All right, guys. Hey, welcome to Mercy Hill Cross, all of our locations. Without further ado, I want us to celebrate this together, church. We challenged the church to give $2 million for the sake of our funding of the vision for 2026. You guys know we fund the vision in two ways: not one, it's the multiply offering at the end of the year, plus just the rank and file every day, month in and month out, giving throughout the year.
We challenge the church to give $2 million. Church, you gave $2.9 million. Can we praise God for that? In one month. And I praise God.
Hey, if you were able to give to that offering, or maybe you're new and you're like, hey, I'm going to jump in right now and just kind of get part of that month in, month out, automate my giving, give God my first fruits. We're going to see the Lord do some things this year in terms of fortifying the families and getting people ready for family life, our single, our awesome single people and college students, getting them ready for family life. Man, we're going to see God do some incredible things this year, and it's going to be in part because we gave like that. That seems like what I've seen throughout all my years at Mercy Hill is that when the church goes forth in their generosity and opens their hands, say, God, use us, use what we have. It just seems like He's faithful to do it.
And so we praise God for that. Hey, two groups of people made this happen, not one. All right, number one, some of you guys are veteran, long-term Mercy Hill folks. I mean, like, you've been here for years, maybe even over a decade, and you get it. You've seen it over and over.
It's like, man, we stretch in generosity, and the Lord does incredible things. And you gave like crazy. But there's another group of people, and that is people that are newer. Maybe last year was your first year with us, kind of on the ride. And it was in the month of December through the multiply offering.
Well, over 200 families jumped off the sideline and onto the front line in terms of their giving. And man, it's both of those groups coming together that propels the mission forward. And so, man, I couldn't be more excited about where we are, couldn't be more excited about what God is going to do this year. And I know you guys are as well. All right.
Hey, we're going to be in Joshua 24 today as we talk about making a commitment, having a moment, y'all. All right, I mean, I'm talking about an inflection point, nailing some things down right at the beginning of the year. I want to tell you right where we're going from the outset. Joshua 24:15 says, Choose you this day whom you will serve. If it's the gods of the Amorites and across the river, fine.
But if it's the Lord our God, then serve him. And what I want to call our church to is a moment of commitment today. To say, hey, our 2026 is gonna be about our service to the Lord. That's what it's gonna be. For some of you, you're like, well, I'm already there, man.
Like, I'm a Christian. I'm living the thing. I'm trying to do the best that I can do and raising my family. And actually, hey, I'm with you on that. I think maybe the majority of people, not everybody, but a lot of us are there.
But there's this idea in scripture of a recommitment, of a re-covenanting, right? Like, I know for me in the first service, I had my whole family, you know, down front praying over them, like just giving this year to the Lord. We're already trying to do that, but let's mark a moment together, right? Where we say this is what it's going to be. But for others of us, man, it's time to make the decision.
You've been flirting long enough, all right? It's time to commit with where you're going to be. I don't know about you guys, there have been times in my life that I'm incredibly decisive, times in my life that I'm not. But here's what I've learned, and you probably understand this from your work or from school or from being on a team or your kids are on a team. coaches, whatever.
I don't know that there's anything more frustrating in the world than somebody who can't make a decision. You know what I'm saying? And here's the problem: we're all that person at some point in our life, right? I know I have been. I've been very decisive at times.
I've told you guys before that me and Anna kind of met young, started dating, 20 years old, sophomore in college. We did it for four months. I was like, man, this is it. I called my dad. I said, Dad, I want to get your advice.
I'm thinking I'm going to ask Anna to marry me. He said, what do you think she'll say? I was like, well, I think she'll say yes. He's like, really? You think she'll say yes?
I'm like, thanks for the confidence, dad.
Okay. Yeah, I think she'll say yes. Hey, eight months after that, or seven or eight months after that, we were already married. And so, you know, it was like, hey, Matt, I realized very quickly you're batting out of your league. And before she figures out what's going on, you better put a ring on it, lock it down, right?
And so that's kind of where, very decisive. There's been other times in my life when I was the opposite of that, y'all. You've been there, right? Where it's, I remember for me and Anna, I don't know how she stuck with me through this whole thing. The idea of coming to plant a church in Greensboro, North Carolina, I cannot tell you.
