”How to Have God in Your Home” | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Joshua 22

I'm not going to distract myself. I'm

just going to use this. All right.

Joshua 22 this morning. Joshua chapter

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

22.

Here's a thought I want to give to you

today. How to have a godly home.

How to have a godly home. Let's pray.

Ask the Lord to help us and then we'll

jump into the text this morning. Father,

we come before you today in the name of

Jesus. And Lord, I am so grateful for

the day that you have given us. It's

just been a good day in your house.

Lord, I'm thankful for my family.

Thank you for my wife and my children

who love you, who love church.

I pray they'd never lose that

as they get older and the world begins

to influence them more and more.

I pray they would never lose their love

for you and their love for church.

Thank you for this ministry. Thank you

for this church that you let me pastor.

Lord, you you've been so good to us.

You've been far better to me than I

deserve.

I pray now as we open the Bible for a

few moments. Lord, this is something

that we're going to talk about today.

You know my heart on this. I'm burdened

about this topic.

And Lord, it it's a simple message. I

pray you just take it, not my words, but

take your word and move it on the hearts

of the people who are here today.

Do what no man or no message, no sermon

could ever do.

I pray that you change people to love

you more, love this world less, to give

you all the glory and all the praise. If

there's anyone here who this morning is

not 100% sure that they're on their way

to heaven, then Father, I pray that

today, even right now as I'm praying,

Lord, that you would convict their

heart, show them their need of a savior,

help them to call on the name of the

Lord before they leave this place today.

Whatever you do in these next moments,

we will be very careful to give you all

the glory, all the praise, and all the

honor. We love you. We thank you for

Jesus. And we ask these things in his

name. Amen. We come this morning to

Joshua chapter 22 and we have to

Joshua 22 · chapter mention

remember some something from a few uh

chapters back, a few weeks back. We

talked about two and a half tribes. Do

you remember the two and a half tribes

who got a different land aotment than

the other tribes? The other nine and a

half. There's two and a half tribes who

received land on the east side of the

Jordan River. Right? Most of the land of

Canaan lies between the Jordan River on

its eastern side and then what they

would have called the great sea on its

western side and between those two there

is the land of Israel, the land of

Canaan. Most of the tribes would get

their allotments, their land division in

that section of the world. And we showed

a map a few weeks ago and we pointed out

where each tribe's aotment was and and

we noticed each of the uh not that map,

different map. I [clears throat] don't

know if I put it in there. I'm sorry.

That was a good map, too. I like that.

We showed that map before. That was a

good map, too. Um, so we showed where

all of the different aotments were at.

Okay. There's nine and a half tribes of

Israel. 12 tribes total. Nine and a half

of them have their land between the

Jordan River and the the sea. Two and a

half of those tribes got their land on

the east side of the Jordan River. Now,

here was the arrangement. They made this

deal with Moses long before they ever

came into the promised land. Here was

the deal. They said, "Moses, we want our

land to be on this side of the Jordan

River." And Moses said, 'Okay, that's

fine. You can have your land on that

side of the Jordan River, but there is

one thing that I need you to do for me

in order to make this happen. You have

got to come across the Jordan River with

all of your fighting men, and you have

to help your brothers fight until the

land of Canaan is conquered. And then

once we've conquered all of the

Canaanites, we've conquered all of the

enemies in the land of Canaan, then you

will be free to go back home, go back

across the Jordan River to the land that

I have promised you on that side. So

that was the arrangement. And there's a

great application in there, by the way,

that you and I as brothers and sisters

in Christ ought to help one another

fight our battles, ought to help one

another conquer our enemies. And uh so

there's we talked about this. I think we

preached even a whole sermon on that and

helping one another and what the local

church is called to do. Well, they've

been fighting together for chapters now

and we haven't heard anything about them

for a few chapters now. And now they

come back up in chapter 22 and Joshua is

going to go to these two and a half

tribes and he's going to say, "Okay

guys, we made a deal. You have kept your

end of the deal. You have helped us

fight. You've helped us clean out the

land. We've conquered most of the

Canaanites. We have peace now in our

land. And so you may go home." And these

two and a half tribes are going to go

across the Jordan River and go back

home. And all of chapter 22 is about

that. We're going to break it into two

sermons. This morning, we're going to

look at the first uh six, seven, maybe

eight verses. And then next Sunday,

we're going to finish it with the altar

called Ed, which is a fascinating story

in and of itself. So, I'm going to give

it its own sermon. So, this morning,

we're in Joshua 22. Look at verse number

one. Then Joshua called the Reubenites

and the Gadites and half the tribe of

Manasseh. Okay? two and a half tribes.

