Setting Priorities: God, Family, and Life's Big Decisions

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Here we are, here, we are, and there

you are. Yes, wherever you are listening, we just appreciate

you tuning in today. Welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris,

this is Jeff.

And it's good to be here. It is good to

be here, Yes, with my.

Buddy Chris, and we together are going to tackle a

social media minutes before we jump into our scripture for today.

Yeah, it's really amazing all the people who send in messages.

Yeah, which, by the way, we haven't said this in

a while, but please share, share something.

Email, help us out, help us out, like it, subscribe, share,

tell everybody.

You could email us at info at the Bible guys

dot com, yes, or you can respond on YouTube. You

can write something in stump the past, your question just

a regular question for mail bags. We would love your

comments as well. So this is social media minutes.

Yes, so Lynn B wrote in Hi Lynn Lynn Blyn B.

She says, you guys are true gentlemen.

Little do you know?

And I love your friendly debating. Thanks guys for another

great episode.

Was that the episode?

Probably?

Yeah, that's great. Okay, well that was great. Yes, this

one is name unknown? Didn't sign?

Who names their kid unknown?

But that's a weird You shall be called unknown? Okay,

that'd be something if you introduce yourself as unknown.

Hey, hey you don't what's your name? Unknown? Yeah? Okay, anyway,

sorry unknown?

Yeah. So this is amazing episode. Lots of wisdom in

this message. You guys are a blessing to everyone that

tunes in. You make everything relatable while keeping everyone engaged.

That is true talent. Thanks for everything you guys do.

That's very nice.

Wow, that was wisdom and talent of being attributed to

the two of us. Wow, that's just God still does miracles.

That's right. That's right. You parts the Red Sea, he

parts the Jordan River.

Well.

Anna V said, Wow, I learned something every new every

time I watch the Bible. Guys, I know the Bible.

I've been a believer in my whole life, but you

bring things to life in each session. That's why you're

good pastors. Anyone can read scripture from the Bible, but

to bring it to life like you do is such

a blessing to us.

Oh that's really nice.

Yeah, that's very very nice.

Everybody's so nice to us.

Well, you know what, we will actually we only read

the good comments.

Yeah. Well that's the only ones that matter, isn't it.

I don't think we've gotten any hater comments?

Have we? Not many?

Okay? The uh, I'm not many. So Jeff checks the

comments more than I do. And actually I was given

I was given all the access by Desiree. Desiree said

here's how you put on your phone. But I was like, yeah,

I need to do that. I never did, so.

I don't really you never see it.

I never see it. I never check it.

Des usually helps us out, like she picks these and

she'll help reply and yeah, yeah, yeah whatever sometimes but

every once so I'll jump in if I have an

opportunity and try to answer some questions or something like that.

Yeah.

And the huge majority of people really really nice and friendly,

so I appreciate it. It's super humbling. Actually it's a

little embarrassing when you read them. Yeah, well, you know,

everybodys saying so many nice things.

And I've said this before, but I want to say

it again, and that is it's hard work to come

in and spend four to five hours every single week,

and you know, and then just to do all these

kinds of things, because you know, we're both busy guys, right,

And it's not as if this is a pig gig.

It's not as if rich it's not a part of

our job description, right. We just sort of do it.

But you know, you end up on the receiving end

of so many people saying, Wow, what a blessing. You know,

there was a couple that had just visited. They used

to live here, then they moved to I think it

was Arizona, and then they recently came back and visited

our church and I saw them in the lobby and

this couple said to us, they said, thank you so

much for the Bible, guys, thank you so much, because

we're having a hard time finding a church down there.

And I'm telling you, every morning we get up and

they told me about the whole routine. I thought to myself, gosh,

that is like, what a privilege to be a part

of something like that. So if you're listening in Arizona,

a shout out to you, guys. I don't remember your.

Names and share it with your friends, but I remember

your comment.

I ran into some ladies in the lobby of our

church Sunday, and they came running up all excited to

say hi. And then the one lady said, you know,

whenever I see in the lobby, I always forget that

you're my pastor too, because iways thinking, oh, hey, that's.

One of the Bible guys.

Oh that's right, funny.

And then she came running over and that's the first thing. Then, Yeah,

because I've only spoken a couple times this summer. Right,

I was out of town, I was sick, whatever, we

had guest speakers, yeah, and so, and same thing for you.

