Joshua chapter number 24, if you don't mind, if you are able to stand for the reading of God's word.
Joshua chapter number 24, we're going to do a little bit of reading, alright?
So get used to standing for a little bit, okay?
We're going to read the first 15 verses, but if you don't catch anything I say for the rest of the sermon,
make sure we're getting what God has for us in His word today.
It says in Joshua 24, verse number 1,
And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem,
and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers.
And they presented themselves before God.
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,
even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and they served other gods.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,
and led him throughout all the land of Canaan,
and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau,
and I gave unto Esau, Mount Seir, to possess it.
But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
I sent Moses also, and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt,
according to that which I did among them,
and afterward I brought you out.
And I brought your fathers out of Egypt,
and ye came unto the sea.
And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers,
with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea.
And when they cried unto the Lord,
he put darkness between you and the Egyptians,
and brought the sea upon them, and covered them.
And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt.
And ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
And I brought you into the land of the Amorites,
which dwelt on the other side, Jordan.
And they fought with you,
and I gave them into your hand,
that ye might possess their land.
And I destroyed them from before you.
Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab,
arose and warred against Israel,
and sent and called Balaam, the son of Baor, to curse you.
But I would not hearken unto Balaam.
Therefore he blessed you still,
so I delivered you out of his hand.
And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho.
And the men of Jericho fought against you,
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites,
and the Hitzites, and the Girgashites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
And I delivered them into your hand.
And I sent the hornet before you,
which draved them out from before you,
even the two kings of the Amorites,
but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor,
and cities which ye built not.
And ye dwell in them of the vineyards and olive yards,
which ye planted not do ye eat.
Now therefore fear the Lord,
and serve him in sincerity and in truth,
and put away the gods which your fathers served
on the other side of the flood and in Egypt,
and serve ye the Lord.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,
choose you this day whom ye will serve.
Whether the gods which your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land ye dwell.
But as for me, in my house,
we will serve the Lord.
I have a very important decision
that we are going to talk about today.
Who are you going to choose?
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this day.
Thank you for this opportunity that we have
to come into this place here at Central Baptist Church
and worship and honor you.
Be with this service, Lord.
Speak to heart, speak to my heart in a special way today.
And if there be anybody in here
that has not asked you to be their Lord and Savior,
help them to get that right today.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Thank you for standing.
You may be seated.
Man, we make a lot of decisions in a day, don't we?
Think of all the decisions that we make.
I know Pastor Tyler's used this as an illustration before,
the decision to go out to eat.
It's the age-old decision that couples have to decide
what they're going to do.
But a lot of times, households end up divided.
Okay?
And I'm going to use an illustration for this.
Right now, Miss Tiffany is going through a diet.
A diet plan set forth by Brother Cliff.
And a lot of things right now she cannot eat.
She cannot eat anything with sugar, flour, starches.
And there's probably more than that.
And me being the good husband that I am,
I was going to try and do the diet with her.
And then I realized that Coca-Cola has sugar in it.
And I quickly realized that I could not do that.
All right?
So a lot of times what we'll do at night for dinner,
my wife will make something just slightly different for her
so she can stick to her diet and me and the kids eat chicken nuggets.
Okay?
That's what we kind of do.
But right now, our house is divided on what we are going to eat.
Sometimes our houses are divided on certain things.
And I know we don't, like I said earlier,
I know we don't have a ton of sports fans out there.
But I was taught at a very young age.
Very young age.
We are to hate evil.
All right?
And I think that's a pretty commonplace thing.
We are to hate evil, aren't we?
And so my parents raised me knowing right from wrong.
So they raised me as an A&M fan.
All right?
They raised me liking the maroon and white.
All right?
And they taught me from a very young age
that the color burnt orange was very evil.
And we stay far, far away from it.
All right?
That's what I was taught.
Okay?
So don't be mad at me.
Be mad at my parents.
Okay?
I was taught that you hated Texas.
You loved Texas A&M.
That's just how I grew up.
And, of course, I met my lovely wife.
And she was not kind of,
she was not way out there as I was.
She didn't hate A&M.
But she liked Texas.
