Actually, turn to Joshua chapter 24. I really feel like we've got so much, especially from yesterday and this morning, that we could just contemplate these things as families, and it would just revolutionize our lives, really. As I prayed about this message this evening, I wasn't sure where to go, but I did want to read from Joshua 24, I think is the text the Lord would have me share with you, and then share some practical applications. So a part of this is really the last part of my message that I preached Thursday night. beginning of this family camp that we're talking about the wisdom of the family and what God has given us in his word. And the scripture says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so we talked a little bit about the difference between being afraid of God or the terror of God and a reverential fear or an awe of God. The terror of the Lord is what believers experience, ought to experience, will ultimately one day experience for eternity. I mean unbelievers, thank you. That's what was in my mind. It's good to have him around once in a while as an example. But believers experience the reverence as we get to know the Lord through the study of His Word. As we see God's hand working in our lives, we become more and more reverent towards God. The more that we love God, the more we fear Him in that way. We fear to displease God. We fear to offend one that we love so much. We fear to offend somebody that loves us and has done so much. And that was kind of Joshua's experience as he recounted what God had done in chapter 23. He said that all the things that God had promised, of everything that God had promised, not one, had failed to come to pass. And then he recounted the faithfulness of God. And then he testified to Israel. Joshua says in verse 14 of Joshua 24, Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him. And as you read the last part of this passage, that word serve, is given there over and over. And many times that I've found this word that's appropriate for the believer, not being afraid of God, but a reverential awe of the majesty of God, that He's a God who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, It was always connected with serving God. If you don't fear God, you won't serve God. If you do fear God, then you will serve God. Again, not the being afraid of God. We have boldness and confidence to approach God, but we do so with godly fear. And so he says, fear the Lord. and serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness." Now, that's basically what I want to end up talking about is how we, in families, and let me say, especially as fathers, how we serve the Lord in sincerity and faithfulness. We ought to be able to encourage one another, brothers, to get real in the matter of serving God. We ought to be close enough. We ought to work at that, at being close enough and in love with one another enough that we can approach one another and exhort one another in all sincerity of heart to fear the Lord and serve Him. And so Joshua does that. He says, put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Let's pray together for a minute. Father, Lord, we seek your face tonight. I don't think there's need for me to go on for a long time. Lord, our brothers have said so much about how we serve you in sincerity and truth. We just ask that you would bless us, that you would bless our families, you would bless our fathers. Lord, that you would cause us to be a true brotherhood. You would cause us to be true fellow warriors and to stand against the enemy, against his onslaught concerning our children, concerning our families, concerning their bringing up. Father, we're asking for Your help tonight. We ask You to help us, Father, as Your people, to be a God-fearing people. that would bring glory and honor to Your name in our homes, in Jesus' name, Amen. And so, Proverbs 1, 7, Proverbs 9, verse 10, Psalms 1 and 10, these all tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So, everything that you've learned this weekend, all that God has shown to you, You can't know it without a proper fear of God. So I hope I made that clear. There's no higher wisdom than the fear of God. It's almost unexplainable. But if you have been saved, you know the fear of God. You bow before the Lord. That's why we actually bow our heads. That's why we are oftentimes kneeling or prostrate on the ground. We're showing our absolute reverence and awe. As John shared his testimony, we could think about that. How could it be? How could it be that such a God would smile upon us? But He has. He has given us grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it ought to just cause us to be in absolute awe at such a God. So here's the true wisdom. Fear in God. We had read from Hebrews 12, 28 that this fear of God is a grace, that God has given us this grace of knowing the fear of God, and it's related to all the other graces. A godly fear can exist and does exist with a godly love. The more that we fear, the more we love. But without fear, which we could, I think, properly say is a regulator of all the other graces. Without this proper fear of God, faith might become presumption. Love might become, and this is common, love might become just a mere sentimentality. We have good feelings about God. But we also have good feelings about things that are ungodly. Without the proper fear, joy could become mere happiness with circumstances. But the real fear of God, it brings a calmness to our life. We understand, we rest in the fact that we're in the hands of a sovereign, almighty God. And so, as the Scriptures say, let us have grace. Here is the grace of God found in Jesus Christ, whom the Scriptures testify is a consuming fire, and we have been saved from His wrath because of His sacrifice. And so with these things in mind, it ought to behoove us then, as I begin to talk about how to apply the fear of God to our lives, to