But there's a passage of scripture here I'd like to share with you today, look at. Obviously a challenge to our men. We were talking about this a little bit in Sunday school, kind of got on the conversation a little bit about how our culture is emasculating manhood. And they want men to be watered down in many, many ways. And our God created the home. The home was established before human government ever came along. And the government will be nothing without men and families and women as well. But I'm talking to the men today to help support that government in a righteous manner. I think we all agree our government's pretty well flat gone, corrupted in most places. But there are a few good men, as that phrase goes, and women up there. Some that are Christians, but they usually get attacked and they usually get accused. And so when you make a stand as this passage of scripture is gonna kind of be, what this scripture says, and you'll turn with me to Joshua 24 verse 14. I want you to understand what's going on here. This is Joshua all fired up, challenging all the elders of Israel, all the leaders, and he is 110 years old. and he is fired up at that age, challenging these people. And he said, now therefore, fear the Lord, verse 14, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil, under you to serve the Lord. But what a phrase that applies today. If it seemed evil under you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Boy, I would have loved to have been there. Now, if you're not fired up and on board like he was, you probably endured that speech. Might not have been encouraged by it or inspired by it. But I want to use this little phrase, ask for me in my house. And I want to look at a couple of phrases here. First of all, in verse 14, as a man, as a dad that Joshua was, as a leader that he was, he uses the phrase on the other side of the flood, he distinguishes the difference between those in Egypt, those that were the Amorites, those that worship other gods. I think something that's important today is that as a father, as a man, if we're really gonna live for God, we need to be different than this world is around us. Our gods should not be like their gods. We serve and worship the one and true living God, and we need to distinguish that, and there needs to be a difference in us in the distinguish of this world around us we carry ourselves. And a lot of things in this verse bring that out, which makes us different. But we're living in a day where people just don't wanna rock the boat or make waves unless they're doing it for unrighteousness sake. Oh, they'll stir it up then, but boy, you're standing for God. Oh, no, you're intolerant and you're against this and against that. Well, we need some men to stand up. And don't wait till you're 110, please, amen. to say, as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. He said, well preacher, all the people that live in my house, they don't love God. Maybe they need to live in somebody else's house. Ouch. Now you only got just a few more minutes. Y'all can endure this and have a happy Father's Day and talk about the preacher over your chicken later, amen? But that's what's wrong is the world really is looking for somebody to stand on something that they are really willing to die for and really believe in. In the generation of the World War II era, we had some men and women like that that stood against the evil of this world around us with Germany and Hitler. But since then, I guess Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden and some of that, that's probably the last last little bit, that we stood against some kind of evil, and now evil has a different face. Evil is in a different place. Evil is all around us. And it seems like that what used to be, as the book of Scriptures to Isaiah said, that what used to be good is now called evil. That which was evil is now called good. In the scripture here, he says, verse 14, now therefore fear the Lord. This kind of man, this kind of dad needs to fear the Lord. Because the Bible says in many places, not only in Proverbs, but in the book of Psalms, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You're not gonna graduate from kindergarten unless you start fearing God. You're not gonna be able to advance in your faith and stand in this evil day that we're living in and be able to raise your children and nurture admonition of the Lord. And it can be done. I'm not telling you not to have children, not to be afraid of this world. You ought to have a family, you ought to walk for God, but you're gonna have to seek his face to live in this world that we're living in today. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of that, yet we see the opposite. Fear in man, fear what man's gonna do. Fear in everything, being canceled. I'm so sick of this woke mess and this canceled culture today. Listen, I've been canceled a long time ago, and if you think I'm asleep, then so be it, amen. But I promise you this, there's gonna be a day that every knee's gonna bow, every tongue is gonna confess. And we need to understand there needs to be a fear of Almighty God. There is an absence of fear of God. People have no morality. They think there's no end. I can just kill somebody and there's no future. There's no standing before God. There's no judgment. And not only fearing God in the absence of what it causes, the void that is there makes people have immoral actions. And anything that used to be sin is now not sinful anymore. and the culture is breaking down. Listen, fellas, some of you got some granddaughters and grandchildren that are young ages coming today where this world's not gonna be satisfied with the transgendered. They're wanting your children, and you see the indoctrination of it right now. But as for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. I mean, you've got to stand up and be dedicated to that, the absence of it, the attitude of not having any fear, not worrying about, well, you know, there's just really no God, no way to know that there's a God. Well, there is a way to know there's a God. God gave his word. Now, I might not agree with everything in his word and likeness and how it goes down. I'm not saying digest very well sometimes, but it's still God's word. and I've got to believe it and trust it, and even if I don't understand it, it's still God's word, and there's a purpose why it's put in the Bible, and I fear God. I fear his reverence, his power, his sovereignty. I believe he is the almighty God, and I want to teach my children that, and I tried to, and if I ever have any grandchildren, not looking good, but if I ever do, I want to know, even though Papa's in the back of the line thinking he's first, that I love God and I fear God and I want to instill that fear, not terror, afraid of God, but a reverence and a respect to think that God, that God of wrath that could judge this world in his pure holiness decided to send his only begotten son to die on the cross for all of mankind's sin. and gave him for us, take our place. You know, when he was on that cross, he was forsaken of his own father. He went through loneliness and being alone like no one ever understood. And he really understands it. And then later he promises us, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll be with you. I need to fear the God of this Bible, the God of the Scriptures, the God that created this world. It affects everything. If you believe you come from a monkey, you probably believe that anything that they sell you in the evolution, you believe you come from this creature or that creature. There's all kinds of things now that people say they can pretty much create life in the laboratory. And it comes down to this, that man does not need God, but we do need God. The absence of that affects our actions and our attitude. He tells him in this passage of scripture, fear the Lord, amen? Put a fear of God back in your heart. A concern and a respect and an admonition. Then he talks about serving the Lord. Serve him in sincerity. And that word, that thought means with your whole heart. Half-heartedness is killing our families. It's killing our churches. It has killed our country. People are half-hearted. You've got to admit, this world and its wicked pursuit of things that's going on around us, they're not half-hearted about it at all. I don't know if you ever went to the hospital, agreeable hospital system there, they call it Prisma now. Used to be a, there's an abortion clinic there and there used to be some people that would stand there as Christians and they would have Christian flags and Christian signs that says honk if you support life. Now, the gay pride groups there with their rainbow flags and they've got signs that says honk. So now you can't honk, but you gotta, if you honk the horn, you're honking for choice. And so it's just, you can just see the battle lines that are there, and they're very sincere and wholehearted and passionate about what they are doing and what they believe in. And listen, you can be sincere, but listen, you can also be sincerely wrong. So that's why there needs to be a sincerity in truth. Boy, God's Word's amazing, isn't it? Joshua nailed it this day, amen. He doesn't sound like he's a 110 year old man about to quit, does he? Sincerity and in truth. The truth that'll affect us because this world says every Christian's a hypocrite. And there are many that are. Many that are. And if you make a mistake as a believer and others are waiting for you to make that mistake or watch you make a mistake, you know what you gotta do? You gotta get it right where you're a God and get it right with them and try to make it right. The only way you're gonna earn any respect is the world's looking for us to be hypocritical. If we fall, get right, get back up and go on, amen? Now listen, I know it's a little different, but be real in church and be real at home. Now obviously I don't get up and talk to Joanna like, I'm preaching to you today. I'd be pretty loud to do that all the time. I don't think I could last past maybe Monday night and I'd be done. I'm talking about your character and your walk of life, and the spirit of how you treat people, amen? If I go home and I cuss my wife out, and I lie to her and cheat on her, or I manipulate her or abuse her physically, and there's way more than just physical abuse and mental abuse, and I come in here and preach one thing, I am a hypocrite, I shouldn't be behind this pulpit, and anybody and everybody will have a right. What can you do about that? Fix the hypocrisy and live for God, serve him in sincerity and in truth. And it may call you to have to apologize to some people. Apologize to your wife. Apologize to your husband. Apologize to your