Whom Will You Serve?

Introduction

Good Morning! Happy Father’s Day!

I’m really grateful to be with you today. Thank you for the chance to bring God’s Word to you this morning. Before we get started, let me introduce myself and my family. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Joshua VanZandbeek. My wife Katie and I are both pastors currently training at Vanguard College in Edmonton Alberta, and waiting for God’s “next” in our lives. Along with our 5 week old son Jonathan, we have been invited down this week to get to know the people here in both Bethel Church, as well as the community of Imperial. So, that’s a little about us!

As I said, today is Father’s day! Maybe many other fathers can relate to this, but for me this day means so much more now that I am a father. Gee… I wonder why! As I mentioned, Katie and I welcomed our son Jonathan into this world 5 weeks ago Friday. You know, I always used to give my dad presents, and say thank you for who he was and everything he meant to our family on Father’s Day. But now, now that I have my own child… wow is it ever different! I never realized the massive call that is placed on the life of every man who is a father, or who has stepped into that role for someone who needed it.

As I was thinking about the message for this Sunday, God placed upon my heart something to

The question I would like to examine with you for this father’s day is this: What does it mean for you and your family to serve God? I believe this is a question not just for fathers, but for men and women to ask. Don’t have a family of your own yet? That’s ok, because serving God is something you commit to doing no matter your age, or stage! This question arose for me this week as I was thinking about the message for this morning. God spoke to me, and impressed upon me Joshua 24:14-15. That’s the text we will be focusing on this morning is from the book of Joshua 24:14-15. So before we go further, will you turn in your Bibles with me, or follow along on the screens and read with me. I’ll be reading from the ESV.

Joshua 24:14–15 ESV

“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. 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.”

This brings us back to our question for today: what does it mean for you and your family to serve the Lord?

My main idea for this message today is that we - fathers, mother, kids, singles, older folks, everyone - must understand that serving the Lord is a decision to commit and be an example of a life committed to serving God alone. I believe this passage presents three distinct different aspects that characterize a decision to serve God. We’ll call them “serves.” And yes, I totally made up that word and I’m not sorry! The first of our “serves” is “Serve God with fear.”

Serve God with Fear

Right at the beginning of verse 14 we get this shift… this next step. God stops directly speaking, and now Joshua begins to speak. “Therefore fear the Lord” is the command he gives the people. Let’s stop there for a moment and take a look at “therefore.” This denotes a decision; a “next step.” But what is this next step?

Well for that we need context.

After all that God has done for Israel, how He continues to be with them, take care of them and provide for them, their response should be to fear Him.

This is not a negative fear - with negative emotions and reactions. Rather, the fear of the Lord is a positive thing, and as Proverbs 15 says, is the beginning of wisdom. In fact, it is rather the opposite! This is a healthy fear.

How many people are familiar with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia? I came across this illustration of the fear of the Lord from the Narnia series as I was researching this sermon:

In The Chronicles of Narnia, an allegory by C.S. Lewis, the author has two girls, Susan and Lucy, getting ready to meet Aslan the lion, who represents Christ. Two talking animals, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, prepare the children for the encounter. "Ooh," said Susan, "I though he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie." said Mrs. Beaver. "And make no mistake, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knee's knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then isn't he safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you!"

Our Daily Bread, February 17, 1994.

The fear of the Lord is reverencing, trusting, obeying, serving, and worshiping God (Buzzell, 1985, p. 989). In this context where the people are being called to worship God, this fear is, as one source puts it, “a life lived in conformity with God’s will (Firth, 2021). This is fear of God, it is rather choosing to live a life devoted to God.

So that is our first aspect of serving the Lord. It is to turn to God in reverence, in a healthy fear and allow Him to be in control of your life. To be submitted to Him, and live your life conformed to what He wants, knowing that His plan is best. So that is the first aspect I believe this passage presents for us about serving the Lord.

The second aspect is similar to fearing the Lord, but it is an expansion of it… That is to serve God in integrity and truth.

