New Calvary Baptist Church

“Family Business”

Series: “We Are Family!”

Bishop V. P. Oliver, D.Min.

Joshua 24:14–15

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of [a]the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of [b]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.”

 

Thesis:  Family meetings serve to clear the air, state the problem, and declare a new course of action or behavior.

 

Joshua spoke of:

1.  THE FAMILY’S FOUNDATION — Remember What God Has Done.  

• Before he asks anything, he recalls everything. (Joshua 24:3-13)

• A family that forgets what God has done will soon doubt what God can do. 

• A family needs an archive -  a ledger of testimonies.  

 

2.  THE FAMILY’S FIDELITY — Refuse What God Has Forbidden.

• Israel carried Egypt's idols into Canaan's inheritance.

• You cannot rehabilitate what God has forbidden; you can only remove it.

• Put away what cannot cross into your children's future.

 

3.  THE FAMILY’S FIRMNESS — Resolve What God Has Required. 

• Joshua declares, and then he invites.

• It is present tense — 'this day.’

• It is personal — 'as for me.’

• It is plural — 'me and my house.’

• It is public — Joshua said it out loud 

 

09/20/2026