Courageous Service

As we get started, I want to play a game with you. I’m going to give you two choices and I want you to pick one of the two choices. The first choice is: Coke or Pepsi? I’d choose Pepsi. Next choice: Cubs or Cardinals? I choose Cubs. Next choice: Mountains or the beach? I choose mountains. Next choice: Skydive or Scuba dive? I choose scuba diving.

Life is filled with choices. You made a choice today to come into the building or join us online for our worship gathering. You can choose to brush your teeth, take a shower, go to work, mow the lawn, buy a car. You have choices.

As we come to the close of the book of Joshua, Joshua offers the people a choice. Our text is Joshua 24.14-15 which says:

Joshua 24:14–15 NIV

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Did you hear what he said in Joshua 24.15, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” Notice how Joshua begins verse 15, “If serving the Lord seems undesirable (the word is evil or bad) to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” In other words, Joshua is saying, “If you don’t want to serve the Lord, then choose whatever you want.” He gives them three choices. First, You can serve what you saw from your family in the past. Second, you can serve what’s popular around you. And third, you can serve the Lord.

The first choice Joshua gives the people is to serve what they saw in their family from the past. Two times in these two verses Joshua talks about “the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates.”

Joshua may be calling back to the early chapters of Genesis where there was an older man living in that area named Abram. God called Abram away from the River and into the land he will show him and make him into a great nation as described in Genesis 12. God called Abram out of that land of worship to the promised land to worship the one true God. Tod Bolsinger points out that God chose Abram, but Abram still had a choice to accept God’s invitation (Leadership for a Time of Pandemic, p. 28).

Joshua highlights the gods of Egypt as well. Most of the 10 plagues that God sent to Egypt as he brought out his children from slavery were attacks on the gods of Egypt. However, when you live 400 years with a people, something is bound to rub off. So, it is quite possible that the children of Israel were still tempted to go back to what was familiar from Egypt.

One choice is to serve what your family served in the past. I can remember going to my dad’s parents to visit grandma and grandpa. I have fond memories of them and loved them dearly. Every Saturday lunch at grandma’s, we would have Oscar Meyer hotdogs with the cheese inside, spaghetti O’s, and Lays potato chips. I also saw things that didn’t seem right. They said words that I knew I wasn’t supposed to say. They drank things and lots of it that I know I wasn’t supposed to drink. The picture I have of my grandpa is him sitting in his lawn chair after a day of work for the Henry County Highway Department with his orange work shirt on a can of Hamm’s beer in his hand. I also noticed that he and the other men in the house would talk down to my grandma in a mean and degrading tone. That was the environment my dad was raised. He had a choice. Do I follow the ways that were presented to me or is there another choice?

The second choice Joshua gives the people is to serve what’s popular around you. In Joshua 24.15, Joshua offers to the people that they can serve the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. So, if you don’t want to serve what has been handed down to you from the past, then you can serve what is popular around you in the present. Look around at the people in whose land you now live. Follow their gods. Worship at their shrines.

Listen to how Joshua describes the dangers of their neighbors who do not honor God.

Joshua 23:12–13 NIV

“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.

Did you hear how the popular culture of the day can affect God’s people? The culture that does not honor God’s values of truth and love and respect can become snares and traps, whips and thorns in your eyes.

It is possible that the people of God were serving both God and the gods of the past or the present. They were saying, “Yes, we’ll follow you Joshua and the God who has rescued us, but the gods of the past and present seem to help us too. We’ll just worship both.” They had made a choice and said, “We’ll take helping of God and a helping of these others, just in case.”

Today, we live a land where everyone can follow the god of their choosing. Truth is relative. Spirituality is fine as long as you don’t push your religion on me. We live in a culture where everyone seems to be right. So, line up your God of the Bible next to our gods and let’s all get along and be happy.

Then, there’s an increasing group called the “nones.” These are not our female Catholic friends. The “nones” are those who define themselves with no faith affiliation. A survey a couple of years ago showed that a growing of majority of Americans chose no faith affiliation or none of the above. The questions surrounding religious teachings and the positions churches take on social and political issues seemed to be most important reason why they did not affiliate with a faith group. However, the survey did reveal that the “nones” do believe in God with only 8% saying they don’t believe in God as the primary reason they are unaffiliated. The survey can be found here: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/08/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion/.

Joshua is quite clear. If you think serving God is evil and there are many people around us who think that is true, the you can serve what is popular around you. Joshua gives them another choice.

