- It is great to
be with you today. I do have to just sort of give you a heads up
on the message though, that my message today is really just for
the guys in the room. Just for the men. Young or old, married
or single, a dad or not, even a teenager, a student, 'cause someday, most likely
you will be married, and a dad, so what I have to say today is really specifically
for the men in the room. Now, for the women in the room, don't check out on
me (audience laughs). I need 'ya. Actually, you're the ones who probably will
benefit the most from what I have to say. Some of you might be thinking, man, I wish my
husband were here, or my brother or my dad
or my boyfriend, or my ex, could be here to hear this, and frankly, I wish
they were here too. I get it. But I can only talk to the
men who are in the room. So while I preach,
girls, you pray, and pray that the Lord
speaks to us into our hearts. Guys, I just wanna shoot
straight with you today. I like it when people
talk straight with me. So I'm not gonna couch
things in sweet terms. I'm just gonna aim for the head, and talk to you today
about your life. God has no intention of allowing you to live
a meaningless life. God doesn't do
anything meaninglessly. And he has put you on this
planet, and in your world, because he has a
plan and a purpose, a specific intention, for you, that he wants to
fulfill in your life. So I'm hoping today that
you will hear this message as a call to destiny. As a call to greatness. As a call to purpose
for your life. Some of you have
been following Jesus for a long, long time. Others of you are
just getting started. I've been following Jesus
since I was six years old. Now, I had some
years when I was, shall we say, developing my
testimony (audience laughs). Yeah, you laugh 'cause you know what I'm
talkin' about (audience laughs). Some of you are just
getting started. Some of you don't even
know where to begin. But wherever you are in
your walk with the Lord, some of you might even
be here as a last resort. I know there's at
least one guy here who's here against his will because I saw the skid-marks from the heels of your shoes out on the sidewalk
(audience laughs). But for whatever reason
you've come here today, whoever brought you, I believe that you're here
because God brought you here. God is always ahead of us, and I believe that this,
your being here today, this is part of
his plan for you, and that he has something he
wants to say to you today. I believe that God
wants to talk to you about an awakening. If you wanna look at the
first verse in your outline, and it's here on
the screen as well, it's from Romans, chapter 13. This'll be our
theme-verse today. It says, "And do this, "understanding the present time. "The hour has come for you
to wake from your slumber, "because our salvation
is nearer now "than when we first believed." He says do this, now
what is he talking about? What is the this that
he's saying we're to do? Well he says it in the
next verse, in verse 12. He says, "The night
is nearly over; "the day is almost here. "So let us put aside
the deeds of darkness. "and put on the armor of light." He's talking about integrity. He's talking about a commitment
to being a godly man. He says, "Do this,
understanding the present time." So what is the present time? The ancient Greeks had
two different words that they used for
describing time. One was the word chronos, the other was the word kairos. Chronos, it's where we
get the word chronology, or chronograph, like a watch. Chronos time is just the passing of seconds into
minutes into hours into days into weeks
and months and years. Just the passing of time. In a life, it's you
wake up, you go to work, you come home, you go to bed, you wake up, you go to work, you come home, you go to bed, it's just one day after
another after another. It's just the passing of time. That's chronos-time. But in this passage, Paul uses the kairos word, and kairos is a very different
kind of time measurement. Kairos is a limited
period of time. It's a decisive moment in time, something that must be seized, where action must be taken because there's a limited
window of opportunity. Kairos is a critical moment in which history can be changed. So I want you to write
this down in your notes. A kairos moment
is a turning point that must be pressed through to achieve its
God-intended purpose. A turning point that
must be pressed through to achieve its
God-intended purpose. A turning point is when you
are heading one direction and something happens, an event, a person, a tragedy, an opportunity, a decision, you're heading one direction, something happens, and now you're heading
in a different direction. That's a turning point, and a kairos moment
is a turning point that must be seized
and pressed through to achieve its
God-intended purpose. An example of a turning
point in a life, of a kairos-moment,
would be getting married. That's a change in life. Having your first kid. That's a whole new direction. A change in career. I had a change in career. I went from the music
business to being a pastor. Talk about a change,
a turning point. On a grander scale,
a larger scale, a turning point for us,
in American history, well, actually in human history, was landing a man on the moon. 9/11 was a turning
point, a kairos moment, where history was
reshaped and changed. The greatest kairos moment
