How many of you guys wake up in the morning and have no problem going and exercising, it just comes naturally and you enjoy doing it? Most of you guys are like me, where you know it's difficult to wake up in the morning. I know when I get up, I'm like, “Oh man, I should really exercise today,” look at the TV, and I'm kind of like… and I kind of weigh my options, right, about staying in bed and watching TV or getting up and exercising.

You see, for me, it's not a thing that I'm excited to do, right? I like just chilling out. It's hard for me when I know even how great it is to work out, even though I know how great it is to exercise—the benefits that it brings to you—for me, it's a struggle every single day to kind of get myself to do it. I have to find the motivation.

I know people—my wife—she can go run, no problem, just go run. You know, for me, that mindless exercise, I can't do it. I need something. I need basketball or something to keep me motivated, right? Pastor Jeff, I'll go over to his house and he'll be exercising, and then I'll go to work and I'll see him riding his bike, and then I'll go on break and I'll see him riding it the other way. You know, it's easy for those guys. It's not for me. Some people love it, but for me, it's a struggle every day.

As I was thinking about that the other day, while I wasn't working out, I got thinking about that. And I was listening to this guy on TV, and I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard this. There's this theology that says you have to choose God every single day, right? Every day, wake up and choose God. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's definitely a part of our walk with Christ.

But the problem becomes when that's all we ever do—when salvation stops right there—and for the rest of our lives, we have to wake up and choose God every single day. To me, that reminds me of working out. It reminds me of working out where you have to get up and force yourself, even though you know it's really good for you, even though you know all the benefits, where you have to force yourself to do it every day.

And I'll tell you, my Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross did not die for me so that I could wake up every single day and have to struggle to choose Him. It is part of salvation. You will run into that in your walk. But the problem is when people stop there and never continue on in all that God has for them.

The problem with that doctrine is that if you can choose God today, that means tomorrow you might not. And that means the day after, you don't know what's happened. It's always a choice. But see, the God that I know, He wants a family. He wants children. He wants sons and daughters that know that nothing in the world could ever take them away from the love of God.

That's what God is calling for. He's calling for a deeper salvation this day. And I know that this week Pastor Janeth had a class about salvation. And it's just a confirmation, and I hope really through this message that you would get a deeper understanding. I'm not going to go as deep as she goes into her teaching, but really just give a better understanding about what salvation is, where you guys are at, and what more God wants to do with your lives.

I was reading about Joshua. You see, to me, Joshua's life is a perfect example of what salvation is. Joshua, from a young boy all the way to the end of his life, gives us a really clear picture of what salvation is meant to be. We'll be reading from Joshua 24:13–15. Just some history on this verse: Joshua, at this point, he had led the people of Israel, and they had just walked into the promised land. They had finally arrived. But Joshua, at this point, is 110 years old. One hundred and ten years old. He is on his deathbed. He knows that the time is coming for him to pass on.

And so he gathers all the people of Israel together. He gathers the heads of the families, the judges, the leaders, the children. He gathers everybody together and begins to speak to them. And he begins speaking about all they had seen and experienced.

Before verse 13, he gets into Abraham and about Abraham coming to a land that was not his. And from Abraham, Isaac; Isaac, Jacob. He begins talking about Egypt and the slavery that they faced. He begins talking about the plagues that they had seen, the Red Sea being open. He begins to talk about the battles that they had gone through and the walls of Jericho crumbling. And then he says, “Now we have entered into the promised land.”

That's where I pick up on verse 13. This is God speaking through Joshua. He says, “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build, and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors serve beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in the land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

I know a lot of you guys have seen this verse all over, right? “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” You walk into a Christian bookstore, I mean, it's everywhere—bookmarks. I have a flag in front of my house that I really love that somebody gave us with it on there. All sorts of stuff you'll see: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

But in looking at this—really looking at the verse—look at what Joshua is saying. Joshua's mind was made up at this point. Remember, he's 110 years old. He has experienced a lot of things, but his mind is made up. To Joshua, it was not a “choose this day,” as in today whom you will serve, then choose again tomorrow, then choose again the next day, then the next day we'll see what happens. No. But to Joshua, he's saying, “My mind is made up.”

