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Your sitter may be getting weary.

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From Joshua chapter 24

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now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and

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put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord and

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if it is a disagreeable thing in your sight to serve the Lord choose for yourselves today whom you will serve

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whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living

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But as for me in my house

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We will serve the Lord

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Please be seated

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The text that we have read this morning records a major spiritual turning point

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In the nation of the Israelites God had called them of course through Abraham

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He had redeemed them from Egypt through the leadership of Moses and now Moses was dead many years Joshua was their leader

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They had conquered the land of Canaan with its various pagan tribes and divided the land among themselves

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Before they went off to enjoy the land that God had given them

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They met with Joshua for one last speech and we've read part of that speech

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You see these people of God

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Had compromised their lifestyle

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They had accommodated themselves to the gods of

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The pagan nations that they had driven out of the land of Canaan

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And so Joshua called them on this occasion to purify themselves to repent of their idolatry and to serve the Lord

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And they did so

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Later in the paragraph that we read the nation made the decision saying we will serve the Lord

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Sadly that decision did not extend to many generations

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For the nation of Israel again turned to idolatry many times in the future however

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For that generation for that generation. This was a turning point

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It was a day when they as a nation of families

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Declared in the midst of a culture that was pagan and corrupt we will serve the Lord

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There are several observations about families that come to mind as I think about what happened in Joshua chapter 24

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The first observation is this that a nation is a family of families

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That was very true

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For Israel because they were the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob

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They were the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob whose name was Israel thus they were called the Israelites

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As a nation they were truly blood family

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But there's another sense in which every nation is a family of families because God has so designed human beings

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That the basic unit in any society is the family

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If we picture the the society as a whole as a large structure

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The individual bricks that make up that huge structure are the families

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A nation is a family of families

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Now I know that the situation in Israel is not an exact parallel to the United States

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But we come to this same conclusion nonetheless that in any society

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Revivals that have been reported in college campuses all across America this last spring praise the Lord for what he is stirring up

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Any meaningful and lasting spiritual renewal must involve the family units

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In the lives of our young people, but I'll tell you that it will not last

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Until we have a new family unit

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And I thank God for that and I thank God for the revival that has been reported in college campuses all across America this last spring

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Praise the Lord for what he is stirring up in the lives of our young people

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But I'll tell you that it will not last unless it touches the whole family unit

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And my prayer through the summer has been that as those students have gone back to their homes

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Something's happened in their families and something's happened in their churches

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If God is going to do something in a whole society it must touch the home if it's going to be lasting

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And we're talking about the family so let me just insert a word here

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Regarding what a family is because there's a lot of debate in our society concerning that

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The biblical ideal of a family is a man and woman living together in monogamous marriage

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And bearing children for whom they take responsibility before God

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It's a man and woman who are living together in a monogamous marriage

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And who bear children for whom they take full responsibility

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That's the biblical ideal the fact is that we live in a fallen world

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And there is another reality that many of us face

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In fertile couples and in the family

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That many of us face in fertile couples who would love to have children but cannot

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Single families with single parent families rather with children

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I was raised in a single parent home for seven years until my mother married again

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And when she married again my stepfather and mother had a daughter

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And so we had a blended family of sorts

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And the blended family is another reality that is in our world today

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But we need to understand that any group living together is not a family

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And there are some who are promoting that as part of their agenda

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That if there are two people of the same sex living together that's a family

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That is not true

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That if there are those living in open marriages or in what they call serial monogamy

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Living with one person faithfully at a time

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Talk about a perverted idea of monogamy

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But they call it serial monogamy

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That's not a family

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Now I know that the government may change the legal definition of a family

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I hope not

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I hope that we will do what we can

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I hope that we will do everything we can to encourage our government to strengthen the family

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As it is defined in the bible

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But let's be clear about this that if someday

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There is a broadening of the definition of the family in our culture

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That does not alter the biblical definition

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God's ideal God's standard of a family is still the same no matter what the government decides

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No matter what laws are passed no matter what the supreme court says

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Now there are liberal churches and denominations

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There are wacky theologians and sociologists

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Who reinterpret the standard of the family to fit the culture as it dissipates

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But that does not make that cultural dissipation somehow morally acceptable to God

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In just a few weeks there's going to be a gathering in Beijing China

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That is called United Nations fourth world congress on women

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It is a frontal attack on the traditional family

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The biblical family

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Its agenda is controlled by feminists

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If you do not receive letters from Focus on the Family

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I urge you to write them for their august letter

