Value Family as Your Primary Ministry

We only have a couple of weeks left in our series. It's a long series. It began in September. It will end at the end of this month. And then of course, Bruce will begin his summer series on the Psalms. And that'll be a great time as we spend time in the word of the Lord together throughout the summertime. As we make our way through the alphabet and the outline that we have for you, I've said to you before that all these principles have been instrumental in my life and in my marriage, enabling me to live the kind of life that God wants me to live.

I don't live a perfect life. I don't live a sinless life. My wife will attest to that. And yet the opportunity to learn these principles and apply them are so very, very important. Tonight we come to another point in our outline and that is how it is we value family as our priority ministry. Very few people value family as they need to value family. And yet it is the primary ministry that we engage in. So tonight I wanna ask two questions. Why and how? Why do we value family as a priority ministry?

And then how it is we go about valuing our family as our primary ministry? And hopefully you'll be able to lead with some principles that will help you as you seek to honor the Lord. First of all, why?

It's very simple when you think about it. Number one is because our families are constantly attacked by the adversary.

The adversary never lets up. Our Lord created the heavens and the earth, created man, gave woman to man in Genesis chapter two. How much time elapsed between Genesis two and Genesis three, we have no idea. But the very next story in Genesis chapter three is all about Satan's temptation of Eve. You see, God designed marriage. Satan wants to destroy God's design. It has been relentless ever since Genesis chapter three. He wants to destroy that which God has designed because the marriage unit is something that God has established to picture the love of Christ for his church.

And so Satan has relentlessly attacked the family. He does it because he is an angel of lights. 2 Corinthians 11, 14 to 15 tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Well, he disguised himself when he came to Eve by possessing a serpent. And upon possessing that serpent, speaking to Eve, deceiving her into believing that God's word is not true and that God's plan is not the best. And that's the way Satan operates. And so we need to realize the reason family needs to be a priority and we need to value our family is because Satan is relentlessly attacking our families day and night.

Your enemy is, as I told you many times, is not your spouse, it is your adversary. And he comes against the family in all kinds of ways. If he can get you to doubt what God has said, he can get you to doubt the plans of God and purposes of God for your life. He then begins to whittle his way into destroy and divide your family. If he can divide husband and wife, if he can divide parents from children, then he finds himself an inroad to your family. And Satan stops at nothing to destroy your family.

So why do you value family? Because it's attacked by the adversary. Number two, simply because our families are manipulated by the media.

Our families are manipulated constantly by the media. Years ago when I did the book, God's Hope for Your Home, and I talked about media influence, it was all about television. That's all past now.

You know, it's not television per se, it is all of social media. Whether it's TikTok or Instagram or whether it's Facebook or whatever else is out there, Twitter, or I guess it's called X now, whatever it's called. But all those things influence our families. I talked to my daughter this afternoon about how she felt like social media negatively impacted families. And the very first words out of her mouth were, I believe it separates families.

I said, well, how does that happen? She goes, well, if everybody's on social media, no one's communicating with one another, and everyone is separated from one another, everyone is doing their own thing in their own little world. And that's so true. And my daughter is not on social media. But social media plays a huge part in manipulating all that we think and all that we do. Why? Because we see things happen on social media, and we wonder why our marriage isn't like that, or our family isn't like that.

And discouragement sets in, and depression sets in, and then jealousy sets in, and all of a sudden, there's an inroad to the destruction of the family. When you value your family as your priority ministry, you need to realize that your family's being affected in a negative way through social media. And as fathers, we need to be able to put a watch over that to make sure that we have a great perspective on life's events. So whether it's attacked by the adversary or manipulated by media, it's also controlled by culture.

Our culture controls the way we think, the way we think about marriage, the way we think about husbands' roles, the way we think about masculinity, the way we think about femininity, the way we think about LGBTQ and its emphasis in our society, the way we think about, think about this, the way we think about bearing and raising children. I mean, think about it. We live in a world with dual-income families as never before. Do you know that in 1990, I'm sorry, 1960, there were 150,000 children in the United States in childcare.