So the very first time we met at Chili's,
that was one of the things we had to talk out.
All right?
Because that was an obstacle.
Okay?
You cannot have obstacles in your marriage.
It's just not a good thing.
So we talked about it and she said,
man, I guess one day maybe I can like Texas A&M.
And I...
Appreciate that.
Yeah.
And she did start watching A&M with me a little bit.
But she does not hate Texas yet.
All right?
I've got her on the side of liking A&M more.
But she says she still roots for Texas.
All right?
I told her you can't have good and evil.
All right?
You can only have one.
But...
So I have tried to eliminate the division in our house.
But occasionally when A&M and Texas play each other in whatever sport,
she has to make a decision.
And sometimes she decides that she's going to root for both teams.
And I hate that.
All right?
You can't ride the fence.
That's what God taught us.
Okay?
But our house is divided.
All right?
I like A&M.
And against my wishes, she still likes Texas a little bit.
All right?
Our houses are divided on certain things.
On certain silly things.
Right?
We'll compromise with each other if it's not a huge, big decision.
But today, we are going to discuss a decision that cannot be compromised.
These little things like sports and the food that we eat, our likes and dislikes, our interests,
they can divide our household and we can have a fun time with that.
But the decision that we're making today, our entire household needs to decide today what way we're going to go.
It can't be compromised.
We can't compromise the way that we're going.
And that's kind of where Joshua's coming from here.
Just to give you a little back story of where we're at here in Joshua chapter number 24,
this is Joshua's last charge to the children of Israel.
This is his last time that he's going to stand before them.
He's getting very close to death.
He's getting very close to dying in his last breath.
So he is now thinking of what is the best thing that I can leave with the children of Israel before I die.
The children of Israel have had two great leaders in Moses and Joshua.
And now the second of those great leaders is going to pass away.
And he doesn't know how to make sure to get through the Israelites' heads that regardless who's leading you,
you should be looking at God.
And he's not really sure how to do that.
So I imagine this is how my brain works.
He's got a little feather pen that he's writing out his speech.
Okay.
He's writing on paper, what should I say?
And then he realizes something.
No speech that he could possibly give could really top everything else that has happened over the last several,
several years that he has led the children of Israel.
So he doesn't really know where to go.
And then he realizes something.
I'm not going to be able to say anything to get these guys to follow Christ.
I'm not going to be able to say anything to get these guys to truly follow the Lord.
If you followed the history of Israel at all,
these guys, they do some wrong things.
They follow idols.
They're not always following God.
So what Joshua decides to do is he decides to remind the children of Israel who got them there,
who led them to where they are at right now.
At this point in time, the children of Israel are experiencing many blessings.
They've experienced many victories.
And sometimes when we experience victories in our lives,
we tend to look inward and say, man, I can't believe I did that.
Man, that was a great, that was a great job that I just did.
So what Joshua takes here is I'm going to remind him who got him here.
By the way, it wasn't Joshua.
It wasn't Moses.
Great men of God, great leaders for God.
But the only one that got the children of Israel where they're at today is God himself.
And it says in verse number two,
And Joshua said unto all the people,
The very first words that Joshua says,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
He puts a disclaimer over everything he's about to say.
This is what God did.
Not what you did.
Not what anybody else here did.
Not what our great fighters did.
This was God.
Joshua's nearing the end of his life,
and he figures that the best thing he can do is point everybody back to God.
Point number one here is remembering God's faithfulness.
The only way to point our household,
to point our lives back to God,
is remembering what God did for us to begin with.
Sometimes it's easily forgotten.
I was saved now, I guess, 16 years ago.
And you know, right when you get saved,
that period of time when you get saved,
you are on fire for God.
For a couple weeks, maybe a couple months,
even a couple of years.
And before too long, if we're not careful,
we forget what God did for us,
and we say, I'm going to live my life my way.
We're humans.
Short-term memory loss.
I've watched Finding Nemo.
You ever watch Dory?
He can't remember very much.
Oftentimes we're like that.
We forget what God has done for our lives.
We forget where God has brought us out of.
God has provided this great church,
this great church building,
where we can come in and worship God.
