Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness

Joshua 24:14–15 ESV

“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.”

Joshua 24:14–28 ESV

“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.” But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

J

PRAY

The people of Israel, God’s chosen nation, picked out by God, before they were a nation, before they had made a decision right or wrong, God has chosen them; God has approached Abraham, in says, Abraham follow me and I am going to make you a great nation, and out of your nation, the entire world will be blessed!! Oh ,and I am going to give your decedents their own land to live in.

The people of Israel, God’s chosen nation, picked out by God, before they were a nation, before they had made a decision right or wrong, God has chosen them; God has approached Abraham, in says, Abraham follow me and I am going to make you a great nation, and out of your nation, the entire world will be blessed!! Oh ,and I am going to give your decedents their own land to live in.

Abraham said, what do I do to earn this, nothing!!

Abraham says I’m in.

Fast forward, through many decedents, slavery, and emancipation from Egypt through God’s servant Moses, followed by Joshua, faithful to God through danger and trial, and now Joshua, in his last days, knowing he didn’t have time left, calls the people of Israel to be faithful; faithful to their God.

And he is about to call them to faithfulness.

And he paves the way by hitting on all these things:

call of Abraham (v3)

delivery from slaveyr to Egypt (v5-7)

protecting them on their way to the promised land (8-10)

driving out their enemies (11-13)

God has been at work this whole time.

And so what I am going to ask of you now…Joshua is not without reason. It is not without purpose.

God has been faithful to his word will you be faithful to him!

I. Faithfulness to God is not blind faith (vv.1-13)

What do I mean?

often people will critique Christianity or any religion for that matter as a blind leap of faith!!

As if there is zero evidence to think that just faith is warranted.

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

Dawkins is a brilliant man, but he has a tendency to create a God or describe religion in a way that suites him so it is easy to knock over!

Nowhere in scripture are you and I asked to take a blind leap of faith.

Nowhere scripture ever took faith to mean anything even similar to this.

Book of Exodus is one ongoing testimony to the very present very active God of creation

Pillars of fire and cloud, parting of the Red Sea, healings, water from rocks and bread from the ground! Hundred of thousands saw it.

When we look at the gospels, we see Jesus healed sick, encountered people with names and in real geographical locations, they are named so they can be fact checked.

As Paul says in

Acts 26:25–26 ESV

But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

This was not done in a corner!!

He didn’t say, “King, just trust me on this whole Jesus thing..I feel it!!”

This was not done in a corner!!

In Paul makes it very clear that at the time of his writing about a resurrected Jesus, there were still 500 people alive who had witnessed it…no-one produced a body or any level of evidence that what he was saying was not true!

Rome has heard about it!!

The faith of christianity is trust in our God was proven himself over and over again and asked us to trust him in the future because of it. That is biblical faith.

When Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out in 1989, all the Christians were happy!

Indiana Jones was out to find the great chalice, the Holy Grail, that Christ used at the last supper, that captured his blood at his crucifixion, which offered eternal life to anyone who drank from it.

Never mind that it was a ridiculous plot-line!!

His father played by Sean Connery was a man of faith, who slapped Indiana, when he used the Lord’s name in vain, “That’s for blasphemy”

drnever mind that that was a ridiculous plot-line

and of course the entire ending of the movie was based on “faith”.

One of the three tests he needed to get to the grail room was the leap of faith. He must prove his worship by leaping from the “lions head”

He comes to a huge chasm, impossible to jump across and mutters to him self “no one can jump this”.

His dad, who is dying in the other room yells for him to believe, he mutters to himself “Jesus” - not sure whetehr it is a curse or a prayers.

And slowly but with all his weight makes a giant step forward.

On to solid ground.

And in an epic Steven Spielberg fashion the camera pans to the side to reveal that there has been a path the entire time.

although it could not be seen from his angle that did not change the fact that his faith ONLY worked because there was something there to stand on.

It was not a leap into nothingness-.

He and his father had a book that explained how things were and the way they ought to go about walking through the caves in order to live, written by someone who had done it before!!!!

It wasn’t blind, it was the word and witness of someone who had gone before.

When Joshua calls on the people of God to continue to trust him, to continue to live faithfully, he was saying this:

You have seen what God has done! You witnessed it first hand, and you have been the beneficiaries of his faithfulness, you have handed it down to your children.

Now for their health and yours I plead with you continue to walk with him!

And I believe the Spirit of God would say to us this morning:

Whatever you are walking into, wherever you have been walking, looks like there is no path ahead, do not lose your grip on Him.

What does that look like?

He lays it out here so there is no misunderstanding!

