“As For Me and My House” – Joshua 24:15

In a world full of competing priorities and shifting values, Joshua’s bold declaration still challenges us today: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This Father’s Day message will explore what it means to lead our families with conviction, faith, and godly example. Whether you are a father, grandfather, parent, or spiritual mentor, discover how your decisions today can leave a lasting legacy for generations to come. Join us as we are challenged to choose wholehearted devotion to God and lead those around us toward Him.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

I hope you guys have a special day. You know, I'm kind of conflicted because it's Father's Day, but it's also my wife's birthday. So it's like, which one do I celebrate? Wife's birthday, obviously, right? So yeah. So if you see her, wish her a happy birthday, and once again, happy Father's Day. We had a fun time last night. We were on the east side of the state, all the way over in St. Clair for a wedding. My wife's brother uh recently just got married and it was a lot of fun out there. But we definitely got the coast, guys. I'm telling you what. The Lake Michigan over here, it's beautiful. It's beautiful over there, but we got a really nice beach over here in Pentwater. So you guys picked a good place. I'm glad you're here this morning. Once again, happy Father's Day. And I want to talk to the dads. Father's Day can be intimidating. Amen. It can be. Some men feel like they have failed. Some grew up without a godly father, or some dads are exhausted just trying to provide. Going every single day to work, just trying to bring food on the table. Some grandfathers wonder if they actually made enough of a difference. I got good news for you, dads. It's that God has never been looking for perfect men or perfect grandfathers. He's looking for faithful men. I love this quote. God does not say, well done, good and successful servants. He says, Well done, good and faithful. We got that on the screen there. God does not say, well done, good and successful servant. He says, Well done, good and faithful. And there are examples in the Bible with imperfect men all over the place. We've been going through the life of Joshua, and we see when this man is leading, he makes mistakes. There's a lot of things that go wrong. There's a lot of things he did right, but there's a lot of things that didn't go the way that it should have gone. In the life of David, we're going to be doing a men's Bible study, going through the life of David, and this man was a man after God's own heart. And this man made mistakes. He didn't get it always right. And he had failure in his life. He wasn't perfect. Peter, the man, the disciple, who always put his foot in his mouth, struggling all the time, the cart before the horse. And yet God used Peter in a mighty way. But they are men who did have one thing in common. Even though they made mistakes, even though they failed, they chose to follow God. And Joshua stands at the end of his life in this chapter. We're going to be focused on Joshua chapter 24. If you guys have your Bibles. And we really want to focus in on this verse. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He's at the end of his life, and this is what's coming on. This is a declaration of a man worth following. And if you're taking notes this morning, I want to give you a first note. The first point is this a godly man leads by example. Plain and simple. A godly man leads by example. In Joshua 24, in verse 15, it says, But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Simple yet profound. You know, you take that phrase right at the very beginning, but as for me, he starts with himself. He's over a hundred years old when he says these words. He's nearing the end of his life. And this isn't just a young man making promises about the future. This is a seasoned servant looking back over decades walking with God. Notice the order of that verse, though. Joshua doesn't start with his family. He doesn't even start with the nation. He starts with himself. He says, as for me, a godly leader never asks others to do what he's not unwilling to do himself. Leadership is not first about authority. Leadership is about example. Example. The greatest influence in your home is not what you say, Dad. It's who you are. Yeah, little eyes watching everything you do. I love the in the Hebrew insight on this. The phrase, as for me, comes from this Hebrew word, but I, or as I personally, will go. Joshua is drawing this contrast. In essence, he's saying, others may choose differently, but I've already made a decision. This is a personal conviction. Joshua's faith was not dependent on cultural trends, a popular vote, or even political pressure, or what a public opinion may be, or what everyone else is doing. Because godly men must come to a point where they can say, even if nobody else follows God, and everyone else is going this way, I'm gonna put my feet in the ground and I'm gonna say, Not for me. I'm choosing to follow God. And before Joshua could lead Israel, he had to settle this matter in his own heart. Before he could do anything, Joshua had earned the right to say this. Like I said, he was a well-seasoned leader. Think about Joshua's life. He followed Moses for 40 years. He stood against ten unbelieving spies. He led Israel across this Jordan River. They saw Jericho walls come tumbling down. And he sees all these things. He fought countless battles, and he remained faithful when others quit. Joshua's word carried weight because his life backed him up. He led by example in everything he did. People listen differently when they know you've lived what you're preaching. Your family doesn't need a perfect