As For Me and My House

0:03 You can be seated if you're not already. And go ahead and grab your Bibles. We're going to be jumping into God's Word together. And we are going to be in the book of Joshua. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Joshua early on in the Bible and find chapter 24. The title of our message this morning is As for Me and My House. As for Me and My House. Many of you already know these verses. and it's certainly a privilege to always be with you all. I always really look forward to it and I'm dreadfully nervous every time I come in and teach you guys but I always look forward to it and but today is is a first for me. I have I have not gotten to be with you all on a Father's Day before and so in light of me knowing that I was going to be sharing from God's Word with you all on this Father's Day. In my time leading up today, I was seeking the Lord and asking Him whether I should, what we just did, pray for fathers and then just jump into an area of scriptures that wasn't so much focused on family or fathers or the second option to pray for dads like we just did and then get into a family-oriented study with fathers being a focal point.

1:26 And as you can likely tell from the title today, the Lord led me to do the latter. And so dads, this one is for us. But maybe you're not a father today. Maybe you're a mother. Maybe you're a wife. Well, I would encourage you not to tune out because you lead your family as well. and I am confident that God would apply much truth to your heart if you have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say through his word. If you're a husband and not yet a father or even a single man, God would have you to receive this exhortation so that you would be prepared to be the man of God, the future father that God would want you to be. And needless to say, single women, you would do well to listen too so that you would adopt the high standard of spiritual leadership that you should hold towards any man that seeks to pursue you. And so if you're not catching on, God has something in his word for all of us today And so let's read it and pray that the Lord would give us understanding Would you stand with me once more as we read just two verses this morning?

2:45 You won't be standing much longer Take a look at verse 14, either on the screen or in your Bibles. Joshua says, Now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father 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 your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. And that's all to set up this amazing statement. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Let's pray.

3:40 Father, we ask that you would use this time in truly a mighty way, Lord, that your word would land upon good soil in our hearts today. That you would make us more like you through your word, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Now, before we just get into breaking down our text It is certainly never a bad decision To examine the context surrounding a passage of scripture And in fact, it is always a good idea to do so Because when we examine the context It serves to enhance our understanding of what is really being said and keep us on track in our theology.

4:37 I'm sure we've all at some point dealt with somebody taking our words out of context, taking maybe a snippet of something that we were saying and making it to mean something that we did not intend it to mean. There are a group of students, I'm the junior high pastor here at the church, and so, you know, I'm always joking around with students and students are always joking around with me. It's great. It's a healthy relationship for sure. There are a group of students in the youth ministry that jokingly love to take a phrase out of context that I once said in a Bible study that I gave them. You know, VBS is happening this week. That's why the stage looks like how it looks like this morning. And a couple years ago, the youth, they always show up for VBS, not only to attend the children they do through sixth grade, but then the junior high and high schoolers, they get to serve.

5:34 It's amazing. You'll see hundreds of youth that are here serving other students and serving the Lord. It's quite incredible. But before we just send them off to serving, we take some time to gather them together and give them some expectations and to share with them from God's Word about what it means to serve the Lord. And so a couple years ago, I was doing that, and I was sharing to a group of probably nearly 400 students or so, and I was sharing from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where the body of Christ is described, and the many members of the body of Christ, and how the many members all work together for the body. And each member is to do what God has called it to do. The hand is not to do what the eyes do. The eyes are not to do what the nose do, and so on and so forth. And the Word of God also says there that on the maybe less presentable, the less seen members of the body, we are to bestow greater honor. And so I was saying to the students that, hey, maybe this week God's going to call you to be his hands. Maybe this week God's going to call you to be his mouth to others. And then I said, maybe God's going to call you to be his feet. And I said, but don't worry, God loves feet. And that statement, God loves feet, is something that I have not been able to live down even years later. They have made pictures and given them to me, and it's a picture of me saying God loves feet.

7:12 So nonetheless, that's an example of something being taken out of context. But there is literally no one that gets their words taken more out of context than the Lord, both by deceitful unbelievers. Unbelievers will seek to do this, grab passages of Scripture and take them out of context, but also what we need to be careful of is uninformed believers can also make the same mistake. We are to look at God's word and learn from it in the context in which it was written. And so I say all that to say, what is going on leading up to our text today? Well, in Joshua 23 verse 1, just the chapter before, we read this. Now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old and advanced in age. So that's just a little snippet to help us get some more context.

