Building a Home that Honors God

“A Christian home is a place where Christ’s love is not only taught but lived out daily.” –Charles Stanley. Bro. Ray shares a message on home and family titled. “Building a Home that Honors God—On Purpose.”

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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open up to Joshua, chapter 24. We'll get to our text in just a bit. Today, of course, we honor our mothers, and rightfully so. A little boy forgot his lines in a Sunday school presentation. You know they were doing their program and his mother's on the front row. You've seen that, I've seen that many times, and she's kind of coaching him along so he'll know what. You know how to say his lines. And so he's struggling and she's gesturing, you know, trying to help him figure out what his words are. And then she's even kind of mouthing those words, you know, forming them with her lip, but he's still not getting it. And so finally, she just leaned forward and she whispered the cue to her little boy. She said I am the light of the world, to which his face suddenly lit up and he beamed and he yelled out my mother is the light of the world.

Theodore Roosevelt said Praying mothers are America's greatest assets. Theodore Roosevelt said praying mothers are America's greatest assets. Sarah Hopp said that a mother's lap is the best place from which to launch a life. Ellen Goodman said a mother is someone who will listen to your problems until you are bored with them. Abraham Lincoln said no one is poor who had a godly mother. And Ralph Waldo Emerson said together is the most beautiful word in the dictionary outside of mother. You know, mothers and fathers are so important to the home and the family, and you have to understand the reason for that is because they were. The very first institution that God ever created Was the home, the family, and that's what I want to talk with you about this morning About building a home that honors God on purpose.

Now, there have been a lot of books written about family and home, and a lot of good ones. Now there have been a lot of books written about family and home, and a lot of good ones. I have a library full of books about family life and marriage and all of those child rearing, all of those kinds of things. A lot of good books out there, both some good secular as well as sacred books. But there's a bestseller, the bestselling book of all time bar none, is the one you hold in your hand and it has the best instruction on home and family that I've ever seen, and I want to share some of it with you today, from the book of Joshua, chapter 24. And I think we get some insight there from God's word on how to build homes that honor God.

If you're physically able to do so, why don't you stand with me as we read our text, beginning in verse 14. It says this Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. 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 father 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. And then the people answered. Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord, our God, who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites, who lived in the land. Therefore, we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

But Joshua said to the people you're not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after having done you good. And the people said to Joshua no, but we will serve the Lord. And then Joshua said to the people you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. They said we are witnesses. He said then, put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua the Lord, our God, we will serve and his voice we will obey. Father, help that to be just as true today as it was 5,000 years ago for your people. Let us declare our allegiance is to you and our homes are aligned with you. Father, would you speak to us this morning from your word, use your Holy Spirit to cause it to resonate not just just in our minds but in our hearts. And, father, I pray that your word will accomplish its purpose, for which you intended this morning. Now again, we're listening. We're listening. You tell him right now God, I'm listening, we're listening, so you speak. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen, thank you. You can be seated. Now we're at the end of Joshua's life.

Joshua had lived a long life. He had served God faithfully and he had led the people of God righteously. But now he's in old age and, knowing that his time among them was short, he assembled all the people together to give them a challenge about their future and to counsel them about living for God. And he reminds them of how good God had been to them. He reminds them all about the things that God had brought them through and what God had done for them. And then, in verse 14, he makes his appeal and he gives them a choice, a choice to either serve the gods of the world and he points out that many of their fathers had followed the wrong gods and he says you've got this choice you can follow the gods of the world, or you can serve the Lord God. And then he declares his allegiance in that great verse as as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He declares his allegiance and his family's allegiance. He lets them know where he stands in this.

And it is truth that all of us need to declare from time to time, especially in the culture you're living in today. Time to time, especially in the culture you're living in today, it needs to say no matter what the gods of the world are, as for me and my house, as for me and my life, I will serve the Lord, god Almighty, and Him only will I serve. That's the message we need today. But in this passage, I think we see some powerful truth about how we can truly build homes that honor God. And you say well, I'm not married, I don't have that. Well, think of it this way how to build a life that honors God. The same principles that will build your home will build your life.

