Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Morning thinking of you all asking God to help me preach to you. This morning I said the Lord's Prayer about three times, actually, and it was beautiful. And I want us to say it out loud. And as you praying it, shut your eyes and think. I know we all know the Lord's Prayer and we're going to look at a famous passage this morning.
[00:00:23] Do you know what? Think about the words that you're saying.
[00:00:25] Think about the power of what we're just about to pray. Are you ready? So before we pray, shut your eyes. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our dead, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[00:00:52] Deliver us from evil. Listen. For thine be the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen.
[00:01:04] Amen.
[00:01:05] Forever and ever and ever. Church no Plan B. Jesus is coming back. He's on his throne. Don't worry about what your telly shows you. Don't worry about the news.
[00:01:15] Jesus is coming back.
[00:01:18] A promise for the believer is forever and ever and ever. His kingdom, his power. Amen.
[00:01:23] You can take your seats.
[00:01:25] Just thought we'd kick off with that.
[00:01:27] So today we're going to look at a famous passage. Last year, before we did the Luke series, the Fullness of Christ, I did a little miniseries. Those that were still here then can remember. On Manage youe Life, we looked at manage your mouth, manage your heart, those kind of things. I like to be quite practical when I talk to you.
[00:01:44] And I've just been really just aware recently there's some quite famous scriptures that we all spew out as Christians in tough times, which is good. Don't worry. Nothing wrong with that. Okay, but have we ever gone into. Well, I know I haven't. Have we ever actually looked at those scriptures in the Bible and looked all around them? It's a pretty cool thing to do because I've kind of really enjoyed preparing this for you this morning. So the next few times I'm going to talk, I want to be practical. I'm going to look at some of those famous scriptures that we all spew out as a Christian and know well and look at the context of them and look at how they apply to our lives now. Is that cool?
[00:02:18] Okay, so we're going to kick off with the first one.
[00:02:21] Has anyone been on Boz, by the way? Bible on zoom. Put your hand up. How good's that with Esther?
[00:02:27] Whoa.
[00:02:28] Thursday Nights, you're missing out if you don't go on Bible on Zoom. It's been fantastic. But this week we didn't speak about this. By the way, as you're going to tell now, she started diving into Joshua 24. And anyone who's ever preached. Lawson, Dave, if. You know what, if somebody starts diving into a passage in the week that, you know, you're speaking on the Sunday, you're like that. No, don't steal my thunder for Sunday. Fortunately, she didn't. She said in the beginning of Luke 24 of Joshua 24. So I'm okay, but I've had this passage on my heart for several weeks, so I want to look at it this morning. We all ready?
[00:03:04] Can we have the.
[00:03:06] Yeah, cool. On the screen?
[00:03:09] So. Right, I'm going to read this out. I'll read it from here then. Okay, so this is Joshua 24. We're ready. Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, the leaders, the judges and the officials of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.
[00:03:28] Joshua said to all the people, and this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.
[00:03:34] Long ago, your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates river and worshiped other gods. Wow.
[00:03:46] But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led them throughout Canaan and gave them many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac, I gave Jacob and Esau. And I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau. But Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.
[00:04:04] Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there. And I brought you out.
[00:04:12] When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptian pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help.
[00:04:24] And he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. And then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them before you and took possession of their land.
[00:04:50] When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, preferred to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam, son of Boa, to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
[00:05:06] Right, this next slide, there's a little famous verse, a little sentence we're going to do. Can we do a little practice?
[00:05:14] What can we do? What did I say to do?
[00:05:17] That's it. Frantically wave at me. Practice frantically waving.
[00:05:22] Okay, so when we get to a certain part of a verse, I want you to frantically wave at me. I'm not going to say anything. Okay, Are you ready? Then you crossed the Jordan river and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, the Pezizites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites had for Yorkshire, and this, the Girgashites, excuse me, the Hivizites, the Jebusites. But I gave them into your hands. I sent a hornet ahead of you which drove them out before you. Also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land which you did not toil, and the cities which you did not build, and you live in them and eat from the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.