8:16 In just the chapter before, we see that Israel is dwelling in peace after the many conquests of Joshua. and through these conquests the Lord was giving his people the land that he had promised to them but now at this point in the book of Joshua Joshua is a very old man and he is soon to die he is 110 years old and knowing that he is not long for this world Joshua makes his final words mean something maybe you've gotten to spend time with somebody in their final days in their final hours and heard someone say some meaningful words you know as a pastor one of the things that we get to do is we get to go visit people when they're dying and encourage them but oftentimes when I'm going on those visits, sure, I'm going to encourage and to share things that the Lord would put on my heart from his word, but I also seek to listen. Because those are some powerful words often said at the end of somebody's life, because they know. They know I'm going on. I'm going to glory.

9:36 So how does Joshua utilize his final words? Well, he does so by giving a very firm and bold exhortation to the leadership of God's people. In the remainder of chapter 23, Joshua recounts to the people all that God had done for them and how faithful the Lord was. We sing that old hymn today, great is thy faithfulness. And truly his faithfulness is great. In Joshua 23 verse 14, later on in the chapter before our text today. We read this, behold, this day, this is Joshua, this day I am going the way of all the earth. That's Joshua saying, I'm dying. I'm dying today. And you know in all your hearts and in your souls that not one thing, everybody say not one thing.

10:31 Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. all have come to pass for you not one word of them has failed and we ought to be so encouraged by that we ought to take so much heart in those words because through God's word he has made us exceedingly great and good and precious promises and like Joshua said there not one of them will fail, not a single one. But while Joshua reminds them here in chapter 23 of God's goodness, he also reminds them that they should be very careful to be obedient to the commandments of God, lest the promised curses of God for disobedience come upon them. And so that leads up to then chapter 24, where Joshua gives a brief history lesson to the people. And the focal point of this history lesson is the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God. Here, Joshua goes all the way back to God's calling of Abraham, to then Jacob's sojourn to Egypt, to then Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, to then God's protection of his people in the wilderness on the other side of the Jordan, to then him giving the promised land to them. But what is the point in Joshua doing this? Why is he bothering to take them down memory lane, so to speak, so that they would not forget, so that they would not forget how good and how faithful God was to them.

12:28 The Lord knows we are no different. We are prone to forget what he has done. We are prone to forget what he has done in our lives. For this reason, you and I, we must be diligent to remind ourselves what he has done, to not let ourselves forget. The Bible says in Psalm 111, verse 4, he has made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He has made his wonderful works, that word wonderful works, it means marvelous events, miracles.

13:08 They are to be remembered. They are not to be forgotten. when the Lord works in a wonderful way in your life, do not let yourself forget it. Remind yourself of it often. a while back I was given good counsel and wisdom by someone who has poured into my life and they said to make a notebook. Get a notebook, just a plain notebook and call it the wonderful works of God in your life though. And periodically get that notebook and when God does something amazing, and he's always doing amazing things, let's be real. When he does something amazing, write it down, lest you forget.

14:05 And at least once a year, go back and read it and be reminded of how he has come through in the past because you're going to need that reminder on the days when you can't see what God's doing. When you're in the midst of the trial and you don't know how he's going to redeem it just yet, look back at how he has redeemed things in your life in the past. Remembering his past faithfulness and his past goodness will be needed. And in the Bible, parents are commanded to continually tell their children of the wonderful works of God. In Psalm 78 verses 4 through 7 we read here, We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

15:01 For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children. There's this passing on effect that should be happening, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And so, after having just reminded the people of God of the wonderful works of God, Joshua then utters the words which we will consider as our main passage today. You can note down our first point today is three weighty commands. Three weighty commands. This is what we see in verse 14 when Joshua says, Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt.

16:12 Serve the Lord. It starts here in verse 14 with two words. now therefore. And this is Joshua's way of saying, hey, considering how good and how faithful God has been to you, here is what you are to do. He has just reminded them of the wonderful works of God in the past, and he says, do this now. I like how Dale Ralph Davis, Bible commentator, says on these two words. He says, fidelity to Yahweh is but the natural contemporary response to his abundant historical goodness. What else could one do toward a God who calls, delivers, protects, and supplies? There is a compulsion about it. It is the only reasonable response to the overwhelming waves of Yahweh's mercies.