father or a perfect grandfather. They needed an authentic father. An authentic grandparent or a grandfather who will just be real with them. One who genuinely loves Jesus. But one of the things I've learned as a dad, and I'm sure all the dads can relate, children learn by what they see. Amen. They learn by what they see. They are watching you. All these little eyes on everything you say, everything you do. They are watching every aspect of your life. Grandfather, same thing. I loved my grandfather, and I watch everything that he would do. And I would try to be just like him. They are watching. And you can give instructions to your kids all the time. For some reason, it goes in one ear out the other. But they have good eyes. They are watching. Right? I love this passage in Deuteronomy 6 in verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you write. Little eye watching your every step when you're walking the pier at Pentwater, when you're walking the beach, when you're walking through, when you're driving, they're watching what you say to other drivers. They are watching. And they are hearing the things you probably don't want them to hear, right? That's what children do best. Children learn more through observation than they do through instruction because they watch. They watch how we treat our wives. They watch how you handle stress, how you talk about the church, how you spend money, how dad treats people who disagree with him. And how dad responds and how grandpa responds when caught in sin. They watch. They're always watching. No pressure, men, amen. No pressure at all. But check out what Ephesians 6 says in verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. That it may go well with you. You may live long in the land. Children in the room, do you realize you could live a long life if you obey mom and dad? That's pretty awesome, right? Maybe a good idea, right? Best Father's Day present you can give. Obey your father and your mother. That'd be great. Amen. Come on. Come on. But in verse 4, it says, fathers. Not mothers. It says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Wow. Even more pressure, fathers and grandfathers. It's our job to bring our kids up into the Lord. To bring them up into how they should be and the instructions of the Lord. And they do this by watching us. They watch our every move. Fathers, instruct your children. We have to step it up, dads. We have to show them the way. We have to show them the way. We can't have the TV raising our kids. We can't have media raising our kids. We as fathers need to instruct our children. I came across this quote. I was talking with a dad, and the little boy was asked, What is a Christian? And the boy replied, I don't know exactly, but if I needed one, I'd ask my dad. That dad was doing it right. He was leading by example. He was watching it. That's influence. That's discipleship. Even the apostle Paul understood this when people were watching him in Corinth. My wife and I got the privilege to go to Corinth, and we got to see where the Apostle Paul was walking and where he was selling tents and different things in his life. And he said to the Corinthians, he says, Be imitators of me. Imitate me. Imitate me. As I am of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11, 1, be imitators of me as I try to imitate Christ. I'm trying. I maybe not got it down, but I'm trying. And Paul wasn't claiming to perfection. He was saying, you can watch my life because I'm trying. I'm trying to follow Jesus in everything I do and everything I say. And I want to tell you this morning, fathers, we're teaching our family something. And the question is, what are they learning from watching you? Grandads, what are they learning when they see you? What are they learning when they watch you? Because they're watching. Are you living that example? Are you letting them see you pray? Are you letting them see you open scripture? Are you letting them see you worship God or even serve? Or one of the hardest things that we've been taught never to do as a man. Have they ever seen you apologize? I was wrong. Will you please forgive me? I can tell you this morning that teaches the gospel more than a hundred lectures. Men admitting they're wrong. People want to follow a leader who's not always right. They want to follow a leader who's always real, not necessarily always right. And we have to admit when we're wrong that teaches hundreds of lectures. You may not stand behind a pulpit every Sunday, but your family watches your sermon every single waking hour. They're following you, they're watching you. A godly man leads by example. Number two, a godly man leads with conviction. I want to talk a little bit about conviction because it's something we've kind of lost in our culture a little bit. Let's continue in Joshua 24 and verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Choose this day whom you will serve. So Joshua is forcing this decision. Joshua gathers the entire nation at this place called Shechem. This is not a casual farewell speech, this is a covenant renewal. And Joshua recounts God's faithfulness from Abraham to the conquest of Canaan and essentially says, now what are you going to do about it? You've seen with your eyes what God can do in this conquest. What are you going to do about it? You notice Joshua doesn't allow neutrality. You can kind of maybe follow, but maybe not. Pretty common in our culture right now. Relativism. You do you. You do whatever you want to do, and I'm going to do whatever I want to do. There's no absolute truth. I'm just going to kind of go and do my own thing. He doesn't say that. He says choose. You have to choose, because refusing to choose is actually making a choice. When we refuse to choose. The