Joshua Series Pt. 15 - Pastor Greg Addison - August 17, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

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Thank you for that, choir.

And Jacob, welcome home.

Glad to see you back.

That was great.

Look, turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 24.

Joshua 24 · chapter mention

We're going to finish what we started last week, talking about the foundation of discipleship.

And if you weren't with us last week, squeezing in a last vacation for school started, we began looking at what the foundation of how people grow, how God designed us to be able to grow to know Him, grow in a knowledge of the Word and who Jesus is and how we walk with Him.

And we talked about how in this passage of Scripture Joshua is giving his final official instruction to the children of Israel.

They have conquered a lot of the land, enough that he passed out to each of the tribes their inheritance, and they are about to fan out, take over their territories, and their instruction is to follow the Lord and to eliminate the remaining evil in that area to obtain and like grasp a hold of that inheritance that they each are provided as a tribe.

So he is reiterating instructions that Moses gave them on the banks of the Jordan River before they went into the land of Israel.

And so Joshua's remarks parallel very much that same instruction that Moses gave, and so he is reiterating that instruction to the children of Israel.

Here in chapter 24, he gives this discourse on as you go out, I want you to remember that God gave us this land.

He is the one who has given us this inheritance, and so we must be grateful to him and follow him.

And then he gives them this instruction.

Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth.

Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and worship Yahweh.

Worship God.

And that's his instruction.

Then he says, if it doesn't please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship.

The gods your fathers worship beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites and the lands, and the land where you are living.

And then he says this, as for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.

So he makes very clear that they have a choice that's set in front of them.

You can choose to worship God, or you can choose to worship the evil gods that were before we came here, or if you don't run the evil out of the area that you have in your inheritance, he describes the Amorites.

If you don't run them out and you live with them and allow them to stay, you're going to be tempted to worship them.

You must choose.

And so the foundation for all discipleship begins with the family.

And we looked at how this is an incredibly significant statement that Joshua is saying.

And it is far more than just Joshua saying.

He is making a clear commitment based on the commands of God for the parents to walk with God and teach their children and their grandchildren to walk with God.

And he is making the commitment that me and I will be obedient to the command for my family to follow the Lord.

This was our main truth.

The foundation for a godly family is someone who leads the family to choose a supernatural and passionate commitment to worship and serve Jesus.

And so somebody has to choose.

Now today we're going to talk about what the choice to worship and to teach your children to worship looks like.

What is that choice?

Well, he gives that in the very beginning.

In verse 14, the command is fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity, fear the Lord and worship him in truth, and get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped, those others that are not Yahweh.

So I want you to think about how do we do that?

How do we make that choice and how do we do those things?

Because this is a very clear instruction for them to do that.

But God's word always, when he gives us a command, he tells us why and he tells us how.

God's not trying to hide the rules.

God's not one of those dads who just like throws the kid in the deep end and goes, okay, are you going to swim or not?

Right?

He's telling us how to do that.

And so we have a very clear instruction here that Joshua reiterates from the time of Moses.

He says, there are three things you do.

You fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity, you fear the Lord and worship him in truth, and you get rid of those other gods or temptations that distract you.

So let's look at those three choices that we make.

The first choice is fear and worship the Lord in sincerity.

Now, what does that look like?

What does that mean for us?

Well, the Bible tells us that Moses, when he gave the law to the people, he gave them the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments are very clear.

We are to worship the Lord our God and have no other gods before him.

When he is standing at the Jordan on the banks of the Jordan, he's instructing the children of Israel before they go in.

Here's what he tells them Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

That's what that command is.

And you'll remember when the Pharisees came to try to trick Jesus, and they're trying to play, you know, theological lawyer sort of games with them, and they asked him, What's the greatest commandment?

And Jesus doesn't hesitate.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And so we are clearly instructed to worship the Lord with sincerity and honesty.

Our hearts need to be attached to the Lord.

Now, it's easy when you're in your church and you're worshiping.

We've got this incredible music, but it's in your quiet time.

It's in times of difficulty where I may be struggling, but I am still pleading with the Lord, how does this work?

What do you want me to do?

How does this go?

It's in good times when it's easy for us to get lackadaisical and it gets easy.