17:12 That's really good. That's really good. And so the three weighty commands that Joshua gives to the people are number one, fear the Lord. Number two, serve the Lord. And number three, put away the gods which your father served. And so we're gonna look at each of these in detail. The first one being fear the Lord. If you have been around the scripture for a little while, I'm certain that you've read this, this command to fear the Lord. And actually, it is one of the most repeated commands throughout the scriptures, hundreds of times in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. And so, needless to say, we should make sure we get this right. We should make sure that we understand what it really means to fear the Lord and then do it. And contrary to what it might sound like at first, fearing the Lord is not you being terrified of God, walking around in terror of him. That's not actually the meaning of this word fear. This word fear, it means to regard with feelings of respect and reverence. To consider hallowed or praiseworthy is the meaning of that word hallowed or exalted.

18:45 It means to be in awe of, to be in awe of the Lord. Fearing the Lord, it's all about being in awe of God, in awe of His power, in awe of His position.

19:05 And this awe, this response should be somewhat natural when you consider the greatness of God, when you consider that He's all-powerful, that He is eternal, that He is all-knowing, that he is matchless, that he's sovereign and so much more. We ought to be left with a sense of awe. If you are thinking about God accurately as his word describes him to be you should be left with this whoa type of response. Whoa. This is God we're talking about And he is great. And that type of response is rooted in a respect and a reverence for who he is. But here is the thing about the fear of the Lord.

20:06 When you walk in the fear of the Lord, it changes you. It changes you fundamentally as a person. When you possess this fear of the Lord and walk in it, there are amazing practical effects that work their way into your life. For instance, fearing the Lord is a starting point of wisdom and knowledge. We've been learning about this on Sundays with Pastor Jack in the book of Proverbs. These verses have been quoted recently and yet we will look at them again in Proverbs 1.7 and Proverbs 9.10. we see here that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And then in Proverbs 9, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. You will never, and I repeat, you will never arrive at the point of wisdom nor knowledge if you do not properly regard God for who he is and live in awe of him.

21:22 The second thing that the fear of the Lord does practically for you and I is it causes us, or it should cause us, to depart from evil. Proverbs 16.6 says, And by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. It's by the fear of the Lord that one departs from evil. And then in Job 28, 28, we read here, And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. But how exactly does the fear of the Lord, how exactly does it cause us to depart from evil? How does it cause us to depart from sin?

22:10 Well, I believe that the Joseph from the book of Genesis is an excellent example of seeing this very thing. In Genesis chapter 39, verses 6 through 10, a little bit of backstory about Joseph. He has been betrayed by his brothers, sold as a slave, ends up in the house of Potiphar. everything Joseph touches basically turns into gold and Potiphar notices this, that the favor of God is upon him. And so Potiphar raises him up, gives him much responsibility, and that's where we pick up here in verse 6. Thus he left, that's Potiphar left, all that he had in Joseph's hand. And he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, lie with me. I think you know what she was meaning. But he refused and said to his master's wife, look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you because you are his wife.

23:38 And here it is. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So it was as she spoke to Joseph day by day that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her. Joseph says when he is presented with the temptation to sin, how could I do this against God? his reasoning came from a place of the fear of the Lord.

24:13 God is God and he has called me to obey him and live in light of his holiness. How could I sin against him? We would do well when we are faced with the temptation to sin against God. We would do well to think like that, to ask that same question, how could I do this against God? The God who loves me, the God who died for me and has empowered me to be free from this very sin that I'm being tempted to do. Someone can only think that way if they have the fear of the Lord in them. And lastly, on the fear of the Lord, before we move on to the next weighty command is, That fearing the Lord, another thing to know about it is it manifests itself through obedience to the Lord. If you fear the Lord, you are going to obey the Lord.

25:16 It's that simple. We just saw that about Joseph. In the book of Ecclesiastes, the wisest man to have ever walked the earth, Solomon. he says this at the very end of his discourse in the book of ecclesiastes he says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter meaning this is this is what it's all about fear god and keep his commandments for this is man's all the second weighty command that we'll consider now is to serve the Lord. Serve the Lord. And this is really the main thrust of our entire passage this morning. Serving the Lord, it is mentioned four times in just our two verses, and it's mentioned many more times in the entire chapter. This word serve, it means to work for, to labor for. It means to minister, to worship through service. I love that last way of thinking about it.