And he presents this option to the Israelites. He says, “Look at all you have seen. Look at all you have done. Choose to serve the Lord this day. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

What a powerful statement that is. Why? Because Joshua had the experience to back that decision up. You see, it wasn't a quick decision. Joshua, when he was saying, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” it wasn't something he just pulled out of the air, or he didn't give a lot of thought about. He had the experience. He had gone through crazy stuff with God and knew what he was saying.

You see the journey that it took for Joshua to get there—to me, that's what salvation is. And today I'm going to be talking about really three different aspects of our walk with God. And each one of us should really be able to identify with at least one of these. And we need to look at our hearts and look at our lives and say, “God, what more do You want? How can I go further? How can I go deeper?”

"...we need to look at our hearts and look at our lives and say, “God, what more do You want? How can I go further? How can I go deeper?"

“God, I don't want to stop at just step one. I don't want to stop at the way I just scratched the surface and I’m just getting my feet wet in salvation. God, I want to continue to go deeper. God, I want more of You this day.” And really, when I say, “Choose whom you will serve this day,” it's our choice to go deeper with God. So it's us that have to take it upon our shoulders to say, “God, I will not be satisfied with the past. God, I will not be satisfied with what has come thus far. God, I'm going to go deeper with You.”

So the first part we see is the call. That is the very first thing you'll experience with God: the call. Now when I'm telling you guys to choose God, it's very important to know that you can't choose God. The Bible says that no man is good, not even one. All men have evil in their hearts, and they have all turned away from God. And no man comes to the Father unless the Son calls him first.

For me, I know that God chose me before time. I know for you guys, God chose you and called you by name before you were even created. But if you're like me, it probably took years to see that calling really in your life. You can look back at your past, see everything that you've been through—all the garbage, everything, you know, the horrible stuff that happened in the past—and look to now and say, “God, you know what? I made it out alive. I made it out, God”, and although when I was in the midst of it I could not see Your hand, now looking back, I can.

Ultimately, God knows exactly what it takes for you to bend a knee to Him. In the time in my past, I wouldn't tell you that God was involved. I'd tell you the very opposite. But now looking back, I saw that God brought me exactly where He needed to bring me for me to bend a knee to Him. It was just enough, no more than what was needed. But God did it perfectly. He set it up perfectly.

“God knows exactly what it takes for you to bend a knee to Him."

What happened the first time I was able to bend a knee to God—the second my knee hit that floor—guess what happened? All of a sudden, my ears opened up, and I was able to hear the sweet whisper of God.

You guys know what I'm talking about when I say the sweet whisper of God? I'm sure a lot of you guys have felt it before. Deuteronomy 32 says, “Let my teachings fall like rain. My words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.”

You see, when our knees hit that ground, when we finally decide to surrender to God, we become those tender plants. We become that new grass, and the words of God begin to fall. It's not a booming voice. It's not God in the sky calling down to you, but it's a sweet voice in your ear that you have a choice to follow.

Some of you guys may have experienced that voice years and years ago. Some of you guys may have experienced it more recently, but I'll tell you this: this is what ends up happening a lot. The whisper comes in, and it gets drowned out with things—whether it be religious activities, even ministries, even Christian music. Those things take the place of God's sweet voice.

Not that there's anything wrong with doing things in the church, not that there's anything wrong with Christian music, but the problem becomes when they take the place of God's voice inside your ear. And God is bringing us back to that sweet voice. He's bringing us back to the whisper of God. Everything God has brought you through, everything in the past, was so you would bow a knee to Him and say, “God, let me hear that voice. Let me hear You speak to me, God.”

