Your sitter may be getting weary.
From Joshua chapter 24 now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord and if it is a disagreeable thing in your sight to serve the Lord choose for yourselves today whom you will serve whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living But as for me in my house We will serve the Lord Please be seated
The text that we have read this morning records a major spiritual turning point In the nation of the Israelites God had called them of course through Abraham He had redeemed them from Egypt through the leadership of Moses and now Moses was dead many years Joshua was their leader They had conquered the land of Canaan with its various pagan tribes and divided the land among themselves Before they went off to enjoy the land that God had given them
They met with Joshua for one last speech and we've read part of that speech You see these people of God Had compromised their lifestyle They had accommodated themselves to the gods of The pagan nations that they had driven out of the land of Canaan And so Joshua called them on this occasion to purify themselves to repent of their idolatry and to serve the Lord And they did so Later in the paragraph that we read the nation made the decision saying we will serve the Lord
Sadly that decision did not extend to many generations For the nation of Israel again turned to idolatry many times in the future however
For that generation for that generation. This was a turning point It was a day when they as a nation of families Declared in the midst of a culture that was pagan and corrupt we will serve the Lord There are several observations about families that come to mind as I think about what happened in Joshua chapter 24 The first observation is this that a nation is a family of families That was very true For Israel because they were the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob
They were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob whose name was Israel thus they were called the Israelites As a nation they were truly blood family But there's another sense in which every nation is a family of families because God has so designed human beings That the basic unit in any society is the family If we picture the the society as a whole as a large structure The individual bricks that make up that huge structure are the families A nation is a family of families
Now I know that the situation in Israel is not an exact parallel to the United States But we come to this same conclusion nonetheless that in any society Revivals that have been reported in college campuses all across America this last spring praise the Lord for what he is stirring up Any meaningful and lasting spiritual renewal must involve the family units In the lives of our young people, but I'll tell you that it will not last Until we have a new family unit
And I thank God for that and I thank God for the revival that has been reported in college campuses all across America this last spring Praise the Lord for what he is stirring up in the lives of our young people But I'll tell you that it will not last unless it touches the whole family unit And my prayer through the summer has been that as those students have gone back to their homes Something's happened in their families and something's happened in their churches
If God is going to do something in a whole society it must touch the home if it's going to be lasting And we're talking about the family so let me just insert a word here Regarding what a family is because there's a lot of debate in our society concerning that The biblical ideal of a family is a man and woman living together in monogamous marriage And bearing children for whom they take responsibility before God It's a man and woman who are living together in a monogamous marriage
And who bear children for whom they take full responsibility That's the biblical ideal the fact is that we live in a fallen world And there is another reality that many of us face In fertile couples and in the family That many of us face in fertile couples who would love to have children but cannot Single families with single parent families rather with children I was raised in a single parent home for seven years until my mother married again
And when she married again my stepfather and mother had a daughter And so we had a blended family of sorts And the blended family is another reality that is in our world today But we need to understand that any group living together is not a family And there are some who are promoting that as part of their agenda That if there are two people of the same sex living together that's a family That is not true That if there are those living in open marriages or in what they call serial monogamy
Living with one person faithfully at a time Talk about a perverted idea of monogamy But they call it serial monogamy That's not a family Now I know that the government may change the legal definition of a family I hope not I hope that we will do what we can I hope that we will do everything we can to encourage our government to strengthen the family As it is defined in the bible But let's be clear about this that if someday There is a broadening of the definition of the family in our culture
That does not alter the biblical definition God's ideal God's standard of a family is still the same no matter what the government decides No matter what laws are passed no matter what the supreme court says Now there are liberal churches and denominations There are wacky theologians and sociologists Who reinterpret the standard of the family to fit the culture as it dissipates But that does not make that cultural dissipation somehow morally acceptable to God
In just a few weeks there's going to be a gathering in Beijing China That is called United Nations fourth world congress on women It is a frontal attack on the traditional family The biblical family Its agenda is controlled by feminists If you do not receive letters from Focus on the Family I urge you to write them for their august letter In which Dr. Dobson explains What this conference is really all about And ladies and gentlemen your tax dollars in mind because the current administration
Are underwriting most of the budget for it It is a direct attack upon the family If God is going to do something in a society it has to happen in the families Because a society a nation is a family of families Secondly I observe in this text That the direction that families are going to go in the future That families take determines the direction of the society Here it says later in chapter 24 of Joshua And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua
And all the days of the elders who survived to Joshua And had known the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel In other words the whole nation changed course at this point Because there was one man who stood up and said as for me and my house We will serve the Lord you choose whom you will serve And that generation said we will serve the Lord And the nation changed course at that moment Therefore Israel and that generation was prevented from experiencing the judgment of God
What would happen in America if every Christian family Were to make the decision that they made in the day of Joshua That if every one of us would say in our family units We don't care what direction the culture is going We don't care how the supreme court or the government define the family We don't care if they want to remove God We will serve the Lord What would happen?