And so let me show you three things that I think we gleaned from our text this morning. The first thing that Joshua tells them, in effect, is cultivate the priority of God in your home. Cultivate the priority of God in your home. He says again as for me, in my house, this is priority. We will serve God, we will serve Jehovah, and him only will we serve. This is our priority. I think this may be one of the most powerful testimonies about family priorities in all of scripture. I think this may be one of the most powerful testimonies about family priorities in all of scripture. I think that statement alone is worth the whole idea of building a godly home.

Now, if you listen, if you don't serve God on purpose and that's what this series is about living our lives on purpose. Now, if you don't serve God on purpose listen you won't serve God by accident. You get that. And if you don't build a home to honor God on purpose, your home won't honor God by accident. And it's very important that we understand we do have a responsibility that is entrusted to us. God will not build your home for you. God will not build your life spiritually for you. He'll give you everything you need to do it, but you have to take the responsibility.

Joshua knew that they had a choice to make godlessness or godliness and many of their forefathers, as Joshua points out, had made some bad spiritual choices and those choices had brought consequences to their families. The scripture says the fathers ate bitter grapes and the children's teeth were set on edge. Ate bitter grapes and the children's teeth were set on edge. The point is that the decisions that our forefathers make can impact us and the decisions that you make can impact the generations coming behind you. We hear a lot today about choices, don't we? Everybody has the right to freedom. Make your own choice.

Well, joshua tells us that the priority of God in your family is all about choice. You want to get it right? Choose God, you know, choose Him. We still wear these bands, I wear mine. I see many of you wearing them. God first, that's a choice, god first. But we have to be reminded of it. That's why we have these little bands here, so we can look down and say, oh yeah, god first. Before I say something I shouldn't say, before I do something I shouldn't, oh, god first.

It is a choice that we must make, and you make choices in your life that affect and determine the destiny of those who come behind you. I think I've told you this before, but one of my great ambitions and I know it is for Allison as well is that one day, when we're gone, that those who come behind us say why do you think God's been so good to our family? And I hope they can look back and say well, seems like great-great-granddaddy Ray served God and great-great-grandma Allison. They served God and because of that, god has been good to us. I believe you can bring curse upon the generations after you, but I believe you can bring blessing to the generations that come behind you too. It's a choice that we make and if you listen, why is it important? Because if you do not make choices for your home and your children, let me tell you something the culture will, the government will, their teachers in school will their friends will, the television will, social media will the internet, and on and on it goes. If you don't make choices in your home, for your home and your family and your children, there are plenty of other places that will. Tragically, there's so much confusion today about choices that we're allowing children to make choices that they're not rationally capable of making and telling them. We're letting the culture tell us what our values should be that govern our family, and we're allowing it to keep us from doing what pleases God in order not to offend the world. We're letting outsiders set the boundaries for right and wrong, and it's devastating to the spiritual health of our homes and it's destroyed our culture.

Some years ago, many years ago, when I was a youth pastor, I asked a woman I had not seen her daughter. Her and her husband were very faithful in church. And I said I haven't seen your girl at our student meetings, I haven't seen her in church even. And I'm just wondering is everything okay? Is she okay? And the woman, the mom, sheepishly looked at me and told me she said well, she said it's not you. She said it's just that our daughter who was in her early teens. She said it's just that our daughter who was in her early teens. She says it's just that our daughter, she doesn't like coming to church and we decided we didn't want to pressure her and perhaps turn her off to God. I paused for a moment and I looked back at her and I said to her it seems like she's already turned off to God.

