back to index2016-01-03 Valley of Decision
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And today we're going to be touching on a momentous verse, a well-known, quite profound 00:00:14.840 |
But before we get there and read the segment, I do want to have you guys think about one 00:00:28.200 |
For me, I feel like all of life's decisions, because I'm a bit of an over-thinker, are 00:00:33.520 |
And even the easiest decisions seem really hard and stressful. 00:00:41.200 |
You know, throughout the week I meet up with a lot of individuals, and a lot of times we'll 00:00:44.600 |
get together and then we'll come and sit and we'll be like, "So where do you want to go 00:00:49.160 |
And then the worst is, if the other person is indecisive, we'll just sit there. 00:01:01.160 |
Okay, I'll pick five, and of the five, you have to pick one. 00:01:04.360 |
And they'll be like, "No, I'm going to be decisive, and I decide, you decide." 00:01:12.080 |
Now, an interesting scenario happens a lot, which is sometimes we'll meet up and we'll 00:01:19.400 |
You'll start driving, but you haven't decided where to go eat. 00:01:23.080 |
And then my stress level goes through the roof. 00:01:30.280 |
And the other person's like, "You decide, you're the pastor." 00:01:34.040 |
And then now our meetup has become discouraging. 00:01:36.200 |
But if you've ever felt that, the funny thing is sometimes you just kind of delay the decision, 00:01:44.400 |
and then you just let time go, and you realize you're wasting some time. 00:01:47.560 |
Now, in that moment, picking a place to go eat, that's inconsequential. 00:01:52.360 |
I mean, at max, you get a little frustrated, you have a good laugh, and then you waste 00:01:55.960 |
five hours, you know, five minutes driving around, you double back to your restaurant. 00:02:00.960 |
The thing about it is, I'm talking about a decision-making here where sometimes it's 00:02:05.280 |
not inconsequential, but rather, the consequences are dire. 00:02:10.760 |
You know, an airplane pilot would never just start flying and be like, "Ladies and gentlemen, 00:02:15.680 |
we're 5,000 feet in the air, and I don't know where I'm going." 00:02:24.080 |
Because the consequences of delaying your decision becomes dire for you and everybody 00:02:30.600 |
Well, we're going to touch upon the book of Joshua, and Joshua's last charge to the nation 00:02:39.260 |
In the nation of Israel, they've come off a great season of victory and accomplishing 00:02:44.960 |
what people have been waiting for, the promised land. 00:02:48.760 |
The book of Joshua is all about conquest, all about victory and battles, and then they 00:02:54.360 |
get the land and they piece it out to the tribes. 00:02:58.200 |
But at the tail end of it, the tone is really severe. 00:03:01.640 |
The tone is intense, and Joshua is going to challenge the nation what to do when they're 00:03:08.000 |
I feel like that's necessary for us because, you know, for us, there are daily spiritual 00:03:17.600 |
There are daily spiritual decisions to be made, but more than that, there are life trajectory 00:03:27.800 |
There are decisions to be made about the course of your entire life that's going to dictate 00:03:32.720 |
and guide all the small decisions in your life. 00:03:38.940 |
As we read Joshua, he's going to challenge us that we need to make a decision, not simply 00:03:43.480 |
about this year, not simply about the next decade, but the whole course of your life 00:03:55.160 |
I'm going to read a lengthy section here, starting from verse 14 all the way down to 00:04:04.240 |
"Now behold, today I'm going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts 00:04:11.880 |
that in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God 00:04:23.240 |
It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you 00:04:28.600 |
So the Lord will bring upon you all the threats until he has destroyed you from off this good 00:04:36.520 |
When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and 00:04:40.940 |
serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you 00:04:45.320 |
and you will perish quickly off the good land which he has given you. 00:04:49.520 |
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel 00:04:54.720 |
and for their heads and their judges and their officers and they presented themselves before 00:04:59.720 |
Joshua said to all the people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, from ancient 00:05:04.160 |
times your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the 00:05:11.580 |
Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land 00:05:15.580 |