Because what does that voice do? That voice draws us in. It speaks to the heart. It speaks to the depths of the heart—the places that nobody knows about, the places that you didn't even know existed. All of a sudden, you hear a voice speaking to you, and all of a sudden it's drawing you in. It's making you move towards God. God does that on purpose.

This is such an awesome, awesome time with God. I've begun to see it in some of the kids, and I know in some of your lives and your relationships, I see that drawing of God pulling you in. And that is such an amazing time with God—something that you will never forget.

Why? Because He begins to open Himself up and just give small glimpses of who He is—just little small portions of who He is. And you begin to experience God in those little bits. What does it cause? It causes you to move. It causes you to act. It causes you to worship and pray and even speak. It causes you to do things that you couldn't do before on your own. And you know what it causes? It causes you to change.

All of a sudden, for you to get a glimpse—just a little glimpse—of who God is, it becomes blatantly obvious that you don't line up. All of a sudden, we are aware of our sin. All of a sudden, God has opened up. When we can see Him, you can see your heart. When you can't see Him, you can't see your heart. When God opens Himself up to you, your heart is illuminated. You become aware of your sin.

I'm not saying that there's deep things that you're not going to have to deal with along the way, but you can no longer live in blatant disregard of who God is. This is all part of our election, guys.

I look at Joshua. When he first started out, he wasn't a leader in military campaigns. He was just a kid. When Moses would meet in the tent with God—remember in Exodus—it says he would meet face-to-face with God as a man meets face-to-face with his friend. It would say that he would meet with God and be face-to-face, and Moses would leave the tent, but his young servant Joshua would stay after and worship in the tent to God.

What could draw a young boy? He could be doing anything else in the world. I'm sure he had friends in the camp. He could go play. Something drew him away from all of those things and made him stay in that tent and worship. What could be something that could draw a young man and make him stay in a tent by himself and worship God? You see, this is the roots of who Joshua was. So many of you guys can remember that drawing for you. That is the roots of who you will become.

It doesn't matter who you are, what you're doing in the church, but just seeking after that voice—just as Joshua did—staying in a tent, listening to God, getting to know Him.

I remember for me in my life, when I really started feeling that drawing of God, I was in a group with Pastor Janeth. It was on Thursday nights, and it was like a young adults group. We did worship and she would teach us. And really, I had no idea about anything. I didn't know a verse—no idea what I was doing. My life was a mess. But you know, all I knew was that there was something drawing me. There was something keeping me there.

I remember one time everybody left and I just stayed in the chair and just sat there. And I was by myself and I'm like, “What is going on? What is happening? I don't understand it.” But all I know is that there's something opening up inside my heart, showing me that there's more than I ever thought there was. There's something drawing me in that won't let my feet stay still, but is drawing me closer to God.

I know I was messed up. I know I had all sorts of issues. But all I knew is something drawing me to that presence. That is the whisper of God. That is God drawing you in. That is the call on your lives.

At this point, right, Joshua began to serve Moses. It called him a servant. It doesn't say exactly how he served, but I'm sure whatever Moses needed, he was there. He wasn't serving because of something with Moses. He was serving out of his relationship with God. He knew he couldn't stay still, so he had to do something. And God was calling him to serve under Moses and was raising him up, and he didn't even know it.

Part of our lives, guys, this is where the daily decision is. This is where we have to wake up and say, “God, my flesh is here, but I want You more. God, the flesh is calling to me, but God has something more for me.” This is where we wake up and choose God every day. This is where we even start to maybe do things and our feet are moving. But let me tell you: do not stop there. Too many Christians throughout the world stop in the doing of things. Stop because they heard God once, or stop because they feel something inside their hearts and they don't know what it is.

But we are just scratching the surface of what salvation is, people. We are just starting to get our feet wet in all that God has for us and all that God wants to do. And it's important to see that the Israelites have been called out by name at this point. They were in the desert. They walked through it. They were even in the promised land. God had called them out by name. No other people in all of the land did God give His attention to like He did the Israelites. They were called by name.

