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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
Choosing Who You Will Serve - Joshua 24
Father to start the year on a Sunday the first day of the month also to have communion what a blessing it is and we are just blessed by who you are father
Lord I know there are many families that have traditions for the new year maybe making some resolutions
I pray that as pastor Jeff asked us to set some that Lord we would look to you to father see how you want to have us grow in you during this next year father please help us to love you more to be with you more to set aside the time we need to set aside to be with you and to be alone with you and Lord when you call us for a specific task or you show us in the scripture something we need to be obedient to father
I pray that our hearts would yield to these things Lord and Jesus you would have your way with us to build a glorious church and father just administer to us as your own personal children we're so thankful father that we have this ability to reach reach out to you through prayer and have you speak to us father and we thank you in Jesus name amen let's stand and sing together bless your name oh
God each day that I'm gone to setting
Sun your glory far exceeds all human
Oh these breath a bless your name
Oh God your name will be as generations ♪
And sing the wonders you have done ♪ ♪ Your strong and mighty deeds are always near ♪ ♪
Oh God most high your name will be revered ♪ ♪
How great is the Lord and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
How great is the Lord our God ♪ ♪
Your gracious hand provides for all who live in need ♪ ♪
Your mercy runs to find you help us every day ♪ ♪
All out to you, you hear our cries ♪ ♪
And all our needs your gracious hand provides ♪ ♪
How great is the Lord our God and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪
The nation will rejoice the works of wicked men be destroyed ♪ ♪
Your power will proclaim till Christ is saved ♪ ♪
And you will reign forever with us ♪ ♪
How great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised ♪ ♪ How great is the
Lord our God and greatly to be praised ♪
Everything seems out of balance. It gets messy.
There's one thing that we can hold to that is unmovable, unshakable, and steadfast.
And that is the presence of our living God. God promised us that he would take care of us.
He didn't say that he was gonna take care of all of the pain that we have on this earth, but he promised that he would stay alongside us, with us, and see us through all the difficulties and pains that we're going through.
In verse eight of Psalm 62, it says, trust in him at all times,
O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.
Let's sing together. My soul will wait. ♪ When the enemy surrounds ♪ ♪
And my heart grows faint within ♪ ♪ When the darkness overwhelms ♪ ♪
And my fears are pressing in ♪ ♪ I will trust in you,
O Lord ♪ ♪ In the silence I will wait ♪ ♪
I will stand upon your word ♪ ♪
You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪
My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪
You're my stronghold and my shield ♪ ♪
In the midst of every threat ♪ ♪ Through the wicked they will vanish like a breath ♪ ♪
Yes, I know the outcome's sure ♪ ♪ Sin's evil plans will fail ♪ ♪
In your power unsecure ♪ ♪
You're the solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪
I feel forsaken, my refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪
My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪
This is love I can't explain ♪ ♪ This is mercy unreserved ♪ ♪
Through your sacrifice, it's our grief ♪ ♪ Have peace that's undeserved ♪ ♪
I fear no shame or loss ♪ ♪ Now the sting of death is gone ♪ ♪
You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪
I'll trust before you, we will trust in you ♪ ♪
Perfect savior, joy of my life ♪ ♪
Strong defender, we will trust in you ♪
Psalm 66 says, Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth.
Sing about the glory of his name. Tell the world how glorious he is. Say to God, how awesome are your deeds.
Your enemies cringe before your mighty power. Everything on earth will worship you.
They will sing your praises. Shouting your name in glorious songs.
Come and see what our God has done. What awesome miracles he performs for his people.
♪ See on the hill of Calvary ♪ ♪
My savior bled for me, my Jesus set me free ♪ ♪
Look at the wounds that give me life ♪ ♪
Grace flowing from his side, no greater sacrifice ♪ ♪
What he's done, what he's done, what he's done ♪ ♪
All the glory and the honor to the son ♪ ♪
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven ♪ ♪
I praise God for what he's done ♪ ♪
See for the freedom he has won ♪ ♪ Even death is dead and done, his life has overcome ♪ ♪
Speak, say the name above all names ♪ ♪
Over every broken place, he has risen from the grave ♪ ♪
Now, on a throne of majesty, the father's will complete ♪ ♪
He reigns in victory ♪ ♪
Sing, hallelujah to the king, he is worthy to receive ♪ ♪
All the worship we can bring, what he's done, what he's done ♪ ♪
Praise God for what he's done ♪
Good morning, everybody. It just so happens that the first of the year falls on a
Sunday, which means we're going to celebrate communion today. And the song we just sang, we're going to praise
God for what he's done. We're going to remember what he's done this morning and the beauty of what our
Savior, Jesus Christ, accomplished for us. I want to point out something, because at this time of year, there are a lot of traditions that we have.
Even last week, we had a Christmassy of service. And that in itself is a tradition.
