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

Show Notes

Episode 483: 
In this episode, we dive into the latter chapters of the Book of Joshua, specifically Joshua 23 and 24. Chris and Jeff delve into Joshua's farewell address to the Israelites, highlighting his leadership and the importance of making definitive choices about whom to serve. They discuss the significance of Joshua's challenge to the people to choose between serving the Lord or other gods, and his famous declaration, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

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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