She said the mom said to me do you think? Yes, I said, and then I gently added this it's really not her decision living in your home. That's why God gave her to you and to your husband, so that she could be raised in the admonition of the Lord. Now I told her this I said you can't make her love God. She can make choices. You can't make her love God. And you, you may be sitting here or listening to this on television or radio or live stream and you say, well, I, I can't make my child, you can't make them love God, but you can put them in an environment where the Holy Spirit can get a hold of them and they may not choose the right thing, but don't let it be because you said, well, I don't want them to feel uncomfortable. Maybe she didn't like church because she did feel uncomfortable, maybe it's called the Holy Spirit, maybe it's called conviction. And so she said, well, maybe I need to rethink this. I said the rule is, as for me and my house we didn't take a vote on it. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and, as long as I said, she's in your house, she's under your care and she has to operate by the house rules. Have you ever heard that phrase house rules? She has to operate by the house rules. By the way, those aren't my rules, those aren't preacher rules.

Listen, they come from the book of Deuteronomy. Write this passage down if you don't know it. It's the great Shema, deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 9. It says this Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them. Did you get that? You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them. When you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up, you know what you're saying. All the time you talk about God, all the time the things of God. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and you shall put them as frontlets on between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates in words.

There's no place that people won't know who you are, who you're with, who you serve, including your children. The priorities of God for your home are your responsibility. I didn't just tell you you can create a perfect home. There's no perfect home. I started to say there's no perfect kids. But don't talk to a parent. But you understand what I'm saying. I tell you this all the time. There's no perfect church. There's no perfect pastors. There's no perfect people sitting in the seats. There's no perfect homes. There's no perfect moms and dads. There's no perfect kids. But I tell you what you can change the odds by infiltrating your home with the truth, by declaring this is who we serve.

I don't know, I can't say for sure, but it might just be that some of these kids on campuses protesting and screaming kill the Jews. You just kind of wonder what came out of their homes that would take them there. If choices aren't made in the home, choices will be made on the campus or through all these other means. Joshua told them. Joshua told them to make their declaration. And that leads me to the second thing. How do you do that, though? How do you take that responsibility? Well, he tells us in verses 14, verses 23,.

Eliminate the foreign gods in your home. Put away the gods your father served. Put away the gods your father served. Put away the foreign gods. It doesn't matter what those foreign gods are. Put them away. And they lived in the land of the Amorites.

Did you notice that it declared that we're in the land of the Amorites, which was filled with idolatry and idols, some they were living with because they had inherited from their fathers? Well, this is, you know, this is what dad always thought, and you know what we love dads, we love moms, but if they get it wrong about God, they're wrong. Yeah, well, you know, we worship this because our dad did we go here because our dad did. Listen, he says put away the gods of your fathers. They had allowed their life to be influenced by that, some of the gods they had cultivated on their own. They had introduced gods into their life. They didn't even recognize because of their waywardness. And I want to say this to us because it's easy for us to look at that and say, well, yeah, when we look at the culture, we can identify godlessness and we can see idols and all of that thing.

I want to remind you of something he wasn't talking to them. He was talking to the people of God. He was giving the people of God instruction on how to go forward. He wasn't saying those Amorites out there, they're bad people. They were the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Termites, all of them. They were bad, but he wasn't talking to them. It is easy for me sometimes to look out there and go look at them. It's horrible and it is. Look at them, it's horrible and it is. But you know, it might just be horrible because I haven't been who God called me to be in here. Can you imagine what would happen in this culture if the families said as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Can you imagine the kind of impact that would have? Out there he's talking to them because of the paganism that had crept into their lives? You say now yeah, pastor, but we don't have idols in our home. We confess Christ and we believe in God. Well, welcome to the 80 plus percent crowd. 80% of Americans, more than that, actually 80 plus percent of Americans say that we believe in God and we don't. You know, we confess Christ.