But yet we can see that they did not make a decision. They still had not chosen God, even though they had been called by name. We can't stop there. We can't stop at the calling because we can see in the Israelites it's not enough. It is not salvation. As great as the calling is, as awesome as the times you'll have with God, it is not the culmination of our salvation. If God has called you today, answer that whisper. Answer Him when He calls you.

You know, the truth is that there are a lot of gods in the land and they all call you by name. I know for me, there have been the gods that have been passed down. They know me by name and they call me by name. Gods in this land—the god of mammon, and things, and boats, and cars—you know what? It knows my name and it calls me by name. There are many gods calling you by name.

And I say today: answer the call of God. Amen. Seek Him fervently. Don't let all the other gods snuff out what God has just started to do in your hearts. God wants to do amazing things. The call is just the beginning.

So we see we have the call. God begins to call us. We begin to move. God's doing things inside of our hearts. We're drawn to Him. And then we move into really experiencing God. This is another awesome part. With the call, that was more just all God—that was God drawing you and speaking to you. It was God doing amazing things in your midst. The experience really gets between you and God.

All of a sudden, there's things popping up that God is doing. This is where our testimony grows. This is where things happen that are going to shape who you are and who you will become. I look at the youth group kids and I even see that they're beginning to experience God. Little Noah the other day told me he got his first chance to witness for God. How awesome is that? Why? Just because he's just got to start to know who God is, and God is beginning to have experiences with him.

When we were in youth group this week, we had a thing with the kids. We broke them up into pairs, and we talked about being a witness. We gave one of them a mic, and one of them was supposed to be the witness to something that happened. We had one do a bank robbery. We had one do a hurricane. And the news anchor had to interview the kids and say, “Tell me what happened. What did you see? What did you experience? You know, how did it happen? What did you taste? What did you smell? You know, give me everything.”

We got to talk to the kids and say, you know, you can only witness about what you have personally experienced. You can only talk and give power or speak about God in the things that you have experienced. And I'll say the same thing to you today. Salvation is not something that’s some words on a page. Salvation is the words on the page coming alive and transforming you every day. Salvation is not something that happened 2,000 years ago. Salvation is God's sacrifice coming alive in your life every single day and saving you from your sin every single day.

Salvation is an experience with God. It is an experience that will last your entire lifetime. It is an experience that, even when you're on your deathbed, the experience continues with God. When we can have those experiences, we can look back—and you know our perspective begins to change. The Israelites look back on their slavery one of three ways. They can look at it as God's hand delivering them. They could look at it with longing to go back, or they can look at it with contempt.

But the truth was that the Israelites, they looked back every time things got tough. Every time something happened a little hard, they began to look back upon their slavery with even longing to go back where they were. Or we can look at Abraham. Abraham had to leave everything he knew—all his family, everybody—and be alone in a land that was not his. But because of his faith, he looked at it as God's chance to move in obedience.

All of a sudden, he is the father of all faith. He has more descendants than the sand on the seashore. You see Abraham looked back and did not see God moving against him, but God moving for him. And I look back on my life, and you know my perspective has changed. I look back on everything I went through, and I look back and say, you know what? God protected me. It could have been so much worse. I could be dead or in jail. Things could have gone totally sideways.

And as bad as I thought they were then, I look back and now say, “God, oh my Lord, thank You for saving me,” because it could have been so much worse. I did not see Your hand. I see it now. I did not see it then.

You know, God brought me exactly where I needed to be for my knee to bend to Him—exactly where I needed to go. He brought it just enough for me to bend a knee to God. You know, it's funny: I ended up here by accident. I'll tell you guys a quick story. A friend had brought me in middle school to a youth group one time, and I hated it. I never went again, but I went one time. I went, I left, and then there came a point in my life where I'm like, “Okay, let me, you know, maybe find a church or something, and I'll try it out.”

