In your Bible, if you would join me in Joshua chapter number one and then also you can flip over. We're going to be looking at Joshua 23 as well. This opening reading, Joshua chapter one.
Want to start off with a few verses there and then kind of encapsulate some thoughts just in the reading. Joshua one. We're going to read verse six down to verse nine then jump over to chapter 23 and read a couple verses. This is the beginning of Joshua's role of the leader in the nation as the head guy.
He was right, the right-hand man of Moses, his commander over the armies of Israel and now Moses has died in verse one and two it talks about and responsibility has now fallen on Joshua to lead the nation and And here the Lord is telling Joshua in verse six, be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. And then he says in verse eight. Let's read verse eight together. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success. He goes on to say in verse nine, have not I commanded thee.
Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Then if you flip over to chapter 23 this is now 30 years later. Joshua is a hundred and ten years old. He has now gathered the armies of the nation, the men of the nation together and he says in verse one, And it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about. And Joshua waxed old and stricken in age and Joshua called for all Israel and for the elders, for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and said unto them I am old and stricken in age and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you. Behold I have divided unto you lot by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off even unto the great sea westward and the Lord your God. He shall expel them from before you and drive them from out of your sight and ye shall possess their land as the Lord your God hath promised unto you. Be therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written the book of the law of Moses that ye turn not aside there therefrom to the right hand or to the left. So you see again Joshua is repeating now at the end of his life what was told him at the beginning of his life. Look at verse number 14 of chapter 23 and he says, And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in your souls that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you all are come to pass unto you not one thing hath failed thereof. Who wants to get to the end of their life and find out that nothing that God promised you did not get fulfilled because you kept his word. Amen.
That's our desire. And then finally if you just jump over to chapter 24 and you read verse number 29. Notice what he says in verse 29 as we wrap up this reading.
It says, And it came to pass after these things Joshua the son of none the servant the Lord died being a hundred and ten years old they buried him into the border of the inheritance in Timnath Sarah which is Mount Ephraim on the north side of the hill of Gash and Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua in which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. What a life to follow. Father we thank you for your word today and Lord it is the desire of our heart to be men and women of God that serve you faithfully that we may see all the promises of God fulfilled in our homes and our families and our children our grandchildren. God I pray that you would raise up godly men godly women faithful servants of Christ. Bless your servant today to proclaim your word as you would have me to. God I pray if anyone today doesn't know Christ that today would be the day of salvation. We ask it in Jesus name and God's people said, Amen.
You may be seated today. Well last Sunday was a joy as we navigated through some things in the life of Joshua and I preached a message on God's call for men to be strong and courageous leaders and we examined the life of Joshua who is such a pinnacle of a strong and courageous godly man and who was a faithful leader of God's people who not only led his family but he led the entire nation. He didn't cower before trials rather he tried over the trials in his life. We looked at numbers where when the 12 spies were sent out to check out the land they came back with a wonderful report of how blessed the land is but 10 of those men who came back when they asked the question should we go in they said we cannot for the people are too much for us their cities are too big their people are too big and powerful. 83% of the men said they're not able to do what God called them to do. Only two of the men said we are well able to overcome it they are bred for us and that was Joshua and Caleb. As a result of that 10 of those men led their family in circles in the wilderness until they all died in the wilderness and it was only Joshua and Caleb out of those 12 that led their families and the nation into the promised land.
And you think about that only two out of the 12 went on to lead their families there. And I fear that so many men are not leading their families where God would want their families to be. So many mothers are if they don't have that godly man in the home are not leading the family in the direction that it needs to go. Where will your faith cause your family to end up?
I ask you that today. How much our homes need faith filled men of God to lead. I'm not quite sure if I've ever had a sermon that I had as many women come up to me and say thank you for preaching that as last Sunday. In 20 years of preaching what does that tell you? From the mouth of a precious lady in our church women want men to be leaders. They're rooting you on. I mean women could say why are you preaching just to the men? Hey where are we involved? Well there is part of the blessing of preaching just to men focused message in such a sense because it lets young women know what kind of men they should want to grow up and marry.
Right? That's the kind of guy. There's more that you should seek in a guy than he's just cute and funny.
Those are not great qualities of leadership. You should want a man who is defined by what the word of God says and young men you should aspire to be that man. You should aspire to be a man of God. You should look around the church and say if you see that godly man that's strong and faithful, loves his wife, loves his children, loves the Lord, you should say that's the kind of man I want to be like. I'm not looking to follow the men of this world. I want to follow a man of God. I know we have many great husbands and fathers who are loving leaders of their homes.
You're blazing a trail following Christ and your family is following you and that and it's such a joy to see that. But there's also men in our culture who are passive, who are inactive, who are detached. They put so much pressure on their wives and it causes such a frustration on women in our culture. Let me just read for you a letter from a wife that reveals this frustration that some women face because their husbands are so passive and detached.
She writes in her letter, I asked my husband if he minds if I turn the tube off. He grunts as I walk to the set. My mind is racing. Maybe just maybe tonight we'll talk. I mean have a conversation that consists of more than a my usual question with his mumbled one-word answer or more accurately no answer at all. She goes on, silence. I live in a world with continuous noise between me and him.
It's just silence. Please oh God let him open up. I initiate once again for the thousandth time.
