Go ahead and continue our study in the book of Joshua.
If you have your Bibles, turn with me.
We are in Joshua chapter 24.
It has been a long journey as we've studied this book of the Bible.
And I do believe that there's so rich of a reminder of God's provision
and power and guidance in our lives.
And even we go back to the reminder of Joshua, chapter one.
Remember, Joshua is told by God directly that just as he was
with Moses, so he will be with him and so he will be with his people.
And Joshua was reminded of God's presence in his life.
And he was told, don't be afraid, be strong and of a good courage.
Why not Because Joshua was the strongest man in the world, but because
God was with him, he reminded him that I will be with you.
Joshua 1:9.
It's, it's a verse that resonated with me as a child.
I, I dealt a lot with fear and transparently there are still times
in my life where those, those temptations to turn back to that
fear come in.
Joshua, chapter one, verse nine tells us that we don't need
to be in fear.
Have I not commanded thee, Be strong and of good courage, Be not
afraid, neither be thou dismay, for the Lord thy God is with
thee whithersoever thou goest.
The reminder is, is that God is going to be with us even through
the trials.
It might not be that he removes us from the trial, it might
be that he's carrying us through the trial, but he's there
with us through it.
And so Joshua was able to exercise that faith throughout his
life as he led the people of Israel into battle, as he led the
people in times of famine and times of loss and times of success,
in times of those spiritual victories that they were thankful
for.
And now we get to Joshua chapter 24 and we essentially see
his conclusion.
We see the end of the story, at least for Joshua's earthly life.
And we see really his reminder to the people to stay true to the
word, to choose the choice of following God.
And so here we're in Joshua chapter 24 and we look at verse number
one and Joshua is going to address the nation through its leaders.
And by the way, the people will follow a leader.
And through Joshua obviously was the leader after Moses.
But there was going to be a void, there was going to be a challenge.
Who was going to step up to be the spiritual leader for the people
of Israel.
And so Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called
for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges
and for their officers.
And they presented themselves before God.
And so this was this big, dramatic last gathering of the people
of Israel before Joshua passes.
And he's going to give some level of a farewell and then a challenge.
And it's very reminiscent of the New Testament when Paul comes
in second Timothy and essentially gives Timothy his last
words as he's knowing that he's going to be martyred for his
faith.
And there's a challenge to stay faithful in that passage.
And he here now is going to challenge the people to stay faithful.
And so he calls the elders, the leaders of Israel, all the judges,
all their officers.
And we see this big gathering of all these important people.
And Joshua could tell them a lot of things, he could give them
a lot of advice, but what we're going to see is that it all
centers around following God and trusting in everything that he
has promised.
And so they're going to present themselves before God and
really we're going to see a reminder to them of God's faithfulness.
And so Joshua is going to recall how God has been faithful
over the years, how he's been faithful to their ancestors, how
he's been faithful to them personally.
And I think that this is important for us within our own life.
I was just talking with someone recently about how tempting
it is to forget that God was faithful yesterday, to forget how
God has got us through trials yesterday.
And so we're going to get here to verse number two.
And Joshua says unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of
Israel.
So we see that he's speaking directly with the authority of God.
He says, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in the
old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father
of Nacor, and they served other gods.
And so he's talking here about who they were before God intervened
in their life.
And I think that this is so important for us as we're explaining
our testimony to other people.
I went through this with the men yesterday.
There's a very basic four part outline that we should all have within
our testimony to other people about our relationship with God.
First and foremost, who we were before we met God.
Folks, when we paint that picture of who we were before God,
before God intervened in our life, it's a dark picture.
Actually.
Ephesians chapter two says that we were children of darkness,
that we were enemies of God.
But then we see in Ephesians 2, 4, but God.
And we see God coming on the scene and so what he's saying is,
this is who you were before God intervened.
This is before God's plan for your life.
And we were in Rwanda, and we sat around the men with the men,
and we were like, all right, guys, we're going to walk through
how we can share our testimony with other people.
And the first step is this, to share who you were before the.
Before God intervened and changed your life.
It's not to glorify our sin.
It's not to live back in that lifestyle of sin, but it's to remind
ourselves how much God has changed us and taken us, as the New
Testament says, from darkness to.
Into marvelous light.
And so he says, that's who you were before.