of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. 00:05:19.460 |
To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it. 00:05:27.380 |
Then I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst and afterward 00:05:33.520 |
I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the sea. 00:05:37.900 |
And Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. 00:05:41.380 |
But when they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and 00:05:46.180 |
brought the sea upon them and covered them and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. 00:05:50.980 |
And you lived in the wilderness for a long time. 00:05:54.060 |
Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan and they fought 00:05:58.540 |
with you and I gave them into your hand and you took possession of their land when I destroyed 00:06:04.540 |
Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel and he sent 00:06:08.900 |
and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. 00:06:11.940 |
But I was not willing to listen to Balaam so he had to bless you and I delivered you 00:06:17.500 |
You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho and the citizens of Jericho fought against 00:06:22.380 |
And the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Gershite 00:06:30.620 |
And I sent the hornet before you and it drove out the two kings of the Amorites from before 00:06:38.300 |
I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities which you had not built. 00:06:44.940 |
Your eating of vineyards and olive groves which you had not planted. 00:06:49.060 |
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. 00:06:55.660 |
And put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the 00:07:01.380 |
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves today 00:07:07.660 |
Whether the gods which your father serves which are beyond the river or the gods of 00:07:14.780 |
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 00:07:21.860 |
Father God we want to ask for that your scripture and your word would inspire and move us. 00:07:29.260 |
God as we open up and examine your truth, we pray God that your living and active word 00:07:36.500 |
Father as this is a new year we pray that we would devote our time, our energy, our 00:07:41.940 |
strength, our minds and our decisions to you Lord. 00:07:51.660 |
So we again at this time in the book of Joshua, the nation is gathered up and you notice what 00:08:01.180 |
Just imagine that this is a, it's not just a gathering of four or five hundred people. 00:08:09.060 |
It's not about hundreds of thousands of people. 00:08:12.100 |
And they're gathered together and they're in a place in which after having obtained 00:08:16.060 |
the promised land, Joshua is talking to them and as he recounts how they got there, it's 00:08:26.220 |
And then as he recounts what God has done, he says, but there is this decision before 00:08:30.820 |
you and he gives this incredible challenge that the nation in a time in which they feel 00:08:40.980 |
And to give you a sense of how important and how intense this decision is, I want to build 00:08:46.540 |
up the story for you and I want to show you how Joshua is making this perhaps the greatest 00:08:54.140 |
I have a slide for you here and then I don't have a clicker, but I'm going to say click. 00:09:02.380 |
Please turn your Bible over to Deuteronomy chapter 11 and the story actually starts before 00:09:07.340 |
they enter the land under the leadership of Moses. 00:09:14.780 |
In Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse one through three, this is what he says. 00:09:25.060 |
He says, you shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep his charge, his statues, 00:09:32.380 |
Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have 00:09:36.240 |
not seen the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his edge 00:09:40.860 |
outstretched arm and his signs and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh, 00:09:50.500 |
What I'm highlighting for you there is Moses essentially saying, this is the charge I give 00:09:55.060 |
you to the generation that's about to go into the land. 00:10:04.300 |
And he mentions that this charge is not just simply for the kids. 00:10:15.980 |
And so if you go over to the next slide real quick, what I'm going to highlight for you 00:10:24.380 |
Highlight for you is that this is ancient near east back in the time. 00:10:28.260 |
The area to which we're really focusing on through Deuteronomy is just right here. 00:10:34.940 |
