Joshua 24.14-27
Commitment to?
Some decisions in life are not really that important and won’t be remembered. Let me ask you – Can you remember what you bought for everyone last Christmas? Can you remember what you had for breakfast on this day last year? Can you remember the first time you ate porridge? Other decisions are really important – the choice to get married and to whom. The career you choose to follow. For some the choice of football team you support is important. We make many decisions during our lifetime and some are inconsequential whilst others affect us, our families and a wider circle of people. But then you all know that but maybe this morning it would be good just to stop and think about the decisions you make as we begin a new year at HTW.
Turn with me to Joshua 24 verses 14-27. Joshua is now 110 years old. He has led the people of Israel for 67 years. He, along with Caleb, are the only two survivors of the generation who came out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience. He and Caleb, alone out of that generation, entered the Promised Land. Joshua has come to the end of his life and he gathers the people before him to give them one last instruction from God. The people no doubt gathered to hear him as much out of respect for this long-lived, and it would seem much loved, leader.
In Africa the Christian people have a habit of saying “God is good, all the time, God is good., because that is His nature.” In verses 1-13 God speaks through Joshua and tells the people all that He has done for them. 16 times we read ‘I’ for ‘God.’ Joshua outlines all the good things that God has done for them in bringing them out of slavery into the Promised Land. I wonder if you and I took an hour this week and wrote down for 2007 alone all the good things that God had done for us – every meal, every blessing, every time He held us up when we were falling or struggling – it would be some list in my life. Joshua calls the people of God to remember what God has done for them.
Verses 14-15 then Joshua lays before them a challenge – read the verses. Look again at the first sentence – in light of verses 1-13 – all that God has done for you – here is what you are to do towards God. Note how it begins – ‘Fear the Lord’ – as the writer of Proverbs said ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ The fear of the Lord is something we have lost in the church today and amongst God’s people. We race into worship without a thought or a care. We forget into whose presence we come. We come with hearts unprepared and minds straying all over the place let me give you a perfect example of the lack of fear of the Lord at HTW – when we sit and chit chat the whole way through HC. You know in 1953 when they televised the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II they did not televise her receiving HC because it was considered so sacred – the secular media thought it more sacred than some of you do on a Sunday morning.
We need to take on board this Word from God this morning.
Serve Him with all faithfulness – did you notice the important little word ‘all’ in that sentence. There are lots of people who serve the Lord but not in all faithfulness. There are some of you here this morning and you serve the Lord but it is not in all faithfulness. As humbly as I can let me challenge you on some things where you are not faithful in all things to God? When you gossip about and slander leaders/people within the body of Christ – is that serving in all faithfulness? When you criticise others in order to build yourself up or deflect the spotlight from your failings or sin. When you agree to go along with the shady business practice or the lies that you turn a blind eye to in work – is that serving in all faithfulness? When you listen to the filthy jokes and the sexual innuendos of others – is that serving in all faithfulness? When you fail to speak up for Christ but keep your head down – is that serving in all faithfulness? The list could go on but you know this morning when you have not served God in all faithfulness in your home and in other areas of your life.
Joshua then challenges them to throw away the gods that their forefathers had worshipped and served in Egypt. They obviously had these gods with them. They kept them and they too had fallen into idol worship. You see friends the river runs crooked because the water follows the path of least resistance and the same is true in the lives of people – they become crooked because they follow the path of least resistance and if that includes bowing down to a few idols then so be it. Isn’t that true in your life? How many people live a life of following the path of least resistance? How often have you heard people say “Don’t rock the boat?” “It really is not important enough to speak out about?” When you go home today google ‘Niemoller’ and read his famous words about the Nazi’s – you will hear them on the 27th of this month on Holocaust Memorial day – they came for the Jews and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew…”and he goes on to finish with “they came for me and there was no one left to speak up.” The path of least resistance leads to horrors like the Holocaust and some of those holocausts are happening right now in lives within this congregation because you did took the path of least resistance and bowed down to the idols of this age. God is uncompromising when he says through Joshua – throw away your idols. We are too slow to get rid of the idols in our lives. But if you are fully committed to serving God in all faithfulness you will throw away your idols. It means throwing them away – it may mean literally physically taking something and getting rid of it of the house. Whatever takes consistently takes you away from God – that is your idol.
Look at verse 15 – Joshua gives them a choice – read it. Remember who it is that is speaking this words – Joshua, 110 years old. He knows all about the cost of commitment in following God. The plagues, the angel of death, the Red Sea, the wilderness, manna and quail etc. He knew what it meant to be a minority voice saying let us do what God has commanded us to do and seeing a whole generation turn and go in the opposite direction. Joshua had been through battles and has the scars to prove it – so his speaking here of his commitment and his families commitment is no light hearted thing – he knows what it will cost to serve in all faithfulness. In fact Francis Schaeffer says of this that the tense involves continuous action. Joshua is saying ‘I have chosen to serve God, I am choosing the same path right now and I will go on choosing the same path of serving God in all faithfulness.’
