INTRO: Why do we admire Joshua? Why has this moment in time been immortalized, serving as an inspiration to so many people down through the years? Why does it still touch some place deep inside our hearts when we hear those famous words, "As for me & my house…?"
The reason this phrase is so well remembered is because, even though none of us have ever met the man, something resonates inside of us that makes us want to "be the man." We can sense in the strength of this one famous statement that Joshua was a man who knew who he was, who knew what he believed, and who was willing to live in such a way as to back up his words with his actions. He was a living example of godliness. Respected because he was "the real deal." When he walked into a room everyone listened. He was a man of God.
When my Grandpa Nicholson died at nearly 91 years of age, my uncle had his casket draped in the Christian flag, which was later folded and presented to my Grandma military style at the graveside service. My uncle explained that many American soldiers received the same honor when they died because they had served their country with great pride and valor. I can still remember my uncle’s words: "Dad never served in the Armed Forces of the United States but today we present my mother with the Christian Flag because Carl Nicholson was a soldier of the Cross." I wanted to stand up and salute. I left that place inspired and determined more than ever to live for Jesus.
As the preacher summed up Grandpa’s life, I couldn’t help but think, "Jesus, please let my life make a difference like Grandpa’s has! When it’s all said and done for me, I hope the preacher won’t have to work hard to find something good to say. May my children grow up to serve the Lord because they saw something in me that made them want my God. Help me to make the most out of this brief life you’ve given me. Help me not to ’lay up treasures on earth…’ Lord, please help me stand tall for you!" Godly men like Joshua and my Grandfather were respected, not so much because of what they said, but because of the way they lived.
Here we have Joshua, the anointed apprentice who took Moses’ place of leadership when the Israelites entered and conquered the Promised Land. Joshua, the veteran warrior who had so often shown great bravery on the field of battle. Joshua, whom the people had grown to love and respect because of his faith and trust in God; now old and bent and at the end of his life calling for a special meeting. Sensing that his people were wavering towards compromise, he steps up to make his last and perhaps his greatest speech. He could have never known, as that large crowd came to a hush, that his words would carry far beyond that moment and that group of people to countless thousands down through the years - including us here this morning.
It was time for a man of God to take a stand. "People, it’s decision time. You can either serve the God who blessed and brought you into this land or you can turn your back on Him and act like the pagan people around you - marrying their sons and daughters and adopting their false religions. Today you’ve got to decide. Your future - our future - the future of our sons and daughters depends on the choice you make." Then he gathered his family around him. His sons and daughters. His grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He huddled them together, reached his arms around the ones closest to him and said, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And in that moment with his life, his character, his courage and his convictions - this one man impacted not only his family; God used him to impact every family and to hold together a nation on the verge of compromise.
And I say, "God, give us some Joshua’s today!" Give us some men and women who are unashamed of the Gospel who will stand up for Jesus and make a difference in a world in desperate need of godly leadership! How does it happen?
PROPOSITION: God can use ANYONE GREATLY who will be committed to HIM COMPLETELY. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Everyone except Jesus whom God has used has failed in some way. You just have to have a heart that keeps drawing you back to the Father in humility of spirit and dependence.
INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE: HOW CAN GOD USE ONE MAN/WOMAN TO REACH A WHOLE CITY OR EVEN A NATION FOR GOD?
I. IT STARTS WITH ONE. "As for ME…" - Joshua 24:15b
Most of us would love to be regarded as a great leader, but few are truly willing to pay the price. The road to greatness is lonely and often paved with great pain. George Washington is revered as the "Father of our Country" but he earned that title on the frozen battlefields of Valley Forge where he led a rag-tag group of colonial soldiers to victory in the American Revolution. Abraham Lincoln is remembered as one of our greatest Presidents but his journey to the White House was marked by dozens of failures and setbacks and his greatness was etched out in the bloody Civil War conflict that threatened to split our nation in two over slavery. Jackie Robinson broke the color line is major league baseball but on the way to the respect he now receives he endured great controversy and hostility in baseball stadiums across the country.
We could go on to site dozens of individuals who have come to be known and remembered as great leaders. Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, Billy Graham. Modern day martyrs Cassy Bernall and Rachel Scott who died in the Columbine High School shooting, inspiring a generation of young people to make a stand for Jesus Christ. These individuals held deep-seated convictions that they would not compromise, even when it wasn’t popular, because they knew and believed in their hearts it was right. And they all changed the world in their own way.
