James Merritt - A Line In the Sand
How many of you, just curious, how many of you love history? Some people don't even like history. Okay, I'm a history buff. I love history. You can count on one thing: I keep a lot of books going at one time, but I'm always reading about history. I just finished a book, a great book I'd recommend to you about the atomic bomb and the making of the atomic bomb. I got interested because of the movie that just came out. Well, I've got a bucket list of historical things I've always wanted to see, and on my bucket list was to go see the Alamo. I've never been to the Alamo. I saw John Wayne play in "The Alamo," but that didn't satisfy me, and I wanted to see the place.
So about, I don't know, seven, eight years ago, Jonathan and I and Teresa, one of my boys, we were out in Texas, and we decided to go to the Alamo 'cause I've always wanted to see it. Well, as we were walking into the front door of the museum, we saw this on the ground, and I didn't know what it was. If you go to the Alamo, you'll see it. It's on the ground there. And I thought, I didn't know what that was. Let me tell you what that is. It drew my curiosity, and then I learned that, you know, what we're told, what we know about the Alamo is that in the last days of that battle, you had about 210 men in the Alamo surrounded by about 5,000 Mexican soldiers. And so you got this ragtag band of soldiers, and they're there to defend the Alamo.
And the commander, William Travis, had been ordered by Santa Anna to surrender. He said, "If you surrender, we'll let you live". And so they had to make a decision. So William Travis, the commander, Davy Crockett was there, if you know the history, he said, "Look, surrender or else". And he told them, "If you don't surrender, we will kill everybody in the Alamo. Nobody will be allowed to escape". So they had to make a decision. So according to legend, Travis gathered his men, took his sword, drew a line in the dirt, and asked the men to choose their faith. Said, "You can do one of two things: If you stand where you are, you can surrender, and you'll live. Or, if you cross this line, you're choosing to fight. But I wanna warn you, if you're choosing to fight, you're choosing to die. We will not get out of this alive. There will be no turning back".
And according to the story, all but one of those brave Texas heroes crossed that line. And because of that event, when they built the museum, they put that line in the dirt to remember what those brave souls had done. And so today, we remember, primarily, we would've never remembered the Alamo if nobody had stepped across that line. It would've been uneventful. But because 209 men chose to cross that line, we know about William Travis, we know about Davy Crockett, we know how brave that they were. They made a choice, a literal line-in-the-dirt choice, a life-and-death decision. Because life, we think of life in primarily one way: We think of life in terms of time.
So we think of life in terms of days, and months, and weeks, and years, and birthdays, and anniversaries. But in reality, life is made up of more than time. You know what life really is? Life is really all about one word: It's about decisions. I mean, think about this: Before you were born, you didn't choose to be born. Somebody before you made a decision that they wanted to start a family, and you were conceived. You didn't even choose when or where or to whom you were born to. That choice was made for you. Then after you were born, while you're young, guess who made all your decisions for you? Your parents, they made those decisions.
But as you're growing up, and as you mature, you begin to have to make choices, and you begin to have to make decisions. And then that comes to that point where the bird has to fly out of the nest, and you find out, all of a sudden, "Now it's my turn. Now I've gotta live my life". And it's gonna be one decision after another decision after another decision. Now, if you don't think that's true, let me just give you a little statistic. The average person, listen to this, the average person will make 773,618 decisions over a lifetime. You will come to regret 143,262 of those decisions. A typical adult makes 27 decisions every day. Some of you did today, you made a decision.
"When the alarm goes off, do I go up, or do I hit the snooze button"? You make a decision. Every day begins with a decision. "Am I gonna have two cups of coffee, one cup of coffee"? And here's the amazing thing: On average, a decision can take up to nine minutes to decide. So you actually lose a mind-numbing four hours just trying to make a decision. Now, decisions are kind of interesting because some decisions are easy to make, right? So do you want to eat your food hot or do you wanna wait until it gets cold? Some decisions are easy. Some decisions are, they're automatic. "Am I going to eat lunch today at Chick-fil-A, or am I going to eat lunch today at Chick-fil-A"? I mean, some decisions, they're just kind of automatic. You don't have to really sweat them. And then some decisions are life-changing. In fact, they may even be life-and-death decisions.