My heart pounds. Oh how can I word it this time? What can I say that will open him up to just talking?
I don't have to have some deep meaningful conversation, just something. As I open my mouth, she goes on, he gets up and goes to the bedroom. The door closes behind him.
The light showing under the door gives way to darkness and so does my hope. I sit alone on the couch. My heart begins to ache. I'm tired of being alone.
Hey I'm married and I have been for years. Why do I sit alone? The sadness undergoes a change slowly. Then with increased fervor I get mad. I am mad. I'm sick and tired of living with sissy, wimpy cowards.
You know he's afraid of me? Hostile you say? You better believe it.
I'm sick and tired of living in a world of passive men. She's not done. She says my two sons like sports.
They're pretty good. They could be a lot better if their dad would take a little of his time and play catch with them. I'm sorry, catch once a year at the church picnic doesn't quite make the boys into a great ball player. But dad's too busy. He's at work. He's at the health club. He's riding his four-wheeler. He's working on the car. He's playing golf. He's tired.
He's watching a movie. My daughter's a teenager. She likes boys and they notice her. They pay attention to her. She responds.
I know what's coming. I try to talk to her but it's not me she wants. It's dad. Yeah dad. And if he would just hug her and notice her and talk to her just a little she wouldn't need those boys so much but no.
So she turns elsewhere for attention and love and there's really nothing that I can do. A mom isn't enough. Kids need a father. Not just a body. A passive silent presence.
And she writes and here's the killer. My husband's father did the same number on him. Didn't hug him.
Didn't take him to anything. Let alone watch his baseball games and he hates his father. Now my husband's doing the same thing and she goes on with a few other words. This letter refers to the sad state of many homes in our country. I can tell you there are some incredible men taking care of the kids. One thing I've learned after having four kids is if a wife is stay at home she never gets a break it seems. That's a full-time job all the time. It's a lot easier for me to go to work eight, ten hours a day than it is to stay home and take care of the kids eight hours a day. I tell you that right now.
Twenty-four hours. Men, how can you be the strong, courageous, godly leader that God's calling you to be and not be what this letter defines as a very passive, detached man? I want to give you five things today. First of all you must be led. You must be led. Before you can be an effective leader to your family you must be led.
And what do I mean by that? You must be led first of all by God and his word. We see in Joshua 1 8 God says that this law shall not depart out of your mouth. You need to meditate on it day and night.
The only way you can lead this nation is if you're led by me. And so God called Joshua to be always in the Word. You know the Bible tells us to walk in the Spirit not in the flesh.
That seems a bit obscure doesn't it? You ever wonder like how do I walk in the Spirit? Like is this some kind of a feeling? Is this some kind of an emotion?
No, it's not a feeling and it's not an emotion. To walk in the Spirit is to walk in the Word. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures so when you know the truth you walk in the truth.
That's why the Bible says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path. And to be led by the Lord you must be led by his word. Joshua led the nation into the Promised Land at the age of 80 years old. He was incredibly courageous to fulfill all God had called him to do. And at the end of his life he says here in Joshua 23 verse 6, he tells the nation, be ye therefore very courageous to do what? To keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.
Turn that ye turn not aside thereof to the right hand or to the left. This week I had a young 21 year old man in our church sit down with me and his parents are not Christians and he asked me the question. He said, how could I as a 21 year old live out a strong and courageous life for the Lord?
What does that look like fleshed out? And I thought what a great question. Amen.
Isn't it good when 21 year old young men are asking that question? How can I live a strong and courageous life for Christ? Every woman in this sanctuary and then it'll be in church today would want their husbands or men asking that question. I want to do what God would want me to do. How do I live a strong and courageous life for God? And I said that's a tremendous question.
I said that I said what that looks like fleshed out in a in a simple sense is this. To know the truth and then to stand up for the truth in the culture. To live out the truth in the culture and then to give out that truth. That's what it means to be strong and courageous. You take the Word of God in and then you live it out and you give it out.
Do that and I'm gonna tell you it's gonna take some strength and courage for every man and woman in this room to live that out. Stand up for truth and see what happens. Stand up for the things of God and see the resistance. Why don't people share the gospel? Why don't people talk about Christ?
Why don't they stand up for truth because they don't have the strength and courage that they need. So how do you live a courageous life for God? You have to take in the Word of God.
You have to be filled up with its truth. Men, you need to be daily in the Word. Ladies, you need to daily be in the Word personally reading Scripture. Before you come to church today, you should have read the Word of God.
You should have taken some truth into your heart. Listen to the Word of God. Every week I listen to multiple books of the Bible just by my Bible app.
Just go on there and you get up in the morning. You're getting ready to listen to it. A lot of times if I go to the gym real early, I'm listening to Scripture. I just want to saturate my heart and mind. If I'm out mowing the yard, if I'm doing something, I like to listen to the Word of God or I listen to teaching or preaching.
Fill your heart up with something that will give you something. Because I know what comes in will be poured out. So I'm not looking for stuff that pours into me that doesn't have any benefit if I pour it out.
It's organic. What we begin to get affected by begins to influence those around us. We have to be careful what is influencing us. Men, I encourage you today, make sure you get into a life group. If you're not getting into a life group, you know what you're doing? You're leading your family away from life groups.