But then during that service, there's the lighting of the candles, which is a tradition. And then usually,
Silent Night is the song that we sing last, which is also a tradition. Now, I'm not saying the tradition is bad.
I think that it's a wonderful tradition. But today, as we celebrate communion, this is not a tradition.
This is an ordinance given to us by the Lord, an ordinance by which we may remember him.
Traditions are things we kind of build up and they change over time. We kind of wonder sometimes, gosh, where did it all begin?
When did it all happen? Well, we know exactly when this ordinance was given.
It was given at what we call the Last Passover or the Last Supper, which is when
Jesus met in an upper room of a gentleman's house in Jerusalem. And they celebrated a
Passover. And that Passover was called the Last Passover because Jesus was going to institute that night something entirely new that they had never seen before.
At the end of that Passover meal, he says he took bread and he broke it, and he distributed among them.
And he said, take and eat. This is my body broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. And this is something they had never seen before.
They weren't sure exactly probably what this meant exactly at this time because Jesus had not yet gone to the cross, but he was speaking as if it had already been accomplished.
And then later, he took the cup and he passed it among his disciples.
He said, this is my blood poured out for you, the blood of the new covenant for the remission of sin. And that passing of the bread and taking part of the bread and the taking part of the cup was remembering the great sacrifice that Jesus was going to perform the very, very next day.
And that's why it's called the Last Passover because Jesus as our Passover lamb was sacrificed the next day so that all the things that the first Passover pointed to were accomplished in this new covenant.
And I want to look today at some of the things that are paralleled in the very first Passover and then the giving of Jesus Christ as the sacrifice of the lamb.
So the very first Passover, we have to go back to Exodus 12, and that was also given to the
Jewish people as a memorial. We remember that they were in slavery in Egypt and the
Lord was going to deliver them by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And he delivered onto the people of Egypt and Pharaoh in particular and the leadership of Egypt plagues.
But the last plague was going to be the death of the firstborn. And that was going to be a plague where the angel of death came and went across the land and all of the firstborn were going to die.
But it wasn't just the firstborn of those in Egypt. It was any firstborn. So the
Lord established a way for the people of faith, the people who believed in him, to escape that judgment.
That judgment had to be escaped through the sacrifice of a lamb. And if the people spread the blood of that lamb on their doorposts and lintels, the judgment was passed over them.
And they were given an ordinance by the Lord. It says this in Exodus 12, 14. It says, Now this day will be a memorial to you.
And you shall celebrate it as a peace. As the Lord throughout your generations are to celebrate it.
Excuse me. As throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
I want us to think about that very first Passover and what the Israelites had to do in order for judgment to pass over them.
The first thing was on the month of Nisan, the tenth day, a lamb had to be selected.
The lamb had to be a perfect lamb. I believe it was a one -year -old male lamb. It had to have no blemish on it.
And then that lamb was to stay with them for the next four days in the house. It was almost like a family pet at that point.
And this was performed within families. Families performed this.
And the head of the household, the man of the house, had to select the lamb. And the whole family then cared for the lamb for those four days.
And the lamb was inspected to make sure it was okay. In the new covenant, we didn't select the lamb.
God the Father selected the lamb. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And on Nisan 10, we believe that Jesus coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, was the tenth of Nisan.
And that was when the lamb was presented and selected. And then for the next four days, that lamb was in and around Jerusalem.
And it was examined. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, was examined to see if there was any spot or blemish in him.
None was found. The next step was on Nisan 14. That was when the lamb had to be sacrificed.
Back in Exodus 12, verse 6. The head of the household again would himself have to have the lamb's throat.
And the blood would be spilled out in the doorway of the household where there would be a depression where the blood would flow.
And that blood was to be spilled out. It was going to be used in a little bit. But that lamb's life was going to be sacrificed.
In the New Covenant, the Lamb of God, his life was taken by cruel and wicked men.
But it was all part of the plan of God. God made sure that a sacrifice was given because there was only one way for judgment to pass over.
The judgment that the Israelites, that the plagues were in Egypt, was the deliverance of a nation from a wicked kingdom that was enslaving them.
And that was the deliverance that was brought. Also the deliverance of the firstborn who would not be killed as the
Lord saw the blood on the doorpost in Galilee. But in our case, the deliverance we needed was from sin and death.
And there was only one sacrifice that was sufficient for us. And that was that the
Lamb of God was slain. The third step was, as I said a second ago, the fact that the
Lamb was slain was not sufficient. They had to, by faith, apply that blood to the doorpost and the lintel of the home.
Because if the blood was not on the face of that home, then the death angel would come.
But by faith, they realized that God's protection was going to be through that blood when they applied it to the home.
And they were secure and safe in that home. In the New Covenant, the
Lamb has been slain. But there is not safety and protection for anyone until they apply the blood to their personal lives.
If they, by faith, believe that God will pass over them and that sin and death and judgment is resolved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then death will pass over you and you will have life in Him.