children, whatever it might be. And just get things straight, get on course. This is a ask from me and I house moment, amen. He's calling everybody together. Can you imagine all those people coming around saying, what's that old man babbling about now? Boy, two verses, he nailed everybody's hide to the wall and he drew a line in the sand and he made a declaration that involved himself to serve the Lord with all your heart, a wholeheartedness and without hypocrisy. I want to be real. I'll tell you this, the Holy Spirit shows me when I'm not. Now, it's not wrong to help a friend out, let them know they got a little meat, a moat in their eye. But I'm gonna tell you what, if you pray and read your Bible, most of the time God's gonna show you where you're hypocritical and help you try to get it right. And usually we're the ones in rebellion because we won't get it right in our lives. And just apologize for it. You know, if you struggle with your language and you say a bad word and you get things right with God, so I don't wanna cuss anymore, I don't wanna act that way, I don't want my temper like that anymore, and then you slip and fall, well, get back up. A righteous man falls seven times, he rises up again, he gets back up, but make it right, but don't make it a pattern. Be sincere. If you apologize, be sincere about it. This world hates that kind of stuff, and sadly, they see it a lot in the churches and in Christianity. We gotta change that dynamic. and be real and walk for God and serve the Lord in sincerity and in truth. And he goes on to say, whether there be gods in the fathers served on this side of the flood, the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell. There needs to be a putting away of those gods, getting rid of those other gods, and repenting of those things, and walking away from those. And when you do that, you need to substitute it with something else, and that's standing for God. Stand on his promises. If you remove an idol, you need something to fill that void. Well, I know somebody who can. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. he'd turn your life over to him. All those associations with false gods and things like that and worshiping other things. Now I know in our modern day we don't see it as cut and dries, worshiping some kind of stump or a big rock, but we worship a lot of different idols. Probably more idols today than they worshiped back then, sad to say. We have a lot of different idols. You can have an idol, we've heard people challenge about your things on your cell phone. It's the idol of your time and your talent your passion of things, put away those things in the home and associations of false gods and things like that, and allegiances. They had many of those going on in the context there. They're yoking up with unbelievers and things. The Bible warns us against that. and getting fellowship with unbelievers and things. You know, you can be friends with people, but you don't need to associate in them such a level where you're participating with their sinful things. because otherwise you're not standing on truth and you're not gonna be an influence to anybody. Boy, I love that old Christian brother Brian, he works for me down at the warehouse there, we sniff a lot of cocaine every weekend. He jumps right in there with me. That's not standing out, that's not being different, that's not being distinct, that's not standing against sin, that's standing in it. The Bible says in Romans 8, 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. It's pretty distinct. Just like being on one side of the flood versus the other. Just like being in Egypt was the top of the world, or being an Israelite, which was definitely different than being those who were Egyptians. And us as believers today, it should be that distinct, that different. There should be a devotion, a dedication in our lives to stand against the sinful things around us. Romans 8, eight says, for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't please the Lord. You can't please him if you don't have faith, but you also can't please him if you're in the flesh. So we need to heed to the scriptures, what the Bible says, in our walk for God. I'm gonna live a life for God now, but one day when I'm gone, if the Lord doesn't come back, it'll turn into a legacy. And whether that legacy means anything. And you say, well, preacher, you're not like a billionaire, you ain't gonna know legacy. Well, it's this tiny little legacy. but it's affecting two boys I know for sure. Brother Donnie, that's the most important thing I know, more than billions of dollars in the bank, and property and real estate everywhere. I don't have all the multiple summer homes and all those kind of things, and I don't have some things this world might think that is important to leave an inheritance, but I have, listen, I hope my boys will have a godly heritage that I could leave behind. know that I didn't turn around, you know, and didn't flip and flop on some kind of thing like this. What I've tried to preach up was wrong and I knew it was wrong and was sinful years ago. If it was something to stand on scripturally, I still believe it's right today. if God teaches that it's wrong, to stand away and put those idols away and things in my own life that I got rid of in my own life, to clean my own life up so I could be closer to the