You're leading them away from that. A time where they could take in the Word of God, learn the Word of God. Where else this week are you going to find anyone that's going to be teaching your children the Bible?
Where are you going to do it? And if your time is so precious that you couldn't spend 50 minutes to go to a class to learn the Word of God, do you think your priorities are right? I can tell you passivity about the things of God will cause our children not to want to do anything with the things of God. If my standard is here, I can tell you my kids probably aren't passing me. Right?
They typically are following behind us. So set the example, set the tone, get plugged in. You say, what class should I get into? Get into one of them. There's a bunch of classes. Get into foundations.
If you're like, hey, you know, I'm a new Christian. Where do I start? I'll be teaching a class right after this.
Foundations in the Youth Center. Jump in there. Tonight at five o'clock, I encourage every man and woman to be here tonight. Unless you know everything that God expects you to be, a husband or a wife, and you're living that out, then maybe you don't need to show up. Well, you do need to show up because you need to encourage other people.
You'll be sitting down in small groups and be able to encourage them and talk with them. Be faithful to church. Be faithful on Sundays and Wednesdays. I can tell you this, it was for me when my dad got fired up for God, it changed the temperature and culture of our home. I can tell you, man, when my dad was, and it wasn't that he was a bad father, it was just he got sidetracked. Get a bigger house, get the American Dream, dad's working a lot of hours, he gets out of church.
Guess what we do? We get out of church. Whatever dad pursued, we pursued. And I have a strong godly mother, but I can tell you if my dad wasn't going to church, I don't remember her one time bringing us to church without my dad. Just whatever dad does, it's kind of the whole family seems to lead in, seems to follow. So I'm just telling you, dad, you're setting the runner's pace. And I praise God for you that are doing that, and keep that up, keep that up.
Doesn't mean you're perfect, but it means that you're moving in the right direction. Joshua was able to lead because Joshua was led. He could take his family where he was going. Listen, I cannot take my family where I have not gone. I can't give them what I do not have. It starts with me.
It starts with me growing where I want them to go. It's being for them to become. They have to see, organically, lived out a life, not words, but a life that is following Christ. I think about Deuteronomy 6. This is such a wonderful text. It says in Deuteronomy 6, Here therefore, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. That's the Jewish Shema.
That's the most focused on passage. That's like their confession of faith. And you notice the first word there, it's for the Hebrew word Shema, it's the word here. You have to take in the Word of God. And then once you take in the Word of God, it says in verse 5, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. So he's saying, listen, first you have to hear the Word of God, our God is one. And then you need to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Once you love God, then it says in verse 6, These words which I command thee this day shall be in your heart. So when I hear it, I love God. In other words, for me to love God, I have to learn about God. The more I learn about God, the more I love God. And the more I love God, the more I want to live for God. Learning equals loving equals living. And then you see what happens in verse 7 in Deuteronomy 6. It says, And thou shalt teach them diligently under thy children.
And talk of them when you walk in your house, when you sit down, and you rise up, and you walk in the way. It'll just organically flow out. And the picture there from God is when you fill your heart up with the truth, you will love God, you will have your heart transformed, and you will become one who diligently teaches them.
Not by simply having all these teaching sessions, but just by living it out when you walk in the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. It just flows out of your life. That's what you're filling your heart up with.
You have to be careful because it will be what you're filling your family up with. And it happens secondhand. It happens without even focusing on it.
It's what happens. So make sure you're following the right leader. 1 Corinthians 11.
Paul says, Follow me as I follow Christ. Almost always you see kids wearing the same kind of sports paraphernalia as their parents, right? If dad's wearing a, you know, a bingle shirt, healthy shirt, you know, the kids usually aren't wearing some defiled garment like the Browns or Pittsburgh. I mean, they just don't typically do that. It's good preaching. I always need to feel like I need to step from behind the pulpit when I say stuff like that. But they follow in their footsteps most the time.
Most the time. And I can tell you how much more that we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ so that our kids would want to put Christ on. Dads, if you want your kids to read the Bible, they need to see you reading the Bible. If you want your kids to pray, they need to see dad reading and praying.
If you want them to be hard workers, you need to be a hard worker. And as you become what God calls you to be, your children will learn from your example. And you're not going to be perfect. Sometimes men say, well, if I if I start trying to live for God, you know, I'm going to fall short. I'm going to fail.
Yes. No one's going to be surprised by your imperfection. It's not the perfection, but it's the direction. Not only do our kids need to learn from what we do right, but they need to learn from what we do when we do mess up. When we come home and our attitude isn't what it needed to be. When we didn't act in a Christlike way. Because they need to see we're not perfect. And sometimes we can try to create a standard that is impossible. The standard should always be like Christ, which is perfection. But we can't set ourselves up to say either I live perfect or I'm not going to do it.
Well, that's that's wrong. Perhaps one of the greatest things I can teach you is this. You know, I know my father, when he not only taught me how to live for God, but he also there were many times in my life, my dad came to me and he apologized to me and he humbled himself and said, Joshua, what I said was wrong or how I behaved then was wrong. And he taught me humility. He taught me how to repent. He taught me how to confess sin. Is that important?