Here's, you know, Palestine, you know, Israel right here. 00:10:40.020 |
And if you go on to the next slide, what essentially happens is before Joshua and the conquest, 00:10:47.300 |
the victory of nation of Israel, they're in Moab here to the east of the dead sea. 00:10:52.220 |
All they have to do is cross over to the Jordan in order to get into the land of Canaan, the 00:11:01.420 |
If you look at the next slide, this is a view, which I think is quite amazing. 00:11:06.420 |
I remember at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, God gave Moses an opportunity to go up to 00:11:11.140 |
Mount Nebo and to look, and this is what Moses saw. 00:11:15.220 |
He saw the land, he saw the survey, and he realized this land is vast, this land is fruitful. 00:11:25.780 |
He needs to prepare the generations so that they might go and be successful, that they 00:11:33.260 |
And so if you look, look down in chapter 11, and I'm going to start reading from verse 00:11:40.220 |
In verse 22, he says, "For if you are careful to keep all his commandments, which I am commanding 00:11:46.060 |
you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and hold fast to him, then 00:11:52.220 |
the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you and you will dispose nations 00:12:00.860 |
We're going to go into that land, you guys see it? 00:12:05.900 |
But the thing about it is you need to obey, and if you do, God is going to work and fight 00:12:10.540 |
on your behalf, and he's going to displace all these nations, mightier and more numerous 00:12:16.440 |
And let's go on, he says, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be 00:12:21.420 |
Your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the river, the river you 00:12:30.140 |
The Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which 00:12:35.100 |
As he has spoken to you, see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. 00:12:41.500 |
The blessing if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding 00:12:44.820 |
you today, and the curse if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, 00:12:49.660 |
but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today by following other gods which you 00:12:56.020 |
You see this idea of the decision here, right? 00:12:58.920 |
I have a blessing and I have a curse before you. 00:13:03.200 |
And take a look, verse 29, "It shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into 00:13:07.400 |
the land where you are entering to possess it, that you will place blessings on Mount 00:13:17.320 |
For the moment, you notice that before the nation enters the promised land, you see the 00:13:24.920 |
And Moses is preparing them and saying, "You need to obey. 00:13:30.100 |
And should you disobey, here are the curses." 00:13:33.340 |
But notice the names of two interesting mountains. 00:13:38.140 |
You're giving a sermon and let's say I'm challenging guys and all of a sudden I was like, "Mount 00:13:46.260 |
You're thinking, "Okay, what about those mountains?" 00:13:52.020 |
But I want you to take those names and keep that in your memory banks. 00:13:55.980 |
There is Mount Gerizim, the blessings, Mount Ebal, the curses. 00:14:01.500 |
Because in the book of Deuteronomy, although we're in chapter 11, history doesn't change 00:14:06.980 |
They're sitting in one place in the plains of Moab and Moses is just teaching them and 00:14:11.500 |
preaching to them and causing them to be stirred up so that they might obey and they might 00:14:19.500 |
And so this theme of blessing and curses continues all the way to chapter 27. 00:14:24.860 |
Please turn your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 27. 00:14:41.260 |
In verse one it says, "Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people saying, 00:14:47.620 |
'Keep all the commandments which I command you today.'" 00:14:52.900 |
You need to abide by the command of the Lord. 00:14:54.980 |
"So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your 00:14:58.500 |
God gives you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones and coat them with lime and write 00:15:04.900 |
on them all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may enter the land 00:15:09.020 |
which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey. 00:15:12.700 |
As the Lord, the God of your fathers promised you, so it shall be when you cross the Jordan, 00:15:17.580 |
you shall set up on Mount Ebal," there is Iron Mountain, "these stones as I am commanding 00:15:23.180 |
you today, and you shall coat them with lime. 00:15:26.500 |
Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. 00:15:33.900 |
You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer it 00:15:41.940 |
And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and rejoice before the Lord your 00:15:46.540 |
You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly." 00:15:51.700 |
The Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all the Israelites saying, "Be silent 00:15:57.940 |
This day you have become a people for the Lord your God. 00:16:00.900 |
You shall therefore obey the Lord your God and do his commandments and his statutes which 00:16:06.460 |
Moses also charged the people that day saying, "When you cross the Jordan, ye shall stand 00:16:10.980 |
on the Mount Gerizim," there's our next mountain, "to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, 00:16:19.260 |
For the curse, ye shall stand on Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 00:16:25.300 |
The Levite shall answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 'Cursed 00:16:30.380 |
is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the 00:16:35.500 |
hands of craftsmen, and sets it up in secret.' 00:16:42.620 |
And then he goes on with curse after curse after curse. 00:16:46.780 |
Scan your eyes to chapter 28, and he reiterates that on Mount Gerizim, these will be the blessings. 00:16:52.180 |
Now that the curses are said, here will be the blessings. 00:16:55.620 |
Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his 00:17:00.460 |
commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all 00:17:13.660 |
Moses is not just sitting there saying, "Okay, this is what's gonna happen." 00:17:17.460 |
In the book of Joshua, chapter 28, just for, oh sorry, chapter 8, just for reference, Joshua 00:17:23.420 |
after crossing the Jordan, then after having conquest over the nation of Ai, I don't know 00:17:28.940 |
how to pronounce that perfectly, but it's like A-I, and then after that conquest, Joshua 00:17:34.580 |
says, "Everybody gathers and we gotta do what Moses said." 00:17:37.180 |
He said, "Let me illustrate the picture for you." 00:17:39.100 |
It's not like this, like, "Okay, half of you guys over here, and half of you guys over 00:17:44.540 |
We're talking about the entire nation of Israel, right? 00:17:49.220 |
Hundreds of thousands of people coming to this part of the mountain and coming to that 00:17:57.780 |
And this is a picture of modern day Shechem right here. 00:18:03.160 |
This on the left, on the right is Mount Ebal. 00:18:05.580 |
And the people were standing in the middle, and as they were standing in the middle, Moses 00:18:12.300 |
Once the Levitical priest started to say, "And these are the curses when you disobey 00:18:34.260 |
I mean, coming to our passage in Joshua, Joshua, after having contact, gathered the people 00:18:43.900 |
And just as Moses, before he is passing, before he is leaving the scene, before he's going 00:18:50.460 |
to die, and he says to the people, "You need to decide who you're going to obey." 00:18:55.740 |
Joshua says the same thing, and he shows them like this. 00:19:05.180 |
But the fact of the matter is, the sinful condition that perhaps a lot of people in 00:19:12.220 |
this day have been in, is we want both worlds. 00:19:19.180 |
I would like to have my preferences, and if I can't obey the will of God, then let it 00:19:23.980 |
That cannot be, because you cannot straddle two mountains that's a mile apart. 00:19:31.020 |
And so, if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 30, I know we're flipping around a lot of different 00:19:36.860 |
Deuteronomy chapter 30, Moses is giving this emphatic challenge to the nation. 00:19:43.100 |
There is a decision to be made, and this decision is grave. 00:19:47.820 |
Decision is not to be taken flippantly, but it has to be made. 00:19:52.420 |
I'm going to read here in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 15. 00:19:56.420 |
He says, "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity, 00:20:03.540 |
in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep 00:20:07.300 |
His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, 00:20:12.000 |
and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land which you are entering to possess 00:20:17.140 |
But, if your hearts turn away, and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship to 00:20:23.620 |
other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish. 00:20:29.460 |
You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing, and the Jordan to 00:20:34.460 |