[00:06:10] Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.
[00:06:15] Throw away the gods that your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates river in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the God of your ancestors that served beyond the Euphrates or the God of the Amorites in land whose you are living.
[00:06:40] There's only a few of you, but okay, but getting there. We're warming up now.
[00:06:48] But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
[00:06:55] Already God, I've got more. Yeah. Then the people answered, far be it for us to forsake the Lord to serve other God. It was the Lord, our God himself, who brought us and our parents out of Egypt from the land of slavery and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among the nations that we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord because he is our God.
[00:07:25] Joshua said to the people, you, you are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end for you after he has been good to you. But the people said to Joshua, no, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said, okay, you are witnesses against yourselves.
[00:07:53] That you have chosen to serve the Lord. Yes, we are witnesses, they replied.
[00:07:59] Now then, said Joshua, throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, we will serve the Lord our God and obey him. And on that day, Joshua made a covenant with the people. And there at Shechem, he reaffirmed for them the decrees and the laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God. And. And then he took a large stone, set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord. See, he said to all the people, this stone will be a witnessing against us. It has heard all the words of the Lord, said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God. Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance, buried in the promised land. After these things, Joshua's son Anon, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110.
[00:08:50] And then they buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnah Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who explained everything the Lord had done for Israel. Then Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of the Lord that Jacob bought for 100 pieces of silver and from the sons of Hamar, the father of Shechem.
[00:09:19] This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants. And Eleazar, son of Aaron, died and was buried at Gebar, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
[00:09:32] Thank you, Lord, for your word. I probably pronounced most of those places wrong, but that's okay.
[00:09:41] So Joshua was talking to the people, isn't he? He's talking to the people. And what's he doing? To start with, he reminds them. He reminds them of all that God had done in the past in verse two to four. Fantastic, right? He reminds them. It's a bit of a big one, innit really? He reminds them that God brought them through the Red Sea.
[00:10:02] You know, these people, when you read them in the Old Testament, they seem just such a lifetime ago, don't they, to us? No iPhones, no cookers, probably no cars, nothing that we experience as everyday life. But you know what? There were people just like you and me. They were human beings just like you and me. And they were scared. They had an Egyptian army chasing them. And their God. Imagine being there that day. Just imagine the sea roaring up and you walk through it on dry land. Then it came crashing. I just want you to imagine these things, these things that have happened in the past. Joshua here. It's funny how people quickly forget what God's done in their lives.
[00:10:38] Part of my point this morning is remembering what God's done in our lives. So remember that. He said, look, they brought you through the Red Sea. And then verse eight, get this.
[00:10:46] I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived east of the Jordan, therefore against you. Did you notice the word I? A lot, he said. But I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them before you. And you took back the possession of the land. God fought for them. You, he'll fight for us. As he fought for them, he raised split the Red Sea. He keeps on reminding it before he gets to our famous verse. He keeps going. Verse 11 to 13. Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you. Here we go again. A lot of fights in the Old Testament, isn't there?
[00:11:20] I won't try and say them all again. But the citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Bezizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Gigashites, Hivites and Jebusites. But I gave them into your hands. I sent a hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you, also to the two Amorite kings. You did not do this with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil for and cities which you did not build.
[00:11:48] And you now live in them and eat from the vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. Are we getting the picture, Church?
[00:11:55] Are we getting the picture? God did a lot for them, didn't he, Joshua? Saying, remember what God's done in our lives, hey? Remember what he's clearly saying to them? It was God who rescued them, God who delivered them, and God who looked after them. Same God, Church. Same God, same Jesus. What's this to say? You find Jesus through every page in the Bible. Jesus was there.