30 years later, in 1990, there were 2 million children under the age of five in childcare. In 2023, there are 12 million children under the age of five in childcare. Now, I know that some families struggle and they have to have dual incomes. I get that, especially in Southern California where you're trying to make ends meet. I get that, but what I'm saying is that we wanna, it used to be I didn't have to keep up with the Joneses. It was just good enough that the Joneses lived next door, but now I have to keep up with the Joneses, and to do that, I have to have the money to do that, and all of a sudden, culture is controlling the way I think about my finances, the way I think about my marriage, the way I think about my children, raising them, having them.

I don't wanna have too many of them because I can't afford them, or I'm not gonna have any of them, or I'm getting married later in life because I need to do my own thing. Everything about culture is controlling the way we think. Society's standards rule over scriptural standards in most people's lives. What does society think? What does society say versus what does the Bible say? And I need to be very careful about that because I need to value my family in such a way that I will guide them to do the things that God says more so than what anybody else says.

So what does God say about my finances? What does God say about my family? What does God say about masculinity? What is a man? What is a woman? And how does that define scripturally? Not what does culture say, but what does Christ say? That's what's important. That's why you need to value family because the family's being attacked by the adversary, it's being manipulated by media, it's being controlled by our culture. And the Bible's very clear in 1 John chapter two, we are to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

Why? Because if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. And the world's passing away and the less thereof, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. But yet we find ourselves such, so easily pulled to the things of the world. Don't let culture control the way you live. Don't be manipulated by the media and what they say. What does the Bible say? And Satan uses all those things to attack the family. Families are crushed, number four, by conflict. Families are being crushed by all kinds of conflict.

Now listen, conflict isn't bad, but how you handle conflict can be very, very bad. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 18, verse number 19, that contentions are like the bars of a prison, they separate you when there's contention in the family. Proverbs chapter 13 tells us that pride is that which causes arguments. It's my insolence, it's my pride. And our families are being crushed by that. Proverbs chapter 10, verse number 12, contrast hatred with love when it says that hatred stirs up strife, but love covers a multitude of sins.

Because hatred does stir up all kinds of strife. Over in Proverbs chapter 15, verse number 18, it says a hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms the dispute. So many homes are filled with hot-tempered people and they crush what's happening in our homes. And so it's very important for us to realize that if our homes are being crushed by conflict, being attacked by the adversary, manipulated by the media, and controlled by culture, we as parents, especially as fathers, need to realize that family needs to be my priority ministry.

And I need to value my family more now than ever before. On top of that, homes are being divided by divorce. Divided by divorce. There is more divorce happening in churches across our country than ever before. And that's unfortunate. And Jesus gives us a hint as to why in Matthew chapter 19 when it says that Moses permitted it because of the hardness of your hearts. We don't like to think of ourselves as having a hard heart, but divorce happens more likely than not because of the hardness of our hearts, the coldness and the callousness of our hearts.

In other words, we are not being sensitive to listening to what God has to say. You see, whenever you hear the word of the Lord and you don't respond to what God says, there's this veneer that covers your heart, a layer of callousness that leads you to a hardened heart.

That's why it's so important to obey what God says upon hearing what God says. But even the disciples in Mark chapter 16, they were indicted by Christ because they didn't believe what the women had said about the resurrection of the Messiah because of the hardness of their hearts. In fact, even in Mark's gospel in Mark chapter six, it speaks about the feeding of the 5,000 and directly after the feeding of the 5,000, the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. It's so important to understand the implications of that because Christ tells them to get into the boat and go to the other side to Bethsaida and he goes up into the mountain to pray and a great storm happens on the sea and Christ comes to them during that great storm and they don't expect him to show up so they just see this person coming.

They perceive it to be a ghost, but it was Christ and they feared for their lives and Christ got in the boat and calmed the sea and it says that the disciples, because of the hardness of their hearts, they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. In other words, the things that God wanted to teach them about the feeding of the 5,000, they didn't take to heart. So when God put them into a test, they were unable to pass the test because of the hardness of their hearts. That's why there are so many people who wanna give up on their marriage.

