What About You?

Unity In Purpose  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  48:26
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Introduction

Moments of decision and change.
Signing Day festivities.
College. Marriage. Military.
Those moments when it is real.

God has called you to do the work.

(vv. 14-15)
Joshua continues, after reminding what God has done for them, he know reminds them what difference this makes.
“Fear the LORD” - Respect. But understand how much greater He is than you. A word that can mean to tremble. We’ve lost some of this. Maybe an exaltation of ourselves. Maybe a diminishing of our view of God. Either way, we should have this understanding of the power and might of God. We cannot approach God casually.
“serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness” - Serve = “till the ground; honor; work for someone.” You submit yourselves to someone so that you are willing to do the hard work that you are told to do. If the Creator asks you to do something, whatever it is, it is an honor to do that for Him.
To have this right relationship, Joshua tells the people that they need to set aside everything else that they worship. Some of them are still carrying out the failed faiths of their fathers. They forget or deny what God has done for them, they don’t remember, as we talked about last week.
Joshua lays out the call for the people. Me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
This moment of decision happens in light of God’s redemptive work.
This total submission to God, what we call the Lordship of Christ, is the right response because of what Jesus did for you.
Especially when we think about the personal way that Jesus redeemed us - by His suffering and death on the cross.
Consider what Christ gave up to come to the earth, knowing what He would endure. This is a cost we cannot fully fathom.
The right response is a lifetime of gratitude to our Savior.
This should impact our worship. Priority for it and the heart in it. It goes beyond just intellectual agreement of what God has done, but that there should be love to God.
How do you approach worship? Both corporate and private? Is it an obligation? Something to check off your to-do list? Something you use to pay God back?
Or is it in gratitude that we approach Him and give Him our best?

God has called you out of bondage.

(vv. 16-18)
The people are all for it! They acknowledge what is right and all that God has done for them! Therefore, we will serve Him!
When it comes to the bondage they were under while in Egypt, they were powerless to free themselves. They needed God to intervene on their behalf.
So, God brought, God did, God preserved, God drove out.
So, we will serve.
But, there is something missing here that Joshua catches. We aren’t going to worship other gods.
Worship is more than paying back God.
They use all the language that Joshua used earlier in recounting what God did for Israel. There is a knowledge of what God did, an intellectual agreement. “Yes, God did those things. So, this is what is expected of me.”
Still in our culture today there are those who on the surface appear Christian. They do all the things and cover it up well when they are in public. Because of my family, my culture, my community here at the church, I’m going to do what is expected of me.
But there has been no true regeneration, no true salvation. It’s going through motions and checking boxes.
Saving Faith is a commitment.
There are plenty of people who know how to answer all the religious questions but are not saved.
You won’t be presented a multiple choice test when you die.
But, did you trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord.
He has freed us from the bondage of our sin.

God has called you into truth.

(vv. 19-28)
Joshua calls them out for their shallow understanding of God. He is not just a God who has done stuff for you, He is a God who is beyond your comprehension. He does not exist to serve you. He worth is not predicated on what He has done for you, as though if He didn’t rescue you then He would not be worth worshiping.
God is worthy.
Before anything else, He is worthy. Before creation, before redemption, before the incarnation and crucifixion, He is worthy. Before He did anything for you, to redeem you, He is worthy. He does not have to do anything to become worthy, He already is.
“We will serve the LORD.” This time without any qualifications.
Incline your heart to the LORD. Put away the other gods (which evidently they had).
“The LORD our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” A single thought.
You take God’s worth and then you begin to add on top of that all that He has done! This creates a deeper desire to worship Him!
So, the people are called to remember their covenant. They have this stone and it represents a witness, an ever lasting marker that could not be weathered away by time or erosion. It served as a reminder that they had committed themselves to serving the LORD.

Conclusion

So, we also have a remembrance we are called to do.
Luke 22:19 ESV
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Before we take communion, we are called to examine ourselves:
1 Corinthians 11:28 ESV
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Examine for Salvation.
Examine for Sanctification.
Examine for Sin.
Luke 22:19 ESV
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Luke 22:20 ESV
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
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