August 25-27, 2018 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 (EHV) “CHOOSE!”

PENTECOST 14

August 25-27, 2018

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 (EHV)

“CHOOSE!”

1.     gods

Or

2.     GOD!

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 (EHV) “Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and he summoned the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God. ²Then Joshua told all the people, “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully. Remove the gods that your fathers served in the region across the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵But if you see no benefit in serving the LORD, then choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve—whether the gods that 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!” ¹⁶The people responded by saying, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD in order to serve other gods! ¹⁷For the LORD our God, he is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, where we were slaves. He is the one who performed these great signs right before our eyes and protected us on the whole journey that we made and among all the peoples through whom we passed. ¹⁸The LORD drove out of our presence all the peoples and the Amorites who were living in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God!”

          Choices. We make all kinds of them every day. We make choices on small things. What will I wear today? What time do I set the alarm for? What will we eat? We make choices on big things. Fix the car or get another one? Do I accept the job offer? Every choice we make whether little or big has potential consequences for our lives. Food choices can affect our health. Clothing choices can effect what other people think of us. Car choices effect our wallets. Jobs can dictate much of the rest of our lives. Today in God’s Word we join some people who are much like us as they are faced with a very important choice: whom to serve, gods or GOD. With the Spirit’s help we’ll see how this same choice plays out in our lives.

          So that we can make the right choice we need to be in the same context as Joshua and the people of Israel. If you recall, God used General Joshua to bring the people of Israel into the Promised Land. The walls of Jericho came tumbling down. 31 kings and their little kingdoms fell to Israel because God was fighting for them. The crisis was over. It was time to settle down. Now you know very well how it works in your life. When there is trouble, when you lose your job, when you face a serious health issue you know you are God dependent and it shows in your life. You worship, you listen, you pray. And then when things get back to normal what can happen? We can lose our intensity and let God fade to the background. No more kings to conquer. No more battles. What would happen with God’s people called Israel? Joshua was not just their general but their God appointed spiritual leader so he went into action. Before he asked the people to choose he reminded them of their choices. What I need you to do now is grab a Bible from the pew or, yes, you have my permission, get out your smartphone and open your Bible app to Joshua 24 and let’s quickly review the verses missing from our printed text, verses 3-13. Before Joshua exhorted the people to choose He reminded them what the God who had chosen them had done for them. Verses 3 and 4 God’s goodness to Abraham, then the rescue from Egypt with Moses and Miriam, then the giving to them the land they now lived in and the defeat of their enemies. This is the GOD who loves and saves His people and the people knew Him.

          These were believers gathered before Joshua just like you are believers gathered before me. They needed to understand that each day of their life they would be making a choice, not whether or not to be a believer, but whether or not to live as believers. “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully. Remove the gods that your fathers served in the region across the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵But if you see no benefit in serving the LORD, then choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve—whether the gods that 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!” Choose. Not whether or not to serve but whom they would deliberately serve.

          Choose! GOD or gods. We’ll talk about the only GOD in a minute but first we need to talk about gods, with a small g. What does this mean? Pastor Luther provided an explanation to that as well. He gave this practical definition of a god.
“Whatever is your first priority that is your god.” With that definition you can see there can be all kinds of gods and which ones people may choose to serve depends on their culture and their circumstances. The people of God gathered before Joshua lived in a culture that definitely believed there were higher powers and that they needed to please those higher powers to have good crops and healthy babies, to avoid plague, drought and war. The people of that culture had very few comforts easily available to them and mostly hoped for full bellies and a safe place to sleep. So the gods those people were tempted to serve had names like Baal and Molech and Asherah. And people believed if you served those gods you would have good corps or healthy babies. If Israel served those gods they would keep the idols in their homes and spend their money on wine and grain to buy that idol off though it would neither eat or drink. If they chose to serve God they would worship Him like He told them to and would trust Him for babies and crops and herds.

          We live in a different culture and time. Sad to say a lot of people in our culture don’t believe in any higher power. They mostly believe they are in control of their own lives. We also live in a culture where we enjoy a lot of nice things: more food than we need to survive and good tasting foods. Almost endless entertainment opportunities and we don’t have to work every day just to stay alive. The gods Americans serve are usually listed as money which gives a sense that we are in control, leisure and rest, entertainment and hobby.  Most Americans are not concerned with getting a meal today but what will entertain me today, and will I have enough to retire and do fun things. Those are just some gods we could serve.

          Now choose. If you are at a crisis time in your life right now, if another 9/11 happens today, if the economy goes back into recession so you are losing jobs and houses, your choice will be easy because you will realize how God dependent you really are. But if your life is fairly normal right now, no health scare, job is OK, the Devil is going to tempt you to get sloppy in your sanctified living, to put your relationship with the Lord on the back burner. Like Joshua did with the people of Israel let me do for you today. Choose. The people who know you, your family, friends and neighbors, what would they say your number one passion is (your god)? I could be wrong but it seems to me that some among us have slipped into a pattern that worships God when it is convenient rather than a prioritized choice. In the New Testament times we live the Third Commandment gives us freedom on which day of the week to get together and worship, not the freedom to put other things ahead of worship. And let me suggest that if you can’t get your worship choice right the chances of getting your other ones right aren’t very good. Choose. God or sports. Choose. God or recreation. Choose  God or sleep. Choose entertain yourself or get the name of Jesus to more people. You will make a choice. Now choose.

          Joshua and his people did. “But as for me and my household—we will serve the LORD!” ¹⁶The people responded by saying, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD in order to serve other gods! We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God!” They recognized how good God had been to them and they responded. You can too. Today is a good day, brothers and sisters, to take stock of your life. First whom have you been serving? Look at your choices in words you use, how you schedule your time, how you prioritize your budget, why you believe what you do. That’s your past. Today is your present. Whom will you serve? Let me help you. This is what the Lord says, He who formed you in your mother’s womb, who chose you as his own before the creation of the world, who made sure you knew it at your Baptism, who keeps forgiving you far after any person in your life would have given up, who never leaves you or forsakes you, who loves you do the death of His Son, who has prepared your place in heaven and deliberately works all things in your life for your good, He says, “Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of the Americans or the only God who saved you through Jesus.” Choose! Now if it’s true for you say it with me. “As for me and my household—we will serve the LORD!” Amen.