Sermon Tone Analysis

*WHO WILL YOU SERVE?*

*Joshua 24:14-15*

*January 11, 2009*

 

      By nature I am a stranger to brevity when it comes to the preaching event.

But today I want to pass on to the young people present especially the advice and challenge which Joshua gave in his farewell address to the children of Israel.

You will find these words in *Joshua 24:14-15*:

      On the day of the Scripture passage before us, the people of Israel had been shaken from the shackles of slavery in Egypt.

They had heard the mighty acts that had lead to their deliverance; and after 40 years of nomadic life in the wilderness, they had taken possession of the Land of Canaan.

No longer were they a scattered people, but each tribe, except the tribe of Levi, now had an identifiable track of land which it could call its own.

The people of Israel had indeed come to “the place for which their fathers sighed.”

Having witnessed the mighty acts of God through the lens of their historic past and having thought of themselves as *God’s chosen people*; it seems strange that Joshua would say to them, */“Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve!”/*

*I.

The Problem of God.*

The problem is that God is ultimate reality, but He has to be *received* and *expressed* in a *cultural* *form.

*Many of us over forty years of age can believe in a God who conquered slavery and slam-dunked segregation, but have difficulty relating to a God who allows *“freedom of choice!”*

Yet, *how much we love* this thing called “*freedom of choice*.”

What we don’t like is the *responsibility* that accompanies our choices, especially when the */consequences/* of our choices take us sideways.

So we rationalize: “I came from a dysfunctional family.”

My mother never told me that she loved me.” “My father was never there; in fact, I don’t even know my father.”

“The devil made me do it” (Flip Wilson).

Perhaps for too long we have */indulged/* in this thing called “freedom;” making choices without bearing the responsibility of those choices.

Here in the United States we have the *Statue of Liberty* on the East Coast.

Maybe what we need is a *Statute of Responsibility* on the West Coast.

We could all then choose to live somewhere between *Freedom */and/ *Responsibility!*

*II.

Making the Transition.*

The *God of Israel*, Yahweh (Jehovah), was thought of as a nomadic God; He followed, or more correctly, *lead* Israel in their wanderings as “a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night” (Exodus 13:21).

Yahweh* *was a *God of War* as He brought down the walls of Jericho and destroyed the Canaanites.

He was understood by Israel as a *nomadic* and *protective God*.

But here in the Land of Canaan, Israel no longer had to wander.

Their enemies had been conquered.

They did not need protection.

They were ready for a new cultural experience and their God must be relevant to this experience.

They knew that Jehovah was a masterful war machine.

He had proven Himself a warrior many times.

But can Jehovah grow corn?

Is He culturally and socially relevant?

These were crucial questions.

The choice was real and urgent: *“Choose for yourselves this day who you will serve.”*

*      *This is the structure of the problem that many young people face today.

They listen and learn the simple lessons about God in Sunday school.

They sing, “Jesus loved me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.”

They have parents who cushion them from the bumps and bruises of life, and everything just falls in place for them.

But when children enter their teens; when they start experiencing basic biological changes which are accompanied by urges that are real and demanding; when those “understanding” and “indulgent” parents which always said “yes” when they were under twelve, start saying “no” and start setting up limits when youth get in their teens; at this point they enter the “land of Canaan.”

Having been thrust into a new cultural situation; the question for young people becomes whether they will serve the God of their earlier years or will they seek an understanding of God which is compatible to their real-life experience?

Unfortunately, we do not have the option of whether to have a “god,” our choice is which “god” will we serve?

Man is by nature a “religious” animal and cannot live without “religion.”

That is, he cannot live successfully or otherwise without a system of values and a structure of meaning.

But whether that system of value or structure of meaning is adequate for his total life situation is another question.

The question is never whether one has a “god,” the question is /which/ “god” will he serve?

Joshua did not know if Jehovah could grow corn?

He was old, and did not know if God would embrace the culture of this new generation.

He simply said, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

Joshua’s commitment rested in the fact that he knew the God of his historical past.

He knew the God of Abraham who left his homeland in obedience though he did not know where he was going.

He knew the God of Jacob who was forced to leave home and after twenty years exile from his family, met God in a deserted place on his way back home.

He knew the God who responded to the groans of Israel as she suffered under Egyptian slavery and gave her liberation.

Since Joshua knew the God of his historical past, he could trust Him with and in the gross uncertainties of the Land of Canaan.

*Conclusion:* We need not know what God will do in any given situation, but we can trust that God will address that circumstance.

God may not take away a burden from your shoulders, but may simply give you stronger shoulders.

He may not take away the heartaches and the grief, but he will fortify your heart to absolve them.

He may not remove the deep darkness which may surround you, but He will be you light in that darkness.

“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.”

(James Weldon Johnson)

*I don't feel no ways tired; \\ I've come too far from where I started from.

\\ Nobody told me that the road would be easy; \\ I don't believe He brought me this far to leave.

(James Cleveland)*