Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve (Joshua 24:15)

boy. Record. And then I'll pin myself. Pin. All right. Here we go. All right. So, some new setup for recording. A little different than before, but uh um hopefully then I'll learn how to do thumbnails and we'll get crazy with it. But today, we're going to go uh old school. We're going to go uh into Joshua. And this is a fairly uh famous passage uh but I want to cover it. Uh there's to me there's really three really really really good points. We're going to cover two of them today because I don't want to go too too long. Uh and then so we're going to be in Joshua 24 and and 15.

If you read uh the first 13 or or from or from verse two to to 13 really what happens here is uh it's it's Joshua. He he's the prophet and and he's he's telling the people what God has said. And God is God is kind of taking a page from maybe the last chapter or two even in Job where he's saying, "I've done all these things for you." And so that kind of leads up to where we are here in verse 15. So So God has said, "I've done this. I've done this. I've done this. I've done this. I've done this for you. I've done all these things for And so now we get to to verse 15 and and Joshua says, "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose yourselves this day whom you shall serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." The Lord. And so, uh, the Israelites have done the same thing continually. They've they've they've been on board. They've not been on board. They've been on board. They've not been on board. Uh, this entire time they they have tried to hold on to where they were in in Egypt. And in fact, this passage makes reference to it as well, too. And so, they're in the promised land now. Uh, they God has cleared out the the city for Jericho for them. They're they're living in cities that they didn't build.

and and and he's done all of this for them. And yet here we are and we're still acting in our old ways. And so if we read this verse and it says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers." So what Joshua is saying is that you're going to serve someone. And whether that's our god or whether that's the god of uh TV land or the god of the gym or the god of women or the god of porn or the god you're going to serve. You're going to be a master. You're going to be a slave to something. Excuse me. And so he's saying which path do you want to go down.

The Israelites had many gods that they could worship when they were in Egypt. And they brought some of them with them. And so Joshua is saying it's time to choose which you're going to do. And so we if we all take a an inventory of ourselves, uh we know that we know um you know, we're going to pay attention to what's important to us. And this is what Joshua is saying. He's like, "What's important to you?" Hey, remember all that he has done for you. Remember all that he did for them. And Joshua is saying today. He's not saying, "Let's think about what he did for us back in 1998 or in in 2004." He's saying, "Choose this day right now, today.

What are we going to do? How are we going to live our lives? What does this look like? You are you going to continue to choose to chase the corporate ladder? Are you going to continue to worship your kids and and and be that hovering parent, that helicopter parent, or are you going to choose to wake up today and make sure that you're going to you're going to serve the one true God?" And so it's it's not a question of which god. It's not a question of a god or not. It's a question of which god. And and so he says that right here in this text. And and the next thing that that is interesting is he talks about uh the gods from the past.

What your forefathers did. And so when I think about that and I think about this verse uh it's it's easy for us to know, right? We we go to we go to, hey, I'm going to go to the Wednesday night Bible study or I'm going to go to church on Sunday and I'm going to go get my good hour in. And then we fall short the rest of the week and then all of a sudden we we stop doing what we should be doing. So, choose this day who you will serve. Uh the gods your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites and those lands you were living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. And so, uh, it it it can it's not easy to do. It's it's it's, uh, the the the Christian walk is simple. It's not complicated. We don't have a a three- ring binder full of all these things that we have to check off to make sure that we're doing on a daily basis. It it we don't have to go through that. We we there's nothing that you're going to do to earn your salvation. You're going to you're going to believe in your heart and you're going to confess with your mouth, but then you got to walk it out.

And that's what Joshua is talking about here. Joshua is saying, "When you wake up tomorrow, where's your heart going to be because that's what you're gonna that's what you're going to pay attention to." And and Joshua does this thing where he stands up and he says, "Not just himself." He says him and his household. So he he's not saying he's not taking a a a survey. He's not standing up and going, "All right, who's going to do this? Who's going to do this with me?" He's making the statement I am doing. you guys do what you want, but here's where I'm going to go.

This is what I'm going to do. And not only me, but this is who my family is going to worship and serve. And why? Because he's because he deserves it. Because he deserves our love. Because he especially today, he gives us that grace and that mercy that renews every morning. And so this is what Joshua is going to do. And so we we this this verse for me is inventory. This verse for me is taking accountability of where I'm at. This is a verse for me where I get to sit down and go, where am I spending my time? What am I actually doing during the week?