But it has to be applied to every person's heart, every person's life. You, by faith, have to believe that that sacrifice was made for you and that sacrifice is sufficient to appease the judgment of God.
And that is what we celebrate today, because we remember that great sacrifice that our
Lord Jesus made. So I'm going to ask the guys to come forward and we are going to partake of this and we're going to rejoice in what our
Lord has done. I'm going to try to speak up here and do it up here.
The first thing that our Lord did was He took the bread after the Passover that they celebrated and He was going to introduce the new covenant to them.
He took the bread and He broke it and He passed it among His disciples. So let's do that now. Gentlemen.
After distributing the bread, Jesus said to His disciples, Take and eat. This is my body broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. After the bread,
He took a cup and He also distributed it among His disciples. They said this was
His blood poured out for them. Let's partake of the cup now. Scriptures tell us that we've not been redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold, but with blood, precious blood as of a lamb without blemish.
This blood was poured out for you. Jesus said do this in remembrance of me. During the first service,
Drew included a comment in his prayer that I found to be rather intriguing.
Seeking the Lord that this might be the year of His coming. Wouldn't that be awesome?
I think there are times where a question might be asked. If you knew you only had one year left to live, what would you do?
Sometimes it shows up in movies or whatever. If you only had one year left to live, what would you do?
Maybe be a better husband. Perhaps redeem a relationship that's been fractured.
Be kinder to people. If we knew that this was the year the
Lord was going to come, perhaps that could have a sense of urgency to our
Christian walk. Maybe the answer could be I would make sure
I talk to my next -door neighbor who doesn't know Jesus. This is it. There can be a lot of ways to approach that, but I don't think we have to have that end post to have a sense of urgency.
We should be, as His children, we should be living with a sense of urgency that just knows that this world is dark.
The end of the book of Joshua, the land has been settled, and a few weeks ago
I was able to speak out of Joshua 23, and the one thing there was cling to the
Lord. So now we're back again, and the people have come back together again in Joshua 24.
And the one question that's going to be asked in verse 15 is choose this day whom you will serve.
That's the question we're going to pursue this morning. Choose this day whom you will serve.
We make choices in life. There are a lot of big choices that we make. I think choosing the mate who you're going to marry is a big choice that will have implications for the rest of your life.
It's a commitment. It's a commitment for the rest of your life. There should be agape love associated with that commitment.
Having children is a huge commitment. And we know from Scripture children are an inheritance from the
Lord. What a blessing to have children. And for those families that take it to the next step and actually adopt a child.
What an expression of pure love. How reflective is that of the fact that we are called
God's adopted children? Now there are questions that you ask yourself like what job should
I have? What home should I buy? These are questions that we ask that are going to have implications.
Maybe one of the biggest is ever going to be asked of you is do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal
Lord and Savior? That's an important choice. It has to be made.
To think that I don't have to make that choice is by definition choosing to not make the choice.
But to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior and then to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.
What an amazing choice that is. Choosing to be in ministry in whatever form
God calls you. Because I firmly believe, brothers and sisters, that each one of us is given, according to God's sovereign plan, gifts.
And he intends us to use those gifts within each other, within the one another for building up of the body of Christ.
There are a couple of men in the past that I find to be very inspirational when it comes to making choices.
One of them is Jim Elliott. Back in the 1950s, he headed down to Ecuador.
He was going to be reaching the Aka Indians. And he was challenged for this decision.
How can you throw your life away, etc., etc.? In his comment, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Talk about making a choice. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Well, Pete Fleming, Ed McCulley, Roger Udarian, Nate Saint, and Jim Elliott, on January 8, 1956, tried to make contact with the
Irani people of the Aka Indians. These were cannibals.
Now, they had worked for a long time to try to establish an opportunity to meet with them.
They would fly over this riverbank and drop food. And after over a period of time, felt that there had been a certain level of connection and that they were going to go down on that riverbank and meet the
Harare people. And we know what happened. They were killed. Elizabeth Elliott went many years later to finish that ministry, and that story is an evidence to the grace of God and the power of making a choice that honors
God because the salvation that came to that tribe is amazing.
He is no fool who gives up what he can't keep to gain what he cannot lose. William Carey is another one of my heroes.
He was in England, and at that time, the church believed strongly in the sovereignty of God.
That's a good thing, but so much so that they did not find it to be rational to be going into the heathen territories.
God will save these people. He doesn't need you, was the challenge that he was given.
And William Carey, in pursuing and wanting to pursue where he wanted to go, where he felt
God was leading, said these words, I am not afraid of failure. I am afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter.
I'm not afraid of failure. I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter.
If God has called you to do something, and if you've chosen to serve him, and he sends you to do something, his sovereignty, his power, his grace is what's going to make success or not success.
You are his instrument. Go and do what he tells you to do. I am not afraid of failure.