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In which Dr. Dobson explains

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What this conference is really all about

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And ladies and gentlemen your tax dollars in mind because the current administration

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Are underwriting most of the budget for it

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It is a direct attack upon the family

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If God is going to do something in a society it has to happen in the families

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Because a society a nation is a family of families

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Secondly I observe in this text

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That the direction that families are going to go in the future

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That families take determines the direction of the society

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Here it says later in chapter 24 of Joshua

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And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua

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And all the days of the elders who survived to Joshua

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And had known the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel

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In other words the whole nation changed course at this point

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Because there was one man who stood up and said as for me and my house

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We will serve the Lord you choose whom you will serve

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And that generation said we will serve the Lord

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And the nation changed course at that moment

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Therefore Israel and that generation was prevented from experiencing the judgment of God

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What would happen in America if every Christian family

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Were to make the decision that they made in the day of Joshua

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That if every one of us would say in our family units

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We don't care what direction the culture is going

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We don't care how the supreme court or the government define the family

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We don't care if they want to remove God

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We will serve the Lord

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What would happen?

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I don't know

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I don't know

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I wish I could say that would save America

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But let's be honest that God's agenda may not include saving America

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As we know it now

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God may want this nation to go into judgment which it deserves

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As does every other human government

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I don't know if America would be saved if Christian families would do that

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But this I know it would make some sort of difference

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Because today every survey that's taken tragically tells us

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That although some say a third of the people in America claim to be born again

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And I know that has a lot of definitions to a lot of different people

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But they say they're born again

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The lifestyle choices they make are statistically no different than anybody else in America

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What would happen if Christian families were truly Christian?

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I think the better question is than

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Can America be saved through its families is

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Can Christian families survive the American culture as Christian?

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And I think the answer to that is no

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Except by the power and the wisdom of Jesus Christ

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I don't believe any family can survive this culture as a Christian family

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Apart from the power of God and the wisdom of Jesus Christ

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Working in that family

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A third observation I make is the families are essentially interrelated

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These families really were

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You talk about a church in California that has the pastor

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There's the grandfather and all of his family is in the church

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My goodness

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I'd like to be at one of those business meetings

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See how business is conducted in that church

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And we talk about a church being interrelated

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There are pluses and minuses to that

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But here we have a whole nation of cousins among the Israelites

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And they fought like cousins too

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But they were related

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But the observation I make is that families have to be related to other families

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If they're going to be healthy

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In the broader text of Joshua 24

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God points out that the family is not related to the family

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In the text of Joshua 24 God points all the way back to Abraham

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I called Abraham and his son Isaac and Jacob

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And I did this and this and this and this for all of your descendants

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And he warns them about the future

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You see God sees them not just as an isolated generation

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But he sees them related all the way back to Abraham

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They were interrelated

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And in that day they were interrelated

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They had a future progeny in front of them

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Interrelationships are essential for families

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One study that has been done several years ago indicated that every family needs to have 25 to 30 relationships

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Family relationships

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Now some of these relationships originate within the biological family

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Brothers and sisters and cousins

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Some of these relationships occur within the church

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Some families have relationships in their neighborhood, all of us should

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Or with fellow workers at the company

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But the point is that every family if it's going to be healthy has to have about 25 connections to other families

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And these connections are characterized by these things

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They see one another frequently

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They like to be with one another socially

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There's a reciprocal positive feeling about being together

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And they help each other in crisis and in time of need

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What an amazing statement

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And I wonder where my family and your family is in that sort of a measurement of what health is

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That families are essentially interrelated

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We are not created by God to be autonomous groups that are separated from everybody else

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That's one of the important things that a church provides for people

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Some of those connecting points for families

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That's what cell groups are about

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So that those connecting points can be more personal, more intimate

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Vital to being a healthy family

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Another observation I make is that families have a God-designed order

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Now Joshua spoke for his family

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He lived in a patriarchal period

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And there were some particular characteristics of that period

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For one, the senior male in the family was the one who was looked upon as sort of the priest of the family

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He directed everything and Joshua takes that role here

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That term patriarchal has become a term of anathema in our culture

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In fact, there are those who are saying that it is the patriarchal concept

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Not the biblical one I've just described

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But that there are males who are in leadership

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That's the root of all evil, especially the evil for women

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I don't have time to read some quotes regarding that this morning

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But there is a group out there called the gender feminists

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Well represented by the way in Beijing next month

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Who are promoting a new idea of gender

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No longer are we to look, they say, are we to look at people as male or female

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That's old

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That limits women and men

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They say now we're to see five genders

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Have you heard this?