[00:12:17] Same God. I want to tell you this morning. Anyone here that can testify God's goodness in the lives that he provides for us? Yeah, you've probably heard me say this before. It's so true. It is a beautiful thing, Church, to build history with God. Joshua's here reminding the people of their history with God, right? It's a beautiful thing to build history with God yourself. We're going to look at our households later on. We're going to look at the church, but God, you know, to build your own history with God, it's a beautiful thing. Quick reminder of this story. You know, I love telling you stories.
[00:12:47] I think most of you probably weren't here when I told it the first time. But, you know, I've been in the steel business all my life, since I was 19 and I started my own business when I was 28.
[00:12:56] And about two years into this business, by the grace of God, I'd amassed £100,000 as a company. We'd built up a net worth of £100,000. In two years. God had really blessed us. And I had a Christian customer in Northern Ireland who owed me £10,000. So 10% of what we were worth.
[00:13:17] And I really felt God clearly one day, say. And he showed me time and time again, you know, when God speaks to you, you feel it in here. And he gave me a picture. And then I drove over the M62 from Leeds to Manchester. And there was this. You know them lorries that you see in a field sometimes advertising? Never seen it before. And when I drove back, it wasn't there again. And it said, dowie D O W I E. And I was saying, lord, you're going to have to show it to me. Well, the guy was called Fred Dowie, and He owed me 10 grand. And I was like, crikey, I'm gonna have to let this man off. 10 grand. We've only just got going. This is a lot of money to us. So I rang him. I said, fred, you need to sit down. And I told him. He said, no, no, brother. He was Northern Irish. He went, no, brother, you cannot do that, son. No, no, not be right. No, it's me that's got in trouble, not yourself. Very kind of you, but I'll be paying you back every penny. I said, no, Fred, you're not listening. I said, you're a brother in Christ. God's told me to let you off this debt.
[00:14:09] I don't know what to say. And he sat down and it was a beautiful moment.
[00:14:13] Kind of put the phone. I thought, nice one. We've just gone backwards. But you know, when, you know, you've done stuff, church, whether it's a financial thing, health thing, whatever it is in your lives, and you've just done something because God's God and he's worth it, forget about it then. You've done it, right?
[00:14:28] Don't look for anything back. Don't do a thing.
[00:14:30] God's amazing. This is part of your Building history with God. Literally two working days later I had an inquiry from a guy in Ireland and they were a big structural engineer in Bally Bay in southern Ireland. And he came on with this lovely big order that was about 60 grand of steel that I could make about 12 to 15 grand profit on. But I didn't have the 60 grand cash to be able to finance the deal without boring your stay with me. So I said to the boss there said, mark, thank you for giving me the opportunity. I know I've started on my own, but I can't actually buy the steel to do it for you. I've not enough credit left at the moment with my supplier.
[00:15:04] He goes, phil, I sort of knew that when I rang you, but you're a good lad and I've heard good things about you around here. I'll stop doing the Irish accent. And he said, you give me a price and if it's the right price, I'll send you the money. So I was like, wow. So I sent him a quote. I got my price from the supplier and it made about, I think it was about 12 or 13 grand.
[00:15:26] And I sent him off the price. He said, he rang me up, he said, send me an invoice.
[00:15:30] So I sent him an invoice and I promise you, the morning after, 60,000, about 59 grand appeared in my bank account.
[00:15:36] So I rang my supplier up in Newcastle, I said, got a nice order for you. Chipped him down on price, of course.
[00:15:44] And I was like, wow. And I just, I just at the time thought, God, you are so faithful. Like you've got to know for a two year old company to be given 60 grand cash to somebody that didn't, you know, it's a big risk for that person. I, I could have taken that money or they could have never seen the steal, but he trusted him. But that's just one of many stories that I'm sure you all got that when you build history with God, when you walk through those blades of grass with God and you know there's tough times in this sometimes church sometimes. You get that phone call, don't you, in the middle of the night. We all know what it means. Why the heck is the phone ringing at three in the morning? It's usually the loss of a loved one. It's a tough phone call to receive. We've all had those health things, haven't we? The notes from the doctor. We've all had different things come along in life. But when you've seen God be faithful throughout the generations that is what Joshua is doing here. He's saying, look, look what God's done for us before. And I want to encourage us as a church to build history with God. You know why? Because it will sustain you.
