Joshua 24:15

Good morning Hope Hill! I say this every Sunday but I mean it every time when I say I am truly excited to be with you this morning! Now, before we get to the subject of our preaching this morning I have to catch you up to where we are In the scripture.

If you don't know who Joshua is, you kidof have to go back to Moses and the time he spent with God liberating the hebrew people from Pharoah and his tyranny (Go watch Prince of Egypt if you need a crashcoarse with a fire soundtrack) anyway, Joshua is the one who took over for Moses in leading the Israelites after all of that to the promise land.

Joshua was a strong leader... he was a courageous leader... In Chapters 1-4, he succeeds in leading God's people where Moses could not. It was Joshua who ultimately led the lost generation of former slaves to the promise land. However, when they got there, they were surprised to find that there was still some work to be done.

Chapters 5-12 describes how, with God as his guide, Joshua led his armies to conquer the grand fortress of Jericho... the town of Ai... and eventually the control of all of central, southern and northern Canaan just as the Lord had promised them.

Finally, in chapters 13-24, the newly conquered land is divided up and distributed amongst the twelve tribes of Israel. And just before he dies, Joshua issues one of the greatest challenges to his people.

in Chapter 24 verse 15 where he says,

Joshua 24:15 NIV

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.”

So with the brief time that I have, we are going to talk about some...

House Rules

Growing up in my house as far back as I can remember, we, as a family were passionate about... spades... You heard me right, Spades. The card game... We didn’t just wait for when the family came over for a holiday or event. we would bust out the spade table just because it was Tuesday. and don't you dare act like you don't know what the spade table is because you couldn't play on a regular table. When I play my big joker, I need you to feel all of it! I need to be able to slam that thing on the table and not have to worry about breaking something 'Cus I need all of your little feelings hurt.

Anyways we would bust out the spades table on any given night and commence in a game... It was one of my favorite things to do growing up.

and eventually I got comfortable enough and confident enough that I went out into the world with the skills I had developed at the house... but I learned very quickly that there are different ways of playing depending on where you go.

There were different house rules.

You know what I'm talking about. No matter where you ended up, you are not gonna walk into someone else's house and change their house rules.

I am preaching already and y'all don't even realize it

Now there are certainly some universal rules. Like, I don't care what you do or where you came from... you are not gonna sit here and talk across the board.

But depending on where you go, you may accidentally play a spade and all of a sudden you hear “spades stick!”

At Some houses we play deuces wild, but at my houses a two is a two so play that mess thinking it’s a spade if you want to but it'll get ate up around here!

My point is that there are different strokes for different folks and no matter what your house rules are, you were passionate about them.

but don’t miss the ministry in the message because our house rules are so engrained in us that its often difficult to comprehend doing things any other way.

Like walking up to a foreign monopoly board and the savages don't put money under the free parking! (That's us by the way. We play the actual rules. Look it up!)

But, when you walked into that home you had to respect the law of the land. You had to respect the rules that were established in that place.

Joshua told the Israelites “if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve;”

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

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.”

In other words, if you think my rules are unfair then my friend you need to make a choice.

Make a Choice

We don't have to go deep on this one.

· We have to choose exactly who we are going to serve

· Choose who we are going to submit to

· Choose who and what we are going to prioritize in this world.

I'll be the first to admit that choice is hard. Making a definitive decision is sometimes challenging.

My point is, making a decision is difficult, and I get that. But there are some things we cannot straddle the fence on.

Chose you this day... It was an easy choice when momma was dragging us to church whether we liked it or not. But now that we're grown and out the house, it's time to choose.

You can't serve the Lord on Sunday and serve the State of Florida Monday through Saturday.

You can't serve the Lord on first and third Sunday and serve the Cowboys on second and fourth.

You can't serve the Lord just when it's convenient for you, or when He fits into your schedule. No, chose you this day who you will serve.

Matthew 6:24 says that, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other..."

Matthew 6:24 NIV

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

It's time to choose!

And when we are making that choice, it's important that we, as the old folks used to say, don’t forget where we came from.

Don’t Forget Where You Came From

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

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.”

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve;" But watch what Joshua says next, He says, "… the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell..."

That choice seems easy enough, but the problem was that the Israelites had grown complacent...

1 : self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies

2 : an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction

In other words, the Israelites had just gotten too comfortable.

They had settled into their new home in the promise land and messed around and forgot all that their forefathers had gone through to get them there.

They had forgotten the generation before them that suffered under Pharaoh's wrath.

They had forgotten the generation that wandered with Moses in the wilderness, relying only on the mana that was sent from on high.