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The gender feminists are pushing the idea that there are five genders

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There's male, there's female, there's gay, there's lesbian, and there's transsexual

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And whatever you are is not what you're born as, it's whatever society makes you

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And all five of those are equal

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Isn't that perverse?

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That would be one of the things presented in Beijing

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By the American delegation as well as others

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Folks, God has designed an order for the family

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It's not the patriarchal system in the sense of Joshua's day

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But it is male leadership as the head of the home, the husband, is to sacrificially love his wife

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He is to work together with his wife in a caring, nurturing partnership

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God has designed order for the home and to the extent that we follow that order

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God is able to bless us as he wishes

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One final observation

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Families have to make choices

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In order to establish our priorities we have to make choices

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Here, Joshua leads his family in making a choice to serve the Lord

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I think it's especially important when a culture is in crisis that families make choices

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You see there is little in the culture around us today that stands for what pleases God

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Unless we make some hard choices we will simply conform ourselves to the culture around us

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Families like yours and mine are constantly needing to evaluate

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To acknowledge wrong priorities

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To set new ones that reflect God's order

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Joshua called the families of his day to realize that they had adopted the ways of the pagans

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He said some of you are following the gods of our fathers from beyond the river

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Some of you are following the gods of the land in which we are living now

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And he says make a choice

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Here's where I stand but you make a decision whether you are going to serve God or not

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Families have to make choices especially when the culture has been compromised

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For some time family relationships were considered a low priority in our society

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Our culture seemed to press for dad to be at work more hours than he should be

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For mom to get a job

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And there was a time a few years ago when many people including a lot of Christians said this is wrong

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We're going to make a choice to put our families before work

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And it was the right thing to do

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But one thing I've observed in the evangelical church is that some people, not all, but some people have overreacted from back then

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And they said we're going to put our family before everything

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Even before God

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And that too is a subtle idolatry

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Jesus warned if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters

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Notice the family relationships

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And yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple

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Jesus is not here undervaluing the family certainly he's not undermining the family

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But he is saying that there is a priority in our lives that comes before the family

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And that is him

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Now some people view the family and God as being at odds with one another

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Somehow if you go one way or the other you neglect the opposite

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I don't believe that's the biblical picture at all

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The biblical picture is putting the family in the right place and God in the right place as priority in our lives

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And when that is the case there's a wonderful balance

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There's not a debate between God and the family

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There's not a war between God and the family

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There is a wonderful balance and cooperation between God and the family

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You see not even the family can come before Jesus Christ in our lives

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He has to be first

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Every family has to make a choice

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And I don't know where this message falls at your feet this morning

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And what pieces of it you need to pick up and bring into your own life and your own heart

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I don't know what practice in your life may need to be altered

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What value may need to be changed

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But as we think about the family I bring to you Joshua chapter 24 and these observations as well as others that you would make

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And I say to us together as a family of families in this church

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Because that's what we are too

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Let's choose to make the Lord our number one priority and to serve him together

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And to be God's people in the midst of a culture that is going down the slide to ruin

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Let's be God's people in the midst of it

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And faithful to him

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And see what a difference God would make in our culture because of that

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And if our culture goes on to ruin and destruction and judgment as well it may

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Then so be it

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When we stand before Jesus Christ someday which is the most important exam of all

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We'll be able to hear from him well done good and faithful servant

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Even in 20th century America

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Well done

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You and your family

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Let's pray

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What would it be that God wants you to act upon

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What is it you need to reconsider

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What decision needs to be affected in your life

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I don't know

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But think about what's been said this morning in this total service

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Let the Spirit of God bring to you at least one thing

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That you want to apply to your own life

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God will bless you for it if you choose to do it

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Father may none of us walk away from here without some point of our lives

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Being touched by something you've said in this service

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Thank you for families

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Thank you for families that are imperfect in this fallen world

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Thank you that we can still enjoy in the family relationships in this kind of a culture

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A closeness and a love we can still honor you and put you first

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And I pray Father that we as parents, as children, as grandparents

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As part of a family of families in this church

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As those who are part of a family of families in our culture

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That we will be living the way you want us to live with the right priorities

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And I pray Father that you will use us to make a difference

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To make a difference

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We know not what the next generation may entail, but Lord if it please you we pray that in this generation

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We may see a spiritual renewal like that of Joshua's day

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Because we choose, we and our families, to serve the Lord

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Amen