watch The little things be careful. Paul admonished us brothers to walk circumspectly. That means that that literally means circumspectly means to look all around. We're always watching. I'm speaking in particular to men, but everywhere else also, Satan's trying to destroy us. He's trying to ruin our marriages. He's trying to steal our kids. He's trying to ruin the image of God in mankind and the image of Christ and His church in the marriage. And so it behooves us to be alert. to guard our hearts, to always be watching for the fiery darts of the wicked one. It's wise to be alert and watch for the little things. The little foxes spoil the vine, and it doesn't take much to do a lot of damage. One spark has been known to destroy a city. One word has been known to ruin a man's reputation. Fear. to offend God. Fear, watch, be alert concerning the little things. And by the little things, I really mean the little sins. Be careful. Be careful, young people, that you're not tempted to live a life of lies. The Bible says, young people, that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire. If you begin winking at sin and not taking the little things seriously, thinking that there is such a thing as a little sin, you have not understood the fear of God and you are in danger with that little one lie that you're trying to cover up something. You're afraid that you'll be deprived of something good or you'll experience pain if you tell the truth. And we've all been guilty of that at some time or another. We're protective of ourselves, so we tell lies. You are in danger of becoming a liar. Well, actually, you are a liar. If you tell one little white lie, how many lies does it take to make you a liar? If you're full of envy, does not that make you a murderer? Don't think that this God, who sent His Son to take our sin upon Himself, winks at sin. The true fear of God leads to communion with God, because it leads to a comfort that there is such an almighty, sovereign God who's taking care of things. We were out in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean, one time, and the guys down in the engine room, they used to do things that weren't allowed, like smoking on the ship and refueling time. There's a lot of times you couldn't do certain things. And this one guy actually threw a cigarette in the trash can. We were actually in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean in the middle of the night. And General Quarters was sounded, we all got out of our bed and everybody runs. Like 450 men run throughout a ship and within three minutes we're all at our stations. But I remember distinctly that night waking up, we all run to our ship when General Quarters was sounded and we got there. And then what followed sent chills up our spine. And we heard them say, fire, fire, fire in the engine room, and called all the firemen out. And we thought, a fire in the engine room, this is not good. Out in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean, in the middle of the night. Oh, how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the Scriptures teach us over and over that we should be careful because little things destroy. Little things destroy. You know, as I thought about Rockport and what God's doing lately. Isn't it great? God has sent us some new families. We've been growing in grace. We've been in C-groups, trying to grow closer together. And different people have commented what love that there is in Rockport. And we're able to experience a closeness of fellowship. Can I tell you this as a pastor? Can I tell you, church, We are just one small bomb from being fragmented and destroyed. Just one small bomb, just one small word. I've seen it before. This church has seen it before. We've seen where, listen, we need fellow warriors, fellow brothers, fellow soldiers, we need to be a close-knit, carefully watching family, guarding one another's back, and living lives of unconditional love. That is the only way that we're going to make it. And the only way we're going to do that, church, is if we are a God-fearing people. If it is easy for you to sin, it's going to be easy for you to offend a brother or to offend a sister. The fear of the Lord leads to a close communion. If we don't fear the Lord, we will never be as a church family what God wants us to be. We won't. We will take things lightly. We will think that spiritual things don't matter. We will not have our priorities right. Psalm 25 says, The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Psalm 147, The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy. So I don't want to preach the whole defining of fear message again, but I'm exhorting you In the light of these applications, cultivate the fear of God. Malachi chapter 3 verse 16 says, Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I believe that's us. And I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve God. So don't despair. If you fear God, continue to search the Scriptures and see whether these things are so, and then apply this. Apply this, men, in your life. Fear to neglect what is your responsibility to do and fear to offend God. The conclusion of the whole matter from Ecclesiastes is Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. And the New Testament example was that these people were walking in the fear of the Lord. So our text says, fear the Lord so that we can serve the Lord. What is our motivation? Because God is faithful. And so I want, in applying this tonight, to take a few minutes to ask the fathers to make a resolution. And I know that there's no strength in the flesh. But there is value in us seeing something that's wrong in our life and making a resolution to fear the Lord in the light of who He is. It's necessary. It's necessary that we fear the Lord. It was always necessary. that the saints of God fear the Lord is no less necessary today. And so I just wonder as we think about