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life 00:20:42.380 |
So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord 00:20:46.860 |
your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him. 00:20:50.580 |
For this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which 00:20:54.500 |
the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. 00:21:13.820 |
There's a decision of what are we going to do with our day, what are we going to do with 00:21:19.140 |
But there is the overarching decision of the trajectory and the course of our lives 00:21:25.660 |
We cannot just coast in the car thinking, "I'll someday decide where I want to go eat." 00:21:32.580 |
For the warning is, should you do that, you will surely die. 00:21:36.840 |
And so in other passages of Scripture, many other prophets have said the same exact thing. 00:21:43.500 |
In a big old battle on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, the prophet 00:21:48.340 |
of God, 1 Kings 18 verse 21, Elijah says this to the people after he had called upon the 00:21:58.540 |
Elijah came near to all the people and said, this is 1 Kings 18, 21, "How long will you 00:22:11.180 |
And sadly it says, "But the people did not answer him a word." 00:22:16.300 |
There is a decision to be made and have we made it to remember that this decision is 00:22:23.060 |
It was Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter six who said that no one can serve two masters 00:22:28.500 |
for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise 00:22:39.860 |
So there is a decision to be made and that is why Joshua makes the warning. 00:22:44.820 |
That's why Joshua gives us the emphatic command. 00:22:50.900 |
Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in the sincerity of heart and truth. 00:22:58.860 |
Put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt. 00:23:03.700 |
If it is disagreeable in your sight, in other passages, in other translations it says, if 00:23:09.100 |
it's evil in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will 00:23:13.140 |
serve, whether the gods of your father serves which were beyond the river or the gods of 00:23:20.620 |
But as for me and our house, we will serve the Lord. 00:23:24.580 |
I wanted to start off, you know, 2016, this first Sunday with remembering that there is 00:23:33.260 |
But also there is this challenge upon us that there is a decision to be made of an overarching 00:23:38.860 |
decision of our lives, a paradigm that we create when we set it before the Lord. 00:23:45.620 |
Where this is going to be the standard, the rubric by which we make the other decisions 00:23:51.500 |
And this is the kind of decisions he calls us to. 00:23:53.980 |
He asks us basically, have we made this decision? 00:24:13.060 |
Are you going to be living a life of growing in the knowledge of God and the grace of God? 00:24:17.860 |
Or will you be growing in the knowledge of the joy and knowledge of the world? 00:24:26.220 |
But the thing about it is, you guys can turn off the PowerPoint now. 00:24:30.580 |
The thing about it is, what I'm challenging you guys to do is actually verbalize a decision 00:24:37.940 |
When was the last time you said such words and expressed, confessing with your mouth, 00:24:52.540 |
And I know that's a daunting thing because sometimes making huge resolutions like that 00:25:00.700 |
But Joshua, before the Lord, is saying these words. 00:25:04.940 |
When I read verse one of chapter 24, everybody was presenting themselves before God. 00:25:14.700 |
They were presenting themselves before the Lord. 00:25:18.260 |
And what they were hearing was the words of God. 00:25:21.860 |
My challenge to us this morning is, give the intention of your heart to God. 00:25:28.620 |
Perhaps you don't feel like it, perhaps you might fear saying things you might not satisfy, 00:25:36.940 |
It's proper, it's right, and it's what God expects. 00:25:41.020 |
Can you imagine, you go to a wedding, and nowadays everybody starts to write their own 00:25:47.900 |
vows, and a lot of times when I'm officiating I have a piece of paper out there open up 00:25:51.780 |
and I give them, and they read this beautiful vow to each other. 00:25:55.540 |
But imagine if I took out a piece of paper and I said, "And ladies and gentlemen, now 00:26:00.060 |
the couple will exchange their wedding vows." 00:26:04.100 |
And the lady, the girl, the bride, opened up hers, sorry, I kind of was fishing for 00:26:12.260 |
And she starts reading and she reads off this beautiful thing about how she's going to commit, 00:26:16.820 |