I wavered. I waffled. It was, we were looking at every city in North Carolina. Then I would be like, no, we're going overseas to the mission field. No, we're going to just go pastor to church.
No, I'm going to get a degree and we're going to teach. I mean, it was everything. She just stuck with me through all that. But it was so much back and forth, back and forth. Even when we decided to land on planting a church, I could not figure out where.
You know, I took her and Hattie Joe to Asheville to look, we're going to plant a church in Asheville. Realize real fast, you're not cool enough to plant a church in Asheville.
Okay, then I. I go to Fayetteville. You're not crazy enough to plan a church in Fayetteville, okay? It was like we're going all over the place, and it was just, you know, we finally landed, but y'all, it was just back and forth, back and forth. There's times when I've exhibited, I think, maturity in making a decision decisively.
There's times, incredible immaturity. And here's the problem. Many times we will mask that immaturity and we'll cloak it in wisdom.
Well, I need more information. I'm just thinking about it more. I'm just, and here's the thing: there comes a time when actually we're cloaking something in wisdom that is just flat-out immaturity. We need to make a call. Like Joshua, here's what I want to do: I want to galvanize our church today.
Second weekend, 2026, let's make a decision. You don't need any more facts. You need fortitude now.
Now we need courage.
Now we need to decide. This is what our year is going to be about. And the things that need to change, because we've made the commitment, let's let them change. Here's the big idea: God offers our families a choice to follow him or not. Not making a choice is a choice.
All right, we need to choose this year. We're going to follow him. No waffling. We don't need more facts. We don't need to think about it any longer.
What is your year going to be about? What is your family going to be about? Let's recommit or commit for the first time for 2026.
Now, let's build this out, all right? Because it doesn't just all of a sudden pop up, make a decision for the Lord. First, we're going to fear him. We're going to see that we're called to serve him. All right, we're going to see that we're called to put idols away, and then we can make a decision about following him this year in 2026.
Verse 14: Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt. And serve the Lord, Joshua says.
Now, Joshua's an old man by this point, but he's rallying that commander, that football coach inside of him. And he is galvanizing the people. Make a decision. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And that's the verse. You see it on bumper stickers, you see it on coffee mugs, and I'm fine with that, okay? It's a reminder: as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Now, I might be dropping you into the book of Joshua, and you're like, man, I have not been studying this and all that, and I get it. We're going to build some of the background out. I have my third child, Beniah, me and him have been reading through Joshua at night before he goes to bed.
So I've been kind of in this mode a little bit. But when you come to the end of the book of Joshua, what you've got to know is that they're starting to settle in to the victories that God has given them.
Okay? Joshua's old by this point. We don't know how long, but they've kind of been victorious in their wars for years. And now it's finally time for them to sort of settle in. And live the life on the other side of sort of the conquest.
Now, they still have some conquests to do, but by and large, they're kind of on the other side of some of those things. And so Joshua starts in verse 14, and this is what he says: fear the Lord and serve him.
Now, some of us that are newer, some of us at our campuses, maybe some college students from High Point or Clifton Road are here today, starting to trickle back in. I met some baseball players from High Point University earlier today, so I know they're starting to come back in. All right, maybe you're thinking, well, I'm new to this thing. Fearing God doesn't seem like what I thought it was going to be. Like, I thought it was going to be like, love God, serve God, enjoy God, live for God, which are all good and they're all true.
But it starts with fearing the Lord.
Now, let me try to give you biblically what fearing the Lord means. The fear of God, fearing God is a beholding Him with reverential awe. That's what it really means. It is a beholding of God. It is placing God in the proper place in our psyche, hearts, minds, soul.
It is putting Him where He should be in our life. It is seeing him as number one. The fear of the Lord is the awesome reverence that comes from understanding who He is. Maybe you stood before the ocean. And it's beautiful, and you love it, and you want to interact with it, and it draws you in.
And at the same time, you understand there is nothing more powerful or destructive, even that could happen than that ocean overspill its banks. There is strength and power like nothing else in the world in that ocean. That's fear. All right, it's not that that's not like runaway fear. It's reverential awe.