And look, it there's nothing wrong with the gym. Uh my good friend Adam here on and he does want me to tell his life story, but he used to be a strength and and and fitness coach for a for an NFL team. Uh and so exercise and and and keeping his body in in in fine physical condition is important for him, but it doesn't take the place of who he worships. So, we need to take an inventory of where we're at and what we're doing and know that we're serving God because that's what he asks from us. He just wants our heart. All right. So, thoughts, comments, suggestions, you know, that's a declaration.

You know, as for me and my family, you know, you know, we're going to serve the Lord first. You know, it's a it's a declaration. as a leadership declaration as as the leader of your household and that we're not going to serve the little G gods of this world. You know, you have so many little G gods. There's so many distractions, you know, and we to it goes God, family, work, and then everything else, you know. Amen. So, Amen. Amen. I I'm with you 100%. Anybody else? Reaffirming that choice every day, right? Yeah, like like the brother was saying, reaffirming that choice every day.

I I used this phrase, I don't remember last week, maybe the week before, and I we were I was talking about, you know, what we think about. And I was like, you know, my feet don't hit the my my feet don't hit the ground when I when I swing out of bed and my feet finally touch ground. I don't think about it. I don't think about my salvation. But the moment I said that, I started realizing maybe I should maybe every morning when I pull the covers off and my feet hit the ground, the that should be the cue that the very first thing about is to remind myself who am I going to serve today?

Because I have a choice. Dwayne, every single morning I wake up, before my feet hit the ground, before I get out of bed, it's become just almost habit and it's become habit. I open up my eyes and I say thank you immediately. It's like I'm on the wake up list. It's a brand new day, you know, and I'm grateful for that. Just having that just having another opportunity. I say thank you before the bottoms of my feet hit the floor. Amen. Anybody else thought, comment? Kind of reminds me a little bit. It's kind of funny. got to date myself a little bit.

But uh I remember um Bob Dylan when he was uh coming to his faith in the Lord, you know, he he changed a little bit of his direction in his music and he wrote one song called You Got to Serve Somebody. Bob Dylan. I thought Yeah, you you did date yourself there, sir. Just kidding. Just letting you know. That's right, though. You are going to You are going to serve You are going to serve somebody. Yeah. Amen. So, we're uh All right, we got 30 more seconds. Anybody else? Yeah. I was going to say, hey, we all might have a plaque on our wall at home that says that or a decal somewhere, right?

But I think we're also given a thousand decisions a day to make that to make that call. Like that proves prove that wall decal, right? Yep. We make so many decisions today. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes. Yeah. We need we need to do that. We need to make sure that we're reaffirming that process every day that we're letting God know where our where our our our heart and our loyalty uh remain. So, all right. Well, we're going to pray out. Uh so let's bow our heads. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for these for this word. Thank you for this reminder.

Thank you for um I mean it's just so amazing that something that was written 2500 years ago is so relevant and so current for who we are today that we do get to wake up every morning and we do get to to to give our gratitude and we we do get to make a decision as Adam said whether it's the plaque on the wall or the t-shirt that we happen to put on or the wristband around our wrist that that sometimes those things can just um maybe they could just kind of be almost transparent to us at this at some times where we we forget we have those, but but those should be reminders.

Those should be the thing that says, "I serve the one true God." And so, Father, I just pray that you give us the strength and the courage, the the the discernment, the wisdom, the the eyes to see that so that we can make the right call and the right decisions on a daily basis. And then to know that you are a God of grace and mercy that when we do miss it, and we will, Father, that you're there to pick us up, uh, brush us off the next morning, love on us, and keep no record of that wrong that we've done. Doesn't give us cart blanch to sin. Um, but it but it does give us the ability to know that when we do stumble, that you still love us, that you still care for us, that you still want us, uh, that you want nothing more than to have a relationship with us.

And so, Father, I just pray for that. I pray for each each person on this call that that they would start their week this way, that they would start their day this way, that they would remember who you are. Lord, we thank you for waking each of us up today and giving us an opportunity to get to this call to learn more about you and to be in community with others. Father, we thank you. We love you. We praise you. And as always, in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Bye. See you. See you guys tomorrow. Mñana see you Oregon time tomorrow. Oh, I love Oregon.

You guys will be up early. I will be. Amen. All right. Bye. Bye, guys.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.