The Reubenites, that's one tribe. The

Gadites, that's one tribe, and half of

the tribe of Manasseh, that's your two

and a half tribes. And he said unto

them, "You have kept all that Moses, the

servant of the Lord, commanded you, and

you have obeyed my voice and all that I

have commanded you. You have not left

your brethren these many days unto this

day, but have kept the charge of the

commandment of the Lord your God."

What's he saying? Hey, you've been

fighting right alongside of them. You've

been fighting right alongside of them.

You've kept the word of the Lord. You've

kept your agreement. You've kept the

arrangement. Good job. Congratulations,

you've done well. Verse number four. And

now the Lord your God has given rest

unto your brothers. Praise the Lord for

that. As he promised them. Hey, now

there's rest in the land. Your brothers

who are on the west side of the Jordan

River. We have peace. We have rest. All

is calm. And and I like the little

phrase, those four little words that he

includes. As he promised them. Last week

we preached a whole sermon on the

promisekeeping God. And here again in

the next chapter, the next few verses,

we see once again he's a promisekeeping

God. He said, 'Now therefore, return you

and get you unto your tents and unto the

land of your possession, which Moses,

the servant of the Lord, gave you on the

other side of the Jordan." So Joshua

gets them all together and he says, "All

right guys, you've done well. You've

kept what God told you to keep. You've

obeyed the commandment. You fought

alongside your brethren and and look,

God's given us great peace over here.

Great rest. the land is at rest. There's

not a whole lot of fighting going on

now. So, you can go home. Have you ever

um uh we have this problem in the south.

I think it's more of an issue the

further south that you go. It's somewhat

of it's not an issue. It's it's fun. Um

but it's more of a thing, I guess, the

further south that you go. And we do it

a little bit around here. How many of

you go visit a family member, mom or

dad, and when you go, you you have a a

drive to make, and so you show up at

their house, and you spend the time, you

have your holiday, your Christmas, your

Thanksgiving, whatever it might be. And

then it's time to leave. And so you all

walk out as a unit onto the porch and

down to the car, and you you hug them

like three times on the way. Goodbye.

Goodbye. I'll see you next time. I'll

see you next time. And then you get to

the car and goodbye. I'll see you next

time. Goodbye. I'll see you next. And it

just keeps going. And and then we just

keep saying goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

And then you finally get in the car and

it's time to go and dad says or mom

says, "I forgot to tell you

or I forgot to show you." And you spend

another 15, 20 minutes walking back

around and looking at whatever it was or

having a whole another conversation

about what it was and then it's time to

leave again and you go to get back IN

THE CAR. OH, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU one

more thing. One more thing. One more

thing. I got to tell you one more thing.

Y'all know what I'm talking about. Is

this does this happen around here? Is

that is that a mountain thing, too?

Yeah, definitely a southern thing. I

think that's kind of what takes place in

Joshua 22. Joshua gets these two and a

half tribes. He gets them all together

and he said, "Good job, guys. You've

done well. It's time to go home. You can

go back to your your home. Go back to

your tents. Go back to the other side of

Jordan. Good job. Good job.

Congratulations. Great job." And now

they're ready to leave. And Joshua says,

"But one more thing. I got to tell you

one more thing. Look at it. Verse number

five.

He said, "But

take diligent heed to do the

commandments and the law which Moses,

the servant of the Lord, charged you, to

love the Lord your God, to walk in all

of his ways, to keep his commandments,

to cleave unto him, and to serve him

with all your heart, with all your

soul." So Joshua blessed them and sent

them away, and they went unto their

tents. What does Joshua tell them? He

said, "Hey guys, good job.

Congratulations. You can go home. Wait,

wait, wait, wait. I got one more thing

that I got to tell you. And he gives

them verse number five. And it is a

fascinating verse. It's our text for

this morning. We're going to look at

just this one verse. Joshua tells the

two and a half tribes, he's going to

tell them exactly how to take the God

that they have been serving over here

back home with them and keep serving him

over there. And this morning as your

pastor, I want to communicate to you the

words of the Bible. And I want to tell

you how to take the God that we have

been worshiping here home with you when

you leave in a little bit and continue

worshiping and serving him there. How to

have God in your home. Let's look at it

together. Verse number five, the

wonderful verse. I've got three points,

but most of the most of the verse will

land in the last point. Okay, look at

number one. You can write this down. The

work. Number one, the work. Look at it.