IT STARTS WITH ONE.
I’m asking you this morning; "Do you have the courage and convictions to be that ’one’ for God?"
Will you stand up for God when it’s not popular? Will you model a consistent, godly life before your family that shows them you’ve got something more than a little religion? Will you live a life of integrity and walk before God in humility? Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Make him your passion and your priority? Live in such a way that when you die you go straight into the presence of Jesus leaving behind a host of those who came to Christ because of your witness and family/friends who want to model their lives after your example? Will you stand before God and hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant…?"
This old world is moving swiftly towards an ultimate climax. Sin and compromise are everywhere. Drug addiction, sexual and physical abuse, rape, incest, alcoholism, murder, divorce, abortion, pornography, homosexuality, messed up families, on and on it goes… Who will be a Joshua? Who will take a stand? Who will stop looking around waiting for someone else to do it? Who will "be the one?" One man and God are a majority.
II. IT MOVES TO OUR FAMILIES. "As for me AND MY HOUSE…" - Joshua 24:15b.
"Godly leadership is always just one generation away from extinction."
I wasn’t there so I can only use my imagination, but I can’t help but wonder if old Grandpa Joshua wasn’t looking down into the eyes of his little grandchildren just before he made his famous statement. The heart of a father cried out with the heart of his Heavenly Father for the protection and blessing he knew would only come from honoring and serving the Lord. Joshua coveted the blessings of God upon his family so he took a stand hoping to inspire those who would come after him to carry the torch for God. God’s blessings are not automatic or inherited. They aren’t passed on through family bloodlines. Each new generation must make the choice to serve or reject the living God.
I’m concerned about what I call the "watering down" of the faith of our fathers. I’m not just referring to our "Founding Fathers" - I’m talking in more contemporary terms about our own fathers and grandfathers. Some of you are into things today that would make your godly grandmother/father roll over in their graves! When it came to daily decisions, Grandma and Grandpa didn’t beat around the bush: "The Word settles it and that’s it!" There was no compromise. If you used a dirty word you got your mouth washed out with soap! You lived your life like Jesus was following you around because if He wasn’t you were just sure Grandma had someone tailing you!
Grandma and Grandpa’s generation made a stand for God in tent meeting revivals and camp meetings all around the country. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. They helped build churches with their own hands. They gave to missionaries and wished they could go. They lived by faith and trusted God to put food on the table during the days of the "Great Depression." They believed in miracles and prayed like God was real. They were committed to their families and to their mates for life. God and church was the cornerstone of their life.
Then we hit the 50’s & 60’s with "free love and free sex." In the 70’s we entered the Viet Nam era and began experimenting with drugs. Somewhere along the line we threw God and prayer out of school. Shortly thereafter, teen pregnancies, divorce and sexually transmitted diseases skyrocketed. A law was passed legalizing abortion. Illegitimate children and absentee fathers became the norm. Crime, including mass murders in the halls of our public high schools, has become common in the headlines. One of our states voted to approve same sex marriages. We elected as President of the United States a man who routinely lies, cheats, steals, breaks the law, has sex with interns and a list of other women while our children watch the news and see him "get by with it."
And we sit here this morning shaking our heads in amazement asking "How could it have happened in America in just a couple of generations?" I’ll tell you EXACTLY how it has happened: IT HAS HAPPENED BECAUSE MEN AND WOMEN OF GOD HAVE BEEN AFRAID TO MAKE A STAND FOR GOD. We have watered down the Gospel and compromised our faith. We have become weak-kneed. We have drunk the "secular Kool-Aid" - afraid we’ll be labeled "intolerant," "old-fashioned," and "Politically Incorrect." And we have watched our country and our families fall apart right in front of our eyes while we blame it on everything and everyone else!
IT STARTS AT HOME, DAD/MOM! Your godly mom and dad prayed for their kids every day and led family devotions. Do you? Your parents made sure you were in church and monitored your friends and your habits. Do you? Your parents looked to the Bible as the final authority for every issue in life and when they couldn’t find it in the Book they said, "Jesus wouldn’t do that so neither will you!" They lived the truth! When we buried my Grandpa Wilson last summer I looked at my family and said, "The reason we loved and respected Gilbert Wilson was because he lived for God. He didn’t just talk about it. He lived it. He was a man of God. Now I’m asking you as his family today: ’Will you pick up the torch? Will you receive the mantel? It’s our turn. How are you going to handle the faith that has been handed down to you?’"