And I couldn't remember where he brought me that one time, but I thought I remembered, so I went to this church. And all of a sudden, I happened to be next to Pastor Janeth. You know, and it's just funny how I can see God working now, because then I went there by accident. But isn't it God—just the fact that I happened to walk into the church, into the exact environment I needed, at exactly the right time—when I was broken, probably more broken than any other time in my life—on that one Sunday I walked in, 11 years ago this January.

And I happened to be exactly where I needed to be at exactly the right time—by accident in the wrong spot. But God delivered me that day. And it's funny: my wife and I went to high school together for years. I never once saw her. Never once saw her until the first day my eyes were open and I surrendered to God. And all of a sudden, my eyes were unshielded, and I happened to be in the wrong place that I went to by accident and met the woman that I was going to be with the rest of my life.

Isn't that God? That's God's hand. This is where we learn about who God is, guys. This is where we can look back and see God's hand and begin to get to know His personality and begin to get to know His characteristics. And because we know that personality, we're able to make just steps of faith—tiny steps of faith—to the left and to the right.

God's moving in you. You're getting to know Him. So all of a sudden, you're beginning to trust Him. You're beginning to trust Him. You begin moving in that faith. Like I said, I see it in my youth group kids. I've seen it in some of you with your families and what you're doing, upholding God in your households. Those are great steps of faith.

So I was with a man in the church the other day, and we were talking, and he says, “Kris, I don't know. Christianity is so great. I don't know why everybody doesn't do it. You know, in the past, I was so worried about where my next job was coming from, but now I still don't know, but I trust God, and every single time He delivers it. I don't know why everybody doesn't do it.” Amen?

And I was like, “I don't know either. It sounds great to me too.” You know, we begin to move. I look at Joshua in his life. It says that when Moses came to the land and he looked over and saw all the giants, he had to send spies into the land to find out who was there and what was going on. Guess who one of the spies was? Joshua.

He went into an enemy land—enemy territory—with guys way bigger than him. There he could have been killed, yet he was moving in faith. Why? Because he was getting to know God. He was getting to know God. At this point, Joshua's name has changed. It was something else, and he changed it to Joshua at this point in his life. Why? Because he was changing. Because something inside of his heart was changing because he was getting to know God.

You see, there's a pruning that takes place in this part. Pastor Janeth talked last week about the flesh dying. I know for me it was hard dying. It was rough. I had a hard head, and it took a bunch of hammer blows to get it to break finally. But this is where the pruning takes place. This is where the fight has started, and flesh is being put to death, and we are starting to come alive in Christ. This is where we learn to differentiate His voice from all the other voices of all the other gods.

This is where our testimony grows and we build an experience, and where we begin to walk with Christ. I was thinking about that walking, right? The Israelites followed the cloud. They followed God. They walked with Him. Joshua followed Moses for a time.

It got me thinking about my life. Joshua learned what ministry was. Joshua learned the cost of following Christ through Moses. He saw what it cost Moses. He saw people turning on him and constantly questioning his authority. He saw that Moses was almost killed. Yet Joshua still walked into it. He knew what the cost of Christ was.

And I think about my life and seeing my family and pastors. I just think, I know what ministry is. Right? I know what ministry is. I can see the cost based on what I've learned in their life. But although I've seen what it cost them, I've also seen the reward. To me, that's salvation. It's being able to say, “I know the cost and I know the reward.” As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.

You know, it's funny. The first time I ever said I wanted to be a pastor, I was walking down the hall one time. I was walking past an office, and I looked in the office, and some of the staff were inside the office. And they were joking, and they were laughing, and there was such camaraderie. And I was like, “This is great. I can be a pastor.” I'm like, “I'm going to be a pastor,” you know. Little did I know, right? That's what I thought being a pastor was at first, you know. Little did I know.

But just really having my eyes open through Pastor Janeth and through my family, really seeing the change and seeing what it means to follow God—you see, I can count the cost today. I can look and know what it costs, but know the reward that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I'll say to you today: as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Why? Because I've begun to get to know God in ways I never thought I could before. Right? No man marries a woman he doesn't know, or knows things about—just things. He marries the one he comes to know and love. This experience time is your courtship with God. This is where you get to know Him. You get to fall in love with Him. Things start changing in your heart, and you're just drawing closer and closer to God.