Did you know around the world,
a lot of people don't have that.
A lot of people don't have the blessings
that this place has been blessed with.
But let me just tell you,
it has nothing to do with any man.
God gave it to all of us.
We need tonight, or this morning,
to remember God's faithfulness.
Remember God's faithfulness.
Underneath this letter A,
God chose them.
I find this very interesting in verse number two,
continuing on.
Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood
in the old time,
even Terah,
the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nacor,
and they served other gods.
Do you notice that the household
that Abraham came from
was not a godly household?
The household that Abraham came from,
as a matter of fact,
worshipped other gods.
They worshipped other things.
They did not worship the true God.
That's where Abraham came from.
Did you know,
I imagine there are a lot of us in here
that maybe when we were children,
grew up in households
that did not honor God,
that did not worship the one true God.
But eventually,
you have to make the decision for yourself
and your household
that you are going to serve God.
That's what happened with Abraham.
Abraham was not brought up in this.
He was not a part of a Christian family
in the slightest.
But,
God called him.
He saw Abraham.
He said,
Abraham,
I want you to come to me.
I want you to work for me.
I want you to serve me.
Abraham had a choice.
God chose him,
but Abraham still had the choice,
and Abraham chose God.
There was a young man
back in 1862
is when he was born.
This man was a great athlete.
He was very, very fast.
He was one of the faster men alive at the time.
He'd run across all parts of the world
racing and such.
And by 1882,
at 20 years old,
this young man was drafted
by the Chicago White Stockings baseball team.
Now they're the Chicago White Sox.
This young man got so hung up
in the success,
the fame,
the fortune of the day,
he got into things that he shouldn't have.
He was heavy,
heavy drinking alcohol.
He got into things that he shouldn't have been in,
and by 1886,
four years after he was drafted,
this man stumbled with some of his teammates
into a street meeting
held by the Pacific Garden Mission.
As he listened to the gospel
and heard believers singing hymns
that reminded him of his godly mother,
the Lord convicted his heart.
This young man,
five years later,
after he was saved on this day,
five years later,
he gave up baseball.
He gave up everything
to follow God with his life.
That man's name is Billy Sunday.
If you have never heard of this man,
this is one of the
great preachers of his day
that, by the way,
was living in sin,
that was worshiping other gods.
God called him.
He was in sin,
and he still left his sin
to follow God.
Get this.
Sin never stopped God from calling us,
but sin can still push away the call.
At the end of the day,
it's our decision.
Choose you this day.
What are we going to choose?
Billy Sunday's ministry
reached many, many, many, many people
for Christ.
He was a great baseball player.
He had his life in front of him.
He had fame, fortune,
all the works,
but he chose God.
Not because he grew up in God.
Not because he grew up around it,
but because he realized
he had to make a decision for him.
It wasn't based on
what his parents had done.
It wasn't based on
any of his family.
He had to make an individual decision
to trust God.
God chose Billy Sunday,
but Billy Sunday
still could have pushed him away.
We have that same opportunity today.
Did you know,
as a Christian,
God's calling you?
You say,
well, I'm not going to be a pastor.
I'm not going to be a missionary.
I'm not good at public speaking.
I can't do it.
God's not calling me.
If you are a Christian,
God is calling you.
God wants you to follow him.
God wants you to live your life for Christ.
So God is calling you.
Now, I'd be a fool to think
there aren't one or two people,
maybe more in here
that are called into ministry.
Answer that calling,
but as a person
that maybe isn't called into that,
maybe God's calling you
to reach your coworkers for Christ.
Maybe God's calling you
to tell your friends about Christ.
Maybe God's just calling you
to be an example
that others around you can see.
God's calling you.
God's chosen you,
but is your sin pushing him away?
Is your sin pushing that call away?
Today we need to answer that call.
If you are in here and a Christian,
God is calling you.
Answer the call.
Pick up the phone.
Answer the call.
Don't leave this building today
without making the decision
that you are going to follow Christ.
The very first thing
at the end of chapter number,
or verse number 15,
says,
but as for me,
but as for me.
