Grace, Duty, and Choice (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

Whitten Baptist Church

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Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

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It wasn't the type of people. We're going to be in Joshua chapter 24 this morning.

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Joshua chapter 24. And I have to, by good hermeneutical logic and truth, set the stage for our text this morning.

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It is the last chapter of the book of Joshua. Now, who Joshua is,

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Joshua is, was the replacement for Moses. The people of Israel came out of Egypt, out of bondage, and God delivered them, but like good

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Baptist Christians that they were, they were complaining about every little step.

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We don't have enough food. I don't like this food. I don't like this. I don't like that. And so finally,

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God said, look, y 'all are going to the promised land. And the people said, oh, but we can't do that.

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Those people are really big. They all look like arty. Who are we to be able to fight them?

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And God said, you know what? This generation who chose not to believe, this generation who chose to live not by faith, but by sight, you're going to wander in the wilderness until you die.

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And it is your children that I will take into the promised land. Man, if there was ever a word for us to hear today in the church, it's that.

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And so Moses died, and God chose Joshua to lead the people.

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And lead them he did in a breathtaking, for those of you who love to study military history, the breathtaking campaign of Joshua.

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Now, granted he had God, so right away, you know he's going to win, but the breathtaking campaign to take over most of Canaan at that time came to pass.

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It's Joshua 24, and he knows he's about to die. Joshua's 110 years old, and he knows he's about to die.

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And so he said, gather up all the leaders, all the judges, all the tribe elders, and meet me at Shechem, because I have something

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I've got to say. And so that's where we are today in Joshua chapter 24, and we're going to start in verse 13, and I'm going to pick this up in the middle of his speech, but refer back a few times.

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Joshua chapter 24 verse 13. God saying to the people of Israel, I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them.

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You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.

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Ladies and gentlemen, as a Christian, every day, now if you're a believer in here, how many of you are a believer in here, but you're on the struggle bus?

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You're really struggling with, okay, that's a lot. We've got to fix that. We've got to fix that junk today. Guys, it's okay to struggle, but you can't really live in defeat all the time.

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One of the things that is going to help you with that is a reoccurring revisiting of the grace that God gave you.

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Now, for those of you that are constantly living in fear and feeling like God doesn't love me anymore because I've messed up, or this, that, and the other, let me explain to you the type of grace

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Joshua was talking about. You see, from verse 2 all the way through verse 13,

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Joshua retells the history of Israel. In those 12 verses, he talks again and again about where God has brought you from, and where God has brought you to, not only through the trials and tribulations of the outside, but of your own failures.

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God's still going to bring you exactly where He wants you to be. You can have made so many mistakes, but I want you to hear this term.

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It is the sovereign grace of God. Notice 21 times, 21 times in verses 2 through 13, the singular identity of God is spoken.

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Man is not doing anything. Man is not doing anything. To illustrate this, look at verse 3.

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I'm going to read verse 3 to you. Now listen very carefully. Now we're talking at this point a thousand years has passed between Abraham and Joshua.

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Now listen to verse 3. God said, then I took your father

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Abraham from beyond the river, that's the Euphrates, and led him through the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many.

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I gave him Isaac. You see, I am a Christian today not because I quit drugs.

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I am a Christian today not because I needed something in my life to change.

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I am a Christian today because God took grace on me and changed me. I am the result of God's causality of grace.

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There is nothing in me that made me seek out God other than God.

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Some of you in this room are trying to find God through finding religion in churches.

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You think a relationship with God is having morals. My dear friends, that is the world's strategy that always leads to defeat.

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What you have to learn to rely on is the grace of God. You sit there today and say,

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Pastor, I am a believer. I really am, but I'm struggling and I'm failing. Change the

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I from you to God. God knows your struggles and He still died for you.

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God knows your failures, not of your past and your present, but the ones that are still yet to come.

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But as God's Word said this morning, God showed His love for us, and that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for us. That is sovereign grace. It is not earned.

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It is not kept by me. It is bestowed by God's grace. Guys, I want you to understand when it says,

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I brought Abraham out of Ur. Abraham was not attending First Baptist Church of Ur.