This is where we gain the facts. Remember I said that Joshua—he had the facts before him. He knew the decision he was making because of all he had experienced with God. This is where you gain the facts for your decision. This is where you get to know God. You gain all the facts.

So when God says, “You're going to choose Me, Joe or Ryan or Bob—are you going to choose Me?” you say, “God, I know all that You have set before me. I have seen Your hand. I have seen You work. I have seen what it costs, but God, I will serve You for all of my days.”

There's a big difference, guys, between following God and chasing after God. The Israelites followed God. They followed the cloud. They followed Him out of Egypt, yet they still had not made a decision. As much and as great as experiencing God is—as some of the most awesome things you'll ever have in your life—your testimony will grow, things will happen that you'll never be able to forget. It's not the culmination of our salvation.

The Israelites had followed. They had seen God move. They had seen God's hand work on their behalf. They had been called out by name, yet still they had not made a decision. Still at this point, someone could have come in and undermined their experience, and they could have walked away. And I've seen it.

So we have the call—being called out. We have your experience with God really growing with Him and moving with Him and your testimony growing. And then we have really making the choice—choosing God. Joshua, he comes to this point in his life. He's 110 years old. He's on his deathbed, right? He has counted the cost of what it means to follow God. He has borne the scars of the battle. He has witnessed the locust storm. He has seen the seas turn to blood. He saw the seas and the rivers parted and the walls of Jericho crumble.

He has been through war and come out the other side. He has known leadership and he has known betrayal. He has seen deliverance and arrival of the promised land. He has walked the desert for 40 years and heard the thunder of God's voice. He has eaten the manna and seen God's own handwriting on tablets of stone.

God has made Himself known to Joshua. He has counted the cost. He knows the reward. And Joshua turns to the people and says, “Make a choice this day. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

You see, to me, this is what salvation is. This is what salvation was meant to be. This is why salvation is so exciting. Because at the end of 110 years of everything Joshua had been through—all the hardship—sand from the desert is still on his feet, but yet he bore scars from the battle. Yet he said, “God, it was all worth it. God, every single time there was hardship, it was all worth it for You, Lord. And I know today that I will serve the Lord for every breath I have left.”

James 1:12 said, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.” You see, guys, there's a difference between experiencing God and making that type of decision. The Israelites had followed God. They had seen Him work miracles, yet still they had not made a decision. There's a difference between someone who knows God and someone who loves God.

And that's what salvation is. Salvation is at the end of your life counting the cost and looking back and saying, “God, it was all worth it, Lord. It was all worth it.” This type of decision in your life, it's a big decision. And it's not fickle. It does not fade or change. There's no such thing as backsliding when you make such a decision. It's not circumstantial.

And even when you pass on and go from this world and go to meet your Maker, the words of this decision will still be on your lips. You will open your eyes in Heaven and say, “God, You are my God, and I am Your son.” That's the type of decision that I'm talking about.

This is what salvation—the culmination of our salvation—is meant to be. It's when things begin to change. When no longer you're forcing yourself every single day to wake up and choose God. When no longer, when you wake up in the morning, the first thing is the choosing the ways of God and choosing the ways of the world. But you make a choice and say, “God, You will be my God.” Then you start to see great things happening in your midst. You begin to see God moving in ways you never thought. There's no more mixture. There's no more walking the fence.

But you are saying, “God, I know You. I have counted the cost. And You will be my God.” There's a difference. I think of Joshua walking into cities. He didn't know exactly what was going to happen in the battles. He didn't know exactly the circumstances—how were they going to play out? But he knew that that city was delivered into his hands. He knew that God was with him. And he knew the end result.