We are still to be pursuing the Lord with all of our heart.

And so here's what he's telling them in this instruction of generations.

Parents, you cannot give your children what you do not have.

You cannot teach your children to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength if you're not doing that.

Even in times of struggle, even in difficulties of faith, or if it's times where life is easy and it's just flowing and we're tempted to just flow, in all those times, we are to be pursuing the Lord and worshiping Him with a sincere heart.

Now that's not really that hard to explain.

You know.

You know it's in your heart.

You know if you're connected.

And here's the amazing thing, parents, children know if it's real for us or not.

And so the choices that we make and the things that we do in our personal lives, they will reflect our sincerity that we are passing on to our children.

It will reflect the passion that we're passing on to our children.

And so the first thing he tells them is you must have it in your heart to be obedient to the Lord, and you must have a sincere worship of the Lord in order to pass that type of worship to your children.

Keep in mind, you are to teach your children to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That is a heavy order.

We know that's a tall order in our walk with the Lord.

And we've got to pass that on to our children.

So what they are obedient to is that level of passionate commitment and devotion to the Lord.

And so we've got to own it to pass it down.

Here's choice number two.

He tells us to fear and worship the Lord in truth.

Jesus reiterates a very simple, similar thing when he talks to the woman at the well, and she says, we know who Jehovah is of the Jews and all that.

And how do we worship him?

We can't go to the temple, all that business.

And Jesus said, those who worship the Lord must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And so when we come to the Lord, we're not just making up a God that we worship.

Or we're not just doing it however we want to.

We know that story from the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel.

And Abel worshiped the Lord with the sacrifice of a lamb the way he was supposed to have been taught by his parents.

Cain comes to the Lord.

He's a farmer.

He starts out life as a farmer, and he's proud of his produce, he's proud of his works, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The Bible tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes that what God has given us as a gift from heaven is the work of our hands and the fruit that it bears.

That that is a blessing from God.

But remember, it is a blessing from God.

What Cain does is he comes and he says, Well, I'm just proud of this, and I'm going to show it off to the Lord.

I'm going to look how awesome I am.

And he brings the best of his produce to the Lord and attempts to make a worship offering out of it when that is not how we are instructed to worship.

And God rejects that, and that's what starts that whole feud, and he kills his brother Abel.

We must come and worship the Lord the way God instructs on his terms.

He is God.

We are not.

He says, again, look at it, fear the Lord and worship him in truth.

And so that's why Jacob, just like Moses when he did it in Deuteronomy, Jacob gives them a long lesson of who God is.

This is who God is, this is what he's done for us.

This is his might.

This is his power.

This is how he's been faithful to his promises.

This is what God's done.

So that when he then calls them to make that choice to worship him in sincerity and in truth, he has set the foundation for what that is, for what that means, for who God is and how we come to him.

And all throughout Scripture, this theme is described.

Now, one of the passages of Scripture that parents should know is Psalm 78.

And you don't have to turn to it, but make notes if you are.

Psalm 78 is one of the greatest Psalms for parents that you'll ever get.

And it is looking back on this time after Joshua had taught the children of Israel, and they had gone through all these years of sometimes following the Lord, sometimes not following the Lord, and all of that.

And it is a psalm that was used to teach children in exactly the way that Joshua is commanding and committing to teach his children.

And here's how that begins.

This is a song.

Of course, it's in the book of Psalms.

It's a song.

And we learn through songs.

Songs are powerful teaching methods, right?

I mean, if you this if you don't think that's true, then just sort of do this.

Row, row, row your boat.

Y'all are going to need to show up to choir practice on Wednesday to practice, right?

I mean, it's amazing.

You remember those things forever, don't you?

A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

You guys are awesome.

That's awesome.

How about this one?

This is my favorite.

Do your ears hang low?

Do they wobble to and fro?

Can you?

You guys are so awesome.

I'm so proud to be a part of this church family.

That's awesome.

We learn through that, right?

And this is a song that was designed to teach in just that way.

And it begins with rehearsing why we must do this.

And so in Psalm 78, verse 5, it says this.

Psalms 78:5

He, God, established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel.