Be careful, because today's idols for the Christian home aren't carved images. Because today's idols for the Christian home aren't carved images. They can be instead, things like substituted activities over the things of God. They can be material acquisitions that have separated us from the pursuit of God. I didn't just say material things are all bad unless they're separating you from pursuing God. If you're pursuing them over God, they're bad. They're an idol, they're a foreign God. Activities over God are idols. It can be things like habits that just keep you distracted and take your eyes off of God. Do y'all get what I'm saying? Do you get it? The idols today in our Christian homes are generally not carved images. There are so many other things. You understand that the idols of our day may not look the same as the idols in Joshua in his day did, but they accomplish the same thing. The devil uses them to accomplish the same thing, and that is to move us and to move our families away from God. Listen whatever takes the place of God in your home will become the gods of your home. Let me say that again, if you forget everything else I've said to you this morning, remember this whatever takes the place of God in your home will become the gods of your home.

Ji Packer, writing in your Father Loves you, said this what other gods could we have besides the Lord? Well, plenty. For Israel, there were the Canaanite Baals, the jolly-natured gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony, drunkenness and ritual prostitution. For us, there are still the great gods of sex, shekels and the stomach, an unholy trinity constituting a God called self and the other enslaving trio, pleasure, possession and position, whose worship is described in the Scripture in 1 John as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And then he must have been visited the South. When he wrote this. He said or perhaps it's football, the firm, and listen to this.

And the family? Did you know that the family can become a substitute for God? I've heard it so many times through the years. Well, my family, we didn't go to church because we were so tired, but family is so important to us and so we just felt like we ought to give. What message are you sending? You're saying did you know, when family is elevated over God and the things of God, family has become an idol. Now, nobody really wants to say that today too much, and you won't hear that much from the pulpits because it sounds. We have elevated the importance of family, rightfully so, but so much to the point that some people now use it as an excuse. Well, we were investing in our family.

I tell you what we pray a lot on Sundays behind the ski boat. Have you ever seen how he drives? Well, you understand, before we go out, we say a little prayer or we read from the devotion book. In fact, this is a devotion book that you put out, brother Ray. We read a devotion about it. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not against having fun or any of those things, if you're a visitor or new, and listening, you think, yeah, that's the message of preachers Take the 10 things that you hate doing and stop doing them. And take the 10 things that I mean and start doing them. And well, you know, I better shut up before I get myself so twisted up. I don't know what I'm saying, but y'all got the point right. You get the point Now. If you didn't, I'll keep going. If you got it, say amen. That's the loudest amen I've gotten.

But let me ask you this morning Do you have any idols? Are there any foreign gods that you need to eliminate? Foreign gods? Maybe you haven't even thought seriously about it. So what do you do about idols? Well, jot these things down. Number one you identify them. You got to start there. Get before the Lord and ask God to reveal what idols might be lurking in your life or in your home, or some that you may have missed because, listen, they've just become such a part of your existence so you just kind of have taken them for granted. You know no longer even recognize them there. Ask him to show you. I want to tell you that he wants you to eliminate them, and if you'll be patient and you'll wait and you'll sincerely ask him. He will show you the idols, the things that have displaced him in your life. So identify them. Number two you want to deal with them.

Don't make excuses. I'm afraid I've done this sometimes in my life, have you? And that is just try to justify your idol to God. You just try to justify it, even try to spiritualize it. You ever done that? Be careful, try to spiritualize something that God said no, that's really not that spiritual. We do that sometimes. Or then we do this we make excuses by comparing ourselves with other brothers and sisters. You know God, I know I've got some beams in my eye, but have you seen the beam in so-and-so? They're good friends, but Lord, they got real problems and Lord, I'm not nearly as far away as they are. We sometimes try to justify it by comparing ourselves. So identify them, don't make excuses about them.

There was a man a few years ago that told me that clothing had become to him a kind of idol. And he said he finally realized that and he determined he had to make some changes to his wardrobe. And, by the way, he decided to keep wearing clothes, and for that I'm grateful. Keep wearing clothes, and for that I'm grateful. But he relayed to me. He said the pursuit of having them became a stumbling block in his relationship with God. And instead of making an excuse, he just got honest and he did what the Bible says he eliminated. He said I can take that out of the way, I can keep that from being a stumbling block.