I don't know I don't know I wish I could say that would save America But let's be honest that God's agenda may not include saving America As we know it now God may want this nation to go into judgment which it deserves As does every other human government I don't know if America would be saved if Christian families would do that But this I know it would make some sort of difference Because today every survey that's taken tragically tells us
That although some say a third of the people in America claim to be born again And I know that has a lot of definitions to a lot of different people But they say they're born again The lifestyle choices they make are statistically no different than anybody else in America What would happen if Christian families were truly Christian? I think the better question is than Can America be saved through its families is Can Christian families survive the American culture as Christian?
And I think the answer to that is no Except by the power and the wisdom of Jesus Christ I don't believe any family can survive this culture as a Christian family Apart from the power of God and the wisdom of Jesus Christ Working in that family A third observation I make is the families are essentially interrelated These families really were You talk about a church in California that has the pastor There's the grandfather and all of his family is in the church My goodness
I'd like to be at one of those business meetings See how business is conducted in that church And we talk about a church being interrelated There are pluses and minuses to that But here we have a whole nation of cousins among the Israelites And they fought like cousins too But they were related But the observation I make is that families have to be related to other families If they're going to be healthy In the broader text of Joshua 24 God points out that the family is not related to the family
In the text of Joshua 24 God points all the way back to Abraham I called Abraham and his son Isaac and Jacob And I did this and this and this and this for all of your descendants And he warns them about the future You see God sees them not just as an isolated generation But he sees them related all the way back to Abraham They were interrelated And in that day they were interrelated They had a future progeny in front of them Interrelationships are essential for families
One study that has been done several years ago indicated that every family needs to have 25 to 30 relationships Family relationships Now some of these relationships originate within the biological family Brothers and sisters and cousins Some of these relationships occur within the church Some families have relationships in their neighborhood, all of us should Or with fellow workers at the company
But the point is that every family if it's going to be healthy has to have about 25 connections to other families And these connections are characterized by these things They see one another frequently They like to be with one another socially There's a reciprocal positive feeling about being together And they help each other in crisis and in time of need What an amazing statement And I wonder where my family and your family is in that sort of a measurement of what health is
That families are essentially interrelated We are not created by God to be autonomous groups that are separated from everybody else That's one of the important things that a church provides for people Some of those connecting points for families That's what cell groups are about So that those connecting points can be more personal, more intimate Vital to being a healthy family Another observation I make is that families have a God-designed order Now Joshua spoke for his family
He lived in a patriarchal period And there were some particular characteristics of that period For one, the senior male in the family was the one who was looked upon as sort of the priest of the family He directed everything and Joshua takes that role here That term patriarchal has become a term of anathema in our culture In fact, there are those who are saying that it is the patriarchal concept Not the biblical one I've just described But that there are males who are in leadership
That's the root of all evil, especially the evil for women I don't have time to read some quotes regarding that this morning But there is a group out there called the gender feminists Well represented by the way in Beijing next month Who are promoting a new idea of gender No longer are we to look, they say, are we to look at people as male or female That's old That limits women and men They say now we're to see five genders Have you heard this?