You know, I think about the fear of the Lord as an ability to, you know, there's a reason the Bible says the fearing of God, to fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Why? Because when you fear God properly, you put him in the right place, everything else can then begin to take place and come together in your life. C.S. Lewis, in a paraphrase, kind of said it like this: God's a little bit like the Son.
It's not just that you see him, but you see everything else because of him. It's the light that is shed on everything else. That's how the fear of God is. It puts him in his proper place. I think about the fear of God in the same way that I think about the fear that a children have for a father.
Now, some of you, you don't come from a home where there was, man, you know, there was mom, dad, and there was the fear of the Lord in the home. And it was brokenness and crazy and. Praise God for many of you. I know your story. Instead of becoming a victim because of that background, that's some of your motivation to get it right now.
Right, to say, I didn't have this, so I'm going to build this for my kids and praise God for that type of resilience. But you might be where you did have that. Maybe you were a little fearful of your father. The fear of a father is something like this: Man, I love him, I want his company, I can't wait till he gets home in the afternoon, but at the same time, I know he's the one that'll bless my tail. If I need it, right?
I mean, I know that he's, the Bible says, spare the rod, not spoil the child, hate your child, is what it says, actually. If you're not willing to discipline, I know, listen, the in-vogue thing right now, young millennials, okay, Gen Z make a real big deal out of, oh, no, no, we would never spank our kids. Trust me, we can all tell.
Okay, we can tell. All right. So what we need to do is get back to more of a biblical understanding of, hey, we don't spare the rod because we love these kids. And part of disciplining them is instilling in them the fear of a father that will frame for them the fear of God. Here's the proper fear of a father.
I understand that there is a strength and an intensity and that he doesn't spare the rod. That makes me a little bit afraid. At the same time, for a child, if they are facing anything else in life that they are actually afraid of, who do they want to be right beside them? Right? Who do they want out of everybody in the world who's the one person they would choose in a fearful situation?
That's kind of getting at the fear of the Lord.
Now, the fear of the Lord sets us up to do what we were created to do, and that is to serve him. I see him for who he is, and it creates a sincere and honest service in my life. That's what we're calling you to in 2026. Look at verse 14.
Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness. This is not the begrudging service of a slave. This is the sincere and faithful service of a son. This is the idea, serving in honesty and truth. Serving from a heart that wants to, not a heart that is pressured into having to.
Now, some of you might say, Well, how do you end up end up? I, you know, I understand God makes me serve, you know, serve me. I get that. What I don't know is how does He make me want to serve Him? And that's where the gospel comes in.
That's where the victories of the Lord come in. That's where what God has done for us comes in, and it wins us. It warms us to what he wants in our life. You can say it like this: the gospel produces sincere and faithful service.
Some of you are so new, you're like, wait a minute, I don't know what the gospel is. The gospel is that one day there would be a greater Joshua. And he wouldn't just lead us to Canaan land, as Joshua did here, but he would lead us into heaven itself. Not because of what we did, but because of what he did. He loved us enough to die for us on the cross and cancel our penalty before God.
And in his resurrection, he offers us the newness of life. And he says, come and walk with me. Joshua wasn't him. David wasn't him. The kings that came after weren't him.
They were all pointing to the one that would do that, and that's Jesus. See, when we begin to see. What God has done for us, it warms our hearts. It begins to make us want him. Have you ever thought about your desires?
I think about this. My kids play sports, right? I like baseball, but I love football. All right, and somebody says, why? I have no idea.
I have no clue. Why do you like one and love the other? I have no idea. I like baseball enough to play rec ball. When my boys said, hey, I don't want to play travel baseball anymore, I thought, hallelujah, okay?
Weekend all day, all day, baseball all day. Like, I like it, I don't love it. All right, I could probably do football like that, but not baseball. Why? I have no idea.
It's just something in my wiring. Yet there are other things in my life that if I want to get to, if I say to myself, hey, I want to get to want this, or I want to be affected by this, or I want to become warmed to it. If I behold it long enough, if I get into it long enough, my heart and affection can begin to change. Have you ever done this for your spouse? Maybe they're into something that you're not really into, but you want to be into that with them.
What do you do? You start trying to find the good in it. You start getting around it more. You start becoming warmed to it. What we behold long enough, we end up sort of becoming.
