The One Decision Every Man Must Make

Most men never draw the line in the sand.  
Joshua did — at the end of his life, scarred and weathered, standing before men who still had idols hidden in their tents. His words weren’t a slogan. They were a challenge:

“Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

In this episode, we talk about the one decision every man must make — and why so many of us avoid it. Joshua’s challenge echoes straight into Romans 12:2, where Paul shows us the process of becoming the man God designed us to be:

Do not conform. Be transformed. Renew your mind. Discern God’s will.

We’ll walk through:

• Why men drift spiritually instead of choosing God
• How “idols in the tent” keep you stuck
• Why renewing your mind is the foundation of transformation
• How your strongest thoughts shape your life
• Why wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord
• What true biblical masculinity actually looks like
• How to make the next right choice — every single day

If you’ve ever felt torn between who you’ve been and who God is calling you to become, this episode is your line in the sand.

Choose you this day.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm sure you've heard this verse before. Choose you this day who you will serve. That was Joshua. And he said it at the end of his life. When he was battle scarred, weathered. He said it when he was standing in front of men who had idols hiding in their tents. What he was doing was drawing a line in the sand. Today, as I wrap up Romans twelve two, what I've been talking about for the last few weeks, I'm going to talk about why becoming the man that God wants you to be starts with one thing, making the next right choice. I'll get into it in 30 seconds after this musical intro.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Welcome to the Valiant Forge Podcast, where we help men overcome life's battles, show up better in the world, and become a valiant warrior for God. This is a place where we share practical strategies that will equip you on life's journey to help you become the man God has called you to be. Are you ready to overcome your doubt and fulfill your purpose just like Gideon? If so, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Welcome back to the Volume Forge. I'm Mark Osborne, the host of the podcast. What we do here is try to help men level up in their faith, and that starts with transforming by the renewing of your mind. That moment with Joshua, that line in the sand, that's a clear picture of a man who is deciding what he is going to be. And Romans 12, 2 is the New Testament version of that choice. It's Paul saying, if you want to know God's will, if you want direction, it starts with transformation. It starts with renewing your mind, and it starts with choosing differently. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's go back to Joshua's story for a minute. Joshua is at the end of his life. He's no longer young. He's been fighting for many years. He went through slavery in Egypt. He saw all the signs, he saw all the plagues, he saw the waters parted, he saw water come out of the rock, he saw the manna, he saw it all. He followed Moses and then he became the leader. And in the moment where he said this, he gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem, I think it was. It's the same place that Abraham built an altar to the Lord. It's covenant ground. And Joshua starts by reminding them of everything God has done. And that's important for you, because when you go to make the next right choice, you have to think back on all that God has done for you because you're going to be faced with decisions that are you going to either conform to the world or you're going to choose the God standard. And if you look back at all that God has done for you, it helps you form that right choice. Joshua reminded the children of Israel that he brought them out of Egypt, he split the Red Sea, he fed them in the wilderness, he defeated all of their enemies, gave them land they didn't have to work for, cities they didn't have to build, and vineyards and crops that they didn't plant. Joshua is saying, Look what the Lord has done. Look how good he's been to you. Then he looks at the men, the leaders, the fathers, the warriors, and he says, Not yet. He doesn't say choose you this day yet. First he says, Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Then he says, Choose you this day who you will serve. So when it comes to making the next right choice, it starts with the fear of the Lord. And we're going to get into that in a moment. But Joshua wasn't talking to the unbelievers, the unsaved men. He was talking to the children of Israel, God's chosen people. And if you are following me today and you've been on this podcast for a little while, I'm assuming you're a Christian man. And if not, stay tuned. I'm going to tell you how to do that at the end of this episode. Because my heart is to help every man who comes across this podcast. But Joshua was talking to the believers. And these same believers, these same children of Israel, they had idols tucked away in their tents. They were flippant. Sometimes they chose God and sometimes they didn't. Just like us today, we're flawed, we're flawed characters, we're flawed men. We're faced with choices every day, and sometimes we choose wrongly. And just like the children of Israel, they were following God publicly, but privately they were hiding their idols. And Joshua is calling them out. He's saying, you cannot walk into the future that God is holding for you while you're holding on to the past. That's key right there because if you are holding on to something of the past, something you don't want to let go that's holding you back, you have to cut that rope to move forward. That is a choice you have to make. That comes from choices. God's will for sure is ultimate, but you also have free will. You have the will to make the choice. That's why you have to renew your mind so you can make the right choice. And that comes by not conforming to the world standards and conforming to the standards of the of the Lord of the Bible. You have to decide. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, when I say as for me and my house, that could be just you as a man, but that could also mean your house. If you're a father and a husband, that means your wife and your kids. You are meant to lead your family. And this is like I wish I had heard this when I was at the point where I wasn't leading my family and I was just making poor choices because of my own selfish ways. That happens sometimes. But that can be corrected through the transforming of your mind. Now we're going to fast forward to Romans 12, 2, what Paul is saying. Paul is saying almost the exact same thing Joshua said, but he is explaining how a man lives it out. You do not be conformed to the world's standards. You stop letting the world shape your decisions. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's letting God reshape the way you think. And then the last part, what we're going to talk about, what we've been talking about so far, and it's the last part of the verse. So that you may discern the will of God. That's clarity. Clarity comes after transformation. Joshua draws the line. Paul shows you how to stay on the right side of that line. I read a book a couple years ago by Craig O'Shell called The Power to Change. And it's interesting because he relays a lot of things, kind of he uses a lot of framing that Atomic Habits use, which Atomic Habits is not a Christian book, but it is a good book to read. It really helps how you shape the way you think. Not completely, but it does give a lot of good frames. And Craig Goshell referenced that book a number of times in his book, The Power to Change. Now, if you want to read a book that's similar to Atomic Habits, but you feel like you might be misled because it's not a Christian book, I would recommend that you read The Power to Change by Craig Goshell. A great book. I don't have it on my shelf because it's not a book I read. I listened to on audio. I actually listened to it twice because it was such a good book. I believe you can get it for free at your library. I'm not positive on that, but it's even if you don't get it for free, it's worth buying. One of the things he says in there is your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. How do you shape your strongest thoughts? They come by the habits you form. What are you thinking about all the time? What are you doing? If you're watching a lot of football, you're going to be thinking about for me, you know, I don't know who listens to this, but for me, you're going to be thinking about who the bears need next to go to the next level, to go to the next step. If you're constantly playing video games, you're going to try to figure out how to get past this next map, past this next boss, whatever it is. I don't even know what it is anymore. But my point is, you are shaped, your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts. Where do your thoughts come from? Your thoughts come from what you apply yourself to the most. And if you are conforming to the world, your strongest thoughts are going to conform to the world's standards. But if you are spending a lot of time reading God's word, praying to God, being focused, that that uh prayer praying without ceasing, always being focused and connected to God because your Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which God left for you after he resurrected and went away, he went away so we could have this Holy Spirit that guides us. That can be your strongest thought if you always stay connected to it and you always let it lead you. You cannot make godly decisions without renewed thinking. You cannot walk in God's will while thinking like a man who thinks about worldly things all the time. And that real change starts with identity. If you are a man of God, if you are a man in Christ, you need to know that you are that man and that will help shape the decisions you make. There's something called integrity. I'm a man of God. If I see, this is just an example, if I see a woman walk past me scantily clad, clothes, she looks good, and I make the choice to look at her and have wrong thoughts, I made that choice. As a godly man, that's the wrong thing to do. In that moment, I can look for a second and then make the choice to look away and focus straight ahead on what I should be focused on. That's really the key, is focusing on what you should be focusing on and not focusing on things of the world. That statement that Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's an identity statement. Identity in Christ. He made that decision. It's time for you to draw that line in the sand. As for me, I am going to make godly decisions. And how do I know what those godly decisions are? That comes by the transforming of the mind. The last part of the verse, so that I may discern the good and perfect will of God. Another thing that Craig O'Shell said in that book is change your thinking, change your life. Because that's really what we want to do. We want to change our lives to be godly men, to act like godly men, to show the world that godly men do exist. But I want to go a little deeper because the first thing that Joshua said before he said, Choose you this day, he said, Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Because fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And if you know that I love the book of Proverbs, that verse is in Proverbs, I think it's 619. I'm not positive. I get not great at remembering the references, but I do know the verse. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is what gives you the ability to choose well and to live well, to live well and make right decisions. But the fear of the Lord begins with awe. Now I'm going to reference another book here because I just went through a book series with my class at church called The Awe of God by John Bevere. One of the things that John Bevere says in his book is to love what God loves and hate what he hates. That's not scared. That's reverence. It's weight, it's clarity, it's direction. It's like showing you how to discern the will of God. A man who fears the Lord sees clearly. A man who chooses wisely walks in the will of God. So in closing, Joshua says choose. Paul says renew. Your thoughts shape your life. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, which is awe, reverence, honor, spending time with God, being in God's presence, because if you revere and respect someone, you want to be in their presence all the time. You want to learn and draw from them. That's where your decisions come from. Every choice you make should be reconciled with the fear of the Lord. Now I call this the Valiant Forge because a man is forged by his decisions, and the decisions are forged by the mind, and your mind is forged by the fear of the Lord. That's why Romans 12 2 matters. To become the man that God is calling you to be. What I talked about in the beginning of this, to be a biblical man, when I f when this verse first stood out to me is when I was asked the question, what is biblical masculinity? Masculinity is being a man. Masculinity isn't having big muscles and driving a big truck and you know doing jujitsu and all those things. Nothing wrong with those things. Those things are cool. I wish I did some of those things. I wish I had some of those things. Nothing wrong with that. But that is not masculinity. Masculinity is leading in the right way with integrity, making right choices. Biblical masculinity is leading through the discerning of God's will, leading your family because God is leading you to lead them in this direction. That's true biblical masculinity, and that comes from Romans 12 2. And I said this in the very beginning of this. Every decision you make where you are in your life right now is a result, for the most part, is it from the decisions that you have made in your life. Now you want to move forward, you want to transform, you want to become different. You're tired tired of living the life you've lived in the past. That comes with making right choices. Every choice is forming you, every thought is shaping you, every decision is declaring who you are and who you serve. Choose you this day who you will serve. Choose what you think. Choose who you believe in. Choose the man you be you will become. Because the will of God is not hidden. It's discerned by the man who renews his mind, fears the Lord, and chooses him daily. Now, I said earlier that if you've came across this podcast and you don't even know if you're not a Christian, if you've never given your life to Jesus, what I'm feeling led to do right now, I'm discerning the will of God, is I'm telling you, all you have to do is believe in your heart and decide right now that Jesus is Lord of your life. Ask him to be Lord of your life, and when you wake up tomorrow, or as soon as you're done, saying that prayer, Lord be the Lord of my life, Lord I surrender to you. I do believe you, Lord Jesus. He will come into your heart and start renewing your mind. But it starts with the choices you make. If you saw this video and you heard this and you made that decision, can you let me know in the comments below or if you're vulnerable, you don't want to do that publicly, send me an email out at the ValiantForge Podcast at gmail.com. I'd love to keep in touch with you and help you and answer any questions you may have along the way. And really for anybody who's following this, even if you are a Christian and you struggle with certain areas in your life, I would love to try to help you. I I don't come on here trying to act like I got it all figured out, but I've been on the journey for a little while. I do read the Bible fairly regularly. Well, not even fairly regularly. I read it every day. I wouldn't say I'm well versed in it, but I'm I'm working on getting there by the transforming of my mind. I also have a community on school that I'll have in the show notes and a link. You can join that community. It's completely free. If you have questions on there, you can DM me on there if you don't feel like sending an email. And it'll always be free. And I'm not doing much with it right now, but you know, as time goes on, I'm gonna be putting some stuff in there to help you along the way, some teaching resources and some stewardship resources. Just been really busy lately. I know it's an excuse because I've been making poor choices. That's just the truth. But I'm choosing this day that I'm gonna start making better choices. I'm gonna be working on that group. So I I'm rambling at the moment. This is why I have uh bullet points in front of me so I don't ramble when I'm trying to make a good point. So I look forward to seeing you, hearing from you. With that, stay strong, stay valiant, keep forging your path, and be blessed.