Verse five, he said, "But take diligent

heed to do." You see that first line in

your ver in your Bible? There is some

passion behind those words. Take

diligent heed to do. Hey, there's going

to be some work for you. Joshua says,

"Oh, I forgot to tell you something."

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me

give you one more thing. Let me tell you

one more thing.

You're going to have some work to do

when you get home.

And church this morning, it is not going

to happen overnight just like that for

you to come to church on Sunday and then

just expect God to show up in your home

on Monday. There's some work that you're

going to have to do when you leave this

place and you get back to your home

place. You're going to have to be on

purpose about getting God in your home.

Look at these two words that he uses. I

want you to notice them in the verse. He

said, "But take," here's one of them,

"Diligent." You see that word in your

Bible, "Take diligent." That means, this

is a wonderful little word. It means

power.

It means to the highest degree.

Joshua said, "I want you to make your

first priority

this work of getting God in your home.

Take diligent heed." What does that word

heed mean? That's the second word I want

to draw your attention to. Take diligent

that is power first priority to the

highest degree to the highest level

level. And then what are you going to

do? You're going to heed. What does that

mean? It means keep, watch over,

protect. I want you to give the highest

priority to protecting God in your home.

I want you to give the highest priority

to protecting and doing the Bible in

your home.

It's going to take some work. You're

going to have to be diligent. You're

going to have to be on purpose about it.

You're going to have to make some

changes. You're going to have to set

some boundaries. You're going to have to

do some things and say, "That's not

allowed in my home, and that's not

allowed in my home, and we don't say

that inside of this home, and we don't

listen to that inside of this home." And

and we don't go there because we are

prioritizing to the highest level more

than anything else. Number one priority

in our home is to protect the things of

God.

It's going to take some work. We've got

this idea in our culture that we can go

to Hobby Lobby and buy a cute little

sign that says, "In God we trust and put

it up on the shelf and now we've got God

in our home."

Right? I hate to break it to you, that

little sign has nothing to do with God.

It's not so easy. There is a world

outside of your home. There's a devil

outside of your home who is doing

everything within his power. He is doing

everything that he can to distract and

get your children and your grandchildren

and your nieces and your nephews and

even your husband or your wife

distracted and off course and away from

God and away from you. And listen, we

need some parents. We need some moms,

some dads, some grandmas, some grandpas,

some aunts, and some uncles who will

say, "In my home, in my house, we work

really hard to make God number one.

It's not something that we just kind of

put on the side." And yeah, we go to

church on a Sunday and we worship God on

Sunday and then we get home on Monday

and we can watch whatever we want and we

can listen to whatever we want and we

can act however we want and we can have

over whoever we want. There's got to be

some boundaries. And listen, it's going

to take some work. How many of you know

that work hurts sometimes?

It does.

You got some friends

and you're going to have to say, "Hey,

we'll come your your kids can come to my

house, but my kids ain't going to your

house."

Setting a boundary. And listen, there is

nothing wrong with saying that for the

sake of your children. There's nothing

wrong with saying that. You don't have

to be rude about it. You don't have to

be mean about it, but you can set some

boundaries.

You can put in some work. How about

this? You're tired. You worked. You

don't want to. You you you're you're

sleepy and you get home and

it's important that you pray with your

wife.

It's important that you pray with your

husband.

It's important that you put in the work

and communicate and talk about the

things of God and talk about the ways of

God and open your Bibles and have Bible

discussions in your home. Well, I'm

uncomfortable talking about that. Get

uncomfortable.

It's not going to always be easy. He

said, "Be diligent. Put in the work. Put

in the effort. The little Hobby Lobby

sign is fine and dandy and it might look

real good, but it is not doing anything

to get God in your home.

Joshua looks at these tribes and he

says, "It's time for you guys to go back

home, but you better work real hard to

make sure you take the God you're

serving over here back home with you

over there."

and church. I see all of the time in

churches like ours, families who come to

church, grandmas and grandpas who come

to church, aunts and uncles who come to

church, moms and dads who come to

church, and they act one way when

they're in the church, and then they get

home and they act another way at home.

They get home and they act like what

they have just worshiped and acted like

in church that you would never expect

that if you see them outside of the

church. They talk a different way. They

act a different way. They do stuff that

you wouldn't condone or church wouldn't

condone. And guess who is watching

mom at church. And guess who is still

watching mom at home?

