Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Here we are.

Jeff:
Here we are.

Chris:
And there you are wherever you are listening. We just appreciate you tuning in today. Welcome to the Bible guys. I’m Chris. This is Jeff.

Jeff:
And it’s good to be here. It is good to be here with my buddy, Chris.

Chris:
And we together are going to tackle a social media minutes before we jump into our scripture for today.

Jeff:
Yeah. It’s really amazing. All the people who send in messages.

Chris:
Yeah, which by the way, we haven’t said this in a while, but please share something. Email us.

Jeff:
Help us out. Like it. Subscribe. Share. Tell everybody.

Chris:
You could email us at info at thebibleguys.com. Yes. Or you can respond on YouTube. You can write something in. Stump the pastor question. Just a regular question for mailbags. We would love your comments as well. So this is a social media minute.

Jeff:
Yes. So Lyn B wrote in. Hi Lyn. Lyn B. Lyn B. She says, you guys are true gentlemen. Little do you know. And I love your friendly debating. Thanks guys for another great episode.

Chris:
Oh, is that the episode where we talk about truth and grace? Yeah. Oh, that’s great. Okay. Well, that was great. Thank you, Lynn. Yes. This one is name unknown. Didn’t sign it.

Jeff:
Who names their kid unknown? That’s a weird.

Chris:
You shall be called unknown. That’d be something, right? If you introduce yourself as unknown. Hey, how you doing?

Jeff:
What’s your name? Unknown. Anyway, sorry unknown.

Chris:
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.

Jeff:
Thanks for everything you guys do that’s very nice Wow It was wisdom and talent being attributed to the two of us. Well, that’s just God still does miracles.

Chris:
That’s right He parts the Red Sea River

Jeff:
Well, Anna V said, wow, I learned something new every time I watched the Bible, guys. I know the Bible. I’ve been a believer 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.

Chris:
That’s really nice. Yeah, that’s very, very nice.

Jeff:
Everybody’s so nice to us.

Chris:
Well, you know what? Actually, we only read the good comments.

Jeff:
Yeah, well, that’s the only ones that matter, isn’t it?

Chris:
I don’t think we’ve gotten any hater comments, have we?

Jeff:
Not many.

Chris:
Okay. So Jeff checks the comments more than I do. And actually, I was given all the access by Desiree. Desiree said, here’s how you put it on your phone. But I was like, yeah, I need to do that. I never did. So I don’t really never see it. I never see it. I never check it.

Jeff:
Des usually helps us out. Like she picks these and she’ll help reply and whatever sometimes, but every once in a while 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 it’s super humbling. Actually, it’s a little embarrassing when you read them.

Chris:
Yeah. Everybody’s 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 paid gig. It’s not as if we’re not getting 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 and 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, and by the way, if you’re listening in Arizona, a shout out to you guys. I don’t remember your names. Yeah, and share it with your friends. But I remember your comment.

Jeff:
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 you in the lobby, I always forget that you’re my pastor too. Because I always think, oh, hey, that’s one of the Bible guys. Oh, that’s so funny. And then she came running over. That’s the first identity. Because I’ve only spoken a couple of times this summer, right? I was out of town. I was sick, whatever. We had guest speakers. And same thing for you. You’ve only spoken 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 through the library. I’m like, oh, hey, there’s a Bible guy. Oh, well, that’s my pastor.

Chris:
Right. I guess if you listen every day, you get a dose of Jeff five times a week.

Jeff:
Yeah, that’s right.

Chris:
And Chris. And Chris. But then if you go to church and you only see him once every three weeks or four weeks, then that’s a lot more Bible guidance.

Jeff:
Yeah, 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. 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 will be preaching a lot more, but through the summer, it’s been 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.

Chris:
Yeah. And a pastor.

Jeff:
That’s great. So, I don’t mind being known as a Bible guy. Do you, Chris?

Chris:
Not at all. There are worse things to be called.

Jeff:
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? Yes. And slowing it down a little bit.

Chris:
But guess what? Sunday’s coming and so is tomorrow.

