy years,

he's just called a faithful servant. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

Now I will preach in verse number sixteen. So the

people answered and said, far it be from us, for

we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Then

in verse number nineteen, but Joshua said to the people,

you cannot serve the Lord, for he is holy, a

jealous god, and will not forgive transgressions nor sins. And

the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve

the Lord. Let me bring out a few verses here,

verse sixteen, verse nineteen, verse twenty one, and verse twenty four. First,

he says, they say, we will certainly not abandon our God.

Then verse nineteen, Joshua says to that they said we will.

Joshua says that we will not be able to it.

You're not going to be able to keep that commitment.

Then verse twenty one they said, no, we will, and

then verse twenty four they said we will. So what's

going on in this dialogue of contradictory conversations going on?

We will, No, you won't, we will. We will go on,

we will stay faithful to God, we will serve God.

The reality of what I want to teach you here today,

of what was going on here, is how quickly we

say yes, can and will to God without thinking oh yes,

like Peter, I will never deny you Lord so quick,

Oh yes, God, I will do that. I will do that.

I will do that. I think that that's showing us

a little bit of that rashalie. We could commit to something,

and Bibah was saying, Lord, God is saying through us

that talk is cheap. Actions will prove whether you are

really faithful to me, because anybody could say, Hallelujah, praise

the Lord, thank you Jesus, I love the Lord, Jesus's Lord,

I surrender. But he says, at that point of temptation,

we'll find out because I'm pushing back and saying you won't.

First revelation. Second revelation is why when they said yes,

would he tell them no? Because I think he was

trying to provoke them. He's trying to prod them to

be serious. Let me see how serious you are. Like

if somebody ever tells you no, you can't the fighter

in you, Oh, you will see whether I can or not.

That's what he's trying to tell He's not trying to

defeat them. He's trying to I'm drawing the warrior out

of you. I'm drawing the serious commitment out of you.

I'm telling you you can't. Your response should be I can't.

I will stay faithful to God. I will serve God.

I will not take up idol. I will not go

back to my former lifestyle. I'm not gonna take up

horring around and drinking around and prostituting around and lying

and check. I'm not gonna do it no more. Sometimes

you have to be pushed, and I think he's trying

to push them a little bit. And the third revelation

of what this meant was is this, outside of Christ,

you can't serve God. So he's bringing the New Testament

revelation by grace. For by grace are you saved through

faith and not of your works. It's a gift of God.

You can't serve God in your flesh. You can't fulfill

the law, you'll never keep the ten commandments. But through

Jesus Christ and his blood you are declared righteous. So

by grace are you saved. And he's drawn a picture

of that, of the message of grace. In art. We

can't I can't live holy, I can't be faithful to

one woman. I cannot stop lying and drinking and cussing.

I can't outside of Christ. But inside of Christ, Oh,

I can do that. I could be faithful to the

promises of God, I could be faithful to God. So

I think that that's what the dialogue is teaching here.

The next point that I think is a really strong

point was in verse seventeen, where he rehearsed what I'm

calling familiar terminology, where we see this all through the

Bible and brought into from the Old to the New Testament,

where the how many of you know that even today

amongst Jews, they will still talk They will talk about Egypt.

They will talk about the land of bondage, they'll talk

about slavery, they'll talk about Pharaoh. They'll talk about the chariots,

the armies, they'll talk about the plagues, they'll talk about

the risk. And let me ask you a question. Why

does the Bible repeatedly say that same story. Why is

that the preferred language that God wants you to remember

or wants these people never to forget. He said, what

I want. I want to remind you of our past.

I want to remind you of Egypt. Oh man, right

here we go again. I could even tell it back

to you. We were un bonded foreign in the year

and we were tat Mather and we you know, there

were ten plagues and Moses came with the staff and

we couldn't talk, but his brother came in, and you know,

let my people go, and you know that we went,

and you know, and then then all of a sudden they,

Pharaoh and his armies were after us, and we're bocked

against them, and all of a sudden starts forth your

rod and the red sea we walked through. We turned

around the waters foul, and Pharaoh in his mighty army

collapsed and praise the Lord. Guess what I'm gonna tell

you tomorrow? And you know, I want to take you

back to egypt Land. I want to tell you about

the land of bonding. I want to tell you. And

what am I gonna tell you that? And let me

tell you the third day? I'm letna tell you the

fourth day, and let me tell you five day. There's

a tendency when we've heard something over and over to

allow a familiarization to come within us. Whatever doesn't move

us anymore, there's no there's it's not it's not awe inspiring.

