Now, there's certain things in life that you don't have to think about, all right? We had a family in Florida ask us, would you guys like to go to Disney World? And we're kind of like, well, I mean, who wouldn't like to go to Disney World? They said, well, we'd like to buy you tickets to go for two days to do different theme parks and things. And we didn't really have to puzzle over that too long or pray about that too much. It was kind of obvious that we'd like to do that. My brother and I grew up fishing, and that was a big part of my life. growing up, and I had a good friend, Cliff, that I've spoken about at different times here at church, and he liked to fish as well. He was my fishing buddy, and he and my brother, just about two weeks ago, were in a fishing tournament at Camp Shitek. It's a fundraiser for the Christian camp there in Wisconsin. They go out, they have 40-some boats that were participating, and my brother and Cliff exact same poundage and ounce weight as another book. If you ask me, would you have liked to have been there with them or if I could go with them, again, it's not something that I have to think about very long. It's obvious what I'd like I'd like to go out to eat. She never says this. I always have to ask her, would you like to go out to eat? But you know, if she said it to me, if I think about that, you know, I can just spend time with my wife and good food. Again, it's not something that I have to puzzle over. It's a win-win. Obviously, I'd like to do that. In my youth, as a teenager, we called these kind of things no-brainers, all right? In other words, no cognitive skill necessary. You don't have to think about it. It's a no-brainer. The answer is obvious. Well, sometimes teenagers would get no-brainers wrong, okay? Maybe that's a lot of times where that phrase would come out. You know, somebody does something really, really foolish, and you go, duh, that was a no-brainer, right? You didn't have to think about that. I mean, that was obvious what you should have done. Maybe it was an exam question, and they were sleeping in class or something like that, so they weren't paying attention. And that question came up, and they got it wrong. And again, you're just like, how could you possibly get that wrong? That was so obvious. They might have done something that embarrassed them. But why did you go down that path and trip over that or whatever that was again kind of a no-brainer type idea? You know Joshua chapter 24 we find Joshua challenging Israel with what is a no-brainer all right? It's it's not something that somebody should have to puzzle over or think that long about it And the sad thing is, despite the fact that it's a no-brainer, just like the illustration I used there, sometimes people get no-brainers wrong. And so they might be sleeping spiritually, and they get this wrong. There are plenty of believers that have certainly messed up, and getting this answer right, that is on the heart of Joshua. And so the no-brainer that Joshua presents to the people as a simple challenge is this, all right? You ought to decide to serve the Lord your God. Now what's sad about this, what we're gonna look at, is not just that Joshua shared this with the children of Israel, but that Joshua had to share this with the leadership of the children of Israel as well. And so look with me at Joshua chapter 24 and verse one. It says, and Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their judges and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God. So again, All right, all you guys come here. Joshua's the chief leader. He's gonna have a powwow with them and sit down and really challenge them to be the next generation that's gonna go on to serve God. He does that in verse 14 as he says, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord, okay? deals with things that were in their life, but then that just... We're gonna listen to Joshua this morning and let him challenge us, right? We're gonna take his points and apply them to our lives this morning and challenge ourselves that we ought to decide to serve the Lord, our God. And again, as we think about this this morning, it should be a no-brainer. It ought to be something that is in our hearts, like, obviously, yeah, who wouldn't serve God? And so may God speak to our hearts as we look at this truth this morning. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the grace I can give. Thank you for the opportunity that we have to come to the Word of God this morning. Thank you for all you've already worked in our hearts. Thank you for, Brother Josh, sharing at Sunday School the truth about God's creation. And Father, the good reminder that the God that began it is a God that will conclude it, both physically and praise God spiritually in our lives. And Father, it's encouraging to us in our walk with God. It's encouraging to us, even as we look at this property, we're talking about the work that needs to be done, that the God that directed us to get the property and is a God that's gonna help us finish it. And I was encouraged by that from the lesson this morning. But Father, it's been good to be in the house of God. It's good to see everybody this morning. It's good to fellowship and speak one with another to hear about how the week has been and to just have that time of fellowship and time now around the word of God and singing. And so we praise you for the hymns that we've sung, the hymns that were chosen this morning that Vincent presented to us were hymns of the soon appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rejoice in that and are excited About the return of Jesus and I pray Lord to be great if you'd return Before this message is over. It'd be great if you'd come Immediately and that would be immediately in the presence of God But as long as you Terry I pray that the Spirit of God and help us to grow I pray that you'd help us to go onward and upward I pray that you'd help us to achieve more for God and for God's glory. I Father, I pray for the kids in their class this morning, that the Spirit of God would bless Mrs. Shore and guide them and direct them, and that they'd have tender hearts to simple truths that are presented to them at their age level, things that they can understand, and they would begin to love God as soon as they can understand truth. And Father, for us in this room again, I pray that the Spirit of God would speak to every heart. Father, I pray that you give us ears to hear. I pray, Father, you'd help me as I speak. I can't speak without your enablement. Father, I ask that the Spirit of God would help me to preach biblically, practically, lovingly, and powerfully the truth of your word and present it as you intend me to as the pastor of our church. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen. All right, so you ought to decide to serve the Lord your God. And I want to paraphrase Joshua's challenge as we come to the different points and just kind of what he was saying to them. And I want to paraphrase the main points as a question. And so why wouldn't you serve the God who has done everything for you? We're talking about the no-brainer idea that this is obvious, something that we ought to look at and say, and what Joshua's challenging them with is that this ought to be something that is just a natural response because of what God has why wouldn't you serve the God who has done everything for you? And so as a young person growing up in my father's house and you in your father's house, if my dad asked me to do something or my parents asked me to do something, if I wasn't in a bad mood or something else going on, generally speaking, if they asked me to do something, I would respond affirmatively. and had provided my food. Dad gave me a place to sleep. Dad took care of all the pressure and the things about life and took good care of me. And so a young person helping around the house should not be unusual, but that should be expected. I mean, that would be kind of a natural response of a young person that has everything going for them that mom and dad are providing to respond in that way. It would be more unusual for a young person not to respond in that way. In fact, we look at that and say that's ingratitude, right? thankful, don't really realize what they've been given. And they ought to recognize that and then respond accordingly and serve within that help. And so Joshua's challenge to Israel is rational. God's done so much for you. It ought to be unusual for you not to serve the God who has given so much to you. So he begins to speak to them about that. And so going back in our text, verse two, he speaks to them about the fact that God led them away from false gods. It says in verse two, Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods. If you wanted to know, did Abraham's family No, God, you know going back some generations. They did they weren't serving God They were in idolatry and they served other gods and God Brought them away from that. They didn't know the true God until God in his mercy brought them to faith There's a lot of people in our in our day that are serving false gods and we're talking about the emptiness of an atheist, you know the pointlessness of life and but they're bowing down to those things that can can't help them at all and can't do anything for them. The Olympic swimmer was in the news this past week, Adam Peaty, and he's a three-time Olympic champion. And what I was speaking about was the sadness of his life, kind of the emptiness of his life, and that he's struggling with what they would call mental health and having motivation. Not that he's not good at what he does But he said this a good friend of mine said a gold medal is the coldest thing you'll ever wear PD told BBC breakfast It's the coldest thing because you think it will fix all of your problems and it will not all right so if that's if that's the pinnacle of your existence if that if achieving that for some people might be getting that job and For others, it might be getting that device, or getting that thing, and they think, that thing's gonna satisfy me. If I could just get to there, that's gonna be what life's all about. And there are plenty of people today that are living the life of those things, and it's just empty, empty, empty. And again, there's nothing wrong with maybe getting a good job, or winning that gold medal, or something like that, but if that's the pinnacle of man's existence, again, you just think how that does not satisfy him. And so there's plenty of people living their life for false gods. They live to drink on the weekends. I mean that to them is their existence. They go to work, they work to drink. I mean it's just a cycle and again it doesn't satisfy them. They live their life for Some that live their life for work and money. They live their life for social media fame. There's a lot of young people that are just constantly on their devices, and I mean, their life is all wrapped up in whether somebody thinks good of them or thinks bad of them and things like that. They live their life for relationships or fleeting pleasures and pride, and they have no idea who God is, right? There's plenty of people like that, but then God in his mercy awakens somebody's heart. They begin to understand who God is, what life's all about. We're talking about those answers even this morning. And instead of worshiping God, instead of worshiping idols, they begin to worship God. Of course, that's what God intends. God desires us this morning to be God worshipers, not worshipers of anything else. An idol is anything exalted above God and served, okay? And actually, you do serve false gods, okay? So somebody that's in idolatry, they serve whatever that false god in their life is. And so Exodus 20, God commands, thou shalt have no other gods before me. And so God is to have first place above everything else. Entertainment above everything got us to have first place thou shalt not make them to be any graven image or any likeness of anything That's in heaven above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. Okay, there's that service idea. All right, not to serve them. I That's not good. That's not to control your life. That's not to direct your life. That's not the entity that's to be commanding you But that should be God for I the Lord thy God and the jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers Upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me All right, and so Joshua is saying to them. Look you were if you go back generationally you were serving other gods That's where you were at. But God took you God took Abraham and now you understand who God is. And so Joshua's saying, rationally, shouldn't you serve the God that brought you to faith in him to understand who he is, the living God that led you away from those false, empty gods and that empty life that you had before. And so he led you away from false gods. He led you into a life of faith. Okay, verse three. He said, I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. Okay, and this morning we saw Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, a very simple statement and very complex and incredible work that God did. In the same way, we look at this verse and it's a synopsis, a summary of a big story in the life of Abraham. All right, so it just, all it says there is that he multiplied his seed and he gave him Isaac. All right, but that was a life of faith for Abraham. God brought Abraham into an incredible walk of faith with him. He was promised a child, but no child appeared to be given. Genesis 15 verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? All right. And so he already had the promise of God. He's going to be the father of many nations, but he's like, I don't have any kids. And the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus, and so his right-hand man, his servant there, and Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And he's thinking, this Eleazar of Damascus