Verse 3.
And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood.
So.
So God moved Abraham and he says, and led him throughout all
the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him
Isaac.
And I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau.
And I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it.
But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
And so he reminds the people of his faithfulness to them through
Abraham and the patriarchs.
But now he gets the verse number five, and he's going to remind
them that he continued to be faithful.
He continued to be faithful not only to Abraham and his children,
but even more so to the people of Israel when they were escaping
Egypt.
Verse 5.
I sent Moses also, and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to
that which I did among them.
And afterward I brought you out, and I brought your fathers out
of Egypt.
And ye came unto the sea, and the Egyptians pursued after your
fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the red sea.
Verse 7.
And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you
and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them.
And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt.
And ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
And so verses five through seven remind the people of Israel
that God was faithful to bring them out of the bondage of.
Of evil in Egypt and bring them to the promised land, the.
The land of promise, the land of salvation.
And that's really what God has done for us.
We were in Egypt.
We.
We were bound by the grip of sin.
And then God changes us, and he takes us out of that bondage and
he moves us to freedom in the promised land of walking in fellowship
with him.
And so he reminds them again of God's faithfulness by bringing
them out of Egypt.
But then he's also going to remind them of their time of wandering.
Because we do need to be reminded sometimes of those times
in which we did stray away, and that God still stayed faithful
in the midst of our failures.
Verse 8.
And he says, and I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which
dwelt on the other side of Jordan, and they fought with you,
and I gave them into your hand that ye might possess their land.
And I destroyed them before you.
Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against
Israel and, and sent.
And called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.
But I would not hearken unto Balaam.
Therefore he blessed you still.
So I delivered you out of his hand.
And so we see here that God is reminding them of time and time again
his deliverance in their life.
They're tempted to forget, right?
We know that when we look at the people of Israel, we.
Maybe it's just me, but I look at them and I say, how could they
forget?
How could they forget about God's faithfulness?
How could they forget about the manna falling from heaven?
How could they forget about God's provision with food and protection?
You guys remember the story there, they were bitten by the vipers,
right?
And.
And God lifted up the.
The.
The snake there, and they were looking to that for salvation.
There was all these miraculous things.
The.
The fire by night, the cloud by day.
But yet they were still tempted to go back to the old ways.
They were still tempted to take the taste.
And you guys even remember they said it would be better if we
went back to Egypt, right?
And so he's reminding them that, no, I have been faithful to
you.
Don't feel like there's something better.
Don't believe the lie that the grass is greener on the other side.
No.
That the best place to be is walking in the fellowship of the
Lord.
Why?
Because he's our deliverer.
He's our redeemer, he's our Savior, he's our Father, he's our
everything.
And therefore he's going to challenge them to get to a place
in their life where they recall the goodness of God.
What do we do on Sunday mornings when we come together?
Well, Pastor, it's called a worship service.
Well, what are we worshiping?
We're worshiping God for who he is and what he has done.
Folks, we have a reason to celebrate on Sunday.
You know, we get out here on our sunrise service.
I love the sunrise service.
It's one of my favorite things we do throughout the year.
We get out there and we see the sun popping up, and we remind
ourselves of what the people might have thought when they saw
that sunrise on that Sunday morning.
And there's hope, right?
The tomb is empty.
Jesus is alive.
And we celebrate.
You know, we do that, and we should do that on that Sunday morning.
But, you know, every Sunday's that day.
Every Sunday we celebrate Jesus.
And it's the day of the Lord.
And really it should be every day that we're celebrating our risen
Savior.
So he says, here, be reminded of my faithfulness.
That's why we sing songs about the Lord.
That's why we study his word.
That's why we fellowship one with another and have unity across
borders.
And that's why we have hope, is because there's something bigger,
there's something better.
We're celebrating the power and the deliverance of God.
And so he's going to give more reminders of faithfulness.
In verses 11 through 13, he says, and he went over Jordan and
came unto Jericho.
So now he's starting to talk to people about things that they
personally experienced in their life, right?
Coming across the Jordan river, and they go to Jericho.
And you guys remember the story of Jericho.
The.
They go to the.
The walls there.
And Jericho looked like it had a lot of strength because of those
impenetrable walls.
But what did they do?
They marched around.
