Well, reading from Joshua chapter 23, now it came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age, and Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in age. You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, those who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them, nor bow down to them. But you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you as He promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God, or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them, go into them, and they to you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you, But they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. Behold, this day I'm going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you. Not one word of them has failed. Therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you and have gone and served other gods and bowed down before them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you shall perish quickly from the good land which he has given. Father, you have called us to live by every word that proceeds from your mouth, and it is our desire that your Holy Spirit would quicken these words to our hearts and enable us to live them out to your glory. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is a super important passage for covenant succession. And by covenant succession, I mean passing on the faith to your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren so successfully that they themselves are faithful to the Lord. And this is really God's ideal, that every one of your families has covenant succession in this way. This is God's ideal, and we're going to be looking later at the possibility that God holds out that there can be covenant succession even to a thousand generations. But we're gonna be looking first of all at why that is not the case. I delight in the stories that we hear down through history of covenant succession to the third and fifth and sometimes even the 10th generation in people's lives. You've probably heard about Jonathan Edwards. He was a very well-known and beloved 18th century pastor and theologian and writer. Well, he had 11 children. By 1900, which was 150 years after he died, his descendants included 13 Christian college presidents, 65 Christian professors, 100 Christian lawyers, 30 Christian judges, 66 Christian physicians, 80 holders of public office that I don't know anything about. and several Christian authors. We all know the incredible contributions that Aurel Dabney contributed to the cause of Christ during the war between the states. But did you know that his line went back 300 years to the Huguenots in France? That's from 1598 to his death in 1898. And as far as I know, it didn't stop with his His death, though I have very little information about his children, Charles, Samuel, and Louis, but man, when you think about that, 300 years of faithful covenant succession is incredible. And so it is possible. Another striking example is the Mather family in colonial New England. Richard Mather immigrated to America in 1635, and he became a Puritan minister. His son, Increase Mather, his grandson, Cotton Mather, were both very influential Puritan ministers and authors, and several subsequent generations of Mathers continued as pastors and as Christian leaders. Let me give you an unusual one from the New Testament. In 2 Timothy 1.5, Paul writes to Timothy, I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. Now that's showing that covenant succession can happen even when it's only the mothers that are believers. It's not the ideal. but it shows that covenant succession can happen in even less than ideal circumstances. But none of this is automatic. Kathy and I have been reading through the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, and we have been seeing examples of faithful—God calls them faithful—faithful Parents whose grandchildren and sometimes even their children strayed from the faith. And that's true of the generation that comes up after this chapter. Judges 2 verse 10 says, after that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Now that is stunning. that within two generations people had so quickly forgotten God's works and had so completely abandoned and turned away from the Lord. So here's the focus of what I want to preach on this morning. When God has three times in the Scriptures promised that it is possible to have covenant succession to a thousand generations, Why is it that this covenant succession gets so quickly short-circuited? I mean, there are far more examples of non-covenant succession in the Old Testament than there are of faithful covenant succession. And I believe that the books of Judges and Kings and Chronicles illustrate six common patterns that broke this covenant succession. And if we can understand these and avoid them, I think we have the keys to successfully passing on the faith. So let me give these six things to you. I think they're important. First, a lack of personal knowledge of God and a failure to personally experience His power in their lives seems to consistently break covenant succession. In other words, they're Christians. But they're not daily experiencing God's power in their lives. This lack then becomes much more pronounced in the third generation. I've already read Judges 2.10, but it speaks of this new generation that did not know the Lord And that reflects on the parents. They did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel. They didn't have a personal knowledge of God's power in their own lives. Well, that means God was not very relevant to what they were doing 24-7 every day of their lives. No wonder covenant succession was broken. A second common theme was that the previous generation was not diligent in training their children. They must have thought, well, this is going to automatically happen with these kids growing up in our families. But covenant succession is never automatic. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9 says it takes hard work, and it's easy to become lazy in doing this. But if the faith of the parents is not internalized by the children through mentorship, their Christianity will not likely endure to the third generation. It takes diligent mentorship. And this is one of the biggest arguments for homeschooling that you could get, but it's more than just homeschooling. It's mentoring children at what it means to live before the face of God. A third common theme is that the parents have small compromises with the pagan culture around them. with the children or the grandchildren beginning to adopt more and more of those pagan practices. When we parents justify small compromises, it opens the door for our descendants to justify even greater compromises. A fourth common theme that I see in the history books is a lack of training of the children in strong biblical leadership principles. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, when you've got overbearing and over-controlling parents who do all of the thinking for their kids and do all of the decision-making for their kids, their kids turn out to be followers, not leaders. And if they're followers, they can easily follow the wrong people. And yes, leaders must learn to follow too. But even followers must learn how to lead and how to say no when conflicting directives are given to them. And so we need to train our children to be leaders, or they can easily begin to follow the leadership in the culture. A fifth common theme, and it's mentioned in Judges 2, 10 through 12, is forgetting the history of God's fabulous dealings with the parents and the grandparents. And then six, desiring to be like other nations is another theme that's mentioned in 1 Samuel 8, 5 and 20. Now what this passage does is it puts all of those six things into a context, and I hope we can take these lessons to heart because it's Gary's and my constant prayer that every one of you families would have successful covenant succession. The first lesson I see hinted at in these verses is that we should not let God's seasons of rest from trouble keep us from forgetting our mandate of pressing forward. Verse 1 says, Now it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in years. Now verse 1 doesn't specify, it only says it was a long time after the conquest of Canaan when he was now talking with the representatives of Israel. And there is a lot of debate on how long a period of time had gone by, but some of the best guesstimates are pretty close to each other. MacArthur guesses about 15 years had elapsed, J.I. Packer guesses 18 years, and Peckham guesses about 20 years. So they're not very far off from each other. But whichever guesstimate is right, it highlights the fact that Joshua's concerns relate to what happens when God's people no longer face trouble. It's very easy in those circumstances to let your guard down and to lose antithesis. When your entire day is taken up in daily dominion, it's easy to forget, hey, we still have enemies that we are constantly having to fight. It may not be outward enemies of swords or of heretics coming against us or of politics, but the world, the flesh, and the devil never stop trying to influence us. Two of those enemies are external. One of those enemies is within. But those three enemies will never stop fighting as long as they exist. which means we can never stop fighting. And so Joshua shares his concerns that certain things need to be in place if we're to pass on the same vibrant faith that we have experienced and pass it on to the next two generations. Now, verse two hints at the next lesson that is good to learn from the faithful leaders of the past. These could be your parents, your grandparents, could be your pastors. You can learn from their mistakes, and yes, all of us have made mistakes. We were talking earlier before the service of some of the things I wish we had done with our kids, but learn from that. We can learn from their mistakes, we can learn from their successes. Why make the same mistakes in every generation? And I think this is where we, in the older generation, can be transparent and admit our mistakes and encourage our children not to repeat them. If we can stay connected with the previous generations, we can learn from them. I've learned a lot from my own parents and grandparents. I've learned a lot from Kathy's parents. grandparents. Anyway, verse 2 says, And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in age. Now, the new is not always better. There is much that we can learn from the aged, and too frequently, older people are sent off to the nursing homes and they are forgotten about. But these older people can teach us a lot. You may have heard some of the same stories from your grandparents many, many, many times, and you wonder, how many times do I have to hear these? Well, let those stories sink in so that you can share those stories with your children and with your grandchildren later. Covenant succession doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens when we learn from the older generation before they pass on. In verses three through five, he also calls upon them to remember God's faithfulness in their own past history, the many times that he had fulfilled his promises to them personally. It's very easy for the passage of time to make us forget that God has come through for us over