I've spoken to just a couple of times this summer.

And so because of that, then, you know, she said,

I feel like we spend time together every day, five

days a week. And she said, then, I've only seen

you preach a couple of times this summer, and so

she said.

You're walking to the line. I'm like, oh, hey, there's

a Bible guy, and oh, well that's my pastor.

Right. Yeah. I guess if you listen every day, you

get a dose of Jeff five times a week.

Yeah, that's right. And Chris and Chris.

But then if you if you go to church and

you only see him once every three weeks or four weeks. Yeah,

that's a lot more Bible.

Guy because we have a really dynamic teaching team. And

then we brought in a few guests this summer, and

you know, Kyle is getting ready to launch the Stony

Creek campus and all these things, and so yeah, it's

just it's how it's worked for the summer. Once we

get into the fall, you and I'll be preaching a

lot more, but through the summer spend that way a

little bit.

And so I just thought that was a funny thing. Hey,

there's a Bible guy. And then she was like, oh wait.

A minute, yeah, yeah, and Pastor, that's great.

So I don't mind being known as a Bible guy,

do you, Chris, not at all. That's great.

There are worse things to be called.

Worse things. I've got a few for you right now

if you want to get into it. Okay, So now

we are coming to the end of Joshua. This is

supposed to be the highlights of the Old Testament. You

and I just keep adding stories, right and slowing it

down a little bit.

So through but guess what, Sunday's coming, and so is tomorrow.

That's right, so that's okay.

That's right.

So the most of the Book of Joshua is battles

and strategic decisions. They make an alliance, which is a mistake.

They shouldn't have made an alliance. But there's for the

most part, most of Joshua's leadership has been very much

in line with what God said to do. You can

tell he really wants to honor God, he wants to

honor Moses, he wants to honor what he's been taught

up to this point and the leading of God. And

for ninety nine percent of the ministry and leadership of

Joshua was rd in line other than the one alliance

that we didn't read about, but the rest of it

really really incredible. He helped organize the country. He was

a great military leader. From a government standpoint, he set

up cities a refuge we didn't even talk about that

where people if they you know, because there wasn't a

really strong centralized government the cities.

The elders of the cities would be the judges.

And so if something happened like say you backed over

somebody with your donkey while you were doing work.

In the.

Exactly and they died, so you know, in order to

avoid a lynching, they would set up these cities a

refuge where people could run to to plead their case.

It was an accident, it wasn't murder, right, that kind

of thing, so that justice could be set up. So

there were a lot of really interesting solutions from a

government standpoint that Joshua helped set up all these things.

So then he's led well and faithfully divide up the

nation all these things, and then find only we get

to Joshua twenty three and twenty four, and this is

kind of his farewell. Now this is similar to the

Book of Deuteronomy for Moses. Moses gives three great, great,

big long speeches in Deuteronomy that are kind of his

farewell speeches. Thank goodness, Joshua just gives us two chapters.

But it's the kind of same kind of thing. So

we'll read Joshua. Chapter twenty four says, then Joshua summoned

all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, including their elders,

their leaders, their judges and officers. So they came and

presented themselves to God. Joshua said to the people, this

is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, long ago.

Your ancestors, including Terra, the father of Abraham, and there

lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they worshiped other gods.

But I took your ancestor Abraham from the land beyond

the Euphrates and led him into the land of Canaan.

I gave him many descendants through his son Isaac. To Isaac,

I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau, I gave the

mountains of Seer. While Jacob and his children went down

into Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I

brought terrible plagues on Egypt. And afterward I brought you

out as a free people. But when your ancestors arrived

at the Red Sea, the Egyptians chased after you with

chariots and chariot tears. When your ancestors cried out to

the Lord, I put darkness between you and the Egyptians.

I brought the sea crashing down on the Egyptians, drowning them.

With your very own eyes, you saw what I did,

and then you lived in the wilderness for many years.

Finally I brought you into the land of the Amorites

on the east side of the Jordan. They fought against

you but I destroyed them before you. I gave you

victory over them, and you took possession of their land.