They did something beyond our comprehension, but they trusted in
the power of God and blew the trumpets and called out, and they
saw the power of God working.
They saw the walls of Jericho fall.
Folks, I know that maybe you haven't seen the literal walls of
Jericho falling, but maybe there's been some things in your
life that look so big and so powerful and so evil that you never
thought you could overcome them.
But through the power of God, you saw those walls fall.
You saw those giants fall.
You saw the Jordan river open up.
And folks, what we're going to see here is that he's just reminding
them of his power in their life.
And so he says, the men of Jericho fought against you.
The Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and
the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the
Jebusites.
And I delivered them into your hand.
No matter who came against them, he delivered.
And I sent the hornet before you.
And which drave them out before you.
Even the two kings of the Amorites.
But not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor.
The Israelites did not earn that land on their own merits.
They weren't the most advanced.
If you remember, there was actually a story where they were
like, those people have way better tools than we do.
They have better chariots.
They.
They have more people.
They have more weapons.
So it wasn't a matter of the Israelites just being the most industrious
or the most crafty.
No.
It says here that they did not labor on their own.
It was God who gave them those cities and those victories.
And he says, the cities which he built not.
And ye dwell in them, of the vineyards and olive yards which ye
planted not, do ye eat.
And so the principle that he's reminding them is that you never
earned this.
This was all through God's grace and mercy.
And let me tell you something here this evening, and this is something
that sometimes we need to hear.
Everything that we have is not given to us through our hard work.
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from God.
Everything that we have is from Him.
And sometimes we think that it's something that we earned or
something that we deserve.
Folks, what we deserve, you know, what we deserve for the wages
of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When I see it from that perspective, when I see that I don't
deserve this, I don't deserve this.
I don't deserve this.
But yet God has given this to me.
It brings us to a place of gratitude and remembrance, and it
gives us a passion that can't be manifested by the things of this
world.
And so he says, here, look, you didn't earn this.
You didn't build these cities, but yet you benefit from it.
You.
You didn't plant these vineyards, but you benefit from it.
You eat from it, folks.
I. I didn't.
I wasn't here when this building was built.
Some of you were.
Praise God for that faithfulness.
But I get to reap the benefits of faithfulness from years past.
And we think about that, and we should be thankful for that.
We should be stewards of it.
We should utilize every resource.
We should think about a towel that is soaking wet.
We should wring that towel as dry as we possibly can.
Every nutrient we need to take in that God has given us in our resources.
We celebrated independence not too long ago here in our country.
Freedom, right?
In America, we're free.
But the question is not what are we going to do for ourselves,
but what are we going to do for the Lord with that freedom that
we have?
Are we stewards of that freedom?
And so here he Says, look, it is because of someone who came before
you and it's God.
Ultimately then the other question would be is what are we
going to leave for the next generation?
What about the people that come in the next 20 years, the next
40 years, the next 100 years?
It's hard for us to think about that far out.
But what we see is that God has been faithful to those before
and he will be faithful to us.
And we need to stay faithful to him as best that we can.
Though we will stumble, though we will fail.
And so as God is speaking through Joshua, he's reminding them
essentially of his mercy and his grace.
Says, it's not by your sword, it's not by your bow, but it's through
the power of God.
They should have remembered this as they move forward, and we
hope that they do as we read this.
But many of you know the next book of the Bible, the Book of Judges,
they go into a vicious cycle of thinking that they have it all
together, wanting what other people have, turning away from God
and going through that discipline and God restores them.
And that's that cycle that we see.
And often we see that cycle happening within our church today.
I'm so frustrated even with myself sometimes that I would go
back to that old way that I would desire and think that the grass
is greener.
And he says, no, it's not better to go that way.
And so he says, okay, now there's a decision that we have to
make.
There's a decision that we have to make.
We have to decide who we are going to serve.
Verse 14.
Now, therefore, fear the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Folks.
I do believe that there are many people who either don't understand
or don't want to hear the importance of the fear of God.
There should be a healthy fear of God.
It's not.
It's not a fear of condemnation.
Praise God.
Romans 8 tells us that there's no more condemnation to those that
are in Christ Jesus.
So it's not a fear of condemnation and judgment, but it
is a healthy respect of who he is and what he has done.