And so here's what happens. If you're like, well, how do I get a heart posture that wants to serve God and wants to serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness? Then put ourselves before the gospel and see what God has done. The people in Israel, think about it like this: God, you brought us out of Egypt. You crossed the Red Sea, you parted the sea, you give us riches, you give us victory, you tabernacle among us.
If you sit in that, you behold it, your heart begins to be warmed to it. You begin to want to serve in sincerity and faithfulness. What about us? The thing is, all of those things are true in our story as well because we're kind of an extension of them. But also, God sent his son to die for us on the cross.
It warms our heart. I want you to think about it like this. There's really only two ways humans change when it comes to faith or religion or however you want to say it. All right. There's two ways.
One is fear-based. One is love-based. In fear, I want you to think about a metal bar. If I take a metal bar and I say, man, I gotta bend this thing into a circle, okay? Here's what you can do: there's only two ways to do it.
You can take all of the pressure that you can mount on that metal bar and you can bend it as hard as you can.
Now, many churches do that. Many religions do that.
Some churches do it with the Bible.
Some churches do it with the Quran.
Okay, some people do it with different things. It's works-based. Here's the idea: if you can do the right thing, do the rules, don't mess up. Be afraid enough of God that He's gonna kick you out of the family. Be so scared of hell that you just have to do the right thing.
It'll put so much pressure on you that for a while you might bend into that form of godliness, might change your behavior for a while. Of course, the problem is, if you ever take that pressure off, what happens? The metal bar just snaps right back to where it was because there was no heart change. Or one day, and some of you sadly have probably seen this. You get in a church situation with enough fear, shame, guilt, rules.
Man, beat you down, beat you down, beat you down.
Sometimes you've had friends like this, man, you've been that bar long enough and it just snaps. You ever had somebody that was trying to do the thing, trying to do the thing, and then one day they were just like, I'm out. I'm done. not doing this anymore. They can't live under that kind of pressure.
That's one way. We call it the religious way, okay? There's a gospel way that God would get your heart in a place to serve in sincerity and faithfulness, Joshua. 2414. And here it is.
If you heat that metal bar up, And you introduce a new element of heat. All of a sudden that thing will become malleable. You could bend it into a pretzel. You can bend it right into sincerity and faithfulness without pressure at all. The heat that we need is the Holy Spirit of God reminding us of how good God has been to us in the gospel.
And when he reminds us of that, it warms our heart. We become what we are beholding.
So think about it. Joshua is telling the people: don't just fear the Lord, but fear the Lord in a way that flows into sincerity and faithfulness in our service to him. But we'll never do that if we're not worshiping him rightly. And so he says: put away the gods that your fathers serve beyond the river. And in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river, that's the old gods, okay? Or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell now, that's the new gods. All right, there listen, there are ways that different generations idolize things, and there are ways that new generations idolize things. Whether it's old idols or new idols, if we're worshiping something that isn't God, it is an idol in our life.
You know, the boomer generation, the thing was work hard, get ahead, be a company man, provide for your family, status. It came to us from being seen as respectable and working hard. It was putting in the hours, right? That was sort of the boomer generation. Success came by hard work, hours, rise up in the company.
Now, in the millennial generation, it's all defined. Your success is defined by how free you can be with your time. Like I have been so good at business that I have bought my time back. We idolized the idea of a four-hour work week.
Okay, it was a whole book that went wild, right? Here's my point. Whether it's an old idol of be a company man or whether it's a new idol of be able to be totally free with your time and nobody's, you know, nobody's holding you down, whatever it is in our life, if it becomes number one, the thing that we are searching for and seeking as if it's God and believing will give us ultimate fulfillment and identity. These are things that only God can give us. They have become an idol in our life.
If you want a quick way of thinking about idolatry, think about it like this. Anything that moves God out of number one. And takes his place, that's an idol.
Sometimes you go to different parts of the country, statues, sacrifice, man, you know, crazy ceremonies, those are idols.
Sometimes in our culture, that's not what it looks like, but it's the same idea. I want you to think about the frat guy who all he can think about is the party. All he can think about is the women. All he can think about is the alcohol. All he can think about is being dumb with buddies.
All he can think about is late nights. And that's all he is into. Can't do school because he's thinking about the night. Can't do work because all of his money, or can't save any money because all of his money is going to alcohol and the party. Everything in his life is about that next experience.