Then Bailak's, son of Zippor, king of Moabs, started a

war against Israel. He summoned Balem, son of Bior, to

curse you, but I would not listen to him. Instead,

I made Balim bless you, and so I rescued you

from Baylak. When you crossed the Jordan River and came

to Jericho, the Menagericho fought against you, as did the Amorites,

the Parazites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Gergoshites, the high Bites,

and the Jebusites. But I gave you victory over them,

and I sent terror ahead of you to drive out

the two kings of the Amorites. Was not yours swords

or bows that brought you victory. I gave you land

you had not worked on, and I gave you towns

you did not build, the towns where you are now living.

I gave you vineyards and olive grows for food, though

you did not plant them. So fear the Lord and

serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols, your ancestors,

worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt,

serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve

the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would

you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates,

or will it be the gods of the Amorites and

whose land you now live. But as for me and

my family, we will serve the Lord. The people replied,

we would never abandon.

The Lord and serve other gods.

For the Lord, our god, is the one who rescued

us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt.

He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes as we

traveled through the wilderness among our enemies. He preserved us

it was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and

the other nations living here in the land. So we

too will serve the Lord, for he alone is our God.

Then Joshua warned the people you we were not able

to serve the Lord, for he is holy and jealous.

He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If

you abandon the Lord and serve other gods, he will

turn against you and destroy you, even though he has

been so good to you. And the people answered Joshua, no,

we will serve the Lord. You are witness to your

own decision. Joshua said, you've chosen to serve the Lord. Yes,

they replied, we are witnesses to what we've said.

All right.

Then Joshua said, destroy the idols among you and turn

your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. People

said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord, our God.

We will obey him alone. So Joshua made a covenant

with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to

follow the decrees and regulations of the Lord. Joshua recorded

these things in the Book of God's Instructions. As a

reminder of their agreement, he took a huge stone and

rolled it beneath the terebinth tree beside the tabernacle of

the Lord. Joshua said to all the people, this stone

has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will

be a witness to testify against you if you go

back on your word to God. And then Joshua sent

all the people away to their own homelands.

M hm, so we have this in our were you

resisting to say there you go.

Yes, I was trying really hard not to say there

you go. So I used to go, there you go.

There you go. Uh. So we have this in our house.

When you walk in, there's a sign that says, for

as you know, me and my house, we've served the Lord.

Do you have one of those somewhere in your home?

We used to. I think the frame broke.

We don't have it now, but we okay, yeah, so

my wife quit serving the Lord.

I guess, yeah, right right our house. But anyway, trying

to make a joke, So yeah, this is this is

a very very famous verse, and I love the the

way that Joshua phrases it. And he says, okay, if

you're gonna go ahead and make your choice, to make

your choice, Uh, you know, do you want to serve

the false gods that give you emptiness? And you know

we see we see all the you know, fruitlessness. You

know that that your ancestors have experienced. If you want

to do that, go do that. At least make your

choice right. And then he lays out and says, but

Here's what God's done for you, and then he just

lists thing after thing after thing after thing, and says, Okay,

make your choice, but as for us, as for my house,

we're going to serve the Lord. And I do love

that because there needs to come a time where, you know,

as we're starting our families, as we're building our home,

as we're trying to build our legacy, you know, as

we consider our lives and the broad strokes of things,

we have to make a decision and say, Okay, what

am I going to do with my life? You know,

am I going to make God the central peace of

my life? Am I going to put him first? Is

he going to be the final authority in my home

and in my life and in my family? And those

are big choices. It's so overarching, it's so thirty thousand

feet and I think that a lot of us, you know,

you know, they's just a certain type of people that

think about the broad strokes of life. They're the planners

of life. You know, what am I doing in the

next twenty years? And then there's people that don't think

beyond tomorrow, right, They just their lives, like I don't know,

whatever happens happens, right, But there has to be a

time where we have to, you know, analyze our lives

and say, where do I want my life to be?

What do I want my legacy to be? You know, who? Do?

What do I want to be known for? What do

I want people saying at my funeral? These are big thoughts,

and that seems to be the essence of this chapter,

you know, like he's he's encompassing God and he's talking

about forty or fifty years of blessings, right, and he's saying,

make your choice. I love it. I think it's great.

Literally, he says, so choose today who you will serve?

Right right?