Lord, and to stand against those things. He said, put away those gods. Put them away. Then he says, later on, it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom you will serve. And so that distinction of this on that side of the flood and this side of the flood and making a choice and a decision. I was talking to somebody today, somebody called me this morning, we were talking about the choices that we make have consequences. And we make choices hundreds and thousands of times a day. You chose to come here. Some of you might have come because your dad influenced you and made you come. You could have ran for the hills, but you chose to go ahead and speak peace to the family in the long run. We make all kinds of choices. What we eat, what we drink, what we put on, where we're going to go. All of those, when we make those choices and the consequences of that walk, that lifestyle, it begins to create a testimony of who we really are. and a witness of who we are really following and living for. And I'll tell you, this side of Calvary, when I got saved, is far better before I got saved, when I was a lost person, and I didn't know the fellowship of the Lord, and I didn't understand what the presence of God is like. And I thank God for his presence. I can feel him when I pray. I feel his presence sometimes when I read my Bible and sometimes when I'm going down the road singing myself in spiritual songs and hymns and spiritual songs. You might not think it sounds pretty, but the Lord likes my singing, amen? To be able to just worship and fellowship and that whole walk, that whole witness of that lifestyle of talking about the presence of God, talking about the protection of God, the power of God, and the peace of God that I have. Listen, if it's real, it ought to be really different than what this world's offering us. What this world offers, some of it's pretty powerful. And to them, some of them feel like they're protected in it. And to them, sometimes they feel a presence, but I promise you that many times it's a satanic, a fleshly presence. But the presence of our heavenly Father, and the peace of God that passes all understanding. Listen, I want that as I have separated and went to this side of walking for the Lord and serving the Lord. And you know, I read other books, but this is the book because it reads me. It reads through me. It might not always be my favorite book, but it should, amen, it should be. But I do love this Bible. I promise you this, when I get cold spiritually, this is the first book I struggle with reading. Why is that? Because it's spiritual. This is a spiritual battle and a spiritual warfare. And I need to cling to the Lord. And I want my life to have a witness and a lie and a testimony. about it. He says, choose you, if it seemed evil, to serve the Lord. That's a perplexing little phrase in verse 15, but you know it's happening today, where people think what we do as a Christian is evil. Sometimes some of the things we say might be evil, or this now seems to be evil when it used to be good, or whatever it might be concerning that. I don't want it to be confusing to me, amen? I wanna know what righteousness and unrighteousness looks like. I want to know the difference between holiness and unholiness. I want to be able to distinguish those things. And I want to know that God has called us to be salt and to be light. And against the backdrop of this world, it's darker than it gets, we need to be brighter and shining as lights in the darkness. Isaiah 520, I mentioned before, it said, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. And it said, and put darkness for light. They put darkness in the place of light. They're substituting darkness, or taking light out and putting darkness in its place. Does it not feel like that's what they're doing? You ever seen anybody change a light bulb and put one of them dark painted light bulbs in there, there's red and different colors? Changes the atmosphere around you. It changes the effects of what's going on. And as it seems like this world is getting darker, I know the Bible challenged me to let my light so shine. and the scripture goes on, he leaves out a place where we stand for God and what is right for our family and for our country and for serving our Lord. He makes this declaration, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, as a 110-year-old man that he would be in this later chapter there, it's a hard statement to make Because I can't hold the hands of my future generation to make them live for God. But I can set that bar high. And the only way I can set it high is I have to have been trying to walk in that way myself. Now if I were to die today and be gone, and this is the last message that I ever preach, and I could be like Joshua and say that as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I hope that the actions would echo way past when my voice was silent. That as for me and my house, Jared is the only one here that can't pick on Micah, but I do pick on him at other times, so don't worry about that. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But what if I'm gone? I hope he'll take up that mantle. I hope he'll understand the importance of living for God, reading his Bible, and fearing the Lord, and serving the Lord. And he does some of those things, and some of the other men here have seen the generation before them come along, and they're trying to live for God and serve the Lord. But they need to do it with truth, sincerity, and in truth. And do it in a courageous way. Takes a little bit of courage. You're standing in front of a bunch of people, especially when you believe they don't believe like you believe. Say, that's for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. It's easy to do that in church for the dawning, say, everybody love Jesus, hallelujah, and everybody, eh. But you start preaching to get something in their lunchbox, they don't like it too much. And they'll stand against you. It's hard to, listen, this world's closing in around us, wake up and see it. To be able to say this statement, as he talked about references to Egypt and Amorites, all their false gods, we're living in a very evil, wicked day. And to say today, I'm gonna stand, and as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. You understand service is an action. and that action of serving the Lord can be in a lot of different ways, but it shows your family that you love God, you're gonna live for God, and when you lay down this life and go on, you're gonna be a legacy that you might leave behind that you love God. I wanna go on record, just like Joshua did. Can you imagine having a record, a recording, a written statement of somewhere, and listen, I know the technology's changed, so y'all just bear with me. An old 33 phonograph. They're coming back, I know. Some of y'all probably got one in your car. You just slide it right in there. I'm just kidding. Can you imagine hearing something from 150 years ago from a great, great grandfather, great, great, great, great grandfather of yours? and him saying, I just want to tell my future generations that I know the Lord and I love the Lord and I'm a believer and I want to see you in heaven one day and I want to go on record. That's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord. Can you imagine the preciousness of hearing that old recording? Somebody in your family tree that made a stand, made a declaration many years before. Well, I wanna make that statement today, amen? Say this, it be on record, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It's easy to say it, because a lot of people can walk away from you. But you say it because you mean it in your heart, and you mean it no matter what the circumstances or the consequences around you, you're gonna keep on living by that statement. And sometimes we say this statement, we will serve the Lord. That might mean to some of you today that you need to begin serving the Lord. This needs to be your days. No, I'm all in. I'm really gonna go live for God. From this day forward, I'm gonna walk for God and follow God. If that Bible leads me to do it, I'm gonna do it. If the Bible leads me around it, I'm gonna start throwing those things aside and walking around it and living differently in this world that we're in. Just you coming to church, whether you know it, puts you on a little danger list, it kinda does. You know, you're not at your driveway and you come to church and say, or if you slip up somehow tomorrow somewhere at work and say, Well, what did you do yesterday? Did you go get drunk? Did you do this? Did you go party? Well, we went to church. Whoa, that's radical. It's crazy. You're a nut. You're a lunatic. You went to church? What fun did you have at church? Well, he preached and challenged us how sorry men we were, and I loved every second of it. I need that in my own life. I hope you never feel like I approach here in hypocritical pretense, act like I'm something I'm not. I fail just as much as anybody else. But I'm saved by his grace and his spirit lives in me and he shows me when I fail. Many times... very loudly and reminds me that I'm a failure and I'm just dust, but I'm so glad he gives forgiveness and mercy and love and wants us to live for him and serve him. And I promise you one day it's going to be worth it all. And one day maybe you're gone and your family, you never got to see them be saved or live for God or really serving God, but you can lay up those prayers, you can leave that stuff written in the sand, the recording of your declaration that you're gonna serve the Lord, you love the Lord, and maybe one day they'll get saved and when you get to heaven, maybe that family circle will be together. Bye and bye. Listen, my grandfather, Sister Tonda, if you would come please. My grandfather, Grady Ellison was his name. He loved the Ellison clan, the whole crew. He loved me as his grandson, but he never got to see his great-grands, or his great-grands, which would have been Jared and Micah. He died beforehand. I remember one day we were just talking about it, and I started crying. I got real emotional. I just kind of laid on top of Joanna there. I just knelt down and started crying. It's the first time I grieved over him, I guess, like that ever. I said, man, he would have loved to have met those boys. Well, any generation, if they really care, they would love to meet the next generation. There's not a lot we can do about that out here if we don't live long enough to keep those gaps. I promise you this, you can lay up treasures in heaven. you can make sure that you're gonna be in heaven one day, and one day I'm gonna get to see some of my great, great grands and some of those that are in heaven that