must be my heir, because God, you haven't blessed me with children, even though you said you're gonna make me a mighty nation. So he's looking at it humanly and thinking, how can this be? And he's having to start to trust God and depend upon God. And it says, verse 4, So he's promised a child. But no child was given. He was promised not just a child, but he was promised an incredibly large nation. So not just that you're going to have a child, but that you're going to multiply incredibly. And so Genesis 15 again, verse 5, he brought him forth abroad and he said, look now toward heaven. and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be." Can you imagine a man that doesn't have any kids coming outside, God pointing up at the heavens and saying, look at the stars. And that's gonna be like your family. And it's like, how could this possibly be? So not just am I gonna have a child, but I'm gonna have a huge offspring or a nation really that's gonna come from me. But he's promised not just a large nation, but he's promised spiritual children of all nations. So not only are you going to have a child, but you're going to have this huge offspring, but then you're going to also impact other nations somehow. Genesis 18, 18, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. As Abraham looks at this, there is no way forward to this goal that God says is going to take place. It's not achievable by man. It's only achievable by God. Therefore, what is God doing in the life of Israel? He is leading them to walk by faith and to see what God would do. Hebrews 11 verse 11. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." And verse 19 about Abraham, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but with strong faith, giving glory to God. Okay, so God gave promises to their grief. great-great-great-great-grandfather Abraham, and God led them into this life of faith, and everything that they looked around and that they saw was a result of God's promise and what God had said and God had done it, okay? And so Joshua says to them, shouldn't you serve the God that led you in the life of faith? The God that you can look around and say, look at what God's doing, because God is absolutely doing that. He'd have begun a good work, and you will perform it, right? That was talked about in Sunday school, that you see God's hand, and therefore you continue to see God's hand, and so he led you into a life of faith. He delivered you from bondage. Verse 4, It says, and I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it, but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt, and I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did among them. And I have to worry, I brought you out, and I brought your fathers out of Egypt. Okay, so if you know the history of the Jewish people and kind of what happened with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph, you know that. I don't know if I'm right there to say great-grandson or great-great-grandson of Abraham was sold into slavery in Egypt. But then he becomes, he rises up to second in command to Pharaoh and then Jacob's family comes, when the dearth comes and there's the drought, they come into into Egypt, and then another pharaoh rises up that doesn't know Joseph, and begins to feel threatened by the great crowd of people, the Hebrews. You know, there's so many of them that he puts them into bondage, and so they are enslaved to the Egyptian people, but then they cry unto God, and God raises up a deliverer. It's Moses that is led by God to come as a deliverer. And then the 10 plagues take place, the wealth of Egypt. The men that Joshua was speaking to were people that had experienced the exodus. They were either children or teens. When that had taken place, they had seen the plagues. They had seen the incredible mercy of God. They knew the bondage that their fathers were in. Maybe they as teenagers even had been enslaved in that bondage as well and had labored in that with the toil of that And so they experienced the exodus and the liberty. And so they knew what it was to say, God brought us out of a horrible circumstance and God brought us into a incredible freedom, okay? Again, what's Joshua saying? Joshua's saying the God that did that, shouldn't you serve him? Isn't that logical that you would wanna serve the God that took you from point A that was horrible and brought you to point B, okay? So he delivered you from bondage. But then, He also, in the wilderness experiences, he gave you wonderful victories. Wonderful victories. Look at verse six. It says, and you came unto the sea and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. And when they cried unto the Lord, again, so they're in a very tough spot there, right there at the Red Sea, they got the walls of the riverbed, dried riverbed on either side, they got the Egyptian army behind them, they're crying to God, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them, and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side, Jordan. And they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land. And I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sat and called Balaam the son of Beor, I to curse you. But I would not hearken unto Balaam. Therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand. And he went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I delivered them into your hand, and I sent the hornet before you, which draved them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow." All right, sometimes they didn't even have to fight. It was just God, yeah, I mean, was it tough for them? I mean, they were faith-tested, they failed, but every single time, if they would trust God, God would deliver them, and they saw incredible victories. Victories that, from a human standpoint, you look at it, you say, that's not possible without God, so God gave that victory. And again, just to think of the logic of what Joshua is saying, he's saying to them, why wouldn't you serve the God that gave you such incredible victories? And then he says to them, he blessed you tremendously. Verse 13, it says, I've given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you built not. And ye dwelled in them. Of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not, do ye eat. When the Pilgrims landed in North America, they didn't have cities, right, they had a of them died because they just weren't prepared to be there and to have the shelter that they needed, to have the food source that they needed. So they got into that land and they had to work incredibly. It wasn't that way for Israel. As Israel got into the Promised Land and the situation that they're in, they're coming into land that's cultivated, they're coming into land that has houses and things. Some are described, but many are still there. So they're entering into houses that they didn't build. They're entering into crops that weren't things that they had to labor to get. And so all that was just given to them by