And that leads me to the third thing to do with idols, and that is do something about them. Jot that down, identify them. Don't make an excuse. Do what this man did. Do something about those things that have become idols to you. Do something about like the story that Joshua is relating to this people. Look who God is. Look what God has done, look who he wants to be to you. But you've got to do something in order for that to continue.

Honestly, identifying them without doing something about them is disobedience. Did you know that? For him to him that knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him, it is sin, the Bible says. Now Jesus also said this none of us can serve two masters. Jesus doesn't want to be one of the masters of your life. Idols are okay with being one of many masters. Did you pick up on that? Idols are okay with being just one of several masters in your life, but Jesus is not. Jesus doesn't want to be one of the masters in your life. He wants to be the only master of your life.

Everything else that sets itself up as a ruler in your life needs to be eliminated from that position, needs to be eliminated from that position. So, if we're going to be like Joshua and his family, we're going to have to build a home that honors God, and in order to do it, you're going to have to cultivate the priority of God God's first. God is first. And then you're going to have to eliminate the gods in your home. You're going to have to get honest and ruthless and say what are they? What are the things that are taking the place of God in my life, in my home's life, and parents in particular? That's going to be foundational to a home that will honor God in the lives of your children. And then the last thing that I share with you this morning is this If you're going to build a home that honors God, you must demonstrate the superiority of God in your home. That's a little bit different than the priority. Just hang with me, I'll tell you what I mean.

Verses 23 and 24 say Incline your heart to the Lord, his voice, they said we will obey. Incline your heart to the Lord. Now Joshua has demanded that the people get rid of their foreign gods, so that there will be no distraction that will keep them from doing something. What is it Inclining? Inclining their heart to the Lord. So now, have you connected that? So he says eliminate the idols. Why? Because the idols will distract you and keep you from inclining your heart to the Lord. So deal with the idols so there's no distraction, so that you can hear the voice of God. And the word incline there in the Hebrew is a word that means to do this, it means to stretch out. So here's Joshua's point to us Get the idols away where there's no encumbrance in front of you. And it's the idea is stretching out, getting as close as possible so you can hear what he has to say. Why? So you can do it, so you can obey it. It's one thing to identify, it's one thing to know, it's one thing to say God is priority. But for that to become real, you've got to do something about it. And so he's telling us clear out the idols, so that you can hear God clear out the idols so you will not be distracted. Clear out the idols so there will be no, no, no obstacles in your path of pursuit toward God. And it moves the whole idea from the corporate. That is all the people you ever notice. When we say, well, it's everybody's responsibility, it becomes no one's. Well, I thought you were going to do it Well, I thought you were going to do it Well. This moves from the corporate to the personal. It's personal, the pursuit of him. It is the great command in action.

Now we read Deuteronomy 6, the great Shema, and then Jesus reiterated that. When they said what is the greatest commandment? You remember what he said? It's to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He said that's the great commandment. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That's what it means to incline your heart so that you can hear His voice. It means you're loving God, you fall in love with God. You know there's a simple prayer. Sometimes we ought to pray and I've done it many times. Lord, I don't think I love you like I did. Help me, love you more. Help me love you more.

This is Hebrews, chapter 12, where the writer says that we're in this great race. We're being watched by these witnesses that are already in heaven in front of us, and we're being watched by these witnesses, and he says let us throw aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run the race marked out in front of us, with our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. This is what he means when he says to incline your ear to God, get the encumbrances away, love God and pursue Him with all that you have. So how do you demonstrate the superiority of God in your life and in your home? Well, practically speaking, you do so by your actions, and that means you elevate the priority of God's Word in your life and home. You elevate the priority of God's Word. Help your kids and others for that matter see that the Word of God is central to how you live. It's the filter of your life. It's the filter that helps you view your world. We say worldview. Our worldview is to be shaped by the Scripture. So often today, though, we've got that backwards. We've let the cultural view shape our view of Scripture, instead of Scripture shaping our view of culture, and so you elevate the priority of God's Word in your life and home. If you want your home to be the home that Joshua is talking about, the home that honors God, god's Word has to become the filter of your life and your home.