[00:16:38] It will sustain your church, it will sustain you when that phone call rings in the middle of the night. It will sustain you when the doctor's verdict comes. It will sustain you when you lose your job. It will sustain you when that tough thing happens. If you've got history with God in your household, trust me, you go straight to him.
[00:16:54] Yeah, Jesus looks at us and he sees us and he wants to be involved in every area of our lives.
[00:17:01] So before this famous verse 15 promise, Joshua is reminding the people, isn't he, about all that God has done in the past. But what does he do?
[00:17:10] You probably wouldn't have noticed it in the passage. This is why it's good to study him. This is why it's good to get these famous scriptures that we all know. Get your Bible open and read the context around. Read what he's doing.
[00:17:21] I loved preparing this. It was such good fun.
[00:17:23] So Joshua tells them all that God's done in the past year. And then he gives them three specific instructions in Christian living for them and three specific instructions before he says the famous. As for me, in my house, we're going to serve the Lord, he says in verse 14. And then at the start of verse 15, three specific things. Number one, fear the Lord.
[00:17:48] Number two, serve him with all faithfulness.
[00:17:53] Number three, choose who you will serve in your households, Fear him, serve him with faithfulness and choose who you will serve in your household.
[00:18:06] What did Joshua mean by the fear of the Lord? Anyone ever thought that as a Christian, I enjoyed looking at this as well. I don't believe the fear of the Lord is to be scared of God. Don't believe that's what the Bible means.
[00:18:19] They could be scared of God. I'm sure they were scared of God when they had a lot of chariots running at them. They're running down the hill, they've kind of got a head start.
[00:18:27] They turn around that Egypt's finest SAS soldiers are running after them and you've got the sea in front of you.
[00:18:34] Humanly speaking, I would say they were pretty scared then, don't you?
[00:18:38] That's what it is to be scared.
[00:18:40] That's a fear scaring, okay?
[00:18:44] Joshua says to fear God, not man.
[00:18:47] Maybe you're a new Christian here and you've only heard about loving God. You haven't heard about fearing God. Crikey Phil, what are you talking about? Fearing God? Not heard that one before.
[00:18:58] Well, I believe to fear God as a Christian is recognizing God's authority over our lives, recognizing that he is God, we are human.
[00:19:10] Recognizing God as God as we live for him over our everyday lives.
[00:19:16] It's often said about fearing God, it's beholding God. It's beholding this reverent fear and awe of God. You are Jesus. You are God. Your ways are above our ways. Not to be scared of him, but. But to fear him reverently, in awe, and behold him for who he is. Amen.
[00:19:35] Now, as humans, we can have a healthy fear. And I'm going to give you another little story, okay? This young man here, who's now 19, I love Reuben. I love all my kids. And growing up, he was probably the cheekiest. And it's hard as a dad, right, when you get a phone call from your wife. Because I used to live in Warrington. We lived in Warrington, but my steel business was in Rochdale for 10 years. Okay. Now, any of you know the geography up north? That's probably only about 20 miles, but it was around the Manchester circular. It used to take about an hour to get home in the rush hour, so I put my tunes on. Some worship, some heart. 80s. Da da da da da had my day at work. And you just chilled out, ready to go home, put your feet up. The phone rings.
[00:20:21] It's Esther, who can't be here with us this morning, by the way. Sorry. She's poorly. She's got flu.
[00:20:27] It's not man flu, though, so she's all right. Don't worry.
[00:20:31] She's going to battle through. I'll give you menopause and I'll give you childbirth, but, nah, flu's a man thing.