and over again in the past. When Kathy and I start getting discouraged, we remind ourselves, you know what? God has come through in similar circumstances over and over again for us. A memory of history continues to be a wonderful tool to keep us in the battle. He says in verse three, you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you. There could be no denying the many miracles that God had done during the seven years of active conquest. Yeah, that was a long time ago, but it reminds them that God was real. He was real in their lives. God had proven faithful to his word. He fought for them. He fought with them. Next, he reminds them that even the peace and prosperity they were currently enjoying was because God had given it to them. God's hand was in those blessings. Verse four says, see, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all of the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. Next, he reminds them that God's past promises are designed to keep us pressing into his calling and not rest on our laurels. When was it that David got into trouble with Bathsheba? Well, 2 Samuel 11 says it was when he was lounging at home, when it was the time for kings to go to battle. Specifically says he should have been out there on the field. In our passage, verse 5 says, and the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight, so you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. Now those are encouraging words as well. The task would be accomplished. But why is it important to remember? And the answer is that when we begin to take for granted what God has done in our past, it makes us complacent in the present. And when our children and our grandchildren see us being complacent, it makes the reality of God's power and His grace seem more distant to them, and it's a little bit harder for them to take it seriously. And by the third generation, complacency turns to major compromises. And so Scripture over and over warns us to remember the past, to tell the stories of the past, to inspire the next generation to experience what we have experienced in the past, and to glory in what God has done in the past. Let me read you just portions of two Psalms that talk about this. Psalm 44, 1-3 says this, We have heard with our ears, O God. Our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days, in days of old. You drove out the nations with your hand, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples and cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you favored them. So it was remembering all of these things that we could not do in our own strength, which were impossible to do, but also remembering, hey, we were able to do the impossible by God's grace that motivated them to keep pressing on. Psalm 78 says something similar. Give ear, O my people, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make known to their children. that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Now those two Psalms indicate that there cannot be covenant succession if we forget the history of the past in our own lives and the lives of our parents or the lives of our grandparents. Refreshing your memory of the past is sort of like having an anchor on a ship that keeps the winds from driving the ship into the shoals. So if there is to be a living future, there has to be a living history. Let me repeat that. There needs to be a living history if there is to be a living future. Next, in verses 6 through 11, he reminds them of their responsibilities in the present. So he's dealt with the past, and he's saying, now I want to deal with your present. In verse 6, he warns them to follow the whole Bible in the present or end up complacent. We cannot pick and choose what things we're going to follow from the Bible. Verse 6 says, therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left. Now, that's a very interesting choice of words. He says, be very courageous. Why does it take courage to obey all of the Bible? Well, when you think about it, it should be pretty obvious. If you start obeying all of the Bible, you're going to be an oddball with the world. You're going to be an oddball with compromised believers, and the temptation is to live at peace with them rather than courageously fighting against those kinds of compromises. It's safer, you don't get attacked. And we're seeing a whole generation of Christians who have found it easier to go along with the world's views of dating, and birth control, and education, and politics, and debt, and all kinds of other things, rather than embracing the whole Bible for the whole of life. And if we do not make it our theme in life to follow the whole Bible in all that we do, we can very easily end up complacent. View the Bible like a compass. If you're out in the wilderness and maybe in a forest and you're hiking, It's very easy to get lost, and you're going to have the compass to show you the way. Well, the Bible is our compass, and if we're not pulling the compass out and we're reading it regularly, it's very easy for us to begin to wander and to get lost. But how many times do we pull this compass out and read it? I'll read verse 6 again. He wants us to follow God's compass completely. Therefore, be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left." Next, he reminds them that they need to avoid pagan influences or end up compromised. Take a look at verse seven. And lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them nor bow down to them. Now, that may seem like such a far distant admonition that it has absolutely no bearing on our lives whatsoever. After all, who's going to of us, you know, start worshipping other gods? None of