Recently, I had a friend of mine who underwent surgery. His life would be on the line, but he didn't have no choice. The doctor was very candid. He said, "I cannot guarantee you, you will make it out of the surgery. I can guarantee you, you won't make it if you do not have the surgery. You won't survive without it". Some decisions are life-changing, life and death. But then there are some decisions, not many, but some, they are eternal decisions. They don't just affect you in this life, they affect you in the life to come. They don't just affect you when you're living, they will affect you after you're dead. And I've become convinced in my life, and in my mind, and in my heart, there's no greater decision you will ever make as an individual, as a couple, as a family, than this one decision: Which God am I going to worship?
You've got to make that decision. We're gonna talk about this in a moment. You have to make that decision. You got no choice. The question is not, "Am I going to"? No, no, "Which God am I going to worship"? Because as David Foster Wallace famously said, "There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship". So if you're joining us for the first time this morning, or first time online or on television, we've been in a series in our church we've been calling Generational Discipleship. We've been emphasizing the importance of impacting every generation for the truth of God and for the God of truth. And so we said, look, here's the way it works: First of all, we begin with teaching. We gotta be teaching other, the next generation, the truth.
And then we've got to be modeling truth. It's not just enough to say it with your lips, you've gotta show it with your life. And then we talked about stewarding the truth. That is taking every opportunity you can with your kids, your grandkids, your next-door neighbor, your buddies, your friends, your family, take every opportunity you can to always try to be bringing them closer to the Lord. Well, today is D-Day. Today is decision day. Today is we cross the line day. Today you're gonna decide, "Am I gonna stay where I am," where most of you would be, haven't discipled to anybody, not discipling anybody, not gonna disciple anybody, you're gonna stay on the line, or, today, you're gonna decide, "Nope, you know what, I'm gonna cross the line. I am a disciple. God's called me to be a disciple-maker, and I want to do it".
Today, we're gonna commit, individually, hopefully as a church, we are going to disciple the next generation. Now, it all comes down to a decision, a determination, and a direction. And it has to be made in the home, for the home. It has to be made for every single individual. So with all of that as a backdrop, I want you to take your Bibles, your iPads, your iPhones, and I want you to turn to a book in the Old Testament called Joshua. It's easy to find: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Alright, it's easy to remember. First eight books are easy to memorize, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth. 'Cause I always say "Joshua, you should never judge Ruth". That's not good. Joshua judges Ruth. Alright, we're in the Book of Joshua, chapter 24. We're at another line in the dirt, another line-in-the-sand event.
So we're gonna go back in time. Let's go back to the future. We're gonna go back 2,500 years. There's a man named Joshua. He is the commander in chief of the nation of Israel. He's led the people into the land that God has promised them. But he wants to make sure they don't just get into the land, they don't just cross through the door, they don't just get to taste the water, and the bananas, and the fruit, and the meat, and the sweet, he wants to make sure they keep it. He wants to make sure that what he gives them, they hold onto. He wants them to prosper. In effect, let me tell you what God wants for them. He wants them to live happily ever after. That's exactly what God wants. But on this day, Joshua is not talking as the commander in chief. He's not talking as a political leader.
Today, he comes to the nation of Israel, and he says, "I wanna talk to you as a parent. I wanna talk to you as a dad. I wanna talk to you as a dad who has a family". And he makes this momentous statement that some of you who read your Bible have heard many times. Joshua 24:15: "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve". Let me just stop right there, Joshua and do what I just told you. You're gonna serve some god. Atheists serve a god, agnostics serve a god. Everybody serves some god. The issue's not, are you going to or not? No, the issue is, which one are you gonna serve? He knew that. "Choose this day, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose lands you're living. But," and I love this statement, that's why I love Joshua, "as for me and my household, we're going to serve the Lord".
When my boys were born, my first son was born, I made two decisions, best decisions I've probably ever made in my life. I said, number one, as for me and you, we're gonna serve the Lord. Number two, as for me and you, We gonna love them dogs. So, as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. So in effect, he drew a line in the dirt. Here's what he said, and I love this: He said, "Even if nobody else in this whole nation chooses to serve the Lord, me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord". So he chose to lead his next generation. He chose to lead his family. He chose to lead everybody in that nation that would follow him, to do three things we're asking every one of us to do, beginning today: Number one, commit to lead your family to revere the one God. Commit to lead your family to revere the one God.