Our world needs to be reminded of the power of God and there needs
to be a new found awe of the power of God in this world.
The fear of God is an important thing.
And so he says, fear the Lord and what serve him.
So it's not a fear that petrifies and holds us back and actually
gives us a passive spirit, but it's a type of fear that brings us
to a Place of passion to serve Him.
And so he says, serve him in sincerity and in truth.
Think about those two things right there.
Sincerity, a sincere heart, a heart that is motivated by the love
of God.
A heart that's motivated to glorify God.
It's not a heart to glorify ourselves.
He says serve him in sincerity and in truth.
It reminds me of when Jesus is talking in John chapter four to,
to worship him in spirit and in truth.
Folks, there should be a level of sincerity and passion in our worship,
but that should always be married to the truth because oftentimes
we'll see either one side of the, of the ditch that we fall into.
Sometimes people are all about the truth and the law, but yet have
no sincerity and love and compassion for other people.
And we talked about that this morning.
You know, those that are gifted sometimes in the gift of prophecy
in their life and they're perceiving the truth, they might
come down hard upon someone and don't have any grace.
But on the same time, there's those that have compassion that might
err on the side of, of really being sacrificing some level of truth
to show love.
Like, well, we can't tell them that they're bad because we want
to make sure that they feel, feel loved and accepted.
Folks, either side is a problem.
We must serve God in sincerity and love and compassion, but also
at the same time serving him in truth.
Someone says, how does that balance?
Well, the only balance that we can perfectly see is through the
ministry of Jesus Christ.
We see those times in which he does tell people the truth.
Think about the time where he's with the woman at the well.
He doesn't pull any punches.
He speaks the truth about her life.
We see times in which Jesus does come down and come into the
temple and turn over the tables because of their rebellion.
But at the same time, we also see Jesus helping different people
and showing them the way and giving them grace and giving them
patience.
And so what we're seeing here is he says there is a proper response
to the fear of the Lord and that is proper service to Him.
And so doing that, he says this to serve him with sincerity
and truth.
He says, put away the gods which your fathers served on the
other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord.
He says, you can't serve two masters.
We know that Jesus taught that you can't serve two masters because
you're either going to love one and hate the other, or vice versa.
You can't love both.
And the Bible Says in the book of James, a double minded man is
unstable in all of his ways.
A double minded man is someone who in Scripture is described as
someone who wants to put one foot in the world and one foot in
the things of God and try to get the best of both worlds.
The Bible says we can't do that.
We can't love the world.
The Bible says that in first John, love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world, because it's not of the Father.
Everything of the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life.
You could categorize everything in this world in those
three categories.
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.
But the things of God are like this.
Goodness, truth, holiness, righteousness, love, grace.
All those things that we see in Scripture given to us and ultimately
summarize in the fruit of the Spirit.
So he says, don't serve the other gods.
Don't turn back, don't compromise.
Don't think that that's going to slide.
Don't think that it's better to go back to them.
Don't make the same mistakes that were made before in the last
generation.
Folks, I'm thankful for the generations that came before me.
I'm thankful for my parents, I'm thankful for my grandparents.
I'm thankful for this church and the many years and the many people
that have been faithful.
But folks, I don't think that we have to repeat the same mistakes
that were made in the generations before us.
I mean, I'm thankful for faithfulness, but there are things
that we can learn from.
There are things that we can say, you know what, this person got
this right, but they didn't get this right, right.
We do that in Scripture.
Do you follow everything that David does?
I hope that you don't follow everything David does.
David made some big mistakes.
So there are things that we can learn from on the side of David
to say, I don't want to do that.
It's not a judgment, it's just I'm learning, I'm perceiving.
So he says, don't be like these people that turn back, serve
ye the Lord, verse 15.
I mean, here's the theme verse of the whole book, okay?
It's, it's the culmination.
It's, it's really the verse that drew me to preach out of the
book of Joshua.
Because I do believe that every single person has to come down
and answer whether or not they're going to choose to serve
God or Serve something else.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord.
Now why does he say this?
Why does he say if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord?
Well, there were probably people that are like, serving the
Lord.
They had a question about that.
Maybe they thought, well, he's being.
He's an extremist, or he's being too serious about this.
We can have both.
He's being serious and he's calling them to a crisis point moment.
