So let's pray before we get started. Father, we have gathered together as we so often do on the weekend on a Sunday with family, husband, wife, single, dating, children being taken care of in the children's ministry. Today is a little bit more unique, however, because we're going to be addressing in the pages at scripture something directed to men, at something you know a lot about because You created men and women.

You breathe life itself into the nostrils of the first man. Moreover, Father, you sent your Son who the Bible says took on the form of a man, came in the likeness of men, knows what it's like to face the issues we as men face, knows what it's like to face temptation. As the scripture tells us, he was in all points tempted like we are, yet he was without sin.

So we are talking now to the one who created men, knows how men feel and knows what men need most. So we appeal to You as our Heavenly Father that You would train us to be good earthly fathers, earthly husbands, and earthly friends. In Jesus' name, amen.

I want to begin with the challenge to men. As I see it guys, we have a choice, and this morning, you have a choice. Will you be one of God's thousands of disappointments or will you become one of the few of God's successes?

There was a headline in the Boston Globe newspaper that simply said "Wanted: Stouthearted Men" and the article in part went on to say, "What's wrong with America? Lousy leadership. Not just in government or politics but in the business, labors, services, and manufacturing fields, education and other big institutions and the media, too. The article went on to highlight a crisis in leadership in America, especially among men.

What is a man? What is a real man? You've heard that, "Be a real man." What does that mean? When you think of the term "real man," what do you think of? Does Tom Cruise come to your mind? Good. Or Bruce Willis, or maybe you think, on the other hand, Doctor Phil, or maybe you think, "No, no, no. A real man, that's an Olympic athlete." It's Michael Phelps or Ashton Eaton, or one of the many that took gold that's a real man.

I think the problem is, or at least one of the problems is, is that you ask the question what a real man is or ought to be and you're going to get so many different answers because we don't know, as a culture, how to answer that question.

Psychology Today in an article written by Jim Levine who had peruse several different books, literature on manhood, he wrote this in that article, "One theme that comes through loud and clear: the male is in crisis, buffeted by the woman's movement, constrained by a traditional and internalized definition of masculinity. Men literally don't know who they are, what women want from them, or even what they want from themselves." Is the real man a fighter? Is he aggressive? Is he macho? Is he passive? Is he restrained, quiet or a combination of all the above?

Three bikers walked into a café in Broken Bow, Nebraska. I don't know if you know where that is. It was a truck stop and these Hells Angels walked in rough and tough. At the end of the café bar was a truck driver, very short, small, framed, diminutive truck driver.

Peacefully eating his breakfast, drinking his coffee, one of the bikers walked up to the truck driver, grabbed the eggs off the plates, squished him in his hands and his yolk dripping down. They were trying to create a fight, start trouble. The next biker took the man's bacon and started eating it and crushed the rest of it. And the third biker took the poor man's coffee and just poured it into his lap.

The truck driver having the wherewithal to not create trouble with three Hells Angels quietly got up, walked over to the cash register, thanked the waitress, paid the bill, left a nice tip, and walked out the door, leaving these three bikers befuddled. One of them said, "He's not a real man. He's not much of a man." The waitress looking outside the window said, "Yeah, he's not much of a truck driver either. He just ran over three motorcycles out in that parking lot."

Let me tell you something. Do you want to think of a real man? Think of Jesus Christ. He was a real man. He was kind. He was gentle. He was sweet. On the other hand, he could repute hypocrites and overturn tables in the temple. He would say to a woman caught on adultery, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more" but to the Pharisees, "You whitewashed walls. You bunch of slimy snakes." You don't want to mess with them.

In fact, get this. A national magazine did a survey asking men and women their idea of their ideal men. Jesus Christ got more votes from both men and women than anyone else. They asked, "What attracts you to him or cause you to give us that answer?" They said, "A caring attitude, intelligence, admirable, morality, and sensitivity to others."

We come to the Book of Joshua this morning and it's a leader speaking to leaders. It's a man, Joshua, speaking to the men of his nation. Joshua 24, a formal gathering at a very important place has taken place. Joshua used to be the second in command under Moses. He was like the VP. He was like the assistant pastor. He was like the right-hand guy. Now, he's the man. But in Chapter 24, Joshua is about a hundred years old, so it's time for him to retire. He sees the end of the road. He's passing on the mantle of leadership to a new generation, and so he wants to address them and he does. I love the fact that though he's approaching century mark. He's a hundred years old. In Chapter 23, it's says, "Joshua was well-advanced in years." Isn't that a polite way to say he's really old? I just like that. He was advanced in years.