It's because of the hardness of their hearts. They become very cold to the things of God. I've counseled many people over the last 30 years at this church who've gone through divorces and they usually come to your office when they've already made up their mind, right? She's there because he wants her there or he's there because she wants him there, but they don't really wanna be there because in the deepest recesses of their minds, they've already made their decision. They already know what they're going to do.

And that's unfortunate because usually people don't come to you for counseling before that happens. Like they should, they come to you when they've already made up their mind and ask you to save their marriage. But their hearts are hardened and they've already made up their minds. And so you try to tell them, listen, are you willing to obey what God has to say? Do you wanna do what the Lord has to say? Because there's always a way for this to be repaired and God can do a great and mighty work. Let him do his work.

Will you submit to the authority of the word of God? But either one or both of them just don't wanna do that. And they turn their back on the truth and the hardness of heart causes them to be divorced. It's unfortunate. That's why you need to value your family as a priority minister. It is the ministry that you are to engage in more so than anything else. You need to value your family so they become that priority. Next, our homes are being devastated by demands. In other words, we make demands on one another.

No longer do we accept one another as they are. We demand they change. Instead of praying about my spouse changing, I demand that they change. Husband puts demands on their wives about meals and about the way they want their wives to look. And they put demands on their wives that they just can't measure up to. And wives put demands on their husbands. And you have these arguments that develop because they're not doing what you want them to do. And so then we impose demands upon them because we want them to be a certain way.

And yet when you marry them, you marry them for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health till death do you part. And yet somehow five, 10, 15 years later, we don't accept them as they are. We want them to change. And therefore we demand that they change. And homes are being devastated because of those demands. How about this? Homes are afflicted by attitudes, negative attitudes. We tend to grumble and complain about all kinds of things. Remember what Christ says to the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter two, when he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

He said, you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. In other words, you live in a perverse and crooked generation that grumbles and complains about everything. And you need to appear as lights. So therefore make sure you do what you do without grumbling and without complaining. And whenever you begin to grumble and complain, just read first Corinthians chapter 10, when the Lord says, look, I want you to learn from Israel.

Why? Because when they complained and they grumbled, the Lord killed 14,700 of them because they complained about the way God did his business. And God didn't stand for their complaining. So he killed them. Would it be that God would kill us when we complained? Could you imagine? There'd be nobody in church on Sunday because we tend to complain about everything. We grumble about everything. And yet we need to learn from the instructions of the scripture that if we're gonna be lights in a perverse and crooked generation, we need to be people that don't complain, don't grumble.

We don't need to be the, excuse me, the contentious wife that the book of Proverbs speaks about about over and over again. But we tend to complain and our attitudes destroy our home. So why do we value family as our priority in ministry? Because of our homes are being afflicted by all kinds of negative attitudes. Next, our homes are abandoned. Abandoned by our actions. In other words, we might not necessarily leave the home, but in the home, our actions speak to the point that we've abandoned the family.

And we're not that trustworthy, faithful person that we are supposed to be. And therefore we turn our backs on our families by our actions. And usually it's because there's someone else or something else that becomes more interesting to us than our family. Maybe it's another individual. Maybe it's another thing that we wanna be involved in, but we begin to abandon our families. And that's why you need to value your family as your priority ministry. Our families are corrupted by compromise. Instead of buying truth and never selling it, we tend to compromise truth.

And when we compromise truth, it destroys our families. And so many families are corrupted by compromise. This is probably more so than all the others, because we tend to compromise on the truth more so than anything else. And we turn our back away from the truth and we buy into what social media says. We buy into what the culture says. We buy into Satan's lies. And that's simply because we wanna be, we'd rather be happy than holy. That's just the bottom line. We'd rather be happy than holy. Holy takes too much work, right?

Holiness has too much demands. Holiness requires me to say no, but happiness requires me to say yes and get what I want. So I'd rather be happy than holy so I'm easily willing to compromise the truth. And then lastly, our homes are ravaged by revenge. They're being ravaged by revenge. And Paul says in Romans chapter 12, "'Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. "'Respect what is right in the sight of all men. "'If possible, so far as it depends on you, "'be at peace with all men. "'Never take your own revenge, beloved, "'but leave room for the wrath of God "'for it is written, "'If anyone ventures his mind, "'I will repay, says the Lord.