Basically, if you choose this way, this is what's going to happen.
If you choose this way, this is what's going to happen.
He says, if you think it's evil to serve the Lord, choose you
this day whom you will serve.
He says, you're going to serve somebody.
Right?
The reality is, is that we're going to serve something or someone.
We're either going to serve ourselves, we're going to serve somebody
else, we're going to serve a false God, we're going to serve money,
we're going to serve passion, we're going to serve pleasure, we're
going to serve our flesh, whatever it is.
We are designed to be a servant of something.
So he says, choose you this day whom ye will serve.
Whether we know it or not.
We make decisions on who or what we are going to serve in our
life.
And we make those decisions by how we act.
We prove who we are serving by how we act in our life.
If it's all about me, if everything about my life is about
my ultimate pleasure, guess what?
I'm serving myself.
I'm not serving the Lord.
And so what he says here is that there's a decision that we have
to make.
Folks, we are designed to be creatures of faith.
We put faith in something.
God designed it so that we will put faith in him.
The only true, perfect, sustaining, sufficient object of
faith.
He's the only thing that can hold up.
He's the only sure foundation.
But there's going to be people who build their house either upon
that sure foundation of the rock, as Jesus said, or there's going
to be people that build their house on that sinking sand that eventually,
when the storms of life come, will then crash down and fall in
on itself.
Folks, both of those houses that are mentioned there in that
parable look the same on the outside.
They were the same on the outside.
The only difference is what they were built on.
And so we see a lot of people that might look the part, they might
talk the part, that might act the part.
But what was the true test when the storms of life came.
And when the storms of life come, that's really when it's going
to reveal what our faith is built upon.
The faith built upon the rock, the cornerstone, the one who knows
all, the one who's done everything for us.
Or is it going to be built on something that eventually will crash
in on itself?
And that's what Joshua is teaching here.
He says, what are you going to choose?
He says, whether the gods which your father served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites
and whose land you dwell, he poses to them, basically, here's
your options.
You can choose the gods of your fathers, you can choose the
gods of the Amorites, but eventually you're going to have to
choose.
And if they chose not to serve the Lord, they were going to be responsible
for whatever deity they were going to serve.
And if they serve the gods from the other side of the river,
if they serve the gods of the Canaanites, they were eventually
going to reap what that would bring about in their life.
We sow, we reap.
And so they had to make a choice.
Everyone serves some sort of God.
And so what is the clear choice?
Well, I think Peter gave us the clear choice.
In John, chapter 6, verse 68, you remember Jesus turns to Peter.
He says, peter, are you going to leave too?
Or he actually turns to the disciples, a bunch of people start
leaving.
And he says, are you going to leave?
And Peter answers in John 6:68.
Then said Simon Peter and answered him, lord, to whom shall
we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
What Peter recognized there was this.
There's nobody else that can give us the words of life.
There's nobody else that we can trust.
Later on, we know that in another passage right there at Cesarea
Philippi, Jesus asks the disciples, whom do men say that I
am?
And.
And they respond, well, some think you're a prophet.
Some think you're John the Baptist, some think you're Jeremiah.
And then he goes, okay, that's good or bad, however you see it,
but what do you believe?
And that's the true question that all of us have to answer in
our life.
Not what that person says about Jesus, not what this media
outlet says about Jesus, but what do I say about Jesus?
And course, Jesus says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God.
And of course, Peter is commended for that belief.
And we know that Jesus even tells Peter, that's not from you.
That's something that you have received of God.
That's a blessing.
And so all of us have to come to grips with that.
And so what does Joshua say?
Joshua leads by example.
He leads by what he says, and he also leads by how he acts.
And he says, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
That's a strong commitment, folks.
I hope, I pray, I trust that that's something that you can say
as not only a wish, but a commitment to God.
It doesn't say that you're going to be perfect.
None of us can be perfect.
It doesn't say that we're going to have all the right answers.
He says, no.
But as for me and my house, we are committed to serve the one true
God, not something else, not ourselves, not the world.
There's so many distractions.
I don't know about you, but sometimes when I wake up in the morning,
I just feel the pressure of the world pooling and trying to get
me to not do the things that God wants me to do.
My flesh doesn't want me to be the right type of husband.
My flesh does not want me to be the right type of father.