God. And again, Joshua just looks at them and says, why wouldn't you serve God that gave you such tremendous blessing? And so as a believer, as we look at what Joshua's saying, certainly we can relate to a lot of the things that he is saying to the leaders of the children of Israel as he's trying to get them ready. He's gonna pass off the scene, he wants the next generation to follow God, and he wants them to be serving God. And so this morning we as well could look at our life and say, you know what, I see a lot of those things in my life that Joshua just presented to them. You know, Joshua could say to us this morning, you know what, you were following other gods before you got saved. Your life was not about God, not about worshiping God. You know, sometimes kids grow up in Christian families, but even there, until you got saved, you didn't have that relationship established by God. And the Bible speaks about it this way in Ephesians chapter two. It says that at that time you were without Christ. being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." So somebody that's been saved, I mean, we were without hope. We talked about that this morning, just the hopelessness of atheism. And if that was true, wow, that is totally hopeless. But understand this, somebody that in the fact that God has created, God has designed, but they don't believe in God, they're hopeless as well. They don't have hope. They don't have the mercy of God. They could have. They don't have the grace of God. But we who have tasted of the goodness of God, we understand this. I mean, I was away from God, but by the grace of God, God has brought me into a relationship with him. And so why wouldn't we serve the God that has established that relationship? We know the true God. we were brought to faith. Romans 12, verse three says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. God saved us by faith. You know, there came that point where we put our trust in God. You know, we saw this morning, again, that verse in the scripture that speaks about creation. How do we know that God created by faith? We understand that the world's were framed by the word of God. It's by faith. It's by faith we understand that Jesus Christ loved us. He died on the cross for our sins. He didn't stay in the grave, but he rose from the dead. We put our faith in God. But as we get saved, What we find is God begins to lead us in a life of faith. There's impossible things that maybe are in our life. We look at it and say, I don't know how this is gonna happen, but we see the promise of God and the word of God, and God encourages us, and we begin to walk by faith. The God that is showing us that and demonstrating that to us is a God that is worthy of our service, that we serve the God that brought us to faith and helps us to walk by faith. You are delivered from bondage, Colossians 1.13. says you have delivered us from the power of darkness. It has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Whether we recognize it or not, the prince of the power of the air was a ruler of our life. The father that we serve before he got saved is not God the father, but as Jesus said to the Pharisees, you're of your father, the devil, the lesser your father, you will do. And that was our life outside of Christ. But again, God took us from that bondage. And in some cases, some people understanding that far more than others, the bondage of sin and setting us free by the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he hath delivered us from the power of darkness. Isaiah 61.1 says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. There's a lot of people that understand what that's about. We studied the Gatorian demoniac recently. I mean, that man understood. His life outside of Christ was one of self-harm and hurt and horrible abuse. But when he got saved, God set him free. God put him in his right mind. God changed his life. Again, somebody like that, he that has been forgiven much, the same loveth much. That's why Mary was there, wiping the feet of Jesus Christ with her hair, because she understood, I want to serve God, because God has been tremendously good to me. So he delivered us from bondage. You have seen wonderful victories in your life. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57 says, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8.37, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. for your God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. All right, so somebody begins to walk with God, they begin to understand victory, that there are enemies, adversaries that I can't overcome, I can't get past that financially, I can't get past that spiritually, I can't get past that emotionally, or whatever it is, there's just a, there's something, there's a battle that's there, and yet God gives victory. And again, we look at that and I say, why wouldn't I serve the God that gives victory like that? Why wouldn't I serve the God that has been so good, that continually protects me, watches over me and helps me? And then we've been blessed tremendously. I could ask the question this morning, has God been good to you since you got saved? Well, I hope that there's something in our heart that just opens up and says, yes, absolutely, God has been good to me since I got saved. David said it like this, Psalm 16, verse six, it says, lines are falling to me in pleasant places. Yeah, the goodly heritage. You know, we don't need to be jealous of the world. The world has nothing. It's empty. It's a dream that is unfulfilled. It's a mirage that is constantly eating sand and drinking sand. And yet, as believers, we've got the constant grace of God, the goodness of God, and the blessing of God. 1 Corinthians 4 7 for who maketh thee to differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Everything that we have is from God. Every single blessing that is ours is from God. The Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. And cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variable. by God. Romans 8 32, we'll talk about this tonight as we focus on the Savior and his sacrifice for us. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? We have been blessed by God. We've been blessed by God as a people, individually, the jobs that we have and the physical things that we have. As a church, we've been blessed by God. We stand today in a hall that is given to us by God, a church property that's given to us by God. Again, there are plenty of things around us today to make us stop, look, and listen and say, you know what? God has been so good. We've seen three people saved, born again in this property. Praise God. That's better than this property. I'd trade this property for somebody to get saved, but praise God, it's a soul-saving place that God's given to us. Again, as a church, we ought to recognize, hey, God has been good to us. God has grown our church in the last couple years. The family stays broad. He's putting us together as a people. And again, we ought to look at that and say, hey, praise God. You know what? God has been so very good to us. And since God has been so good to us, shouldn't we serve him? Shouldn't that be the response of our heart that we would say, you know what, the God that has been so good to me, that's the God that I desire to serve. And so I like how Joshua begins kind of his rationale for challenging them to serve God. He basically says to them, why wouldn't you serve the God who has done everything for you? That's logical, that's a no brainer to serve that God. And then secondly, why wouldn't you decide right now to serve God for the rest of your life. Why wouldn't you decide right now that that's gonna be the trajectory of your life, that you're gonna serve God? And so he begins to challenge them with the idea of fearing God. Verse 14, he says, now therefore, having listed all these things that God did and all God's goodness, now therefore fear the Lord. It's almost humorous to stop and think about Joshua saying to Israel, you ought to fear the Lord. Think about some of the things that Israel saw. They saw the plagues. They saw the God that can make a bunch of frogs appear in your bedroom, all right, and just kind of be everywhere, and all the food and everything, and all the locusts. They saw the lice and the hailstones and the incredible anguish and heard the cries of the Egyptian people as the firstborn son in every household was killed. Fear the Lord. They watched the water of the Red Sea part as they walked through. Can you imagine? If you saw that, would that make you fear God? I think that'd make me fear God. If I could walk down to the fourth and Moses stand there and whatever he did, you know, on that day in the water's part, you could walk over a dry ground, I think I'd stop and think, you know, I fear God. If I saw that water come back and destroy the Egyptian army that was following me and saw those dead bodies along the shore, I think I'd stop and think about that and I'd have a fear of God in my heart. They saw God descend upon Mount Sinai in a fire. They saw him in a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud in the day. Jehovah God that was present with them in tangible ways that they could look at and say, you know what? God is in this place. And they heard the voice of God speak there at Mount Sinai. And they were afraid of that. They saw Moses come down and they saw the glory of God in the face of Moses. And they said to him to put a veil upon his face. They witnessed many judgments of God upon themselves for their disobedience. They saw the walls of Jericho fall down. All those things, these are the last person you'd think you'd have to say to them, now therefore fear the Lord. They had experienced all those things. And if we had a Sunday school class this morning, we had the children there and we said, God did this and God did this. And if you ask them, shouldn't you fear God? I think, I would hope they'd say, yeah, a God that can do that is a God that you ought to have a great reverence for. And so if you fear God, you serve God. Somebody that fears God listens when God says something, they look at that and go, hey, since God said that, I'm gonna observe that, I'm gonna do that because I am in awesome reverence of God. You know, this morning, do you still believe the God of Israel possesses that awesome power? You know, we gotta decide right now, I'm gonna serve God and let our hearts be in fear of such an awesome God. But then he challenges them as well, you should sincerely serve God. Decide now to sincerely serve God. It says, and serve him in sincerity and truth. Joshua wasn't seeking lip service, he was seeking life service. He wasn't seeking them to confess a creedal statement, he desired them to have the trajectory of their life be such that it was like, you know, I'm gonna do this for God. He's not trying to get them to say something and not do it. Jesus gave an illustration of that to the Pharisees with a one question quiz on true and sincere religion. He said in Matthew 21, 28, he said, What think he? A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first. He said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But after work, he repented and he went. He came to the second and said likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not, whether of them Twain did the will of his father. All right, he's saying, okay, neither was good. The first one said no, but then he repented, he got right and he did it. The second one said, I will, and he didn't do it. But of those two negative examples, which one's better? The better example is the one that said no initially, but then repented and said, right, I was wrong about that. I wanna go do what God said to do. And the person that just said it, but didn't do it, that was no good. And that was the Pharisees. Jesus said in Luke 6, verse 46, He said, Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? True religion is not something that looks religious, it's something that is religious. True religion isn't how I appear as I dress up and I go to church. It's not anything like that. It's me living my life for God. That's true religion. I mean, somebody could have all the book knowledge in the world, but not do anything for God. Somebody could know in Joshua's day everything about God, but that's not what Joshua was seeking. Somebody that could just say the right answer, I will serve God. He wanted somebody that would actually serve God. And so he says to them, look, serve him in sincerity. And so this morning, it's not, what do I profess with my lips? It's what do I confess with my life, right? It's what does my life say about this, what Joshua's saying, right? I had to decide right now that my life's gonna be about serving God and living for him in sincerity and truth. And so he challenged them, you should be sincere and serve God. And then he says to them, you should be faithful to God, faithful to God. It says, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord, okay? that the idolatry that was there, don't pick that up again. Leave that there so that you can serve God. Joshua knew that if they're serving idols, they can't serve God. that it's either idols or God. You gotta decide which it was gonna be. And so the Bible says, Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, he said, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon, all right? We cannot have two gods, but God did make us to worship. It's an interesting dynamic about God's creation. God made man. to have a soul, and our soul worships. It's kind of a natural thing, and so if somebody's not worshiping God, they're worshiping something else. There will be worship, and even our world, say an atheist or somebody like that, they use worship terminology when they speak about kind of life. Okay, they'll say things like this, sports idols, right? You got a sports idol, and somebody that, you know, a fan, a fanatic, somebody that is a sports