In the same way, make a decision for God. Come to that in your lives, and you will walk into the cities. You will walk into your jobs. You will walk into your households. I'm not telling you you're going to know exactly what's going to happen, but you will know that God has given it into your hands.

That's why verse 13 makes so much sense. He “gave you a land on which you did not toil, cities you did not build, and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant”—because God has given it into your hands. No longer are there steps of faith, little steps. All of a sudden, there's giant leaps of faith because no longer do you know God, but you love God.

And I think about adversity. Look, I know stuff can get tough. I know there's things that are going to happen, but guess what? When adversity comes up, when things get rough, no longer do the chains wrap around your wrist and pull you to the ground and hold you there. No, that's not the way that Christians work.

You see, when adversity comes and the chains come on the wrist, guess what? That just means you have to get stronger until you can break them. That just means you have to continue to raise up until God can do something great. The Christian does not get held down in adversity. They flourish in adversity because it's a chance for God to do something mighty in your midst.

We can even look at Paul, right? When he was writing at Ephesians, he was in chains. He was in a dungeon, yet he was speaking about joy and love and peace and the power of God's Word. You see, his mind was made up. His mind was made up. There was nothing that could change it. The circumstances didn't matter because Paul made a decision in his life who his God was going to be.

Second Timothy 2:9 says, “For which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal, but God's Word cannot be chained.” When I think about salvation, it is not a one-time prayer. It is not a ticket to Heaven. It is not saying, “God, save me,” and you're saved, and you can go on sinning however you want.

No, salvation is a life pursuit. Salvation is something you start when that call of God comes on your life, and you finish when you're saved from hell or in Heaven with God—amen?

Salvation is a journey that you take with God. It not only affects you, but it affects your entire household. Joshua said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” That type of decision—it reverberates through generations. It not only affects you; it'll affect your husband or your wife, and your kids, and even your grandkids and their kids. And after that, it'll continue to go on because of the decision that you have made.

And I don't even care where your kids go. I don't care what your kids decide. If they try to walk away, I tell you today that the decision will always be on their shoulders. That decision will follow them everywhere. It will always be tapping him on the shoulder saying, “Turn to Christ. Today's the day. Turn to Christ,” because of your faithfulness to God. Amen.

To make this decision is to say, “No more ungodliness. No more ungodliness.” Not saying that things aren't going to come up, but when they do, I will slay him before the Lord. I will lay him at God's feet. It's saying no more ungodliness in our lives. You will hold a godly standard in not only your own life, but your household. It means that at all times you're ready to give an account for the One that you have put your faith into.

It means being scorned for your holiness, but being uplifted in your righteousness. See, there was a time, guys, that I was really struggling. There was a time—we were talking about it in my family the other day—and they said to me, “Kris, I didn't know if you were going to make it.”

And what I said to them, I said, “You know, I didn't have a choice.” But when I think back on it, you know what? I guess I did have a choice. I could have gone and done my own thing, or decided to turn away, or whatever it was. But see, I knew in my heart that there was no other answer for me. You see, I know—I’ve seen God work. I've seen God do awesome things, not only in my own life, but in your life.

And I can tell you today that I have come to a decision that says I will not have God not in my life. It doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter what comes. And you know, at that time, I didn't know exactly how I was going to come out the other side. I didn't know exactly what I was going to look like. But I knew that my life was going to be with God. I knew there was no other option.

And because that decision was in my heart, that is the only reason that I made it out the other end. Because I said, “God, I know what the world offers, and I know what You offer. I know what following You costs, and I know the reward.” And it is the crown of life. God, it is with You. It is Your presence. And I cannot walk away from that.

And as painful as that dying of the flesh was, as hard as it was and as difficult at the time—especially, I had, like I said, I had a super hard head—I knew, “God, there's nothing else for my life.” I look at Joshua. Joshua gathers the people of Israel together, and he speaks to them. He lays it out for them. He says, “You have seen God move. You have seen His hand in your life. You have seen the deliverance. You have seen Him acting on your behalf.”