Stay with me now, there's something that's going to be

talked about in eternity. And just as much as they

can be guilty of becoming too familiar with redemption in

the Old Testament, we can get too familiar with redemption

in the New Testament. Here we go communion again and

they take in forgetting it. The thing is shed blun

kunberen Easter Chrismith. What are you doing the same guilt

that they are? And you and I have to fight

against that spirit of familiarization, because here's the reality. Could

we give a couple of scriptures that just talk about

what we are going to talk about for eternity. What

do you think heaven when you get to heaven is

going to talk about the Blood, the Cross, salvation, redemption.

It's the story of what's going to be told forever

and forever. The Bible says in John twenty and verse

thirty one, these are written. The Bible is written so

that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the

Son of God, and that by believing you may have

faith in that name. The whole Bible speaks about the Cross,

the Blood, the resurrection, forgiveness, eternity, and heaven. Revelations four

and verse number nine a picture of what we are

going to experience for eternity. Whenever the living creatures give

glory and honor, and thanks to the one seated on

the throne, the one who lives forever and forever. The

twenty four elders fell down before the One seated on

the throne and worshiped the One who lives forever. They

cast their crowns before the throne, and they say, Holy, Holy, Holy,

We're gonna be talking about it forever, and we'll get

new sides of it, new revelations of it. And I

think the challenge for us is that we don't allow

something to be old and boring and common to us.

And we have the tendency to do that within the

nature of the flesh. I got to read the Bible,

I gotta go to church, I gotta pray, and we

come too familiar with that. I live in America and

the freedom, and I take for gantage of that. Lovely

Cindy does some amazing things that I don't sometimes pay

attention of. So I had to think about it a

little bit. Cindy loves to recycle. I don't recycle. I

don't care what Burtech tells me, and I don't care

about all those colored trash cans. They mean nothing to me.

I'm sorry forgive me but she will put only the

recycle and the blue container. And then she said, diego,

I just got to notice, and now we've got they're

up in it. You can't put everything in the black thing.

You got to separate. I say, well, baby girl, you

do what you want to do. I'm gonna do whatever

I want to do. And if I got to pick

up dog poop, I don't know whatever trash can's near me.

I had to pick up paper and grasp whatever near me.

But the reality is this in our home. I know

that I can't throw in the major trash can in

the house regular I mean recycled stuff. I have to

put it on the side. And Cindy every day takes

the recycle out to the blue container. I can take

that for granted. I could take that for granted. The

second thing that I wrote down I could wrote down

many things, is that I don't get toilet paper and

bring it into the bathroom and put it on the roller.

I don't do that. But whenever I go to the bathroom,

I'm thanking God that I can reach one foot to

my right. So I could take her for granted and

just expect that the recycle's going to be in the

thing the toilet. I don't know where the paper towels

are in my house. All I know is I reach

for that little thing on the kitchen table and I

go and then when it's low, I turn my back,

or I go to where and then come back and

it's filled. Isn't that amazing? I could take that for granted.

It could be boring in common that I don't need

to thank Cindy for the recycle. I don't need to

thank Cindy for the TP. I don't need to thank

Cindy for the paper towels. I don't know how new

fresh back towels get on my shower. I do not

get them from the cabin. I surely don't take them

the washing machine. I don't fold them, I don't dry it,

and I don't put it. Somehow, when I'm in a shower,

I'm looking at a fresh towel. God is my witness.

I've never said, look, Cindy, I want to just thank

you for the toes. We could do the same thing

to God, same thing. We just expect the toilet paper

to be there when we need it, the paper tows

to be there when we need it, and we cannot allow,

and that's why he continues to Syrah, share the narrative

of the Old Testament in Egypt and share the New

Testament revelation of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

We need to be appreciative, and though I hear ten

thousand times, I will still worship God, and I will

still praise God and thank Him for that. In verse

number in verse number nineteen and in verse number twenty three,

we get revealed this statement where God is a jealous God.