Your kids, your grandkids.

The next generation is watching for

somebody who will be faithful and

somebody who will be real and will say,

"I'm willing to sleep less to get with

God. I am willing to put some boundaries

up so that God is protected in my home.

This is not just a Sunday thing for our

home. This is who we are. I don't do

Christianity. I am a Christian. Jesus

saved me. It's not just something I do.

It's who I am. My identity is in Christ.

You say, "Yeah, that's that's easy.

You're the pastor. That's not a pastor

thing. That's a Christian thing." All of

us this morning, if you are saved, then

your identity is in Christ. Your

identity is not in your job. Your

identity is not in your friends. Your

identity is in Christ. He gave his life,

shed his blood to buy you for a price.

It cost you cost him his life and he

gave his life for you. Your priority

number one, your first thing ought to be

pleasing your heavenly father,

protecting God in your home. The work

number one. Put down number two.

Number two, the word.

Okay. So, we're supposed to work at

this. We're going to prioritize God in

our home. We're we're we're going to put

God first. We're going to take diligent

heed. Our first priority to do to do

what? To do his word. Look at what

Joshua tells them. Take diligent heed to

do the commandment and the law. What is

it that we're supposed to give the

priority to?

The commandment and the law. Let me

define those words for you. Commandment

is an order.

Law is instruction.

Joshua said, 'I want you to take the

orders of God and I want you to take the

instructions of God and I want you to

put them at the top priority in your

home. How are you and I supposed to have

God in our home? Here it is. We take the

orders and we take the instructions of

our God to us and we make his word our

top priority in our home.

Priority number one is the word of God.

Now, this is not very popular,

but let's go here.

More important than your child being on

a sports team

is your child knowing the Bible.

More important than your family

understanding the culture is your family

understanding the Bible. We work really

hard at all kinds of things in this

life. We work really hard at

prioritizing things for our family in

this life. Oh, we make sure that there's

a nice television on the wall so we can

watch Blueie. Oh, we make sure that

there's uh internet at the home so that

everything works like it should. and we

make sure that there's food in the

pantries and we make sure that all of

the conveniences of life is is just

right. And if our kids want to do that,

then we make sure that they're able to

do that. And we go out of our way to

attend a a ball game or out of our we

cancel plans and cancel vacations so

that we can go to a birthday party for

one of our children's friends. And we

change everything around. And we work

really hard to make sure everybody in

our family feels okay and feels loved

and feels convenient. And there's

nothing wrong with any of those things.

You hear me? There's nothing wrong with

any of those things unless

those things become more important than

God's word. And at the moment that God's

word becomes second place to the sports

or to the the the entertainment or to

the friends or to the events or to

anything that's going on. When God's

word becomes second place, we have sin

in our home. Now

Joshua said, "Hey, you're going to take

it home. Go home. You're done. We're

done with you. You can go home. But when

you go home, you better take the

commandments and you better take the

law. You take his orders. You take his

instructions. You ponder on them. You

think about them. You memorize them. You

teach them to your children. You do

everything that you can to make God's

word the priority in your home."

And I look at our culture today,

moms and dads who don't even live

together. They're living with other men

and women. And kids spend time at mom's

house and then on the weekends they go

to dad's house.

They're watching a culture of people who

who middle-aged people in their 30s and

their 40s can't figure out if they're a

man or a woman.

And children are watching this and

growing up in this culture.

It's not a midlife crisis. It's sin.

I'll tell you what you are. You are what

you came out the womb as. You can't

change it.

Here's these kids watching this culture.

This we we we idolize. Listen, I I love

football and sports as much as the next

person, but we got to be very careful

about idolizing sports figures in our

culture. Oh, we lift these people up and

I want you to you you're gonna one day

play football like him and and the guy

sitting there

to doesn't look anything like Christ is

is wasting his body away is talking

about alcohol and

that using foul language

and we're looking at our kids saying

you're going to be like him one day.

They're watching.

What is the most important thing in your

home? Let me rephrase the question. Let

me ask you this very directly. How

important is the Bible in your home?

Would you consider the Bible to be the

first priority in your home? Do you read

it regularly? Do you make church a

priority? Do do you prioritize the Bible

in your home?

What if I asked your kids that question?

What would they say?

What if I asked your grandkids about

grandma and grandpa when you go over is

the Bible important in their home? What

would an honest little kid say about how

important the Bible is in your home?