in history, of course, was the coming of Jesus. His death and resurrection, because that changed everything. That was the change
from BC to AD, the way we keep
track of all time. So a kairos moment
is a turning point that must be pressed through to achieve its
God-intended purpose. And this weekend, today, could be a kairos moment
for you, my friend. Today could be the day that all of your life
has been pointed toward. Today could be the day that you will look
back on in the future, and say it was that day. Something changed. A decision. I made a decision. I made a commitment, and it shifted the
direction of my life. So I wanna talk to you
today about an awakening, and then I'm gonna challenge
you to make a decision, and to make a commitment. Paul says, "The hour has come
to wake from your slumber." I wanna tell you a story about a man who slept
through a kairos moment. It's a story that you might
remember from your childhood, the story of a man
named Rip Van Winkle. It was written by
Washington Irving in 1819. And the story of Rip Van Winkle is that he was a friendly,
lovable, lazy Dutchman who lived at the foot of
the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York
in the late 1700's, and one day, in his attempt to escape
the pressures of life, in his attempt to avoid having to make some
important decisions, Rip Van Winkle wandered
up into the mountains, and he lay down on a grassy
knoll, and he went to sleep. And he slept for 20 years. When Rip Van Winkle fell asleep, King George III was the monarch over the American colonies. But when he woke
up, 20 years later, George Washington was
president of the United States. So here's the
point of the story. Rip Van Winkle slept
through a revolution. The world around him changed, and he wasn't even
paying attention. He missed the whole thing. He dozed off in an attempt to
escape an important decision. To escape the pressures and
responsibilities of life, the real important things. He dozed off to escape those, and woke up not realizing that
everything was now different, that he had missed
an opportunity. He had missed the change, and he was still
pledging his allegiance to a defeated power. He still pledged himself
to the King of England, even though it was
a whole new country. He was looking for signs
of the good old days, trying to make sense
of this new world, and so he just went back to
his lethargic and lazy ways. I have to ask you, my
friend, is that you? Are you sleeping, spiritually? Spiritually dormant, unaware, maybe even apathetic, to what God is doing in
the world around you. It might not even occur
to you to sit up and look, and to see what is God doing? What difference does he
wanna make in my life? Are you still living under the
dominion of a defeated power? Living by old values,
thinking in old ways, not realizing that you have
been set free by a new king. It is time for you to
awaken from your slumber, and to join your brothers in
what God is doing in the world. There's a call on your life. The bible says this in
Colossians, chapter one. That, "God has rescued us
from the power of darkness "and has brought us into
the kingdom of his Son, "whom he loves. "His Son paid the
price to free us, "which means that our
sins are forgiven." So you don't have to
live under the weight of your past anymore. Your past has not ruined
God's future for you. I wanna say that again. Some of you need to hear this. Your past, no matter what it is, your past has not ruined
God's future for you, but you must wake up to
it, and step into it. The bible says the hour has come for you to wake
from your slumber. And I believe that that's why
God brought you here today, because God is
inciting a revolution. It is not a
political revolution. It's not a cultural revolution. It's a spiritual revolution. It's not a revolution
in the streets. It's a revolution in
the hearts of men, where God is bringing freedom,
and purpose, and destiny, and calling us to be the men
that he intended for us to be when he created us. That revolution is
already underway. What is at stake is your soul. Your eternal
destiny is at stake. The spiritual health and
direction of your family, of your kids, if you have them. Your legacy is at stake. This revolution
started 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ
rose from the dead and defeated the powers
of death and sin and hell. So there is a new king. His name is Jesus. And with a new king, that
means there's a new kingdom. And where there's a new kingdom, that means there
is a new economy, there is a new set
of values to live by, a whole new value system, there's a new way of living,
a new way of thinking, about yourself, about God,
about the world around you, about your family,
about your purpose, about eternity, a whole
new way of thinking. A whole new way of doing things. A new king is now in power, and the kingdom of
God, as Jesus said, the kingdom of God is at hand. It's close enough to tough. To get a grip on. And if you have not joined
this revolution yet, this spiritual revolution, I have news for you
today, my friend. Today, this revolution
is coming to you. Today could be the
kairos moment for you. Today is the day
for you to wake up to what God is doing. To wake up to truth, to wake up to God's love. To wake up to his power. To wake up to the full
meaning and implications of the resurrection