Jeff:
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 99% of the ministry and leadership of Joshua was right 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 of 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… And they died. So, you know, in order to avoid a lynching, they would set up these cities of 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 finally we get to Joshua 23 and 24, and this is kind of his farewell. Now this is similar to the book of Deuteronomy for Moses. Moses gives three 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 same kind of thing. We’ll read Joshua chapter 24. It says, lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they worshipped 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 Seir, 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 charioteers. 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 Balak, son of Zipor, king of Moab, started a war against Israel. He summoned Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you, but I would not listen to him. Instead, I made Balaam bless you, and so I rescued you from Balak. When you crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho, the men of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, 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. It was not your 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 groves for food, though you did not plant them. So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshipped 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 in 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. And Joshua warned the people, 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. Then Joshua sent all the people away to their own homelands.

Chris:
So we have this in our, were you resisting to say, there you go?

Jeff:
Yes. I was trying really hard not to say, there you go. Because I usually go, there you go.

Chris:
There you go. 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 will serve the Lord. Do you have one of those somewhere in your home?

Jeff:
We used to. I think the frame broke. We don’t have it now, but we used to. My wife quit serving the Lord, I guess.

Chris:
Yeah, right, right. Our house, we… but anyway, trying to make a joke. So yeah, this is a very, very famous verse. And I love the… the way that Joshua phrases it. And he says, okay, if you’re going to go ahead and make a choice to make a choice, 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 your ancestors have experienced. If you want to do that, go, go do that. At least make your choice. 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, OK, what am I going to do with my life? You know, am I going to make God the central piece 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 30,000 feet. I think that a lot of us, you know, there’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 going to do in the next 20 years? And then there’s people that don’t think beyond tomorrow. Right. Right. They just live 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, 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, he’s encompassing God and he’s talking about 40 or 50 years of blessings, and he’s saying, make your choice. I love it.

Jeff:
I think it’s great. Literally, he says, so choose today who you will serve. Right. Right. That’s the thing. And I think I think that 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 have it all.

Chris:
A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Jeff:
A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I like these parts. I like these 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 at Heritage Church. And it gets really tempting to try to do all the things. Everything everybody wants, it’s tempting 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 worked out how many more weekends we have if I live to be 80. What? Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking that, I was thinking that through, right? Thinking.

Chris:
That’s certainly a big thought.

Jeff:
Yeah. Okay. If I live to be 80, 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, my, my days with my family. Sure. Those kinds of things. I, 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. Right? That’s a decision made a long time ago. Priority is 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 in groves 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 you 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 and 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 to choose who you are going to serve. If God is that hard to serve, then choose who you are going to serve. But then he ends it with, he said, for 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 the things, it’s tempting to start to think you did it or some other circumstances did it. And Joshua’s calling back saying, 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 chops of my friend because we just had this conversation. So he knows, he knows what we’re talking about.

Chris:
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, you said duty.

Jeff:
But you know what I’m saying there. It’s about setting priorities. And once you, once you establish your priorities, and I think that there’s a value, it’s a discipline. I think I have in my, I’m not very disciplined person in 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 years, I sit down and try to reestablish. These are my priorities and how am I doing with them? Right. Right. It’s a couple of 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. It’s 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. 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 are first? Right. Right. Or, or the finances are first. So, 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 second. My finances, figuring that out is third. My extended family from there is fourth, even in my family thing. Then it’s the office, it’s the church, it’s the people in the church. Um, and you know, you, you have to make your, your choices that way. So once your priorities are set, you figure out how are you doing it? 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 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, 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 going to have to reschedule the thing at the office.

Chris:
Yeah. I just was in New York last week with my brother, my older brother, Tom, and he grew 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 Terry just was a great kid growing up. Well, he says, you know, 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? And he goes, Oh, I just made a hundred thousand dollars. And he goes, Oh, that’s great. How are you doing? And he goes, and he goes, I’m going to ask that second question. Here’s what comes. Uh, yeah, 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 could 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, so that’s a big part of our lives, but it’s, 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 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.

Jeff:
Sometimes I’m out of Out of order in those things too. Yeah. Yeah. So this is why, 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 going to let our kids make their own choices, right? For me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord. So I choose as the leader of my family, me and my wife, we’re 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 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? So you can’t have two gods. right? And this is what Jesus says, you’re either going to serve one and hate the other, or 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 likely 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 them 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.

Chris:
That’s great. Well, it looks, that is our time. So hopefully we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.