Challenged to Serve, Part 2

Joshua chapter 24, Joshua addresses the invitation for service. I like this. Listen to what he says. He says, put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. This is the invitation to serve. Listen, Joshua says: if you find that you don't want to serve the Lord, but you want to serve another God, That's your choice.

I'm inviting you to serve my God, the Lord God of Israel. But if you choose not to, that's up to you. I love Joshua's argument here. He says: if you find this disagreeable, if you don't think that what God has done for you is good enough, If you don't think that your salvation, your deliverance, His guidance in your life is worthy of your service to Him, Then, by all means, serve somebody else. I mean, after all, if God has failed you and He's not all that you thought He should be or would be, then serve somebody else.

Go ahead. I'm not going to do that, but that's your choice. And you know what? It's an unbiased argument. He's not trying to provoke them. He's not trying to coerce them. He's trying to let them make their choice as to what it is they want to do. But you must understand that he says these words. But today, you got to serve him. You got to make your choice today. Can't make it tomorrow or next week or next month because you might be dead tomorrow. You got to do it today. There's urgency in the invitation.

And I like what he does. He calls them into account publicly. Who are you going to serve? If you don't think that serving God is good enough, then maybe you should serve the other gods. Maybe the God of the Amorites or the God of your fathers over there in Ur, the Chaldees. Maybe that's who you should serve. If you think they're going to do for you more than what the Lord God of Israel has done for you, then that's fine. Do that. It's similar to what Elijah would say. To the people of Israel on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18.

Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. We know that story, right? Listen to the next phrase. But the people did not answer him. A word. Elijah says, If the Lord God of Israel is the true God, follow him. But if Baal is the true God, then follow him. Nobody said any. Can you imagine that? Nobody said anything. So, you know, the whole story about how Elijah had agreed to set up the altar and have fire come down out of heaven and consume the water.

Remember that? And people, and people said, We like that idea. We like that idea. We agree to that. Because you see, they didn know, they had no idea. Maybe Baal is the true God. And if fire comes out of heaven because of Baal, then we'll worship him. And if not, then maybe the Lord God of Israel is the true God and we'll worship him. They had no idea. And Joshua says, in chapter 24 of Joshua, you know what? If you don't agree with me, that's okay. But you didn make a choice today. It's very important that you understand that today is the day of salvation.

You need to make your decision today. Oh, by the way, the word choose is something you're going to have to do on a daily basis. It's not a one-time choice, it's a daily, moment-by-moment choice that you're going to serve your God. You got to make that choice every single moment of every single day. In other words, you got to make the right decision. You know, life is full of decisions, right? Life is about making the right choice. And if you choose to serve your God, then every day you're going to make that choice.

Every moment of every day, you've got to make that choice because temptation will come your way and you've got to choose which God you will serve. Which way will you go? But I want you to notice point number four: the declaration for service.

Listen to what Joshua says. But as for me and my house, we We'll serve the Lord. Now, you got to love this. Why? Because I want you to notice number one about this declaration is this.

It was a public declaration. You got two and a half million Jews sitting in front of you. And Joshua says, I'm going to make a public statement right now.

As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Now you see, he wasn't embarrassed. He wasn't tentative. He makes a public declaration. So everybody will know what he chooses. To do before all of Israel, he makes a statement. Would it be that the leaders of our country would make that kind of statement? As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord no matter what. No matter what Congress says, no matter what the House of Representatives says, me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.

We're going to honor God. Can't make that kind of statement, though. It's too convicting. You're held accountable. You see, you have to be able to confess Christ before men, don't you? Some people are too ashamed to make a public confession. Maybe you're one of those people. The Bible says this in Matthew chapter 10: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him I will confess also before my Father who is in heaven.

But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, who is in heaven. The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Paul said at Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Paul would say these words over in 2 Timothy chapter 2. He says this. Verse 11, it is a trustworthy statement. If we die with him, we shall live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. And then it says this: if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. That is one of the most misquoted verses in all the Bible. Because people say, well, if we deny him, you know, he's going to remain faithful to us anyway. No, that's not what it says.

It says, if we deny him, he will deny us. And why will he deny us? Because he is faithful to do what he said he will do. And that is, if you deny him, he's denying you. If you don't confess him publicly, he will not confess you before his father who is in heaven. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you better be able to make a public stand because if you can't, you will be denied before your Heavenly Father. Christ says that.

In other words, you're not saved. People who don't make public confessions are not saved. They're not. The Bible is replete with people who make public confessions, who make public statements, who stand strong for Christ publicly. Your Christianity is not a private matter. You know, the president's in office. Well, you know, my faith is a private personal matter. What is that? What kind of faith is that? That's no faith. That's weakness. That's not faith. Faith is a public issue. It's a public confession that you confess Christ before men without any hesitation.

