Choose This Day (3)

Big Idea: Based on the truth of the covenant God made for you, choose this day whom you will serve. 

Introduction

Choices. We make them every day. Some are good; some are bad. Some feel like impossible choices.

Example:

Would you rather. . .

Have the ability to see 10 min into the future or 150 yrs in the future?

Find true love today or win the lottery next year?

(husbands, right answer is: I’ve already won the lottery by finding the true love sitting next to me!)

Give up air conditioning and heating for the rest of your life or give up internet for the rest of your life?

Lose your sight or your memories?

Get a paper cut every time you turn a page or bite your tongue every time you eat?

Have skin that changes color based on your emotions or tattoos appear all over your body depicting what you did yesterday?

Be in a zombie apocalypse or a robot apocalypse?

Some should be no-brainers:

Have a good life or a miserable life?

Walk down a dark alley with the Rock or Kevin Hart?

Have the resources of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg or a $3/hour raise?

Have access to the world’s best medical team and facilities or instant access to Web MD when you need it?

Have an attempted kidnap rescue by the Rock or Kevin Hart?

Live next door to the O’neil’s or Barnes’?

Explanation

O’neils stole from our family.

Barnes’ helped put out our fire.

What makes these choices no brainers?

knowing more about the options.

seeing the contrast between the two.

We’ve been walking through the Book of Joshua, and we’ve seen:

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At the end of Joshua’s life, he calls the leaders and people of Israel together to renew the covenant God had made with the people of Israel. This isn’t the first time Joshua has reminded the Israelites of the covenant God made with them - in chapter 8 Joshua reminded Israel of God’s covenant with them by reading the the Law of Moses.

Here in chapter 24, Joshua is at the end his life (these are the last recorded words of Joshua - He’s 110!)

Joshua 24:14–15 (ESV) 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.”

Choose this day whom you will serve.

These are some of the last words of Joshua

He has all the people before him - men and women, young and old, rich and poor, leaders and servants. . . everyone.

As he is about to die and they are about to settle in the Promised Land, he reminds them they have a choice to make.

He calls them to make the choice with urgency, clarity, sincerity, and personally.

“Because of the reality of what God has done through the covenant, you must make a choice.”

14 “Now therefore. . .

We will see the same for us - “Because of what Jesus has done through the resurrection, you must make a choice.”

The time to choose Jesus is NOW.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

When Joshua said to choose this day, it was not as though the choice was optional.

There were no atheists in Joshua’s day. It wasn’t a matter of IF they would serve a god; rather, it was which god they would serve.

It is not as though the Israelites were indecisive - currently neutral but currently taking applications as to which god would be the best to serve.

ILLUST - How many of you have an indecisive child? Everyone else has ordered their food but your one child just can’t seem to decide, and you say “Choose this day (or some day this week!) which menu item you’d like to eat.

Joshua has led them in faith this far - he cannot make them live in faith. They must each choose and own their faith

ILLUST - owning my faith.

Joshua is saying you need to choose NOW because you can’t expect to worship Yahweh and the other gods at the same time.

Their options were the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

They cannot be in a relationship with all of the gods — they need to COMMIT, and the time to commit is THIS DAY.

ILLUST - on 12/22/00, I made a decisive choice - i committed to Christine. It would not have gone well if, on the day of the wedding, I said I would commit mostly, on these days, but there are other women I’d like to keep in the mix as well.

What do you think Christine would have said? CHOOSE THIS DAY! Make a decisive choice.

The same is true for us today.

You can’t stay neutral about whom you worship.

An atheist is actually an intellectual pharisee.

They claim no faith exists, yet they live by faith every day.

They claim they serve no god, yet they look to science to give purpose, they seek money to provide, they pray people will give happiness, and they sacrifice for themselves.

We are all worshippers — we worship the Creator or the creation.

You will worship by default or by decision.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Matthew 6:24 ESV

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Following Jesus is exclusive.

Maybe you’re not an atheist, but have you decisively committed to Christ?

There are no fence-sitters in eternity.

The choice is NOW.

Choose THIS DAY - if not today — when? What are you waiting for?

Choose THIS DAY - not tomorrow. Not when you think you have life all figured out. Not when you can no longer figure life out on your own.

As Joshua calls them to choose, he expects them to choose with clarity.

The word “choose”

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament 231 בָּחַר

The root idea is evidently “to take a keen look at” (KB), thus accounting for the connotation of “testing or examining

For Joshua, the reason to choose the Lord as the one to serve was clear.

Yahweh had saved them.

This follows a covenant renewal.

Joshua 24:3 ESV

3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. . .