This is the law that Moses passed down to Joshua that Joshua is commanding the children of Israel in this moment that we're seeing.

So that a future generation, children yet to be born might know.

Remember, Joshua said, for me and my family.

So that a future generation, children yet to be born, might know.

They were to rise and tell their children, tell them what?

So that they may put their confidence in God and not forget God's work, but keep his commands.

Then they would not be like their fathers.

Remember, generation would serve the Lord, then they would walk away from the Lord, God would judge them, they would come back to the Lord, then they would walk away from the Lord, and this constant roller coaster.

So those children would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

You see in there obedience to the truth and you see sincerity of heart.

And so what Joshua is reiterating in this moment when he tells them that you are to worship and fear God in sincerity and in truth and pass it to your children.

And so, in teaching our children truth, it's important that we teach them.

There's a lot of ways to do that, and there's a lot of ways to unpack that.

But let me just give you a couple of thoughts that will help you as you're teaching your children.

It comes right there from Psalm 78.

It is built on that foundation of the law God established in Israel, that Joshua sent them into the country to obey.

First of all, teach them to know God as loving, trustworthy, and faithful.

Remember what he said in Psalm 78?

Have them trust the Lord and know his works and trust his heart so they won't walk away.

We must teach our children that God is loving and that he is trustworthy and he's faithful.

We do that in two ways.

You teach them from Scripture.

All those Bible stories, you don't just teach them the story.

It's not just cool that David slung that thing and knocked down a nine-foot giant and he fell and all that kind of a deal.

But it is an opportunity to teach them God's plans for their life, because he had a plan for David.

David's faith and trust in the Lord as God who is faithful when he tells Goliath, listen, you defend, he defended me with the lion, and he defended me with the bear, and you big ugly sucker, he is going to take you down to.

And then you teach them from stories in your family.

Kids, we have this beautiful house because God's provided for us and he's faithful to us.

Kids, we're able to go on this vacation because God did that.

Kids, we're going to church today because grandma and grandpa they taught us how to love the Lord and go to church, and we have this inheritance, and we want you to know that too, and we're handing it down to you.

You are taking time to teach your children to know God from the story from the truth of Scripture and from His impact in your family.

Teach them to be grateful for His works.

It creates trust and confidence in the Lord.

When you tell them that the Lord is involved in your life, and then you tell a story where God stepped in and protected, then they learn to be grateful, and their picture of God is a healthy, truthful picture of who God is for us as they are walking around in the culture that we live in, trying to acquire what God, obtain, what God has promised for us.

And then keep his commands.

You teach them to keep the commands.

You teach them what they are, and you teach them to obey them.

You require their obedience.

Listen, I know all this soft parenting and all this other kind of nonsense, but listen, we ought to understand in an incredible way how important it is to teach, hold accountable, and require obedience when we watch the rampant loss of respect for authority across our American culture.

How many cities do we have to see where hundreds and hundreds of teenagers take over some area and run out the cops and all of that stuff you see on the news?

It's incredible the amount that our kids have to face that in locker rooms, in classrooms, at the mall, at a restaurant, when they're hanging out with their friends or whatever they're doing.

And we have to teach our children from the beginning and require them to be obedient.

Listen, it doesn't mean that you're mean to your children.

To not teach your children to love their parents, their teachers, authority to be obedient.

That is not loving.

A narcissistic parent who doesn't want to feel bad, because they have to do some obedience, is not a loving parent.

They are putting their own feelings above the future and the character of their child.

It's incredible that we teach that part.

And listen, in the context of these three things, if you're teaching your children that God loves us and he's wonderful, and this is what he does, and he makes these promises and sent Jesus to die for us.

And then if you're teaching them, look how God has done this faithfully things for the people in Scripture, and look how God has done faithful things for us and our family.

And then you teach them, Jesus said, He it is who loves me, who keeps my commandments.

We are motivated and want to keep the commandments of God because they draw us close to Him and they allow His blessing in our lives.

So take those three categories and teach them in two ways from Scripture and from the experiences of your family.

And then the third choice we got to get rid of the Amorites.

We got to get the evil junk out of the house.

You got to eliminate things that go against, they distract from, or they water down the commitment to the Lord that we're teaching.

