APRIL 6, 2007 – “WHERE DOES GOD FIT INTO YOUR FAMILY?”

TEXT: Joshua 24:14-15

I. CHOOSE TO GIVE GOD THE PLACE HE DESERVES IN YOUR FAMILY

(Joshua 24:14a) “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.”

(Matthew 7:27) “The rain came down, the stream rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

(Joshua 24:3) “But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.”

(Joshua 24:5) “Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out.”

(Joshua 24:8a) “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.”

(Joshua 24:13) “So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.”

(Deuteronomy 10:12) “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

(I Chronicles 16:30) “Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.”

(Sir Thomas Browne, 17^th century philosopher) "I fear God, yet am not afraid of him."

(I Peter 1:17) “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.”

(II Corinthians 7:1) “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

(Proverbs 1:7) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

(Ecclesiastes 12:13) “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

(Ronald Rolheiser) “All boredom and contempt is an infallible sign that we have fallen out of a healthy fear of God.”

(Saint Francis of Assisi) "Where there is fear of God to keep the house, the enemy can find no way to enter."

(Deuteronomy 6:2) “…so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.”

(Ephesians 5:21) “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

(Dr. David McKenna) ”We cannot afford to let God’s requirements become our options, any more than we can afford to make our options God’s requirements."

(Deuteronomy 6:24) “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.”

(Joshua 24:14a) “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.”

(Peter T. Forsythe) “The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but it’s Master.”

(Psalm 2:11) “Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

II. CHOOSE TO MAKE ROOM FOR GOD TO BE GOD IN YOUR FAMILY

(Joshua 24:14) “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.”

(Joshua 24:19b) “He is a holy God; he is a jealous God.”

(Genesis 35:2) “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.’”

(Genesis 35:4) “So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.”

(Exodus 20:3) “You shall have no other gods before me.”

(Mark 12:30) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

(Matthew 6:33) “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

(I Thessalonians 1:9) “…for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

(Hebrews 12:1) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

III. CHOOSE TO BE A FAMILY THAT SERVES GOD REGARDLESS OF WHAT OTHERS DO

(Joshua 24:15) “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

(Joshua 24:15a) “…then choose for yourselves…”

(John Guest) “I’m so glad since I have learned that lesson so well taught,

That everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault.”

(Ralph Waldo Emerson) “God enters by a private door into every individual.”

(Revelation 3:20) “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

(E. Stanley Jones) “If you don't make up your mind, your unmade mind will unmake you.”

(Revelation 3:15-16) “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

(Max Lucado) “If there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.”

(Joshua 24:15b) “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

(Acts 16:33) “At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.”

(Hebrews 12:2) “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”