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He wasn't wearing a suit and tie. He didn't have a BMW Camel. He didn't have a 10 inch hair part and go to the biggest church or the biggest

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King James Bible. He was literally serving false gods.

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In fact, through culture and tradition in history, Terah, Abraham's father, was actually an idol maker.

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He actually made the idols that people served. And that's the guy God chose.

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God didn't choose the preacher or the pastor or the... God chose the most defiled person there was.

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You know why? Because it shows how sovereign His grace really is. When the world says,

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I can't, God says, I already have. So that's grace. But there comes a point where that grace must take root.

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That grace must get traction. And I think that's where most Christians struggle today.

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They want the Christianity because they want the forgiveness, but they don't want the sanctification that brings them through to fruition to live that grace -filled life.

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And unfortunately, folks, that's not how it works. You see, for me to experience, not have it bestowed, for me to enjoy and rest on the grace of God, there is an element called sanctification.

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And I'm going to explain to you what sanctification is. I'm going to make it really stupid, simple, so even

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Arkansas people can understand it. Verse 14. Now therefore, fear the

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Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

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Put away gods that your father served from beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the

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Lord. I'm going to give you three words for sanctification. Number one is submission.

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Number two is service, and number three is sacrifice. Let's talk about that first one.

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Submit. Man, that's a dirty word, ain't it? That's a dirty word today.

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It is. Watch this. Wives, you are to submit to your husbands. A couple of y 'all were like,

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I was with you up until that... Submit to the authorities in your church.

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That's Scripture. Submit to the government. You mean

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President Biden? I have to show respect? Yeah. According to Scripture, yes.

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I remember, I'll never forget this. I was at a pastor's conference, and a pastor was talking about President Obama and that he hopes

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Obama fails and that he's a loser and all that. And I remember sitting and thinking to myself, that's my president.

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I don't agree with 90 % of what he does, but I don't want him to fail.

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Why would you want your leader to fail if you're following him? What sense does that make?

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I want him to be absolutely successful, okay? I want him to win.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have developed a culture in the totally depraved nature of rebellion.

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We have made submission a bad word. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, if you want to experience the grace of God in its fullness, you must submit to the authorities over you.

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Now, there is good precedence. Why? Look at the first couple of words of verse 14. It says, now therefore.

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Now, what have I taught you when you see the word therefore in the Scripture? What goes before of it?

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Watch this. You need to submit. Well, why should you? Because I just spent 13 verses telling you how you screwed up every step of the way and I fixed it for the last 1 ,000 years.

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Ladies and gentlemen, we're not having blind faith. I hate that term in Christianity.

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There is no blind faith. I know there's a God because I look at creation and nobody can explain it other than what

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God has already said. I look at the life changes in my heart and the way my mind thinks and I know there is no other explanation.

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I was in a psychiatric care for 7 years. I've been to rehab. I've tried drugs, alcohol.

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I've tried codependent relationships. But who and what I am today is nothing more than by the grace of God and if He has brought me thus far, therefore

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I should continue to trust Him. Well, pastor, I'm scared to submit to that.

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Pastor, I'm scared to give that up. Therefore, look what He has done thus far and look where He wants to take you.

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It's not blind faith. Notice also it says this, fear the

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Lord. This is a big thing in submission. Now, there is a middle ground.

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It's hard to explain in English. It really is. Fear is not,

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I felt a little weird doing that like that, but you know, it's not that, but it is.

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It is. It's also not, I respect you, you respect me.

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Okay, cool, we're good buddies. Let's hug it out. It's in the middle of that. Now, I'm just going to tell you from my own personal life.

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I'm scared of God. I know we just got finished praising and, you know, it's like,

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I just want to hug His feet and I want to run around in Heaven and sit by the campfire and wait for a deer to walk by.

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I get all that. But, I go back to Scripture. Every time the presence of God showed up, the first thing people did 100 % of the time, no matter what culture, no matter what ethnicity, no matter what spiritual maturity level they were at, when the presence, the holy presence of God showed up, people fell face first on the ground because they were terrified.

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Let me tell you what terrifies you. Here's what terrifies me. There is a holiness of God that I cannot reach and I realize that I'm not acceptable unless I can reach that holiness and I have nothing to get me there save the blood of Jesus Christ.