26:24 To worship through service. Now, if you hear this word, serve the Lord, if you hear this command to serve the Lord, and you think, so okay, God just wants me to work for him then? Is that right? he just wants to use me and abuse me you are thinking about it completely wrong here's the thing it is easy to want to serve him when you consider all that he has done for you if you just consider your salvation in Christ and all that he did. I was reading this morning in Isaiah 53, the suffering servant, our Jesus, and all that he went through for us to accomplish our salvation, to make a way for us to go to heaven.

27:21 When you consider all that, you will very quickly want to then give your life back to him in his service and say, Lord, my life is yours. Romans 12, 1, a fantastic verse on this very point. It says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. And I love this, which is your reasonable service. Your reasonable service. We are to give our lives back to him as an act of worship. and this is really the only reasonable response that we can have to the great things that he has done for us to be a living sacrifice a good catchy kind of slogan that will help you remember this as it's helped me is to live for him because he died for you live for him because he died for you.

28:33 Serve the Lord. But what does it practically look like to serve the Lord? I actually believe that's a very important question that demands an answer. Now, certainly serving the Lord could look like you serving within the church in some capacity, but know this, that it is not limited to that. A practical way of thinking what it means to serve the Lord is devoting your time, devoting your energy and your resources to the plans and purposes of God in this world. Living for Him. Doing things for Him. And one of the clearest ways that we can know that we are serving the Lord is if we are serving others.

29:31 Jesus in John 13 in the upper room with his disciples. John 13 verses 12 through 17 we read this. So when he had washed their feet. God incarnate. Think about this. God incarnate. stooping down to wash dirty feet.

29:57 Speaks volumes. When he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. he has given us an example of service and we are to follow in his example we are not greater than our master and so we're to follow the example of our master and we don't get to opt out of it that's not an option but we're told in our text back to joshua 24 we're told to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth.

31:14 It is possible, this is a dangerous thing, it is possible to do what looks like serving the Lord, but to do it from a place where your motives are so far from sincere and so far from pure. the Pharisees were an example of this and Jesus rebuked them for it they did very religious things they drew a lot of attention to themselves when they were going to do a charitable deed or pray they would toot their own horn that's kind of where the phrase comes from and they'd say everybody come look I'm about to pray and then they would pray really long prayers with vain repetition, thinking that they would be heard by God for their many words.

32:13 It was all for show. They did it to be seen by men. And Jesus says, the public recognition that they get, that's their reward. They're not getting any reward from God. But when we do serve the Lord, With right motives, God, he promises, promises to reward us both in this life and the life to come. The third weighty command is to put away sin. To put away sin. Joshua tells them, put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. you and I we can broaden that to just say put away sin even after all the incredible things that the Lord had done for his people Israel was still guilty of worshipping false gods they had seen the Lord do these things and they still worshipped false gods and how tragic it is that even after all that the Lord has done for us, we still sin against Him.

33:34 And yet we're all guilty of this. Joshua, on his final day, earth's side, with his final words, he charges the people to put away their idols so that they may be a holy people who could then serve the Lord with all of who they were. The term put away, put away, it means to remove, to turn away from. Sounds like repentance. That's what repentance means, to turn away from. Or, and I tend to love this portion of the definition, to depose. And that word depose, it means to remove from a throne, to take away one's power and position. and the reason why I like that last portion of this definition is because it makes me think and examine myself who or what is on the throne of my life who is it what false god is it?

34:43 Is it my sinful flesh? Is it the Lord? It should be the Lord. But anything that's on the throne that isn't him, well, it's an idol. And it is an idol that is to be deposed, removed. Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whom we all know and love, He says this, if Joshua were speaking to us today, he would challenge us to forsake the gods of contemporary society. Money, sensual pleasure, and self-absorption. These are the gods who bid for our souls.

35:30 These are the gods that are to be deposed, put away. why is this so important why must we put away the idols that we worship well the scriptures tell us plainly that the lord he's a jealous god exodus 34 14 says for you shall worship no other god for the lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. And we tend to mistakenly always see jealousy as a bad thing. But there is a sanctified and holy version of jealousy that is good. God cannot sin, and yet he is a jealous God. So there must be a holy form of jealousy.

36:26 God does not want us to worship false gods because he desires of us undivided love, undivided loyalty. Not part of us, all of us. God doesn't want just part of you. He doesn't just want you on Sundays. he doesn't want your devotion to be divided between him and someone or something else he won't stand for it he'll keep pursuing you too until you give him all many of you have experienced that in the course of your life that he'll keep coming after you and you want that until you give him all of yourself here's the thing we cannot have both sin and god doesn't work that way you can have sin you can have that vain pursuit and waste your life you can have it you can have god if you want him but you can't have loyalty to both because God will not accept that.