Hebrew insight on choose, the word is Bakar, meaning to select or to decide, to deliberately choose one thing over another. It's often used in a covenant language. Joshua is not talking about, oh, you just do your preference. He's talking about an allegiance, an allegiance towards God. The idea decide once and for all where your loyalty will belong. That's what he's saying. Joshua understood that divided loyalties eventually become misplaced loyalties. And that Hebrew insights serve. It's all throughout the book of Joshua, but I see it a lot in Joshua chapter 24. The word means to work for, to worship, to give oneself to, to devote oneself to another master. And Joshua understood, it's still true today, everybody serves something. Say, oh, I'm not serving this or that. No matter what. If you made a decision or you haven't, you're serving something. The question is, what are you serving? The question is not, will you serve? The question is whom will you serve? Because we all are serving something. Every family has this in their life. You can see it. Families may serve success, reputation. Maybe it's entertainment or just simply comfort. None of these things are necessarily bad, but the danger comes when the good thing becomes the ultimate thing in their life. Whatever gets the highest affection, the greatest attention, the deepest devotion becomes our functional God. I love it when Luther was reading up on him, he said this: Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is actually really your God. Thinking through our lives, like what are we confiding in? That's really our God. Joshua knew if Israel did not intentionally actually make a choice to follow Yahweh, the surrounding culture around them would mislead them. It would lead them astray. I mean, you can't even go through the story of Joshua without saying, oh, they're following God. Oh, next chapter, now they're not. They're following God, oh, now they're not. It keeps on going back and forth. He's like, you need to choose. You need to make the choice right now. Modern culture says keep your options open. Keep your opinions, you know, not necessarily committed to one another. Don't be too serious about your faith. Don't let religion define you. Let's just stay kind of flexible. Joshua doesn't go there. He says, choose. Choose today. Who will you serve? Biblical faith has always required some sort of commitment. And Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. He called this out in Matthew 6 in verse 24. No one can serve two masters. For either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and money. God has never been interested in half-hearted devotion. So why does this matter for dads? I believe with all my heart, dads and grandads, you are the thermostat for your home. You are the thermostat. Whatever it looks like, it's your responsibility. You will be judged one day for how you lead your family. You'll be judged for one day how you grandparented your family. We're the thermostat of our home. What matters to him eventually changes the atmosphere of the family. If Christ is merely a Sunday activity for dad, eventually your kids will choose. You know, I don't really feel like going to church on Sunday. Because they follow us. But when dad genuinely loves Christ, pursues Christ, and prioritizes Christ, he creates a culture where faith becomes normal. Not perfect, but intentional. You know, one of the things I've noticed as I'm walking around Pentwater is I'm seeing a lot more sailboats. I'm seeing boats. I'm really loving seeing that. And I'll have to say, praise the Lord. It's the first day of summer today. Amen? Amen. It's awesome. But going out there, I'm going out and uh we're driving our little players around town and trying to let everyone know go cubs go. You know, that song's one of our favorite songs. Probably tiger fans. But we we have a little sunfish sailboat that I'll go out in, and there's one time where I hook the rudder up and I put the keel in, I put the sail up, and I'm starting to go, and I'm having a good time, good breeze, getting some good wind, and all of a sudden my rudder falls off. I've apparently only clamped the top of it and missed the bottom part, and it just falls right off. And I any sailors in the room know if there's nothing steering at that boat automatically is going to face downwind. And so the boat's facing downwind, and one of the things I notice as I was trying to get my rudder is the boat starts to drift. And it starts to go wherever the current goes, wherever the wind's kind of blowing. And there's many people, they have maybe a boat, and they don't intentionally try to crash in a rock. But when the captain decides to let go of the rudder, let go of the steering, the boat eventually starts to drift. And many families don't intentionally try to reject God. They simply start to drift. Oh, we'll just miss one Sunday. We're not feeling that good. You know, I was, you know, it's just been a really rough week. I'm not going to come to church. And then the next Sunday comes, oh, I don't know if I want to do it again. I want to be a bedside Baptist. I just want to lay in my bed and not get out, right? And it just keeps on happening. Or the Bible stays closed. It becomes a little coaster on our nightstand for a drink of some type. And before long, the current has carried them somewhere they never intended to go. But Joshua said, not for me. That's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. I'm going to be intentional about this. I'm grabbing that wheel and we're going to start going towards Christ. We're going to go towards the Lord. That's what I want to lead my family at. And Joshua is speaking at Shechem, this very place where Abraham first built this covenant with