Serve God in Integrity and Faithfulness

In the very same breath Joshua adds to the command to fear the Lord. In the same sentence He says Joshua 24:14

Joshua 24:14 (ESV)

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

He then goes on and adds:

Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

The word “emet” translated that my Bible translates as faithfulness can actually mean firmness, faithfulness, or truth. I think this helps flesh out the picture. Couple that with the ending of verse 15, where Joshua tells the people to put away the other Gods, and we start to get the picture!

The Israelites were being told that double dipping was not allowed. Either it’s sold out for Yahweh, or don’t bother. False worship - as one source notes - had been a hallmark of Israel’s past. Joshua was calling out Israel as a nation that had never really rid itself of all the false gods (Howard, 1998, p. 435). So Joshua challenges them:

Look, if you are actually committed to serving Yahweh - if you actually love and fear the Lord - be rid of these other religions and place you faith and trust ONLY in Yahweh.

Israel had to make the choice - choose God, or choose the other religions. In v. 15, Joshua gives the people the choice:

Joshua 24:15 (ESV)

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.”

The time to be apathetic about living with other gods in their midst was over. They had to make a commitment - either Yahweh or the other religions. No in-betweens.

You know often in the OT prophets Israel is compared to a prostitue or an unfaithful wife. Can you imagine if one day you came home, and another woman, or another man is in your house with your spouse? When you questioned them about that, they said the other person was just a friend! What’s your answer? Pretty easy! “No way, get that person out of here!” Imagine if they went yeah yeah yeah yeah, ok fine. I got it. I’ll get rid of them.

Then the next day, you walk into your house… and they are back! What? This time you just give your spouse the silent look… The

Israel kept inviting the other person over, even though God was supposed to be the only one they sought after. So Joshua made it clear that if they were actually going to commit, they’d have to go all the way and cut out any other “lovers.”

I think in some ways not much has changed between the people of God then and now. It’s a simple matter of recognizing that so many other things in our lives have this funny way of taking over. But if we fear God, if we want to truly serve Him, we’ve got to lay it all down. The outcome is one and the same between these first two points. If we fear the Lord, if we want to serve God in faithfulness and sincerity, we have got to let God have everything. We can’t have other gods hiding in the closet.

This is our second aspect - building on the foundation of the first. First we saw that we must serve God with the fear of the Lord. Now we see that this means no half-way commitments. No holds barred.

Our final aspect that I believe our passage gives us is that we must serve God by setting the example.

Serve God by Setting the Example.

Read the last part of verse 15 with me again:

Joshua 24:15 (ESV)

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Finally, after reminding all of Israel about who their God is; after commanding them to make a choice to serve the living God, and ONLY the living God; now Joshua draws his line in the sand. He looks at the people, tells them “you judge - make a choice” and then says “as for me, and my house? We’ve made the choice to serve only Yahweh.” Joshua set the example.

This is where this message impacts me the most this Father’s Day. Going back to what I said at the beginning: it seems as fathers in particular there is a calling upon us to partner with our wives in committing our families as ones that serve God. This is part of call. As a father, and even as a husband, I feel the responsibility to be vigilant in making sure that my family is serving God. I want my kids to know who Jesus is and why we love and serve Him. I want them to know why we go to church. I want them to know what He has done for this whole world, and for me and Katie. This message impacts me because it tugs at my heart and asks, “who are you committing your family to Josh?” I must answer, either I am fully committed to God and serving Him with fear, with integrity, with faithfulness… or I am not. But I cannot fence-sit and decide that I don’t care. I can’t check out. Because if I do, I am forsaking my God, I am forsaking my family, and I am forsaking my calling as a father. I have no choice but to choose, either to commit myself and my family to serving God alone, or to turn away completely to other gods, whatever that might be.

Joshua was willing to set the example. Joshua set the example and stepped out. He doesn’t say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord… as long as our best friends come along too.” He doesn’t say “we’re considering our options, but I think this might be the right choice for our family.” He doesn’t even say “we’re serving God, why don’t you try it out and see what you think?” Instead he simply steps out first in obedience. He commits himself and His people to service for God. He won’t tolerate idols, he will fear the Lord and commit to Him.