"'But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. "'If he's thirsty, give him a drink. "'For in so doing, you will reap "'heap burning coals on his head. "'Do not be overcome by evil, "'but overcome evil with good.'" Whenever you wanna overcome evil with evil, you exemplify a vengeful spirit. And we need to overcome evil with good, especially the family, right? And so I would like to spend more time on each of those. I'm not gonna do that simply because there's hope. There's hope for the family. And the hope is in the word of God.

So we do this because this is happening to our families, but how do we do this? How do we value family as my priority ministry? Let me give you five principles that you can take home with you this evening that you can evaluate your life in terms of what the word of the Lord says, okay?

It happens primarily simply because my hope is in fearing the Christ. My hope is in fearing the Christ. You wanna value family as your priority ministry? Fear the Lord. Listen to Psalm 128. How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. You know, blessing comes when you fear the Lord. Blessing comes because you fear nothing else but the Lord. Families who fear flourish. Families who don't fear flounder. Ultimately they fail. So you need to fear the Lord.

So he says, how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and they will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children, like olive plants around your table. Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. That's just a very basic, simple psalm. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. In order to value family as your priority ministry, it comes because you fear the Christ.

You don't fear what culture says or thinks. You don't fear what anybody else might say about your family. You just fear what the Lord thinks about your family. And you live in the fear of the Lord all day long, as Solomon says. In fact, he would say in the book of Ecclesiastes, the sum of all things is this, fear God, keep his commandments. If you wanna sum up all of life, just fear God and keep his commandments. Everything else is peripheral. But what you need to do is fear God and keep his commandments.

But we have people fearing what others think about them, more so than fearing what God says about them.

This is Psalm 112. Praise the Lord, verse one. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. In other words, if you fear the Lord, Psalm 128 says you walk in his ways. Psalm 112 says if you fear the Lord, you delight in his commandments. Then he says, his descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. There you are. The man who fears the Lord automatically will have descendants that are blessed.

You want your children to be blessed? Fear the Lord. Live in the fear of the Lord all day long. Isaiah 8, 13. The Lord God shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. And then it goes on to say these words in verse number six about the man who fears the Lord. He will never be shaken. Never. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear. It is so important to understand that the fear of God is the most important thing you teach your children.

Read the book of Proverbs. The only book written to young people. It's all about how fathers teach their children to fear the Lord. How many of you don't have this book? The fear of God. Raise your hand. You don't have it. If you don't have it, I'll give it to you. Or you can just come up here and I'll just give you a copy of it. It's free, okay? If you have it, you should probably read it again, okay? Because in the principles of the book, the fear of God, it tells you what it means to fear God and how it is I do fear God and why I should fear God.

And then you can teach those to your children because you need to teach your children the fear of the Lord. It's the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom begins when you fear the Lord. And every house is built on wisdom. So if you don't fear the Lord, you lack wisdom, you can't build the house because the Lord builds the house through wisdom, the words that he speaks. So to value the family as your priority ministry, you must fear the Christ more than anything else. That's where it begins. So fearing the Christ is number one.

And number two, very simply is this, following his commands. If you fear him, you're gonna follow his commands. But you follow the commands of the Lord. Turn back with me if you would to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy chapter four, we're gonna read to you what Moses says. Now Moses is about to die, okay? So he's gonna reiterate the law and the implications of the law for the nation of Israel. They're about to embark on the promised land. The years of wandering are now complete. And so as he begins to explain to them the essential aspects in living in a culture that is contrary to who they are and what they believe, he begins to lay out for them the way they are to live.

And so in Deuteronomy four, verse number five, he says these words, see, I have taught you the statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them. For that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call upon him?

Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law, which I am studying before you today? Moses says, listen, all you gotta do is keep and do the statutes. Follow what the Lord says. That's all you have to do. And then he says in chapter five, verse number 28, fear me, keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and their sons forever. That's it. Fear me, keep my commandments, it will be well with you. Chapter six, verse number one.

