2020-03-01 Joshua 24
Notes
Transcript
14 “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.
15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
16 The people replied, “We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods!
17 For the Lord our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us all along the way we went and among all the peoples whose lands we traveled through.
18 The Lord drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will worship the Lord, because he is our God.”
19 But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.
20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after he has been good to you.”
21 “No!” the people answered Joshua. “We will worship the Lord.”
22 Joshua then told the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen to worship the Lord.” “We are witnesses,” they said.
23 “Then get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
24 So the people said to Joshua, “We will worship the Lord our God and obey him.”
jsh 24:14-
I. Every week, every day, you have a choice.
I. Every week, every day, you have a choice.
14 “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.
15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
-
A. The question of every Sunday and every day is do I choose God, or do I choose anything else.
A. The question of every Sunday and every day is do I choose God, or do I choose anything else.
14 “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord.
15 But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
Illus: My hope for you every week as you come to gather with the church is that you might be transformed.
As I get up to preach, my aim is not to entertain you. My goal is to present God’s word to you in a way that confronts your sin and challenges you to live for Jesus.
Sadly transformation never happens because even though the Word of God is spoken from the pulpit, it is not never nor practiced in your life.
The call like to live for God is echoed every week at church. Will you live for God, or live for anything else.
Is you heart captured by God, or anything else.
Choose today who you will worship- God or politics. God or pleasure. God or money. God or entertainment. God or drinking. God or yourself. God or empty religious preference.
You can’t serve both.
True courage and strength is choosing to live for God with every moment of your life abandoning anything that pulls your heart away from Him.
6 “Be very strong and continue obeying all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you do not turn from it to the right or left
7 and so that you do not associate with these nations remaining among you. Do not call on the names of their gods or make an oath to them; do not serve them or bow in worship to them.
B. Do not underestimate the draw of sin in your life.
B. Do not underestimate the draw of sin in your life.
16 The people replied, “We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods!
jsh 24:
josh 14:19
19 But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.
Illus: They say to never go grocery shopping when you are hungry.
Part of it is that we u
Why? There are sub-conscience parts of you which will put things in your basket that you would not if you went with a full stomach.
Lets take the step into sin. We purposly put ourselves in places where we invite sin into our lives.
We watch television which brings murder, rape, sexual humor, nudity into our living rooms and then wonder why our hearts are darkened by those sins.
We watch fear and bias driven news shows and wonder why it is so hard for us to love our neighbor or trust in the power of God.
We are not feasting on the things of God, but instead feasting on the world and then befuddled when we struggle to live for Jesus.
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin.
15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.
Rom 7:
II. You will fail.
II. You will fail.
19 But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.
20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after he has been good to you.”
jsh 24:
A. Despite your best intentions, you will fail in following God.
A. Despite your best intentions, you will fail in following God.
19 But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.
20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after he has been good to you.”
21 “No!” the people answered Joshua. “We will worship the Lord.”
22 Joshua then told the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen to worship the Lord.” “We are witnesses,” they said.
jsh 14:19-22
Illus: How is that for positive and uplifiting. “What did you learn at church today?”, “Oh, our pastor called us a bunch of failures”.
You can’t understand Christianity if you can’t first understand your own depravity.
When you truly understand the grandeur and holiness of God, there is only one conclusion you can reach… I’m a failure.
I do have the goal today to help you see that you are failures.
For far to often we have embraced this waters down version of our faith where we believe we are good people who just need to live better lives.
We think, if I try harder and be a better person, I can make God happy.
NOPE! In fact all of your effort will lead you to failure, and all the good and bad you do is quickly moving you to face God’s unrelenting punishment.
We as people are nothing but failures in following God.
18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
B. Your failure will have dire consequences.
B. Your failure will have dire consequences.
19 But Joshua told the people, “You will not be able to worship the Lord, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.
20 If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, he will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after he has been good to you.”
jsh 24:19-20
Illus: As we aproach God we tend to focus on his Love. Which we should.
But we often focus on his love at the exclusion of his jealousy, justice, anger and wrath.
Yes, the one true God is a jealous, just, righteously angry, and wrathful God.
God does not turn a blind eye to sin. God does not turn a blind eye to injustice. God does not turn a blind eye to the wickedness of our hearts.
Perhaps the reason we have lost power and the american church is dying is because God is giving us what we deserve for worshiping any number of things except him in the church.
The bible says that when you worship other things, God will turn against you.
Money, power, things, social media, politics, entertainment, lust, gossip… you name it. We have chosen any number of things to replace God with.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
III. There is only one way to succeed.
III. There is only one way to succeed.
21 “No!” the people answered Joshua. “We will worship the Lord.”
22 Joshua then told the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have chosen to worship the Lord.” “We are witnesses,” they said.
23 “Then get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”
24 So the people said to Joshua, “We will worship the Lord our God and obey him.”
Jsh 24:
A. Christ succeeds where you fail.
A. Christ succeeds where you fail.
Illus: Today has been hopeless. pusposly.
The story is that Josua told the people to follow God and them told them they would fail. Not only that He told them God would be against them when they fail.
I’ve shared that we are in the same place today. No matter how much we want to follow God we will fail. On top of that we will face God’s punishment for our failure.
That is the foundation of Christianity.
Now.... this is where Jesus is so important. Jesus succeeded where we failed.
The Old Testament is the story of a group of people who could never follow God. It is the history of a nation who chose idols over the one true God.
That is our story too.
Jesus, God himself, became a man, lived perfectly, gave us his perfection while taking our failure so that we might get the reward He deserved.
The gospel is the story of God succeeding in our place so that we might have life.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
24 They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.