And this is a public decor. If you find it disagreeable to serve the Lord God and you want to serve another God, that's okay. But as for me and my house, this is what we're going do: we are going to serve the Lord. And something else about this declaration. Not only was it public, it was pronounced. It was pronounced. It was with certainty. It was not with timidity. It was not. A tentative statement. It was a dog declaration. But You might do this, but this is what I am going to do. In other words, I'm going to make my stand.

I'm going make my choice. I'm going make my decision. You make yours. You make yours because this is what I will do. I will serve my God. And it was a pronounced declaration, it was emphatic. It was not a weak statement. It was strong. It wasn something he was unsure about. He had a settled conviction that the Lord God of Israel was the true God of the universe and he was going to serve him no matter what. The third thing I want you to notice about this dec is that it was a proven dec.

Now think about this. He couldn't stand before two and a half million Jews and say, But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord and have his wife and kids not follow the Lord. See? He couldn't make a public declaration in front of the whole house of Israel and live another life privately. Or secretly, it was a proven declaration. They knew how he lived his life. All to do is read the book of Joshua. All you got to do is read the book of Numbers, the book of Exodus. Read about Joshua and his commitment to God.

See, it was a proven declaration. He didn't just fly out the handle and say something he couldn't back up with his life, right? But as for me and my house, we're going serve the Lord. And everybody knew that Joshua and his house served the Lord. Right? And that's the way we need to be. When we're going to make a statement publicly, it's got to be able to be proven privately. Right? And that's why people don't make public confessions because they can't prove them privately. They know they'll be called into account.

See? And that's just a very threatening kind of thing. So people just kind of don't say anything, they don't make decisions publicly. Because they know that their wife sits next to them or their kids sit next to them and they know how they are at home, right? Something else about this declaration. It was a person declaration. In other words, this is me. This is what I'm going to do. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It wasn't him sitting back and waiting for someone else to make the declaration, and then Joshua follow.

He was the leader. He would lead the way. He would stand strong in front of everybody. Because that's what leaders do. Leaders don't wait for someone else to make a decision, they make the decision. They make the right choice. They're the first ones to make the right choice.

That's why they're called leaders. Because they stand in front. They stand before the people. And they lead the way. And this was a person decision that he had made. It wasn't something he echoed because someone else said it. We're going to serve the Lord, Joshua. Oh, yeah, okay, me too. I'll serve him too. No. He said, but as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Which leads me to this. This was, listen.

A parental declaration. A parental declaration. As for me and what? My house. This was a parental dec. Joshua was the spiritual leader in his home. It wasn't his wife who gave the testimony. It wasn't his wife who spoke. It was Joshua who spoke. As for me and my house, in other words, he says, you know what? This is what my house is going to do. I'm not going to sit back and send my wife and kids off to church. I'm going to take them to church. I'm not going to sit back and have my wife read scripture with my kids.

I'm going to read scripture with my kids. As for me, in my house, I am going to lead my house in the ways of God. I'm going to lead my house in the service of God. This is my responsibility. This is not my wife's responsibility. This is not my kids' responsibility. This is my responsibility. This is what I am going to do, Joshua says. This was a parental declaration. He was going to lead his family. That's why he was such a man of victory. Because he led properly. He glorified the Lord. It was a parental.

Declaration. He wasn't going to be a delinquent parent or a delinquent husband. He was going to be the spiritual leader. Fellows, you got to ask yourself that question. Are you that person? Is that you? Are you the leader? Are you the follower? And then listen to this. It was a persuasive declaration. A pers declaration. He makes the declaration. And then it says in verse number 16, what? And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. We're going to serve the Lord God of Israel.

It was a persuasive declaration. Why? Because Joshua was the leader. See, one of the ways you know that you're a leader is that you are able to lead people toward a deeper walk with God, and they follow you. They follow you. That's why Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ. Right? Now, that can be a bad thing, too, if you lead people away from the Lord. But if you're committed to Christ and following Him, this was a persuasive declaration. Why? Because it was a proven declaration. It wasn't something he just spouted off about, which had nothing, no life to back it up with.

His whole life backed up what he said he was going to do. Everybody knew it. He led the way. Even way back in Numbers chapter 13, when he and Caleb led the way and nobody followed. This time, they're all following. Because they know Joshua is the man of victory. And they want to be on the victorious path. And they want to be around a man who is committed to following God. See, it was a persuasive declaration. And that's why you need to understand that you need to lead. And as a father, as a husband, you have great persu in your home.

To lead your family. And you've got to ask yourself the question: if your children are not following your leadership, you've got to question your style of leadership, right? You've got to question your commitment to God. You've got to question your commitment to Christ. You've got to question what it is in your life that doesn't prove the declaration that you publicly make. Simple as that. The fifth thing I want you to see is the examination for service. Listen carefully. The exam for service. Verse 19.