We we listen. Culture is great.

Entertainment is great. I love sports. I

love all the stuff that we do. And I I'm

not preaching against any of those

things this morning. I hope you

understand that. But I am trying to get

us to recognize today that if we want to

take the God we worship on Sundays and

worship him in our home on Mondays, we

have got to be diligent and prioritize

some things. We might have to cut out

some TV time for our kids. Trust me,

they'll be fine. Make them go outside.

We might have to cut out some birthday

parties so that we can go to church on

Sunday morning. We we might have to make

some changes so that we can communicate

to the next generation that God's word

is most important. Listen, you're going

to pass away one of these days. Grandma

and Grandpa, you're not going to be here

forever. Mom, Dad, you're not going to

be here forever. The grass withers, the

flower fades, but the word of our God

shall stand forever. When you're gone,

there will be one thing that your kids

and my kids can hang on to, and it will

be the word of God. It has never failed.

It has never quit. It has never been

wrong. It has never been incorrect. It

has always been here. It's always been

right. It's always been true. And when

there's nothing else to hold on to in

our culture, we can hold on to this

right here. How important is it in your

life? Do you read it? Do you study it?

Do you pray over it?

Do you spend time in it? You're here at

church this morning. Congratulations.

Good for you. You've done what God's

asked you to do. That's what Joshua says

to the two tribes. Hey, you've obeyed

the commands up to this point. And I

tell you today, good job, church. You're

here. You've obeyed God's commands.

You've not forsaken the assembling of

yourselves together as Hebrews warns

against. And you've come to church and

you've made an effort to be here.

Congratulations. Great job. But

what's it going to mean when you get

home?

How important is it going to be tomorrow

morning when you wake up? How important

is it going to be next Sunday when you

wake up? How important is the word? So,

we see the work. It's going to take some

work. We see the word.

Notice number three. Write down number

three, the way. And this is the the

explanation. Joshua's going to tell them

exactly how

how to have God's word or or how to have

God in your home. He's going to give

them a list of things here in verse

number five. How what does God command

us to do? Okay, Pastor John, I I I'm

with you. I understand it's important.

Our culture is wicked. Uh uh the devil

is after our children and our

grandchildren, our communities, and our

towns and our schools. And I I get it.

It's bad out there. But how how really

how practically? How can I get God in my

home?

What's the what's the practical steps?

Let me show you. Uh I think there's five

of them here. Notice them. You can

underline them if you'd like to in your

Bible. The first one, love God. Look at

what he said to He said, "I want you to

to go home and I want you to love the

Lord your God.

You will chase whatever you love.

You will chase whatever you love most."

When me and Esther were dating,

I did some chasing,

right?

I hope I still chase. She probably would

disagree. Maybe I got to do better. I

start chasing her a little more again.

You chase what you love. You chase what

you are passionate about.

Guess what happens in a month? I'm

counting down the days. You know what

happens in a month?

Bow season.

I'm gonna go climb up in a deer stand

and do nothing for hours and hours and

hours. It's my time of the year to

recharge. It's wonderful.

You know what I say? Now, really, I'm

sitting in a tree, but what I will tell

people is I am chasing deer, right?

Well, there's not much chasing going on.

I'm just kind of waiting on them to come

to me.

But we put money into it. We plan for

it. We put trail cameras out. We look at

the pictures. We try and figure out when

they're going to be there. We we buy

stuff to make us smell like an animal.

And we put it on. And then we go climb

up in a tree and we waste hours and

hours and hours of our time all so that

we can brag about the deer that we shot.

Why? We chase what we love. And there's

nothing wrong with it. I'm going to do

it.

But we chase what we love. Joshua looks

at the two and a half tribes and he

says, "It's time to go home. But when

you go home, you better love God.

You better pursue God as hard as you

would do anything else in this life. You

better chase after God as hard as you

would anything else. No hobby is more

important than your God. No job is more

important than your God. No, no deadline

is more important than your God. You

chase what you love. In our culture, we

have made money most important. Just

honestly. And we chase the dollar. Why?

Because we love money. The love of money

is the root of all evil. And maybe that

explains what's happened in our culture

a little bit. We've got a culture that

has lifted up money as the number one

priority and it's got to be the next

job, the next position, the next raise,

the the more hours I'm going to chase

the dollar.