The Bible in this chapter reveals to us that he

is a jealous God. And so it says, but Joshua

said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord, for

he as a holy God. He is a jealous God,

and he will not forgive your transgressions and your sins.

And then verse twenty three, Now therefore he said, put

away your foreign gods. Your translation may say idols which

are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord,

your God. Oh my God, where did time go? God

is a righteous, holy, jealous God. Because of this character

of God, the jealousy is showing you the character of God.

We need to get rid of the idols of choice

in our lives that one and two thing, or maybe

just that one thing you've given up and thank God

all the other ones, but you still have that one

idol of choice that you struggle to give up. Like

the rich young ruler. I've done all this, I've given

up all this. I'm serving you and done all this,

but this one thing. Jesus looks at him and says,

you've got a greed and a coveteousness and a money problem.

You haven't given me your money, and God knows that.

And so I want you to see something here today

as I begin to wind this up now the statement

about the character of God, because the New Testament says

this at first John five twenty one, little children guard

yourself from idols. So this is not an Old Testament thing.

And we talk about an idol. We are not talking

about a little statue that you bow down to. That's

not what we're talking about here. Could be, but that's

not what we're talking about. Let me show you the

definition of what I want to talk about today. When

I talk about idle, it'll be on the screen. An

idol is any unauthorized or unpermitted person, place, or thing

that a person looks to as the source of their purpose,

promise and provision or pleasure greater than God. That's an idol.

God said, if you're sincere about I will, and I

will do, and we wield, then get rid of your idols.

Get rid of those idols. And so today we have

some modern day idols that are in our lives that

are popular. And the popular idols of today is money

and popularity and influence and beauty and power and sex.

These are some modern day idols. But the Bible says

that God is a jealous God. Now jealousy is holy

and righteous. There could be in a bad side to it,

and a negative and the evil side, But because God

is holy and righteous, there's a righteous jealousy. If lovely

Cindy that I found out was having lunch every day

with a man, is that a sin for me to

be jealous? Would it be wrong for me to be

jealous if I heard that once a year she went

and she was faithful to me three hundred and sixty

four days a year. But one year she went to

the Renaissance hotel with some guy there and had one

night of sex, just one night, just one time, one time,

one time, one time. Do I have a right to

be jealous if I find out that another man she

is sharing her most deeper secrets with that man rather

than me. Should Should I be jealous? If she's spending

more time with someone else than me? Should I be jealous?

All of that drives God when it comes to us.

Why are you spending time with someone else more than me?

Why do you share your secrets more than with someone

else than me? Why are you still having intimacy whatever

that looks like, with someone else other than being totally

faithful to me three hundred and sixty five days. And

you justify because it's only one time of year. That's

what the jealousy of God looks like. He wants you

and loves you all to himself, and he doesn't want

you to be shared with any other idol that is

in your life. And my last point, my last point

is found in verse number twenty six and will close.

Then Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the

Law of God, and he took a large stone. This

would be the seventh time that he has done this.

He took a large stone and set it up under

the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord

as a witness to this promise and this covenant that

they were making. My last point is Joshua recorded these things.

He recorded them not privately but publicly. When in our lives,

should our vows, promises, oaths and commitments go public and

not be private? I have a problem with we as Christians.

Everything is private when you have a public commitment going on?

Now here with you just stay with me for a moment.

We are afraid to go public with our commitments because

that's an easy way not to keep them. Because if

I go public, then everybody hears that I'm accountable, and

somebody's gonna check up on me or ask me how

I'm doing. So let all my ooth, promises, vows and

commitments be done privately. And yet you see everyone saying

I think the church would be so much more healthier

if our lifestyles were more public than private. Why says

didn't prepare for it, didn't talk to him about it?

Pessor Kenney, would you be willing to show me your

tithing record? And I would be willing to show you.

I didn't prep him. Now let me go to you.

Don't get mad at me. I can see your faces

right now. What is the difference between him in you.

What's the difference between me and you? I know, I

know it's uncomfortable right now. Where's that benediction person up there?

What's the problem, What's what's the problem? Now, that's just

one example only because that makes everybody uncomfortable. But I

could go in every aspect of my life in your

life should be more of a public faith than a

private faith. Now, don't don't confuse the word private with personal,

because everything is personal to me, but it should not

have to be private. My marriage should should be public.

