Covenant Renewal

Introduction

I did a quick search for the most popular home decor quotes or sayings in Canada. I’m going to be careful not to be too critical. I remember that Pastor Darryl very controversially declared that only crunchy papenate was acceptable and the backlash he received...ha, ha.

The most popular:

“Live, laugh, love.”

“Happiness is homemade.”

“Dogs welcome, people tolerated.”

Amongst the homes of Christians the list was a bit different and I can remember a few of these. I remember in my grandparents home had a picture that was like a rug material and on it was written the passage from Psalm 23 - “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want...”

The most popular was the verse found in Joshua chapter 24. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

That’s a great verse to have in your home.

Turn in your Bible’s to Joshua 24 starting at verse 14. This passage is often titled Covenant Renewal, and that will be our focus. As we look into the new year how can we meaningfully reflect on the commitment we’ve made to Jesus.

Joshua 24:14–18 ““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. 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.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.””

Pray

v.14-15a - Abraham and the story of the idols (Remember God’s Faithfulness)

We are going to examine what covenant renewal looked like for the people of Israel so that we in turn, as we begin the new year can ourselves reflect on the commitment that we’ve made to Christ and how we can ensure that we stay true to this commitment and encourage others to do the same.

Joshua 24:14–15 ““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. 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.””

The first thing we can do to commit to a renewed focus on the commitment we’ve made to Christ is to ‘Remember God’s Faithfulness’.

In this passage Joshua is reminding the people of Israel about their past. How many generations ago their ancestors lived on the other side of the river and served other gods.

There is a rabbinical legend that I found regarding the father of the nation of Israel, Abraham, and his experience with these gods.

There are ancient legends that say Abraham served the Lord God among the idol worshippers that he was raised among. One legend says that Abraham’s father Terah was an idol maker and seller with his own shop. One day Terah had some business to do, so he left Abram in charge of the idol shop. While his father was gone, Abram took the biggest idol and set him in the middle of the shop floor. Then he put all the other idols in a circle around the biggest idol. Then Abram took a hammer, smashed all the smaller idols and put the hammer in front of the one big idol that was still standing. When his father came home, Terah was angry and asked Abram why he smashed all his idols. Abram explained that it wasn’t he who did it; it was the one large idol with the hammer in front of it. Terah became even more angry and said, “Abram you know that that idol is nothing but a statue and can’t do anything like that.” Abram answered, “Yes father, that is true. If they cannot do anything, why do we make and sell them for people to worship as gods?”

It would take great faith to believe that this idol picked up the hammer smashed all the others.

Romans 1:22–23 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Joshua, in this address, is not calling the people to a great leap of faith. Joshua spends the first part of chapter 24 recounting Israel’s history. Beginning with Abraham and his father Terah lived beyond the river and worshiped other gods. God called Abraham to be set apart and gave him a great promise, that he would be the father of a great nation. He reminds the people about the enslavement of their ancestors in Egypt and how God worked miracles to bring them out of bondage, through the wilderness, to the Promised Land.

All of these events were experiences of their ancestors. Their miraculous escape from Egypt would have been experienced by their parents and grandparents and no doubt the people before Joshua in chapter 24 would have grown up hearing these stories.

Then Joshua talks about experiences that this same group would have witnesses and been a part of like the conquest of Jericho.

Joshua is not calling the Israelites to take a great leap of faith in deciding whether or not they will renew their covenant with God. He reminds them of the miraculous work and faithfulness of God that they themselves witnessed.

Many people seem to believe that being a Christian requires, perhaps among other things, a “leap of faith” which, to them, seemingly, means a sacrifice of the intellect, a leap into the dark, so to speak, against all reason.

Here is my answer. Becoming and remaining a Christian requires a “step of faith” rather than a leap of faith. And that step of faith is not unique to Christianity. Throughout life we do many things that require a step of faith. A person who commits himself or herself to another person in marriage always takes a step of faith—from feeling and reason to commitment, not knowing with absolute certainty how that is going to turn out or if it is even absolutely the right and best thing to do. The same is true of having a child, especially adopting a child.

There is much evidence and reason supporting the truth and reliability of basic, “mere” Christianity. But committing oneself to Jesus Christ requires a step beyond evidence and reason into, not the dark, but the “arms” of Jesus Christ.