[00:20:38] It was on the radio. You know, estrogen fights the strand of flu better than testosterone. Woman and a man have the same flu, a woman's gonna feel not as bad as a man. So you can throw tomatoes at me, ladies, but it's a scientific fact. But Esther would ring me when she didn't have flu. She would ring me and she'd say, james has done this, or Heidi's done that, or Reuben's done this.
[00:21:04] And I'm chilled out, driving home, done my day at work, and I've got to come in as father. Do you remember? We all had it when we were younger. Wait till your father gets home. Kind of a. That was a scary thing as a kid, wasn't it? Especially if you had a dad like me. And it was like she said to me, she said, he's done it again.
[00:21:23] Now. I knew the situation we're talking about and I knew I'd warned Ruben twice about this particular thing that he was very naughty with.
[00:21:32] So I said to him, on the second time, I said, if you do that one more time, I am going to chuck your PS4. He was about 10, his little PlayStation out of the window. He said, you can't do that, dad. It was my Christmas present. I said, well, you don't believe in Santa.
[00:21:48] I bought it. Actually, Santa didn't buy you it. Dad bought it. So it's my PS4 and I will throw it out the window. You do that once more to your mother. It's out the window. So she rang me and we all knew what it meant. When I got the phone call, I was driving down the East Lance back home. I thought, crikey.
[00:22:04] And I came in and Reuben always recalls that he remembers the feet coming up the stairs.
[00:22:12] Oh, no, Dad's home. I thought, I've got to do it for him. To respect me as his father and know that my word means my word. And when I discipline him, I've got to do this.
[00:22:21] I wasn't planning to pull the plug half out the wall and take it. It was a new house. It took half the house with it.
[00:22:27] So I ran in. He went, no, dad. And I kind of ran in, grabbed the whole thing, which pulled a load of plasterboard out of the wall as well.
[00:22:36] And the window. I couldn't get it out. And he started to laugh at me, right, Because I couldn't get it out the window.
[00:22:41] And I was like, don't you laugh at me. So we lived on a three story house and it had one of those staircase that goes up like that, but through the middle of it all was like a funnel down at the bottom. And it was a wooden floor in the hallway. I thought, that'll do.
[00:22:56] So I launched it off.
[00:22:57] I launched it off the top and it went down and smashed to bits. And when I told the church, this is where it gets really bad because I'm just driving home. But when I told the church up north, the first plant Esther and I spoke about, somebody came to see me after the service.
[00:23:12] He said, pastor Phil, he said, there's so many families that could have appreciated that PS4. What you doing? You've just chucked away a 200 pound. And I felt terrible. Then I thought, crikey, I'll just try. So please believe me. I was trying to discipline my son. I didn't know if it was the best thing to do, but I'd warned him and I had to follow through. The point here is Reuben knew that Dad's word was his word. Yeah, I would have said from that day onwards, he maybe had a more reverent fear of me. Are you with me?
[00:23:42] We need to have a reverent fear of God. God ain't going to throw our PS4 out of the window. But he is God. And when he says stuff, he means it. And he watches how we live our lives. He knows who we are. And when Joshua was saying, here fear the Lord, he was saying, God's God. Recognize him as who he is. Amen.
[00:24:02] Same thing with Joshua. He's telling him God's faithful and he does what he says. But he says we need to do our part.
[00:24:09] We need to live our lives for him. Fear him as God. Secondly, he says, serve him with all faithfulness.
[00:24:17] Joshua's saying here to have a whole hearted, as a wholehearted believer.
[00:24:23] To give God a complete dedication of all you are in your life.
[00:24:27] To commit your whole life to him. To serve him with all faithfulness. He's laying everything down that God comes first in our life. You'll hear many Christians say in the marriage, you know, I'll love you, but I'll love God more. And to a spouse, that can feel like a bit. But it's a different love. It's a heavenly love above all things. Above our wife, our husband, our kids, anything we own is Jesus comes first. He's got to come first in our life. This is what God's saying.