That that's the thing, and I think I think that

there's this is a big part of leadership. He's very

definitive either this or that, and most of us want

to have both, right. We don't want to choose this

or that. We want to we want to have it all,

a little bit of this, little bit of that, a

little bit of this, a little bit of that. I like

these parts. I like the parts. I want to mix

it together. We always want to hybridize things. And you

know this, we've talked about this before. In making leadership

decisions for the organization. We lead herit to church and

it gets really tempting to try to do all the things.

Everything everybody wants, it's attempting to do those things, and

so you have to make a decision sometimes to go no,

we are best when we limit our decision to these things.

These are the things God called us to. We're going

to do these things. There's lots of other things we

could do. We choose these things, and so that I

think that there's an advantage to really live your life

that way in every area, whether it's there's dozens of

places for you to invest your money, right, if that's

what you're thinking about, There's millions of places to invest

your money. There's tons of things you can do with

a Friday night, there's all right, So you have to

decide you're going to do the most important things and

the things that are going to produce the best results

for your life.

Right. I was thinking about this the other day. We

did the math and work out how many more weekends

we have if I live to be eighty? What? Yeah, yeah,

I was thinking that. I was thinking that through right.

Thinking, that's certainly a big thought. Yeah, Okay, if I

live to be eighty, how many more weekends do I

have left? And how many of those are going to

be healthy, and so I need to really think through

more how I plan out my days with my family. Sure,

those kinds of things. I have a phrase I use

and it makes my wife mad all the time when

I say it, but hopefully she's not listening today. But

I would say, duties never conflict. And it's true. There's

always a priority. There's always one thing that's going to

produce more than the other. There's always one thing I'm

more obligated to do than the other. Duties never conflict.

There's always you know, I had a thing that kind

of butted heads between my family and something I needed

to do at the office. Well, my priority is my

family rights. That's a decision made a long time ago

priority as a family. So if I have to make

a choice today, duties never conflict. So I have two duties, right,

I had a duty for this one thing I needed

to do at the office. I had a duty to

my family. But there's not a conflict because there's a priority.

And I think that this is a part of what

Joshua has done here as a great leader. He's determined

what are his priorities. So there's all these temptations, there's

all these opportunities. Now they're living in homes they didn't build.

They're eating grapes from vineyards they didn't plant. They're eating

olives off of trees and groves that they didn't that

they didn't grow. They have all these amazing things, all

their wildest dreams have finally started coming true after all

this time. And it's a temptation then to start to

settle and say I did this right. How often? How

many people do you know that, oh, if God had

just blessed me. I literally had a guy and you're

listening right now, I.

Know, y'are.

I had a guy who told me, Jeff, pray with

me on this. If God gives me this job, it's

going to let me lean in even more and all

the things I know I need to be doing for

him and serving him. And we prayed and we prayed

and we prayed. We gave, we gave this life in

this ministry and this job to God and he got it.

And dude, I just had a conversation with him lately

and he went all my priorities got out of whack

after I got this dream job right. And so hey,

now's the time. This message is to you Joshua says, hey,

you need the truths who you are going to serve.

If God is that hard to serve the truths who

you are going to serve. But then he ends it

with he said, from me and my household, we're going

to serve the Lord. And I think that there is

a really great call when you finally get all the

things you're trying to get. When you're trying to accomplish

all things, it's tempting to start to think you did it,

or some other circumstances did it. And Joshua's calling back

say no, everything you have is a blessing from God.

So you need to make a decision right now and

make God your priority.

Right.

That's great, And I'm busting the tops of my friend

because we just had his conversation, so he knows what

we're talking about.

Well, it's okay too, because the entire time that you

were talking about the only thing I kept on thinking

of is you said you had two duties. And I said,

I was thinking too, said.

He's a duty.

He said, dudey, But you know what I'm saying there,

it's about setting priorities. And once you establish your priorities,

and I think that there's a value. It's a discipline

I think I have. I'm not very disciplined person a

lot of ways, but it is a discipline I have

in my life where on a semi regular basis, I

bet you every six months, it feels like to me,

at some point in the summer and then usually in

that Christmas New Year's I sit down and try to

re establish these are my priorities and how am I

doing with them?

Right?

Right?

It's a couple times a year and I remind myself, Okay,

it's God first, my walk with God, spending time in

the word. How am I doing on that time in prayer?

How am I doing with my family? That's my second priority?

