Good Morning Church!
Welcome back to the house of God. Today is a beautiful day that God has made and let us all worship and praise God together and thank Him for all the blessings!
Today’s we will be focused on the topic, “Godly Fathers – Godly Decisions!” This is in continuation with last Sunday’s topic where we spoke about fathers on the theme if Father’s day.
Being a Godly father is a work of effort and only possible with God’s strength. We as human father, we need to understand that we need mercy of God to be a Godly father.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out. “‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’
Joshua 24:1-13
We must never think our work for God done, till our life is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected, like those of Joshua, it is because he has some further service for us to do. He who aims at the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, will glory in bearing the last testimony to his Saviour’s goodness, and in telling to all around, the obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has bound him. The assembly came together in a solemn religious manner. Joshua spake to them in God’s name, and as from him. His sermon consists of doctrine and application. The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for his people, and for their fathers before them. The application of this history of God’s mercies to them, is an exhortation to fear and serve God, in gratitude for his favour, and that it might be continued.
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”
Joshua 24:14-27
It is essential that the service of God’s people be performed with a willing mind. For LOVE is the only genuine principle whence all acceptable service of God can spring. The Father seeks only such to worship him, as worship him in spirit and in truth. The carnal mind of man is enmity against God, therefore, is not capable of such spiritual worship. Hence the necessity of being born again. But numbers rest in mere forms, as tasks imposed upon them. Joshua puts them to their choice; but not as if it were indifferent whether they served God or not. Choose you whom ye will serve, now the matter is laid plainly before you. He resolves to do this, whatever others did. Those that are bound for heaven, must be willing to swim against the stream. They must not do as the most do, but as the best do. And no one can behave himself as he ought in any station, who does not deeply consider his religious duties in family relations. The Israelites agree with Joshua, being influenced by the example of a man who had been so great a blessing to them; We also will serve the Lord. See how much good great men do, by their influence, if zealous in religion. Joshua brings them to express full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. They must come off from all confidence in their own sufficiency, else their purposes would be in vain. The service of God being made their deliberate choice, Joshua binds them to it by a solemn covenant. He set up a monument of it. In this affecting manner Joshua took his last leave of them; if they perished, their blood would be upon their own heads. Though the house of God, the Lord’s table, and even the walls and trees before which we have uttered our solemn purposes of serving him, would bear witness against us if we deny him, yet we may trust in him, that he will put his fear into our hearts, that we shall not depart from him. God alone can give grace, yet he blesses our endeavours to engage men to his service. There is another family in Joshua Chapter 7, Achan – the son of Carmi whose decisions and choices are duly recorded.
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15
What a wonderful statement by an experienced man!
Joshua saw many mighty miracles God performed. Joshua saw the wall of Jericho taken down. Joshua saw the transformation in the life of people of Israel. Most importantly, Joshua had fear of God in his heart.
Dear people of God, the choices we make in our life to day is going to determine the future of our eternal life. People when they get settled, they tend to turn away from God and don’t keep God as their first priority. The choices that we make today is very very important.
Today fathers and mothers leave their children to make their own decisions, what a foolish people we have become.
Fathers, we need to take an active part in the life of our children. If we make wrong choices, there is a possibility of eternal damage. We as fathers have a greater responsibility as Children imitate us. Children will watch you when you pray, when you raise your hands for worshipping God. Everything we do, Children will pickup all those things, including things we do conventionally in our household.
Coming back to Joshua, he never bothered what other fathers did back then. He was concerned about his family as he followed Yahweh with all his heart. As a parent, Joshua followed God and served Him.
God has given us the gift in our children and it is our responsibility to invest ourselves in children’s spiritual life. Children will learn from us and what we decide today will reflect in the lives of our children. Talk with them and answer to theur questions.
We need to make a decision because it is going to have consequences, good or bad, it totally depends on the decisions we make.
There was a man who made a Godly decisions in his family who didn’t say I, but we will serve God as a family. May God raise up Godly fathers from your family.
Dr. James Dobson once said, “The Western world stands at a great crossroads in its history. It is my opinion that our very survival as a people will depend on the presence or absence of masculine leadership in millions of homes.”
Maybe someday you might say that “I made a wrong decision!” However, that can change if you make a good choice today and be a Godly father, ready to encourage your family in a way Joshua did.
Today I want to ask all the fathers, do you want your Children to be like Joshua and follow God? Do you want your children to make Christ centered decisions and love Him? If your answer to this question is a yes, then today is the time to make a choice which will decide the consequences and the journey of our Children towards their eternal life with Christ. Submit yourself to God and ask for his intervention in your life that it encourages you to be a Godly man and a Godly father. And that may you walk in the ways of Lord as a father and lead your children to walk in the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We hope you are encouraged with today’s message. We look forward to see you again next Sunday. God Bless!