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. Oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you, that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in the land flowing with milk and honey.

Just keep the commandments. It says in verse 17 of chapter six, you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you. Then notice what it says in verse 20.

When your son asks you in time to come, saying, what do the testimonies and statutes and the judgments mean, which the Lord our God commanded you? Now the question comes, why would your son ask that question? Because that's all you do. You obey what God says.

You follow what God says. So one day he will say, well, why do you do that? Why do you obey the statutes? What is it about them, the commands of God that are so important? He says, then you will say to your son, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. The Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers.

So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord for our good always and for our survival as it is today. Do your sons ask you why you do what you do? Do they ask you why you keep the commandments? They ask you why you go to church? Why do we have to always go to church? Why do we have to always read our Bible? Why do we have to always memorize the Bible? Why do we keep the commands of God? Why don't we do this? Why do we always gotta do what God says?

They should ask you that question because that's all you ever do. If they're not asking you those questions it's because they're not seeing you doing those things. And they realize it's not a passion for you. But in order to value family as a priority ministry, you gotta do what God says.

You gotta follow his commands. Look what it says over in chapter eight, verse six. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear the Lord. Him. Chapter 11, verse number one.

You shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep his charge, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments. Verse 22, for if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and hold fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. In other words, God will do great things. You just gotta obey. Gotta follow the Lord.

You see, Christianity's not rocket science. It's fear God, keep his commandments. That's all it is. But we wanna make it some emotional experience. Just do what God says.

Obey his word. Live in the fear of the Lord all day long and delight in keeping his commandments. Be diligent to keep his commandments. To follow his statutes, to follow his commands. See, when push comes to shove, that's where the rubber meets the road. We just don't wanna do what God says, right?

So I wanna value family, so I will be a forgiving person because God says to forgive. And you know, I've come to realize that forgiveness is very hard for most people. And that's because they don't understand God's forgiveness. Because if you understand God's forgiveness, you are a forgiving person. If you're not a forgiving person, maybe you've never experienced God's forgiveness. Because forgiveness is a byproduct of the divine nature that's been imparted to you and you become a very forgiving kind of person.

So it is. But we don't wanna obey that command. We don't wanna be forgiving. We don't wanna be loving. We don't wanna turn good for evil. We wanna turn evil for evil. But God says, no, this is what you do.

This is what's best for you. This will prolong your life. This will help you live your life. Follow what I say, that's all I'm asking. Just do what I command you to do. If you love me, Christ says, you'll keep my commandments.

Right? So if you wanna value family as your priority ministry, right, you do it by fearing the Christ and following his commands. Next, you do it by fortifying your life. Your convictions. Fortifying your convictions. If you have your Bible, Joshua chapter 23. Joshua chapter 23, Joshua gathers the leaders of Israel together. Because as the leaders go, so go the people. Moses will talk to the people in Joshua 24. But in Joshua 23, he gathers the leaders together. He gathers the elders, the heads, the judges, the officers, and he speaks to them.

Why? Because their convictions about who God is and what God has done needs to be fortified in their lives as leaders so that they can direct and guide the people of Israel. Same as to us as fathers, right? As fathers, we should have convictions, biblical convictions, based on what God's word says. Thus saith the Lord, thus we do. There's a conviction that we have. And that conviction governs how we live our life so that we can lead our families properly so they understand the importance of living by convictions and so he says to them these words.

I am old, verse two, advanced in years. And he was because he's about to die. And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he who has been fighting for you. See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes with all the nations which I have cut off from the Jordan even to the great sea toward the setting of the sun. The Lord your God, he will thrust them out from before you and drive them out from before you.

You will possess their land just as the Lord your God promised you. He says you need to remember the ways of God. To fortify your conviction, there always needs to be a remembrance of his ways. And Joshua rehearses the ways which God had worked in and among his people. In order to fortify your convictions, there needs to be a remembrance of his ways. And number two, there needs to be obedience to his word.