that she promises to love and cherish, to be faithful until death do us part. 00:26:23.460 |
And the guy, typically super short, he opens it up and he says, "You know how it is, girl." 00:26:33.780 |
Can you imagine if you've ever been in a fight and you try to open your heart and say, "You 00:26:37.300 |
know, I'm not angry, but I just want to express to you, this is how you hurt me, and this 00:26:40.900 |
is what I think you should do to help this relationship reconcile." 00:26:52.220 |
What we want to hear is the expression and intention of the heart, "I understand, yes, 00:26:57.380 |
I agree, that's exactly what I should do, that's exactly what I'm talking about." 00:27:02.220 |
Verbally express, "Yes God, I might not in track record have obeyed everything so far, 00:27:08.860 |
yes God in 2016, I might not be able to fulfill every single opportunity to glorify you, but 00:27:17.940 |
I will decide as far as me and my household, we will serve you." 00:27:24.740 |
That is a confession and a resolve to be made. 00:27:28.300 |
Don't be afraid of making that, and I challenge you to verbalize it, and I challenge you to 00:27:35.300 |
This passage that we're reading, it teaches us that this decision is not only important 00:27:46.420 |
Let me read to you the next section of chapter 24 of Joshua, so turn back there in your Bibles. 00:27:56.780 |
Starting from verse 16, after Joshua makes his exemplary resolution, starting from verse 00:28:02.980 |
16 it says, "The people answered and said, 'Far be it from us that we should forsake 00:28:08.540 |
the Lord to serve other gods, for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers 00:28:13.780 |
out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did His great signs on our 00:28:18.180 |
side and preserved us through all the way in which He went and among all the peoples 00:28:24.900 |
The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the 00:28:29.820 |
We also, we will serve the Lord for He is our God.'" 00:28:34.660 |
But then take a look at this, verse 19, so the people are like, "Yeah, us too, we'll 00:28:39.980 |
Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord for He is a 00:28:46.460 |
He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. 00:28:50.180 |
If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do harm and consume 00:28:57.780 |
The people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord." 00:29:01.740 |
And Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for 00:29:12.140 |
Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are in your midst and incline your hearts 00:29:18.580 |
The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord, our God, and we will obey His voice." 00:29:27.860 |
He made that emphatic call to a decision, "Choose." 00:29:32.860 |
And then when the people said, "Yes, Joshua, we will serve the Lord." 00:29:42.140 |
It's kind of like saying, "Oh, here, take this." 00:29:44.420 |
And then somebody says, "Okay," and then he's like, "Ah!" 00:29:53.340 |
No, I think what Joshua is doing is emphasizing the ramifications of the decision, how urgent 00:30:01.740 |
That decision is not a kind of decision to which you can say, "Yeah, I'll do it. 00:30:06.940 |
I'll serve the Lord, and in due time, eventually, I'll start growing." 00:30:15.860 |
You see, the urgency of the decision does not come by because there's a timeline, but 00:30:20.780 |
because next year at the end of 2016, something's going to happen and you won't have a decision 00:30:29.500 |
Your timeline is in God's hands, and God's timeline is your timeline, so guess what? 00:30:35.940 |
But that isn't the main reason why there's an urgency. 00:30:39.300 |
The main reason why there's an urgency is shown to us in verse 19, when he says, "You 00:30:45.300 |
will not be able to serve the Lord for," this is why, "because God is holy and he is jealous." 00:30:59.180 |
He's saying essentially that because God is a God who is holy and God is a God who is 00:31:04.260 |
jealous, you have to be sure of this decision. 00:31:08.460 |
God is a holy God, and he's not going to allow just time to pass. 00:31:12.900 |
The last year, however it was, however their track record was, as they were doing the conquests 00:31:18.220 |
in the land of Canaan, cannot be in the future because God is a holy God. 00:31:25.300 |
Your intermingling affection for the world and the idea of having both, that cannot be. 00:31:32.460 |
God has a timeline in which he has scheduled an appointment for us to give an account for 00:31:37.660 |
And so that decision now carries with it a kind of urgency, a kind of weightiness because 00:31:47.380 |