You see we fall into a dangerous trap of thinking that because we at one point in our lives committed our lives to Christ that was it. Let me ask you something is that the way you treat your marriage commitment? Is that how you have treated your commitment to be a parent? Of course not – those commitments are daily, on going, through good and hard times. When I commit to follow Christ it is a daily continuous commitment – “Today take up your cross and follow me” says Jesus. The danger is we forget that the commitment is a continuous moment by moment commitment to serve in all faithfulness. That is why so many keep falling back into old sinful habits and bowing down to old familiar idols – because your resting on a past commitment and not on a commitment that you made that moment to serve in all faithfulness. Waken up to that fact and change your mindset, your heart commitment and your will.
Verses 16-18 seem like a wonderful response from the people of God. And yet listen to verses 19-20 – what a shock for them. They have responded positively and it now seems as if Joshua knocks them down. Remember it is God speaking through Joshua so do not be so hasty in your conclusions. Why would God say such a thing to His people after they have committed themselves to serving Him in all faithfulness? Because - God is not interested in emotional caught-up-in the moment responses. God does not want men and women whose response is based on the worship experience, the praise the oratory of a preacher. He wants people who are committed to Him because of who He is and not based on what they can get from it or experience from it. That is the danger here for the people of God. In Exodus 24 Joshua had seen and heard it all before. The people had made the same commitment before Moses and yet 40 days later God sends Moses down the Mount Sinai to witness the people worshipping a golden calf and indulging in a drunken orgy. Joshua is not fooled and God is never fooled by the commitment which is just an emotional response. In verse 19 Joshua challenges the people to respond on the basis of who God is and to realise the cost and depth of that commitment – to a holy and jealous God. You see if their commitment was based on an emotional response to the challenge laid down by this beloved old leader it would not sustain them in the difficult times ahead.
Verse 19 is followed by a dire warning in verse 20 that God would reject them and bring punishment upon them if they forsake Him and serve other gods. You know we tend to forget, or ignore, such warnings in Scripture. Friends let me say to you this morning, as we begin 2008, if you forsake God and serve other gods – the gods of materialism, of money, status etc, the gods of this world, then do not expect blessing from God. Do not expect all to go well with you or with HTW this year if we choose to serve other gods and fail to serve God in all faithfulness. Leaders – do not expect blessing on your organisation or your leadership if you are not serving God in all faithfulness. Heed the warning words of verse 20.
Verses 21-24 the people once again responded positively to all that Joshua had said to them. They make a commitment to serve God in all faithfulness. But you know people forget so quickly, don’t they? How quickly the man or woman forgets the commitment he/she made to marriage when temptation crosses his/her path? How quickly a parent forgets the commitment to children when the demands of a job increase? How quickly we forget the commitment we made to Christ when other gods crowd our lives and attract our hearts? How quickly you young people give up your commitment to read your bibles and to prayer when your friends are going elsewhere?
Listen to Joshua’s words to them in verse 23 – get rid of your idols. He came back to it a second time. Get rid of your idols and the foreign gods amongst you and commit your hearts to God. Surrender your hearts to God. Yield them to God – surrender them to God, they no longer belong to you but to Him. You know the problem with most Christians today is that they have never truly surrendered to Christ. They have not yielded their hearts to Christ. Their first thought is not Christ. Their first love is not Christ. Their first desire and passion is not Christ. Listen to what God said of such people in Revelation 3 verse 14ff – the church at Laodicea. How many here this morning would those words apply to? Only you can answer that this morning and if the answer is yes then it applies to HTW – to us all because we have allowed such shallow commitment to grow in our fellowship.
You know in verse 24 when they commit to serving God they say “we will obey His voice.” They will obey what God commands – how about you?
Verses 25-27 Joshua sets up a stone to remind them of the covenant commitment they have made to God that day. Joshua set up the stone because he knew how easily they would forget the commitment. We do that in all sorts of areas of our lives – my wedding ring reminds me of the commitment I made to Janet. It reminds me of a commitment. The cross on this HC table reminds me of the commitment God made for me – the death of His only begotten Son. Joshua wanted a physical reminder before the eyes of the people of their covenant commitment to serving God in all faithfulness. We do that at HTW every week we come here – open our bibles, praying together, sharing in HC – there are lots of reminders of our commitment to serve God in all faithfulness. The challenge is does it go beyond the front door of HTW? Or is it just an emotional commitment that dies and fades as the week progresses.
You know as we begin 2008 what better passage could we have begun with than this challenge to commitment. It is now up to you take it on board and to do something about it.
Amen.