In remembering God’s faithfulness we take a step of faith. What’s involved in taking this step of faith? Leaving all that hinders us behind:

“Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates., the Egyptians, the Amorites” Getting rid of the idols of the Egyptians would be have been they way they were raised because that’s how their parents were raised. There would have been customs and traditions that would have been harmful - filled with lies. For us, many of us will have traditions, customs, ways of thinking that are harmful - that aren’t God honouring. Joshua says to the Israelites that they have to let that Egyptian stuff go. We need to identify and remove the ways of thinking and experiences that have shaped us in a way that is not honouring to God.

The gods of the Amorites are a reference to the gods of the Canaanites - the place that they now reside and Joshua again says that they need to remove these idols. These are like the idols that we set up based on the culture we live in now. The people we spend time with, conversations we have, those things to which we give our time. We need to discern what aspects of our culture and not God honouring and ensure that they don’t

1 Corinthians 10:14 “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

Psalm 16:4 “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.”

God wants the peace to multiply in your life not sorrow.

Joshua is telling the people, today is the day that you must chose. Are you going to take that step of faith and trust God, or are you going to abandon God.

Notice that he tells them it’s one or the other. You will choose God or you will reject God. You will either step toward God or away from him.

Joshua is putting a spiritual fork in the road. This day you will choose. It’s the same thing Moses did when he came down the mountain with the 10 commandments. He came down and saw that though he was gone only a short time the people had set up a golden calf and were worshiping this golden calf instead of the Lord and Moses said, ok this is enough you need to choose. We’re not going back and forth here.

Are you going to chose the idols of your past? Are you going to chose the idols of this world? Or are you going to chose a faithful God.

And in this Joshua showed his confidence in the Lord by saying...

v. 15b - need to make the decision every day (Declare yourself for Christ every day)

Joshua 24:15 “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

Joshua says to choose this day who you will serve!

I feel like I should do this in the mornings. It’s only recently that my son has started to sleep in - teenagers am I right. I think I need to wake him up each morning with a “CHOOSE THIS DAY WHO YOU WILL SERVE!”

No, I won’t do that, that would be crazy.

I remember when I was growing up we had the stuffed cow that would laugh if you pressed on it. The loudest most annoying laugh and my dad had a habit of throwing it into my sisters bed in the mornings - which was great.

But we need to raise our kids to choose this day. The best way to do that is for you as parents as aunts and uncles and cousins and church members for all of us to Choose this day!

I’ll be the first to say it. As for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord.

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, spiritual parents, foster parents, teachers, entrepreneurs - As for me and my house we’re going to serve the Lord.

Young people - as for me and my future house we’re going to serve the Lord.

Joshua is making a vow to the Lord.

Have any of you ever renewed your wedding vows? My in-laws renewed their wedding vows a number of years ago...in Vegas...with Elvis...likely not the real Elvis. I think for them it was something fun but at the same time was also meaningful.

But what would happen if you renewed your wedding vows every day. Originally where I was going with this analogy was that it would be incredibly obnoxious for us to renew of wedding vows everyday.

But as I though more about this, I think many of us do this. When you say ‘I love you’ are you not renewing that vow? Love is a choice. When you say I love you, you’re saying, “I choose to love you today’ and I choose to love you tomorrow and the next day. I think many of us actually do this already and we should.

But how many of us do this of God. Lord I love you and I choose you today.

As a Christ follower we should be this every day. God I choose you today. This is not to diminish the work Jesus in my life when I was saved. When I committed to Jesus after AWANA in that old building over there and my mom prayed with me to make that commitment, I was saved - justified. Forever in the arms of Jesus. And I find the certainty of salvation in that commitment but I also find assurance of salvation in the commitment I make right now. God I choose you. Tomorrow, I choose you. Each day we need to choose Jesus.

This is the second thing we can do to renew our commitment to Jesus. Declare yourself for Jesus every day.

v. 16-18 - why did the people fall away? (Experience God’s Leading)

Joshua 24:16–18 “Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.””

I would imagine that Joshua was able to give quite the motivational speech and after he makes this powerful declaration the people of Israel make a passionate response - we also will serve the Lord.

But only a short time later, we see this all change. Turn to Judges chapter 2

Judges 2:6–13 “When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 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. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 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. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.”