[00:24:53] Serve him with all faithfulness. Let me be your number one. Fear me, revere me, behold me. I am God. I've done Joshua saying God's done all this for us.
[00:25:02] He's taken us through this land. He's been faithful so many times against these other armies.
[00:25:07] Fear him. But he says, secondly, serve him. Live for him. Live for him. Church, live for him.
[00:25:14] A complete dedication to God. That's what he's saying. Finally, what does Joshua say?
[00:25:20] He instructs them to choose him.
[00:25:22] Don't you love that as a human being? Right. We get a choice. You've got to remember God did not make a robot. He made mankind in his image. But he gave us a choice to follow him. Right? We're not pre wired. God gives us a choice. I know God knows everything before it happens. But we're not God. We're a human. We live this life and we have to choose to live our lives for Him.
[00:25:44] Right from Adam Right from day one.
[00:25:47] The context here when he's saying, choose, I believe, is in this family commitment to serving the Lord. Because that's the next verse, straight after this, he says, choose to follow God. And in this family commitment, this household, of fully serving God. Then comes the famous verse, doesn't it? After saying choose me, he says, as for me and my. No, he says, if you don't, that's up to you. I mean, I'm going to do a Yorkshireman's version of what actually happened on that day. God brought us through the Red Sea. He took on all these armies. He did all these things for us. He gave us land that we didn't toil for, buildings that we didn't build. That long list I've just read to you, and he said, he's our God. We're going to serve him, but you've got to choose him. But if you don't want to do, that's up to you.
[00:26:28] But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord, yeah. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Where are we going to be in 20 years, church?
[00:26:38] Where we're going to be in 40 years in this nation, Some of the freedoms that we might have now, some of the things that you've seen here, some of the things that are happening in Nigeria, will they come to these shores? Who knows?
[00:26:49] There might be tough days ahead. Church. I want us to prepare us today.
[00:26:52] As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. That doesn't change whatever comes ahead, right? The enemy feels like it's roaring, doesn't it? We turn the tailor on.
[00:27:02] Crikey, the world's in a mess, isn't it?
[00:27:05] Right, no plan B. God is coming back for his glorious bride. You'll hear me say that many times. Because what he is, there is no plan B. Jesus is coming back for you and he's coming back for me.
[00:27:15] And our job is to tell as many people as we can about Jesus. But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. I want you to really take that home with you. The context of this passage is built up to all the things God's done.
[00:27:30] Last thing he says is his specific instruction. It's up to you if you don't. But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord, okay?
[00:27:37] But you've got to choose yourselves.
[00:27:40] So in conclusion, let's try and land this for us today. Just got two areas we're going to land it with firstly over our homes and secondly over us as a church. Okay?
[00:27:51] So for our family, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Speak Jesus over your household.
[00:27:58] Put worship on sometimes. Esther always does it on a Sunday morning. It's beautiful, right? I get in the shower and you've got holy forever something blasting out in the bedroom. Brilliant. Speak Jesus over situations. Can assure you as families, you'll go through situations, won't you? You go through tough times. You'll have some dinner side chats when you get home from work and the kids are there and you've got a tough thing you're going through around that dinner table. You're talking just as a family, in the context of your own beautiful family. Speak Jesus over your family's church.
[00:28:26] What did Joshua do? Reminded them of all that God had done for them before. He said choose. He reminded them all that God had done. You remind your family, mums, dads, remind your children, remind yourselves of God's faithfulness just like Joshua did. Remind your family. Remind them to fear God and to serve him as a family. I believe he said that in this family context that the home is a place of worship.
[00:28:50] Sometimes worship together. It's great.
[00:28:55] Break bread together.
[00:28:56] Choose as a family above all else to serve God. Live life well, have some fun. Do family life.
[00:29:03] Speak Jesus. Parents.