You should know I've been married forty two years. You

should know the level of consecration and dedication that I

have toward her. You should be able to judge my fatherhood.

You should be able to look at me as a grandfather.

You should be able to follow me around and see

what I think, what I talk, what I look at.

My lifestyle should be a public lifestyle, not a private lifestyle.

And all I see here is a public And he

says this, right now, everything is being recorded, and something

is watching you. That rock is watching you right now,

and it's watching you make this promise right now, and

he uses this word everything is being everything is being recorded.

God takes our promises are ohs, very very seriously, and

they are remembered, and they are not forgotten. The Bible

says this, I saw the dead, great and small, standing

before the throne, and books books, books were opened, and

another book was opened, which is the Book of Life,

and the dead were judged according to their works by

what was written in the book. Something's recording you and

I right now, the hidden camera in heaven watching you.

There's an audio secret mic here, and everything you say

it's been recorded. One day, you're gonna hear it. Everything

in life has been recorded. Everything, everything is being jotted

down in a book. That's the righteousness of God. That's

the orderliness of God. That's the integrity of God. Your

life has been My life has been on record. Right

You're on record right now, you're in public record right now.

That's kind of sobering. I don't know, I just I

just I just think it is. Ecclesiastes. I end with this,

I'm trying to end. I'm sorry. Ecclesiastes says this, better

that you do not vow than that you make a

vow and do not fulfill it. We break vows and

promises know they don't mean a hill of beans to us.

But God takes our marriage vows. I'm gonna give you

a list. God takes our marriage vows very seriously. Hevian

sometimes takes our work vows. If you made a promise

to a boss, you signed a contract to work there

a certain time, you sign something that said I will

not compete with this company for a period of time.

That's God takes that very very is recorded. Your marriage

is being recorded. Your work vows are your salvation, faith

and lordship of Jesus. The roles in leadership in the

church is very seriously. It says better not for you

to have taken a position in the church because there's

a greater judgment. He takes that very very seriously. The

promises and the vows we make where those to our

kids or grandkids, or we make to anybody, I'll be

there this Sunday, I'll help you. And you don't keep

those promises. God keeps records of those. He absolutely keeps

the promise of celibacy. So for those that are married

as their marriage vows, for those that are single, your

celibacy vow. That these are things that God takes very seriously.

As much as as much as Samson did not take

seriously the Nazarite vow. But John the Baptist took the

Nazarite vow that said, I will not be around strong liquor,

I will not cut my hair, and I will not

be around the dead. That was a Nazarite. He could

not do that. There are vows that you and I

take that are very very serious to God. I have here.

God's cloud is bigger than the iCloud and Heaven never

runs out of memory storage. It keeps looping. Yeah, I know,

it's real uncomfortable right now. It's okay. We're gonna pray

Grayson a minute and forgiveness and repentanus I end with this.

It's a generational thing. But I'm gonna hope that you

There were there were two a duet, two guys it was.

They were called Milli Vanilli. If you remember Millie Vanilli,

raise your hand. Okay, it's okay, it's okay. So I'm

gonna I'm gonna read you something about Milli Vanilli. Million

Vanilli was a late eighties pop duet made up of

Rob Plantifs and Fab Morven. They were huge, girl, you

know it's true, blame it on the rain. Girl, I'm

going to miss you. All hits. They even won Academy

Academy for Best New are Let's let's just clap for

a minute. Okay, that's Milli Vanilli and that beautiful and

that whatever. But that's it's it. Here we go next one.

They looked the part, They danced the part this is

you and I. They performed the party. They didn't even

sing the party, but they but they didn't sing the part.

The real vocals on their album were recorded by studio

singers Rob and Fab were hired basically for image, performance

and charisma. I don't want to be a Milli Vanilli

artist and passed Daniel back there singing no faking. He

sang no pretending. That's not how we live our lives.

And that was the challenge. We live publicly, not privately. Father.

We are challenged by Joshua. We're challenged by how he

loved the people enough to speak the truth. Lord. I

thank you, I thank you for speaking the truth to

us today. We didn't mean to beat people up, we

didn't need to put people down. We did make people uncomfortable. God,

but you take your role very serious as father, as

God as protector, as king, as provider, as deliverer, as savior.