So Joshua first,
before anything else,
he has to make a decision
in his own life
that he's going to choose the Lord,
that he's going to serve the Lord.
First,
he has to make a personal decision
that he is going to follow God.
Not only did God choose them,
God delivered them.
In verse number five,
it says,
I sent Moses also and Aaron
and I plagued Egypt
according to that
which I did among them.
And afterward,
I brought you out
and I brought your fathers
out of Egypt
and you came unto the sea
and the Egyptians pursued
after your fathers
with chariots and horsemen
under the Red Sea.
Joshua was going through
everything
that God has done for them.
Remember that time
God did this for you?
Remember that time
God did this for you?
I don't like it
when I'll tell,
I'll explain Christ to somebody,
he preached the gospel
to somebody individually
and they'll say,
man,
I'm living in sin.
I've done too much wrong.
There's nothing God can do for me.
God can deliver you.
God delivered the people of Israel
even when they didn't deserve it.
We've heard the stories
about the Israelites.
They wouldn't stop complaining.
They worshiped golden idols.
They did a bunch of wrong things
and God delivered them
every single time.
Every single time,
God still delivered them.
Egypt's bondage,
the Red Sea,
Pharaoh being destroyed,
bringing them Moses and Aaron
when they had nobody to lead them.
Over and over and over,
time and time again,
God delivered them.
God can deliver you too.
You might be living in sin today.
You might be saved,
but you might be living in sin.
A lot of these Israelites
probably saved
and they kept on failing
time and time and time again.
We're human,
that's going to happen.
But you know what they had to do?
They had to turn back to God
and say,
God, can you help us?
God, what are we going to do now?
Where do we go?
Verse number seven,
it says,
and when they cried unto the Lord.
It didn't just happen.
They had to go to God
and say,
God, we need help.
Deliver us.
God wants to help his people.
God wants to help those
that are in trouble.
God wants to help those
that are mired in sin.
But we have to go to him and ask.
We have to ask God
to deliver us.
God chose us
and he also wants to deliver us.
Thirdly,
God defended them.
Verse number eight,
we won't read all this
because there are a lot of places
that I'm not keen on saying again.
And I brought you
into the land of the Amorites
which dwelt on the other side of Jordan
and they fought with you
and I gave them into your hand
and that ye might possess their land
and I destroyed them
from before you.
Don't miss this.
The battles that you're fighting
cannot be won by you.
You must lean on God
to win those battles.
And that's what Joshua was saying here.
Remember all those battles that you had?
He lists out all the ites
in a few verses later, all right?
All the Hivites,
the Girgashites,
all these guys,
probably pretty big armies,
maybe bigger than Israel.
And Joshua said,
remember how God defended us then?
Remember that?
Remember how it felt
to watch God take over like he did?
Do you remember that?
I do.
God defended them.
Victory over the Amorites.
By the way,
they weren't supposed to beat the Amorites.
Protection from Balak.
God turned Balaam's curse into blessing.
Sometimes God protects us from dangers
we'll never even know existed.
But the only way that happens
is if we are walking with the Lord.
If we are walking day by day with God.
God wants to deliver us.
God wants to defend us.
But we have to walk with him.
And fourthly,
not only did God choose them,
God delivered them,
God defended them,
and finally God provided for them.
Over and over and over again,
we find for the children of Israel,
God provided for them,
even when they didn't deserve it.
You know what's amazing?
I'm a sinner,
and I don't deserve salvation.
God gave it to me anyways.
I'm a sinner.
I don't deserve to be a part of God's family.
But God provided it for me anyways.
The children of Israel show us
that even God's people
are so oftentimes stuck in sin
and stuck in their own ways,
and God still wants to help them out.
He still does.
And today,
I think it's time that we just remember
how good God's been to us.
As a church family,
if we just gather around
and think of all the blessings,
think of all the times
that God has provided for us
when we did nothing left,
no help, nothing.
Even since I've been
at this church here at Central,
I've seen how much it's grown,
how the Spirit has grown in the Lord.
That's a God thing.
That's no man.
That's no one person.
That is God providing
for Central Baptist Church.
That is God defending
Central Baptist Church.