Now, Joshua begins with a general piece of advice that applies to everybody. He says, verse 14, "Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness". Now, let me just stop right there. I'm working on this message weeks ago, and I thought, "Boy, here we go". Because one thing you don't hear much about today in any church is fearing the Lord. We talk about maybe loving the Lord, we imply we can use the Lord, but we don't talk much about the fear of the Lord. I mean, it just kinda sounds strange. And some might even say, "I just don't think you oughta to tell people that. I just don't think you oughta to tell people that they ought to fear God".
Because the God that we want today... can I just be honest? The God that most people want today is not a God to be feared, He's a God to be used. He is not a God that we ought to be concerned about His holiness. We think, "No, no, no, He oughta be concerned about our happiness". And we're witnessing, in my opinion, a nation that's doing all that it can, as hard as it can, as fast as it can, to get over the fear of God and stay away from the fear of God. But before I go any further, let me tell you what I mean by fearing God. 'Cause especially if you're in a younger crowd, I don't want you to misunderstand what I mean. When the Bible talks about fearing God, it doesn't mean the fear of where you kind of fold up into a fetal position, and you tremble because you're afraid of being harmed or hurt.
The great reformer, Martin Luther, he said there are two kinds of fear. There is a fleshly fear, and there is a family fear. Let me tell you the difference. A fleshly fear is the fear of a prisoner, that he's gonna be executed, or it's the fear of a prisoner of war that fears he's going to be tortured, or it's the fear of a little child that is afraid of a ghost. That's not the fear we're talking about. He said there's also a family fear. It is the fear of a child that has such respect, and such love, and such reverence for his father and his mother that he doesn't wanna displease them. He does not want to offend them. He wants to do everything he can to put a smile on their face. And he doesn't do it because he's afraid of what they would do to him.
That's not what he's afraid of. He's afraid of what his disrespect might do to them. And that's the kind of fear that Joshua's talking about. See, you can, even if you think about it, there is a fear of God that's displayed every day in your life. Let me give you an example. Just the way you talk about God tells me whether or not you fear God or not. You've heard me say this a thousand times, I'm gonna keep saying it. If you wanna get my blood pressure up, call God the man upstairs. That just infuriates me. He is not the man upstairs. He is the creator of the universe that holds your life, and His hands can take you out any second He wants to. That's the kind of God we fear.
And so even the way we talk about God shows whether we fear God. If you fear God, you don't use His name in a vain way. If you fear God, you talk about Him with reverence and respect. Let me give you an illustration. My youngest son is a pilot. He flies jets for a private corporation. And he really is a great pilot. I'm not saying it 'cause he's my son, but he really is a great pilot. So when my son flies, one of the things I love about pilots, he's like most every good pilot: He's not shaking in his boots, he's not fooling with fear of what might happen, he doesn't get in the plane, thinking, "Okay, this plane's probably gonna crash". He doesn't think about that at all. He's very comfortable in flying the plane. But I'll tell you what he does have a great fear of, I'll tell you what he has tremendous respect for, it's this little law called gravity.
Because you know what airplane poison is, right? You know how powerful airplane poison is? One drop will kill you, okay? So he really respects the law of gravity. Matter of fact, if you've ever flown in an airplane, there's an old saying about pilots: There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. You have a healthy respect of the law of gravity. You respect the weather, you respect physics. You respect those things. And what I'm saying to you is we ought to be in such awe, and in such reverence and such respect, that oughta be the default attitude we have toward God. We oughta have such love for what He's done for us, for what He knows about us, but what He can do in us, that we wanna do everything in our power to please Him, to put a smile on His face, to know that we meet His approval.
After 9/11, you've probably been told some of this, but after 9/11, I was invited alongside other religious leaders to go to the Oval Office to meet with President Bush. And I don't mind telling you, I'm being honest, you know, I'm pretty confident when I speak to a crowd. I mean, I've been around the block, and all of that, but I wanna tell you something: I was as nervous as a Florida gator in Athens, Georgia. I'm telling you, I was shaking in my boots. My palms were sweating, my heart rate was elevated 'cause I'm walking into the Oval Office. Now, why was I trembling? Why was I so nervous? Well, I wasn't afraid the president was gonna hurt me. You know, I wasn't afraid he was gonna be rude to me. But I just didn't wanna do anything stupid, you know, get tackled by the Secret Service. You know? I mean, seriously.