in your life. To wake up to the
fact that God indeed has a plan and a
purpose for your life that he has called you into, he wants you to step into. He wants you to rise
from your slumber, and to shake off, sweep away the cobwebs of
lethargy and carelessness. And to take your place
with your brothers in the kingdom of God. So what are you
gonna do about it? You gonna sleep
through my message? Wake up when it's over? Oh, wasn't that nice? Lovely sermon, pastor. And then just go back
to your old ways. Or will you rouse yourself
from spiritual slumber and step into a whole new life? Let's look again at this
verse from Romans, chapter 13. "And do this, understanding
the present time." The kairos moment
that is upon you. The turning point that
must be pressed through. Do this, understanding
the present time. The hour has come. It is now, for you to
wake from your slumber. To rouse from obscurity
and inactivity. The hour has come to wake
from spiritual dormancy, because our salvation
is nearer now than when we first believed. Let's look to that verse
in the message paraphrase. It says, "Don't get so
absorbed and exhausted "in taking care of all
your day-by-day obligations "that you lose track of
the time and doze off, "oblivious to God. "The night is about over,
and dawn is about to break. "Be up and awake to
what God is doing!" Be up and awake to
what God is doing. What's he doing? He's calling you to a deeper
level in your walk with Christ. He's calling you
to a higher level of integrity and accountability with himself and with others. He's calling you to a
broader, wider reach of your influence
for his kingdom. He's calling you to be a man
who lives by convictions, not for convenience. He's calling you to be a man who lives not just by your word, but a man of his word. But it all hinges
on your commitment. We're gonna look
at a kairos moment that happened in the
lives of God's people in the old testament. Gonna spend the rest of
our time together here looking at a passage
from Joshua, chapter 24. But I wanna give a little
background to this passage, of what's happened
leading up to this moment. It's a kyros moment. Moses has lead the people
out of bondage, in Egypt. Led them into freedom, led
them through the desert. Moses has died, Joshua
has now taken over, Joshua has led the
people into the new land, the promise land, to take
possession of the promise land. Now Joshua is about to die. And so as we come to chapter 24, This is Joshua's
farewell address. And he has called
the men together, and he is issuing
them a challenge, as they get ready now to
step into their future. He's challenging them to
an intensified commitment, and to a renewed
dedication to integrity. To step up in their
commitment to God. He's challenging them
to not just exist, but to fully possess
this promise land that God has given to them. And as we're about to see, for the people to possess
the land collectively, they must remain
faithful individually. For the people the
worship God corporately, they must worship him
privately, and individually. The eternal truth here is that the church is only
as strong as its people, as their commitment to God. And for us, today,
to possess the land, means to fully engage
in, and to live out, the fullness of life in Christ, where your enemy, the
devil, has been subdued, and you're no longer
living by his values, but you're now living
according to God's values, and you are making a
difference with your life in the world around you
for the kingdom of God. So in verse one of
this chapter, it says, "Then Joshua assembled all the
tribes of Israel at Shechem. "He summoned the
elders, the leaders, "judges, and
officials of Israel, "and they presented
themselves before God. "Joshua said to all the people, "'Now, fear the Lord and serve
him with all faithfulness. "'Throw away the gods
your forefathers worshiped "'beyond the river and in Egypt, "'and serve the Lord.'" "'But if serving the Lord
seems undesirable to you, "'then choose for yourselves,
this day, whom you will serve, "'Whether the gods of your
forefathers, beyond the river, "'or the gods of the Amorites, "'in whose land you are living. "'But as for me
and my household, "'we will serve the Lord.'" "As for me and my household, "we will serve the Lord." I want you to notice four things about Joshua's
challenge in verse 15. Write these down. The first is this. The choice he's calling them to, the choice is intentional. It is intentional. It's not accidental. He says choose for yourselves
whom you will serve. Nobody can choose for you. Your wife can't choose for you. Your friends, your parents,
cannot choose for you. It's your choice. You cannot follow the
Lord accidentally. You can't follow
him incidentally. It must be deliberate. It must be an
intentional decision. Choose this day
who you will serve. And second, the
choice is urgent. He says choose for
yourselves, this day, today, right now, in
this kairos moment that must be pressed through to achieve its
God-intended purpose. He didn't say let's
talk about this, then take a couple o' days, go home, mull it over, decide, then we'll come back
and see whatcha think. He says no, the time is now. Choose this day
whom you will serve. The third thing to notice is
that the choice is unavoidable. It is unavoidable. Choose for yourselves, this day, whom you will serve, because by intention or default, you are going to serve somebody. Bob Dylan had it