Why did they fall away so quickly?

“...a generation rose up that did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel.”

They remembered no longer the faithfulness of God and they neglected to rely on God.

In response, God declares that he won’t abandon Israel. Instead he will test them and they will be forced to rely on him.

We live in a helicopter parent generation. And this may have existed in a previous generation, and some of us do this better than others. I loved to point out the helicopter parents before I had a kid of my own. As a parent it’s hard to know when and how to give your kids freedom to learn and explore.

When carter was 5 or 6 he loved to ride his dirtbike. And I remember a time that we had a number of people over and Carter was driving his dirtbike around the backyard and he was just a bit too young to be able to make quick decisions for the speed he often went and he wound up crashing and he was crying and holding his arm and I remember telling him he was fine - walk it off. So, he did, but then a couple of hours later I was watching the kids run around and Carter was running after everyone but his arm was limp beside him. We thought, oh no maybe this is serious. To make a long story short, we brought him to the hosptial and he had a cast the next day.

*show pic of Waterton hike.

This picture was taken this past summer at Waterton National Park. Carter and I hiked up to the top of this mountain. On the other side is a cliff that goes about 800ft straight down. I don’t like heights but Carter kept wanting to get closer and closer to the edge and I kept having to yell at him to get away - you don’t need to look down over the edge.

We often think about this in term of physical safety but for ourselves and our families, are we thinking about and pursuing spiritual growth or spiritual safety.

We often put in place for ourselves physical goals like: I’m going to win the hockey championship this year, or I’m going to win a medal at track and field or for those of us that are a little older: I’m going to run a 5K or a marathon, or I’m going to commit to coming every week to floor hockey or pickleball. These are great but how often do we set challenging spiritual goals. Goals that we aren’t sure we can accomplish on our own.

I was listening to a podcast with Josiah Queen, who is pretty famous Christian singer - I’m sure many of you are familiar with him. In that podcast he talked about how his wife committed to telling someone about the gospel every day for one year. And she did it. She had lots of stories of failure. Many stories of success. Many really bizarre stories. But at the end of that year if someone were to ask her how the past year went, what a story she would have to tell. Are we missing out on the amazing story God has for us because we are content being spiritually safe and afraid to pursue real spiritual growth.

Israel became weak and forgot God’s faithfulness to them because the generation before them made it out of Egypt. The generation before them made their way through the wilderness, the generation before them conquered Jericho and Ai. The current generation sat back with their feet up. Thanks mom and dad, grandpa and grandma.

May we seek God’s direction this year for ourselves and our children to make room for God to tell an amazing story through this coming year.

Conclusion

I told you that the temptation for many of us is that we seek spiritual safety and in doing sacrifice spiritual growth. So, I’m going to make things uncomfortable for you.

In a minute I’m going to ask some of our spiritual leaders in this church to come to the front few pews here and pray and lay hands on people.

When Moses called Joshua to lead the people of Israel he was called to lay hands on him. And throughout scripture we see that laying on of hands and prayer for the ordination into specific ministries, for healing, the receiving of the Spirit.

In 2 Timothy 1:3-7 Paul speaks to Timothy, one of the leaders in the church about the laying on of hands.

2 Timothy 1:3–7 “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

I really like how the King James translates verse 7: "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."

That’s what this is. It’s not to receive an ordination, or a to receive a special pouring out of the Holy Spirit. If you’re saved the Spirit is in you right now. The purpose is the stir the Spirit within you that you would keep the idea of renewing your commitment to Christ at the forefront of your mind as you go into this year. Just as Jesus lay his hands on the children when they came to him and prayed for them this is a chance for our leadership to show you compassion and provide encouragement.

So, if you’re willing pastors, pastors wives, deacons, I would like as many of you as possible to come to the front pews. I know many of you have young children and like I said this is a surprise. So I know you can’t all come but if you feel the prompting of the Spirit to come and pray please come to the front.

We’re going to have a closing song. When I close the service I’m going to ask that whoever wants to can come to the front and receive prayer. A prayer of encouragement as we move into the new year. Maybe you want prayer for a family member, someone that wasn’t here that needs this truth in their lives. Maybe you aren’t a believer and you want to talk and pray, please come to the front after close.