“Choose Whom You Will Serve”

Last Week Recap:

Last Sunday we examined Joshua 10:12-15 where we examined Joshua Calling out to the Lord and asking him to stop the Sun and the Moon so that the Israelites could take vengeance upon their enemies…

The two key points that were presented were:

1.) The Israelites experienced VICTORY because of the LORD

2.) God’s GREATEST act was the CROSS and FORGIVING sinners

This week we are in our last 4th and final series in the Book of Joshua…

We will be looking at Joshua 24:14-15… but before we dive in it is important for you to know and understand that we always ask two questions when discussing God’s Word…

1.) What is God teaching us through this text or passage?

2.) How does that teaching apply to us today?

With those two questions in mind… please follow along with me as I read Joshua 24:14-15,

“14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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.”

For those of you who did not know, Joshua Chapter 24 is the last chapter in the book of Joshua… in fact, towards the end of this chapter in verse 29 we are told that Joshua dies at the age of 110 years old… I bring this to your attention because, verses 14-15 are some of the last words spoken by Joshua to the people of Israel… therefore, if they are his last words, you would think Joshua would tell them something worthy of his time and breath, you would think that Joshua would use his last words to tell them something important… and he does… leading us to point #1……

POINT #1) We should FEAR the Lord and SERVE him in SINCERITY and in FAITHFULNESS

In verse 14 Joshua says, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the Gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord”.

In this verse we see two actions:

- Fear the Lord

- Serve the Lord

And two attitudes or attributes on how to exercise those actions:

- In Sincerity

- in Faithfulness

What does it look like to fear the Lord?

FEAR = “to regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of”

In other words, the word fear in this sense is not talking about being in complete and utter dread or scared of God… It is not speaking about being afraid of God in the sense that leads you to be anxious, worried, or afraid of God…

Rather… this Word fear is referring to feelings of respect and reverence… leading us to be in awe of God and putting him in a place of exaltation and in our hearts…

This is not referring to a fear that leads someone to a place of anxiety, dread, and left afraid

This is a fear that leads someone to a place of respect and reverence, leading someone to a place of awe and exaltation in our hearts and lives

We see this same word FEAR being used in 2 Kings 17:7, “Now this happened because the Israelites had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods”

Example #1:

My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to go to Europe for a week on vacation… for those of you who do not know… my wife loves to go on vacation… anytime… any place… anywhere…. she loves it and thrives for vacation… in fact, I would argue she likes planning the vacation just as much… if not more than actually being on the vacation… I on the other hand… do not like vacation… I like my home… my bed… and I cherish my routine… So for me… the highlight of a vacation is when we go out to eat… towards the end of the vacations I will literally start to excited about home… and Brooke will literally go into a slump and low grade level of depression… All this to say… we ended up gong to Europe… and because my wife knows that I am not a huge vacation person… she set something special up for me in Europe… She bought tickets to a PSG game against Marcel… For those of you who do not know… at that time Lionel Messi, Namor, and Mbappe were three superstars and world class players who just so happen to be on the PSG team…

Lionel Messi is the person that I have idolized my entire life… he is the player that I fell in love with and could not stop watching his highlights … he is the hands down the greatest player to every play the game… if you think of I am wrong … you know nothing… …

When we went to the game… We had fantastic seats… probably 4 rows from the corner flag… the pitch (not field) was absolutely beautiful… Then the players come out for warm ups… and I can see my favorite player of all time - Lionel Messi - strut onto the field… all 5’6 of him… stunning brown beard… sick nasty leg tats … and every touch he had was flawless during warm-ups… soccer in Europe is like our American football but on steroids… the fans were going crazy… and the game meant more than just a match up to the people in France… it was literally a lifestyle…

All this to say… in the second half PSG wins a corner kick… and Lionel Messi is the one taking the kick… and I can see him clearly… He is 4 rows from me… and for a moment… all of time stands still… all of my soccer dreams are fulfilled and I have reached the pinnacle of anything soccer related because I got to witness and see the player that I treasured, idolized, respected, and viewed as the most important and in my heart I had a great reverence for him and I exalted him above any other player in my heart… You see I adored, respected, and valued Messi so much that I was left in awe and wonder at actually seeing him… I could not believe what I had witnessed and I could not stop from exalting Messi in my heart… it was incredible… in the soccer world there is no one that I respect, worship, exalt, and view as the greatest other than Lionel Messi…

And friends… this is the kind of fear that Joshua is asking us to have towards our Lord and God…

The kind of fear should lead us to have an overwhelming respect, adoration, honor, worship, and exaltation of praise that leads us in awe of God because of what he has done through his Son Jesus Christ on the cross of calvary.