I am afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter. So if you choose, instead of going where God has sent you, and if you're choosing to follow something other than God, and you're a big success at it, okay, wouldn't it be better to be serving
God than to be serving man, and to be considered a success at something that doesn't matter?
William Carey also said, expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.
This is our calling, to attempt great things for God. There are so many options out there for us, and the challenge in this chapter, in verse 15, choose this day whom you will serve.
Give 100 % to those things. Choose this day. That's the central message.
Responding to this question is a personal issue. It goes beyond anything that the world could say, and it's going to dive right down deep into your heart.
We firmly believe that God has blessed us with land on Phillips Road, and we perceive that God is leading us towards putting together a building that will be a new lampstand lit in that area.
A couple of years ago, Pastor Ben felt that call, and he went to Rancocas to pastor what's now known as The Rock.
This little church out there called him, and the presbytery let them use this building, but that building has turned out to be fairly inadequate for what they're doing, and in fact, in very bad repair.
This isn't beyond God. Choose great things for God, right? Did you know that this morning is the inaugural service for The Rock at their new church building on Arc Road?
God gave them a new building. A little church that was folding sold this building to The Rock for $1, and so God has given them a new building.
Amen to that. But as amazing as all of these things are, this question, choose this day whom you will serve, is not a question to this church, it's not a question to The Rock, it is a question to you individually.
Choose this day whom you will serve. Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?
And the responses were, some say you're John the Baptist, others say you're Elijah, some say you're Moses, and he looked right in the eye and he said, who do you say that I am?
That gets personal. Peter answered, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus said, blessed are you, son of Arjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but God has shown you this truth.
On this rock I will build my church. See, the question, who will you serve, isn't who will this body serve, it's who will you serve.
Peter was just a fisherman, that's all he was. It was his brother
Andrew who came to him and said, we have found the Messiah. That to me says that around the dinner table,
Father talked about their history. How would Peter know who
Messiah was unless he heard it at the dinner table from Father. He wasn't a schooled man, but he had heard, and so Jesus called him.
Some of the things that he experienced, the teaching, the miracles. Man, the Sermon on the Mount, that master's degree in theology that's preached,
Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Out in the water in the midst of a storm, feared for their lives, they got frightened because they saw something coming in the midst.
Jesus said, come. Peter jumped right out of that boat, walked right on that water, until he got hit in the face by a splash of a wave, that's my imagination, because then he got his attention diverted from Christ and he started to sink until Christ reached him, grabbed him by the hand, and they were in the boat.
These are things Peter experienced. And then that question, who do you say that I am?
It's right down into the very heart. Let's fast forward to the garden. The soldiers come, the officials come.
They're coming to arrest Jesus. Judas kisses the Lord on the cheek, and Peter draws out his sword, and he chops off the ear of the servant.
Standing up for his God. That really wasn't the way God wanted it to be, because very shortly, in the courtyard, a little girl's going to say, weren't you with them?
No, no, not me. Didn't I see you with them? That wasn't me. Surely you're one of, as far as you're mistaken, that wasn't me, the cock crowed, and Jesus turned.
I have to believe that Peter felt the weight, the question, choose this day who you're going to serve.
But the good news was that in a couple of days, outside the tomb, Jesus was going to say, tell the disciples that I have risen, and Peter, and Peter.
He called him back. Then the great commission. Peter needed to choose that day whom he would serve.
The challenge for Peter, for Israel, and for us today, choose this day whom you personally, whom you will serve.
Let's pray. Father, we turn to you in anticipation of your word, needing to know what it means to turn to you, to choose you, wanting you, dear
Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would anoint these words in Jesus' name. Amen.
Joshua 24, 1 starts out by the nation of Israel presenting themselves before God.
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
This is how it starts. Making the choice starts by actually presenting yourself before God.
That involves submitting to His authority. That involves accepting who
He is and recognizing who I am. James 4, 7 says submit yourselves before God and resist the devil.
You need to present yourself before God because there is this power that is out there that is fighting every day, every hour of every day to distract you from serving
God, and that's the devil. We are in a spiritual warfare. If you don't recognize that, if you're not resisting the devil, you're leaving yourself wide open and your submission to God isn't complete.
2 Timothy 2, 22 says to flee youthful lusts. This is urging us that we need to take control of our actions.
We need to choose God over fleshly pleasure. You want to be able to answer that question, whom will you serve?
Start out by submitting yourself to God. Fleeing those things that Satan puts in front of you.
Each of us have weaknesses. I do have one and it came to be right before church for service.
I was talking with a very dear friend because I had had interface with this friend earlier in the week and Satan knows that when
I'm really, really busy and some trivial thing comes up to throw me off track from where I need to be going in his service,
I will react without love. And I did. And I confessed. But each one of us has these little things that gets in the way.
And then 2 Timothy 2, 15 tells us to present ourselves before God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed.