People come back. We're going to serve the Lord. Verse 18. We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God. Verse 19. Then Joshua said to the people, You will not be able to serve the Lord. What? What kind of statement is that? Choose you this day who you will serve: the gods beyond the river or the Lord God of Israel. Well, we're going to serve the Lord God of Israel. Oh, sorry, you can't do that. What is that? Listen to this. For he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

Time out. Our God's a forgiving God. And now Joshua is telling people He's not going to forgive your church. What is all that supposed to be? This is the examination for servants. In the examination is this. Let me tell you something.

You can't do it yourself. Paul said to the Galatians, Galatians 3, verse number 3: Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having been born by the Spirit, are you trying to perfect everything in the flesh? You're trying to do it all yourself? Can't do it yourself. Why? You know why? Because your God's a holy God. And the Bible says you're to be holy as He Himself is holy.

And you're to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. You can't do that. You can't do it without him. He's a holy God. The standard's high. See, we just think that we can walk along and just step into any kind of service we want to do and live any kind of life we want to live, and God will be pleased with our service. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, because he says, look, if you persist in sin and you serve other gods, you will not be forgiven of your sins. God does not forgive those who don't repent.

God does not forgive those who don't turn from their sin. Then do that. So don't think you can just come in and say and verbally spout off, oh, yeah, we're going to serve the Lord our God. Why? Because Joshua knows Exodus 19:8. When the Lord made Mount Sinai tremble, remember that story way back in Exodus chapter 19? We studied that on Sunday morning for many, many weeks. And people say, Oh, we're going to serve the Lord our God. A few weeks later, what did they do? They built the golden calf and worshipped it.

Joshua knows the fickleness of people. So he says, before you get on the serving bandwagon, let me let you know you can't do it.

Because your God's holy, he's a jealous God, he will not have no rivals. In your relationship? None. If you have a rival with God's affection for your life, you're in big trouble. Big trouble. If you value something more than God, you're in big trouble. Because God won't stand for you. He is a jealous God. And he demands all of you. Not part of you, not some of you, not three-quarters of you, not nine-tenths of you, all of He wants you all. Every aspect, hook, line, and sinker. He's a jealous God.

So there's the examination for service. Where's your heart? Where is your heart? Says very clearly, the people said, Yes, we will serve The Lord. Which leads us to the preparation for service, verse number 23. Now, therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. This is the preparation for service. Put away everything else that rivals God's affection. Everything. And incline your heart to Him. Your heart must be his. It must be solely his al.

You want to serve the Lord your God? Get rid of anything that demands more attention than God. Get rid of it and incline your heart to me. I want your heart. All throughout the scriptures, read the book of Proverbs: Son, give me your heart. For out of it flow all the issues and springs of life. God wants your heart. That's the preparation for service. Then comes the confirmation for service. And people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey his voice. Three times, they say that.

And this is a preacher's dream. You know, I want you to serve the Lord. Amen, preacher, we're serving the Lord. I want you to follow the Lord. Amen, preacher, we're following the Lord. I want you to Of all the sin and all the amen, preacher. We're doing that. That's a preacher's dream. Joshua's living a dream. This is great. So Joshua says, We're going to make some confirmation here. So he says, Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. He took a large stone and set it up there under the oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be for witness against us. For it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us, thus it shall be for witness against you, lest you deny your God. Last words he spoke to his people, lest you deny your God. It's your confirmation. It's your contract. It's your commitment. I want you to confirm it right here and now that you're going to serve the Lord your God.

And then comes the duration of service. The duration. The Bible says in verse 3, And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua and had known all the deeds of the Lord which he had done for Israel.

The next 30 to 40 years they served God with all their heart. The duration of their service was impacted by a man of whom it was said in verse number 29. And it came about after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. He was a servant of the Lord. That little emphasis there at the end. Joshua, the son of Nun. Oh, by the way, the servant of the Lord. The one who commanded them and called them to service. Was him a servant of the Lord. And when it comes to the duration of your service, It comes because of a man's influence in people's lives.

I mean, you got ask yourself, when it's all said and done, And you die, will the people you served serve God? Will they? Will your influence and your persuasiveness be powerful enough that a next generation would serve the Lord God of Israel? That was Joshua. He was a great man. He was a man of victory because he was a servant of the Lord. He was committed to doing what God had called him to do. Set aside all those things that rivaled for his heart's affection. He just put them all aside. He says, You know what?

As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. How about you? Is that your commitment? As a father, as a husband, is that your commitment? Are you the spiritual leader in your home? Are you willing to lead your family toward a deeper relationship with the living God? That's what Joshua said he would do. That's what Joshua did do, because he was a servant of the Lord. And of course, there would be another generation that would arise. That did not know the ways of the Lord. That's in the book of Judges.

Isn't it interesting that God commanded Moses to raise up a leader? To succeed him. That was Joshua. But Joshua was not given that ordinance. You know why? Because all the fathers who lead said, I'll lead my family. Lead as Joshua led, as a servant of the Lord.