My flesh wants to do everything that the Bible tells me
that I should do.
But on the other side of things, the spirit is.
Is telling me all those things and, and leading me.
So it really boils down to this.
Are we going to yield to the flesh or are we going to yield to
the spirit?
Joshua says, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.
It's not going to always be easy.
It's not going to be smooth sailing.
Not everyone's going to understand this.
There will be people that question.
There will be people that come against.
There will be people that fight against us to do the right
thing.
The enemy will certainly try to stop that.
But we're going to decide today that we are going to serve
the Lord.
I know for us, even in our own home, you know, I don't think you
have to post it up, but for us, it's good for me to have a visual
right above the door as we head out of our garage.
I don't know about you guys.
I go out the front door sometimes, but I'm usually going
out the garage.
I have it right above the door because it reminds me every day as
I walk out that I'm going to serve the Lord.
Today I'm going to be tempted not to serve the Lord.
Today I'm going to be tempted to come home and not do the things
that God wants me to do.
But we have to be resolved in Our decision to say, no, I'm going
to serve God even when it's hard, even when there's questions,
even when there's persecution.
And folks in America, we face very little persecution.
And so let's utilize the freedoms that we have.
Let's be excited for it.
Let's say, you know what?
No, we're going to choose.
We're going to be different.
Think about, think about.
Think about how the world teaches us.
They're like, you know, you, you Christians are weird.
Be like us.
Well, first of all, why?
Why does the world want me to be like them?
Because misery loves company and they want to drag us into the
darkness.
But what I'm going to tell you is this.
The Bible says that we are a peculiar people, a different people.
And it doesn't mean we try to be.
It just means that if we live for Christ, we should be different
people, should look at our lives and say, what's different about
you?
Why don't you say these things?
Why don't you join in with us?
Why does your family go to church?
Why does your family serve?
Why does your family give?
Well, you know what?
That's a perfect opportunity, 1st Peter 3:15, to sanctify the Lord
God in our hearts and be ready to give an answer for the hope that's
within us with meekness and fear to give an answer.
Why?
Don't say, well, you know, I'm trying to be a good person.
No, it's because of Jesus.
It's because Jesus opened up the Jordan River.
It's because Jesus gave us this land.
It's because Jesus gave us the opportunity to leave Egypt and be
free in our salvation.
Folks, it's Jesus that changes us.
It's he who gives us the strength to serve God and so choose
you this day, who you're going to serve.
As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.
And I hope that's something that we can say within the church.
I hope that we can say, hey, as a church, we're going to stand
for the truth.
We're going to be a beacon of hope in our community.
I'm going to tell you, if you look at the news and if you know
anything about the church movement, there are many churches
that are turning away from the truth.
It's sad to say.
And there's churches that are closing for various reasons.
There's people that are turning away from the truth of the
doctrines of salvation, of sanctification, of all these things
that we hold true to.
Just folks know that There are people.
There were people that went to be burned at the stake for things
that are in scripture that should not be compromised on.
There were people that said, it's worth it for me to be persecuted.
It's worth it for me to leave my home.
It's worth it for me to face a bondage, to face persecution, to
face famine.
And we look at this and then today we go, yeah, but you know,
it makes more sense just to kind of go the easy route.
Folks, we've got to stand in the truth.
We've got to be different.
And so choose this day.
Who you're going to serve, what kind of church are we going
to be?
What kind of husband are we going to be, what kind of worker
are we going to be?
What kind of citizen are we going to be?
The Bible tells us all these things in scripture.
So when we come back and look at the book of Joshua next week,
we're going to see the conclusion of this.
We're going to see the people's response.
But tonight, what's our response going to be?
Are we going to say, you know what, Lord, it's me.
I'm going to serve today?
Some of us can't serve at the same capacity.
I understand that.
I understand.
All of us are gifted differently.
Some are called to across the world.
Others are called to this community.
Others are called to be up in front of people, teaching.
Others are called to be behind the scenes, serving and sacrificing
and giving.
Whatever it is choose you this day that you're going to serve God
at how he has gifted you.
It might be different than how you used to serve.
I don't know.
I don't know what God's plan is for you, but God has a plan for
you.
There's a plan for your family.
There's nothing better than following God.
I'm going to tell you that there is.
There.