See, when we present ourselves before God, he's going to send us somewhere. He's going to call us to do something.
We should be excited for that. We should be saying, I don't necessarily deserve, I don't deserve this.
But by the grace of God and by his power, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
We should never be presenting ourselves before God unless we are willing and without any grudge.
Psalm 102 says that we should serve the Lord with gladness. It is a privilege to serve
God. It should never be a burden. It should never grow old.
Every time you do something for God, it should be new for him. 2 Corinthians 9, 7 says don't do it grudgingly.
Do it for him. Commit yourself to come to him. I loved last week,
Christmas Day, the Sunday, and people would love to be celebrating with their families around the tree.
We have traditions that we do at home. We only had one service, but I was so thrilled.
This sanctuary holds about 220 people. I don't think there were 20 empty seats. People made the time,
Sunday morning, to come here and sit before the Lord and to be taught.
Now where did these people go? They went to a place called Shechem. First of all, this is after chapters 15 to 23.
The nation has settled the land. Actually, God has settled the land for the nation.
Joshua allots portions of land to all the tribes, including the two and a half tribes that stay on the east side of the river
Jordan. As we go into chapter 23, it says that the land was settled, everybody was in their land, and they came back.
This is a little bit later, chapter 24, and it said all the people came. They came from distances.
It wasn't like they could call Uber or get on a high -speed line. They came and traveled for distances to come together.
There is a level of commitment, and there is a level of actually accepting the burden if it takes to put yourself in front of God.
Where they went was Shechem. This is a very, very important place. It is between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebel.
There are some things that happened here. Shechem is where God gave Abram the covenant. Shechem is that spot between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebel where the ark would have resided as the people, after the battles, half on one side, half on the other, antiphonally resided the blessings and the curses with the ark in between.
Shechem. Shechem is where Jacob buried idols and built altars to God.
This is a place, a holy place, before God. When you present yourself before God, don't do it casually.
Do it with an anticipation that I am before a holy God. This is, again, a personal commitment.
Are you prepared to present yourself to God?
Is your heart submitting to Him? Are you ready to do His bidding, whatever it is that He asks you to do, regardless of the circumstances?
When you do come before Him, be prepared, because you are in front of that holy, holy
God. We come into His presence, and one of the things that's going to happen now in this book for the next 12 verses is a rehearsal of what
God has done for the people. This is significant for us, because when you come to the
Lord and you bow the knee and life continues on, knowing what God has done for you and acknowledging what
God has done for you is surrendering to what He has done, and is accepting
His sovereignty in your life. And it is so encouraging to be able to rehearse what
God has done for you as you move forward. And so I think the next thing about choosing who you will serve, it's built on the foundation of what
God has already done. It's not an empty motion. It's already knowing what
He has already done. God is a creator. God is sovereign.
He did not create and leave. He is still sovereign and still active in your life, and He foreordains all.
He is the God. I need to be asking this
God, this God that has done it, this is the one that I desire to serve.
And so Joshua 24 goes through a recapturing of what
God has done, and I found this fascinating as I looked at this section. Nineteen times you're going to see phrases like, then
I took, then I led, I gave, I gave, I plagued, I sent, I bought, the
Lord put, He made the sea come, then I bought, I gave them, I destroyed, I delivered,
I gave them, I sent them home. This is God acting for the people. And the people would rehearse this, and know this is the
God that I serve, and He's done all of this, I need to trust Him in the depths of my heart.
That passage, that section ends with these two phrases. It was not by your sword or by your bow.
Yes, I used you. Yes, you had to go forward, but it wasn't your sword and it wasn't your bow.
It was by my power. It was by my might. I did it for you. God claims ownership of what
He does. And then at the end of that full passage, and you eat the fruit of the vineyard and the olive orchard that you did not plant.
God did so much for the nation of Israel and He blessed them in so many ways.
The history of Israel starts with Abram. Beyond the Euphrates, idle worshippers called the land of Ur into Canaan and God gave them a promise of the land and of offspring.
And this passage here is going to rehearse all of this and He's going to talk about Isaac and Japheth and Esau.
He's going to talk about them going down to Egypt. This passage is going to talk about Joseph in Egypt and then being called out as Moses is used by God.
I am that I am. And they leave Egypt and it's in this passage and they go to the
Red Sea and they're confronted and the soldiers are coming. God parts the Red Sea and delivers them and now they're in the wilderness and God fought for them while they were in the wilderness.
And then God sends them into the promised land and God fights for them again. These are the highlights of the story that this passage tells the
Israelites. Remember these. Choose who you will serve because I'm that God. Now all of mankind has a similar story.
Ours is recorded in capsule form in Ephesians chapter 2. You see we were all dead in trespasses and sins walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation in time past.
Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind were by nature the children of wrath even as others.