We had two different homes when we lived in Florida as I served and pastored down there, and both of those homes had swimming pools in our backyards. And pools are nice. They're nice but they're a pain and taking care of them is hard work and a couple of times each week I would have to change these large filters. We had these big cylinder filters and I'd have to change those filters a couple of times each week in order to keep the pool clean and the water clear. And when I'd take those filters and then I'd have to clean the filters, I'd replace one with a clean one and then I'd have to clean the dirty one. And that's where you saw all kind of junk. I mean it's amazing what would get into these pools You'd have in the filter. You'd have bugs and you'd have dirt. Of course, dirt was the least of the problem Lizards, leaves, all kind of junk grass but the fact is, were it not for the filters, all of those things in the filter would have been in the pool and would have corrupted the water.

Do you understand? That's what God's Word is like for you. It is a filter, and God's Word keeps our hearts and minds and homes clear, clean and fresh. So if you want your home to demonstrate the superiority of God, elevate the priority of His Word in your home and your life. Second, elevate the priority of worship in your life and home.

Worshiping God, simply put, will help prevent you from becoming a Pharisee. You see, if all you have is the law of God, without a love for God, you'll become a Pharisee. See, they had the law, but they didn't have the love, and so worship is an expression of our love. And have you ever noticed this? You can come to church, I bet, and you kind of feel like, well, I really didn't want to be here and I didn't really want to hear him. But you start the music, something happens, the Spirit of God gets that worship tone in your heart and you go from zero to 60. You ever notice that, by the way, you don't have to just come to church for that to happen. That can happen in your car, I think people probably say every once in a while, see me on the circle and think I who that something's wrong with that guy. You worship in your car. You can worship at home. You can worship with your kids and your family. You can worship. You elevate the priority of worship in your life and then, third, elevate the priority of gathering with the body of Christ. Just like this.

Too many families and believers have unfortunately done what Hebrews counsels them not to do they have forsaken the assembling of themselves together. We need this, we need this, we need this, you need it and I need it and that's why it's important. And to all our dear friends watching by media and I'm so glad we can, it's such a ministry, so many people. But if you can get here, get here, don't just substitute it, because if you can get here, get here, don't just, don't just substitute it, because if you can get here, get here, it's different in here than just what you get on the screen. We're glad to do that. We're glad radio I hear about people getting saved through our radio broadcast several in the past few months who come to know christ through the radio broadcast and that does me so much good and that god is using our media and we hear it through our broadcast and those things.

That's so good. We love that we're not going to quit doing those things. Those are wonderful means of continuing the message of God. But if you can get here get here, these people are nice, most of them and the ones that aren't sleep. But if you can get here, a healthy place together as a family of God, and if you want, if you want to honor God in your family, be a part of His family, gather with the people of God, gather with the body of Christ. If going to church is not a priority in your family, if you've always got a reason not to go you know I stayed up too late or I didn't get home until late, or I need to rest because I've had such a busy week, or I need to rest because I've had such a busy week then don't be surprised one day when your children and their children don't want to have anything to do with God or church or anything of the sort. Don't be surprised. Now you can do all the right things and you can have children that rebel. I just want to say that, because some of you have. You've done the right stuff, and but I want to tell you something if you don't, you can bet on the fact that they won't go and be bent toward god hello.

I've been asked my thoughts many times in the past few years about COVID's effect on the church and now we have better perspective looking back. But I believe this I believe COVID was a defining moment in modern church history. I think it's a defining moment in modern church history. It caused many people to leave the church and never return to church. And I believe it was a defining moment because when we did get back to church we discovered that while we were away God had pruned his church. Now I think that's a good thing and today we're not a perfect church by any stretch. But I believe many churches would say, and many of my friends in similar sized congregations as ours we meet once a year and we talk about these things have all said that they believe their churches are spiritually more healthy than they've ever been, than ever before.