right, in his song, when he said, "It
might be the devil "and it might be the Lord, "but you're gonna have
to serve somebody." 'Cause you will. It is inevitable. Joshua says, if serving
the Lord is undesirable, then decide who you will serve, because you're
gonna serve someone. Jesus said this, in talking
about who you're gonna serve. Matthew 6:24, he said, "No one can serve two masters. "Either he will hate the
one and love the other, "or he will be devoted to the
one and despise the other. "You cannot," he says, "You cannot serve
both God and money." So the choice is unavoidable. And fourth, the choice
is generational. It's generational,
because he says, as for me and my house. So let me tell you
what else is at stake. Your kid's future is at stake. Again, those of
you who have kids, or hope to have kids, listen up. I just read a study
this week, from 2016, the study done by
the Swiss government, and I have found others
that say the same thing, and what they found is that if a man is not
a follower of Christ, if he's not a
follower of Christ, there is just a 2%
chance, one in 50, a 2% chance that his kids will
become followers of Christ, regardless of the
faith of the mother. Just 2%, if you, the man,
are not a follower of Christ. On the other hand, they found that if the man
is a follower of Christ, that 2% climbs as
high as 75% chance that the children will
become followers of Christ. Again, regardless of
the faith of the mother. There is so much at stake, guys. We have to wake up and
pay attention to this. It is your choice. It's your decision. Joshua says, as for
me and my household, as long as we're under
this roof, he's saying, we're gonna serve the Lord. Joshua is taking responsibility
for his household. For the values that
they're gonna live by, and for the God that they
are going to worship. So in verse 16,
the people respond. It says, "The people answered, "we too will serve the Lord, "because he is our God. "We will serve the Lord." And then Joshua said, "You are
witnesses against yourselves "that you have chosen
to serve the Lord. "Now then, throw away the
foreign gods that are among you, "and yield your
hearts to the Lord." To yield here means
to totally surrender. To fully lay it down. He says, "Throw away the
foreign gods among you, "and surrender, yield
your hearts to the Lord." And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord,
our God, and obey him." So the people responded
and said yes, we're in. We'll do this. And in essence,
Joshua says, prove it. You need to do
something about it. He says throw away the foreign
gods that are among you. Now what are these foreign
gods that he's talking about? Well he actually told
us back in verse 15. I put the verse
here on the screen. Let's look at it once again. He says they're "the gods
your forefathers served," or worshiped, "in Egypt, "and the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you are living." Those are the foreign gods. So how does that
apply to you today? Well, write this down. The gods of Egypt are
the gods of my past. They're the gods of my past. He's saying by
worshiping old gods that they are holding
onto old values. They are bringing
old lifestyles. They are carrying the
remnants of their slavery with them into their future. And Joshua says you gotta
let go of that stuff. Get it out of your life. I have to ask you
what enslaved you before you gave your
life to Jesus Christ? God is saying walk away from it. Don't bring it with you anymore. Not a remnant of it, but leave it behind you. Get rid of the gods of Egypt. And the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living, here's what this
means for your life. The gods of the Amorites
are the gods of my culture. They're the gods of my culture. He's saying don't
worship the gods of the culture in which
you're living, either. Don't bow your knee
to those things. Don't live by the value system
of the world around you, because there is such
a high price to pay if you live according
to the world's values. Look at these next two verses
in your notes, Jonah 2:8. Says, "Those who cling
to worthless idols "forfeit the grace
that could be theirs." And in 2 Kings 17:15 it says, "They followed worthless idols "and became worthless
themselves." So here's the question
that we have to ask. Am I holding onto something, either from my past, or
in the world around me, the value-system of
the culture around me, that is causing me to forfeit
the fullness of God's grace in my life, in my
marriage, in my family, in my finances, in my business? Is there something
I'm holding onto that is keeping me
from getting a grip on what God really
wants to do in my life? God has called each of us into a whole new way of living. The bible says this,
in 2 Corinthians 5, "Anyone who belongs to Christ
has become a new person. "The old life is gone, "and a new life has begun." But in order to
live the new life, in order to follow the Lord, in order to fully
possess the land, this new life that God has
called you into in Christ, then we must abandon
the old gods, the gods of the past. The idols, the
values, superstitions, beliefs, spiritual
behaviors and practices that are not biblical. We must cease those things and get them out of our life. We must refuse to worship
the gods of our culture. So what are the