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You see, the problem is I'm not in control and I have no way to manipulate the situation to get in control.

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Some of y 'all hear what I'm saying? I've heard wives say this. Yeah, he's going to be mad about it, but don't worry about it.

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I'll take care of it. By the way, women don't ever say that publicly about your husband, okay?

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Because you just punk him out. I've heard people say that. Yeah, I'll take care. What he means is you're going to get in somebody's ear, you're going to fix, twist, and word the situation a little bit so everybody will be cool.

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You can't do that with God. Your best five minutes as a Christian is still never going to be good enough.

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You're not good enough. Well, what do I do, pastor? Submit. You let go and let

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God. You stop trying to control the situation and basically say this,

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God, I surrender. I have nothing to offer. Take my life.

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Make me whole. Give me a peace that I can't find in my own works. And in that submission, you start to find freedom.

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Look at this. Serve. Look what it says in verse 14, Now therefore fear the Lord and serve.

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Ladies and gentlemen, lip service with no body service is a lie.

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It's a lie. Man, I don't know what you people took up here, but whatever it is, let's go buy some more.

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Because dude, I'd be jamming. Unzel, where were you on the dancing, man? I thought for sure you'd be out there doing your

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MC Hammer thing. I just hurt my knee. I'm 55.

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Let me go. Guys, the emotion and the joy that builds us up, the love, it's beautiful.

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And it's so important to strengthen us in our spiritual lives. But I tell you this, serving

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God makes you stronger. Well, pastor, how do I serve God? Think about it for a second.

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People always say serve God, serve God. Okay, coach, put me in. What do I do? What do I do? Where's the burning bush?

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Where's the tower of light? Where's the Mormon? Where's the Catholic? And that's how we get.

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We start seeing what we think is what God wants. You know how you serve God? It's real simple.

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God said it throughout His entire Word. You want to serve God? Serve His people. You don't have to have a license.

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You don't have to be ordained. You don't have to understand the structure of theology. You don't have to have all that.

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You just look out and see baby Justin, and you love him with all of your heart.

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You see him and what God has done in his life, and your heart with joy just over explodes. You love

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God's people, i .e. the church. And remember, a church isn't a stupid building.

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It's this right here. You want to understand sanctification, you've got to submit. But you've also got to serve

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His people. And then the last one on this point is this. You've got to sacrifice.

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It says put away the gods. How many gods do you serve?

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How many gods do you serve? Pastor, I don't serve. I don't have a little Buddha thing.

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Come on, man. You know. If you look at the first verse, it says, in sincerity and faithfulness.

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What's that word faithfulness means? It doesn't mean being right all the time. It means this.

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There's no hidden rooms in your heart that are private that no one else knows about. You've surrendered those to God as well.

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That secret sin, that hidden room that you got, you've surrendered that as well.

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See, that's faithfulness. Sincerity and faithfulness, you put away the gods.

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Not just the gods people can see. Not just the rails or the dubage or the bottle.

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You put away that hidden room of pride and of lust and self -service and selfishness and pride.

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Those things you sacrifice those gods as well. Last thing is this.

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It comes down to a choice. You got grace. You got sanctification.

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Let me explain to you a little bit about choice. Verse 15. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the

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Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.

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Whether the gods of your fathers served in this region beyond the river or the gods of the

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Amorite whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the

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Lord. It's really cool here. If you read this whole chapter, you actually have three different types of gods.

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Three different types. You have, going back to verse 2, you have the first of all, the

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God of heritage. The God of heritage. You know why Abraham served false gods?

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Because his daddy did. Because his daddy did. Ladies and gentlemen, you know one of the hardest gods to put down is our tradition and the incorrect teaching which we received in our formative years.

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That's one of the hardest things to put down. Because it's where our safety blanket, it's where our whoopee is.

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I know for me and one of the things that I always fight is my vulnerability. Because I grew up that if you were afraid, your next immediate reaction is to put your fist in somebody's face.

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Because that solves everything. Successively larger and heavier hammers solve all problems.

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Mechanically, physically, logically, it doesn't matter. Keyboard ain't working? Get a hammer.

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You know? Car ain't working? Hammer. And that's actually true if it's a starter. Get the bendix.