At least 21 times of “I. . .“ of what God did for Israel in verses 3-13

In doing so, Yahweh had put to shame the other gods that are at option for the Israelites.

Choose the “gods” that have been proven to be weak and ineffective since God has overcome them in Egypt and in Canaan.

The fact that they are where they are shows God is more powerful. That is the truth they cannot deny. Now they must make the choice to follow Yahweh or trust in what they know will never work.

Would you rather. . .

Serve the God who heard your cry of slavery in Egypt, came down and led you into freedom with mighty power over the gods and leaders of Egypt. Who provided for you every single day the bread and water you needed to survive. Who cleared the way for you have life you could never have secured for yourself. Who promises to continue to love you, care for you, protect you, and provide an abundant life for you, or would you rather serve the “gods” of the people who wanted to enslave and destroy you?

Seems like an easy decision!

Sometimes the easy decision is not always the attractive decision.

Israel will be lured away by the attractiveness of the gods of the people around them with all of their empty promises.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t end up well for Israel after a while.

Joshua 24:31 ESV

31 Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.

Judges 2:6–11 ESV

6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. . . 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

Maybe you can relate?

You started out well. You might even say you once believed in God, now you are not so sure. And if you’re honest, things are not turning out the way you had expected.

How many times this past week did you (and I) return back to what we know won’t work - how many times do we act like Jesus is not alive?

The reason to choose Jesus is clear.

He is risen back to life

1) that Jesus died by crucifixion;

2) The tomb is empty

3) Very soon afterwards, his followers had real experiences that they thought were actual appearances of the risen Jesus;

4) that their lives were transformed as a result, even to the point of being willing to die specifically for their faith in the resurrection message;

5) that these things were taught very early, soon after the crucifixion;

6) that people who opposed Jesus became followers of Jesus after the resurrection — James, Jesus’ unbelieving brother, became a Christian due to his own experience that he thought was the resurrected Christ; and the Christian persecutor Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) also became a believer after a similar experience.

He is risen to give life

The old covenant meant Israel had all that God could provide

The New Covenant means we share in all that Christ has secured.

Choosing Jesus requires everything so he give you everything.

14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

The word tāmîm connotes the idea of wholeness, blamelessness, integrity, even “perfection,” and thus Joshua’s exhortation is a passionate one that the people should be totally devoted—blameless—in their worship of their God. The first part of v. 14 contains a concentration of theologically freighted words: the Israelites should fear (yrʾ) the Lord, and they should serve (ʿbd) him with integrity (tāmîm) and truth (ʾĕmet). Joshua was urgently impressing on the people what they should do.

 Howard, David M., Jr. 1998. Joshua. Vol. 5. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

When you choose Jesus, you choose him as Lord 

Matthew 16:24 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus took up the cross and gave everything — his life for you to be apart of the New Covenant.

Jesus could not be resurrected until he had died. Seems obvious but it is vitally true.

You cannot fully live in resurrected life without dying to self.

Now that he is raised back to life, he calls you to follow him by taking up your cross, by giving him everything:

Fears

Hopes of how you plan to direct your life

control over your relationships

your identity - not worrying about what others say, listening to what HE says about you.

So he can give you everything.

When you choose Jesus, you choose:

Freedom

Eternal life

Life in the full now

Grace

Forgiveness

Love

A new name

A new family

A new life

A new purpose

the resurrection confirms this!

Conclusion

Would you rather:

Choose Jesus and trust that what he has done on the cross is enough for you to know you’ll be with him in heaven OR try to be as religious and moral as you can and hope that perhaps it is enough for God to pardon you (which Scripture is clear it is not)?

Choose Jesus OR hope you have enough wisdom of your own to navigate life?

Choose Jesus OR keep looking to others to tell you your worth?

Choose Jesus OR wander through life trying to find or make a purpose for yourself?

Like the leaders and many of the people of Israel, you may have been to many Easter services, you’ve heard the story of what Jesus has done to have a relationship with you. The difference today, though, is you do not need to be reminded anymore — YOU NEED TO CHOOSE!

For some of you this may be the first time that the story of Jesus makes sense. Like the people of Israel, you know God has been at work in your life, you just weren’t sure how to put it all together.

And like Israel, today is the day you must choose where you will place your trust for life and eternity — on your best, your money, your morality, your religion. . . or Jesus? CHOOSE THIS DAY!

Maybe today is the day to own your faith. To stop expecting to be led and to CHOOSE

Perhaps today you need to commit to leading your house to choose Jesus.

The way to choose is to trust Jesus — making a conscious decision to trust Jesus in such a real way that it shows as a change to your words and actions.

Will you and your house choose Jesus?

The resurrection is real. Jesus is alive. Choose Jesus.