So I was very thoughtful, when I walked in, about, you know, what I was gonna say, and I wasn't gonna say anything, about my behavior because I have such respect for the office and such awe of what he represents. Well, here's my point: How much more intentionality should we have when we enter into the presence of God? How much more should we be determined? Lord, the way I live my life today, the words that come out of my mouth, the way I treat other people, may I do it in such a way that you see that I fear you, and I love you, and I respect you. 'Cause let me tell you something, mom and dad, it doesn't matter how much your kids know if they don't know God. It doesn't matter how much your kids know if they don't know God. And if you introduce them to God, they need to know that God deserves, and desires, and demands reverence and respect.
And by the way, you don't just need to tell them that, you need to show them that. Because your children, they're gonna know whether or not you fear God by the way you speak about God, by the way you worship God, by the way you're committed to the House of God, even by the way you pray to God. Now, having said all that, I just wanna just come back to something and make sure you don't misunderstand. I understand very clearly, as well as anybody listening to me right now, God is a God of grace, God is a God of love, God is God of mercy, God is a God of compassion. I get that, and I'm thankful for it every day of my life. But the theologian A.W. Tozer said it best: "No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God".
We must commit ourselves to lead the next generation to revere the one God. Now, unfortunately, that's where a lot of parents stop. And in this day and age, particularly in the 21st century, that's where some of you are gonna make a big, huge mistake. What I'm about to tell you now is one of the reasons why some parents wonder, "I don't get it, I took 'em to church, I tried to be a godly dad, I tried to be a godly mom, and I tried to teach them the right things. Where did I go wrong"? It's not that necessarily you did wrong. It's not that you went wrong at all, but maybe you didn't take a second step, which Joshua did. He said, "You know, I'm not just gonna commit to lead my family to revere the one God".
Number two, you've gotta commit to lead your family to reject other gods. You're not done with your child, just saying, "Now, this is the one God". No, you gotta go further. You gotta say, "But whoa, whoa, whoa, let me just let you know there are other gods out there gonna compete for your love and for your attention". Because one sign that you fear God, here's one way you know you fear God: You forsake all other gods. So Joshua continues, verse 14, "Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living".
When you go back and read the history of Israel, and many of you have done this, you know this, God intended, God's desire, God's will was the moment they crossed over that Red Sea, the moment they got to the other side, God's word for them was, the straightest line is A to B, right, straight line. God intended for them to zip right into the Promised Land. But that didn't happen. So a little Bible quiz: They wandered around in circles for how many years? 40 years, 40 years. A journey that would've taken, at most maybe a few months, took 40 years, and they literally went in circles.
And when you read the story, here's why: They didn't reject false gods. That's where they blew it. At one time, they went from revering the true God that got them where they were going, but they did not reject false gods. They began to respect false gods, and they rejected the true God. And so, since the beginning of time, there's never been a shortage of two things: false gods and false religions. Never been a shortage: false gods, false religions. But here's what's really interesting: You think about, "Well, that's, I'm reading ancient history. You know, we know there's no false gods".
Well, not really. 'Cause here we are, here we are 4,500 years later, and we're still worshiping the same false gods they worshiped thousands of years ago. Let me just see if some of these sound familiar. For example, one of the gods they worshiped was the ancient god called Mammon. The word mammon means wealth or money. There was another ancient god they worshiped called Bacchus. He was the god of pleasure. If you lived in ancient Greece, you might worship a goddess name Aphrodite. She was the goddess of sex. If you lived in Rome, you might worship the god called Mars. That was the god of war. There was another god that was called Sophia, the goddess of wisdom.
Now you say, "Well, but pastor, we don't worship those gods today". No, we don't call them by that name, but trust me, we still have people that worship the gods from Wall Street. We have people that worship the gods from Hollywood. Some worship the gods who come from the Pentagon. Some worship the gods who come from the universities. Now, these gods take different forms. For some people, their god is a dollar bill. For other people, their god is a diploma. For some people, their god is a test tube. For some people, their god is a one-night stand. For some people, their god is 51% of the vote. We all worship the same gods 4,500 years later, they just take other names. These gods are alive and well. And today's gods are found in different places, they just go by different names.
As a matter of fact, let me tell you this one: Can I tell you one of the greatest false gods more and more people are worshiping today? It's what the great New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, called the idolization of progress or moving with the times. Let me tell you a god people worship today. They wanna be on the right side of the polls. They wanna be what they believe is on the right side of history. They wanna be on the right side of the popularity scale. So Dr. Wright put it this way, listen to this: "Now that we live in the 21st century, we live as though it was obvious that one's ethics or theology ought to change with the calendar".