So we have our final aspect: Serving God by being the example. By stepping out, even if no one else will. Every one of us is asked to draw a line in the sand - will you serve God, or another false god? Will you commit to Yahweh, or are you committed to something else? We are all asked to draw a line in the sand, and we are given the choice to step out as example of following the Living God, or turning away.

Conclusion

So we have our three aspects of serving God: Serving Him with the fear of the Lord; serving God with faithfulness and sincerity; and finally serving God by choosing to step out as an example.

Now the question comes back to us. At the beginning I posed the question, “what does it look like for you and your family to serve God?” If it looks like these three aspects, we are faced with our own next step: where will you draw your line in the sand?

On this Father’s Day, I believe the Lord is giving us a call to renew our zeal to serve Him alone. To clean anything that would take the throne of our hearts and commit anew to serving God.

Fathers, I believe this is a call also for us to step out as examples within our families. As much as we need to commit in our hearts and minds to serving God and having our families serve God, we need to live it out. I haven’t been a father very long - five weeks and two days is not very long in comparison to many of you. but whether you’ve been a father for 40 years, or 40 days, you can choose to set the example in your family. Pick up the Bible and read to your kids at night. Pray with your wife every night before you go to bed. Join with her in developing a family that serves God. If we don’t do this, we have failed our families and our God.

And maybe you’re sitting in this church right now and you haven’t made the commitment. Or you did at one time and now things have changed. If God has been moving in your heart today, don’t silence His Spirit! Come before Him and ask for forgiveness - ask Jesus to forgive. Commit your life - and your family - to God. If you need help, any of the elders here, or even myself would be happy to pray with you. The decision to serve God and commit yourself and your family to God is the biggest you can make.

I’d like to close with a prayer.

Notes

Important question: What does it mean for you and your family to serve the Lord?

Big Idea: Fathers, mother, kids, singles, older folks, everyone - must understand that serving the Lord is a decision to commit and be an example of a life committed to serving God alone

Three “serves:”

Serve God with fear

Serve God in integrity and truth

Serve as the example

A genuine heart-felt change & commitment, vs. Lip-service.

Corresponding verses

Deuteronomy 6:13 ESV

It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.

Joshua Exegesis

Although “fear” can refer to being afraid of something (e.g., Deut 20:1), in worship contexts it is associated with a life lived in conformity with God’s will (cf. Deut 10:12, 20)

Context:

I chose not to read the entire chapter today because it is fairly long, but nonetheless I think it is so important for us to have the context behind why Joshua said these words. Most of you may be familiar with Joshua in the Bible. But here’s a refresh: Joshua was the leader of God’s people after Moses died. He was Moses’ understudy, and when the time came for Moses to step back, God gave the reins to Joshua. The book of Joshua is the next instalment in the history of how God established and cared for Israel, and how He brought them into the promised land. In this last chapter, chapter 24, Joshua was speaking to the nation of Israel at the close of his time as leader. Actually the preparation for the closing of the book of Joshua and his ministry started back at chapter 22, as Joshua speaks to the people on three separate occasions. First just to the eastern tribes of Israel, then to the leadership, and finally to all the people. Each of these speeches has this central theme: faithfulness.

So we move into chapter 24 with the understanding that Joshua is giving his final speech to Israel. He addresses the entire nation, and recounts the acts of God. He walks them through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the years in Egypt, everything they had fought through to get into the promised land, and finally, the many battles they had fought to claim the promised land as their own. Key to this is the realization that what got Israel from slaves to a nation in their own right was that God was on their side, fighting for them. He played the instrumental part that brought His people into their long-awaited promised land.

So we come down to vv. 14-15, and here Joshua switches from speaking for the Lord, and squares off with the people. He gives them a direct command, but then challenges them to make the choice to follow God themselves. He commands them to fear God, and to serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness. Then He challenges them to make a choice: who will you serve? Then Joshua draws his line in the sand. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”