this, as we look at our homes, could could we come in or or even as Abraham said of Abimelech when he went into that city or if an angel came into our home, would they say due to what they saw in our homes, would they say there is no fear of God? Or what would they say? Would they say of our home, of our family, the way that we run our families, the way that we govern, the way that we lead our families, would a witness say, these are God-fearing people? What would be the testimony and how do we show that? Number one, we have a duty. It is our responsibility, fathers, It's our responsibility then, as Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He exhorted them in fear of God. And so you men, as prophets, priests, and kings in your home, as the pastors, as the shepherds of your homes, if you will, you are the prophet in that you are to teach your family in the way. You are to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. As a priest in your home, you are to intercede for them. You are to pray for your children. You are to pray with them. And as a kingly office in the home, You're to govern and lead and provide, and it's not just food. We provide our animals just food. For our families, we provide for them spiritual direction. We nurture them with the Word of God. So see Job's attitude. It doesn't amaze you when you begin the story of Job, and he had these children, and it says, when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would sin and consecrate them. He would rise early in the morning. We could preach a whole message right there, addressing the matter of men of lack of discipline. I'm not trying to speak down to you. I'm speaking as a brother to a brother. We've all been there. And I've spoken with young men who stay up late playing games. Their lives are not disciplined. If your lives are not disciplined now, they're not going to be disciplined whenever you get married. You're going to be an undisciplined man trying to lead a family. It's not going to work, guys. It's not going to work. Do it now. Don't stay up late playing games. Don't think that you've got to hang out with your homies. Get in the Word of God. I know it sounds like I'm meddling, brothers, but I'm trying to encourage you. Discipline your lives. Do it now before Satan has his day. Get up early in the morning. That was Job's attitude. Listen to him. He rose early in the morning and he offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Oh, how it ought to be our habit to bring our children by name, one by one before God, crying out to God for mercy, asking that God would save their soul. We are the priests in our homes. We are the ones to continually beg God for their salvation. Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job. continually. And time fails me to have to tell about Cornelius and how he and his household feared God, and Joshua himself, how he feared God. But what duty? Number one, let me mention these. Reading the Word of God. Men, it must be a daily routine for you to read the Word of God. to your children. Don't think that they're going to do it themselves. Do not leave it to your wife. Please don't leave it to your wife. Please take the lead and open the Bible and sit your children down and read them the living Word of God. So often you see that men neglect their reading of the Word of God at home, and it has to be because they neglect the Word of God in their own personal lives. If there's no reading of the Word of God daily in your life, surely there's not going to be in your family, and they're going to starve spiritually. Get the Word of God in your hearts. Moses encouraged Israel, teach these things diligently. Trin used a good word there. Teach these things diligently. Diligently. This is the most important thing we have to do. Our jobs are the least important thing. The most important is that we gather our children and we read to our wives and our children the Word of God. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's in your heart, men? Feed your family that which is able to make them wise unto salvation. Don't be foolish enough to think that we can neglect the reading of the Word of God to our children and expect that God is going to answer our prayers. We can only make our reading effectual, by the way, by our prayers. Don't neglect the reading of the Word of God. Be a family who are going to enjoy years of prosperity spiritually because of your feeding and nurturing them. How unhappy spiritually the family is going to be if you neglect men. If you men neglect, please, let's just band together. If you need help, we'll join you. We'll do whatever it takes. We will call you. We will walk with you. We will confess our sins. We are but weak, feeble men begging for our brothers who will walk with us. an unconditional love, be transparent enough to say that I don't have what it takes, but God does. He won't fail us. Let's fear God and determine we are going to read the Word of God with our families and we're going to pray with Him. It's our priestly office to pray, to intercede when trials come. when there are sins to deal with, for giving of thanks, for supplication. Men, we are without excuse. There is no excuse. There is no excuse. No excuse. You must pray with your families daily. You must take time. If you've got to lose sleep, you've got to pray with your families. That's your occupation as a priest in your home, is to gather your family and get on your face before God and confess your sins and pray for your children, pray with your family. If you neglect this occupation, your family is in spiritual danger. Yes, we're trying to warn you. Pray with your family and there will be a protection as you seek God. Few families pray together. I dare say that if we would ask around this room and we could get everybody to be honest, who all who all prays together daily, the father leading the home in prayer with the