the Lord, this promised covenant that they would have this land happen in this place. We can see in Genesis 12 and verse 6, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the Oak of Morah. And at the time the Canaites were in the land, and then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land. And so he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And so Joshua is saying, Hey, your ancestors chose a long time ago, generations ago, now it's your turn. What are you going to decide? Either way, you need to make a choice. And every generation has to make its own commitment. You can't live off of grandpa's faith. You can't live off of your dad's faith. You will have to make a decision, young men in this room, whom you're going to serve. Whom you're going to serve. What are the values of your home? What reveals the most time and attention that you guys focus on in your home is Christ clearly first. Families do not drift naturally towards godliness. If anything, they drift naturally towards worldliness. Godliness requires this intentional leadership from us. And the challenge of Joshua still echoes today. Choose this day. Who you're going to serve. And the most influential words a father may ever say are what Joshua said. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. A godly man leads with conviction. Number three, and the last point for today: a godly man leaves a legacy of faith. A godly man leaves a legacy of faith. Check this out in Joshua 24 and verse 31. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua. And all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel. So you look at this. Joshua, his influence outlived him. This verse is remarkable because Joshua is dead, his leadership has ended, his voice is now silent, his battles are over, and yet this influence continues all throughout. The greatest test of leadership is not what happens while you are present. The greatest test is what remains when you're gone. Men. The greatest test of leadership is not what happens while you are present. The greatest test is what remains when you're gone. What legacy are we building with our grandkids and our kids? Anyone can create temporary results. Godly leaders create this lasting impact in one's life. And Joshua's life had left such a mark on Israel that even after the death, the nation continued serving God. What a legacy. A legacy he kept. This wasn't merely an outward obedience. Israel continued worshiping and following Yahweh because Joshua had molded faithful devotion towards him. Joshua's life taught people how to serve God. People often imitate what they admire. Joshua lived in such a way that others followed his example long after he was gone. This Hebrew insight, the verse says that the elders had known. They had known all the work. That's a powerful word in that text because the Hebrew word is yada, and it means one of the richest words in the Old Testament. It means that they didn't just intellectually know. They witnessed firsthand. They personally saw all the things that God had done through this faithful servant Joshua. These elders didn't just hear the stories about God. They saw it with their eyes. They personally knew what was going on. They personally saw the walls fall at Jericho. They saw the Jordan split in half. And I'm telling you this morning, the greatest thing that a father leaves behind, the world measures legacy different. The world may say, hey, how much money did he make? How successful was he really? God asked, did he pass on the faith? Well done, good and faithful servant. Not necessarily your possessions or your property. I was talking with one of my friends at Moody. I don't know what it is. You know, ministry can be tough at times. And you go, you go through lonely seasons, you go through life, and it's hard. And so I'm blessed to have friends who call me. I call them when things are difficult. And there's a general rule of thumb when someone passes away, typically they go in threes. That's what we always talk about as pastors. If one goes, there's going to be two more at least. So get ready. You know? And so he called me up, said, Matt, they broke the three rule. I was like, what happened? This month, ten people passed away. Ten. And I said to him, Were you at every single deathbed there? And he said, Yes. I was like, what did God teach you? Because that's going to be interesting. He said, Matt, I had men and women who were super successful. I had middle class people who did pretty good, but then I had people who didn't amount to much at all. And all ten of those people said the very same thing before they left this earth. They said, I wish I would have made more money. Joking. They all said, and I kid you not, I wish I would have spent more time with my family. Not one of them said, I wish I had a boat. I wish I made more money. I wish I would have had more of a house to live in and all this stuff. Not one of them said, they said, I wish I would have spent more time with my family. I think in our country we've got it all wrong. These kids that God has blessed us with, these grandkids that God's blessed us with, we've got to be pouring into them, man. Got to teach them the way. We've got to stop making it about money and success and say, what does God look at in the situation? Because everyone, when they passed, they looked at it from God's lens. I don't see any hearses, okay? I don't see any hearses with a U-Haul attached to the back of it. You can't take it with you. You can't. All the possessions we have. I've never gone to a funeral where we're walking up to the casket and said, man, that guy's got a nice bank account. There's never been this. But we fall into this trap. Legacy is always being built. Every father is building