Last week, I went to play golf and a guy in the other side of the counter smiled and he said, "Would you like the senior rate?" I said, "Am I eligible for the senior rate?" He looked at my license. "Oh, yes!" I said, "Then I want the senior rate. Anything to save a buck."

So Joshua stands before the people and we're going to look at several verses, but this older gentleman with the perspective of years, with the perspective of the longer gaze that he didn't have when he was younger, gives to these men and to us men three steps that will help us climb up to the level of what I'm calling a "real man."

Step number one. Present yourself to God. That's the first step, men. Let's present ourselves to God. Let Him examine us. Let Him deal with us. That's always the first step. Joshua 24:1, "Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel for their heads, for their judges, for their officers, and they presented themselves before God." Literally, they took up their station before God. That's what it means. The wording indicates a formal gathering of men who would stand and take up their station to be examined and to be commissioned before God.

Now, where are they? At a place called, it says in your text, "Shechem," a very important piece of their history. It would be sort of like American men gathering at Plymouth Rock, or Gettysburg perhaps, or The Wall in Washington, D.C. It's a very significant place, Shechem. But more than that, Joshua wanted them to come to Shechem because Shechem would inspire spiritual accountability.

Let me explain. The first covenant God ever made with Abraham, their forefather, was at Shechem.

The bones of Joseph, once they were taken from Egypt, were brought and buried in Shechem. Joshua previously, earlier in his life in Chapter 8 of this book, brought the people of Israel there to reaffirm a covenant at Shechem, and a Tabernacle, that Holy Tent where people would meet with God was pitched at this time at Shechem. So in a place rich with spiritual history, Joshua calls the men to stand with each other, stand in God's presence, stand by the sanctuary, and stand and be challenged with God's truth. That's the idea of presenting themselves before the Lord.

You see, Israel had a rocky past and they would have a tough future, and Joshua wants to know that he is giving the leadership into the hands of real men. So, do you want to know what a real man is? A real man is a spiritual man. A real man is a God's man. A real man is a man who gathers with other men. A real man is somebody who's not afraid or ashamed of being exposed to the light of God's truth. That's what's happening here.

What's happening here is what Paul says should be happening now. Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you" -- remember the word? -- "present yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service."

Men, let me ask you a question. Is there somebody in your life that asks you the tough questions, probing questions, questions about why you do what you do, how you're really doing at home, what you're watching, what you're listening to? Some of the best memories I have of mentors of mine have been the times they've sat me down and asked me the tough questions.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." The idea isn't just self-examination but doing it before the Lord. Examine your life in the presence of God, letting God by his Spirit reveal what's really going on inside of your thought life, your personal life, your dream life.

David put it this way, Psalm 26, as a prayer, "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try me and my heart." Psalm 1:39 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts."

Okay. Let's do that, men, today. Let's just sort of see this as a divine appointment by God. We're here. We're gathered together, some of us with our wives, our families but we're here before God. I stand with you, not apart from you, and we're asking the Holy Spirit to do deep things and search us deeply in this assembly to shine the white, hot spotlight of His holiness into our lives.

You go, "I don't know if I want to do that." Somebody said that most of us don't like to look inside of ourselves for the same reason we don't like to look at a letter that has bad news. "I don't know if I'll like what I'll find if I look deep inside me." But the point again is not self-examination. It's doing it in the presence of God. It's saying, "Lord, here I am, naked and open before you, reveal who I am, show me where I failed as a man, and help me from this point on to be what you want me to be." That was the thought of David in the Psalm I just quoted, Psalm 139, when he said, "Search me, O God, know my heart; try me and know my thoughts," listen, "see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." That's what it means to present yourself to God. That's always the first step. Be honest before God.

Step number two. After you present yourself to God is to peruse your spiritual journey, your history. Peruse means to examine carefully, to consider in depth, and that's what Joshua does beginning in Verse 2. Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times and they served other gods. And then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River," the Euphrates, "led him throughout all the land of Canaan, multiplied his descendants, gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau, I gave the mountains of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt."