It's important. And also, our kids don't need a great lesson. They just need a great father. They don't need a biblical scholar. They need a dad who really loves Jesus and lives that out unashamed in front of them. They don't need someone who simply can quote hundreds of verses. They need someone who can live out hundreds of verses. They don't need somebody who could just sit down and be a great doctrinal teacher to them.
They need somebody that organically lives that truth out in front of them. Don't give your kids some sermon, live the sermon. It's OK to teach. It's important to do those things.
But teaching comes through living, doesn't it? And so, first of all, first of all, you must, you must be led. Secondly, you must be intentional. Joshua was so intentional. The word intentional means done on purpose.
It means deliberately, deliberately. He lived a life of purpose. He lived a life on purpose and a deliberate life. After God gives the command to lead the people into the promised land, listen to what Joshua 1, 10 and 11 says. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the house.
Through the house and command the people, saying, prepare you victuals for within three days, ye shall pass over this Jordan to go to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it. His sights were set. Once God said, this is what I want you to do.
He was extremely intentional about carrying it out. You think about Paul in the New Testament, very intentional person. A couple of my life verses have been Philippians 3, 13 and 14. He said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. What he's saying there is I've not yet arrived. I'm not perfect. But this one thing I do, he is a single minded, focused person. I do one thing.
I forget the things which are behind. I reach forth under the things which are before. And then he says, and I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, what is the prize and what is the high calling that he's pressing towards?
The prize was Christ and Christ's likeness. Philippians 1 21, he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He said in Galatians 2 20, I'm crucified with Christ. It's not I that lives, it's Christ living in me. And when you get to the end of Paul's life, did he finish the race? Yeah, you read 2 Timothy 4 6, he says, I fought a good fight.
I finished my course. I kept the faith. What an incredible ending to his life. We think about Jesus's life in Luke 19 10. He was a man of intention, a man of purpose and focus. He said, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus, why did you come? I've come to seek and to save the lost.
I've come to rescue the sinner. At the end of his life, the day before he dies, he says this in John 17 four, which may be one of the greatest verses that we could have as a life verse. I don't know of a greater statement that could be said than John 17 four.
If you if if you put this on your wrist, tattooed it on your head. I'm not saying to go do that, but in front of your eyes to say this is this is what I want to say at the end of my life. Jesus said, I've glorified thee on the earth. I finished the work thou gavest me to do. Could anything better be said of your life at the end? That's that's Jesus's finish line.
He did everything the father asked him to do. Men, your homes need you to live intentionally, to be very deliberate, to do things on purpose. I fear that we can be so short sighted sometimes we don't live with the long term perspective. I challenge you this week, even today, to ask yourself this question. What are the biggest goals of your life?
Ladies, let me ask you a question. Moms, what are the biggest goals of your life? What are you wanting to achieve in life? When you're 70 or 80 years old, looking back on the life that you've lived, what would you say are the wins that you want to see at that point?
When you if you're 80 years old on a porch, rocking on a chair, reflecting on your life, what do you want to say you accomplished? What is your vision for your family, fathers? What do you want them to where do you want them to go? What do you want your family to accomplish? What is the destination you have for them? You know, if we're not setting a vision for our family, if we don't know the destination, how will we ever get there? Let me just share with you briefly what my top five goals in life are.
This is this is the destination. These are wins for me. The first is that, number one, I want to follow Jesus Christ faithfully and love him and be fully surrendered to him throughout my entire life to never abdicate, to never fall away from serving God, to never quit living for him, to never fall into some sin that would disqualify me.
This is the biggest win that I have in life. And if I do that, I will accomplish everything else. The second is to be a faithful husband to my wife until the Lord takes one of us home to keep our vows to each other, to love her as Christ loved the church, to protect her, care for her, provide for her, respect her, love her, to be an example of marriage. I want my children to mimic our marriage, to thoroughly enjoy life with her.
That's a huge win for me. I want to love my children, to raise them, to know Christ, to love him with all their heart. My youngest gave her life to Christ this last week and getting baptized in the next service, to love my children, to care for them, to protect them, to provide for them, to see them marry godly, hardworking men that are not addicted to video games.
I added that. Who will raise their families to know Christ, to set such an example for them of how I would want them to raise their children. That's a huge win for me. Number four is I want to faithfully be a pastor to the people God's called me to shepherd, to preach the word of God, to live out the word of God. And I want to preach until the day I can preach no longer, to never slow down in zeal, faithfulness and joy in preaching. I want to grow constantly to be more effective as a minister of the gospel. That is a huge win for me. I want to see the Great Commission, number five, fulfilled and accomplished in my life, personally, in my family and in the church, to make disciples who make disciples, to train others for the ministry who can start churches both locally and abroad, to create ministry material that can help advance the kingdom.
That is a huge win for me. That's the top five purposes of why I exist. There's nothing else that I am looking to do.
I am centered on that. I don't care how good my golf game is. I've started playing some more pickleball. That's what old people do.
Hey, but young people do it too, so I feel young again. It's not about how good you are at some event in the world. These are the big things. Dad, what are the wins in your life?
Ask yourself, what am I seeking to accomplish? People who reach the goals in life don't do it by accident. They're not like, oh, I can't believe we did that. They're very intentional.
