The Choice is Yours

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The only fish that go with the flow are the dead ones.

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Don't go with the flow.

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We are designed to be witnesses, which means we are in the world, but not of the world. What a wonderful book it's been, right? Just a lot of encouragement, a lot of challenge, and it kind of makes you like, yeah, I'm gonna move forward now, right? I don't know.

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It did for me.

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So this week, I want to start this way.

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So how many of you heard the saying that you are like the five people you hang out with, right? The five top people?

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Yeah.

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So there's that saying that the five people that we hang out with the most, we inevitably kind of look like or act like or whatever, right? We are influenced by them inevitably. This is something we talk about a lot in our house, because we're concerned about who our kids are putting around them, who are they becoming like, which is hard for like our son, because he's at a school where there's two kids in his class.

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So, he doesn't even have five influencers. He has two.

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No.

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But fortunately, they're good kids.

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But that is something that we really stress a lot in our house. One commentator put it this way, righteousness requires personal initiative, toleration becomes socialization, and socialization breeds assimilation.

Angela Raber (1:52)

So you become like the people you are surrounded by.

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We are designed to be witnesses, which means we are in the world, but not of the world.

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We are called to be holy. And do you know what that means?

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Set apart.

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Separate.

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And that can be a really hard call or a distinguisher to live out.

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Because it is not easy to be set apart. It is much easier to assimilate, right?

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But God hasn't called us to assimilate.

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One of them said that the only fish that go with the flow are the dead ones.

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So something to think about. Don't go with the flow.

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This week, we get to see the final acts of a great leader.

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We get to see Joshua get up at 110 years old, still going strong, zest and seal, but he knows that he's on his way out. He knows that he's got to be coming to the end. And so he leaves the people with some challenges.

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And he encourages, he warns, and he challenges.

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But above all of it, he edifies.

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And he gives glory to God.

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And isn't that cool? Because here he is, he's challenging, he's telling them about the battles, he's telling them all of this stuff, and he is edifying them.

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He's lifting them up and saying, come on, you are going to choose and choose who you're going to serve today. And then he's like, but all of this was done by God.

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He didn't take any of the credit.

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He's a great leader, a great role model for us to follow.

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In the world, not of the world.

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Choose this day who you will serve.

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That's what we're going to talk about today.

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So let's pray.

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Jehovahly Father, we just thank you so much. We thank you that when we pray and we seek you out and we say, Lord, you put the people in our path who we should be around so that not only can we be a witness, but also so that we can be influenced by people who love and seek after you.

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Lord, you do. You guide us.

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You walk us through.

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It doesn't mean we're without struggle, Lord, but it does mean we are in your will.

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So Lord, I just thank you for your words today.

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I pray that they are yours and not mine.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit moves and shows us exactly what you would want us to hear from this word.

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Amen.

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So, he encourages.

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In chapter 22, he's talking to the people that are going back over to the other side of the Jordan, right?

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It's been seven years.

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They have got to be ready, right?

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They are ready to go home.

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I mean, they want to put their feet up.