And that decision carries with it then the exclusivity because God is jealous. 00:31:52.300 |
Basically, Joshua is highlighting, do you understand the decision you are making based 00:32:06.020 |
So this is the decision that we don't make flippantly. 00:32:08.220 |
This is not a decision that we say, "Okay, sure, everybody else is doing this, I'm just 00:32:14.020 |
Now if I can speak to us honestly, you know, I genuinely believe that most of us here, 00:32:31.060 |
And perhaps sometimes we hesitate and we don't want to make resolutions and big lofty statements 00:32:40.060 |
like, "God, I'll glorify you in 2016 and I want to serve you," and stuff like that because 00:32:51.980 |
What I'm saying sometimes, the greatest hindrance for us to make those resolutions before God 00:33:00.820 |
We know that we shouldn't just simply say it. 00:33:04.500 |
We know that the standard of God is high, that He is a holy God. 00:33:07.980 |
And so we know that we shouldn't just say it. 00:33:10.300 |
And having perhaps done that in the past, we're now afraid. 00:33:16.780 |
But brothers and sisters, that is a bad application. 00:33:19.900 |
To stop yourself from committing to God and expressing and verbalizing your dedication, 00:33:25.660 |
confessing your love, committing things to the Lord is not a bad thing. 00:33:33.420 |
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we're afraid of being hypocritical. 00:33:37.780 |
Once we fail, we feel like hypocrites if we're going to say, "God, I'm going to honor you." 00:33:42.700 |
But it is not hypocritical to want to serve the Lord. 00:33:46.980 |
It is not hypocritical to humbly want to change. 00:33:50.260 |
If I'm not doing it now, God, I want to be doing it more in the next year. 00:33:59.220 |
If you notice what they said, as soon as I read that, I was like, "Oh, far be it from 00:34:13.220 |
They get always compromised and God has always been forgotten. 00:34:16.420 |
But if you humbly recognize, "God, I have a tendency to get distracted with my life 00:34:24.100 |
and I put you and your purposes behind, but I'm committing this day. 00:34:43.100 |
If you haven't done it lately, you are missing out on the joy of expressing to your love, 00:34:49.020 |
to your Father, what you intend for Him and your relationship. 00:34:56.660 |
You need to overcome that kind of hurdle, especially for us who have the Spirit of God 00:35:02.500 |
You know in the New Testament, it teaches us in Titus 2 verse 11, it says, "For the 00:35:07.340 |
grace of God, it brings salvation and has appeared to all men." 00:35:11.540 |
The grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, 00:35:26.900 |
That's what we have in the grace of the Lord. 00:35:29.180 |
And so he says, "This is the glorious appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 00:35:33.340 |
who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a 00:35:37.940 |
people that are His own, that are His very own, eager to do what is good." 00:35:46.380 |
So are there things hindering you from making a resolution this year? 00:35:52.460 |
You know there are other hindrances that we have. 00:35:55.620 |
Perhaps for you it's more of a just flat out wrestling with laziness and being intentional. 00:36:02.180 |
For some of us, it's we actually don't want to bear that cost. 00:36:08.980 |
We know that there's going to be a huge investment. 00:36:10.940 |
If I say this, there's going to be high expectation. 00:36:13.460 |
If I say this, it's going to be a lot of work. 00:36:16.660 |
For some of us, flat out, it's just selfishness in our heart. 00:36:19.500 |
We just hold off making a decision because just in case something better comes along. 00:36:25.940 |
Why do we sometimes hesitate to make a decision about plans for the next weekend in case we 00:36:31.180 |
can do something more and better, which is not always bad, but sometimes we do that. 00:36:36.860 |
Why do sometimes guys have a hard time committing to a lady in a relationship? 00:36:44.180 |
Selfishness, because sometimes they're potentially saying, "I could do better because I just 00:36:54.060 |
And there is this delaying, this hesitancy of a resolution of a decision and a commitment 00:37:01.260 |
But I'm challenging us, overcome all those things. 00:37:08.740 |
Even if besides the cost, besides the crowd, he says, "You know what? 00:37:14.940 |
You guys choose what you have to choose as far as me and I, our household, we'll serve 00:37:20.820 |
Besides the personal failures, their track record is so bad. 00:37:24.860 |