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But anyways, you know what I'm saying? Any problem I got, I just put my fist in.

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Some of y 'all will get that. Some of you won't. But anyways, guys, our heritage is one of the hardest things to put down.

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And let me say this to you. Part of that heritage is this. White power.

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I love doing that. Y 'all just don't understand. It's like I can collectively see everybody's butt go.

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Do you say that on the pulpit? White power. No, is that,

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Unzel, is that bad? Okay, thanks, buddy. Black lives matter, man. Brown pride.

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Man, you ain't brown? What you putting your thumb at? Unzel's like going, yeah, brown pride. Wrong way, brother.

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Guys. See, collectively, y 'all are sitting there going, where is he going with this?

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You know what you're serving? You're serving the lives that this culture is pumping out. You're believing bull crap.

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You really are. There's no culture or heritage in this world except this.

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The people of God and the people who are not of God. That's it. I'm sorry, that's the only two kinds of people there is.

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You can subgroup as much as you want until you find an identity and something to serve.

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But see, that's the problem. You're serving a false God. Well, I identify as a half -Italian, half -Irish, half -English, white, heterosexual, 55 -year -old hunter.

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That's my demographic, baby. If you don't like it, well, screw you. And I'm angry.

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And I'm fired up. And I've been oppressed. What? What? What?

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It's like the reparation things today. That is an idol in which people are getting fired up over.

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Let me tell you something. None of y 'all have ever been slaves, and none of y 'all have ever owned one. I don't own nobody jack except the grace of Jesus Christ.

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That's what I own. But it's not my heritage, and it's not my identity.

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My identity is not a Baptist. My identity is not Italian -Irish. My identity is not

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American. My identity is not a male. My identity is a child of the living

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God, first and foremost. That is where I stand, that is where I live, and that is where I'm going to die.

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You say, well, Pastor, that's not where I'm at. Sanctify yourself. Mature yourself.

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Start getting a biblical worldview instead of the narrow, myopic, heathen, humanistic worldview.

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You see, you've got a choice to make today. Which God are you going to serve? Do you think

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God is really up there, and he's a white guy? Do you think God is a black guy?

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I mean, I've actually had pastors argue with me when it says his hair was like wool, so he's black.

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Man, you ain't seen a whole lot of white folk with that curly hair. Look at Carrie. If curly hair was black, then sister, you black, right?

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Look at Charquita. Well, you got African in you, don't you? She does.

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She really does. What's her name? Charquita. So right away. Guys, what

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God? Look at me. I'm being serious. What God are you going to serve?

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Why are you identifying yourself as a Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative?

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That's ridiculous. It's because those things, ideology, have more importance to you than the holiness of the living

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God. And yet you cannot fathom why you can't mature in your faith. Ladies and gentlemen, are you really going to let lies and hate dictate you the rest of your life?

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If you do, listen to me, go ahead and start scheduling appointments for your kids in my office.

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Because they're going to grow up and be just like it. Well, Pastor, I don't agree with you. Okay. Okay, that's cool.

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You don't have to. You will in about 15 years. You will. Because you have believed the lies coming out.

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It's not just heritage. Look at this. It's also bondage. Look at 2414, that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt.

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Let me tell you another God you can serve. You can serve the God of bondage.

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What does that mean, Pastor? It means this. You believe the lies that you have spun, and you've spun them so much you actually believe them to be true.

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I didn't get one amen, so maybe you didn't understand. Let me explain it to you. How many of y 'all are a victim?

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Remember, I've been here 20 years. I've heard your war stories. Oh, Pastor, you just don't understand.

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I would serve, but my daddy abused me. Oh, Pastor, I've been wounded in church.

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I really wish I'd get Melanie up here with her violin to start playing you a little tune. Okay? Pastor, you're making light of something that's serious.

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Yeah, I am. Because you have elevated it to a place where it's your identity.

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When your identity, what you serve becomes your identity. And when your victimization and your past wounds become your identity, you are serving the gods of Egypt.

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You are sitting there and looking, and I see born -again Christians doing it all the time. Guys, I don't tell a lot about my testimony up here.

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I don't. Because here's what it'll turn into. And Robert, we were talking about this in a certain group.