gods of our culture? What are the idols around us? What do those look like? And how do we serve them? Idols are false gods. They're not just little statues. Idols are things that
you sacrifice to. An idol is anything
that you allow to come between you and God. It can be a person,
it can be a goal, it can be an accomplishment, it can be bitterness
from the past, something that just
clouds your view of what God wants in your life. An idol is anything
that you allow to come between you and God. It's the excuses,
it's yeah God, I know, but, I'm going a
different direction. That becomes an idol. And he says we have to get
those things out of our life. The lifestyles and behaviors that he wants us
to walk away from. Paul tells us about this in
Colossians, chapter three. He says, "Put to
death, therefore," in other words, get
out of your life, "the evil desires
that work in you, "such as sexual immorality, "indecency, lust, evil desires, "covetousness and greed,
which is idolatry." All of these things
that I just read about, they're all idolized
in our culture. We see 'em in the movies, they're in all of
our entertainment, we see them in our advertising, we see them in our news feeds, we hear about them in our music. And you might say, well,
you know, what's the harm? It's sorta the new normal. There's great harm in it because
it's costing you something. It's costing you the
fullness of the grace of God. We must let go of these things and stop giving them our time
and attention and affection. We have to stop living
for those things, and stop giving them your life. He says put those
idols to death. So how do you do that? Well, first you have
to identify them. What are they? And a good way to identifying
any idols in your life is to look at your bank
account and your calender, because those two things are
the measure of your life. They tell you how
do I spend my time, how do I spend the resource
that God has given me, how am I prioritizing
things in my life. Those two things, your bank
account and your calender, tell you if there are any idols, any things that have
come between you and God. You can tell what a man worships by the way he lives his life. You can tell the
gods that he serves by the sacrifices that he makes. So I need to ask
some tough questions, and I hope, I hope you
know me well enough after all these years, I hope you know that I'm
not coming to you today pointin' a finger at anybody. I'm coming to you as a
friend who cares about you. I'm coming to you as a
man who has wrestled with, and is guilty of,
every one of the things I'm about to talk about. But there are questions that
we have to ask ourselves and take a good, hard
look at our own lives. You're the only person who
can answer these questions, and your answer is only
between you and God. Nobody else's business. It's just between you and God. But are there any idols
that you are sacrificing to? For instance, are you
sacrificing your family to an idol of success? Are you sacrificing your ethics to an idol of money
or possessions? Are you sacrificing decency to an idol of indecent
entertainment? Are you sacrificing moral purity to an idol of am
immoral relationship? Are you sacrificing God's
highest good for you to idols of past memories and lifestyles, and behaviors, that you're just not
willing to let go of yet? And they're causing you
to forfeit the fullness of God's grace in your life. An idol can be looking back
at you from the mirror. You're trying to
be your own God. Call your own shots, do things
the way you wanna do 'em. Who's in charge of your life? Who are you living for? Are you living for yourself,
or for a higher purpose? For God himself? Those who cling
to worthless idols forfeit the grace
that could be theirs. And Joshua's challenge to choose
who you're going to serve, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. He's saying look,
search your heart and look for anything
you're hanging on to that is keeping you from
fully possessing the land, fully possessing the new life that God wants you
to have in Christ. So I'm finished with
the hard questions. Let's find our way out of this. How do you get rid of an idol? How do you break its
grip on your life? You might wanna write this down. You get rid of an idol
by starving it to death. You starve it to death. You just stop sacrificing to it. Stop giving it your
time and attention. You see, we pursue idols
because of our passions, and the only way to get
rid of an old passion is to get a new passion. Because when you
feed a new passion, you find that you
are now starving the
old passion to death. You're not giving it your
time and attention anymore because you're
feeding a new passion. Let me give you an example. When I was 15 years old, sophomore at
Glendale High School, I had a passion for a
cheerleader in my math class. (audience laughs lightly) She did not have
a passion for me. (audience laughs lightly) So how did I get
rid of my passion for the cheerleader
in my math class? I got a passion for a
cheerleader in my English class. (audience laughs) When you feed a new passion,
you starve an old passion. When you feed your
passion for God, you will find that you
are starving your passion for the old ways of life, for the old idols that you
were serving with your life, because now you're pouring
more and more of your life into the object
of your affection, the new passion that