So what do we do? So today, people all over the place, we genuflect, we bow before the gods of political correctness. And we have the audacity to say, "I know we believed for thousands of years that marriage should be between a man and a woman, we just missed it. Yeah, I know that we've always thought there's two genders, male and female, and however you were born is what you ought to be, but we just missed it". And more and more people just cave in. They fold like an accordion. Because instead of fearing the one true God, they fear being attacked by the cool kids of cancel culture. And these are today's false gods, and our worship of them constitutes its own kind of religion.
Now, let me just put it where everybody understands what Joshua was saying and what I'm saying. "If Christianity is true," let's just get this down, "If Christianity is true," that's my assumption, "If Christianity is true, then every other religion is false, and every other religion, then Christianity is false". So let me say that again. Every other religion is false, and if any other religion is true, then Christianity is false. Now let me just say this: You're saying, "Well, you mean every religion is wrong"? I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is they can't all be right. So in other words, no, we're not all going to the same place, we're just trying different ways to get there.
No, it's not just, "Well, you call your god God, we call our god Allah, we call our god this, we call our god". No, there's only one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other God. End of discussion. The one thing that is for sure is this: If everybody serves some god, and they do, and if everybody's going to practice some type of religion, and they do, it may be the god of self, it may be the god of sex, it may be the god of success, it may be a religion where your business is your church and you're the high priest. Either way, what Joshua's saying: There's a line in the sand, and you've got to stand on one side or the other.
I love this story. There's a little boy named Robert, and he was gonna be in a wedding. And asked him to be an usher, but they realized he was too young to be an usher. But he really wanted to help, so his uncle took him aside and he said, "Listen, Robert, here's what you gotta do. I'm gonna let you help me escort people to their seats". He said, "Now, here's all you gotta do: Just ask them, when they walk in, just say, 'Are you a guest of the bride or a guest of the groom?' And that will tell you which side of the church they sit on. So if they're a guest of the bride, you sit 'em on one side, guest of the groom, sit 'em on the other side". He said, "You understand that"? "Yes, sir, I understand that".
Well, lady comes walking in, first person in the door, and all of a sudden, like you could imagine, he got real nervous, and he just totally forgot what his uncle told him. So was trying to be polite, and so he offered his arm to her, and he said, "Ma'am, I just have one question: Whose side are you on"? Now, the God that created you is asking you that question every day. Whose side you on? Line in the dirt, gotta be on one side, can't straddle the fence. You're gonna lead your families, you're gonna lead the next generation, you're gonna lead an individual to be on one side or the other. And listen, let me just be honest, if you're gonna commit to lead your family to revere the one true God, at the same time, you gotta let them know you've gotta reject all other gods, every single one.
That's step two. Step three: If I'm gonna commit to lead my family to revere the one true God, and I'm gonna commit to lead my family and anybody that I can to reject all other false gods, then that leads to the third point, and that is you've got to commit to lead your family to rely on the only God, to trust and love and believe in the only God. So the line's been drawn. Everybody's gotta decide which side of the line they're going to stand on. Everybody has a ballot, now it's time to cast the vote. And Joshua cast his.
Okay, here we go. Verse 15: "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord". So the question is, what God are you and your family going to serve? What God is our generation gonna commit to lead to the next generation to serve? Now listen, I don't care what type of household you're in, you may be single, living alone. You don't get a pass. You may have a roommate. You don't get a pass. It doesn't matter what type of household, whether you're single or married, old or young, you gotta choose. You can claim to be agnostic, open-minded, indifferent. You can say, "Well, I just don't really wanna make a choice".
That's the problem. When you decide not to make a choice, you just decided to make a choice. Because making a decision is a really funny thing, because not to make a decision is to make a decision. It looks like getting up in the morning. So you hear the alarm go off, and, you know, you just don't believe you can get that bed off your back, and you don't know how to get up. And so you say, "You know what? I just can't decide whether I wanna get up right now or not". Well, you just did, 'cause you didn't get up. So not to make a choice is to make a choice. So you're going to choose the only true God or you are not.
