DON'T WASTE YOUR SERVE

Introduction

-{Joshua 24}

-I read a story about James L. Kraft, who was the founder of Kraft Foods, and it talked about how, when he was a young man, he had a desire to be the most famous manufacturer and salesman of cheese in the world {everyone has their own dreams I guess}. He planned on becoming rich and famous by making and selling cheese and began as a young fellow with a little wagon pulled by a pony named Paddy. After making his cheese, he would load his wagon and he and Paddy would drive down the streets of Chicago to sell the cheese. As the months passed, the young Kraft began to be discouraged because he wasn’t making any money, in spite of all his long hours and hard work he put in. As he tells it, one day he pulled his pony to a stop and began to talk to him. He said, “Paddy, there is something wrong. We are not doing it right. I am afraid we have things turned around and our priorities are not where they ought to be. Maybe we ought to serve God and place him first in our lives.” Kraft then went home and made a covenant that for the rest of his life he would first serve God and then would work as God directed. Kraft did just that. He served the Lord faithfully, including being the Sunday School director in his church. And this is how Kraft assessed things, saying, “I would rather be a layman in the North Shore Baptist Church than to head the greatest corporation in America. My first job is serving Jesus.”

-Please do not misunderstand the moral of that story. I am not saying that if you put Jesus first you will be successful in all you do. That is never a guarantee and is never found in Scripture. But understand what Kraft realized. He realized that if he were to stoop to focusing his energy and service on anything that is lower than Jesus, then his service is being wasted on the wrong things. And, quite frankly, when we put time and effort in serving anything or anyone else (be it ourselves or the things of this world), we cannot truly be successful or satisfied in anything that we do. Our first priority is serving God.

-The Israelites had to come to this realization just as we do. In our passage Joshua challenged the Israelites to make a decision between a life of service to God or a life of service to that which is lesser and minor and secondary. And this is the principle I want us walking away with today: If our life is not dedicated to serving God, then our life is wasted on serving the inferior. That is, we are wasting our serve.

Joshua 24:14–24 ESV

14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” 19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” 23 He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”

-{Prayer}

-There are several considerations I want to touch upon today to get us thinking about how we serve, why we serve, who we serve...

1) The worship implanted in service

-There is a theme woven throughout this passage. Yes, it entails service. In fact, if I counted correctly, the word “serve” is used at least 14 times in what I read. But we need to see the context of the service. The context of service is the related theme of worship. In fact, when you look in Scripture as a whole, worship and service are connected and/or they are used interchangeably. What this means is that the two go together. Worship entails service, and when you serve you worship. So, to utilize some other Scriptural phraseology: What God has joined together let no man separate.

-So, for example, when Jesus was tempted by the devil and the devil says he’ll give Jesus authority over the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would worship him, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13 and says:

Luke 4:8 (ESV)

8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ”

-Do you see that—worship and serve. Or, think about what Paul says is our reaction to the wonderful truths of the gospel. Paul says:

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

-The NKJV and others say WHICH IS YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE. The NASB/LSB put it together and say WHICH IS YOUR SPIRITUAL SERVICE OF WORSHIP. The word there means worshipping God by serving God. Or, I suppose, the inverse is true, when you serve God you worship God. You will find this same thing throughout Scripture both in the Old and New Testaments.

-You can’t separate worship from service—but us 21st century Christians sure try our hardest. Because we have turned our concept of worship into a spectator sport. I will sit in the pew or stand in the church and watch the worship team up on the stage do worship. And then I can leave the church and feel good about myself because I can say that I went to worship. But that is not the biblical concept of worship. Yes, we sing His praises, but if you are not serving God you are not worshipping God—your praises are falling flat. And so we have to see in this passage how worship is implanted in the concept of service, and vice versa. If you truly want to worship, then you will serve.

2) The motivation behind our service

-So, the context of our passage is that Joshua is dying and he is giving them a final challenge about what they are going to do when he is gone. He wants them to choose to serve the Lord, but he’s going to give them their options. You can serve Yahweh/Lord, or I suppose if you really wanted to you could serve the gods of your ancestors that they served before Abraham was called of God, or you could serve the gods of the Egyptians.

-But the way Joshua is putting it is that you have a privilege of serving Yahweh God, but I suppose if you wanted to you could serve these other gods, but I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that. I mean, that’d be like choosing a mud pie over a perfectly cooked steak. Why would anyone want to stoop so low? Why would anyone waste time serving them? So, to help them with the decision he gives several reasons why they should choose to serve the Lord—what their motivations ought to be.