idol, whatever that idol to them is, whether it's a man or a team or something like that, they'll never miss a game, right? No matter what the weather is. no matter what time the game's at, no matter where the game is. I mean, some of these people, they'll get on a bus and a train and a plane. I mean, they'll go wherever they need to go to get there, because they're a fan. I mean, they live it, and you know it, because they talk about it all the time, right? It's constantly on their lips. You've got sports idols. You've got music idols. I saw a couple BBC articles about sports. Music Idols this past week, and there was a concert that was recently here in Edinburgh, and somebody said about that, I bought my tickets eight months and three days ago, and I mean, I've just been counting down the days, you know, until that sports idol, or music idol got there, whoever that person was. I saw another video, it was kind of fun to watch, it was this, I don't know who he is, but some famous musician that comes into a band at a public high school, and surprises them, kind of walks up towards the front, and you see the faces of the kids, and they're just like, and then some of the tears begin to come. You know, they're crying because they're so amazed because that music idol that they're all about, I mean, standing right there in front of them, and on a human perspective, I can kind of see some of these things. I understand this, you know, some people can like sports, they can like music, though not that kind of music. You know, there could be things that you're interested In but the thing is if your life is about that it can't be about God If that's your life And so if I'm if my life is about I serve God I worship God who do I speak about? Who do I adjust my schedule for How involved am I? To what extent do I, I mean, that is me. It is about, in this case, it is about God or it's about something else. What do I adjust my schedule for? What do I invest financially in? Because all those things, it used to be said, show me a man's checkbook and I'll show you what that man loves. That's true. So if God is my God, I do invest in the things of God, because I love the work of God. I wanna see the work of God move forward. I invest my time in the things of God, because I'm about that, because my life is about serving God. My life is about worshiping God. And so he challenges that. He says, look, put away those gods. Put away those things. Paul said it like this, wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside the weights and the things, the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that is the idea, I'm gonna set aside these things that, listen, may not just be sinful, but maybe holding me back from really serving God as I should. I've got to come to that mindset of, look, God is my God. Therefore, I worship him. Therefore, I serve him and I serve him sincerely and I serve him faithfully. And so I'm not divided in my heart towards God about, you know, I would serve God, but I've got this other thing that I really like. I've got to let go of that. My life should never have something in it. I've got a balance between that and God. It ought to always be God. And if this gets hurt a little bit, that's okay. Why should God get hurt? Why should his cause suffer? Okay. And so Joshua kind of just says right here, why wouldn't you decide right now that you're going to serve God for the rest of your life? Now, therefore, he says to decide. And so what are the priorities of my life? Are there gods that I need to put away? And so he says to them, again, if I could just paraphrase what he's saying, why wouldn't you serve the God who's done everything for you? And then why wouldn't you decide right now to serve God for the rest of your life? And then third, why would you object to such a reasonable suggestion? Joshua's prepared for flak, all right? If I can put it that way, I mean, he's challenging them, he's gonna put it right out there, but he's prepared for somebody to go antagonistic against what Joshua is saying and make the wrong decision. So he's gonna press home his point, and he says it this way. He says, is this request in any way wrong to you? Is there anything wrong with this? So verse 15, it says, and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, Wow. Stop and think about that. I mean, what a statement. If it seemed evil to you, that word means morally wrong or wicked. And so God's servant challenging God's people to serve him. Is there anything wrong with that, is what he's saying. It'd be like saying, Joshua, you're morally wrong for saying to us as the children of God that we ought to serve God. of what Joshua is saying. According to Paul, Joshua's command is actually logical and it's the right thing to do. Romans 12, 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, may you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. In other words, as you stop and think about it, it's again, going back to that no brainer idea. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, you're right, Joshua, we should serve God. Because that's not morally wrong. There's nothing wrong, Joshua, with you challenging us and saying, serve God, live for God. You set up the argument, you said everything there is about God. There is no way that can find fault with the logic of what Joshua is saying. He is absolutely right in the challenge that he's getting. Is it wrong in our day to expect God's people to serve him? As a church, I encourage this. Our expectation as we see God bring people to our church is that our people are gonna serve God. That's our expectation because of all the logic that we've already looked at, everything that Jesus Christ has done, who God is and why he is worthy and like that. And so if I were to just make it practical for us this morning, what would serving God look like? What, I mean, how, you know, Joshua's challenging them, okay, God is your God, serve him. Just like with the idolatry illustration, okay, if you've got an idol in your life, then you serve that idol. How do you serve it? You spend time with it, you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this. We can nail it down. So how do we nail it down when it comes to church? What does serving God look like? Is serving God reading your Bible? I think so. Does that make sense? I'm just trying to be very practical for us this morning. I think that that's true. So if I'm going to serve God in my home, then I'm going to read God's word. I'm going to pray. You know, I'm going to, as a godly dad, I'm going to say, you know, family, we're going to have family devotions. We're going to read our Bibles together. Why? Because if you study the Bible, it speaks about the parents have tremendous responsibility to teach the word of God to their kids, not the church first, but family first, teaching about God. How does that look when it comes to church attendance? Serving God is, you know, at the church, the church is, I mean, if you