Joshua 24: 15 cf 2:10
A Christian Motto for Your Home
I am going to present you with a meaningful Christian Motto for your home. It is not something that I have made up. It is taken straight from the text in Joshua 24: 15: “As for me and my home we will serve the Lord”.
First, I would like you to take a moment to imagine the future – close your eyes and imagine what the church might be like in 10 or 20 years from now.
Who will be there?
Who won’t be there?
Why will they be there?
Why won’t they be there?
What has happened?
These are the kinds of questions that must have run through the minds of many who were present as Joshua gave his final message to the Israelites. They had crossed over the Jordan River and were now in possession of most of the Promised Land. The questions on their minds had to do with whether they would be able to hold on to it and who would be there in the future?
Our questions are a little smaller: how do you go about growing a church or having a godly family, let alone build a nation?
Joshua 24 reminds us that the nation, the church and the family are under attack. It cautions us against the great delusion that our children will turn out to be Christian because we are Christian, that they will go to church because we go to church, that they will take up this or that role in the church because we did this or that. It cautions us not to take matters for granted.
A number of statistical studies from around thirty years ago seemed to suggest that if neither parent was involved in worship then there was a 5% likelihood that their children would do so. Where the mother alone was involved in worship there was a 30% likelihood that her children would be involved. Where the father alone was involved in worship there was a 50% likelihood that her children would be involved. Where both father and mother were involved in worship there was a 85% likelihood that their children would be involved.
They say that the first generation of converts is committed, that the second generation conforms and that the third generation becomes complacent.
Ever felt that you can’t do it – that the task is too big – that you are too small to make a difference?
What is the problem?
Actually, the answer is not such a mystery.
Joshua said, “Choose this day whom you will serve…
The problem is a matter of the choices we make.
The words Joshua chose to speak were “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether it be …As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24: 15 provides us with a motto that could very well be your family motto or church motto or even our national motto: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
We need to ask ourselves the kind of questions that Joshua asked in our text.
Whom are we serving? Is it ourselves? Is it someone else? Is it God? Have we been faithful in His service?
The Israelites had arrived at Shechem. Shechem was the place where God met with Abraham and ratified his covenant with him. It was a place of vision and of blessing. Not the kind of vision or blessing that we tend to dream up for ourselves! But the kind which beckons us to walk in a certain God-ordained path!
While at Shechem, Joshua stood before the whole Israelite population and called them to reflect on their history as the people of God – to recognize that God had called their fathers out of Egypt through miraculous signs and wonders, but that their fathers rebelled against God and as a consequence they all died in the desert and thus never got to enter the Promised Land. Their history was certainly not a game. It had not been a pleasant stroll in the park.
Oh to possess the land, inherit the blessings and walk in victory – that is what it is all about isn’t it?
Ever felt that you can not do it?
The Israelites were to fully occupy the land in obedience to God. Our task today is to win every home for Christ. That can only take place one home at a time, one person at a time - beginning with yourself. “As for me and my house…”
In response to Joshua’s statement the people responded “We can do it”. They reaffirmed, “…………
Now you would expect that Joshua, being a wise leader would have given the Israelites some encouragement at this point. No, no Joshua – what did you say? …………………
Let me ask you again, have you ever felt that you can not do it? The Israelites thought that they could.
Many of you feel that you can’t. So you do not need me to tell you that. To the others of you I say that you cannot either!
You cannot if you serve two masters.
Jesus said …….Mt 6:24
You can not do it if you live 2 lives as a Sunday Christian, Monday heathen.
The strength of a nation is the home. The strength of the home is the individual. The strength of the individual is righteousness.
The strength of the church is the home. The strength of the home is the individual. The strength of the individual is righteousness.
If worship is spasmodic, devotions are rare, faith is not spoken of, prayer is not shared, there is no Christian teaching, and the Christ life is not lived in service of God at home, then what is right about it? The answer to that is little or nothing!
We can not do these things in our own strength (24: 19). We can only do them in the strength of the Lord. “It is not by might or by power, but by my strength, says the Lord” (Zech 4: 6). “The joy of the Lord is my strength” ( Neh 8: 10). Jesus invites us, “Come unto me all you who labour, take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Mt 11: 28 – 30).
Our problem is the choices which we make. It comes about because we are double minded. We get double minded because we allow the culture we live in to influence us.