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War stories, even war stories before God's grace start becoming the main point instead of the grace.

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You understand what I'm saying? How many of y 'all in here have smoked weed? Raise your hand. Y 'all are a dope -head church, man.

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Good God! Twisting the fatty for Jesus! Amen! Have you ever realized that there are some people who have smoked weed, but you listen to them tell the story about it, and they're like, you know, what was that guy in Columbia?

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Yeah! They're like, Pablo Escobar! Man, I was selling bricks! I had a guy here who was wanting to be a deacon.

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He was like, man, I'll sell bills! Yeah. Cool. I guess.

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Is that supposed to impress me? I tell my boys when they were younger,

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I told them this every time, there's going to be a group of people who are going to elevate themselves socially in the idea that they had a harder life, and you just don't understand.

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Come here. As someone who grew up in government housing, come here. It's bullcrap. Okay? It's all bullcrap.

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Okay? Listen to me. You are creating a narrative, and you are creating an image because you are scared to death or you are insecure and want people to respect you for crap you have not earned yet.

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You want to earn respect? It's real simple. Serve God. Serve God.

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Guys, don't make a God of bondage your God. And if you've been in church, and you've been wounded, welcome to the party.

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Welcome to the party. Now, I will give you special attention when that wound equals that cross.

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When your flesh is dripping in ribbons, and I can see your rib cage from people spitting on you, beating you, and whipping you, and then hear you say,

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Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Then you'll get my respect on that.

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Other than that, serve God, and you'll get the respect. Some of y 'all are struggling with things in your home right now.

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And you are a defeated, wounded individual. You can't see past the hurt and the pain to see the grace of God that's already on the way working.

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Right? You don't see it. Your worship goes down. Everything falls apart because you are so focused on the pain rather than the

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Deliverer. Guys, listen to me. Not only is an open grave and Sunday on the way, it's already here.

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Submit and trust. One last God. It says this in verse 15. And the

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God of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. I have a sister -in -law who says this to me all the time.

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Jeff, you are rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.

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And I say to her, yeah, I guess

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I am socially unacceptable. I mean, I'm not really rude. I can be crude sometimes.

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But I am really socially unacceptable. To be honest with you, I like being socially unacceptable.

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You know why? Because society can't tell a boy from a girl.

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I mean, right away, that's not a group of people I want to hang around and discuss Greek philosophy with.

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You know? The society that I see today, the culture that I see today, wants division among God's people.

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They want to elevate sin to greatness. I was doing the Facebook thing.

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You know where you can push the videos and just go through? Anyways, there was this one, this kid, he was about 20 -something years old.

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His face looked like a McNally -Rand map. It was 18 ,000 colors and all this stuff, and he had tattoos like everywhere.

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And he had gold rings and diamond watches, and he literally was carrying stacks of money like this.

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And I was like, who is this idiot? And he sits there and he goes, he had a watch, and he goes, that's a house right there.

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That's a house right there. It was funny, he had like six watches on going, that's a house. I'm like, really?

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I don't know who he is. I don't even know his name. Do you all know who I'm talking about? Sound like a what?

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An island boy? I don't know what that is, but I'll tell you what he is.

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He's a guy who was not raised properly who has massive insecurities.

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Massive. But that's not a shocker to anyone. Come here, watch this. His end, 100 % guaranteed, is destruction.

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100%. 100%. Well, pastor, you don't know if he's going to end up in jail. Jail ain't destruction.

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I ain't talking about that kind of destruction. I'm talking about this. He is going to die a lonely, broken individual.

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And here's what he's going to have to face. His life was a waste.

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How many of you in this room know who Rock Hudson is? Raise your hand. Okay. How many of you know who

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Drew Barrymore is? Okay. How many of y 'all know her father? Why not?

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He was the greatest. How many of y 'all know who Cecil B. DeMille was? It's funny, man.

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As the generations continue, these people have statues and hospitals named after him.

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How many of y 'all know Brother Tanksley? No, you don't.

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No, you don't. His name, his name, listen, his name is on this building.

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His name, if you walk out the door and turn right, there's a big plaque with his name on it.

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You don't even know who he is. Let me tell you something. The God of this culture says to worship yourself.