Let's remember today
what God has done for us.
Remember.
Because when we remember it,
it's a lot harder
to go back into sin.
Because we remember
how much God has done for us
and how much we should be doing
for the Lord.
So first,
I see remembering God's faithfulness.
Secondly,
we need to reject
every rival.
I did not come up with this point
in thoughts of rejecting
the Texas Longhorns,
but we are to reject
every rival.
We are to reject
everything that can get
in our way
from serving God.
It says in verse number 14,
Now therefore,
fear the Lord
and serve Him
in sincerity and in truth
and put away the gods.
Put away the gods.
And ordinarily,
when we look at Scripture
like this in the Old Testament,
we think of,
as in gods,
we think of the golden calf
that the Israelites worshipped.
We think of the golden images
that Aaron built up
for the children of Israel.
We think of these
as gods and idols
and we say,
Well, I would never do that.
Joshua names
three kinds of false gods.
Let's see if we fall
into any of these categories.
The very first point
underneath this
is the gods of the past.
Continuing on in verse 14,
And put away the gods
which your fathers served
on the other side of the flood.
Those past sins,
maybe they were
before you got saved.
Maybe they were
before you got into church.
We're a new creature now.
We shouldn't have to deal with that.
Friend, we're sinners
and we have flesh.
There are still things
that come up
that I remember
before I got saved,
I was living in sin
and that sin,
every now and then,
it'll pop its ugly head up.
Put away those gods.
Put away the idols.
Put away the things
that are just in our lives
that are keeping us
from truly serving
and honoring
and worshiping God.
That's what a God is.
And a God or an idol
is something
that takes the place
of the true God
that we should be worshiping.
So first of all,
what's that sin?
What's that thing
in our lives
that we tried to put away
but every now and then
it'll pop its head up?
Put away those gods.
That's what Joshua says.
Secondly,
this is where
it gets real for us.
Let her be
the gods of the present.
The gods of the present.
It says in verse 15,
and if it seem evil
unto you to serve the Lord,
choose you this day
and me will serve
whether the gods
which your father served
that were on the other side
of the flood
or the gods of the Amorites.
By the way,
right now,
they are living amongst
where the Amorites lived.
That means these gods
are in the camp
right now.
Joshua isn't preaching
against something
that had been
that your fathers did
that was passed.
Now he's getting
into the things
that are a little bit convicting.
The right now.
What god do you got
right now, guys?
Put them away now.
This is a little bit
harder to listen to.
Man,
things that are in my life
that are taking time
away from God,
you say still,
well,
I don't have any gods
or idols.
I'm not worshiping
anything else.
You got a TV?
You got video games?
You got a career?
You got all that stuff?
There are other things, too.
A god is something
that is taking the time
that should be gods
and putting it
into something else.
So oftentimes,
this is how our
Bible reading goes.
And man,
this can be me, too,
if I'm not careful.
Our Bible reading
and time with God
can go something like this.
We have a very busy day
of doing certain things.
When we get home,
we want to unwind,
watch a little bit
of television,
we get in bed that night
and we say,
man,
I didn't get to spend time
with God today.
Hopefully tomorrow.
God gets the end of it.
God gets,
if I have any time left over.
The television,
if that's taking time
away from God,
your priorities
are out of whack.
If certain things
in your life
are taking time
and effort away
from serving
and honoring God,
something is wrong.
And that's what
Joshua says here.
He said,
guys,
you're putting your time
into all these
different things
and you're giving God
a little bit
at the end of the day.
You're giving God
a little bit
if you can find
the time for it.
That's not what God wants.
Those are gods.
Those are idols
that we're using
in place
of who we should be
honoring and worshiping
and serving
in God.
So first,
I saw the gods
of the past.
Then I see the gods
of the present.
And then thirdly,
I see the God
of convenience.
The God
of convenience.
It says
in verse number 15
a little bit earlier,
it says,
and if it seem
evil unto you
to serve the Lord.
This is actually
a pretty big statement
here.
Because Joshua
is not saying
serving the Lord
is evil,
obviously.
I imagine
if I asked anybody
in here today,
who thinks it's evil
to serve the Lord?
