Choosing Who You Will Serve - Joshua 24

Communion, the Last Passover, and the New Covenant

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.

But, Lord, I pray that as Pastor Jeff asks us to set some goals for the new year, 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 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.

To setting sun, your greatness.

Glory far exceeds.

All human for name. In verse 8 of Psalm 62, it says,.

Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge. Let's sing together.

My soul will wait.

Glory of his 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's done.

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 a 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 and 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 and 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 feast, 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. And 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 is coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

It's 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 plagues were in Egypt was the deliverance of a nation from a wicked kingdom that was enslaving it, 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 cooked the bread after the Passover that they celebrated, and He was going to introduce the New Covenant to them.

He cooked the bread, and He broke it, and He passed it among His disciples. So let's do that now. Gentlemen.

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. He said this was His blood.

Pour it 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.

Choosing Whom You Will Serve in Joshua 24

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 the 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 flock.

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.

At 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.

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 Rancocos 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, a 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 to 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 his followers. 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. And 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.

Presenting Yourself Before God

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 2 1⁄2 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, 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 Ebal. There are some things that happened here. Shechem is where God gave Abram the covenant. Shechem is that spot between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal where the ark would have resided.

As the people, after the battles, half on one side, half on the other, antiphonally recited 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? And when you do come before Him, be prepared because you are in front of that holy, holy God.

Rehearsing What God Has Done

Now 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.

19 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 worshipers 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 dead, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

We're 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 his 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, and he wants you to be doing his work. Because 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. And then there's a, 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.

You ought to be 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. 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. 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?