But we still need to gather. In the book of Acts they did it daily. They did it daily. You need it and the body of Christ needs it. Now we all have lots of meetings. There are lots of meetings. We have more meetings than ever before in history.

I think there are lots of gatherings in the world, but listen to this there are no gatherings comparable to the gathering of the body of Jesus Christ. There's nothing comparable to this. Why is that? Well, because when we gather here, the presence of the living God think about that the presence of God Almighty is here. When we gather, the power of the living God is here. And when we gather, the people of the living God are here. And where the presence and the power and the people of God are gathered, guess what a byproduct is the peace of God. That passes all understanding. You know that You've been in turmoil about something before and you got to church and God, just his presence, just settled your heart. You had that, haven't you? I mean, there were term of their things going on and everything, but when you gathered with the people of God and you worshiped God and you listened to the word of God, the peace of God settled in on you. Some of you might say, well, I ain't got any peace. Well then, that probably means you need to trust Christ as your Savior. He loves you and he wants you to have His supernatural peace. But when we gather His presence and power, peace are all available to us.

I love what I read about a churchgoer who wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. This is what he said, and I quote he said I've gone to church for 30 years now and in that time I estimate that I've heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me I can't remember a single one of them. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So I think I'm wasting my time and I think the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all. Well, it started a controversy in the letters to the editor's section of that paper which, by the way, the editor loved and it went on for weeks until one person wrote what seemed to clinch the whole thing. And this is what they wrote. I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals for me, but for the life of me I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this they all nourished me and gave me the strength needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today, and likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I'd be spiritually dead today.

Well said, huh. You see, the church is a place of believing and belonging. It's the family of God, designed for God's people and designed for God's families. So if you want to build a home that honors God notice I didn't say a perfect home but if you want to build a home that honors God, then remember to cultivate the priority of God in your home. Remember to eliminate the foreign gods in your home and demonstrate with your actions the superiority of God in your home. It won't make it perfect, but it will move you toward the kingdom.

Father, thank you that you're so wise to give us the instructions that we need. Father, forgive us when we mess it up, forgive us when we substitute idols for you, but help us, Father, like Joshua, to be able to say as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and Father, I pray for all those who are listening. If they've never put their trust in Jesus Christ, that today they would call on him, and if that's you in this building this morning, on live stream or television or radio, why don't you just call on him? The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You can say something like this sincerely from your heart. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I need you. I invite you to come into my life now. Forgive me of my sins, be my Savior, fill me with your Holy Spirit and give me the power I need to live for you. Father, I pray for those who have wandered away, who, unknowingly, have allowed things to become substitutes for you. That you'll quicken their hearts, remind them again of the importance and the responsibility we all have to keep you first in all things. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today. I hope you've been encouraged by God's word. Sure has been a joy to share it with you, and even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ.

Perhaps, as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ. The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior, and the good news is you can receive Him right where you are. The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Right where you are, you can call on Him. Say something like this from your heart to Him Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. I know I'm a sinner and I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins, and right now I invite you to come into my life, forgive me and be my Savior. I can assure you, if you'll call on him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that he'll hear that prayer and he'll answer that and he wants to begin this new journey in your life with you, transforming you into his image.

We'd love to help you with that decision as well. You'll see a QR code on your screen and if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps. There are no strings attached, no fees involved. We just like to help you begin that journey with Christ. You may be watching this broadcast today and say I need a church family to belong to. I already know Christ as my Savior and I'd like to be a part of the Ridgecrest family Also, if you will scan that QR code That'll take you to a location and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions, like becoming a member here or if you've never been scripturally baptized, those kinds of things. So contact us through that QR code or through the contact information on the screen. Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today and I hope you've been encouraged by God's word. Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means contact us. May the Lord bless you.