That's who we were. Abram was in birth, the land of the idol. But then
Ephesians 2 goes on and it talks about the mercy of God. But God, then how through his plan he's going to raise us up and through his love he's going to do until we get to verse 8.
By grace you are saved through faith. That not of yourselves. The gift of God not of works.
So he fights for us and he provides for us. And the rest of Ephesians 2 talks about how we become one people.
We are no longer divided. We are one people under him to the point that we actually become dwelling places for him.
This is our story. This is who we serve. And I want you to understand something.
Knowing who you serve is far more important than doing the act of service.
If you volunteer to be an usher, if you're called to lead a small group, if you're given the opportunity to preach, who you serve is a whole lot more important than what you do in service.
The passage didn't say choose this day what kind of service you're going to do for the Lord. The passage said choose this day who you will serve.
Isaiah was a prophet in a time when Israel had lost their way in many ways.
Chapter 1 verses 3 it says, proclaims that while an ox knows its owner, this is just natural.
The ox even knows who its owner is. There should be a big but here.
Israel does not know. They don't understand. Israel is described as being a sinful nation that's turned away from God.
It is more important to know who you serve than it is to do the act of service.
We are all equipped, but what God wants is your heart. He wants you to be changed from worshiping idols to being his adopted child.
He wants you to be doing his work. Once you do that and you've made this choice of who you will serve, you have set the stage for the rest of your life.
It starts in chapter 24 verses 14. Now therefore hear the
Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the
Lord. Salvation is the beginning of our life in meaning.
In memorial services, it's not unusual to hear the dash. I was born
December 7, 1950. The Lord knows where this end date is going to be.
But in between is this dash. December 7, 1950, dash. How did you live your dash?
And that's a question that is frequently asked. A couple of weeks ago at Alice Stockland's memorial service,
I was so thrilled. There were three dates up there.
Her birth date, her rebirth date, and then her going home date.
That dash without a rebirth date does not have the
Lord with it. We're living according to the course of this world. But that dash with a third date, what you can live there is so meaningful because you've got the
Holy Spirit now dwelling within you, guiding you, teaching you. You've got these gifts that are given to you by God.
You've got all this stuff. And so now, with that rebirth date in the middle of that big dash, and you get that question, who do you say that I am?
And that answer is going to be beautiful. The Christ, the Son of the living God. One of the questions that we ask people when they're considering membership to understand their testimony.
If you're standing at the gates and Jesus said, why should I let you in? What would you say? And the answer can only be the blood of Christ.
Not, I served. That's not the answer. Knowing who you serve, not what service that you did.
And so that second half of the life, it talks about having a meaningful life as a believer.
And so this passage has some recommendations. And the first one is, now therefore fear the Lord. And I want to tell you, fear the
Lord talks about acknowledging and submitting to His authority in all things.
Not half -heartedly. And not just holding back a little bit that I've got control of.
It's acknowledging and submitting to His authority and not being self -fulfilling but changed by God.
That's somebody that fears God. And it says, serve Him in sincerity. Everything that you do needs to be done from the heart and not from a sense of obligation.
If you're here just because it's Sunday, are you here because of an obligation or are you here because you want to meet with the
Lord? If you wake up in the morning and just by habit you go into your prayer closet, wherever it is, and I'm studying the book of Psalms and I read some
Psalms and I think about it and then I break my prayer list and I go on my way. Am I meeting with God or am
I just doing something out of obligation? We are supposed to serve the Lord in sincerity.
Isaiah 29 .13 and the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips.
That sounds like it's going in a good direction. I'll read that again. Because this people said, the
Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips. Unfortunately it goes on.
While their hearts are far from me. Jesus taught in the
Sermon on the Mount this then is how you should pray. Our Father who art in heaven. You know the rest of the words.
If you just recite those words, that's not what Jesus said. This is how you should pray not what you should pray.
If you're just reciting a bunch of words that are in mass memory in the back of your brain somewhere, you're not praying, you're just reciting something.
Pray. Their hearts are far from me. And their fear of me and their fear of me is the commandment taught by me.
They are not following Christ. Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount said, beware of practicing righteousness before men to be seen by them.
If you do you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them.
If you do you'll have no reward from your Father. He goes on to talk about giving, he talks about prayer, he talks about fasting and these are all great things.
But the warning is don't be like the hypocrite who does it to be seen. Do it to the Father. Don't do it for acknowledgement.
Do it for worship. Serve the Lord in faithfulness. Having peace of heart that allows you to go where life would not explain you can go.
Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner. He had a really rough childhood.
In the 32 Olympics he was in Berlin and he was running a I think he was running the 440 and I don't know if it was a relay but he tripped.
Got up and started to run and almost caught the pack. Adolf Hitler was in the audience and he asked to meet this young man because he was so fast.
This guy was an amazing guy. World War II he was a gunner and a B -24 bomber in the
Pacific Ocean. He got shot down. Survived the crash. Survived for a long period of time on a raft.