I'm going to tell you, he may not have a statue of a beer bottle that he's burning incense to. But he has an idol in his life, right? Because there's something that has taken God's place in his heart. And this is the shocking thing.
Some of you are gonna be shocked by this. Man, if you haven't been around a church like Mercy Hill, the one thing I pray. That you'll say about our church is they shot it straight. They said it exactly the way the word says it. I hope that's true of us.
And it's a little bit shocking, what I'm going to say, right in line with Joshua. Here's what he says. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Do you know what he's saying?
If the bottom of your heart Is I want the idols of this world, which St. Augustine said pretty much always go back to money, sex, or power. If I want the idols of this world, if Joshua was standing here today and I'm going to do it too, he would say, then go after it. No charade. Why pretend as if that's not true?
If something in money, sex, and power is the thing that you want in the bottom of your heart, then chase it to your heart's content. There's no sense in putting on a charade. There's no sense in acting as if you really want godliness. If you actually don't, if these are the things that you want, then go for it. There's no point in putting on a show.
Now, I'm gonna be honest with you. They're going to fail you. They're going to run away from you. One day, whether in this life or the next, they will leave you unfulfilled and they will take you to a place called hell for all eternity. But if that's what you want, then quit putting on the show.
There's no point. He says, if it's evil to serve the Lord. He was saying, hey, one of these things, think about it like this. Joshua was saying, for me, I'm gonna serve the Lord. Serving all those gods, evil to me.
But if for you, Serving all those gods is good, and serving Yahweh is evil, then hey, you know what? Let it be that way for you. Make a decision. It's pretty much the same thing that Elijah's gonna do on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. What's he gonna say?
How long will you waver between two opinions? Make a call. But if, on the other hand, like Joshua, you want a little bit of that, I love it, man. You're talking about a guy in the fourth quarter. He's done a lot in his life, but he still has the unction from the spirit and the strength of character and backbone to say, man, the truth is, it don't matter to me what none of y'all do.
Because I know what we're going to do. For me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. And that might be where you are today. Even if it does, listen, you're like, man, I keep falling over myself. I'm stumbling.
You don't know what my last week looked like, my last night. But what I want. or even what I want to want. Is that this would be true? That 2026 would be a year that we serve the Lord.
If you want the idols of this life, then chase them. But if you want something else, like Joshua, if you would say today, man, I want to be part of a family and a church family that are bold in their faith. I want to be part of a family and a church family that doesn't play it safe and doesn't care what the culture thinks about things, even if they're wrong. We're going to call it straight. We're going to call it what it is and shoot it straight.
I want to be part of a church and a family that's on a mission, that's fervent for worship, that are truth tellers and family builders, that are set apart, focused, and raise kids to be arrows and don't believe the lie of the world that they are inconveniences. I want to raise a family that is strong in heart, but also soft towards the world. All of these things. If you want that. Then don't sit on the fence.
Instead, chase that. Here's the application for this weekend. It's as clear as day. Choose this day to serve the Lord. Choose today, 2026.
Man, we are going to serve the Lord. For some, y'all, this is a first-time decision. It's like, man, you're not even a believer. It's time to nail that down today at the beginning of this year. Admit your sin, believe in what Christ has done, confess him as the Lord of your life.
He will save you and then put you in a position to be able to say, Hey, for me and my house, right? For others, I pray that I'm in this camp. It's like, man, don't get it perfect, don't get me wrong, but trying. Want it? Want to serve God?
Okay, well, then this is a day of recommitment for us. This is the day to give 2026 to the Lord.
Some of you are so new, you're like, man, I don't even know how to do that. I don't have the eloquence of words. I don't have the prayers like you guys have. No, no, no, no, no. This is it.
It's as simple as you, as an individual, coming down, if that's where you're at. Or, guys, you bring your family down or your wife down and you pray over her and you stumble through it and you say something like this: God, we want 2026 to be a year that serves you. We want to be living for you this year. It ain't got to be eloquent. Man, it's this idea of nailing something down and saying we're making a commitment that this year is going to be different.
because we are committing to you. And everybody has to choose, man. I think about Joshua. I bet Joshua would have chosen for the people if he could, but he couldn't. Every generation has to choose, man.