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Worship yourself. Be true to yourself. Love yourself. Accept yourself.

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I'm telling you, all of that is a lie. The God of this culture is leading you to destruction.

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You're going to have horrible relationships, you're going to have horrible kids, and you're going to have horrible life.

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Because you know at the end of the Tootsie Roll Pop, when you keep looking inside of you, all you keep finding is filth.

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And you're trying to convince everyone, but it ain't working. Guys, you need to make a choice to serve something other than yourself.

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And the last thing is this. You need to have some commitment, and you need to have some consistency.

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You know what choice is? It's this. Look at what Joshua says. Says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the

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Lord. Now men, I want you to hear this real quick. Just for a second. He says, but for me and my house.

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That's a bold statement, ain't it? That's a pretty bold statement. Me and Gwen are going to go out to dinner tomorrow night.

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I haven't asked her, but we're going out to dinner tomorrow night. Now, watch this.

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Some of y 'all are giggling because you're like, you know, that wouldn't work. I guarantee you I could say, Gwen, whatever you got planned tomorrow, cancel it.

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We're going out to dinner. She would say, okay. Fathers, listen to me.

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If you have your rear end in church, there is a 93 % chance your child will grow up better than not.

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93%. And it's not because of the church. It's because you're leading to righteousness.

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93 % chance. Oh, hold on. Follow the science. 93%.

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He said this, but as for me and my house, I ain't taking a poll.

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I'm not taking a vote. I'm telling you, it's the guy whose hand is on the rudder. We're going that way.

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Well, I don't want to go that way. Jump overboard because this ship's going that way. That is the kind of decisive leadership, the choice that you have got to make.

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And it's hard, buddy. It's hard. It's hard, especially when your wife is crazy.

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Well, let me let you in on a secret. They all are, okay? It's also hard when you're stupid.

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Well, guess what? All men are, okay? It ain't a shocker to anybody. If you want to know what it is to live in that Christian life, you've got to see the grace every day.

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You've got to sanctify every day. And you've got to make a choice every day.

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But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. In the

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Hebrew, it's better than in the English. In the English, it sounds futuristic. But in the

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Hebrew, it actually says this. It should say this. As for me and my house, we have served the

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Lord, and we will continue to serve the Lord no matter what. And I want you to know that little dot at the end of the

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Lord is a period, which means it's the end of the sentence and the end of the thought. It's not Lord and country.

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It's not Lord and church. It's not Lord and pastor. As for me and my house, we will serve the

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Lord. Where are you today? We're about to have an invitation. And I'm going to ask you this right now.

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What choices do you have to make for the Lord? For some of you, you need to make the choice of salvation.

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You have never, ever truly been a Christian. You've been in church. You've had some warm fuzzies.

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You may have even prayed Jesus Christ into your heart. That's not Christianity.

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That prayer is found nowhere in Scripture. Jesus is not a Labrador retriever. You go, come here.

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Come on. Come in my heart and save me. Okay? That's not Scripture.

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You see, He's Lord. That means you go to Him and submit. You bow your knee.

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You tongue your confess that He is Lord. If you're not sure whether you're a Christian, choose today to find out.

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Come down forward. Talk to a pastor. We ain't going to talk to you about the church. We're going to talk to you about Scripture.

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Maybe your choice today is hey, I need some accountability in the choices that I'm making.

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I need someone to help me along. Maybe you need to come down here and join the church. Now, if you want to join this one, that means you've got to go to work.

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We don't, and I know this is going to sound weird, but hang with me. We don't want you if you're just going to sit in a pew.

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You're welcome to come, hang out, be cool, whatever, but don't join if you ain't willing to work.

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We're not interested in growing numbers. We're interested in growing a family. Hear what I'm saying? Our family works like Hebrew slaves.

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We cut the straw for our own bricks. Okay? Maybe the last thing is this.

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Pastor, I am a Christian. I just need someone to help me choose on a daily basis how to make better decisions.

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I got a whole room of Christians just for you. I'm going to ask you, is there a choice you need to make for Jesus this morning?

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I'm going to ask you to stand, and if God has spoken to you today as the pastors come front, if God has spoken to you today, you come this morning as God leads.