Nobody's hands going up.
Because,
of course,
we don't think
it's evil
to serve the Lord.
But man,
sometimes it's
sure not convenient.
When we got a busy day,
when we got things
going on,
sometimes it's easier
just to push it off
a little bit.
Sometimes it's easier
to say,
I'll do that later,
God.
God,
I know you're important,
but not as important
as this right now.
Not as important
as doing all these
other things
that I've got
on my plate.
God,
you'll get there
one day,
but right now,
I've just got a lot
going on.
The God of convenience.
Is it convenient
for you to serve
the Lord?
If the answer
is sometimes,
something is wrong.
We shouldn't be
looking at God
as a convenience.
God should be a part
of our everyday walk.
It shouldn't be
a convenience thing.
We should go to God,
number one.
We should plan
everything else
in our day
around our time
with God,
not the other way around.
And so often times,
it seems like we are
doing it the other way around.
I watched a clip
of a movie
last night
in preparation
for this illustration
so I could remember
it a little bit better.
Anybody ever seen
Facing the Giants?
Facing the Giants.
It's a very good movie.
It's a Christian movie,
actually.
And I went to
Christian school,
so there weren't
a whole lot of movies
we could watch,
so there for a little while.
This was the only movie
we watched,
so that was awesome.
So it did get old
for a little while,
but then I watched
a clip last night
and I want to go
watch the movie now.
But it's a football movie,
but really,
it's not really based
around football.
It is a very
God-centric movie.
And at one point
in this movie,
I'll give you
the background,
there's a high school
coach and he coaches
this high school team
that's not very good.
And if they don't
win this season,
he's probably going
to lose his job.
And then there's
this other team
that is state champions
for like three years
in a row,
way better than everybody.
They never lose.
That's kind of the background
of where we are here.
And this head coach
of this small little team
that can't find themselves
a win,
he comes to one
of his assistant coaches.
His assistant coach
had been called
by that really big school
to come over
and leave his job there
and come over
and be assistant
at this big school.
Much more money,
everything was going
to work out better,
but he wasn't going
to tell the head coach
until it was a done deal.
He was scared to,
he didn't want
to hurt his feelings.
The head coach
goes to the assistant coach
one evening
after practice.
And he asked him
about it and he said,
yeah,
I just didn't want
to tell you,
I don't really know
what I want to do.
And the coach
looked at him
and said,
Brady,
right now you're
on the fence.
And right now
you're not doing
anybody good
sitting on the fence.
Right now you need
to get off of it,
pick which side you're on.
Because I can't have you,
if you're halfway over there,
halfway over here,
go over there.
I don't need you.
Don't ride the fence.
We'll be a lot better
off with you
out of here
if you're halfway
over there.
Don't ride the fence.
You got to pick
God of the world.
At the end of the day,
that's what Joshua
says here.
Joshua gives them
a whole bunch of gods
that they can pick.
Like he said,
make your pick.
But for me
and my house,
we're not riding
the fence between them.
We're not picking
three different gods.
We're going to pick
the one true God.
We are going
to serve God.
As for me
and my house,
we will serve
the Lord.
Don't ride the fence.
So many Christians
do that
because they want
the benefits.
They want the benefits
of living in the world
and they want the benefits
that Christ can give them.
You can't live for both.
You got to pick
one or the other.
Do you want to serve God
or do you want to serve
the world?
Joshua wasn't really
mean about it
as you can see
in verse 15.
He just said,
guys,
it's your choice.
Like I'm going to tell you
what I'm going to do
but at the end of the day,
you have to pick
what you and your house
is going to do.
I can't pick it for you.
I can remind you
about all this.
I can tell you
about everything
that's happened
in your lives
and how God has provided
for you every step
of the way
but at the end of the day,
it's your choice.
Do you want to ride the fence?
Do you want to just sit
over there in the world
or do you want to ride
with me?
Do you want to get in
and work
and walk
with God?
Finally,
I see
a resolve
to serve the Lord.
It says in verse number 15
at the very end,
but as for me
and my house,
we will serve
the Lord.
This is one of the greatest
scripture declarations
in the Bible.