II. Faithfulness means giving and giving up (vv.14-23)

Joshua is very clear here about what it means to be faithful. Concretely what we do to show and practice faithfulness.

Living in a faithful relationship with God (and others by the way) means giving what is due and giving up those things that tear at that relationship.

Many of you have been here, making a similar commitment, when you were married, and many of you will be here soon. You will stand up in front of people dressed better than you’ll ever be dressed again and you will make vows; commitments. You will say some of the strongest words you will ever say to another human being.

And they should be done so with great thought, reflection, and fortitude, and reverence! In a ceremony very similar to what we just read.

Will you say “no” to all others, and devote yourselves to this person. Forsaking all others, in sickness and in health, and richness in poverty, when you are ticked and misunderstood and when its easy!! as long as you both shall live? The problem is, many take that as simply a ceremony to get out of the way, in order to get the prize of marriage. For many it is like the iTunes acceptance of terms, we just scroll down the page and check off the box without reading the fine print, so we can get our music.

And there are many, I’ve spoken to them this week who pay little mind to those words they declared before God and man.

Joshua 24:14 ESV

“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.

Joshua is pleading; for your health, for the name of God, be faithful to God as he has been faithful to you.

He says fear God----

To fear God is to hold him in reverence and awe and to tremble at his displeasure, knowing who he is and who we are and knowing that although he could finish us with a thought, his thoughts are for our flourishing and our health.

All those things you’ve accumulated, all those things you have placed your trust in, drop them; drop them, Joshua says.

They are man-made useless junk. You like them because they are a God you can put in your pocket!! Where you call the shots and you mold them and make them into YOUR image. Don’t go there, you know it leads to death. And will constantly tear at your relationship with god if you claim covenant with him, but still hold these in your pockets and in your hearts.

Now this would have been their excuse: But this is what we know. This is what we’ve grown up with.

Can’t we have both!

We’ve got a collection of the gods that our parents worshipped in Egypt; you know the so called gads that YHWH destroyed, and proved obsolete.

We’ll what about the gods of everyone around us in Canaan.

You know the ones that were of no help to the people when we came and YHWH. The ones they sacrifice their children to.

Are you gonna make us give all those up?

Joshua is very clear. Today is the time for decision. Will you live in the past and serve the gods of Egypt. The so called gods that enslaved you.

Will you serve the gods of those who today seek to destroy your future?

Or will you serve the true God YHWH!

PAUSE

Now the next part is comical, if it wasn’t so true to life!!

Joshua lays down the challenge! Choose!

Choose, and they are almost in disbelief!!

They sound surprised by his audacity!!

Joash 24:16-

“Far be it from us!!!!”

Joshua 24:16 ESV

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods,

Joshua 24:16–18 ESV

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.”

“Dude, we are clean. OF COURSE WE WILL!!

How can you even ask that?

We are with you Joshua!”

!1

We are with you Joshua

Now that should be it! Right?

They agree!

But he doesn’t buy it.

In verse: 19

Joshua 24:19 ESV

But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.

Man wet banket!!

“Will you do it?”

“We’ll do it!”

“No you wont!”

He is saying do not take this lightly!!!!

And do not take this lightly!!

God is a jealous God if you say your heart is his, don’t share it.

in fact it appears that even while they are saying we are in, we will worship God and him alone, they are still holding idols!!

v. 23—put away your idols

like finding your child with a box of oreos in his lap, and two sleeves gone, crumbs falling off his face.

Are you eating cookies before dinner “No way!!”

PAUSE

When you are untrue he will be jealous like a husband for a cheating wife!

He will not take lightly your worship of other gods!

This is one of the harshest of all the proclamations to Israel.

And we know from the extensive proclamations of scripture that God is in fact a God who forgives.

And does so throughout.

‘

But what Joshua is saying is that God will not put up with a double life?

If you think you can please God, by splitting devotion, by playing some game with God where we proclaim our devotion to him while crossing our fingers behind our back.

Saying, “Yes he is our God” as we push our gods deeper in our pockets,

my life is yours, but not my money

my life is yours but not my sexuality

my life is your but not my time

we are fooling ourselves, we are not fooling him, and we are depriving ourselves, not him of the life He desires to give us.

When we do that…we condemn OURSELVES to bondage to the gods of the day that would offer life and freedom while they slowly drain us of both.

What kind of God would he be if he was fine with it??!

He would not be a kind God, because he knows that they bring death!

He would not be loving if he were not jealous for us!

He would not be holy if he allowed us to share our hearts with other gods.

he would not be

So many times this week, I tried to bargain with God.