"So I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. So they cried out to the Lord; He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt a long time in the wilderness." Yeah, 40 years is a long time.

And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand. Then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho. And the men of Jericho fought against you, also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Jebusites" the termites and the out of sight, everybody else.

"But I delivered them into your hand. I sent the hornet before you which drove them out before you, also the two kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow. I have given you a land for which did you not labor," that's grace, "and cities which you did not build," it's grace upon grace, "and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and the olive groves which you did not plant. Now therefore" -- stop there.

What does he do? What is he doing? He's telling a story. You go, "He's an old guy, kind of like talking, reminiscing about way back then. Then this happened." Why is he doing this? He's reviewing their history. They loved history, geographically and spiritually. Geographically, you start at the Mesopotamia. I brought you to Canaan, then you went down to Egypt then I brought you back here to Canaan. But more than that, spiritually understand where you have come from. Your ancestors were idol worshipers. I brought them out of that idol worshiping area into this land. These people here were idol worshipers. Then you went down to Egypt. Those guys were idol worshipers then I brought you back here. And now, you serve me, the only true and living God.

There's something else I want you to notice. Do you notice that Joshua speaks in the first person in much of this, as if God is speaking through him? He says, "Thus says the Lord, I took you. I gave you. I sent. I brought you out. I brought your fathers out. I brought you into the land. I delivered you." Why is Joshua reaching all the way back in their history in this final speech that he gives to men? Here's why.

Joshua is using hindsight to produce insight. Listen, men. Hindsight properly utilized will produce insight. He's calling on them to make a choice in the final two verses that we're going to read. Before he calls on them to make the choice, he wants to use hindsight to produce insight. It's always good to look back and remember your past.

Now, let me qualify that. As long as you don't let your past weigh you down. Some people just live in their past. It's what happened ten years ago. It's what happened 20 years ago. It's good to be in touch with that, but now, get over it, move on. But your past properly used can be a great motivation. Don't let it be a weight, let it be a wing. Don't let it be an anchor, let it be a sail. But it's good to remember where you've come from because that helps you know where you're going.

Listen to Isaiah Chapter 51, God speaking to the prophets says, "Look to the rock from which you are hewn and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug." There is an old saying that says you can tell the depth of a well by how much rope has to be lowered. I'll just tell you right now, God lowered a lot of rope into my pit to get me out of it. And real men will remember where they come from and real men will be in touch with what God has done in them, and the goodness of God to them. I'll give you a simple suggestion.

Learn to recite your personal testimony. Some of you don't even know what a personal testimony is, perhaps. Your personal testimony is how you came to Christ and your testimony should include who you were before you met Jesus, why you were attracted to Christ, how He changed your life, and what you became since then. Those are elements of your testimony. You can do it in a short, sweet presentation but you can pull that out and it can be a very powerful tool and it helps you remember where you've come from.

You present yourself to God, you peruse your spiritual journey and those two steps lead us now to the third, and that's the step of choice. That's where you pick your course of action, the last two verses, Verse 14 and 15. That's what we're going to cover here.

"Now, therefore," says Joshua, "fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which our fathers served that were on the other side of 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."

It's a funny thing about people and these people notwithstanding. Joshua says, "Now, it might seem wrong for you to serve the only true and living God." In other words, he knew that these people had a proclivity, a propensity-event to go backslide and to worship false gods. It had been part of their history. It was even part of their ongoing process. So he calls on them publicly presenting themselves in the presence of God to make a choice.

Now, what are the first two words of Verse 14? "Now therefore" and those words simply mean, based on all that I've just said, "therefore" that's the transitional word, make a choice. In other words, the choice that I'm demanding that you make is the logical result of what God has done. By the way, every sermon, you and I here, should always have a "now therefore."

Every truth you're ever exposed to should always have a "now therefore." Every radio program, television message, book that you read should always have a "now therefore." That is when you and I hear truth, we should make a choice to implement it, because do you know what happens if you don't make that choice? You've just made a choice not do it. When you choose not to do it, pretty soon you just get good at hearing sermons, hearing sermons, hearing sermons, marginalizing what you hear, not applying it to your life and your heart gets callused, and all you do is become a sermon connoisseur. "Oh, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give that a six." Who cares if you grade it or not?