But, there is a third choice that Joshua gives the people. The third choice is to serve the Lord. Listen to how Joshua concludes Joshua 24.15, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua says, “You are free to choose who you want to serve, but for me and my family we will serve the Lord.” The mark of a good leader is to lead by example. In other words, I’m not going to force you to serve the Lord, but I’d like you to join me in serving Him.

My dad had a choice. His family wasn’t serving the Lord when he grew up. His mom would send my dad and his brothers to Sunday school when they were young. Grandma attended worship after my grandpa died. My dad could follow what was modeled at home or he could follow what he saw modeled at his workplace. However, as a young father, he chose to step into waters of baptism on a Labor Day weekend in 1990 and say along with my sister and me and confessed that we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. In other words, that day in those baptismal waters, my dad declared, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

That choice came with consequences. My grandparents thought we were too religious and looked down on our family. It put a rift between my dad and his family because he chose to serve Jesus in word and deed. Our family took a decided turn that weekend. Dad became a fully surrendered follower of Jesus Christ. As a result of his quiet example, he is able to point to two generations of Christ followers in his children and grandchildren.

The people replied in Joshua 24.18, “We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God.”

Joshua lays out two expectations for serving God. In fact serving God was so important to Joshua that he mentions “serve or serving” six times in these two verse and fifteen times in this chapter. The two expectations for serving God are fear and repentance. Said another way, to choose God, we must respond and renounce.

Joshua challenges the people to 1) Respond to the Lord and serve with all faithfulness and 2) Renounce all others and serve the Lord. In a sense, Joshua is assuming the role of an attorney and proceeding to his closing argument pleading for a proper verdict for his client (Trent Butler, Joshua, p. 272).

Joshua challenges the people to respond to the Lord and serve with all faithfulness. Joshua uses the words, “Fear the Lord.” He wants the people to have a proper attitude toward God. This God who has defeated enemy after enemy and fulfilled His promises is worthy our worship and awe. The proper response is to serve with all faithfulness.

Throughout Joshua, the people had a front row seat to the power of Almighty God. He parted the Jordan River at flood stage and they walked across on dry ground. They marched around Jericho and blew their horns, but it was God that brought the walls down. In Joshua 10, God provided extra daylight and sent hailstones down to win the victory. It was the Lord who won the victory and is worthy of our fear and honor. We can respond in holy fear with faithful service.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says, “A habit must be established before it can be improved.” He speaks in the context of starting a habit that can be accomplished in 2 minutes or less. So many people don’t even get started because it seems too big to complete. So, if you choose to serve the Lord only, then what does that look like? What simple habit could you start this week to confirm your choice? Maybe you start this week by placing a Bible on the dinner table. That’s a simple choice. Next week, you get a bookmark and bookmark the chapter we are teaching from in our worship gatherings. Start the habit, then improve it. You can fill in the blank for your family situation.

Joshua also challenges the people to renounce other gods and serve the Lord.

What habit in your life is taking your attention away from the Lord? Has that habit taken a foothold to distract you from the faithful love of God?

In Joshua 7, Achan took some of the spoil from Jericho that was supposed to be dedicated to the Lord. God stated to Joshua that you cannot stand before your enemies until you “take away the devoted things from among you” (Joshua 7.13). In Joshua 24.23, Joshua challenges them again, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

Israel and now the church are called the bride of Christ. In the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom are called to renounce all other relationships to be faithful.

If you choose to serve the Lord, then you will respond with a holy fear or reverence and you will throw away what stands in the way of the healthy relationship. The result will be faithful service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Another Joshua was faced with a choice when the tempter came. He was given three choices, at the conclusion of that showdown we read in Matthew 4.10.

Matthew 4:10 NIV

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6.13 where he pulls the same words that Joshua gives the people: worship or fear the Lord and serve. The tempter was promising Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Jesus combats that with the words of worshiping the Lord and serving Him only. In other words, those kingdoms were not his to give.

Worshiping and Serving the Lord is something that will continue through all of eternity. Listen to the final chapter of the story in Revelation 22.3.

Revelation 22:3 NIV

No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

Dominant Thought: Serving the Savior Leads to the Promised Land.

5 Day Devotional Guide

Dominant Thought: Serving the Savior Leads to the Promised Land.

You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:

What are you thankful for today or this week?

What challenges are you facing?

Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.

Can you summarize this passage in your own words?

What did you discover about God from this passage?

What have you learned about people from this passage?

How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)

With whom are you going to share what you have learned?

Based on this passage, what can we pray about?

Day 1: Joshua 24.1-4

Day 2: Joshua 24.5-10

Day 3: Joshua 24.11-15

Day 4: Joshua 24.16-28

Day 5: Joshua 24.29-33

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