Let me illustrate this by talking about idolatry and adultery. In the Bible the two are often interchangeable terms……………often placed side by side. In the book of Hebrews the same word can mean either idolatry or adultery. It may help to think of spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery is when anything comes between you or God. It is when you give to something or someone else that which rightly belongs to God. (The same can happen in marriage.) It may be a look, or attention, or time, or devotion. That thing becomes an adulterous idol. It could be as simple as TV viewing – not just the content of what we view but the amount of time we give to viewing Television.
Is there something that you are not prepared to part with? What is stopping you? Could you live one week without something? What separates you from God.
The reality is that what separates most people from God is immorality – whether it is in their thought life, Television viewing, pre-marital or extra-marital sex and the like. Joshua 24 mentions the story of Balaam the pagan prophet. We are told plainly in Numbers 25 that when Balaam could not curse the Israelites he sought to lead them into idolatry by sexual immorality.
This is crunch time. It is decision time.
We face a choice.
Choosing and making a decision is not something that we are comfortable with. Let’s be clear what we are talking about here. We are not talking about your deciding to become a child of God. That is ridiculous. We are talking about your living as a child of God. There is a big difference. Let me explain.
Does a baby ask to be born? In a similar way we do not ask God to make us His children.
In a team game where 2 people are made captains it is the captain who gets to do the choosing not the potential players.
If you are in prison and I ask you to choose freedom, you can choose all that you like – that is not a real choice. However, if I have the key to you prison cell and actually let you our, then give you the key and then tell you that you have a choice to live as a free person or go back to prison, that is a real choice.
We have a free will only in so far as civil matters go, not in spiritual matters. The Bible makes it manifestly plain that without Christ we are spiritually dead. Dead people cannot make themselves alive (Rom 6 etc). The Bible makes it clear that we were blinded by the devil (2 Co 4).It makes it clear that we are deaf and blind to God (Jh 3; 9; etc). That is why God did the sending. That is why Jesus came as the Light of the world. It is why He opened eyes and ears and hearts and minds to the truths of God’s Word (Mk 4; Is; etc).
The explanation to the 2nd article of the Creed puts it succinctly: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, but He has called me by the gospel, enlightened me by His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one true faith”.
Yes, we are called to a decision. It is not the decision to become a child of God. That is an impossibility. Rather we are called to decide whether we are going to live as the children of God which He has made us into. We can speak of a decision in this way because of another prior decision that God made by which He made us His children in the first place. To Him be the glory. We can speak of accepting Him because He first accepted us. And so we have in our liturgies the confession of sin in which we choose to give up our sinning. Good idea that is! It only makes us unhappy and robs us of blessings.
“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”.
So what does this mean for us? Let’s get practical for a moment!
1st, it involves renunciation of false gods and false allegiances – things that hold us back; things that keep us in slavery; things that weigh us down; things that knot us up; things that make us deaf and dumb concerning the things of God. They cause the Word of God to become repulsive to us.
2n,d it involves the confession of your sin. That means agreeing with God concerning the wrong that you have done and turning away from it.
3rd, it involves you making time to read God’s Word for yourself on a regular basis. Apply it, talk about it and pray about it.
4th, it involves your leading by example at home. Practice what you preach.
5th, it involves having home devotions and prayer times.
6th, there is love, love, love! Loving service!
7th, let me say something about male authority and headship which a few of us learned about at a recent seminar, which I think is helpful for this topic……
This text, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord” is often used for baptisms, confirmations, home dedications, marriages and funerals. It is appropriate that it is used on all of these occasions since it is true that you are not ready to die until you have first learned how to live in God’s service. Christian service or ministry began for you the day of your baptism and it ends the day of your death. May it be a Christian Motto for your home life. Let your home and children be remembered for their love and service of God.
Joshua was a type or picture of Christ who was yet to come. The idea is that as we follow in Joshua’s footsteps and therefore Christ’s footsteps, we will inherit the blessings God has prepared for us. Moses led the people of God out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Joshua led them through the River Jordan into the Promised Land. Jesus our Heavenly Joshua has led us through the waters of Baptism into the loving arms of God. And He has gone before us to lead us into the Promised Land as well. His goal is that we get there and that on the way we experience His blessings. “He bought with a price, not with silver or gold, but with His Holy precious body and His innocent suffering and death that we may be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness”.
The question remains whether you will serve Him with gladness.
Serve Him with Gladness