"Now therefore" when we're confronted with the truth. Now, why is that so important to make a choice? Here's why. I think it's safe to say that you are today a summation of the choices you have made up to this point. Would that be right? You are who you are. Your personality is simply the totality of all the choices you have made in your life because here's the dynamic. You make the choice and then your choice will turn around and make you. You make the decision and then the decision will turn and will make you. So he says, "Choose this day whom you will serve."

Notice that the choice must be personal. You can't borrow somebody else's choice for your family, and what is the choice? Notice he says, "Fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth." You don't hear many sermons on the fear of the Lord. You used to in old preaching. It was a common theme. "Fear the Lord." You say that today and people will, "What is that? 'Fear the Lord.' Is this like the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and a Scarecrow?" Fear means a reverential awe and it includes real fear, fear that I am somehow not pleasing my God.

So here's this 100-year old man saying, "Fear the Lord." I think there is a deplorable lack of the fear of God in many Christian families today. It's all about the fear of man and what will people think rather than how does God think, what does He want me to do? We react in the fear of man rather than respond in the fear of God.

Several years ago, I had this bright idea, I thought, of taking a poll of this congregation. Many of you weren't even here at the time, some of you were perhaps. But I wanted to take a poll. I want to get my polls on what people were thinking and so I asked them to write on a little piece of paper questions that they had and I would do a series based on the questions they felt they wanted answers from the Bible perhaps I hadn't given them yet, and so I wanted to hear from them.

Now I expected honestly to get questions like, "Are dinosaurs real?" or "What about the raptor?" or "Is hell viable?" Any of those kinds of things. So we got a smattering of that but by and large, over 90% were questions about "How do I heal my broken family? How do I raise my children? How do I work this out of my marriage?" and I discovered that a large group of Christian people that go to churches are not playing according to God's rule book, marriages that don't have God at the center.

So the choice must be personal. Josh was saying to the people as a whole for them to make individual choices, "Fear the Lord, serve Him." Second, notice that the choice has to be total, has to be a total choice. You got to be all in. He says to them, "Put away the gods your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt, put them away, get rid of them, don't live according to them and serve the Lord."

Now, if I could apply that to us in our situation and in this series, I would say that the principle means this to us. Stop copying the world when it comes to your relationships. Stop emulating worldly values, worldly examples when it comes to your family, your relationships. The surrounding world that you live in does not believe in moral absolutes. Don't do that. The surrounding world, in which you live have redefined, reconfigured the family. Don't do that.

I'm not here to pound the pulpit and say, "I'm going to curse the darkness. The world is bad, bad, bad." It is, but that's not why I'm here. I want to simply ask you a question. What is molding you? What is shaping you? What examples are you trying to be like that you look up to that shapes your family life?" Do you want to be like the Kardashians? You go, "No, no, no. I'm out of my family after the Simpsons." Yikes! Or is it a godly family model that you're looking toward, a scriptural one?

See, good marriages don't just happen. They're the result of a firm choice, hard work and God's grace. That's what produces them. Now listen to Joshua's choice. It's both personal and total, "As for me and my house," he says in Verse 15, the last sentence, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Here's a husband and a father being committed before God even at a 100 years of age and he wants to pass that commitment onto the next generation.

Here's Joshua saying, "Look, I can't speak for you. I can't choose for you. I can only pick for me and I can only choose for me. I don't know which way you're going but I know which way I'm going to go and I'm proud to say as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He didn't just say "as for me" but "as for me and my house." That means he was the leader over his house. He was the covering of his house.

Here's the principle. Your spiritual relationship with God must spill over into and affect every other relationship in your life. The great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, said, "Your father, your mother -- now, let me redo it. "If your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, the very dog and cat in your house isn't happier for you being a Christian, there's a question as to, are you really a Christian?" Your relationship should affect every other relationship.

Now, doesn't it make sense to you that for Joshua to be able to say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" that he has to have spent some time in his house, that he has to be in touch with his household because that's what the word "house" means, not "my four walls made out of adobe with a little roof on top, my house," but my "household." Firmed to say, "As for me and my household," he has to have spent time in and with his household.

James Dobson said, "If homes, if houses, if families, if marriages in this country are going to survive, it's because husbands and fathers make it their highest priority and reserve part of their time and energy for leadership in the home." I want you to just think about that because we're about to close this message.