wanna ask about the importance of the local church in the New Testament, this, the New Testament's not as big as the old, but, you know, you get to the epistles, you get all to the after Christ and the life of Christ, and all of that is about the church, and Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So it's gonna impact church attendance, but it's gonna impact church ministry too, right? Because God's given us abilities to use for Him. Every single one of us has, the administration of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. Every single person has a spiritual gift to exercise for God. You may not be the best at doing something, but that isn't what God says. God doesn't ask us to be the best. I appreciate, Josh, and you did a great job this morning, but I'm just saying, I appreciate anybody that will get up and just do what maybe is not their thing for God in obedience to God. We don't have to be the best. I praise God. If we had to be the best, I wouldn't be here. I would be the first one that wouldn't be able to do anything for God if we had to be the best. God doesn't ask that. But if I am a servant of God and I'm serving God, I ought to be able to say, well, this is what I do at church. This is my part. And then to evaluate as I do it, how do I do it? Do I give my best? Do I think about it? Do I prepare? Listen, I encourage our church, on Saturday nights, spend some time in prayer for today. Our family does this. We have family devotions that night. We have a special prayer time on Saturday nights. Listen, if we need to, we'll start doing that as a church, praying together. I'd love to. Why? Because today doesn't just happen without preparing our heart for it. We can't just come off of telly and all sorts of whatever we got going on and expect to come in on a Sunday morning and really worship and serve God as God intends us to, right? So it's not just what we do, it's also how we do it, but to evaluate that and begin to think about that and say, and to consider this morning and to think, is there anything morally wrong with that? Would it be wrong for us as a church in the future, pastor and deacons, to have that expectation or as a membership, have that expectation that as a church, we are about having a people not just congregating, but actually coming and saying, you know what, we're here to serve God. It's about worshiping God and giving back to God. And so he says to them, will you continually put off a definite decision? He says, now, therefore, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods, the Amorites in whose land you dwell, okay? And he just says that, look, make a decision. I love the story where Elijah is on Mount Carmel And he says to them, how long halt you between two opinions? If God be God, serve him. If Baal, then follow him. What's the point of any longer in our life waffling? And again, it's the no brainer idea. Like this is not a tough thing. And understand, we understand this and I think this is what makes it tough. If I'm really honest, I have to make a conscious condemnation of myself if I'm not gonna serve God. I've got to stand in judgment upon myself. And I don't, I wouldn't really want to do that. Our flesh resists that. I really don't want to condemn myself, but we have to be honest and say, I am either serving God or I am not serving God. And if I'm not serving God, I am not right with God. And that's where Joshua is with them. It's like, all right, cheer. The hard part for us, we don't wanna choose, why? Because we don't really wanna serve God sometimes, I'm not saying everybody, but we don't really wanna serve God, but we know that's not right. So we try to put off the decision, right? But again, Joshua just brings it to bear, like, choose now. But look at what Joshua says. Whatever you decide, I declare my decision to you, all right? I will serve the Lord. He says, but as for me, we will serve the Lord. And that's where it starts. Nobody this morning is gonna, as a godly dad, I am not gonna get my family to follow God if I don't follow God. Not gonna happen. We live in an upside-down world. I was witnessing to a man on Friday as we were showing some of the signs here around. We were at the Fulcrum Wheel. I was walking with a man. I said, we live in an upside-down world. The children rule the parents, the wife rules the husband, and the dad doesn't make any decisions. That's not what God intends. Joshua, as a man of God, he says, ask for me and my house. God said about Abraham, I know him, that he will command his family after me. Again, we got the philosophy of the world that says you can't be authoritative, you can't be that ruler, you can't do that. Nope, that's not what God says. God says we have that responsibility as dads to be the spiritual head of our home. We're gonna give an account to God for that, but understand this, I will never get my family to follow God if I don't follow God. No, it's not gonna happen. It doesn't mean that I intend to follow God, that's not following God. Following God is I'm gonna serve God, and I'm gonna obey God. And so I will serve the Lord, my house is gonna serve the Lord, and God is my witness. Look at verse one, remember, I wanna point this out, and we're getting close to the conclusion here. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves, what? Do you know when we come to church, yeah, I see who's here. Do you know who sees more than I see? God. Who's here? God is. I mean, that's the reality. We gotta walk in that reality. We gotta recognize that this morning. Wow, I mean, we are here before God. And so the decisions I make, I make them before others. Other people may see a decision I make. But I make it before who? And Joshua just steps out before God and before the people. He says, as for me, I'm gonna serve God. You do what you wanna do. All right, I've shown you why you ought to serve God. But he said, that doesn't matter to me. It's like that song says, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. Will none go with me? Still I will follow, right? It's that my trajectory, my track is set. I'm gonna be a follower of God. I wanna ask you this morning, have you made a definite decision to serve God? Because that would be like this, a definite decision that I'm gonna have personal and family devotions, right? Because we're talking about what is serving God. And so maybe say to your spouse, hey, I've decided we're gonna have family devotions. We're gonna read our Bibles together, we're gonna pray together. Or I want to be accountable maybe to my spouse and say, I decided I haven't been having personal prayer time like I should in time of the word of God. I want you to know I've decided to serve God. So I'm going to add that to my life. Have you made it clear that you're going to strive to faithfully attend church as best you can? Now we have four services, Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I understand there's going to be times where things come up and people