family. By the way, when it comes to dinnertime, As your children get to be teenagers and they get busy, fathers, you put your foot down and say, you children will be home at certain times. You'll be home, for instance, for dinner, so we can be as a family together. Don't get into this trap of letting them go which way and that, and nobody ever connects. Boy, it's difficult, but fight it. Fight it the best you can. Go without sleep. You say, I'll get sick if I don't escape. Then get sick. You do what it takes. You lay down your life. You sacrifice everything for the will, for the spiritual welfare, for the souls of your children. And then regularly instructing them, God said about Abraham, I know that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord. We ought to bring our children up. Are you bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Are you studying with them? Are you regularly instructing them in the things of God, letting them ask questions? Or as Brother Will said, are you catechizing your children, teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ? Listen, there's a lot of seducers out there in the world. There's a lot of phonies and they're getting more and more. They're getting slicker and slicker. We have to be, we have to watch. We're continually talking in our elders meetings about all the wolves out there and how we have to watch not just the famous ones, but the small ones that will come in. And if it were possible, deceiving the very elect, then we have to be careful. We have to be on guard. And it's our responsibility to teach our children the true gospel of Jesus Christ. How are they going to know if you don't teach them? It's your responsibility. Let's say there's not a lot of time for all that. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these things will be added to you. Don't worry about the job. It is God that gives you power to get wealth. If you instruct your families and build your family around the family religion, the family worship and reading of the Word of God and prayer, God will supply your needs. But if you put first the things of the world, you will lose your children. Let me just close by examining why. Why should we read the Scriptures to our children? First of all, because we fear God. We fear not to do it. We're responsible, and God has so graced us. He's so faithful, and we want to live lives of gratitude. And how we show this gratitude is by exemplifying this, by praying with our children and reading the Word of God, exercising our authority by ministering to our children. Be thankful. Give thanks always for all things in the fear of God. Number two, love and pity your children. Don't neglect your children. Such a grievous sin that us who have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ neglect our children. We don't neglect our dogs and our cats, but we neglect our children. We don't take the time to feed our children spiritually and pray with them and raise them up in the nurture of the Lord. Listen, if we treated our animals like that, our animals would die of starvation. The humane society would come by. That's the society we live in. Pity your children. They're lost. Until God saves them, they're doomed. You need to teach them the Word of God, which is able to make them wise to salvation. And then honesty and justice. Honesty demands it. Let's be honest with one another, men. It's not just the pastor's job to feed our children. It's our responsibility, and justice demands it. If God has been so merciful to us, should we not be merciful to our children? How grievous of a sin it is, how wicked can our hearts be that we will not take the time to pray with our own children and read God's Word to our children, and yet call ourselves Christians? Number four, we'll reap what we've sown. Mark it down. You're going to reap what you sow. If you spiritually neglect your children, don't expect that something magic is going to happen. These are the very things of grace that God uses, beginning with the fear of God. Lastly, why? Because of the other side of fear. The terror of the Lord. Men, I don't understand it all. But we will give an account. If your children are finally lost, will you be able to endure the curses of generations as they bemoan the fact that you neglected to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord? God forbid that we should forsake our responsibility. Think of the worth of their souls. Think of the infinite price that was paid that they might be redeemed. If you've been born from above, you've been made a partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, then the love of God constrains us to take up our cross, to be responsible and in the end to be able to say, I did all that I could. I'm not responsible. for the ultimate outcome. That's in God's hands, but I'm responsible for doing what I can. And then we can sit down in the kingdom with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Paul and Job and Cornelius and a generation of children and worship the Lord together. But we don't have time to waste. Would you bow your heads with me and let's pray. Our Father, we do ask that you would cause us men to be responsible. I pray for the children here, Lord. Oh, how I pray that you might save our children. Oh, God, how we pray that they would be able to see in our lives that although we're feeble, we're weak, we're fallible, we're messed up in many ways. But God, we love you. We fear you. We fear to neglect our responsibility. Oh, how we fear, even as elders, that we might lose one. God, help us to band together. Help us to band together as families, as men. Help us not to neglect that which is left undone, will be forever left undone. Please speak to our hearts. Please, Lord, help us to understand the grace of God that's in Christ Jesus. Help us to be God-fearing men, God-fearing women, ultimately God-fearing children. In Jesus' name.