[00:29:06] I'll give you this one from Mr. Brooks. He gave me this. He's in kids work this morning. I was telling him this week while I was preaching and he said, I once heard that, Phil. And he said that passage. He said, the pastor said, pass the baton on. Well to your kids.
[00:29:18] So I'll have that one. Paul, what a great illustration. You know that running race, that 4x400 meter relay, you know they run, don't they, 100 metres as fast as they can. When they get into 90 metres, they're just running out of breath. There's the guy saying, come on, give it a me, come on, I'm going now. And as he's running out of steam, he passes the baton.
[00:29:37] Off goes the next man.
[00:29:39] That's what we've got to do. Got to pass the baton and well, to our kids.
[00:29:43] Pass the baton on. Often you hear it said that our ceiling should be the floor for our kids.
[00:29:49] Sounds cheesy, but it's true. Come on, kids, love Jesus. You cannot get to heaven on mum and dad's passport. Reuben, James and Heidi, you cannot get to heaven on me and your mum's passport. Speak that to all the households. Here, you know, kids, we've got to pass the baton on wealth, Mum and dad to our kids, but they've got to find Jesus for themselves.
[00:30:08] I think it's beautiful, though, to see generation of after generation serving the Lord. You'll see that throughout the Bible many times as from generation to, you know, generation to generation to serve the Lord. I've been reading a book at home by anybody know Roland Baker and Heidi Baker out in Mozambique. Are they doing amazing things, seeing healings and all that?
[00:30:30] Well, the book I'm reading, Mr. Baker, is Roland Baker's granddad, okay? And he set up a Christian orphanage for young Chinese boys called Adola. Is that right, Dave Adola. Pronounce it right. And they saw dreams, visions, these kids, prophetic words. God massively moved 100 years before, three generations before. What a Christian heritage. What a Christian heritage. From granddad down to grandson, right? So, Roland Baker, granddad. So you know, stories that you remember from his granddad doing these amazing things in China. Three generations later, he marries Heidi. And they saw many amazing healings and salvations in Mozambique. I want to tell you, young men, Roland married well.
[00:31:16] He married a godly woman. He married Heidi. And together they did amazing things. This Christian lineage they had, but they did amazing things and are doing amazing things.
[00:31:27] Young men, young ladies, marry well, marry well. Marry somebody who loves Jesus like you do. You'll go through tough times together, but as for you and your house, you will be able to serve the Lord.
[00:31:37] Roland married well in our life. Esther's dad, he was on the national team of ALG and his grandparents.
[00:31:45] Do you know what I found out in my family line? So I only go back as far as my granddad. So my dad's dad, he died when dad was six. After the war, he came back and he was never quite right. But my dad had done the family, you know, you can look in your family tree and your family history, done some research.
[00:32:00] So my dad's granddad, so my great granddad on my side, on the Daniel's side, was a Christian and he was in World War I. And he got some letters that he'd wrote in the trenches in World War I, right?
[00:32:12] And he'd been praying over these soldiers that were side by side, him in these trenches, right? And saying, come on, God's going to look after us. He's going to protect us. And he was a godly guy. I never knew him. I never knew my own granddad because my dad's dad died when he was six, so. But his dad served the Lord, you know this lineage of serving the Lord, it's precious church as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.
[00:32:39] Do you know what's even more precious this morning, I want to ask here, time's running out, but if you became a Christian in the last, well, it doesn't matter how long ago, if you didn't grow up in a Christian home and you're what I would call a first generation Christian. Your parents don't know of Jesus.
[00:32:55] Will you just stand to your feet for me? I know it takes guts, but will you stand?
[00:32:59] Come on, come on, let's give him a round of applause.
[00:33:08] Right?
[00:33:09] Don't sit down, don't sit down. Stay stood up. I want to say to you all what a precious thing it is to see you first off, what a precious decision you made to follow Jesus. But you start a whole new lineage, a whole new lineage of following Christ.
[00:33:24] A whole new lineage to pass on to your children, to your grandchildren. You've started that.