37:42 He's a jealous God. Matthew 6, 24, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. This is very black and white. This isn't a gray area issue.

38:07 You cannot serve God in mammon. Money is the idea of mammon. Material possessions and wealth. And so we ought to ask ourselves today, who am I serving? Am I serving myself? and the false gods in pursuits of this world? Or am I serving the Savior?

38:35 Joshua gave this command to Israel because they could not have both their false gods and the Lord. So they had to make a choice. Our second point today is the choice is yours. The choice is yours. This is what we go on to see. In verse 15, when Joshua says, And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. here Joshua puts the ball in their court and challenges them to step up and to do one thing to choose choose and Joshua prefaces it by saying, if it seems evil to you, and him saying that is him saying, if in your judgment, this is a displeasing thing, if you don't want to do this,

39:52 well, you don't have to. Choose. This word choose, we know this word. We're very familiar with this word. It means to make a decision. To make a decision, decide, would be an appropriate synonym. It means to select an alternative over another.

40:15 We are very familiar with the act of making a choice. We make choices all the time, each and every day. researchers in the field of psychology estimate that the average adult i don't know how they count this but the average adult makes roughly 35 000 choices a day 35 000 i mean we just we don't think always when we're making a decision we just we just do but we're make in that moment we are making a decision. What to eat, what to wear, what to say, what to do. We could go on and on and on. We have this ability to make choices due to the way that God has designed us. When God made humanity, he gave us agency. Agency being what is known as free will.

41:14 we see this all the way back in the garden of eden god put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and said do not eat of this tree do not eat of its fruit but he put it within reach of Adam and Eve because he gave them the gift of free will.

41:40 If there was no alternative to obeying God, then he made pre-programmed robots. If there was no forbidden fruit, there was not truly free will. And contrary to what some might say, being saved, it requires you to utilize your free will that god has given you but the same is true of being condemned. both are choices both are choices that are made in response to what God has done you see you can utilize your God-given agency to receive the gift of salvation in Christ it's as though God offers his salvation with his hands out to you and says here is what I have for you it's my salvation It's your salvation.

42:42 I paid for it. It's a gift. And you and I, we have the free will to reach out and grab it and receive the gift of salvation through faith, the Bible says, or to do this. I'm okay.

43:04 I'm all right. I don't need it. this is a strong statement but it's absolutely true that those who are both in heaven and hell use their free will to get there based on what they chose to do with what jesus did and so joshua is charging the people of israel to make a choice serve your false gods or serve the Lord. Choose. It's as though he's saying to them, nobody has a gun to your head or a sword to your throat making you choose either way. You choose. use that free will serve the gods of your fathers or serve the Lord now I want to kind of linger on the the gods of your fathers that that portion of this verse I believe that there is much application that is worth us considering here especially in light of it being Father's Day in a lot of ways our upbringings shape us into who we are whether that be for better or worse if you grew up in a household where anger and rage was on display quite often then you likely have a tendency towards getting angry or having a temper If you grew up in a household where addictive behaviors, whether it be alcohol, drug use, or sexual addictive behaviors, where those things were on display, you likely have tendencies toward addictive behaviors yourself.

45:07 And we could say more on this, but we must understand that these are not excuses to continue in the sins that you saw in your formative years. Our upbringings certainly shape us, but they do not define us. It takes one father, one mother, one man, one woman to say no more. and through the power of God break the generational cycle of sin that has worked its way through a household. I was on social media the other day and I saw a very powerful video of a man with his three children, sons, and the mom is recording the video and the sons didn't know any of these things about the father, but she records the video and they're all standing against a wall at the start of the video.

46:12 and she says something along the lines of, take one step forward if your dad has taken you to the park. And the three boys with that good dad, they step forward and the dad stays on the wall. And then she says, take a step forward if your dad was at your graduation. And they step forward and he stays back. Take one step forward if your dad never hit you, abused you, and they step forward and he stays back. Powerful. One man changed the whole dynamic because he didn't let his upbringing define him. The power of God changed him. I'm not sure about you but I have I've known men who were horribly abused and they decided to be different and are now some of the most loving fathers in the world and Joshua he's speaking to the people and he's saying hey if you want to be different if you want to forsake the gods of your fathers well let's ride let's do it if you want to continue in in those same sins and just keep it going well you could do so if you want to follow the Lord if you want to serve him let's do it and so our third point today the last portion of verse 15 is stand for yourself and your family stand for yourself and your family Joshua goes on to say but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and here is where we as parents, and in particular we as fathers, should be challenged and exhorted today.