Let me just say, their track record is so bad. 00:37:28.180 |
I mean, their lives are just riddled with sin. 00:37:30.420 |
Starting from Genesis up until Joshua, it's just riddled with sin. 00:37:34.100 |
And maybe the resolution is needed more so because of the failures. 00:37:39.820 |
We're sitting here thinking, "Oh, because of my failure, I can't resolve." 00:37:42.420 |
As a matter of fact, Joshua is presenting this question to a people who needs this question. 00:37:52.580 |
Let's overcome those hurdles in our lives, our own selfishness, our own fears, self-doubt, 00:38:00.100 |
for the sake of committing and rendering to God a commitment and a heart that says, "God, 00:38:13.180 |
And again, in 2016, I pray that we would make preemptive decisions like that. 00:38:23.660 |
Before spilling up the land and dissecting it to the tribes, he makes decisions. 00:38:31.660 |
And let me just say, I think 2016 isn't like, "Oh, what's going to happen?" 00:38:40.500 |
I mean, practically and humanistically speaking, you guys all know what you're going to do 00:38:46.180 |
For those of you guys in graduate school, you're just going to study all day. 00:38:54.740 |
You guys are like in a decade of school and it's just school. 00:38:57.180 |
And that's like the dominating factor in your life. 00:39:03.180 |
Like, "Oh, you guys exactly know what's coming." 00:39:08.500 |
For those of you guys who are working, the months and the days go by fast. 00:39:12.900 |
You know what your schedule is going to be like. 00:39:14.380 |
You're going to work and you're going to be tired at the end of the day. 00:39:17.180 |
And the year is going to go by just like this, just like 2015 went by like this. 00:39:21.220 |
Those of you guys who have families, you guys know the dynamics of family and you guys know 00:39:25.180 |
You guys know from talking to other families, looking at your own kids, if you have second 00:39:30.020 |
Okay, they're going to go through the frustrations of the terrible twos and you're going to know 00:39:33.460 |
the frustrations of going to school and you're going to know what's going to happen in 2016. 00:39:41.780 |
But the fact of the matter is you have a huge opportunity. 00:39:48.980 |
How am I going to serve the Lord when I'm busy with school? 00:39:52.140 |
How am I going to serve the Lord when I'm busy with work, when I'm tired? 00:39:55.340 |
How am I going to serve the Lord with my family? 00:39:58.660 |
You need to make preemptive decisions just like the men of God are preparing the people 00:40:03.300 |
before we embark on this momentous occasion, before we come into the land. 00:40:14.620 |
I want to close with a thought as a conclusion. 00:40:19.700 |
You know, I talked about inconsequential decisions about going out to eat and stuff. 00:40:24.460 |
I'm not challenging us to all of a sudden all have personalities where we're decisive. 00:40:28.580 |
It's like, "Hey, you and I are going to have lunch. 00:40:30.860 |
I've already predetermined that we're going to go to the Poke Bowl. 00:40:36.180 |
You know, I'm not telling all of you to be decisive people. 00:40:39.100 |
As a matter of fact, when it comes to things like food, defer to others. 00:40:46.820 |
But when it comes to your spiritual life, when it comes to faith and the things of God, 00:40:54.060 |
His purposes, let no remaining question mark exist. 00:41:03.980 |
Be sure, be decisive, be determined and committed. 00:41:08.020 |
And the thing about Joshua as an encouragement example for us is this. 00:41:12.260 |
He was so determined, so bold in his statement. 00:41:15.620 |
He not only spoke for himself, but he spoke for his whole family. 00:41:21.180 |
And I pray that every single one of you would be like that. 00:41:24.660 |
That your commitment to God and your desire to serve the Lord this year would be so strong. 00:41:28.740 |
If I have anything to do with this, my family, my church, we will serve God. 00:41:44.300 |
Father God, we want to thank you so much for your grace. 00:41:46.980 |
Lord, we thank you for your great love, which was exemplified through the leading and direction 00:41:55.340 |
We thank you for your great patience as you waited constantly for people to come around 00:42:02.260 |
Lord, we waited for people to see what you were doing and to buy into your gracious redemptive 00:42:08.940 |
Father God, forgive us if we have been negligent, if we've been coasting, if we left decisions 00:42:17.340 |
But I pray, Father God, that we'd be challenged today. 00:42:24.740 |
We would offer everything we have, energy, time, strength, and more to your service.