Now let me just be fair, I've said this before, I'm gonna keep saying it probably for a long time in a lot of different ways, if you man up, woman up, parent up, stand up, say, "Yep, I'm going to serve the one true God," you will be in the minority in your community. You will be in the minority in your city. You will be in the minority in your state. You will be in the minority in your country, and you will be in the minority in the world. 'Cause you gotta have the same commitment Joshua had. He had what I call the last man standing mentality. I loved it. He didn't say, "Me and you are gonna serve the Lord". He didn't look to his next-door neighbor and say, "Me and you are gonna serve the Lord". He said, "Me and my family, we're gonna serve the Lord".
I can't tell you what to do, I can't make you what to do. I will tell you this, if nobody else does but us, we're gonna do it. If our household's the only God-fearing household in the whole nation, we are going to do it. And I'm not gonna pull any punches. I believe more than ever before, if you're truly going to follow Jesus, stand for the truth of God's Word, say what is right is right, if everyone's against it, say what is wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it, you're going to have to stand alone. And you better get ready to prepare these kids over here, these young guys over here, who just warm my heart every time I look at them. You'd better let them know this is the way it's gonna be.
In your school, in your university, in your college, one day when you go to work, this is where it's going to be. But let me just tell you this, this is the good news: Heaven is filled with people who are in God's Hall of Fame because they stood alone. Noah had to stand alone beside an arc. David had to stand alone before a giant. Elijah had to stand alone before 450 false prophets. Paul had to stand alone before a pagan king. Jesus had to stand alone at a cross. Make no mistake, you say, "Boy, that's tough". You're right. I'll tell you this, though, when you come to the end of your life, it would be better for you to be on the wrong side of history and the right side of God than to be on the wrong side of God and the right side of history. I wanna stand before God one day that doesn't say anything else besides, "Well done, good and faithful servant".
I hope one day I'll stand before God and say, "By the way, thanks for standing alone, because you weren't alone". Because one plus God is a majority. So there's so many ways you could lead your children, lead your family to, you know, serve the Lord. Let me give you an example. Some of you did it, and they didn't even know it. When you got up this morning and came to church, you were leading your family to understand, "You know what, son? Church is a big deal. God's people are important".
When you read your Bible and you teach your kids the Bible, you're teaching them God's Word is important. My grandchildren came to my house yesterday, and I told them, they wanted to come swim in our swimming pool, they wanted to come swim and get out on the boat, and I said, "Okay, you can do that, but you got one thing, got one condition". They said, "What's that"? I said, "I gave you a Bible verse, and you better have it memorized before you get here". It's amazing what praising can do. They walked into my door, all of 'em walked into my house. You know the first thing they said? "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved". Cha-ching.
But you know what I'm teaching them? What do you think? You think I'm doing that just to give them 10 bucks? No! What am I teaching them? God's Word's important. I want you to hide God's Word in your heart so you will not sin against Him. You can do that. When you pray for your kids, or pray for your family, or pray for your next-door neighbor, and you pray with them, you know what you're telling them? You believe God answers prayer. You're telling them prayer's a big deal, prayer's important, prayer's the greatest power in the world. When you support God's work financially, and you teach them to give, you're teaching them stewardship is important. When you live a life consistent with what you say you believe, you teach them holiness is a big deal, purity's a big deal. Living for God is important. It's paramount.
So let me just say one thing while I'm in the neighborhood. You gotta notice one other thing. Do you notice that... This is so good. This is just so good. I'll pat myself on the back. Do you notice that Joshua's kids didn't get a vote? I'm quiet 'cause I want that to sink in for some of you parents out there, 'cause you're letting the tail wag the dog. Didn't get a vote. Here's what he said, kids were right there when he said it: "You live under my roof, put your feet under my table, and eat my food, you're going to serve the Lord. You're going to go to church. You're going to do what I tell you to do when it comes to this matter of really serving God". And I've heard this till I get sick: "Yeah, if I do that, I'll turn my kids against the church".
Greek word for that: bologna. By that logic, don't make your kids take a shower. They might turn against water. By that logic, don't make your kids eat vegetables because they might turn them against broccoli. Don't make your kids go to school, it might turn them against education. By that logic, don't make them be respectful of other people, it might turn them against civility. Let me tell you something, if you've got a kid today, and you live for that, if you live the way you should have lived and did what you should have done, and you did everything you could to train up a child the way that child should go, if, eventually, they turn away from it, it's not because you made them do anything. It's in spite of the fact that you had them do it. It's on them, not you.