48:23 I would imagine that you've likely seen the words that we just read, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You've probably seen them on a sign of some sort, as a piece of home decor. I'm just curious, I wanted to do this. How many of you have something in your house that has the verse? That is a lot of hands, yep. These are the real Christians. No, I'm just kidding. Just joking, just joking. here's the thing though it's not just a catchy slogan to hang in your kitchen or in your bathroom and to oh wow nice sign this is something to be practically lived out and obeyed Joshua has just given a serious charge to the people, demanding that they would choose who they're going to serve.

49:22 And then he goes on to share with them, here's my choice. Here's the choice I'm making, and my family's coming with me. Francis Schaeffer, Bible commentator, he says on these verses, this is fantastic. the tense that Joshua used implied more than a once for all choosing the tense involved what grammarians call continuous action that is it involves the past but it also involves the present and the future it is as if Joshua had said I have chosen to serve the Lord I am choosing that same path of service now and I will go on choosing to serve God until the very end. This was the character of Joshua. He chose and he chose and he chose and he kept right on choosing.

50:22 He understood the dynamics of choice, once for all choice and existential choice as well. thus his words to the people was not an affirmation puffed up on the spur of the moment it was deeply embedded in Joshua's comprehension of what is required of a person made in the image of God one called upon not to obey God like a machine or an animal but to obey God by choice That is excellent. Choose and keep choosing.

51:03 We should take careful note, though, of the order of Joshua's words. He says, as for me and my house, he does not say, as for my house and me. And I think this is undeniably significant. Joshua, he does indeed speak on behalf of his family Choosing to serve the Lord But he knew something He knew it started with him Started with him first and foremost And here is where I really want to speak to fathers today As today is Father's Day Gentlemen we are commanded by God in his word to lead our families you may not want that responsibility but you have it nonetheless I have it there is no opting out of it if you are a father you have that call from God we are called to protect our family we are called to provide for our family Thank you.

52:17 and many fathers are really good about doing those two things but we are also called to be a priest of our family your family's physical welfare should be a priority to you no doubt about it obviously but your family's spiritual welfare should be a chief priority to you biblically speaking the father sets the tone the father sets the tone for the family's spiritual health it is not at all an exaggeration to say that dads the most important thing we can be doing right now is leading our families in the ways of God it is the most important thing Thank you.

53:12 you don't need to get involved in another ministry you need to focus on the the ministry that god has commissioned to you first and foremost the ministry of your household the career you have sure it's important but it's not more important the hobby you have well it's obviously not more important. Nothing is more important than leading your family in the ways of God. But just like how Joshua described it, we cannot spiritually lead our families if we are not leading from out in front.

53:52 We are called to lead by example, not from a standpoint of, and we've all heard this, do as I say, not as I do. I'll tell you, as a guy who does youth ministry, your kids won't buy it. If you don't live what you preach, just see through it. You see, every man should be able to say these words to their children. 1 Corinthians 11.1, these words right here. Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. A father should be able to say that to their son, their daughter, and their wife. Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

54:46 Children, they are prone to imitate. They are prone to copy It's actually how God has designed them, believe it or not In Ephesians 5.1 Paul writes there, therefore be imitators of God as dear children There's a connection between imitation and dear children That we see here in this verse Children imitate I, as a dad, I try to intentionally spend time with the Lord with my daughter around. I have seen that without me prompting her to do so, if I have my Bible and I'm reading, she'll go in her books and she'll find her Bible, a little two-year-old. she'll go find her bible and she'll go sit and she'll read which obviously looking at the pictures more so She started already to pray.

55:52 It's amazing. We let her pray for her food sometimes. And sometimes she'll pray for the whole group if we're at like an outing with friends or family. And it's so adorable. But this is as a result of imitation. What she's seen, what she has heard. and it's for this reason that we ought to be so incredibly mindful of the example that we are setting for our children whom the Lord has given us if you want your children to follow Jesus and serve him don't just tell them show them show them what it looks like you see there's a phrase that I've never forgotten discipleship is caught not taught it's caught not taught they see it and it's a tragedy and I think the word tragedy is an understatement it's a tragedy that far too many fathers don't bother to concern themselves with these things most fathers are very dedicated to providing for their family and protecting their family and obviously those things are great that's expected of you god wants you to do that and do it well but to be a dad that labors to make sure that their family is doing well spiritually that's it the other youth pastors and I, there's three of us total here at the church, we've agreed that upwards of 90% or so of the biblical guidance sessions that we have with students are as a result of the failures of a father.