"Godly leadership is always just one generation away from extinction."
John Ashcroft, newly appointed Attorney General recounts the following story in his book "Lessons From a Father to His Son."
On the day he was sworn in to the Senate in 1995, John Ashcroft, his godly father Robert (old and weak and near the end of his life) and some close friends and family - fifteen to twenty people - gathered together in a house not far from the Capitol for a dedication service. At one point, Senator Ashcroft’s father, a former pastor and respected church leader with the Assemblies of God, suggested that he wanted to anoint his son with oil, much like the ancient Kings of Israel, David and Saul, were anointed as they began their duties before God. Someone found some Crisco oil in the kitchen and I will read you the rest of the story now in Attorney General’s Ashcroft’s own words:
"I knelt in front of the sofa where my father was seated, and everyone gathered around me. Most placed a hand on my head, shoulders, or back. Everyone was standing when I noticed my father lunging, swinging his arms, trying to lift himself out of the couch, one of those all-enveloping pieces of furniture that tends to bury you once you sit in it. Given my father’s weakness - a damaged heart operating at less than one-third capacity - getting out of that couch was taking a major-league effort.
Dad was not making much progress. I felt terrible. Knowing he did not have strength to spare, I said, ’Dad, you don’t have to struggle to stand and pray over me with these friends.’
’John,’ my father answered, ’I’m not struggling to stand, I’m struggling to kneel.’ He was conveying a message of eternal value and impact. I was taken back to early mornings half a century before when (as a boy) I slipped underneath my father and joined him on his knees. He prayed then that we would do noble things. Now, still on his knees, he was taking me there."
As I encourage you this morning to "Make a Stand for God" I am reminded of something I once read: "A man never stands taller than when he is on his knees." God is looking for some Joshua’s this morning. "As for ME and MY HOUSE, we will serve the Lord."
III. IT IMPACTS A NATION. "Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel." - Joshua 24:31.
Joshua’s influence and godly leadership literally held a nation together in service to God not only through his lifetime but also for at least one full generation to come.
IT STARTS WITH ONE. Joshua was a man of God who was not afraid to make a stand.
IT MOVES TO OUR FAMILIES. He handed his family a godly heritage. He was the real deal. He lived the life.
IT IMPACTS A NATION. If you want to know why our nation is hurting, look no further than the God ordained institution of the family. The family is in trouble. 50% of marriages end in divorce. Our children have become pawns in custody battles as mom and dad go their separate ways. We’ve got drop out and dead beat dads all over the place. Single parent families have become commonplace. Blended families are finding it very difficult going as stepparents walk a tentative line of authority and respect between their spouse’s children and themselves. Children are being raised by the TV and Daycare centers instead of their parents.
It’s time for a revolution in America! It’s time for Godly men and women (and UNgodly men and women who know they ought to be living for God!) to MAKE A STAND. Dad/Mom: It’s time you started handing your kids the Bible and a legacy of godly character instead of a "Bud Light" and their own e-mail account. It’s time to quit talking about being a Christian and to start living like one! It’s time to quit looking around for someone else to be a godly influence in your child’s life - that’s your responsibility! God wants you to BE THE ONE! What are you leaving your kids? If your life were over today, what would you have handed to your family? Do you want to see our nation come back to God? IT STARTS WITH ONE. It starts with you.
CONCLUSION: * Call for the individual from each home/family who sees themselves as the spiritual leader in their home to stand.
· Call for my family to join me on stage. Call for family members present to gather around their parent/relative who is already standing.
· Read Joshua 24:14-15 in my own words.
· Ask those who agree to read the response on the screen from Joshua 24:16 - "Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!"
· Read Joshua 24:19-20.
· Call for a response from the people (verse 21) - "No! We will serve the Lord."
· Read Joshua 24:22
· Call for a response, "Yes, we are witnesses."
· Read Joshua 24:23
· Call for a response (verse 24) - "We will serve the Lord our God and obey him."
· Call for the spiritual leaders from each family to come forward and sign the following Covenant: "We, as the spiritual leaders representing our individual homes, Covenant together on this day, Sunday, February 25, 2001 to serve the Living God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, forsaking all other gods and leading our families in righteousness and humility, declaring the words of Joshua in Joshua Chapter 24:15 to be our own:
"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"