Now, as I was thinking through this, and there's a lot of stuff we could rail on and all that, but you're thinking about the experiences of students and kids.

And in my house, this is kind of what it went.

Like, God, why do, Dad, Dad, why do you uh like why do you care?

These are just my friends, and why do you have to do that?

And I want to wear that because everybody else wears that.

Well, you're not gonna wear that.

Well, I want to, everybody else is going to.

Well, how come everybody else is gonna do that?

I don't get to do that.

We have this battle that goes on in our houses.

And over time, it makes this truth of getting rid of the Amorites out of the family, it makes it hard.

It's what makes the grind.

And it's tough on the student side because you're trying to spread your wings, you're trying to learn and figure out who you are.

And on the parents' side, we are terrified that they're gonna end up not walking with God or some sort of thing.

And it creates this clash in our homes that makes this last part more difficult.

Last week when Matt and I were talking through the sermon, he told me about he and Pacey having lunch together, and she shared this song with him.

And as Matt and I went through it, it was so incredibly powerful, I thought, there is no way I could ever preach that with that eloquence.

And so I've asked Maverick to come, and he's gonna sing this song for you, and it is a it is this moment.

It is a conversation between a child and a parent.

Mom and dad, why is this so hard for you and why can't I do this?

And the response of the parent, and it just eloquently describes what it means to us as families, Maverick.

Why do you always bring a prayer?

Why do you care what I watch or well?

Why can't you just let me live my way?

You say you trust God, but Give me space.

You see, tell me yes, who my friend say yes?

Why does my life put you under distress?

Don't get why you fight so hard.

I'm just tryna find who I am in my heart.

Cause you're the only thing I can take to heaven.

Not the house, not the job, not the money I'm giving.

But several for God at the end of my days.

I wanna say I've showed you the way.

It's not control, it's love that's been driven.

Cause Johnny, you're the only thing I can take to heaven.

You talk like this world's fading fast.

Like what I want now just won't last.

But I've got dreams, I've got things to do.

And I'm not sure I believe like you, but still I see the fire in your eyes.

Like you're fighting for more than just my life.

Cause we've seen what this world can steal holding on.

Cause heaven is real.

You're the only thing I can take to heaven.

Not the clothes, not the gun, not the life I've been given.

No, I pray you will cry.

Or stand in the body.

Until you know what's wrong and right.

It's not about rules, it's about rid.

You're the only, only thing I can take to heaven.

I might not see it now, but I give your voice on now.

Through the noise, through the doubt.

You're loving me and calling me out.

Cause you're the only thing I can take to heaven.

So I hold your name in every prayer that's given when this life ends.

I won't need my pride.

I just want you standing by my Side, because child your soul is worth every less.

Cause you're the only thing I can take to heaven.

Or maybe I don't get it all today, but I see the love in the words you say.

Thank you, Maverick.

That's the choice that Joshua calls.

As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.

I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.

And I just want to ask you if you made that choice.

The first choice begins with knowing the Lord Jesus as your Savior.

That's that first choice.

Loving him in sincerity.

Do you know Christ as your Savior?

Has there been a point in your life where you recognize I'm a sinner?

My sin has to be punished?

But Jesus loved me so much that he stepped out of heaven, went to the cross, and there died in my place to take the punishment for my sin.

Then he rose again to conquer death and sin and to offer you salvation.

To worship him in sincerity and in truth begins with first trusting Christ as your Savior.

Moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandparents, if you've never accepted Christ, I want to invite you in just a moment to come.

Students.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, what a great morning to give your life to Jesus.

In just a moment, I'm going to pray.

God's people are going to stand and sing a testimony.

We'll have ministers at our aisles.

And if you need someone to pray with you, the altar here is open if you want to come pray for your family or pray for someone to be saved.

But if you want to know Jesus this morning as your Savior, we want to invite you to come.

This morning, you come to Jesus.

Lord, we love you and we thank you for salvation and we thank you for these words in Scripture that teach us how much you love us and how you want to walk with us and how you have promises that you are faithful to uphold if we will come and worship you.

Give our lives to you in sincerity and truth.

Give us the freedom to respond to you this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

And all God's people said, We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith at First Methodist Church.