The soles of your sandals have not worn out in 40 years in the desert. You did not thirst, and you did not hunger. You have seen God move. Now make a decision this day—not this day and then the next day—but make a decision this day whom you will serve. If serving all those other gods, all the stuff that your forefathers have passed down to you, if they seem desirable, go for it.

Go serve the gods of this land if you want, but choose this day whom you will serve because you have seen God move. Jesus, He died on the cross. He did everything so that we could make a choice.

You know, Joshua's funny. When he gathers all the people of Israel together, he says, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” And the Israelites say, “Far be it from us to choose any other God. We choose the Lord.” And it's funny—he says to them in verse 19, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God, and He is a jealous God.” To me, that's funny, right?

Joshua says to them, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” And they say, “We choose the Lord.” And he says, “You can't even choose the Lord.” You know, he turns to them and says, “You can't even do it, so don't even say it.” You know, I think Joshua, at the end of his life, his eyes were beginning to get opened a little bit. And he could see the chains that were around them—the chains that chained them to sin—and they were still slaves.

But I tell you, Jesus Christ came and died on the cross so that those chains could be broken. We are not like the Israelites. We have something even greater than them. We have less of an excuse than Joshua. We've been given so much more. Jesus Christ came and died on the cross so that the chains to slavery could be broken so that you could choose God this day.

“Jesus Christ came and died on the cross so that the chains to slavery could be broken so that you could choose God this day."

You know, when I read this, all of a sudden the first commandment makes a lot more sense. When it says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Now I know why that was the first commandment. Because that should be our life pursuit. That is what salvation is. Those ten commandments were written to the Christian and to the Jews.

And I'll tell you that—to me—that's what salvation is: that I would have no other god before my God. You know, and I know we're all in different spots in our lives. I know we're all in different spots in our walk. Some of you have maybe just recently heard the whisper of God—are just starting to hear the voice of God drawing you in, and God pulling you, and something stirring inside of your heart. And I'll tell you this day: do not stop. Do not be satisfied. Do not look and say it's good enough.

Look, is just the call good enough? Is it better than the world? Yeah, probably. But how can we compare the things of God to the things of the world? We can't even compare the two. God has so much more in store for those who love Him. He has so much more in store for the ones that would chase after Him, for the ones that would hear the call of God and chase after Him.

Some of you are in the experience phase—the experience part of your walk where you're moving with God and God's speaking to you and God's doing things. And as great as all those things are, as awesome as God's hand is at work in your life, do not stop there.

It's time to make a decision. Look at your lives and say, “God, have I seen You move? Have I seen Your hand of provision in my life? Have I seen You work on my behalf? Have I eaten because You have provided us? Do I work because You have given me hands to work? Have I seen You work in power in my midst?” Then it's time to make a decision for God. God wants to do something great in the hearts of His people. He wants to bring them further.

"It's time to make a decision for God. "

And I know this is such an important time in the church—that God is doing something new. I know that even bringing us back to our roots of what really salvation is, is so important. Because the truth is, you know when I'll be saved? I'll be saved when I don't go to hell—I go to Heaven to meet my Maker. And until then, I will continue to chase after Him.

So I'd ask you guys: just bow your heads. And I'm going to ask God to speak to you. I'm going to ask God to tell you. I'm going to ask God to bring you back to the whisper that you first heard—to restore the joy of your salvation. To not let those other ones that come in and step on and try to squash our faith. But God, bring us back. Speak to our hearts, God. “God, I was in the desert. I was actually—I was in slavery, Jesus. Yet You called me out. You separated the seas that stood in between me and You. You opened them up and allowed me to walk to You. And I know that God today, the seas are even opened.” There was so much that stood in between you and God. There was an ocean—something that you could never cross. Yet God dried up the ground. He split the sea so that you could walk to Him.

Choose this day whom you will serve. I will serve You, God. Lord, speak to our hearts. Show us where we are, God, and show us where You want us—where You're calling us to.