And that’s just like us... Sometimes we feel like we have "arrived"

· when we have gone through a storm or two and made it to the other side,

· when we've crossed our red sea,

· when Pharaoh and our enemies are far behind us,

· We tend to forget what it was like before we got to where we are... somehow some way we forgot where we came from.

I wear a suit to work every day... and I don’t have to. I work in a casual office environment. And they talk about me sometimes. But I just laugh because you just don’t know where I came from.

· I remember being unemployed

· I remember having to choose between buying diapers and buying formula for my son.

· I remember not having enough gas to make it to Church on Sunday

· I remember sitting in the dark when the lights were shut off

· So I will not apologize for giving honor to God for blessing me with a good job

· I will not apologize for showing my gratitude by giving my absolute best every single day

· You just don’t know... My suit is my testimony

· I’m walking around praising God every day and they just don’t realize it

That’s why it's so important that we don’t forget where we came from!

Joshua 21:45 NIV

Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

Joshua in chapter 21:45 says, "Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass"

To Joshua, it was unfathomable that some of the Israelites would choose to worship any other God other than the one who brought them so far from so much.

How on earth could one possibly go backwards and worship the gods of the other side of the flood when our God brought us through the flood... on dry land?

How could they worship the gods of this new Land when its only because of our God's promise that we made it at all?

If you know where we’ve come from, how on earth can we go back to our addictions... to our obsessions.... how can we go back to our sinful past lives when Jesus Christ, a man without sin or fault of his own, died a brutal death on a cross and got up three days later for those very sins to be forgiven?

Jesus died for us

· How dare we go back to the gods of alcoholism,

· the gods of adultery

· the gods of idolatry

· the gods of promiscuity

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

When Paul declared that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

How can we continually revert to these little gods of the past when they have proven to failed us time and time again?

· We serve an awesome God who promised that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

· We have an awesome God who is the same today, yesterday and forever.

· We have an awesome God who will never fail us!

How dare you go back and forget where you came from!

...

We have to make a choice... we cannot forget where we came from... but if nothing else we have to take a stand.

Take a Stand

Joshua 24:15 NIV

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.”

This is the part that everyone shouts about. Joshua concludes this verse by stating "… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

That, ladies and gentlemen, is as clear a statement as one can make.

This is a declaration.

I don't care how you look at it, I don't care how you translate it, I don't care how you analyze it... there is no other interpretation. Joshua said he and his house will serve the Lord.

But don't lose sight of the fact that these are Joshua's house rules, and he does not speak for all of us.

Let's make sure we are excited for the right reasons. Because it's up to you, it's up to me to determine if this is as true in our house as it is in Joshua’s house.

Joshua let everybody know what the rule of law is in his house.

But what about your house?

In my mom's house, you don't walk around all over the place eating and drinking. She'll tell you quick, sit down somewhere.

And it doesn't matter if you're 2 or 82, those are her house rules.

The generation before us didn’t tolerate certain things in their house.

I care how long ya'll been dating. If you don't have a ring on your finger, ain't no spending the night.

As a matter of fact, you couldn’t even sit in a room in their house with the door closed.

Because those were the house rules.

Now that I'm grown and the leader of my house I have my own house rules.

If you live in my house and you eat my groceries and breathing in my air conditioning, you were going to serve the Lord.

Because as for me and my house... that includes my wife, Ethan, Zoe, the cat, the dog, the mosquitos... We will serve the Lord our God... and not just any Lord

· I’m talking about The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

· I’m talking about Ezekiel’s Wheel in the middle of the wheel

· Moses bush on fire

· The great I Am

· The one true and living God

And if you live here and you don't like it, you can find another house to live in and make your own house rules.

As the world crumbles to the pressures of society around us... As we are asked every day to sacrifice a piece of our morals here and a portion of our religion there...

And we are told that we have the freedom of religion, as long as it doesn’t offend somebody...

Well, Are you willing to stand like Joshua and say “for God I’ll live... and for God I’ll die?”

Will you take a stand like Peter? Will you look to Jesus and declare “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God...”

***As we all stand in this place this morning... is there anyone here who needs to make that declaration. to bring Jesus into your life?***

Jesus...

Who was born of a virgin,

who ministered and performed miracles,

who hung bled and died on an old rugged cross,

who stayed in the grave all day Friday, and all Friday night,

all day Saturday, and all Saturday night, and got up early... Sunday morning with all power in his hands,

the one who is coming back for the righteous.

The song says On Christ... the solid rock I stand

All other ground is... sinking sand

I don’t know what the rules are in your house, but as for me and mine, we will serve the Lord.