Why? Because I love money. What if

Christian people would decide that more

important than money is God? And I love

God more than I love money. So instead

of chasing after the dollar, I'm just

going to start chasing after God with

the same passion that I pursued the

dollar. What would happen in our

churches? What would happen in your

home?

It's not all about the money. But I

promise you, you will chase what you

love. Number two, what is the way? How

do I get God in my home? Well, you got

to love him.

What's next? Well, Joshua says, "Love

the Lord your God and walk in all his

ways." Not only do you need to love God,

but you need to walk with God.

Walk in his ways. Walk with him.

Do you spend time with God?

I mean, like

really spend time with God.

When is the last time that

you lost track of time

because you were just so consumed at the

person of Jesus Christ?

and you're in your Bible or maybe even

you're on your knees and you're praying.

It was a couple of weeks ago, and I I I

probably shouldn't say this, but maybe

it'll help somebody. I don't mean this

to be boastful at all. It was a couple

weeks ago on a Saturday night, I was

really struggling with what to preach.

It was late Saturday night, and I like

to wake up early on Sunday mornings, so

that means I like to go to bed early on

Saturday nights. But it was late. My

sermon was not I I wasn't happy with it.

I did not feel like it was going the

right direction. And I was pouring over

a passage and I it was late Saturday

night and I I I didn't [clears throat]

know what what I was going to do. And I

knelt down in my office, God, my knees

next to that chair in the middle of the

night and I just started praying and I

started weeping

over that chair asking God to please

help us. And I stood up after what felt

like a few moments and it was one

o'clock in the morning. I had no idea

how much time had passed.

consumed

with the presence of our God.

We ought to live there. That ought not

to be an odd thing for a child of God.

You know, David Livingston, the great

missionary to Africa, they found David

Livingston. He he lived his life. And at

the end of his life, they found David

Livingston. One of his one of his

students, one of his assistants came

into the the little shack where David

Livingston was living. And Livingston

was an old man at that point. And he

went in. He didn't see him anywhere. He

was looking around where where is David

Livingston at? And he's looking all

around and he couldn't find him. And

finally, he went around the corner of

the bed and he saw David Livingston

there on his knees with his hands

clasped just praying on his bed. And and

the assistant thought, well, he's he's

talking with the Lord. I I probably

should just let him be. But then as he

noticed, he realized he was not

breathing. And David Livingston had died

right there kneeling at his bed,

praying, talking to the Lord.

What a way to go.

What a way to go. You're talking with

him one second and then you're kneeling

before him in his presence the next

second.

His ways. Do you walk with God? You

spend time with him. Adam and Eve in the

garden, you remember Adam and Eve, every

day they had a time where they walked

with God. Every day they had a time when

they walked with God. God would come in

the cool of the day and he would walk

alongside Adam and Eve in the Garden of

Eden and he would communicate with them.

Do you have a time every day where you

walk with God and let him communicate

with you? And then what was it that

broke that fellowship? It was sin. When

Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God

showed up at the same time in the same

place. God was there waiting. But guess

who wasn't there this day? Adam and Eve.

They were hiding because for the first

time in their life, they felt guilt and

shame over what they had done.

God was in the same place, ready to

talk, ready to communicate, ready to

make it right. I got to move along. Let

me give you these last ones. We got to

love God. How do you get God in your

home? What is the way to do it? Five

steps. Love God, walk with God. Number

three, obey God. Look at what he said.

Walk in his ways and keep his

commandments. Keep his commandments.

Just do what God's told you to do. Just

do what he's told you to do. Well, what

is it that God's told me to do? Well, if

you get into his word and you prioritize

the Bible, you'll figure out what God

has told you to do. And once you figure

it out, just do it. Once the Holy Spirit

leads you to do something, just do it.

Just obey God. Obey what God has told

you to do. Don't run from conviction.

Uh I as a pastor, I've seen this

multiple times in in just a few years

where someone will come to church for a

period of time and uh they'll they'll

they'll enjoy it. I mean, they'll give

me all kinds of compliments and great

things and then I will preach a message

that hits a little too close to home, a

little too close to where they are and

I'll tell them what the Bible says about

a sin in their life and they become very

unhappy and they run.