You're challenging us, do we take our role as seriously

as you do, that we're your children, that we are

your servants, that we represent you. Maybe not just be

so quick to make vows and commitments that we're not

willing to follow through with. Oh, God Father, I thank

you that we lay down any idol that we have

in our lives at your feet. If there's still something

that we need to get rid of, would you give

us the courage to do that. If there's something in

our lives that we're not even aware of, would you

expose that and show us in the next twenty four

hours what that is? And may we have the courage

to get rid of it. God, we don't want you

to have any jealous feelings toward us. We thank you

today that you love us so richly, so deeply, God,

and that's why it is an honor to serve you,

O God. And we don't want to get to heaven

and be surprised by anything that's written in that book.

We want to be celebrated. We want to have a

smile on your face. We want to bring pleasure to

you God, so we honor you today in Jesus' name. Amen.

As we get ready to leave this church, thank you,

thank you, thank you for coming to yourch Again. When

I put the message together, I didn't see the heaviness

in the message. So part of me wants to apologize.

And then there's the other part that I say, I

can't apologize because it's the word. But again, I really

am of the opinion that church is like a spiritual gymnasium.

I go to a gym to sweat, I go to

a gym to be stretched. I go to a gym

to work out, and church ought to represent that, not

always just to be comfortable and drink your latte on

the bench press and not even break a sweat. Ever

seen people working out and they're talking on the phone

and you know you ain't working out. What are you

talking about? Church is like that. Sometimes sometimes we run

out of here, celebrate in the Hallelujah, and then sometimes

we're in a wheelchair and we're being rolled out. Don't

touch me, don't talk to me right now. I'm all

bandaged up, but I'm getting better. I'm gonna do better.

If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

It's the best invitation that I can give you. It's

better than you winning the lottery. It's the greatest invitation

because it's eternal and there are long lasting rewards. This life,

whether it's eighty, ninety or one hundred years, is gone.

Just as quick as I'm flashing my hand right now,

snapping my finger. It's gone. There's eighty, there's eighty, there's eighty,

there's eighty. Boom, You're gone. Eternity has no expense. It

goes on and on and on and on and on.

Let there be light and boom, it's still going. Eternity

is forever. But one decision determines where I'll spend eternity.

In Heaven's presence or in Hell's presence, in God's presence

or in the lake of fire. It's your choice, you say,

without a shout of doubt, I'm a Christian, but I'm

not serving the Lord as I should. Then come off

the fence of compromise. We've all been there before. Rededicate

your life to the Lord, or you want everything, and

as the Book of Acts is pastor Heron shared, I

want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then you

could raise your hand, and we'll share in our literature

how you can become filled with the Holy Spirit. When

I count to three, you raise your hand. We're going

to pray for you. One, two, three, raise your hand.

Wherever you are today, God love you, God bless you.

Say this with me, dear Lord Jesus. I am just

simply ready to receive everything from you. I don't run

from you. I run to you, and I surrender my life,

everything that represents my life to you. Today. I ask

you to forgive me of my sins. I ask you

to cleanse me, and I ask you to deliver me.

Now give me the strength to serve you in Jesus' name. Amen,

Can we give the Lord a clap? Our passion? Heron?

Would you dismiss us today? Please come up here. I

like that. Look. Help me remember that fifties look like that.

Everybody every guy in the fifties were cup paths like that, Brian.

Give it up for passa diego homework time coll Look

what a message if you made that decision. If you

want to pull your phone out, type this in your

web brows at www dot grow dot faith. You receive

a downloadable PDF file and you can read it in

one setting. Challenge you for the next a couple of months.

Just come to church every single Sunday. We do have

growth tracks starting on top of January. But if you

need additional prayers, our prayer team will be up here

to pray for you. But let me close out in

prayer by your heads close you, Yes, Father God, We

thank you for this challenging message to be faithful in

our calling, to be faithful to you because you're a

jealous Scott, and I pray that it resonates in our

hearts to live that out, to live that truth, not

just to hear these words, but to apply these words.

So we think, Holy Spirit, have your way in our lives,

have your way in our families, have your way in

our marriages, have your way in this church. In Jesus' name,

we pray in God's people say Amen, Amen, God bless

you guys. We'll see you next week.