-We can have a lot of wrong motivations—maybe we just want a good reputation, or we’re wired to be people-pleasers, or we want to build a network. But Joshua lists several good motivations to serve God:

a) Fear of the Lord

-In v. 14 that is the first thing out of his mouth: FEAR THE LORD. This concept is found throughout Scripture: we’re told that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Again, quite often, the concept of fearing the Lord is associated with worship and service.

-Fear of the Lord is an awe and reverence with regard to His nature and character and power. Yes, it does entail a sense of fear in our common understanding of the word, but for those who honor and worship Him it’s not like a terror, but a healthy respect for who He is and what He can do. Let’s face it, God has the power to just wipe us all out if He so chose to do so—but He doesn’t choose to do so. You have to fear and respect that kind of power and it ought to motivate you to do right, but it doesn’t keep you from approaching Him.

-It’s like a healthy relationship between a child and a parent. As a parent I was not some sort of tyrant that my children were were terrified of me. They knew they could always come to me with anything. And I also tried to live a life of integrity that they could look up to. But they also knew in the back of their minds that I had the power of discipline. So, there was a respect, hopefully, for the person as well as the power.

-Because you so revere and respect the Lord, you want to serve Him.

b) Gratefulness toward the Lord

-In vv. 17-18 the Israelites recount all that God did for them as a people. He brought them out of Egypt, took them out of slavery, did great signs, drove out the people out of the land, etc. This was them saying: God has done such great things for us, out of gratitude we are going to serve the Lord.

-In the readings that we have been doing and the passages that I have been preaching I see this as a recurring theme: remember what God has done for you and let that motivate you to obey Him and serve Him. And God has blessed us in so many different ways—count your blessings, name them one by one as the hymn says. But the greatest gift given is the gospel of Jesus Christ—Christ died, Christ risen, Christ returning. Sin forgiven, death defeated, life bestowed. The great acts of God in our lives, and the great salvation that He offers, is a motivation.

c) Holiness of the Lord

-In v. 19 Joshua reminds them that He is a holy God. As theologian J. I Packer says it, when we call God holy, we are saying that He is set apart from creation and is to be an object of our awe, adoration, as well as fear. “It covers all aspects of his transcendent greatness and moral perfection and thus is an attribute of all his attributes, pointing to the ‘Godness’ of God at every point.”

-God’s holiness is a reminder that He is not just “one of the boys” (so to speak). You can’t just treat God like anybody else. He isn’t like anybody else. God is God and there are none like Him, there is no other. So, we cannot ignore Him like we do so many others. We cannot just take Him for granted. We cannot treat Him like an object of our use. He is a God that will not be ignored. And so, this holiness drives us to serve Him. Joshua also mentions the...

d) Jealousy of the Lord

-In v. 19 Joshua says He is a jealous God. I know we probably hate using that word for such a holy God, but it’s because of the negative connotation we associate with the word. But what it means for God to be jealous is that He knows that He is the greatest good in the universe and the greatest good for His creation. Because He is holy, He deserves and demands complete and utter loyalty, and He will not share the affections of His creation with anything or anyone else because there is none greater. He is fiercely protective of His name, His reputation, His character, and He will not share His creation with anyone else.

-Think of it this way. What if I told my wife that even though I love her and all, I’m also going to go out on dates with other women and I might marry three or four of them, but I’ll be sure to show her some affection too here and there. Do you think she’d have a justified jealousy? Actually, she’d say hit the road Jack. But because of who she is, because she is my wife, she deserves my complete loyalty, and she would be rightfully jealous otherwise.

-Why would or should God share our affections and service with anything or anyone else? If the concentration of our service is with something or someone else, it can’t be concentrated on the greatest good, and God is jealous for our well-deserved loyalty, and therefore service. So, we have a lot of motivations for serving God. But when we do serve God, Joshua speaks about...

3) The attitude underlying our service

-It’s one thing to say with our mouth that we will serve the Lord, but it’s a whole other thing to do it and do it with the right attitude flowing from the right motivations. Because if our motivations are messed up, our attitude in serving God will be wrong. If my motivation is selfish, then when things aren’t going the way that I think they should, then I’m going to be a whiny, complaining, murmuring brat. But if my motivations are in alignment with God and His Word, then I will joyfully serve Him in whatever capacity He places before me. And there are a few descriptions that Joshua gives about what our attitude is like when we serve God.

a) It is devout

-In v. 1 it says to serve God with sincerity. The word refers to a completeness, a totality. It’s talking about not being double-minded about your service to God. You are not just saying that you will serve God, and then you actually go and feed into all your selfish and worldly desires. You say that you are going to serve the Lord and you do it wholeheartedly. You don’t treat it as a light thing. As the saying goes, if you’re going to do something, you do it right. If you are going to serve God, then you do it right. And closely related to that...

b) It is consistent

-In v. 14 it says to serve God in faithfulness. Some versions will say to serve God in truth. The word speaks about someone who is reliable, whose word you know is true. It speaks to dedication and integrity. When you say you are going to do something, you faithfully see it through. So, these two descriptions together speak of loyalty and dedication, devoutness and trustworthiness; doing things wholeheartedly and faithfully.