They're very purposed. This might sound a bit morbid, but have you ever considered what you would say in your obituary? If you went home and wrote down all that you would want your life to have accomplished, what your spouse, your children and grandchildren and family and friends would say about you, what would you want to be said about you? Every person I do a funeral for, that's what I do. I sit down with the family, and we meet, and we go over, tell me about so-and-so, tell me about so-and-so. It was tragic. I had a funeral not too long ago. The only thing one of the siblings said about their dad was he loved to drink.
I said, does anybody have anything they want to share, anybody, anybody? And the daughter said, yeah, the last thing he said, he said, can you go get me a beer? I'd love to have one, but he couldn't because he was dying. That would be tragic for me.
I don't drink, but that would just be so tragic. Is there anything else that could be said? Nobody said a word. No kids said anything.
Listen, think about what would be said of you, men. Moms, same thing, think about what you would want your family to say about you. I don't want my kids to grow up and say, oh, they were consumed with their job. They loved their car. They were a fanatic sports fan of something. It's okay to have those things, but they should be way down the list.
The first things that come off should be like the big things. I can tell you, dad loved mom, man, dad loved the Lord. Mom was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ. She always taught us, spent time with us. They led us in the right path. They always had the answers for us. We always knew they cared. Boy, they loved other people. Boy, they shared the gospel.
They were passionate about the truth. You think about what you want to be said about you, and I can tell you, it's time that we start focusing with the end in mind, right? That way, if you know this is where I want to go. When we mow the property out here, I like to mow as well, but when you mow lines and stripes on the grass, you don't look right in front of you.
If a guy does that, they're going to be like all the way down. You look across at a point across the field, and you set your eyes there, and that's the way, and it keeps you straight, keeps you from zigzagging, and that's how you and I must live our life. Thirdly, not only must you be led men, and I say this for women as well, you also must be intentional secondly, and thirdly, you must be resolved. You must be resolved. What does it mean to be resolved?
To be resolved means to decide firmly on a course of action. You are determined. Your mind has been made up. You have reached a conclusion.
You have settled on your plan of action. I challenge you men to be men of resolve. A man of resolve is not a double-minded man who can't make up his mind. He waffles around between two opinions.
He wanders aimlessly, proceeding seamlessly with no direction. In a world of meandering men, meandering men, in a world of I love Ramans, what's that guy's name, we need something more than a guy that has a sports jersey on and a beer in his hand, right? We need some men that are faithful, godly, and men of resolve who have purpose and direction. Joshua knew what God called him to do, and he was resolved to do it. The entire book of Joshua was a record of a man of resolve. He lived with purpose and on purpose. He knew what God called him to do, and he did it. Maybe you asked the question, what's the difference between being a man of intention and being a man of resolve?
Here's the difference. Being a man of intention will get you on the road. Being a man of resolve will keep you on the road.
You become not only intentioned to do it, but now you're resolved to stay the course. Joshua was 40 years old when he and Caleb went to spy out the land. He was 80 years old when he led the armies in the nation into the promised land, and at 110 years old, he never gave up. At 110 years old, he said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.
He never abdicated. Last week, I compared the lives of two men, Jonathan Edwards and Max Jukes. Five generations we looked at that B.B. Warfield traced thousands of their descendants to see the incredibly positive impact that Jonathan Edwards had and the incredibly negative impact that Max Jukes' descendants had. I want to share another aspect of Jonathan Edwards' life when he was a young man, which you may not know this, but one reason his life was so mightily used was Jonathan Edwards was a man of incredible resolve, more than I've really ever seen. He was so resolved that at the age of 20, he wrote 70 personal resolutions, which he read over once a week. Personal resolutions at the age of 20, things he wanted to accomplish to keep him on the path so he would not be distracted or detoured. The preamble to his resolutions reads like this, being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ's sake. I'm not going to read all 70 because we wouldn't have time for that, but let me just read about a dozen of them just to give you an idea of what was solidified in his heart, what he wanted to do. First of all, he said, resolved that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God. He understood 1 Corinthians 10 31, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Secondly, resolved to live with all my might while I do live. He was purposed not to waste time. Third, resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
He lived with the eternity and prospect. Number four, resolved to act in all respects, both speaking and doing as if nobody had been so vile as I. And as if I had committed the same sins or had the same infirmities or failings as others, and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself and only prove on occasions of my confessing my own sin and misery to God.
Wow. In other words, if I see other people's sin, I will not cast judgment upon them, but rather I will cast judgment on my own soul that I am the most vile of all sinners. And it will bring me speedily to repentance.
Who thinks like that at 20? Number five, resolved when I feel pain, to think of the pain of martyrdom and of hell. So pain in life for him was a motivation to evangelize and an encouragement of the faith of those who went on before him. Number six, resolved never to do anything out of revenge. Resolved number seven, never to speak evil of anyone. Resolved number eight, that I will live so as I shall have wished I had done when I come to die. He lived literally with the end in mind. Number nine, I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again. Resolved that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done supposing I lived to an old age.
He dates all of these things as he's going through them too. Number 10, resolve to examine carefully and constantly that one thing in me is which causes me in the least to doubt the love of God and direct all my forces against it. Number 11, resolve to study the scripture so steadily, constantly and frequently as that I might find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. And then number 12, resolve never henceforth till I die to act as if I in any way my own were any way my own but entirely and altogether God's. What would happen if we just wrote down some personal resolutions? I want you to think about this, men, because if we have no resolution in life, we're not resolved. If we don't have any, if we don't know where we're going, how can you be resolved to do it?