But so many times this week, many today serve other gods and try to make a deal with God, attempting to accommodate their deviations. If you are joined to your idols—your home, your car or whatever—you cannot serve God. You need to be swept clean of all the offensive material to be able to serve the Lord.

“Nearly all that we call human history …[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find

C.S. Lewis

something other than God

This is Joshua’s point.....we all serve something.

which will make him happy.”

This is Joshua’s point.....we all serve something.

There is a myth floating around today, and it was there in Joshua’s day as well, that we live in freedom when we run the show.

that that is where freedom lay.

But as my son would say........Is it though?

The Scriptures make the argument, that is very unpopular these days, and that is that.....

III. Faithfulness brings Freedom (vv.24-28)

True freedom comes in long-lasting covenantal faithfulness to something bigger than ourselves.

to something bigger than ourselves.

So Joshua takes them through a covenant renewal ceremony to recommit to God. To say no to anything less than God and his lordship.

Joshua 24:24–26 ESV

And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

Joshua 24:24–28 ESV

And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

In order to have any level of true freedom, we must give up something and we must commit to something.

That sounds counterintuitive to our time, but it’s true.

Some might say I’m not a slave to anything. Nothing has power over me. When people try to move in and take up my time, or want to get too close, I pull back and I move on. I am free!

That person is a slave to his or her own independence. And they’ll never enjoy a full level of love.

We need to be careful we do not become paralyzed by our freedom.

There comes a point when not choosing, not committing becomes a choice. Not choosing anyone means choosing no one. Not choosing anywhere means choosing nowhere. Ironically, the inability to make a choice is not freedom but slavery to autonomy.

The question is not will we or should we give up our freedoms, we all do. The question is what should we give up our freedoms to, in order find fuller life.

PAUSE

How many times have you been frozen by choice. 50 choices of jeans to buy (boot cut, skinny, slim, distressed, at peace), Subway, these sandwich artists are killing me

20 years ago you want a ham and cheese sand-which;

you are getting it on white and with mayo....enjoy!!

Now it’s What kind of bread, what kind of cheese, what kind of ham, toasted, which of the 20 sauces do you want?

Your have in line at Starbucks for 10 minutes, drive-thru at Wendy’s for 10 minutes and you get to the order winder and say inevitably after all the time to look at the menu..the first words out of your mouth are.........(breath) “...um”

When is your freedom felt, when you haven’t committed to something or when you have?

When you have settled on a choice!

PAUSE

The revelation of God is that true freedom means finding the proper constraints. Settling on the right constraints, the ones that bring life!

If you try to free a fish by emancipating him from his water....he is dead!

And when you and I try to live in ways contrary to how God designed us.....that leads to death as well.

Faithfulness like a band wagon hockey fan!!!

blow the dust off our jersey!!

In the Hidleberg Catechism

‘To Enjoy God and........

In all other religions, they say if you want to be “saved” you must PERFORM the truth and do enough good works to earn your way into God’s favour and love, and thus also into Heaven. That’s not what the Gospel says at all. Verse 10 in says that God loved us first before we ever made a decision to love Him.

And when you and I try to live in ways contrary to how God designed us.....that leads to death as well.

The successful dancer, pianist, friend, and spouse all say yes to commitment and therefore must say no to many other things, if they want fullness in their area of commitment.

PAUSE

Joshua pleads with the people of Israel, follow the God who has proven himself. Find in him the God who will not exploit you, but who wants to see you have life and life more abundantly, because you are submitting to the life giver, like a fish submitting to the water around him!

PAUSE

SLOWLY

And you and I, see in the person of Jesus Christ something fascinating. We see first, he greatest revelation of God’s heart; God in human flesh. And we see an unprecedented event in history, the submission of God to something else.

Joshua was saying, do not serve these false gods, they take and take and take from you, and give nothing in return; just death.

Jesus proclaims the same to you and I, do not be constrained, ruled over by false gods, beliefs, ideologies, and don’t take the good that God has given money, marriage, success, and make them ultimate....that is idolatry

money, marriage, success,

Before YOUR kingdom, Jesus says, seek first the Kingdom of God,

because it is the only constraint that bring freedom and fuller life

Tim Keller says it this way in his book, Making Sense of God

he says..... Jesus is the only God who does not exploit you!!

....

QUOTE

PRAYER

how do our lives reflect His faithfulness to us?

If we have been grasped and changed by the faithfulness of God; who has declared covenant with us; eternal loving sacrificial relationship with us, brought about through the person and work of Jesus Christ, it MUST take ahold of our lives.

marriage - we

Jesus - what he has done?

How then shall we live?

How will we find freedom, autonomy?