you have for God. Let me tell you some ways that you can break the
grip of idols in your life. You can break the grip of an
idol by changing the channel. You can break the
grip of an idol by turning your computer around so that other people
can see the screen that you're looking at. Guys, you can break
the idol of lust by looking the other way when
a woman is coming toward you. Now, she might
think you're rude. That doesn't matter, you
don't even know who she is. But it will break something
of that idol of lust simply by turning your eyes
in a different direction. You can break the
idol of a grudge by praying for the
person who hurt you, because it is impossible to
hate a man in God's presence. You can break the
idol of materialism by living generously,
by tithing. By living open-handedly, and giving away the resource that God is putting
into your hands. He gives to you, so he
can give through you. You don't hold it
all for yourself, but you live open-handedly
and generously. It breaks the idol. It breaks that grip
of materialism. You can starve old passions by staying away from
people and places that are harmful to you. As Rick always says, if
you don't wanna get stung, stay away from the bees
(audience laughs lightly). Here's a way to
feed a new passion. Just stay home and
be with your family. Joshua challenges all of us to a higher level of personal
commitment and devotion, but he says, as for
me and my house, so he's speaking not
just for himself, he's now speaking
for his family, his entire household. He's making a decision,
and a commitment, on their behalf, and he's encouraging
all of the other men to do the same thing. He's saying step up guys,
and take responsibility for the spiritual health and
wellbeing of your family. You cannot delegate your
family's spiritual destiny. On Friday I was
having a conversation
with Anthony Miller, one of our pastors
here on staff, about this very subject, and he told me about a
study he had just read of teenagers, of kids, who were saying
that they identified Lady Gaga and Kanye West as their biggest
spiritual leaders. I know (audience laughs). You cannot delegate the
spiritual health and future of your family. You will either shape it,
or you will neglect it, but you cannot delegate it. Now, of course, your kids have
to make their own decision. They have to decide
for themselves, who are they gonna serve? But remember, if you're
not a follower of Christ, there's only a 2% chance that
they're gonna follow Jesus. But if they see you
as a man of God, if they see you as a
follower of Christ, there is a 75% chance that
they too will follow the Lord. So we have to do all that we can to raise them in an environment where they understand
biblical values. Where they understand that we live according
to the ways of God. Let 'em see you spending
time in the word. Let 'em hear you pray, even if it's just at dinner. Bring 'em to church. Keep 'em in church. Buy 'em a bible. Now, I know a lot of you are
already doing these things. Keep doing 'em. The men that Joshua
was speaking to was a mixed crowd of men. Some were spiritual leaders. Others were just
ordinary citizens. But he was calling all of
them to a deeper commitment. That as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. You have to ask
yourself the question, when my kids look at my life, and believe me, they do, do they think that God is
essential, or is he optional? And all of the people then
responded to Joshua's challenge. They said that they too
would serve the Lord, and having made that commitment, now Joshua calls them
to create a memorial. Look what it says in verse 25. It says, "On that day "Joshua made a covenant
for the people, "and there at Shechem
he drew up for them "decrees and laws. "And Joshua recorded
these things "in the Book of the Law of God. "Then he took a large stone "and set it up
there under the oak "near the holy
place of the Lord. "'See!' he said
to all the people. "'This stone will be
a witness against us. "'It has heard all the words
the Lord has said to us. "'And it will be a
witness against you "'if you are untrue
to your God.'" "And then Joshua
sent the people away, each to his own inheritance." As I said when I started, we're all comin' at this from different places
in our spiritual life. Some of you have followed
the Lord for a long time, some of you are just
gettin' started, some of you have had
your ups and downs, some of you may not even
know where to begin. But young or old, or
single or married, kids or no kids, my hope is that you're
hearing me today not as a judge, please. But as a friend who
cares about you. As a pastor who cares
about this church, calling you to join me, to make a deeper commitment
to be a godly man, because if there is
one thing this world really, desperately
needs right now, it's more godly men. Are you with me, guys? Are you willing to
say yes, I'm in? I know I won't do it perfectly. None of us does it perfectly. But I'm willing to step up, and to step in deeper
into this walk with Christ and to say, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. If you're willing
to do that today, then I wanna ask
you to do something. Joshua used a
stone as a memorial to remind the men of
the decisions that
they made that day. And I like memorials. I think God does too, 'cause you find them all
throughout scripture. So I created a memorial for you. In your program,