Right? So set some purpose, some vision, some goals in your life, say this is what I want to accomplish. In other words, if I want my kids to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, how could I see that accomplished? Would that be accomplished by me getting them out of church and into a sports league? Would that potentially cause them to love a sport more than the things of God?
And when I come home and all we talk about is sports and games and activities, but I never talk about Jesus, I never talk about his word, we never pray together, am I setting them up to love God most or the world most? But if we're not, if we don't know where we're going, guess what? The world will lead us. The world will guide us. I don't know about you, but I'm not into the world's program.
I'm not into what the world wants my family to become. I want to be what God wants me to become. Listen, my goal was not that my kids had perfect grades in school, but they would do their grades and work at school as though they were doing it unto the Lord. They got a bad grade, we sat down and said, do you feel like you gave your best effort? Do you feel like you were putting God first in the way you were studying? It's not about that letter.
I can tell you, you can have a kid with straight A's and have no desire for the things of God. That's not a win. That's a loss for me. That's a huge loss.
It's not a win. They go out and make 250,000 dollars a year, some job, that's a loss if they're not loving Jesus. Nothing wrong with getting straight A's, nothing wrong with making good money, nothing wrong with those things, but I can tell you, that is a massive loss for me if I lose their soul. What are you setting your kids up for? What are we setting our marriage up for? What are we setting our families up for? And it's like, you know what, in a thousand years from now, I want to be in heaven with my family. That's a big deal for me.
I'm not so concerned about what the world's telling me is a victory, because I can tell you when our family got ahold of the American dream, it kind of turned into the American nightmare because dad had to work so many extra hours and he wasn't home with us as much and all those things began to cause massive effects. Let me give you another one, number four. Number four, if you want to be the man God has called you to be, you have to be a person of resolve, but also you must reject excuses. One thing you never find Joshua doing is making an excuse. It's interesting because there is a couple tribes who come to him and say, hey, we need some more land. He's like, go up and take it. They're like, yeah, but there's so many enemies over there. He's like, if you're so great, go defeat them. We've defeated ours.
Go defeat yours. Well, and they kept making excuses. Joshua and Caleb, Jesus didn't make excuses. Caleb's like, give me that mountain. Giants of Anak lived there.
I want to crush them. And it's like that mountain became Caleb's. I can't wait to get to heaven. I'm like, do you have any reruns of that? This is like Braveheart stuff. I don't know about you, but like every man in here is like Braveheart gladiator, action, watch some reruns, right?
Women don't understand this, but men are like, that is just so fantastic. You imagine an 80 year old guy is like, give me that mountain. You know, giants are up there. How'd you wipe them out? You climb the mountain and you wiped out the giants.
He never made excuses. Think about Joshua when he said, as for me and my house will serve the Lord. You know what? Leadership starts with not a focus on your family getting right and your wife getting right. There are men who are always wanting to shift the blame on others as to why they personally, well, I'm not living for God, but you don't know what it's like living with a wife like, and you don't know what it's like having kids like this, and you don't know what it's like working these long hours, and you don't know what it's like, and they pass the buck on everything. Man up.
I've been to a lot of people, I'm sure over these last couple of weeks, but get over it. I don't know how else to say it. There's a man up time and say, stop making sissy excuses and be a man. Be courageous. When I played football, they were like, I don't want to go out and hit that kid.
I need a coach to man me up a little bit. Have some courage. And you say, but I've never had a father lead in that way.
Then come tonight, be around some men to get some courage for that. I can tell you if I was in that group of men, I would not have wanted to hang out with the 10 cowards, I would have wanted to hang out with the two courageous. Let me be like a Joshua and Caleb, I want to hang out with those guys.
Stop making excuses. Compare Joshua to Adam. Joshua's like, it's for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. You know what Adam did? God comes not to Eve, but he comes to the head of the home. He comes to Adam. Hey, Adam, Adam, the man, the head of the home, why did you eat?
Why are you covering yourself up? What happened, Adam? You know what Adam says in Genesis 3, verse 12?
And the man said, the woman that thou gavest me, she gave of me the tree and I did eat. Did he take personal responsibility? No, he's a coward. Adam's a coward.
He's afraid. You know what, you know what, you know what, there's two things that the sin nature in all of us, and myself included, have the tendency to do. First of all is to blame others for our own sins and failures. Why did you do that? Why did you cuss at your wife or your kids? Why did you get mad at that person and do that?
Why did you do that? Well, you just don't understand what they, okay, I can do that or I can say, you know what, the temperature of the situation did not create the sin in me, it exposed the sin in me. The problem's not outside of me, it's inside of me. Until I start taking responsibility, I'll never change. It's like a vehicle saying, it's not that I am low on oil, it's that the pavement's hot. As the car drives down the road, no, you're low on oil, there's an internal problem.
If you don't get it fixed, there's going to be some major problems. Blaming simply exposes some problems after a while. Secondly, not only do they blame-shift, but they play the victim card. God, you gave me the woman, actually God, it's your fault. Right? I mean, he's blaming God.