My family, my wife specifically, my kids used to get

mad at me that I would tell them, Hey, if

you're going to make me make a choice between you

and your mom, you lose every time, right, because my

goal is for you to move out. My goal is

for your mom to stay with me till we die.

So my priority is my spouse first. How many marriages

do you know where the kids the first, right right?

Or the finances are first? So even within the family structure,

I have to decide where are my priorities. My priority

is my wife, So my marriage is first. Raising my

kids that's the second. My finances figuring that out is third.

My extended family from there is fourth. Even in my family,

I think then it's the office, it's the church, it's

the people in the church. And you know, you have

to make your choices that way. So once your priorities

are set, you figure out how are you doing and

are you growing in those areas, and then when conflicts

come or when a struggle comes, it's way easier to

make the decision. It's not situational because because the decision

was made in January. The decision was made in June

when I sat back down and thought about it again.

My decisions are made right now. When a situation comes up,

I'm not struggling to figure it out.

I go, well, if I have to.

Choose between my wife and my office, I'm gonna have

to reschedule the thing at the office.

Yeah. I just was in New York last week with

my brother, my older brother Tom, and he up with

a childhood friend who he keeps in contact with periodically,

and we all knew him because he hung out the

house all the time. You know, and Tommy will never

probably be listening to this, and certainly his friend will

never be. So I'll tell you his first name is Terry.

So anyway, so he Terry just was a great kid

growing up. Well, he says, you know what's so interesting

is Terry lives for money. And so he said, he goes,

it's so unbelievably bad, like it's so out of whack.

The priority is so out of whack. He said when

I call him sometimes I won't talk to him for

like two years, and I'll call him and I'll say,

how you doing? And he said, there's never been a time,

not once where he hasn't immediately responded with business and money.

He says, hey, how's it going. He goes, Oh, I

just made one hundred thousand dollars and he goes, oh

that's great. How are you doing? And he goes and

he goes and we I asked that second question, here's

what comes okay, and that's it. He never talks about

anything else other than money. And it's just interesting because

you talked about how it's God first, family, second, specifically

your wife, and then business third. Right, Yeah, well, you

know God gave us money, so that we can enjoy

the bigger things in life. Sure, God gave us responsibility.

Those are that's a part of who we are, you know,

to work. We're made to work, right, So that's a

big part of our lives. But it's not supposed to

be the number one thing. So anyway, it was just

interesting to me when you were talking about that. I thought, geez,

there are so many people who I wonder if if

somebody asked you about your life. I wonder if your

first thoughts would go to your walk with God and

then to your family, and then you would think about business.

Third.

I can't even tell you the number of people that

would probably respond with business first.

Sometimes sometimes I'm out of out of order and those

things too. Yeah.

Yeah, So this is why Joshua says, you need to

choose who you're going to serve today. For me and

my house, we're going to serve the Lord. That's a

great decision, right. Hey, by the way, dad, mom, you

make that decision. He doesn't say for me and my

wife or for me, and we're just gonna let our

kids make their own choices.

Right.

Right, for me and my house, we're going to serve

the Lord. So I I choose as.

The leader of my family.

Me and my wife were choosing to lead our children

to follow the Lord, and I think that's really important.

But then he tells them, so then put away all

your idols, get rid of them. And there's always that

temptation to just stack up the idols of society around us.

God's important to me, but I also have all these

other things, right, And so when life starts getting out

of order, when things get out of priority, it's usually

because we allowed one of the idols to start to

move in place of our wife, or to move in

place of our children, move in place of being you know,

good stewards of the resources God gave us, or even

letting an idol come up and start sitting really close

to God's throne in our life right to where so

there aren't You can't have two gods, right, And this

is what Jesus says. You're either going to serve one

and hate the other. You're going to love the one

and despise the other. And so what we tend to

forget is we have to constantly be purging our life

of all these idols. And the more blessing we have,

the easier life gets the more life. We have a

whole bunch of idols sitting around in the closets somewhere,

and they distract us, and so that's why he's reminding them,

and get rid of them. Get rid of him again.

I know you got some. Get rid of them all

the time. If we're going to make God first, that

means we have to constantly be purging the other idols

out of our life.

That's great, well, looks that is our time. So hopefully

we will see you next time on the Baba Gush