If you are left undone and in awe from all that God has done for you in Christ… then you do not fear the Lord…

If you do not fear the Lord… you are not in awe of all that the Lord has done for you…

If you are not in awe of what God has done for you… then you do not realize all that he has done for you in Christ Jesus…

IF you are someone who is not left undone… completely blown away by God sending his Son Jesus to die for you… then you are someone who does not fear, exalt, or cherish all that Christ has done for you…

The other action we see is in Joshua 24 is the call to serve…

Joshua 24:14 says, “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord”

That Word SERVE means = “to serve a deity by doing various commanded religious practices, especially rites (rituals) and ceremonies”

This is a key piece to understand because the Israelites were prone to wonder away from the God of Isreal and serve other gods from surrounding people groups through religious acts, practices, rituals, sacrifices, and ceremonies… So Joshua is telling the Israelites, hey do not wonder over to and cling to the other gods that neighbor us… do not fall into the trap of the traditions of other tribes… rather, remember the religious practices, rituals, and ceremonies that God calls you to practice towards and for God alone…

Now it would be easy to think to yourself, Tanner we do not perform the same ceremonies and practices that the Israelites did… we do not sacrifice bulls, goats, or lambs… we do not burn incense or oils or pleasing aromas unto the Lord… you are correct… but we still are called to partake in religious practices today… such as:

Prayer

Reading Scripture

Partaking in Communion

Worshiping the Lord

Being apart of a congregation of Believers - his Church

Helping others

Loving our neighbors as ourselves

Partaking in these things does not save you… rather, they point to a heart that has already been saved and to a heart that fears the Lord…

In other words, true worship and servanthood to the Lord comes from a heart that exalts the Lord and is in love with the LORD…

Some of us sitting here today do not look forward to or get excited about reading our Bibles, praying to the Lord, Loving others as ourselves, and being apart of church because we do not have a heart that loves what God has done through Jesus Christ…

I know I talk about her a lot, but I can not help it… I hang out with my wife not because I am obligated to… Not because I have to or because I fear people will think that I am a bad husband… rather I make time for wife, I do the things my wife asks me to do, I listen to my wife and we live life together because I love her… She knows the worst things that I have done… and yet she still loves… so I listen to her, I hang out with her, and I do life with her because I truly love her, not because I am obligated to do so…

… My love for God propels me to fear, worship, exalt, respect, and honor the Lord… leading me to serve the Lord out of a place of love and gratitude

Psalms 63:7-8 says,

“For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

POINT #2: We may not have images of stone to WORSHIP, but we do CHERISH our IDOLS

In Brad Bigney’s book - ‘ “Gospel Treason” - he defines the term idolatry for us. He defines it as this:

ER

The reason I bring this up is because every single one of us at one point in time have allowed something other than God Capture our hearts, minds, and affections…

That could include:

friends

popularity

family

kids

parenting

family expectations

sports or athletics

hobbies

education or doing well in school

future plans and careers success

money

material things

vacations

comfort

self0-image and creditability

relationships and feelings for others

Any and all of thee things have the potential to capture our hearts and minds instead of God…

I am just as guilty as anyone… in high school and middle school my affections were captured by popularity, sports, and a relationship…

The older I get… my affections easily shift towards comfort, success, money, and self image - making sure that I am viewed in a great light as a husband, father, and youth pastor…

And I can either choose to place God on the throne of my heart and idolize and him… or something else in this world..,

And know this… we are always searching and looking for something to idolize in our lives … in fact, there is always something placed on the throne of our heart… the questions is, if it’s not the LORD… then what is it?

And you may be someone here who is honestly thinking… tanner I really do not know what I value the most in my heart… I would challenge you to pray to the LORD and ask him to reveal it to you and then look at where you spend all your time, effort, money, and energy… because what you prioritize will point to what captures yours plans, purpose, and the pinnacle of your heart…

In fact, I can remember when Brooke and I broke up in college… after like 7 years of dating… Brooke and I broke up and my life was flipped upside down on its head…

You see Brooke had capture my plans, purpose, and the pinnacle of my heart…

I wanted to work in business to provide enough money for us and our family to live a lifestyle that was comfortable

I defended and protected that relationship more than anything else…

I had planned my hopes and dreams in what we would do and the places we would go…

I was so dependent upon Brooke that I really was not sure who I was…

I wanted to do things to make her happy and because that fueled my happiness……

I knew God and loved God… but he was not on the throne of my heart…

but when we broke up my eyes were opened and I could see God’s grace in breaking us up because he allowed me to see that he was no longer on the throne of my heart…

And friends, even though I am talking about my heart and how easily it wondered… the Israelites were no different… they would chase after other gods that would allow them to do the things that they wanted or the things that they desired… rather than following the Lord with the entire heart…

We worhsip and idolize what we cherish most… is what you cherish most the Lord and Jesus Christ?

Because if it is not, you will not choose to follow him… rather, you will choose to pursue and chase after anything else that you think will fulfill you…but it will only leave wanting more… and lead you away from the only one who can truly satisfy you - Jesus Christ and the LORD…

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