You kidding me? Joshua started with himself, put the responsibility on himself, where Adam blame-shifts. I can tell you, I've been an Adam at times in life. I've been a coward. I've not manned up at times. I know there's been times in my life where, oh, this person's fault, that person's fault. Praise God that God's helped mold me after the image of Christ, but I'm not perfect. Every man in here, we need to understand that it is a sinful tendency for us to do that. It starts inwardly. I was so encouraged this week, there was a man who came and shared some struggles that he was having with his wife. I said, instead of focusing on what your wife's doing wrong, focus on what you're doing wrong. You can draw a circle around yourself. You change you.
It starts with you. A few days later, he came up to me and he said, man, things at home are so much better. I said, what happened? He smiled. He said, I just made some changes. Oh. I said, that's what a man does. That's what a man does.
Stops blaming his wife, blaming his kids, pointing everybody else and says, I can tell you this much. I could draw a circle, a real tight circle around myself. There's so many problems in that circle. It's hard. Once you see yourself as the vilest of sinners, it's hard to start focusing on other people because you're like, ah, I need to start here.
I mean, there's so much work going on in that little circle that it's hard to get outside of the circle, right? I think there'd be so many people that would stand before God after they're complaining about others and Jesus would say, did you look at yourself yet? Can I just say maybe a brief word to the wives as well? God has placed your husband to be a leader in your home.
I think about Ephesians 5 23 when it's talking about the role of husband and wives, it says for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Listen, young ladies, be very careful who you get involved with in life. What kind of man you want leading you. And I would ask you ladies today, are you respecting your husband? Are you encouraging him to lead or discouraging him from leading? Do you battle him at every turn in every decision?
It's always got to be a battle. If you do, that's sinful. It's wrong. Doesn't mean your opinion isn't important. It absolutely is.
I've never made a big decision in my life without talking to my wife. That's obviously true. You know, headship of the man means that he gets 51% of the vote. Doesn't mean you're less, but it means that he is to be the leader of the home. And everybody says, well, you know, aren't they equal?
Yes, you're equal in person. But the Bible says the husband is the head of the wife. If you don't like that, take that up with God.
Right? When it bothers me when a woman says, I don't like that submission stuff, then you don't like that God stuff. Because everything about Christianity is submission. I submit to all of you, and I'm the pastor of the church. What needs do I not submit to?
Right? You walk into Walmart, you're submitting to the leadership of that company. You're submitting to their rules and their laws. You're submitting to everything in life.
You have a coach, you submit to the process. Rebellion is not the right answer. Don't battle at every corner. Ephesians 5, 33 says, nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife as himself, and wife, see that you reverence your husband. Just as a wife needs love, so a husband needs to be respected. Listen, you didn't marry a perfect husband, but you did. You do have a perfect savior, and your respect for your husband's not based on his perfection. Your respect for your husband's based on Christ's perfection. Don't wait for your husband to be worthy of respect. Just look to Christ and say, Christ is worthy of respect. My husband is the beneficiary of my relationship with Jesus. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 5, 22 to wife, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord.
You're doing it to Christ. It is the tangible way for you to do that. The word submit there is hupotaso. It's a Greek word that it's actually even a military word. It means like you're ranking underneath them. Just like a lieutenant colonel, you're just ranked underneath the colonel. Just as an assistant coach, he submits to the head coach. So wives willingly, and also that hupotaso is a willing submission, where they willingly subjugate themselves to the leadership of their husband. You can't have a two-headed person say, I saw this video of a guy that's two-headed or something.
Don't send it to me. But somebody's got to make the call. That's why you need the cute and funny are not the, I don't want to always follow cute and funny. I want to follow godly, hardworking, loving, humble, kind, someone who respects and cares for me. And sometimes women struggle to do this because they say, well, I'm afraid he'll take advantage of me.
Right? Isn't that true, ladies? You're afraid that they'll take advantage of you. Should you let fear keep you from obeying Christ's words? Should you let fear keep you from obeying what Christ calls you to do?
And how well has it been with you having control or pushing against the control? A wife who is unwilling to respect and submit to the leadership of her husband ultimately has a problem with who? I didn't write the Bible. If you want me to preach on salvation and sin and men, and you also got to realize that women has been called to follow that leadership. And if you always, I had this happen one time where I was counseling years ago, and this wife was like, he just will never lead.
He'll just never lead. He's just hammering him in the office, just putting the hammer down. So what I did was I was sitting there and I asked him about a dozen questions. She answered everyone. I was looking at him while she's answering.
It got so bad I didn't even look at her. I'd ask him a question and she's like, as though he's, she's like his parent. Like if you want a man, don't make him a mouse, right? Sometimes women want a man to lead, but they don't let him have it.
And that's wrong. And encourage him, respect him, show reverence. And I can tell you when you start respecting your husband right, you can see some, you could see God do some great things because you're walking in the way that God's called you to do. Listen, if our president walked into this church, I would stand up, shake his hand and show him respect.
I can't stand almost everything that he stands for, but I respect him as the president of our country. You say, well, I'd sit there. I wouldn't do that.
Oh really? So you'd probably be like the men of David who wanted to kill Saul, right? See David showed reverence to the position of that office. He humbled himself.
