“Choose This Day To Serve The LORD Every Day”
Joshua 24:1,2a,14-18
Pentecost 14 (B)
Life is full of choices – what should I wear today? What should I eat for
lunch? Where should I go to college? Should we buy this car? Should we sell this
house? Should we have another child? Nearly every moment of every day you are
faced with another choice.
About three thousand four hundred years ago a man named Joshua asked
God’s people to make a choice – a very important choice. As we look at what Joshua
asked God’s people then, we will discover that his question is just as important for
God’s people today.
I. It Is Important To Stop And Think About This Choice
Before we get to that question let me ask you another: How many years do you
have left? To live, I mean? How many more years do you expect to live on this
earth? I realize none of us knows this. The Lord could end any of our lives this
afternoon. But, give it a shot. Give it a guess. Some of you are thinking, “Mmm…10
years maybe.” Others of you are thinking more like 60 or 70. I am 43 years
old. Statistically speaking, I have another 30 – 50 years left. Now that you have a
number in mind, here is the next question: What do you plan to do with those
years? “Ouch, Pastor. You’re making my head hurt. I come here this morning to relax
and worship and you’re making me think.” I know it’s not easy thinking about such big
questions. That’s why we don’t do it very often. Rather than actually think and plan we
would prefer to just…exist – just keep existing until we turn around and thirty years have
passed. That’s why from time to time it is important to stop and think things through.
That is what Joshua was telling God’s people to do when they gathered at
Shechem. After six hundred years, God had kept His promise to give His people the
land of Canaan. Joshua had led them in battle after battle. God had given them victory
over all their enemies. They were settled in their new homes and enjoying all the
blessings of the land. It was a good time to stop and think – a good time to rededicate
themselves to their LORD.
2
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel,
14
says: Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the
gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the
LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers
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.”
Those of you old enough to remember and young enough to have grown up with
MTV will recall one of the most popular music videos of the 1980s. A rebellious
teenage boy is confronted by his overbearing father, who snidely asks him, “What do
you wanna do with your life?” The answer? “I wanna rock!” The song on which the
video was based doesn’t get any deeper than that. “I wanna rock! I want to
rock!” Unfortunately, too often God’s people adopt an attitude toward life that is no
deeper or more meaningful than that song. We live our lives without purpose or
direction other than to fulfill our most immediate passions or pursuits. It may not be “I
wanna rock!” But it may very well be “I wanna shop!” or “I wanna relax!” or “I wanna
eat!” We wind up living our lives, not in service to the LORD but in service to
ourselves.
II. It Is Important To Make The Right Choice
When you wake up in the morning are you thinking, “How will I serve my Lord
today?” Or are you thinking, “How will I serve myself today?” Or is it a very dangerous
hybrid kind of thinking that says, “I will serve the Lord today as long as it is not too
difficult and as long as I find myself agreeing with what the Lord says.” Joshua made no
such hybrid promise. Joshua said,“But as for me and my household, we will serve
the LORD” (v. 15). Period.
This is the kind of commitment God expects. Not just when it is convenient. Not
just when it fits your schedule. Not just when it is easy. Not just when you are around
other Christians. God expects lifelong, every day commitment to serving Him.
And notice something else about Joshua’s commitment. He said, “…as for me
AND MY HOUSEHOLD, WE will serve the LORD” (v. 15). As the leader of his
household Joshua said, “This is the way it’s going to be.” Last week we talked about
how some parents say things like, “I’m going to let my children decide for themselves
what to believe about God.” And we noted that this approach simply does not work. In
our Gospel lesson we heard how most of Jesus’ followers left Him because they did not
like what He was saying. Jesus asked His twelve closest disciples if they were going to
leave too. St. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life.” If Jesus has the only words that can give my children eternal life, you can
be sure I will make sure that they hear those words. If there were many different paths
to heaven then, sure, it would make sense to let my children choose which one they
prefer. But, there is only one way to eternal life and that is through Jesus Christ. Above
all else, I want my children to spend eternity with me. Nothing else is as
important. Nothing else comes close. So, as for me and my household, we will serve
the Lord.
And that makes so many other decisions easier. When you have a guiding
principle in your life it gives you direction for all the day to day decisions in your
life. When you are choosing a job or a school or a place to live you ask yourself, “How
will this impact my relationship with God and my service to Him?” When you are setting
up activities and schedules for your children ask yourself, “How will this impact my
child’s relationship and service to God.” If it interferes with you or your child’s
relationship and service to God then you don’t do it.
That is what commitment is. It means being committed. And trust me, your
children know whether you are committed to serving the Lord or whether your
relationship with the Lord is a relationship of convenience. They know because they
see what you do. They see the choices you make.
And because it is so easy to be distracted by the world around us and by our
own selfish desires, it is vital to commit ourselves to serving the Lord each and every
day. “Choose this day whom you will serve” is not a one-time commitment. Choose
THIS DAY whom you will serve. Choose this EVERY DAY. Wake up every single day
and remind yourself, “I am a child of God. He loves me. He delivered me from my
sin. He washed me clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. He wants what is best for
me. I will spend this day serving Him and following His Word.”
The Israelites said something very much like this in our text. When Joshua
challenged them to choose whom they would serve they replied, “Far be it from us to
forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who
brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and
performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire
journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD
drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land.
We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God” (vv. 16-18). Did you notice
how they reminded themselves of what God had done for them and THAT is what
motivated them to serve the Lord?
It is the same motivation we have for serving the Lord. We remember all of the
blessings He has given us – life and family and friends and food, forgiveness and peace
and…eternal life of all things. How could we NOT desire to serve Him? That is why He
wants us to be so connected to His Word and worship. When we study His Word and
when we worship we are reminded of His goodness and motivated to live for Him.
You have a number of opportunities coming up to remind yourself and your
family of how good God has been to you. In two weeks we begin a new year
of Sunday School and bible class. Don’t wait until the morning of September 13th to
think about whether or not to take advantage of these opportunities. Choose this day to
make the study of God’s Word your family’s priority this Fall. Then you won’t have to
make a decision every week. You have already decided – this is where we will be on
Sunday mornings.
Then, watch as God’s Word changes your life. Watch as He empowers you to
love your spouse more selflessly. Watch as He empowers you to obey your parents
more willingly. Watch as He empowers you to work for your employer more
diligently. Watch as He empowers you to treat your co-workers more
compassionately. Watch as He empowers you to look at your bills with less
anxiety. That is the wonderful thing about serving the LORD. You get back from Him
far more than you could ever give. That’s just the way He is.
Aren’t you glad you are here today to stop for a moment and refocus your
life? How long will that life be? We can only guess. But, you do not have to guess
what your priority will be for the rest of that life. “Choose This Day To Serve The
LORD Every Day.” Amen.