That's not my fault. That's not God's

fault. We're just telling the truth. If

people run from it, that's going to be

between them and the Lord. But don't be

that person. If the word of God hits

close to your sin, if the word of We

used to say it like this, if the word of

God steps on your toes a little bit,

embrace that conviction. That means

you're saved. That means the Holy Spirit

of God is inside of you saying, "Hey,

this is something I would like to see

fixed." So, you embrace that. Fix what

he points out. Confess your sin. Forsake

your sin. and then move on in a right

fellowship with Jesus Christ. Don't run

from conviction. Just obey what God's

telling you to do. Let me give you

another one. We're almost done. Number

four, what's the practical way? Okay,

cling to God. Look what he says. He

said, "Keep his commandments and to

cleave unto him."

That word cleave means to cling or hold

on to something. Yesterday we had a

little bit of free time before the uh

the man church yesterday afternoon and

it there a storm came through. It was

raining and Callie loves the rain. So me

and Cali since she was just little,

we've always went outside and sat on the

porch and watched the rain and the

thunderstorms and she loves it. And

yesterday it started raining and she

went running out the door and I stayed

on the couch and then just a moment she

comes to the screen door and puts her

little face up to the door and says,

"Daddy, it's raining. Get out here."

Said, "Okay, I'm coming. I'm coming."

And so we go out and we we the whole

family was just sitting on the front

porch watching it rain and uh they

started our porch has opened the the

beams are open so you can reach up there

and grab a hold of them and they wanted

to grab a hold of those and do pull-ups

and so I picked them up and Calie is the

brave one so she went first and she

grabs a hold of those 2x4s up there and

and you know I lift her up and oh look

you're doing it look you're doing

pull-ups good job and we're and and then

I just let go of her and she realized

I'm hanging on, right? I'm I'm doing it

all by myself, right? I'm hanging here.

Nobody's holding me. And she thought it

was the greatest thing ever. She just

wanted to do it over and over again. So

I said, "Tucker, your turn." And he

saidm,

he said, "I ain't doing that." So we

worked with him and we coaxed him and we

finally we got Tucker to get up there

and I let go of him for a second. It was

just fear on his face at first and then

he realized, "Oh, I can do this." And he

he just held on.

He just held on.

And as I was thinking about this word

cleave, cling to, I thought about those

kids

just hanging on.

Guess what? It's going to be tough in

your home at times.

No family is perfect. No marriage is

perfect. You have two imperfect people,

two sinners who decided to try and do

this thing together. Can you I mean, you

can just imagine the mess, right? two

sinners who actually try to live under

the same roof for 50 years. It's chaos.

It's doomed from the beginning

unless

you hold on to somebody who's bigger

than you.

Unless you just hold on to God.

And there may be ups and there may be

downs. And there will be circumstances

and situations that are tough. And

there's going to be mistakes. And

there's going to be sin.

And there's going to have to be a need

for forgiveness. And and it's going to

be rocky at times. It's going to be

smooth at times. Through it all,

hold on to him.

If you never let go of God, he'll never

let go of you. In fact, even if you let

go of God, he'll still hold on to you

and he'll do his best to draw you back.

Listen, you can do it this morning. You

can have a successful marriage.

You can have

a godly home.

The Bible says that we can do it with

Christ. So, hold on to him. Cling to

him. Don't worry about your past. Those

past sins are gone. Don't worry about

those. Just hold on to God. All right,

let me give you the last one. We're

done. You can come. Number five, how do

we do it? What's the way? Number five,

serve God. Look at what he says. And to

serve him with all your heart, with all

your soul. At the end of it, where's he?

Where's he end? What's the blessing? The

final blessing he gives them. He says,

"Hey, go home. Two and a half tribes. Go

home. Take God with you. Love him. Obey

him. Walk with him. Hold on to him.

Don't let him go. Oh, and serve him

with all your heart, with all your soul.

Give him everything that you've got.

Serve him all of your days. Don't get

lazy. Don't get laxed. Don't give up.

Don't quit. You just keep on serving

him. Yeah, there's a river between us.

Yeah, the Jordan's on we're on this side

of Jordan and you're on that side of

Jordan and we've had a great victory

over here and God's done great things

over here and now it's time for you to

go home. But when you go home, you keep

on serving him. You keep on loving him.

You keep on holding on to him. You keep

on abiding with him. You keep on walking

with him. And church, this morning,

we've had a great day in God's house.

[music]

And we've worshiped him and we've lifted

our hands and we've testified of his

goodness and we've given him the praise

and we've given him the glory. And now

it's time to go home.

How do you take the God that you have

worshiped this morning in this place

home with you and you keep worshiping

him in that place? Well, you better fall

in love with him.

You better obey him.

You better cling to him.

Do what he's asked you to do.