He wouldn't lay his hand on that. I can tell you, we need to start honoring what God says to honor. Doesn't mean that I'm going to obey everything the government tells me. If your husband starts leading you in an ungodly way, you stand up and resist that because you follow Christ over everything. And if he's not leading right, then you give me a call and we can sit down and have a conversation in a loving way and help hold some accountability. Clearly counseling is such a wonderful thing.
We'll be launching our next reengage this fall. But show him respect and honor. When's the last time you said these words to your husband, honey, I respect you. I respect you.
It's a big deal. When a man hears that, it is the same thing as a wife hearing, honey, I love you. I don't know that women always understand how important it is for men to feel like they have respect because sometimes men, we beat ourselves up so bad, we feel like we don't deserve anything and guys can put themselves down.
And so it's just so important to know that. Thank you for the God that we have so many godly, humble, loving wives in our church, so strong. And some of you ladies, it's hard because you're smarter than your husbands, right? My wife, we have women that are sharper than us in so many ways. So I said, I've never made a decision in my life without talking to my wife.
If she's not on board with it, I'm not going to be probably on board with it unless I'm totally convinced of the Lord to do something, but I trust her to that point. And then number five, I'm just going to have to wrap this up. I can't really preach through it at all because of our time. The last thing is you must be on guard. To be the leader that God's called you to be, you must be on guard.
First Peter 5-8 says, be sober, be vigilant because you're adversary the devil as a roaring line walks about seeking whom he may devour. I would encourage you this week to read Joshua 7. In Joshua 7, they go in, they just defeated Jericho. After they defeat Jericho, they go into this, the city of Ai and they're going to defeat Ai. It's just a small, lot smaller than Jericho. But what happened was in Joshua 6, God says, when you defeat Jericho, don't take any of the possessions.
Don't touch anything. This is the first city. Well, what happens is Achan went in and he took some Babylonish garments, some silver, 200 pieces of silver and some gold and it brought judgment upon the nation. When they went into the fight against Ai, 36 soldiers died. 36 wives became widows. 36 families lost their dads because of a man's sin.
Sin affected the entire nation. And finally, God says, so Joshua's mourning, the nation's mourning and they're praying before God and God comes to Joshua and he says, Joshua, why are you on your face praying? Get up and go deal with that sin and get it out of the camp. Sometimes we go to God in prayer and God says, you've prayed enough, go get right.
Get up and get right. And so Joshua goes and he says, they bring all the people together and they went through lot and they found out through casting of lots that it was Achan. And he says, Achan, tell us what you've done. Give glory to God. Confess your sin.
What did you do? And Achan confesses it in Joshua 7, 20 and 21. He says, what I did was I saw a goodly Babylonish garment. You know, sin starts with what we look at, doesn't it? He says, and then he starts explaining it. It's not wrong to see sin, it's wrong to gaze upon it.
He's like, it was a goodly Babylonish garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, 50 shekels of weight. You know what happens when you start looking at sin long enough? Then I coveted them.
You know what, when you start coveting something, the next thing, it's not long after till you take them. And he said, and after he took them, guess what he did? They are hid in the earth in the midst of the tent. You know, what happens when you start sinning? You start living a life of secrecy.
Hiding things. And you know what, he pulled his whole family involved in this thing because when judgment came to that home, the death sentence was passed upon Joshua and his entire family. His sons, his daughter, his wife, all faced the death penalty. The Bible tells us in the book of Deuteronomy that children and families will not be punished for the sins of their fathers or fathers for the children. This lets us know that everybody in the family was involved in this. He brought sin into the home and sin infected everybody and they all partook in it.
And the whole family was killed, put to death, so you see the reality of how deadly sin can be. I can tell you, men, flee sin. Run from it. Guard your heart. It will destroy you.
It will destroy your family. And as I close today, I ask this question, where are the men of courage today? Where are the men who are unashamed of Jesus Christ? They're unashamed of the truth. You're not afraid to stand strong and courageous for what God's called you to do.
You're not afraid to be a man of the word. Who are the men of intention? Who are the men of purpose, men of resolve? Men don't quit and don't make excuses.
Take responsibility. Men who guard their family from sin that could so easily destroy it. We're going to have a time of invitation where you can come and pray. This would be a good day, men, for you to come and humble yourself before your God, whether at your seat or at an altar, but where you say, God, help me to be that man of resolve.
Help me to be a man of intention, a man of purpose, a man of courage. And I can tell you, men, you can never be for your family what God's called you to be until you've given your life fully and unreservedly to Christ. Unless you're saved and surrendered, you're going to miss it.
Your family is going to wander in the wilderness, man. I'm telling you, you'll get to the end of your life and you may not realize it on this side of heaven, but I can tell you there's going to be a day you're going to realize it. And let this be the day where you become a man of resolve. You become a man of intention, where you say as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord so that you make such a commitment in your life that 30 and 40 years down the road you look back and you say, praise God I did that. Praise God I didn't just sit there meandering as a man. Praise God I didn't let the culture define me, but I let Christ define me. Praise God that I was willing for the world to mock me so that Christ could honor me. Your family will follow you, I can promise you that. It's not what we say to our family, it's what we show them with our life. Be organic today and be led by Christ, fully surrender to Him.