Sharks, all kinds of stuff. Strafing. Eventually he gets picked up and rescued by a
Japanese destroyer and spends the rest of the war as a prisoner of war tortured for years.
The war ended he came back to the states. A rough life but he goes to a Billy Graham crusade and in that crusade he finds
Christ. And Christ leads him to do the most remarkable thing. See his heart was now at peace.
Everything that he could have felt towards those Japanese captors was gone. And his heart was at peace and so he went back to Japan to apologize.
I'm sorry to forgive all of his captors. And they all heard him except one. They called him the bird.
That's another story for another time. But his peace of heart allowed him to say I'm choosing who
I will serve because with the blood of Christ on my heart I can be at peace.
Colossians 3 .23 says tells us to do whatever we do wholeheartedly for the
Lord. We don't need God's we don't need man's acknowledgement. We just gotta know that we're doing it for God.
I love that phrase again in the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works but hear the rest of it.
And praise your Father who is in heaven. All about praising God. The last thing he says is abandon other gods.
Satan is relentless. He is going to find your weakness which is maybe different than my weakness but he is going to find that weakness.
I'm sure none of you have ever done this before but I have sat there listening to a sermon and read the banners on the side wall.
I got distracted. Satan knows that when it comes to distraction I'm an easy target.
God wants you to hear his word. Choose this day whom you're going to serve.
Remain true to him in your worship. Deuteronomy 8 .19 tells us not to forget the
Lord our God and not to go after other gods. You see Matthew again 6 that Sermon on the
Mount you cannot serve both masters. You cannot serve God and man and you will hate the one and love the other or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.
You either love God or you don't. And if you're not loving him completely completely then you're not loving him.
So what does this mean to us? This is a story from 3 ,600 years ago that applied to the nation of Israel.
How does it apply today? We need to be making a conscious decision. Joshua 24 16 to 18.
Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods and at the end of verse 18 therefore we will serve the
Lord for he is our God. That needs to be our profession today. There is no middle ground to this question.
There is no thinking I'm not really ready to make a decision. That's a decision to not decide for God.
You can't play games with that. You are for him. Anything less than full submission to God violates the commandment that he wants your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind.
If you're sitting here today and this hasn't happened for you yet. If you have not come to grips with the reality that you have to make this submission to God he might be asking you that question right now.
Who do you say that I am? That's a question that you have to answer.
You can't avoid. I encourage you to confess who I am. I'm a sinner.
I walk according to the course of this world. God has provided the way. His grace. I'm going to respond by faith.
Do that today. You have that opportunity. For those of you, my brothers and sisters who have already bowed the knee.
This question is as important as it is before you made the decision because who are you going to serve?
Choose this day whom you are going to serve. You see these false gods are out there and they are very dangerous.
The first thing I want you to know is that they're plausible. It talks in Deuteronomy 13 about false prophets who came in the congregation teaching something that wasn't true and it sounded good.
They led the people astray. We have pulpits today that are teaching something that sounds good but it's not.
A little bit wrong is wrong. Satan is going to send messages out that might sound good but beware.
Be Bereans. Be seeking the scriptures. Know when that message doesn't ring true.
Run from it. These false prophets are not always recognizable.
They come in as wolves in sheep clothing. 1 John 2 talks about antichrists not the antichrist but antichrists who came out from among us.
Our church is growing fast. Please be in prayer with Jeff, myself, the elders as we continue seeking
God in prayer. Please God let us be aware that Satan wants to plant wolves in sheep clothing in our midst and we need to know it.
We need to be ever diligent not to turn the keys of a care group or a Sunday school class over to somebody whose message is not going to be right.
Satan is going to take somebody and it's not easily recognized but once it gets in there it starts giving bad gospel messages.
It also appeals to your heart. Those things that just feel like they're fun. Satan loves to get your attention.
Matthew 6 21 where your treasure is there your heart will be also. What's guiding your decision?
Some people say take a look at your checkbook. It will tell you where your treasure is.
But he also Satan, the false gods, they appeal to your reasoning. See we like to be in control of our destiny.
We like to be masters of our destiny. We like to be able to say I can do it. And Satan's going to say you're strong enough.
Be your own god. He appeals to our ability to reason and to think.
Proverbs 3 5 says what? Lean not on your own understanding. Don't even go there.
And there's a new one that's hitting now and this I believe is as dangerous as the rest. False gods are going to promote unanimity not harmony.
Michael, harmony. Two notes that are different but sound beautiful together.
God does not tell us that we all have to be exactly on the same page on everything.
On the doctrines, absolutely. There's no compromise on the doctrines. But as individuals we had a congregational meeting about 20 years ago.
And at that time we were changing from the old slides projector to a slide projector.
And the question at our congregational meeting was should we have a pull down slide screen or should we reflect on the wall?