So he says in verse number six, be very firm then to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses. So you may not turn aside from to the right hand or to the left. You're the leaders. You must be very firm in keeping all that God has commanded you. And so therefore, there needs to be a remembrance of his ways. There needs to be obedience to his word. And then there needs to be a severance from the world. For he says in verse number seven, say you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods or make anyone swear by them or serve them or bow down to them.

Not only is there an obedience to God's word, with that obedience comes a severance from the world, a cutting off from the world, a disassociation from the things of the world. We can't fortify our convictions when we wanna hang on to the things of the world. You just can't do it because your convictions are gonna govern how you live in the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. And Joshua says, there needs to be a remembrance of his ways and all the ways God has led you just as he promised.

And then there needs to be obedience to his word. God always wants you to know what he's done as a motive to keep what he says. And then there needs to be a severance from the world. And then there needs to be an allegiance in your walk. For he says, but you are to cling to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. You are to cling to the Lord your God. There needs to be loyalty, determination, and allegiance in your walk with God. You cling to him, you stick to him like glue. For the Lord has driven our great and strong nations from before you.

And as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. One of your men puts to flight a thousand. For the Lord your God is he who fights for you just as he promised. So take diligent heed to yourself to love the Lord your God. And there needs to be a diligence in your worship. You are to love him, you are to cling to him, you are to follow him and serve only him. But he gives it with this warning. Listen to this. For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you and intermarry with them, say you are associated with them and they with you, know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you.

But they will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. The consequences of compromise are defeat and distress. You will not win, you will lose. And in so losing the distress you face will be unlike anything else you've ever experienced. He goes on to say these words down in verse number 16. When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given you.

In other words, not only will there be defeat and distress, there will be disgrace and death. Now, you might not die, but you might experience a death-like existence because of your disobedience to God. We need to fortify our convictions. It all comes because we are committed to remembering all that God has done because he's led us this way our entire lives. Not only that, but that we truly are gonna be committed to following through on all that he says. Being totally loyal to him and worshiping only him.

And Joshua makes it very clear. If you don't do this, these are the consequences. Now, I know this is the Old Testament. This is God's covenant people, Israel, and what he promises them, but the principles still apply to your life and to mine. We just need to obey and follow through what God says.

We need to fear only the Christ, follow only his commands, and fortify our convictions. And then number four, formulate a covenant. Formulate a covenant. That's Joshua chapter 24. Joshua gathers all the tribes of the people together. Speaks to them. Verse 14, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt to serve the Lord. For it is disagreeable in your sight, or if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve.

Whether the gods which your father served which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the nation says, hey, we also will serve the Lord, verse number 18, for he is our God. Verse 21, no, but we will serve the Lord. Verse 22, we are witnesses. Verse 24, we will serve the Lord our God and we will obey his voice. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

He made them promise to obey and follow through on what they said they would do. They were going to serve the Lord. So he'd formulate with them a covenant that they could be reminded of. The unfortunate thing is they didn't serve the Lord. Because when you come to the book of Judges, the very next book, the second chapter, there arose a generation who did not know the Lord.

And they began to worship idols and to serve them because the fathers did not teach their children what they had been taught by their fathers. And therefore, there arose a generation who did not know the Lord. So sad. You know, I wonder if you've ever formulated a covenant for your family, that they would stand strong on the truth of the word of God, that we will serve the Lord and serve him only and no one else, because we value family as our priority ministry. Just take the word family, for instance.

A biblical family fears God. A biblical family not only fears God, they adore God. A biblical family will magnify God, imitate God. And they will truly, truly love God and yearn for God. If they do that, then they will forgive one another, they will accept and admonish one another, they will minister to one another, they will intercede for one another, and they will yield to one another. But it all hinges on the covenant they make to serve and to honor their God. And lastly, once you fear only the Christ, follow his commands, fortify your convictions, formulate a covenant, you need to fulfill your commitment.

You need to fulfill your commitment. In other words, faithfully do what you say you're going to do, all the way to the end. You know, I can't think of anybody greater at doing that than Caleb in Joshua chapter 14. You know, Joshua has a whole book, named after him, Caleb doesn't. Joshua and Caleb were the two that stood against the other 10 spies that had a negative report about the land of promise. But Joshua and Caleb believed what God said. And Joshua and Caleb would have to wander through the wilderness for 40 years because of the negativity of the 10 who led the nation into negativity, right?