And that generation did choose to follow the Lord. But the generation after them, and the generation after them. You know, you read the book of Joshua, and then what happens? You get to the book of Judges. You know what happens with the book of Judges?
This phrase comes up over and over and over. The people did what was right in their own eyes. You know, it's like, hey, Josh, listen, Joshua was able to galvanize the people for a while. But he could not save them. These figures like Joshua and David and Hezekiah and different kings, and they're figures where the people reform, but they are not resurrected.
If you need one more piece of gospel-centered motivation today to commit your life. and to commit 2026 to the Lord. Here's what I would say. The book of Joshua, other figures like him, y'all, they lead us on a search until we find the one that Jesus, the one that God would send, the truer and better Joshua, Jesus Christ. Joshua could lead the people into Canaan, but he could never conquer sin.
Joshua could warn the people about the guilt of sin, but he could never remove it from them. He could not lead the sons into glory. But here's what we see in the scripture. There was one who came. A true and better Joshua, and he actually could.
You know why I can stand with confidence today, and I can call you to make your 2026 about a commitment and service to the Lord? Because this. Even when we fail in that in 2026 because of what Jesus has done, we don't get kicked out of the family. Man, God doesn't say, well, this is a big test for you. And if you can do this, then I'll accept you.
Oh, no. We have a greater motivation. See Jesus, the true and better Joshua. He defeated sin and death for us. That's not a fight.
That we've got to fight again. In terms of cosmically, Jesus has already done this for us. And if we trust what he did on the cross, and we trust what he did in the resurrection, and we admit and believe and confess, then you and I are part of the family of God now. And no matter what your 2026 looks like, you don't get kicked out. You're not going to get kicked out of the family once you're in.
Now you think, well, doesn't that provide us no motivation? Oh, no, it gives us the greatest motivation. The greatest motivation isn't the fear of getting kicked out. The greatest motivation is knowing we serve a loving Father who, even when we make mistakes, the blood of Jesus is applied to us, and we get to get up. and try it again.
We get to move further this year into the culture and identity of the new family, and that will grow us in a way that fear can never touch. For 2026, man, what is it going to be? Right? Hey, I told you, we're going to come down and pray. All of our campuses, if you're single, this is about you, me and my house.
It's really about you, but it's also about the future family that God might provide for you and how you're going to lead them and what kind of family it's going to be. Hey, for families, this is an opportunity for us to nail some things down. And guys, I know our church is not all made up of the picture-perfect, you know, mom, dad, two and a half kids, and all that. I know that, right? There's a lot of brokenness, there's a lot of people dealing with a lot of different things, but there are a lot of dads and husbands.
that are in the room right now, and I want to challenge you specifically, listen. When you say for me and my house, it will always and forever, because of the economy of God's kingdom and the way He has set it up, carry a different weight than if anybody else in your family says it.
Now, that's not popular in our culture. I fully understand it. Also, don't care. What the Bible tells us, guys. It is your responsibility to stand up and say, for me and my house.
Your wife and your kids are not responsible for you in the way that you are for them. I understand that our culture wants to say, hey, a marriage is a 50-50 partnership. And I get that in some sense. I understand what they're saying, but there is a level of responsibility that ain't 50-50 at all. You are called to be the head of that home, and that is a great responsibility.
Man, it is not bossing people around. It is not waiting on them to serve you. It is the exact opposite. You wear a crown. But like Jesus, it was a crown of thorns.
It's a crown of service. It's a crown of laying your life down. And what I want to challenge you to do is to say, hey, in laying my life down and serving this family, I will go first. in leading them. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
You want me to step on your toes? I'm going to step on your toes for a minute. You got them kids in your house, six, seven, eight years old. They're not quite old enough to remember, to understand how we're supposed to mask things in a Christian culture, not really supposed to, but we learn the game. Who's the one you ask them?
I want you to ask that seven-year-old in your family. What would you think? Buddy, if I wanted you to name the three things that this family is about. What are the number one, number two, number three thing that everything in our family revolves around? You see what they say.
What do we want him to say? They're seven years old something Bible Church, God, Jesus. Missions, worship, you know, we want them to say they're gonna stumble through it. That's what we want to come out. Sadly, right now.