The gender feminists are pushing the idea that there are five genders There's male, there's female, there's gay, there's lesbian, and there's transsexual And whatever you are is not what you're born as, it's whatever society makes you And all five of those are equal Isn't that perverse?
That would be one of the things presented in Beijing By the American delegation as well as others Folks, God has designed an order for the family It's not the patriarchal system in the sense of Joshua's day But it is male leadership as the head of the home, the husband, is to sacrificially love his wife He is to work together with his wife in a caring, nurturing partnership God has designed order for the home and to the extent that we follow that order God is able to bless us as he wishes
One final observation Families have to make choices In order to establish our priorities we have to make choices Here, Joshua leads his family in making a choice to serve the Lord I think it's especially important when a culture is in crisis that families make choices You see there is little in the culture around us today that stands for what pleases God Unless we make some hard choices we will simply conform ourselves to the culture around us
Families like yours and mine are constantly needing to evaluate To acknowledge wrong priorities To set new ones that reflect God's order Joshua called the families of his day to realize that they had adopted the ways of the pagans He said some of you are following the gods of our fathers from beyond the river Some of you are following the gods of the land in which we are living now And he says make a choice Here's where I stand but you make a decision whether you are going to serve God or not
Families have to make choices especially when the culture has been compromised For some time family relationships were considered a low priority in our society Our culture seemed to press for dad to be at work more hours than he should be For mom to get a job And there was a time a few years ago when many people including a lot of Christians said this is wrong We're going to make a choice to put our families before work And it was the right thing to do
But one thing I've observed in the evangelical church is that some people, not all, but some people have overreacted from back then And they said we're going to put our family before everything Even before God And that too is a subtle idolatry Jesus warned if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters Notice the family relationships And yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple
Jesus is not here undervaluing the family certainly he's not undermining the family But he is saying that there is a priority in our lives that comes before the family And that is him Now some people view the family and God as being at odds with one another Somehow if you go one way or the other you neglect the opposite I don't believe that's the biblical picture at all The biblical picture is putting the family in the right place and God in the right place as priority in our lives
And when that is the case there's a wonderful balance There's not a debate between God and the family There's not a war between God and the family There is a wonderful balance and cooperation between God and the family You see not even the family can come before Jesus Christ in our lives He has to be first Every family has to make a choice And I don't know where this message falls at your feet this morning And what pieces of it you need to pick up and bring into your own life and your own heart
I don't know what practice in your life may need to be altered What value may need to be changed But as we think about the family I bring to you Joshua chapter 24 and these observations as well as others that you would make And I say to us together as a family of families in this church Because that's what we are too Let's choose to make the Lord our number one priority and to serve him together And to be God's people in the midst of a culture that is going down the slide to ruin
Let's be God's people in the midst of it And faithful to him And see what a difference God would make in our culture because of that And if our culture goes on to ruin and destruction and judgment as well it may Then so be it When we stand before Jesus Christ someday which is the most important exam of all We'll be able to hear from him well done good and faithful servant Even in 20th century America Well done You and your family Let's pray What would it be that God wants you to act upon
What is it you need to reconsider What decision needs to be affected in your life I don't know But think about what's been said this morning in this total service Let the Spirit of God bring to you at least one thing That you want to apply to your own life God will bless you for it if you choose to do it Father may none of us walk away from here without some point of our lives Being touched by something you've said in this service Thank you for families
Thank you for families that are imperfect in this fallen world Thank you that we can still enjoy in the family relationships in this kind of a culture A closeness and a love we can still honor you and put you first And I pray Father that we as parents, as children, as grandparents As part of a family of families in this church As those who are part of a family of families in our culture That we will be living the way you want us to live with the right priorities
And I pray Father that you will use us to make a difference To make a difference We know not what the next generation may entail, but Lord if it please you we pray that in this generation We may see a spiritual renewal like that of Joshua's day Because we choose, we and our families, to serve the Lord Amen