And yet, Caleb is described by God and by Moses and by Joshua as one who fully followed the Lord. Now think about it. He fully followed the Lord for 45 years after, after the negativity in Numbers 13 and 14. Because it took him some years to weed out the enemy in the land once they got there. So when you come to Joshua chapter 14, he's 85 years old, 85. And he's very faithful to the Lord. Faithful to fulfill his commitment. And so the Bible says in Joshua chapter 14, verse number six, then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, you know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.

I was 40 years old when Moses, a servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear, but I followed the Lord my God fully. So Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully. Now behold, the Lord has let me live just as he spoke these 45 years.

From the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness, and now behold, I am 85 years old today, and I am still as strong today as it was in the day of Moses sent me, as my strength was then, so my strength is now for war and for going out and for coming in. Now then give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I would drive them out as the Lord has spoken." Caleb was faithful to his Lord.

His love never waned. His loyalty never wavered. That's the way Joshua was. And because of that, his life never weakened, because he was fully committed to doing what God said. I wonder if it could be said of you that you fully followed the Lord. Six times, Joshua 14, numbers 14, it speaks to the fact that Joshua fully, I mean, Caleb fully followed the Lord. Joshua did too, but Caleb asks for a specific hill country. He asked for Hebron. That's the place he wanted to go. It says, so Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for an inheritance.

Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, until this day, because he fully, or followed the Lord God of Israel fully. Why Hebron? You know, Hebron is the second holiest site in Judaism.

There are a few Jewish families that live there today. It's 22 miles south of Jerusalem. And Hebron is a place where Abraham spoke face to face with God. Hebron was the place where Abraham received the promise of the land covenant from God. Hebron is a place where Abraham purchased the cave of Mephila to bury his wife, Sarah. And eventually, both Isaac and Jacob and their wives were buried in the cave of Mephila, along with Abraham. He purchased the cave because the Jews own the rights to Hebron, not the Palestinians.

Although there are 166,000 Palestinians who occupy Hebron, even as we speak. But Hebron was a very intimate place between God and Abraham. And that's why Caleb wanted it. It's a place of intimacy. It's a place where he knew his father Abraham communed with God, and he was committed to communing with God. That's why he followed the Lord faithfully. But for Caleb, not only was Hebron a place of intimacy, it became a place of victory. Because if you read the rest of the book of Judges, you realize that there's only one person who rid their land of everyone, and that was Caleb.

No one else did. They compromised, but not Caleb. It says Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Haming and Talmai, the children of Anak. He would drive everyone out of his territory, his inheritance. He was the only one who had complete and total victory. The others did not. Why? Because he fully followed the Lord. He fulfilled his commitment. You see, that's the way we need to be. We need to be the kind of people that fulfill our commitment to the very end. Because we fully follow the Lord.

And if you want to value family as your primary ministry, you must fear the Christ. You must. You must follow his commandments. All of them. Not picking and choosing which ones you like and which ones you don't like. You must follow his commandments. Then you must understand that it's imperative that you as parents, or you as fathers especially, fortify your convictions in order to formulate a covenant and to be faithful in following through with your commitment. Can you do that? I would trust that that would be the case for you.

Because your family is your legacy. Your family is what you're leaving behind. And you have one opportunity to build a legacy. And you want to be able to build it in a way that honors the Lord. The man who fears the Lord, blessed are his descendants after him. You want your children to be blessed. You do that because you fear the Lord. You follow his commandments. You do what he says. You do it with conviction. Passion. Drive. Drive. Those are the kind of fathers we need in our families. The kind of parents we need to lead our children so that we can be able to be the kind of people God wants us to be for his glory until he comes again.

Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight. A chance to be here and to spend time in your word. A lot of things to cover. Very little time to do it. But my prayer for all of us, Lord, is that we will be steadfast, totally committed to doing what you have said for the glory and honor of your name. That every one of us would value our family as our primary ministry. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.