Point Man

The Point Man

Joshua 24:14-15

The sermon title is from the book by the same name, by Steve Farrar

We have become a fatherless nation. 33% of the 72 million children in America will go to bed tonight without their biological father in the home.

Fatherless children are 5 times as likely to live in poverty, repeat a grade, and have emotional problems.

50% of children from broken homes have not seen their father in over a year.

FATHERLESSNESS: There 72,000,000 children in the United States under 18 years of age. Tonight, 33% of these children will go to bed in a home without a biological father (U. S. Census Bureau. 2001. Living arrangements of children [Electronic version]: U. S. Census Bureau, U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration).

THE PRICE OF DIVORCE: Perhaps the greatest cost to the physical absence of fathers in the home has been to create the practical absence of mothers in the home. Essentially, one person must now do the work of two. As a young woman who grew up in a single parent home said, "When my mom and dad divorced I didn’t just lose my dad. I also lost my mom because she had to work long hours to support us."

Today in the text we hear from Joshua the gentle warrior

The is a meeting at Shechem

And Joshua makes a bold declaration

And what is striking is that He doesn’t speak for himself only

He speaks for his household

How does he get here (the statement?)

We must review his life (history) to get our answer

1. Who is he?

He is born into slavery

a. But it does not define him

b. It is not a setback for Him

His is the character of a devout warrior blameless

2. He is a man of Faith & Vision (Numbers 13)

a. (Spied the land with Caleb -Positive report)

Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes

Num 14:7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.

Num 14:8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

Num 14:9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

b. He believed God

c. He saw what God said (saw)

d. He was firm in his resolve

3. He listened for and obeyed the voice of God

Jos 1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua

Jos 1:10 And Joshua commanded the officers of the people,

a. He heard and immediately obeyed

He Remembered God (ch. 24)

He realized that he was a “Point Man”

Because I said so (movie)

Accountable /Responsible/ Example

His public and his private life was the same

The same principles lived by in public, were lived by in private (home)

He weighed the options

He considered the consequences

I saw a beautiful picture of a point man on a fishing trip that took recently

I heard the story of a point-man who for years fixed breakfast

There is a point-man who for different reasons his marriage ended in divorce , he had two little girls

Will Willimon, in a chapel address called “Sin as a byproduct of worship,” tells the story of a friend of his who, while in seminary, served briefly as a chaplain in a state prison. He received a request from a father of a young man who was interned in the prison. The young man had committed a robbery in a little town and had been sentenced to many years in jail. He was angry, embittered.

The boy’s father came each week to visit him, but the lad steadfastly refused to see him.

The chaplain was asked to intervene, to plead with the boy to see his father. But the young prisoner refused to reconsider.

Despite his refusal, the boy’s father took off work every week, boarded a bus, and traveled across the state in the hope of seeing his son.

Every week. And every week it became the young chaplain’s difficult task to ask the son, “Do you want to see your dad?” He then had to bear word of the refusal to the waiting father.

The father would thank the chaplain, gather his belongings, and head toward the door for the bus trip back home.

One day, after telling the father the same thing, that his son would not meet with him, the chaplain said, “No one would do what you are doing. Your son is an embittered, defiant young man. Go back home and get on with your life. No one would put up with this kind of rejection, week after week. Nobody would do this.”