If I said what are the top three things, man, for many of us in this room, as convicted to me as anybody else, what might come out of that little six and seven-year-old's mouth is daddy's job, the lake house. Uh my my sports. You know, daddy's hobbies. Fishing, hunting, golf, I could keep going. It's like, hey, there might be some other things that come out.
And here's what I want to tell you. That's not a reason to hang our head in shame so much as it is to decide today that's not going to be that way at the end of this year. It's going to be different at the end of this year. Man, we're going to make a decision right now. And then we're going to pray that the Lord will bless that.
Some of us are scared to make that decision because we know what it means. If you bring your family down and you say to them, hey, We're making this year about 2026. We're making it about serving the Lord. Then the next time we make a big call and we say, hey, are you gathering? Are you serving one and attending one?
And you're not, you're going to be like, oh. We made that commitment that we were going to jump all the way into the flywheel, gather groups, give go. See, for some of us saying it's real flowery, we're going to serve you this year, but get down to the brass tax. What does this actually mean? Gather groups, give, go.
You know, some of us right now are like, man, I don't really want to serve, and I don't want to serve 1 at 101 because little Johnny doesn't like to go to two services.
Well, listen, I'm going to tell you something about Little Johnny, okay? Little Johnny. Might be really served well by us making some decisions that make sure he understands that he's not the center of the whole universe. Right? Or little Johnny says, I don't really want to do that.
And you say, oh, that's fine because you don't have to want to. You just have to do it.
Okay. And by the end of this year, He's gonna look back and he's gonna say well man, even if I like it or not One of the top three things in our life is going up there to that church. And being around God's people. You understand what I'm getting at? Same is true with gathering, giving.
I think about gathering. Hey, this idea, look, this book right here, I want you to think about it like a ticket, okay? I want you to think about this. This book is your ticket to community group for this semester. You gotta have a ticket to get into anything.
You gotta have a ticket to get into Monster Jam, anything, okay? Hey, this is your ticket to group. Why? We're gonna study in group. If you listen, in a couple weeks, if you're in a group, everybody's gonna get one so they can study together if you're in a group.
But if you're not in a group, this is a day to make a commitment. I'm gonna walk out there to that tent. I'm gonna grab one of those books. I'm gonna sign up for a group. That's kind of what I'm talking about.
The commitment to say, man, we're all in. Breaks down. Gather, group, give, go. All right? Hey, now's the time for us to make our commitment together, and I pray that we'll do it.
Man, I just want to close by saying, hey, there's no room for us today to be sitting on the fence. All right, today we need to make a decision, just like what Joshua said: choose them or choose the Lord. Choose you this day whom you will serve. You know, there was a guy who had a dream one night, and the dream was. that he was in this field and he could see on one side of the field, man, it was.
God and His glory and His peace and His light. And it was this pasture that was lit up and it was beautiful and it was God. And God said, come and take your place in my glory. And the man knew that's what I should do. But on the other side, he looked and there was Darkness and fire, and there was a satanic figure, but that satanic figure.
He said, Hey man, come to me, and you will have all the pleasures of life. I can give you anything that you desire. Anything that you want. And the guy was like, man, I know I shouldn't go there. And I know I should go there, but that seems really fun.
But I know, and he was so confused, and he was so undecisive. And he looks up and he sees a fence. that's separating the darkness from the light, from God from Satan. And he outsmarts them both, right? And he says, oh, here's what I'm gonna do.
And he runs up to the fence and he jumps on top of the fence and he says, Man, I choose neither one. I'll begin to dabble in both. I'll stay right here. And waver between these two opinions. And the second he did that, everything went dark.
And he was falling and he was falling until he lands hard. in hell itself. And he looks at Satan and he says, This isn't fair. I didn't choose this. I chose the fence and Satan looks back at me and says, What I didn't tell you.
is that it is I who owns the fence. Not making a decision. is making a decision. And I pray today that we will choose 2026. to be a year of service to the Lord.
Will you guys pray with me, Father? Come before you. And Lord, we ask, God, that your spirit would be alive, moving, working. In all of the rooms across the tribe that make up Mercy Hill Church today. Father, I pray that you would move the families of this church to make a commitment, a covenant renewal today.
to say this year we will. Fear, serve in sincerity and faithfulness, and choose the Lord. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