It was a horrible meeting. There was no harmony in that meeting. Satan wants you to believe that anything that could offend somebody needs to be taken out of the gospel message and the gospel message needs to be dumbed down to a level where everybody's happy.
That is not harmony. That's just not right. God's message is
God's message. The false gods are going to push you in a way. The people said far be it from us that we should forsake the
Lord to serve other gods. Therefore we will serve the Lord.
The challenge to you is where are you today? Are you ready to serve the Lord? It requires choosing to serve him in truth.
Joshua 22, 24 -22 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. And then he said put away the foreign gods that are among you and incline your heart to the
Lord the God of Israel. You choose to make this proclamation I want to serve the
Lord. Be certain what you're saying because there are going to be false gods that you may need to put away.
Isaiah was somehow transported it's in chapter 6 into the very throne room of God and there sat the
Lord on the throne and around him were seraphim and they were saying holy, holy, holy.
Drew if I get the words holy, holy, holy three times repeated the emphasis on the holiness of God cannot be denied.
If this is a holy God I better serve him in truth. It says in Psalm 5 evil cannot dwell with God.
You want to serve God get your act in order. You're not going to serve him because you're so worthy.
You're going to serve him because of him. You're not going to serve him because you deserve it. You're going to serve him because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Now here's a piece of good news. If you accept
God wholeheartedly he is still going to accept you even when you sin if you come back to him in confession.
None of us are perfect. God knows that. He is sovereign but John says if you say you have no sin you deceive yourself.
The truth is not in you. And it says but if you have sinned turn to him and confess. That's a heart that is wholeheartedly turned after God.
How does scripture describe David? A man after God's own heart.
Bathsheba? Uriah the Hittite? But God saw the heart.
There were sins but again knowing who you serve is more important than just doing the service.
I want you to know turn your heart wholeheartedly to God. Let the Holy Spirit guide you and when you find those times turn back to him.
Deuteronomy 32 makes a description of an individual by the name of Jeshuron.
It says that he had grown fat. And then it says that he had scorned his rock of salvation and he had made
God jealous. There is no Jeshuron. It is a description of Israel.
Jeshuron is just a word that's used to picture Israel. They had grown fat. They had scorned the rock of their salvation.
They had made God jealous. Don't get that far down. Turn to God. Serve him with your whole heart.
But when you make an oath to God be careful because you're making an oath to God. Don't make it dangerously casually.
Make it with a heart. Deuteronomy 23, 21. If you make a vow to God keep it.
Enter into this promise who will you serve? I will serve the Lord my God. Enter into it seriously, so seriously that you're able to proclaim with the psalmist in Psalm 139 23.
Search me O God. Know my way. Try me and know my thoughts.
Now the book of Joshua is going to end with a little bit of encouragement because in verse 31 it's going to say that they followed
God. They served the Lord all the days of Joshua. He lived to 110 years old.
They served Joshua all the days of God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived him they did what was right in the eyes of the
Lord. But here's the problem. Judges 21, 25 it's just one generation later every man did what was right in his own eyes.
1 Samuel 8 200 years later Samuel was told that the nation rejected
God in verses 19 and 20 they wanted a king to be like other nations.
The nation of Israel did what was right except they did not pass it on to their generation. I'm challenging you to do what is right.
Choose who you will serve. Part of that service is making sure your children and your children's children are ready to pass it on to all generations.
Pastor Jeff put a comment in his pastorgram this week. What motivates you to live a godly life and pursue kingdom purposes in your life?
What's motivating you? I'm challenging you today. Choose who you're going to serve. Choose by presenting yourself before God.
Choose by remembering everything that he's done and choose by making a conscious decision and devoting yourself to him in truth and then choose to tell your children about this good news as well.
Amen. Can we stand together?
I believe in Christ risen from the dead
He now reigns victorious His kingdom knows no end
Through his resurrection death has lost its hold
I know on that final day I'll rise as Jesus rose
On that day we will see you shining brighter than the sun
On that day we will know you as we lift our voices one to that day we will praise you for your never ending grace and we will keep on singing on that glorious day
By the blessed hope no one's heard and warned we will spend eternity around our
Savior's throne though we grieve our losses we grieve not in vain for we know our crown of glory waits beyond the grave
Hallelujah what a day it will be For at home with you my joy is complete
As I run I will see my
Father who is waiting for me Hallelujah what a day it will be
For at home with you my joy is complete
I will see my
Father who is waiting for me On that day we will see you shining brighter than the sun
On that day we will know you as we lift our voices one to that day we will praise you for you'll keep on singing on that glorious day brighter than keep on singing keep on singing on that glorious day
Let's go from here, serving God with a pure heart that seeks to know Him, to make
Him known, let's answer that question choose who you will serve, let it be Christ, and let us proclaim with the psalmist as we choose to serve
Him. Search me, O God know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, see if there's any grievous way in me lead me in the way everlasting