I've never met down here. I know I got a great, great, great grandpa who was from Sweden. They said he was a Swedish Baptist, and they told different stories about his faith, his fear, and his service of the Lord makes to me have a hope I'm gonna see him in heaven one day, because of how that affected his life, that he actually, his faith caused him to serve God. You can talk a good talk, but if you're not walking the walk, something's not right. If you know that you're saved, declare today, whether you come down to this altar or you pray in that pusion, I'm gonna start serving God. Whatever it is or however I can do it. Some of you come around here, you're cutting grass and spraying weed killer and picking up trash and whatever. Yeah, that's not me preaching, but it's serving the Lord. Some of you family said, where's Papa at? Oh, Brother Carl, half the time, him and Brother Bobby, especially when he was able to, he spent more time cutting grass around here than he did anywhere else he went. What a testimony. What's he doing? Working for the king. Serving the Lord down at God's house. I'm not saying put this place before everything else in your life. You put God first. And your family needs to be second. It'll affect that. But then all those other things, they'll be added unto you. God'll bring that peace and that balance. I've got memories sitting in a car while my grandpa parked in a beer joint to go get his fix and left me sitting in the car. We're supposed to have family time together. If I have grandchildren, I'm never gonna let them do that. Or I might pull up to the church or something. We might go somewhere else, but I'm not gonna leave them in the car. And if we go in to get something, it'll be a milkshake or a Krispy Kreme donut, hallelujah, amen? And we'll come to church and we'll serve, we'll do something around the house of God, invest into the kingdom of God and preparations for the work of God and the services that we might have. I'd love to be able to do that one day. One thing that the death of Brother Mike needs to teach us is our life is a vapor. Your last goodbye might be your last. And your last work of service, the last thing you put your hands to, your whole heartedness to, may be the very last thing you ever leave behind for your family. Some of you are serving. Maybe you're getting discouraged about it. Don't quit. Some of you might have quit serving. You were doing something and living for God and you were around the house of God and the things of God. Now you quit. Get back on. Pick it back up. It's not time to leave that laying down. If you put that Bible down a while back, I'm preaching to men and women and children and goats and chickens and whoever matters. Pick it back up and walk for God again. We're nearing the shore, the finish line's coming. Some of you say, I've never really lived for God or served Him. I've never done anything but serve myself. I take care of my home, my house, my job. And I don't really do nothing for the kingdom of God. I don't witness to anybody. I don't help anybody. I don't do any good works for anybody. But today, I'm going to determine. I'm going to start fearing God and serving Him with sincerity. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Anybody here who raised their hand and said, Preacher, pray for me, I want to be a better father. I want to lead my household with my wholehearted for God. I want to serve with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. Would you pray for me, Preacher? Several hands have gone up. My hand is up. And they say there's like 7,000 churches in America without pastors. Pastors are quitting every day. And I know the devil wants me to quit. But I just don't want to be that situation where one day I'm in, I miss those days when my dad used to preach. I miss those days when my dad used to serve the Lord. I miss the messages like today, scriptures like the one we've read. are times of decision, not in a weak word sense of decision, but a determination and a declaration to confess it and speak it and say it. As from me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. I hope that you'll begin to do that. If you raised your hand, I hope that you are praying and asking God to help you today. If you've never really done any serving for God, and you want to start doing something for the Lord, God will show you what to do. There's plenty to do around here. There's plenty to do for his kingdom outside of East Georgia Road, I promise you that. But there's things you can do for the glory of God. One of them is building up your most holy faith. If you'll start building up your faith in the Lord, he'll start giving you more things to do and serving with. And you'll find a purpose and fulfillment in your life like you've never had before. because you're serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Father, thank you for the scripture and the challenge that it is. I pray that you'll help our people, those that raised their hands this morning. Lord, I know that some might not have raised their hands and you might be dealing with them. I pray, Lord, we can find the spirit of what Joshua had that day, is that fired up 110-year-old man challenging those leaders of Israel, telling what side to come on and stand on and to be fearful and serve you. And as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.