I put this card. It has a stone on it. Now, I couldn't bring stones
in for everybody here, so I just put 'em on a card. Make it a lot easier
to take 'em home. But on this card, at
the top of the card, it says as for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord. And then there's a line, a
place for you to sign your name, and a line for you to date. Write down today's date. If you're saying I'm in. As for me and my house,
we'll serve the Lord. Then I wanna invite
you to sign this card. Take out a pen, sign your name, put the date on it, and then keep this card. Take it with you. Don't put it in
the offering plate. This is for you. It's not for us (audience
laughs lightly). For you. As a reminder. Put it on your fridge. Put it in your bible. You might even frame
it and put on your desk or on your bedside table. Or take a picture of
it with your phone, and use it as the home
page on your phone, as a reminder of a
commitment that you're making that this day was
the kairos moment, that this day was the day that once again you said
I'm stepping up to this. I am seizing this opportunity to make this
covenant before God, to say yes, for me and my
house, we'll serve the Lord. I wanna close by
looking at our verse from Romans 13 one last time. "And do this, understanding
the present time. "The hour has come for you
to wake up from your slumber, "because our salvation
is nearer now "than when we first believed." There's a famous
childhood prayer we probably all have heard. "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I should
die before I wake, I pray the Lord
my soul to take." If I should die before I wake, my prayer, my brothers, is that we will all
wake before we die. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven,
we are so grateful for your word,
your eternal word. It is not just a history book, it is an eternal book, and for the life-lessons
that we learn from the people that you
chose to write about, for Joshua today, who has
challenged us to step up, to commit ourselves to
a deeper walk with you, to be men of God, because this world so
desperately needs godly men. So Lord I pray for
each man in this place that we will have the courage, the commitment, that we will wake up to what
you're doing in our lives, that we will join this
spiritual revolution and enter into, in a
stronger, deeper way, the new life that Jesus
has called us into. Father, I pray for
the women in this room that you will speak deeply
to them in the same way. For those women who have
no man in their life, Lord, would you be their
comforter, their friend, their God, their guard? Guide them through life. Lead them in the steps
of devotion to you, that as they lead their kids, possibly without a
father in the house, that they will see
how to lead their kids into godly living as well. Lord, for each of us, may we be people
of deep integrity who live according
to our convictions that are built on the rock
solid foundation of your word. People who rid ourselves
of the gods of the past, and who refuse to worship
the gods of our culture, but who worship
only the living God in the name of Jesus Christ. I want to encourage each of you, in this moment of silent prayer, to take a moment and ask the
Lord to search your heart, and ask him, you don't
have to be afraid of this, ask him, God is there any idol that I'm still holding
onto from my past? Is there an idol from my culture that I'm holding onto
and serving with my life that is causing me to forfeit
the fullness of your grace? Ask the Lord. And if he points
something out to you, confess it to him. Say, yes Lord, I see that. I confess it. I repent of that. And I'm turning from it today. It might be a relationship
that you need to end. You might need to
make a phone call when you walk outta here. It could be a decision
that you have to make, but by the power
of the Holy Spirit, God will give you the strength
to make that decision. And if you've never opened
your life to Christ, then in your heart,
just pray this way. Say God, I don't
understand all of it, I just know that I deeply
need you in my life. I don't wanna follow the old
gods and the old ways anymore. But I wanna make
this declaration,
first of all, for me, that I will be a
follower of Christ. That I will serve you, and for my family,
Lord, as best as I can, I will lead my family
to follow you too. I ask you to forgive
me of my sins in the name of Jesus Christ, and to put me on the pathway of the purpose that
you've intended for me. That this day is
my kairos moment, and I am seizing it
now, in Jesus' name. Amen. (upbeat music) - Thanks for checkin' out
this message on YouTube. My name is Jay, and I'm
Saddleback's online pastor. I wanna invite you to
take your next step by checking out our
online community, or help you get connected to
a local Saddleback campus. Three things we have
to offer you right now. First, learn more about
belonging to our church family by taking class 101. Second, don't live life alone, and get into
community with others, by joining an
online small-group, or a local home-group
in your area. Third, join our Facebook group to be more engaged with
our online community throughout the week. Take your next step, and learn where a local
campus is near you by visiting
saddleback.com/online or email online@saddleback.com. Hope to hear from you soon.
