Two years ago our high school youth went out to Boston, Massachusetts for the National LYA Convention. While we were there, we toured downtown Boston, in what is known as the Boston Ducks, (very similar to the Duck Boats, you can ride up in the Wisconsin Dells). Another thing that we did was walk on the Freedom Trail, in downtown Boston. One of the buildings that you come to on that red brick trail is Faneuil Hall. Faneuil Hall is a market place on the first level, and then upstairs is a large room. It is an assembly gathering for political speeches. That building is known as ‘The Cradle of Liberty’. It is known as the Cradle of Liberty, because it is the birthplace of freedom. It is the place where our nation began.

As Faneuil Hall in Boston Massachusetts is known as the Cradle of Liberty, our own homes should be known as the Cradle of Faith. Our homes should be the Cradle of Faith, because that is the birthplace of faith. That is where faith begins. That is where our faith should be strengthened and nourished.

Joshua, when he wrote the words of our text, was 110 years old. He gathered the whole assembly together and reminded them of how God had been faithful to them, and how their homes were the cradle of faith. God had planted faith in their hearts, to believe in the promise of the coming Messiah.

Therefore, God told them to choose to remain faithful to God, because God had chosen them.

Today, it is my privilege to stand before you, as an assembly, and remind you of how God has been faithful to you, how He has kept all of the promises that He has ever made to you, and to encourage you to choose to remain faithful to Him.

We do that as we gather around our theme for this day and this year.

Our house

will serve the LORD!

1. The Lord Promises to be Faithful

Our text takes a little bit of a break today between verses two and fourteen. It would be a shame for me not to touch base on those verses, because it is in those verses that we are reminded of how God had been faithful to the Children of Israel. Let me just read some of the statements that show what it is that God had done for them.

God says, "I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob…Then I sent Moses and Aaron…I brought your fathers out of Egypt…I brought you to the land of the Amorites…I delivered you…I gave you this land."

It was God who had done everything. It was the Children of Israel who had done nothing.

Joshua was addressing believers. Joshua asks them to choose to remain with God, because God has chosen them.

As I address you today, I am addressing believers. We also see how God has been faithful to us! We see how God has kept all of the promises that He has ever made to us! May we choose to remain faithful to God, because He has chosen us.

After all, this is the God who created us.

This is the God who loved us so much that He couldn’t just leave us in our sin.

This is the God who demonstrated his love by sending Jesus to earth to live a perfect life for us.

This is the God who knew we couldn’t earn our way to heaven, so He sent His Son to the cross, to pay for every single one of those sins.

This is the God whom the grave could not hold.

This is the God that we are called to serve.

Knowing that God has been faithful to us…

II. May we Renew our Promise to be

Faithful & Serve Him.

As the scriptures say, "God is faithful and just. He will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness." May we renew our promise to remain faithful to Him, and serve Him.

Particularly, I want to get into our Christian homes, to see how it is that we can be faithful to God and serve Him.

I will start with husbands.

Husbands, we serve the LORD, by loving our wives, as our Epistle Lesson says,

"Husbands,

love your wives,

just as Christ loved the church

and gave Himself up for her."

And yet husbands, how we fail to serve the LORD, as we put a conditional statement on our love for our wives. We may think, "Oh, if my wife were not so hard to get along with, I would do a better job of serving the Lord by loving her."

Imagine if Christ had thought that way about us. He would be willing to serve us in love, if we were not so hard to get along with!

And yet, that was not the attitude of Christ, our Savior, at all. Even though we have sinned against Him, He still came to serve us. He still came and lived a perfect life for us. He still came and went to the cross and bore our sins. And so may we, husbands, serve the LORD by loving our wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave His life for her.

Christian wives, you serve the LORD by submitting to your husbands, as our Epistle Lesson says for today. Christian wives you fail to serve the Lord by belittling your husbands, or gossiping about them.

The example of this section of scripture makes a comparison between Christ and the church, and husbands and wives. It was Christ who laid down His life for His bride, the church. Knowing that as the church, it is very easy for us to submit ourselves to Christ. As we bring that relationship over into our Christian homes, it makes it easier for a wife to submit to her husband.

And here dear husbands, is where you do not, and cannot lord it over your wife by saying, something like, "Get me a beer or else."

Christ was willing to serve the church. He laid down His life for the church. And so dear husbands, that means that you would then be willing to lay down your life, for your wife. And if God has blessed you with a family, you would lay down your life for your family.

When that is followed, it makes it easier for wives to serve the Lord by submitting to their husbands.

Christian parents, you serve the LORD

➢ when you bring up your children in the training and the instruction of the LORD,

➢ when you instruct your children in sin and its consequences,

➢ when you instruct your children that Jesus is their Savior, who took all of those sins and paid for them at the cross,

➢ when you bring your children up to know that God’s Word is a guide for them in their lives.

And yet, as Christian parents how we fail to serve the Lord, as we exasperate our children, when we yell at them. Christian parents, we serve the LORD, as we bring up our children in the training and instruction of the LORD.

You children, you serve the LORD by obeying your parents. Scripture says,

"Obey your parents in the LORD,

for this is right.

Honor your father and mother."

And yet, as children, we fail to serve the LORD, when we don’t listen to our parents, don’t pick up our toys when they have asked us to pick them up, don’t go to bed when we are instructed to go to bed.

Children, serve the LORD, by obeying your parents.

And, for all of us who are siblings, brothers and sisters, we serve the LORD, by showing unselfish love to our brothers and sisters. As the scriptures say,

"Be devoted to one another

in love."

And yet, as siblings, we fail to serve the Lord when we fight and annoy one another, and when we bicker with one another.

Dear siblings, dear brothers and sisters, may we serve the LORD by showing that unselfish love for our brothers and sisters.

Our Christian homes are the cradle of faith. It is the birthplace of faith. It is the place where faith begins and is nourished and strengthened.

Joshua, in his day, asked the Children of Israel to gather together. Joshua had reminded them of how God had been faithful to them, God had kept His promises to them, and how the Messiah would come to save them from their sin. Joshua gave them a choice. Either serve false gods, or serve the true God.

They stood there and they made a proclamation, a renewal covenant, saying,

"We too will serve the LORD."

It is interesting to note that after Joshua dies, the scripture says, "Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel."

Today, we are gathered together as an assembly. We have been reminded of how God has been faithful to us, He has kept all of the promises that He has made, including the sending of our Savior Jesus, and how Jesus has paid for all of our sins at the cross.

You stand forgiven.

You have the gift of everlasting life

with Him in Heaven!

May we today make that commitment, to serve the LORD all the days of our life.

That theme is stated in the last verse of the hymn, "Oh Blest the House Whate’er Befall"

Then here will I and mine today

A solemn promise make and say,

If all the world forsake God’s Word,

I and my house will serve the LORD.

That is the theme for our year:

Our house will serve the LORD!

Amen.