Several years ago, there was a family researcher, kind of a guru of family development called Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner. Urie Bronfenbrenner was studying the time that fathers spend with their children to see what correlation there was as to influence. So he looked at and cited one study in particular that asked fathers, "How much time do you spend with your kids, your little children, especially, preschool kids?" Because those are the years where you may not be teaching them verbally but it's not taught, it's caught, they watch and you are setting a template for the rest of their lives.

So get this. In the study, first of all, they asked that, "How much time do you think you are spending with your children?" The average father said, "Between 15 and 20 minutes per day I spend with my children." The second part of the study after asking the dads, the question was to actually put microphones on the children just to get the verbal interactivity between father and child.

Here's the result. According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, who cited the study, the average time that a middle class father spends with his children is 37 seconds per day. The direct interaction was limited to 2.7 encounters daily, lasting 10 to 15 seconds each. Okay, compare that with the well-known statistic that the average preschool child watches between 30 to 50 hours of television a week. And you don't have to ask very long who the influence in that family is.

Here's Joshua saying, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. That is the commitment I have made. That is the commitment I have passed on to them and we make it together."

I want you to quickly -- and we'll close with this passage, I promise. Deuteronomy 6 -- turn left, one block, it's the book right before Joshua. Deuteronomy 6, famous passage, just a few verses we'll look at. Here is God's pattern for passing on truth about himself to children and grandchildren. It's very simple, very basic. Deuteronomy 6, "Now this is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded you to teach, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord," there it is again, "to keep all of His statutes, His commandments which I command you, and your son, and your grandson, all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey."

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

That's the pattern. First of all, you live them, that's part of believing them. Let's back up. You believe them in your heart. You live them in your life. You discuss them with your children and your grandchildren, that's part of your topic at home and your conversation. And you keep doing that, and you keep doing that, as those children are raised, and eventually, you will watch your children and grandchildren reap the benefits.

That's why whenever we dedicate a baby, we meet with the parents first before a baby dedication to make sure the family is dedicated, the parents, the marriage is dedicated to Christ. It's not some little ritual we just add to a church service. Are they committed? Are they devoted?

At the beginning of this message, I gave you a challenge, "Will you be one of God's thousands of disappointments or one of his few successes?" You can be a success. That's the aim of this study.

Many years ago in the Deep South, two paddle boats left Memphis, Tennessee on the Mississippi River to the city of New Orleans. That's how you say the word. I have been corrected in that town when I called it "New Orleans." So these two boats were on their way to New Orleans and they were just tagging along, tagging along, going next to each other, but one of the crew members shouted to the other boat as if to say, "You guys are slow, we're fast." Words were exchanged, heated, and soon a race was on.

So they just kept putting fuel, coal in the oven to burn, and the boats were neck and neck, neck and neck, and one of them gradually fell behind. Here was the problem. It was running out of fuel, it had enough fuel to make the trip, but not enough fuel to win a race. So as they were getting behind, one of the crew members thought, "Well, this is a cargo ship, let's burn the cargo." They discovered that the cargo burns, furniture burns, wood burns, as well as coal. So they were stuffing cargo into the ovens, burning it and they won the race. They won the race but they burned the cargo.

Men, God has given you precious cargo, a wife. Women, forgive me for comparing you to a cargo, but I think you know where I'm going with the illustration. You have a wife. You have children. That's the precious cargo that is to come along you. Some men are going to win the rat race and they're going to burn the cargo. In that sense, you have lost altogether. Now where do you begin? You begin with God, you fear the Lord and you serve him.

Men, simple question, "How many sermons do you have to hear? How many messages will it take before it's, 'Bing! I get it. I need to be a holy man in my home to lead them the way God wants his home led, to be dedicated'"? Not just have your wife dedicated, your children dedicated, but you as a leader dedicated to God in leading your home in a godly manner. The first step to be one of his few successes is to be yourself, a man committed to him. It's our choice.

Father, help us to make that choice today in your presence, in the presence of the Holy assembly gathered together where your Spirit has had the opportunity through the word of God and the preaching of it, to search and shift motives, and then for that commitment to be made regularly as we take inventory. We're about to sing My Whole Life I Place In Your Hands. I pray that that will be our prayer of presentation as men and women to you. In Jesus' name, amen.