a legacy right now. I remember even talking to my buddy who worked at Herman Miller. He said, Matt, you'll never believe it. He was the president of the company. He did amazing things for the company and did all kinds of stuff to get lots of profit. They had this recognition honor video for him. And they had this dinner banquet, it's playing on the screen, and he's looking around. Now one person is watching that video. They're all on their phones and they're talking to each other and they can care less about what this man had accomplished. And yet here we are in our culture pursuing that. Your family is what matters most. And what your faith is what matters most. And will I leave a legacy? The answer is yes. What kind of legacy are you leaving? The question, what kind of legacy will you leave? Your children may forget the car you drove, I'm sorry. They're going to probably forget over time. And honestly, they could care less if there's rust on it or if there's not. The promotions you earned at work, they could care less. Whether dad loved Jesus, they're going to notice that. Little eyes are watching. Whether dad prayed, whether dad worshiped through the storms of life, and whether dad and granddad lived their lives for Jesus, lived what they preached. Long after possessions. It comes and goes. When your children think about you someday, what will they remember? Whew, it's convicting, isn't it? I struggle even going through this. Are they going to remember your career, your accomplishments? We already talked about that. The answer is no. Or they're going to remember your faith. Leave that legacy of faith. That's a legacy worth leaving. They will remember that. Because many men hear messages about fatherhood and immediately think of their failures. I can relate with that. I'm a dad too. There's times I didn't do it right. I messed up. And I carry regrets as a dad sometimes. I carry wounds, and some wish they could go back and do things differently. I know I do. Man, I wish I could go back and now knowing what I know, I would never have done this. I would have, I would have raised my boy more like this. We all have that. But the good news, Jesus saves sinners. He saves sinners. Joshua was not perfect, everyone. He wasn't. He messed up so much and just even read his story. I'm like, Joshua, are you kidding me? Like, why would you do that? How many of us, if we opened our book and our life story, people would be like, Are you kidding me? Why would you do that? Right? But the hope of the gospel is that our failures do not have the final word. Christ does. Because of Jesus, failures can be forgiven. Relationships can be restored, and new beginnings are possible. New legacies can start today. Man, I've been making it all about the promotion, all about my career, having a biggest retirement account. It's okay. You can start your legacy today. We can all imagine Joshua at the end of his life. All gray-haired, his battles are behind him. His life is nearly over. The promised land had been conquered. The victories have been won. And he says it out in front of everyone choose this day whom you're going to serve. I can see it right now. He points over to his family. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Amen. May that be the declaration of every father and every grandfather in this room today. Not perfection. Not fame. Not success. Just faithful devotion to Christ in everything we do. A faith that outlives all of us. Because they're watching. A legacy that reaches future generations. Your legacy can outlive you and go multiple generations of wow, that man was faithful. He was faithful to the end. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Man, I wanted to give you guys a gift, and Kim did a great job putting these beef jerky sticks together. I don't know if you saw them coming in. But it says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The dad joke that Mark talked about says, Why did the dad choose beef jerky? Because he wanted a snack that was tough enough to endure to the end. And the challenge, be a man who stands firm in the faith, leads with courage, courage, and follows the Lord wherever he leads. As we chew this beef jerky, I'd encourage you. It's really good. It's Mr. Beast jerky, Jack Lynx. It's really good. But as you're eating this jerky that tastes really, really good. I want you to chew it because it's tough. And think about what am I doing as a dad? Am I leaving the right legacy for my kids? Or making it about possession? Am I living my life as an example? Chew on it. Think about it. I want to give this as a gift to all you dads out there. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the men in the room. And I thank you that Jesus can save a sinner. He can restore all of us who have failed and done things that we shouldn't have done, Father, his dads and his granddads. And Father, thank you for the example of Joshua. He kept moving forward, even though he went through some tough stuff, Lord. I pray for the dads in the room today. There's a dad here or a granddad who's never received you as their Lord and Savior, Father. Pray they do that today. They'd stop trying to follow these empty promises of the world, and they would choose today who they're going to serve. And they would jump on the bandwagon father of leaving a legacy that outlives all of us. We thank you for being the perfect father. I know there's men in the room who didn't have a good dad, Lord, and we thank you that you are the perfect father that we can run to with anything. And I pray you would encourage these men, you would sharpen them, and help them follow you, Father. We thank you for. And all God's mighty men said. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together, please.