-Now, you notice that I haven’t given a lot of specifics on how to serve God, because there are innumerable ways to serve God. One way (and this is only one way) is to serve in the ministries of the church. I know with COVID things kind of were tossed to the side, but we’re going to be bringing a lot of things back. And, just as a reminder, you can always serve God by serving in the nursery (hint, hint). And we need volunteers at the Easter Carnival in a few weeks (hint, hint). But let me tell you something about serving God through His church. If you are going to do it, then do it devoutly, wholeheartedly. If you’re going to do it, then do it right. (I’m not saying do it without making mistakes, because I always make mistakes.) I’m saying do it with the right attitude.

-And I say that because some people take on this attitude that since ministry is just volunteer work at the church, I can slack off or sluff it off, I don’t have to take it seriously. I can just not show up to something that I said that I would do because it’s just church. Or, I don’t have to put any actual effort into it because it’s just the church. Let me ask you, would you go to your job or last long at your job with that kind of attitude? I don’t think anyone would. Then what makes you think that serving God through His church is somehow on a level below that? You would put more effort into the worldly than you would for God? When you serve the church you serve God, and would you look God in the face and tell Him that He’s not worth the effort? Then what makes you think that you can treat His bride as unimportant?

-Now, on a different rabbit trail, you don’t have to wait for the church to set something up to serve God. You can go out in the community and find ways to serve God yourselves. You can find someone in need. You can find a charity that needs help. The church is one outlet, but it is by no means the only outlet. But the question is if you’re serving God somewhere and doing it with the right attitude?

Conclusion

-So, Joshua gives them the choice. In v. 15 he tells them to choose this day whom they will serve. Yahweh God or other gods. The Israelites make a knee jerk reaction and say, OH YEAH, SURE, WE’LL SERVE YAHWEH GOD. And Joshua makes an astonishing statement in v. 19, telling them they aren’t able to serve Yahweh. He’s challenging them to really think about what it is they are committing to. Or, as Jesus put it in the gospels, count the cost. And they still say, yes, we will serve God. And Joshua had made his choice. As for him and his house, they are going to serve the Lord. But it’s not just religious lip-service, it was going to be actual doing things—actual serving God through service on this earth. That would be their worship, and they would do it with the right motivations and the right attitudes. They wouldn’t just lounge around, they wouldn’t give their service to something meaningless, they would serve God which has eternal consequences.

-Author Ted Engstrom told about a time he was cleaning out a desk drawer and found a flashlight he hadn’t used in over a year. He flipped the switch but wasn’t surprised when it gave no light. He unscrewed it and tried to take the batteries out, but they wouldn’t budge. Finally, after some shaking and hitting, they came out but it was a mess. Batter acid had corroded the entire inside of the flashlight. The batteries were new when they were put in the flashlight, and they were stored in a safe, warm place. The problem is batteries weren’t meant to sit around and be warm and be comfortable. They were designed to be turned on, they were designed to be used. And it is the same with us. We were not created to be warm and safe and comfortable. You and I were meant to be used, to serve, to let our light shine.

-Or another way of putting it is what one person called basin theology. What basin theology refers to is the choice you have. Pilate had a chance to acquit Jesus, but he called for a basin and washed his hands of the whole thing. But Jesus, the night before His death, called for a basin and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples and be an example of service. Which basin will you pick up?

-Sure, you could kick back and have a life of ease and comfort, and serve yourself all the delights the world has to offer—just wash your hands of any responsibility you have toward God. But you were made for so much more than that. You were saved for so much more than that. Why waste your serve on things like selfishness or the pleasures of this world, when you have a Holy, Loving God calling you to His service.

-Christian, choose you this day whom you will serve, and come to the altar and settle your decision. I know that for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.

-Maybe you are looking for a church home in which to serve God...

-But maybe God is not yet your master, and so you serve something else. Jesus died for you and rose for you to give you eternal life. He did not come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. Believe...