57:51 I don't say that lightly. I don't say it with joy. we wouldn't be in those meetings if those kids' dads were doing what they were supposed to do. Dads, we are called to steward our family. Steward. The word steward has to do with God having entrusted something to our care. It's as though the Lord says to us, here are these precious little souls. that I care so much about.

58:29 Take care of them, God would say. Those are weighty words, but they really serve to put things into proper perspective. Our wives and our children, men, they're certainly still going to be accountable to God for their choices. They have a free will just like we have a free will, and God will hold them accountable for the decisions that they make. It's absolutely true. But what is also true is we, as fathers, as spiritual leaders, are going to be accountable to God for how we led them. I don't think it's far-fetched to think that the Lord may ask us questions like these when we stand before Him one day. Tate, did you, through leading by example, set your children up for success spiritually?

59:32 Or did you fail to give them an example worth following and set them up to fail? Tate, did you bother to open my word and teach them about it? Tate, did you care more about your family's spiritual health than your golf and your pickleball game? I use those hobbies because those are two of the things I like to do from time to time. Did you care about your family's spiritual health more than your hobbies?

1:00:02 Did you show them how to pray to me? Did you show them what surrendered worship looks like, Tate? or were you too concerned with how you looked that you never bothered to sing to me around them to lift up your hands It's just like boom, boom, boom, you know? truly a father's influence is second to none it is second to none children need to be trained up the bible says in proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it children need to be trained up and they need this training first and foremost from their father.

1:01:02 Ephesians 6, 4 in the New Testament, Paul speaks on Proverbs 22, 6 here. He says, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

1:01:23 And so as we begin to close this morning, the very last thing that I would want for any father today would be the very last thing that God would want for you today and that would be to feel shame because of your shortcomings instead the right thing to feel would be a holy conviction which then energizes you to leave and do better.

1:01:56 It's never too late to step up to the plate and walk in the calling that God has for you as a father. Maybe you've made plenty of mistakes. maybe God would lead you to make a phone call today and apologize it's time to start fixing our mistakes one by one and just like a big ship takes a while to turn around so it may take some time some time to get things right with your family but it's never too late you and I as fathers rising to the occasion and leading our family and serving the Lord is a decision that can have a generational impact. Truly, an impact that we may never get to see. Just the other day, I saw a short yet very powerful video that I wanted to share with you fellow dads and moms today for sure about how important it is to concern yourself with your family spiritual welfare and how that is a legacy worth leaving let's watch it together what are you most proud of after i got out of service the good lord directed my wife to me she was a strong christian person so my legacy what i'm so proud of is i have three wonderful christian children i have four christian grandchildren i have 24 great-grandchildren and the ones who are accountable are Christians and it can't get any better than that.

1:03:46 That is what I'm so proud of. I'm so blessed by your obedience and that you have made your faith a priority in your life and it's bled. It's what they talk about. It's a decision that you make that affects generations upon generations and maybe whenever you said yes to Christ and put your faith in Him, you didn't think about it that way. But now you being 101 years old, you see the weight of the decision that you made when you were younger and being obedient in that. And I think that's just it's incredible and it's inspiring. And it definitely encourages me that the decisions that I'm making right now hold so much more weight and gravity than I than I even realize.

1:04:33 Yeah. what that 101-year-old man, who was a World War II veteran and surely accomplished many things in his life, what he was most proud of was that his children were Christians, his grandchildren were Christians, and his great-grandchildren that were old enough to understand the gospel and respond to it, they were Christians too. That's a legacy. That's a legacy that a father should strive for.

1:05:14 And so... As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I say that on my behalf, only you can say it on your behalf. What will you do? Let's pray. Father, I pray that we would respond to the challenge today. Lord, that you'd bring healing to households where healing is needed. Lord that all fathers today would be inspired to be a more devoted man of God a leader of their household a priest a protector and a provider Lord do this we pray help us in our insufficiencies it's in Jesus name we all pray