There are moments in my life.
I wish I could tell you it's all the time, but.
But I'm just going to tell you there are periods of time in my life
where there's no question in my mind that this is where God has
me.
There.
There's no question in my mind that God is working in my midst.
And those are the types of times in my life that drive me forward.
They're not every day right.
The truth is, is that there's going to be times of famine within
our life.
There's gonna be times and seasons in which we do have to toil
and, and, and, and suffer for things.
But There is going to be times where God is so clearly in our midst
that we take those times and we get excited about that.
Folks, what my desire is, my heart, my prayer.
I pray every day that Middletown Baptist Church and the
individuals that comprise Middletown Baptist Church find your
purpose in the Lord.
Because when you do that, that is a blessing.
That that is something that's so freeing, so rewarding, so joyful
that you say, you know what?
This is it.
This is what God has called me to do.
I have found my purpose.
And in doing so, it's a.
It's a moment in which we can be renewed and.
And refined in the Spirit.
And so I encourage you to pray about that here this week.
What is it going to mean for you and your house to serve the Lord?
It might mean that there's some sacrifices.
It might mean that there's something that you got to give up.
It might mean that there's something that you have to add to
your life.
I don't know what your particular situation is, but there
were going to be times that we're going to see in the Old Testament
and the New that there was some cutting out that needed to happen.
There was some removal of the idols in the garden that needed to
happen.
There were some people that needed to be pushed out of that house.
And so I'm not saying that you need to kick people out, but what
I am saying is that there's times in our life that we might need
to remove certain influences.
But in the other side of things, there's things that we need
to infuse into our life.
Bible study, prayer, biblical fellowship, service, giving.
All these things are spiritual disciplines that aren't just going
to happen naturally with our flesh.
They have to be things that we die to daily.
I'm going to tell you that there's going to be days where you
want to pray.
There's going to be days where you might not want to pray.
There's going to be days where you want to study the Word of God.
There's going to be days where you don't want to study the Word
of God.
But I'm going to tell you, those are things that you have to
grow in and understand the benefit and the blessing of in your
life.
And so Joshua is going to challenge them.
They're going to respond, and he's going to give some more commands
along with that, and he's going to remind them of the covenant
that God has with them now.
For them, it's the Mosaic covenant.
We don't live under the Mosaic covenant anymore.
We live under the new covenant of Jesus Christ.
And so we need to be reminded of the new covenant.
What's the new covenant?
Well, Jesus gave his life for us and we need to be reminded of
that daily.
That's why we take of the elements.
That's why we do the Lord's table.
That's why we have times in our church where we talk about Jesus.
That's why we have crosses up on the wall.
It's not to glorify certain things.
It's to ultimately lift up what Jesus Christ has done for us.
But I'm going to tell you here that it's not always easy.
But the Bible says that the burden is light when we turn it over
to the Lord.
And so I would encourage you to do so.
I would encourage you to turn your life over to Christ.
If you have already, praise God, stand true to that.
Continue.
Fight the good fight as the Bible says.
Contend for the faith and know that there are people that are praying
for you, know that there's resources for you.
Know that you're not alone in this battle, that you can come and,
and Middletown Baptist Church and many other places want to support
you and encourage you in that you're not alone.
And most importantly, God's with you.
And when he's with you, as Joshua was reminded in Joshua chapter
one, I'm with you.
Whithersoever thou goest, God is with us.
When God's with us, who can be against us?
We're more than conquerors in Jesus Christ.
And so as we close here this evening, be reminded of that.
I'm gonna go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
We have a few announcements and then we will be dismissed here
this evening.
Lord, we thank you for your love and your grace.
We're thankful for the sacrifice that you gave to us through
your son, Lord.
We're thankful for the opportunity to serve you, Lord.
Give us the opportunity to choose faithfulness, Lord.
No, we're not perfect.
We know that you are perfect.
And so may we rest in your righteousness.
May we be resolved to serve you within our homes, within our
community.
May we be bold.
May we be different.
Lord, help us to remove the desire to go back to the old ways,
but help us to move forward, pushing forward for the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
I pray that you, you work with our dear brother as he goes about
his service and deputation.
And I pray that you keep him safe and provide for him as we know
you will.
And we ask all those things in Jesus name.
Amen.