can't come. I get that. I understand that as a pastor. I've never expected that everyone's always going to make it to the house of God. But there ought to be something in the heart of somebody that says, I want to serve God, that says, by God's grace, if the church doors are open, I want to be there. and to take that decision as a definite decision, right? I'm gonna strive my best. I'm not gonna be perfect at it. I'm not always gonna make it. There's gonna be things that come up, but by God's grace, I wanna serve God, so I'm gonna be there. Have you committed yourself to opportunities of ministry? All right, that's a bigger one, right? Step out and say, all right, pastor, do you need help? Does Mrs. Shore need help? Is there something that can be done? I wanna serve God in the local church. having declared a willingness to help in evangelism. There's ministries of this church that are outside this church, street preaching and evangelism, the tent that we're gonna have at the gala day. I mean, all these are opportunities to serve God. There's work that's saved lives, things that are going on. There is a lot to do for God. Again, just to make that decision by God's grace, I can't do it all, right? I'm not, and I'll tell you, there's no expectation in the heart. Of anybody that would be in our church today, anybody would do everything, right? But I want to do something for God. Because I want to serve God. Have you made a definite decision to get involved in tithes and offerings? That's another way to serve God, invest in God's, the missionaries that we support and the work of this local church and the bills that have to be paid. Again, just taking it on board and saying, as for me and my house, it sounds easy to say, as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord. It's another thing with the rubber meets the road and says, what does that actually look like on paper? Am I willing to sign up and say, I will be a part of that for God? Again, praise God, the leaders of Israel would get this right. Verse 16 is that people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. The people said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord. OK. They made that decision. Now, I want to point out, it's a generational decision. Verse 31, Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. Okay, so they made the decision. Did they keep it? Yes, by God's grace. But the next generation didn't. See, I grew up in the 1960s, well, 1970s. 1970s, alright, 76 I was born. But I look back at the 70s and 80s, and I see a generation that served God. But what I've seen growing up is that my generation has not served God. The young people in our church, they don't care about things of God, they're too busy with other things to get involved, actually doing something for God. You know, at churches I'm familiar with, I won't name the churches, but the deacons are old, they're old, and they're frail. And you know what? Some of them have passed away. But the young people have never stepped in those shoes. What is Joshua saying? Joshua's about to die. He looks at the next generation, he goes, you guys, you gotta get it. You gotta get it. You gotta serve God. It's rational. And he begins to go through it with them. You know, this morning I challenge us, let's look at it and go, does it make sense to serve God as, you know, as pastor, kind of going too far, saying, man, you gotta serve God. Or, you know, is he morally wrong? Is he wrong to challenge us as a church, the people that are blood bought by the grace of God, given the gift of everlasting life? All the good things, the victories that God has given, is it wrong for us this morning to stop and think, you know what? We ought to just all be about by the grace of God. Let's serve God. And so as a church, I challenge this. Let's take the challenge. Let's look at that and say, you know what? As for me and my house, we're gonna serve God. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the spirit of God would take the truth of God and put it deep into our hearts. Father, this is so needed. Father, our young people in our church need to see examples of God's service. Father, they need an example. They need to be able to look up and say, that's what serving God looks like. In a mom, in a dad, in a pastor, in deacons, in church leadership, just Christians that go to our church, they know it's about serving God. Father, church is vain if it's not about serving God, and it could be worse than vain. It could be hypocritical. Father, we could become people that think God's pleased with us for doing nothing for the Christ that did everything for us. And so I praise you for our church. I love our church. I love our families, but I know this. The best thing for a dad in our church is to serve God. The best thing for a mom in our church is to serve God. The best thing for their children is to see parents serving God. The best thing for our young people in our church is to see people that serve God. And finally, we can't ignore that that's practical. If Joshua wasn't expecting them to be faithful in worship and faithful in obedience and dealing with sin and living righteous lives and actually doing something for God, I don't know what he was asking them. And so I pray, Lord God, help us not to justify not serving God. Help us not to put off the decision, because really, we don't want to serve God, because that would really mean sacrifice. That would really mean changing who our God is in our heart as far as who we serve. So it might be this morning, Lord, that some little G-gods need to die. They need to be crushed so that we can serve God as we should. So, Lord, would you just have your way? I think this morning, Father, we're just gonna have silent prayer and just take a couple minutes. and search our heart before God. And Father, I pray that it would be a good business time with you that we would kind of solidify this. Might be somebody needs to make a definite decision right now. You know what? The trajectory of my life is that I will serve God. I will serve God. Father, as I bow before you this morning, I'll be the first to say I'm not worthy to serve God, and that I fail many times in serving God like I should. But Father, I pray that by the grace of God, that we can say, you know what? I may not be perfect, but it's clear, it's clear. You ask my wife, and she'll tell you, he has decided to serve God. You ask my husband, and he will tell you, I've decided to serve God. You ask my family. It's not what it should be. I pray that it would be. Lord, I just pray that as a church, we would be known as a church that serves God. And Lord, you take imperfect people, you're merciful, you're gracious, but I pray that we give you our best. And so blessed now as we sing this hymn of invitation, and thank you for your help here this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay, where's the bulletin there? Anybody got the page number for us? 3, 3, 5, Lord, I'm coming home, right?