us, right? Well, I wouldn't be too sure. Pew research shows that 1.3 million Americans dabble in the New Age religion, most of them identifying as either Wiccan or Pagan. And yeah, we Christians, we're going to avoid that like the plague. We're not going to compromise in that area, right? But what is surprising is how many Christians at least dabble in occult practices that originated from those sources. Practices such as consulting Ouija board, being enamored with occult movies. And yes, some of the movies that you guys watch, I know this for a fact, have occult sprinkled all through those movies. And reading horoscopes, consulting astrology, just out of curiosity. I could tell you stories of Christians who began to be demonically oppressed after they started, out of curiosity, reading horoscopes. Just a simple thing like that. It's basically a situation where the demons say, ah, he's giving me legal ground to start messing around in his life. You know, David himself was not involved in the occult. Not at all. But two of his wives were. And because his wives, and he did not get rid of the idols that his wives had, God was angry with him. And if you read in Kings, it says God moved David to number Israel. Chronicles says Satan moved. David to number Israel, which is correct. Well, they're both correct. Basically, what happened is God was saying, and Satan was basically asking God, hey, he's given me legal permission, can I go? And God says, yeah, you can have Adam. God removes his protective hedge from around David, and it was because of these compromises. Summit Ministries posted an article showing the incredible dangers of these and a number of other things. Well, I mean, just think, this past Halloween, how many Christians have put up images of ghosts and goblins and witches thinking, oh, there's no danger there. After all, only God is real. These things aren't real, so what harm can come from that? No, when you engage in these kinds of things, demons look on and they begin to think, hey, I think we've got legal ground to begin messing around in this Christian's in this Christian's life. And if you don't believe it, you'll have to read the Summit Ministries article, and I'll give a link to it when I post it on the web. Other New Age practices that have made inroads into Christian circles are engaging in energy healing. chakra balancing, aura cleansing. Am I stepping on toes yet? Others started with yoga as a simple exercise but ended up doing some of the spiritual exercises associated with yoga. Let me read from a Christian website why that is a huge problem. It says the asanas, or poses, in yoga are not merely physical exercises. They are, in fact, positions that are believed to open the body's energy channels, allowing the free flow of prana, or life force. This concept of manipulating energy is foreign to biblical teachings, which instead emphasize faith in God as the source of life and healing. Pranayama, the practice of controlling the breath, is believed to control the energy within the body and help the practitioner achieve a higher state of consciousness. Dhyana, or meditation in yoga, involves techniques to empty the mind, which is fundamentally different from Christian meditation. Christian meditation involves filling the mind with God's Word and focusing on His character and works, while yoga encourages an emptying of the mind to achieve a state of spiritual enlightenment. See, at best, these things are blurring the lines between Christianity and the occult, but at worst, they can open up your life to demonic influence, demonic oppression. The article goes on to outline many other ways in which Christians have sincerely but naively opened their hearts to occultism without even realizing. You know, when I was up in Canada, I met an elder in the PCA church who was also a member of the Freemasons. And when I confronted him about that, he saw no difficulty whatsoever, no problem with being a member of two completely contrary organizations with free masonry, having all kinds of occult, you know, the all-seeing eye and all of the other occult symbols. He said, I just reinterpret those symbols. But because of this compromise, he had a demonic spiritual blindness on him and his family that kept him from discerning truth from error that I think some of the youngest in our congregation would instantly recognize as falsehood. And it obliterated his covenant succession. There was none. I'm just saying that it is easy to slip into a violation of verse 7. And when you do, it almost guarantees that covenant succession will be hindered. Verse 8 says, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. Now, the Hebrew word for hold fast means to cling tightly to something. Hold fast, cling to God, don't take his presence for granted. Well, the encouraging thing about that word is it's possible for any of us to have that kind of an intimate relationship with God. We can. Intimacy with God needs to be nurtured into the hearts of our children. When our children see us experiencing a real relationship with God every day, it will make them hunger to have the same relationship. When we go to the Lord first with our joys, our sicknesses, our griefs, our worries, we don't even take a pill without asking God to bless that pill. It models to our children to do the same. And that word for cling, implies that there are things that can very subtly draw us away from that close relationship with God. It can even be as easy as busyness, or peer pressure, or romance. Any number of things can cause us to begin to loosen that tight grip on God. And so Joshua admonishes the next generation to cling to God. Verse 9 reminds them that they trusted God for amazing victories in the past. But in verse 10, he tells them to keep trusting God for future victories if they want to continue experiencing these blessings. Verses 9 through 10. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase 1,000. For the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he promised you. How did they inherit the land? It was certainly not because of their own strength. It was because God had blessed them. And now with all of those blessings that they're experiencing, the peace that they're experiencing, it could be very easy to say, you know, there's really nothing that requires me to exercise faith. After all, we don't sense any needs. Well, that's not looking deeply enough to where needs exist. If we're daily, In the name of Jesus, rejecting impure thoughts, the moment they come into our minds, or impure images that might come up on Facebook or something else like that. And in other ways, we're battling the world, the flesh, and the devil. We will always have a need to trust the Lord. Verse 11 says, therefore take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God. Now this is a caution, I believe, against the falling-in-love view of love. Love, true love, really needs to be worked at. And why does he say that we need to take careful heed or to watch out? I believe it's because love in any relationship can grow cold If it is not constantly fanned and nurtured and kept hot. In Matthew 24, verse 12, Jesus said, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Any wonder that there is becoming a loss of passion in some evangelical circles when they are antinomians. Antinomians means we don't believe that we're under the law of God. law of God's irrelevant. Well, Jesus guarantees that any place where people throw out the law of God, people's love will grow cold. It's a sign to run. If our love grows cold, there won't be covenant succession. And I give kudos to those of you who have made huge sacrifices in order to be a part of a community where there is rich fellowship, a desire for holiness, a principled passion for God. In Revelation 3.16, Jesus said, so then, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Love for God is of the essence of covenant faithfulness, and it needs to be nurtured every day with worship and singing and telling God how much we love Him and doing hard things for God, all the while telling God that it's our privilege to serve Him sacrificially in this way. And just as an illustration, when you're digging out stumps for an employer, not to pick on anybody, but when you're digging out stumps for an employer, yeah, you're working for your employer, but if you dig those stumps out for the Lord, it will transform the way you dig out those stumps. Window washing, everything that we do needs to be done as an act of love for God. Deuteronomy 6, 4-5 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And Jesus adds, with all your mind. How do you love God with your strength? Well, it's all the things you're doing in the house. You're washing dishes, you're vacuuming, and you're telling the Lord, Lord, it is my privilege to serve you in this way. How do you love God with your soul? Well, that's relating to God as a person. We need a relational Christianity. How do we love God with our minds? It's by memorizing scripture. And actually, it's by doing all of our academic exercises and telling the Lord, I want to do these the best I can because I am your servant and I love you. And so what happens if you're lacking these things? Verses 12 through 13 tells us. Verse 12 tells us that if we don't separate from the world, we will automatically begin to be distanced from the Lord in verse 13. But look at how he describes it in verse 12. Or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and make marriages with them and go into them and they to you. Now, let me just define, sanctification just means to be separated to the Lord. Well, if you're separated to the Lord, you're separated from something, right? So you've got to be separated from the world. And he uses an illustration of a lack of separatedness. It was intermarriage with unbelievers. Just because a person is handsome and winsome and fun to be around is not a good reason to marry him. Just because a lady is gorgeous and fun to be around is not a good reason to marry her. You want to make sure that your marriage will be a tool that will draw you even closer to God, and you want to make sure your potential spouse has everything needed to ensure covenant faithfulness and succession of the faith to the next generation. By the way, this is why I always encourage parents to be involved in the courtships of the children, because it helps this courtship to be more objective. where it's not driven by emotions or hormones. There's going to be a little bit more objectivity that's involved. Now, God is merciful, and he does sometimes allow covenant succession when only one partner in the marriage has come to Christ. We started the sermon with the example of Lois, Eunice, and then Timothy being faithful to God, but really that is very unusual. And there are other examples in the Bible where somebody comes to Christ and Paul says, hey, do not divorce your unbelieving spouse. because God is able to sanctify, set apart the whole family to the Lord, praise God. But what this passage is talking about is a deliberate disobedience, a deliberate marrying outside of the Lord. It's playing with fire. And so loss of sanctification is the first thing that happens. Loss of power is the next thing that happens. Verse 13 begins, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. So if God's not pleased with