“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

“What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is what is true for me.”

Not true. That’s called an opinion. That’s not truth. When you look at a black chair, it’s absurd to say, I don’t see it as black. It’s more greenish to me. You can’t tell your bank, I know that my account is negative, but I don’t see it that way. I’ve given lots of money to this bank over the years.

Truth doesn’t work that way.

Look at what Jesus says before he talks about the truth. “If you hold to my teaching…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” The standard and the measure for what is true or not for a disciple of Jesus is the word of God.

One of the greatest battles you will face as a Christian is between what you know and what you feel. Too often, Christians are letting feelings determine their truth and reality. This is a terrible way to live.

Look, almost every single day of the week, I feel like eating a cheeseburger…no, not just a cheeseburger, but a double bacon cheeseburger…YEAH. In fact, I lived that way for a while. I had a double bacon cheeseburger three to four times a week. I weighed forty pounds more. And, oh yeah, I had two heart attacks.

Dude! You can’t live life based on what you feel!!! It’s a terrible way to live.

You have to live based on what is true, what is right, what is good. And, for the Christian, it is the Bible that determines what is true, what is right, what is good. Live according to God’s word. And living like that, living according to God’s truth, will set you free.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:15).

Joshua knows he is dying. He has led the Israelites into the Promised Land, helping them defeat the peoples of the land. Before he dies, he articulates the choice before Israel: follow the ways of the people of the world OR follow God. Choose.

This is when Joshua declares, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Notice, that choosing one is the elimination of the other. There is only one LORD. One God. One who gets to say how we are to live. Either we will live by the dictates and values of the world around us, or we will live by the dictates and values of the LORD.

Choose.

Moms and dads of the Little Church and Lakewoodgrace, you leading your family to love and worship God in your home is your primary ministry. Help your children choose the LORD, choose worship, choose obedience. Do this through your priorities and your actions.

If your child were to say to you, I don’t want to go to school. It’s boring there. I don’t like the teacher. I don’t like the kids there. What do you say? Do you, therefore, let the child decide whether they are going to get an education or not?

Of course not!!!

Education is important. Education is essential for the future of your child.

Your child’s relationship with Jesus is important. It is beyond essential. It’s a matter of eternity. Don’t mess around with your child’s eternal destiny. Set an example and set a tone for how you and your household will serve the LORD. Do not follow the patterns of this world.

Love what Spurgeon wrote: You are as much serving God in making your household a church for God as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.

Choose.

Choose to serve the LORD.

Pray always (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

God commands us to pray. The verb pray is written in the imperative. If you are a Christian, you pray. Not just some days. But always. Constantly. Continually. Without ceasing. You are spending the day constantly praying to God, constantly aware of God’s presence.

Why does God command us to pray? Because God loves answering prayer.

Wait a minute, preacher man! I have been praying for the Mariners to win the World Series every year.
Wait a minute, preacher man! I prayed for God to cure my sister of cancer.
Wait a minute, preacher man! I prayed for God to save my marriage.

God commands us to pray always because God always loves answering prayer.

Notice, God never promised that he would answer prayers the way we want them answered. And for good reason. Because we are not God. And because we are not God, we do not know what God knows.

But what we can be sure of is that God knows, and God wants what is best for us.

So, every time we pray, we can be sure our prayers are answered exactly the way we would want them to be answered if we knew everything that God knew.

Pray always. Constantly. Continually. Without ceasing.