Keep on serving Jesus all the days of

your life. Don't get don't get tired.

Paul said, "Be not weary in welloing,

for in due season you will reap if you

faint not." Don't give up. Just because

you haven't seen the fruit yet, just

because you haven't seen the evidence

yet, just because your kids are are

devils right now, doesn't mean they will

be forever.

You just keep on serving God. You just

keep on loving God. You just keep on

praying for your marriage and for your

spouse and for your children and for

your grandchildren and for your family

and for your community and for revival

and for your nation. And you just keep

on seeking God above everything and

anything else. And when you hold on to

him with everything you've got, you can

take the God that we have worshiped in

this place. You can take him home with

you today and you can worship him in

that place.

It's going to take some work.

It's going to take a decision

that says, "God,

in my home, I want to make you the

priority."

I encourage couples to make this [music]

decision on purpose and and maybe write

it on a paper, even put it on a plaque,

the date

when you came before God and you said,

"God, as a family in our home, we will

do our very best to prioritize you

first." If you've not done that, you you

might be 80 years old in here and you

say, "We've never done that as a

family." Why don't you today, you just

say, "Today

in my home, God will be the priority."

Today, starting today, on this random

Sunday in September, Labor Day weekend

2026,

I make a decision

that God will be the priority in my

home.

And everything we do will go through the

filter of does God approve of this? Is

this loving God?

You're going to have more fun than

you've ever had if you do that. And

you're going to love God more than

you've ever loved God. and you're going

to receive blessings. Can I Can I just

testify? [music] I'm finished.

Can I testify?

That little boy stood right here

and he started singing,

"I'm

not going to hell.

I I am so unworthy

of the family that God has given me.

the wife.

And now I'm watching these kids.

And it's not just my kids. We've got a

church full. They're all downstairs

right now. We got all kind of kids in

our church. And they love this place.

And I get to pastor this place.

It's the greatest blessing of my life

to watch my family

serve my God with me in this place.

But then we go home

and Callie goes and gets her Bible off

of the shelf and says, "Daddy,

[snorts]

can you read me a verse?

Oh, I pray she never loses that desire

to hear what God has said to her.

But I know this,

there's a devil that's already got a

target on her.

There's a devil who's already watching

this little boy scene.

And his number one priority

is to get this little boy distracted

with something else

so that Tucker doesn't end up in church.

Now, Tucker's saved. I believe with all

my heart he's going to get baptized next

Sunday. But he's got a target on his

back.

The devil's going to do everything he

can to get that boy out in the world and

mixed up in the things of the world and

that little girl mixed up in the things

of the world and distracted from the

things of God and living on their own

and living away from God and letting go,

not clinging to God, there's a target on

their back. And not my kids, but your

kids and your grandkids have a target on

their back.

And if [music] we don't soon learn

how to take this Bible

and make it everything in our home,

then the devil is going to

destroy our children.

He'll destroy your marriage. He'll

destroy your kids. He'll destroy your

grandkids. The greatest blessings of

your life, the devil will steal them.

He'll rip them away from you and feed

them to the wolves. [snorts] That's his

goal. He loves no one.

He hates you. He hates your marriage. He

hates that you're here this morning. He

hates your kids. He hates your family.

And he does everything he can. The Bible

calls him a roaring lion. He's doing

everything he can to destroy them.

God's given us the answer

and we don't even pick it up.

It's a miracle if we even make it to

church on a Sunday morning.

I think it's time

that we have some Christian parents,

some Christian grandparents

who say, "God,

in my home, you will be number one. I

may not be able to save the the

everybody. I may not be able to change

everybody, but you have given me

influence over my family." And when they

come in my home, they're going to know

that we love God more than anything

else.

And they're going to know that we obey

God. And they're going to know that the

word of God means everything to us. And

they're going to know that some things

don't happen around here. Not because

we're mean, because we love Jesus.

Would you stand with me this morning?

I'm finished.

She's going to play. We're just going to

open this up as a prayer room [music]

this morning. You come

do business with God today. Maybe you

you say, "I need to make a commitment to

God for my family today.

You want to pray with somebody." Would

you come? Just come on. We won't belabor

it. We won't wait.

I don't know about you. I don't want the

devil to have my kids.

I I don't want him to have.

He's already lost. What a shame that a

loser like the devil would win my

family.

Not in my house. Not on my watch. We're

going to do everything we can

to make God our priority.

Let's get God in our homes. Church, you

come pray.