what you're doing, you won't have his power at work in your life until there is thoroughgoing repentance. And without his power, you're going to lose the battle. On the other hand, if we have the reality of God's power working in our lives every day, our children and our grandchildren will be impacted by that. Third thing that happens is a loss of peace. Verse 13 continues, but they shall be snares and traps to you and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. Lack of shalom is not a cool thing. It is not. You need God's peace in your life if you're gonna pass that on to your children. And by the way, Paul promised This supernatural peace is something every one of us can have as our heritage. Philippians 4, 7 says, the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Now, when you have that, you instill that in your children, there's going to be covenant succession. And so if you desire a covenant succession, heed Joshua's final challenge in verses 14 through 16. It simply points out that God is faithful in both His grace and in His discipline. What do I mean by that? He loves you so much, He's not going to let you continue to be uncomfortable in your sin. But we must respond to His faithfulness by being faithful ourselves. Verse 14 challenges us to remember that God's grace has never failed us. Never. Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you, not one word of them has failed. Now, if that's your testimony, it's more likely to be the testimony of your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. And though God has never failed to come through for us, we can certainly abandon His grace, and we need to remind our children of that. Verse 15 says, therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things that have come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things until he has destroyed you from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. It's miserable to be outside of the protective canopy of the covenant, but that's what automatically happens when we withdraw from God's grace. God's grace is the only thing that can protect us. And that's why earlier he admonished them to cling to God, learn to develop an intimate relationship with him. And verse 16 says, if we fail to cling to Him, then our successes will be turned into defeat. When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given to you. Now, sadly, this happened over and over again in the books of Judges and Samuel and Kings and Chronicles. Now I'll remind you again that covenant succession can happen to a thousand generations, but Deuteronomy 7.9 says it's conditioned on the parents embracing God's grace so as to stay faithful to him. It says, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. And that promise to be faithful to a thousand generations is repeated in 1 Chronicles 16, 5, Psalm 105, verse 8, but it's always conditioned on being sold out to God. For example, Psalm 105 calls us to not be ashamed of God. And that's pure pressure, right? Not be ashamed of God. Seek His face forevermore. That's prayer. Remember His marvelous works of the past, that He is a God of both mercy and judgment. And so to sum up the sermon, let me end with six quick admonitions. First, pay attention to God's Word. We should be in God's word every single day. Even if it's just five minutes a day, it's better to have small amounts and be consistent than to read for an hour but only do it once a month, right? Be consistently in the word. Second, avoid pagan influence. And if God has convicted you this morning of some pagan influence or compromise that you've embraced, get rid of it. It might be a movie that you need to throw away. Or it might be a painting that is occult. Sanctify yourself to the Lord, which means leaving those compromises behind. Third, cling to God and rejoice. You can be closer to God than you can be to any human. Start developing a relational Christianity. He loves you dearly, but he wants you to start developing that real relationship with him. Fourth, trust Him. Never doubt His promises. I posted a handout a couple, two or three weeks ago, I forget now, on Discord that, putting off negative thinking and how negative thinking can kill our faith in God's promises. And so we need to be putting off negative thinking. We need to be putting on faith in God's promises. Fifth, love God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind throughout the day. Express your love to God in creative ways. And then last, even if you've blown it in the past, and I think all of us have, right? Even if you've blown it in the past, believe that covenant succession is still possible as you begin now to implement those principles. Gary and I are praying for covenant succession for every one of you. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, I thank you for the promises that you give, and I ask that you would please forgive us when we have neglected those, doubted those, and I pray that you would Bring back to the fold those who have wandered away of children and grandchildren that you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, cause covenant succession to happen generation after generation in each one of the people in this congregation. We love you and it is our desire to be faithful to you to the end of our days. Please keep us from being like those kings who started well and ended poorly. Do not let us live one day longer than we will be faithful to You. We want to be faithful till the day that we die. And so, Father, I pray that You would strengthen this, Your people, through these promises and through these warnings that You have given in Joshua 23. In Jesus' name, Amen.