Friday, April 10, 2015

Who Will You Serve Today?

O. T. #497  "Who Will You Serve Today?"
April 10, 2015
Joshua 24-Part 2
...choose you this day whom ye will serve...   Joshua 24:15

LET IT GLOW

*I am sorry for not writing yesterday, but I suddenly had to go mop at the new church building before the carpet was laid.

Yes, words are easy, commitments are made over and over again to serve the Lord. Living it is the hard part.However, it does start in the heart and overflows into our life. Who will we serve today?

We left Joshua challenging the Israelites to choose whom they would serve-the gods of their fathers or the Amorites, or the LORD. Joshua made the commitment that he and his house would serve the LORD God.

Webster's Dictionary defines a god as the supreme  or ultimate reality; a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe.

*Did you notice the letter g was not a capital? In the commentaries I have, it is not a lower case g, but a capital G in all the references.

Henry and Richard Blackaby say in their devotional, Experiencing God Day-By-Day:
Serving God was not Joshua's only option. He could have adopted the religious beliefs and practices of his family heritage in the pagan land of Egypt. He could have accepted the idolatrous religion of  his neighbors in the region where he now lived. These options probably looked like easier choices than worshiping God. But Joshua had witnessed God's faithfulness (Joshua 24:14). He decided to serve God alone. He was determined to teach his entire household to honor his Lord as well.  
Take a look at verse 19 and find the two attributes of God which Joshua gives-holy and jealous.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance explains:
holy means sacred  (ceremonially or morally); God (by eminence); 
jealous refers to intolerant rivalry or unfaithfulness.

God alone is worthy of our worship and service since He is the one and only True God, Jehovah, Adoniah, Elohim.

Have you the slightest reliance on anything other than God? Are you relying on yourself? (Chambers)

LET IT GROW

How did the people answer Joshua, the leaders of Israel? Verse 16 tells us-God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods...

Three times the people assure Joshua that they will serve God (verses 16, 21, 24) They acknowledge that God:
  • brought them out of the land of Egypt and slavery;
  • performed great signs before their eyes;
  • protected them on their journey and among all the nations through which they traveled;
  • drove out all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land.
How does Joshua answer them? You cannot serve the LORD.
Is that a strange thing to say, especially after the Israelites made a heartfelt, wholehearted commitment to God?
Liberty Bible Commentary explains:
Because Yahweh (Jehovah) is a jealous God who will not share the adoration with others that is due Him alone. Saint Augustine sees in Joshua's statement an early understanding of the Pauline doctrine that self-righteousness does not win justification (Rom. 3:20). Perhaps so, but Israel deepens her determination to make a heart covenant to serve God repeating, but we will serve the LORD.

And serve God, they did. For it was 800 years later when they forsook God, who caused Babylon to take them into exile.

Life Application Study Bible says:
Israel did not keep their promise. Very soon God would charge them with breaking their covenant with Him (Judges 2:2-3). Talk is cheap. It is easy to say we will follow God, but it is much more important to live like it. Yet the nation followed God through Joshua's lifetime, a great tribute to Joshua's faith in God and powerful leadership.  To follow God requires destroying whatever gets in the way of worshiping Him. We have our own form of idols-greed, wrong priorities, jealousies, prejudices-that get in the way of worshiping God. God is not satisfied if we merely hide these idols. We must completely remove them from our lives.

It was not an impulse, but a deliberate commitment. (Chambers)
Least you think God would never call you to such, be encouraged that He can and prefers to use the weaker and feebler for His vessels of honor. Do we dare let God...?

I am reminded of Peter, who denied the Lord three times before His crucifixion, then was used to preach at Pentecost.
God called Abraham, not because of his goodness, but because of God's grace and love. (Wiersbe)
That is encouraging to me. I fail God so much.

If you set your mind wholeheartedly on serving God, your example will bring tremendous blessing to your family. Choose, as Joshua did, to serve God unashamedly with all your heart, and then watch to see how God blesses your family.  (Blackaby)

LET IT GO

               Let go of any idols, attitudes, self-centeredness, which take God's place on the throne of my heart.
               Thank God for life and breath today.
 

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