[00:33:31] Marry well, live for Christ well, tell your children about Jesus, you youngsters. Nate, marry well. Wouldn't it be great if your grandchildren look up to you and say, do you remember grandad Nate? He was the crazy guy that did Church News in Newton Abbot. They all loved him. That was my granddad.
[00:33:48] And they're at church in three generations from now.
[00:33:52] Your grandchildren serving the Lord because of a decision you made. Baptized in the sea. Yeah. All of you here today, your lineage that follows you. Come on, let's give me a round of applause again. Take your seats.
[00:34:08] So I say to you, new Christians, say to all of us, fear the Lord, serve the Lord, choose to follow Jesus in all that you do in your households because your decisions affect your grandchildren.
[00:34:21] You don't really care normally. Do you think, where's my grandchildren? They're your grandchildren. I get so excited to hear what my great granddad did in World War I. Telling those other soldiers about Jesus Thought, come on, how precious is that? That's my great granddad. I didn't even know him.
[00:34:34] Let your grandchildren hear stories of you where you served the Lord well, okay, finally part two. So that's our families.
[00:34:43] That's for me. And my church will serve the Lord. When I read this passage, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. And looked around it, I feel there's a great sense of a rallying cry from Joshua to all of them stood there. So I believe it's a rallying cry to all of us that it's not Just for. As for me and my house are going to serve the Lord. But as for me and my church, we're going to serve the Lord. Amen.
[00:35:07] So I believe we win as a church if we pass that baton on to the next generation. That's all of us. You know, Esther's dad, he took over a church up in Widnes that sadly, we're all human, we make mistakes. But the previous pastors had got into a lot of debt and AOG rang him up, said, brian, can you come and take over this church? It had gone from 400, big building, big facility.
[00:35:32] The two pastors had company, BMWs, church, BMWs. And it got into a lot of debt. The congregation didn't know, but they sort of knew because the numbers had been declining. There was this debt there and when he came, There was just 30 people left.
[00:35:46] 30 people left and a debt of £198,000. Negative.
[00:35:51] Right? Esther's dad did not take a wage for two years. He lived by faith. Esther recalls that. She says at 17 years old, she remembers her dad said people just turned up with food day after day. God provided for them, said they had nothing, but God provided for them. And Brian said, we're going to dump the debt. And three years in bank account was back at zero. They dumped the debt and they saw God do amazing things. I married her when the church was about, I don't know, 150 people in my time with her there. We were there 10 years, it grew to 600. We did big productions. We're going to do a production this Christmas. Esther used to do these amazing productions there. We used to have the Lord Mayor down. And in this old little town of witness, in an ordinary town in the north of England, where God was doing extraordinary things. Yeah. But the baton was passed on then to the next pastor when Brian retired of £100,000 plus in the bank and no debt and a great church, you know what I mean? For us as a church, let's pass the baton on. Well, let's pass the baton on to the next generation. Well, if one of us goes on mission, right, that gets saved here in this church, ends up on the mission field. Let's cheer him on, support them. Let's pass the baton. And. Well, to all of us here, come on.
[00:37:02] Yeah. What's the UK going to be like in 20 years? I've said. I know I mentioned that earlier, will we be able to worship freely like we can today? Will Joshua 24:15 not apply then? There's never been more important time to build a Christian legacy. I believe in our families and in our churches to really dig deep our roots in him. Never been a more important time.
[00:37:24] How does that look? Let's be in unity. Let's not judge one another. Our Christian households, not this church, just in general.
[00:37:32] So many little conversations. So and so is added to two it says in the Bible not to have a tattoo.
[00:37:37] You know, it says, they believe that about politics, or they believe this or they believe that.
[00:37:42] And I'm not decrying things. I'm just saying if they're not a fundamental life changer of salvation, let's not slag each other off. Let's not look at other households and say, well, you do this and you do that. Let's be in unity.