Joshua was not hesitant
about saying
what his plan was.
He didn't see
what everybody else
was choosing
and then he chose.
He said,
I don't care
what anybody else does.
We're in a room
of 150,
170 people.
Our job isn't to look
and see what everybody
else is doing.
Our job is to say,
I don't care
what they do.
I don't care
what my best friends do.
I am going
to serve
the Lord.
And let me tell you,
this is,
I don't ordinarily do this.
This is for the men
in the room.
Men,
we need
to be the reason
our household
stands
for the Lord.
We should be the ones
that are declaring
it's never a question.
My parents always told me
growing up,
I never want it
to be a question
to you
whether we're
going to go to church
or not,
whether we're
going to read
our Bible as a family.
I never want that
to be a question
for you.
I just want you
to know
that's our job
as men
to lead our household
so that our kids,
they grow up
knowing we serve God.
It's never a question
to them.
They know for a fact
who we serve.
Our wives
follow us
and are able
to help
and direct
our children
to serve the Lord,
but it's our job
as men
to make sure
our household
is standing
on the strong
foundation of the Lord.
First,
under this point,
as I'm getting
close to closing,
it was a personal
decision.
I said the men
just a moment ago,
but right now
it is everybody's choice.
It is a personal
decision
to follow God.
Joshua,
before he could get
to his household,
he had to make
the decision
that he was going
to walk for God.
He had to make
the decision himself.
Growing up in school,
I loved group
projects,
because if we failed,
we were going
to fail together.
I didn't like
failing by myself,
so I was decent
in school,
but if we were
going to do bad,
at least somebody
else was going
to go down
with me.
That's the kind
of friend I was.
I wanted my best
friends with me,
so if we did do bad,
it was their fault
too,
not just mine.
Let me just tell you,
this isn't a group
project this morning.
You can't look over
and say,
hey,
are you going
to follow the Lord?
Hey,
are you going
to stand firm
for the Lord today?
I'll do it if you do it.
It's a personal decision.
It has to be made
by each and every one
of us.
And let me just tell you,
if you say,
well,
I'm going to put
this decision
off a little bit,
you've already made one.
If you want to try
to ride the fence
and say,
I'll stand firm
for the Lord one day,
but right now,
it's not going
to work for me.
That's the God
of convenience.
Right now,
I've got stuff
going on,
the gods
of the presence,
right now,
we need to make
a decision.
I love,
I enjoy
when I'm able
to close a sermon
with a firm decision,
like what you're going
to do,
like a firm calling.
Today,
the only decision
that it is,
is who you're going
to choose.
It's very,
very simple.
The most important
decisions normally
are pretty simple,
aren't they?
we make decisions
every single day.
We make decisions
to brush our teeth.
We make decisions
to go to sleep
at night.
We make decisions
all day long,
but this is the one
that's the most important.
A lot of us
are living
our day-to-day lives,
and I've never really
sat down and thought
about it and made
that decision,
but today,
God's calling you
to make one.
Today,
as we leave
the doors today,
there are going
to be two kinds
of people,
ones that determined
to follow God
with them
in their household
today,
and the ones
who decided
not to make
a decision
that decided
to follow the world.
There's no in-between
today.
That's it.
There's no in-between.
There's no wondering
who we are,
wondering what happened,
wondering what we did,
and by the way,
finally,
it was a permanent
decision.
If you're signing up
and determining
you and your household
are going to follow
God today,
let me just tell you,
it doesn't change
in a week.
It doesn't change
in a month
when things get hard.
It doesn't change
in a year.
It doesn't change
in ten years.
This is a forever
decision.
So,
like Joshua says,
if you don't want
to make it,
don't.
Joshua gave them
the choice.
God gave you
the choice.
God's not forcing
anybody into it,
but today,
I want to make
the decision
and say,
for me and my house,
we're going
to serve the Lord,
and I implore
you today,
whether it's
at the altar,
whether it's
at your seat,
make a decision
for the Lord today.
An easy one.
Decide if you're
going to follow him
and if you're
going to lead
your household
into following him
as well.
Go ahead and bow
your heads.
away.
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