Choose This Day: A Legacy of Faith

Joshua 24:14 – 15

 

Legacy. Last week I began my sermon by reflecting on my dad and all that he accomplished after immigrating to America at the age of 19. There was a time when my vision for life was to take over the business he started from the ground up and carry it on, taking it to the next level, and eventually passing it on to my kids.

 

You know, that’s what farmers do, that’s what dairymen do, they build a legacy that their sons carry on. Just look at the majority of dairies and farms around here, they are being run by the second, third, and fourth generations.

 

Looking back, I can see God has a sense of humor. I pleaded with my dad not to sell the business, but he was a stubborn Portagee. So, one month, just one month before my first son was born, the herd was sold. So much for carrying on the family legacy, huh?

 

The legacy we leave our children and grandchildren is most certainly a choice. Many parents have left legacies involving family businesses, careers, and properties. Generations upon generations have left legacies of love and care and compassion and understanding. Many generations of parents have left legacies of what married and family life should be like.

 

And just as true, many families leave legacies of pain and sadness and addiction and poverty. And those are by choice too. By choosing the wrong priorities in life, by putting their faith and their hope in the wrong things and many times by refusing to choose they end up leaving behind a sad legacy.

 

God is infinitely wiser than any of us. Because of what He has done in my life despite my own stubbornness and many, many lessons learned the hard way, and because He blessed me with the wife I have, I do have a legacy to pass on to my kids after all. It is a legacy of far greater worth and importance than anything I could have dreamed up on my own. It is a legacy of faith in Jesus Christ.

 

As I continue on in my series of sermons on the family, I want to talk today about choosing the legacy that we pass on from generation to generation. I’ll be in the book of Joshua this morning, and while it doesn’t give instructions about the family or anything like that, it illustrates just how impactful our legacy can be, not just for our own families but for everyone around us. Let’s read God’s Word together: Joshua 24:14 – 15.

 

¹⁴ “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

When a passage in Scripture begins with “Now therefore…” it means “because of what was just said, of what just happened, etc., you ought to do this…” So let’s look for a moment what came before this.

 

The book of Joshua records the Israelite conquest of the promised land. It records the fall of Jericho, its walls and all, and many other battles fought all across the land. It also records their failures to always obey God and expel everyone from the land like God commanded, and to always stay away from foreign idols/gods, which has awful consequences for the nation of Israel.

 

Chapter 24 is Joshua’s farewell address to the people of Israel at the end of his life. In vv. 1 – 13 Joshua assembles all the tribes of Israel at Shechem for this. If you look at Genesis 12:6 – 7 you’ll see Shechem was where God had promised the entire land of Canaan to Abraham.

 

“Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘to your offspring I will give this land.” Now, centuries later, his descendants stand there in the fulfillment of that promise.

 

And God reminds them of where they came from, v.2 says long ago their fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.”

 

God reminds them of how He took Abraham all across the land they now possess, how He gave him Isaac, and to Isaac, Jacob and Esau. He reminds them of how Jacob went down to Egypt and then how He delivered them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the land while fighting off those who would stand in their way.

 

And then God points out in v.13, “I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.” Everything they have, their deliverance, their victories, and the land they now possess is a gift from God almighty to them.

 

“Now, therefore,” because of all this Joshua says to them, from now on they should “fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” Look at all that God has done for you, for your ancestors. Look at how He called out your forefather Abraham from a faraway land where he worshipped other gods and chose him to bless the world through. Look at how He delivered you from bondage and through the wilderness and gave you a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

So, here at the end of his life, Joshua isn’t just merely telling them to fear God and serve Him. The two words he uses to describe their service to God, sincerity and faithfulness, carry with them the idea of wholeness, blamelessness, integrity, near perfection, and truth. This was a passionate plea that the people of Israel should be totally devoted—blameless—in their worship of God. Yes, serving God is worshipping God.

 

And then Joshua adds a dose of reality. “Put away the Gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Wait a minute, didn’t God give them the Ten Commandments quite a few years ago? I thought 1 & 2 dealt with worshipping other Gods and having idols, so what are these people still doing?

 

God did all those miraculous and powerful things for these people, he promised them a land of their own, he made them exceedingly fruitful (70 member’s from Jacob’s household went to Egypt, to over 600,000 left in the Exodus), sustained them (and punished those who rebelled) in the wilderness, and gave them a turnkey, move-in ready land and they still worshipped other gods. But it’s understandable right? These are family gods, these are the gods their ancestors worshipped so it’s understandable.

 

No, no it’s not. Not only did they know better because the one true God who delivered them tell them as much, but they were a stiff-necked people that still worshipping ancestral gods wasn’t enough. As we see Joshua move on in his address, he calls out the people for their idol worship.

 

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve,” The only thing that would prompt a leader to say that to the people he’s leading is ongoing open and blatant disobedience to the expectations of the one true God. Joshua lays it out for them. If serving the one true God is undesirable to you, evil in you eyes then decide which of the false gods you’ve also been serving that you’re going to serve.

 

Here, Joshua adds a third set of false gods. He tells them to choose between the false gods of their ancestors beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they dwell. So, let’s see if we got this right, these people have worshipped the gods of their ancestors, the gods of their oppressors in Egypt, and the gods of the people they were supposed to drive out of the land that the one true God gave them?

 

False idol worship has been a hallmark not only of Israel’s distant ancestors or of their more immediate ancestors in Egypt, but even of themselves, here in the land of Canaan. Joshua was calling them out, that the people of Israel had never truly rid themselves of false worship, and he’s urging them in the strongest possible terms to do so now.

 

“Choose this day,” Joshua says. These are the people’s options, but then he makes the most well known and bold statement of his life, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshau essentially says, “I’ve led you since Moses’ death, and I’ve set an example for you, but you choose for yourselves today because me and my household will serve the one true God.”

 

Normally God is the one doing the choosing, having chosen Israel out of all the nations, but here Israel is being told to choose where their loyalty lies. The pagans didn’t have to do this because they could embrace all gods, something Israel tried to do. Instead, they’re being asked, like Rahab did in Jericho, to embrace the one true God and reject all others. Joshua didn’t threaten or force them; he laid out the simple choice and set the example.

 

To their credit, the people of Israel rise to the occasion. In vv.16 – 18 they essentially echo all that God said He did for them in the beginning of the chapter. They say, “far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods,” because of what He’s done for us, and they resolve that, “Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

 

God job Israel. They admitted that they saw God in all that He’s done for them. They saw God working around them when He delivered them and their fathers from bondage in Egypt. They saw God in all the great signs He performed and how He preserved all the way through the wilderness and through hostile territory. They saw God’s mighty hand drive out the people in the land He gave to them, and so they too would serve Him.

 

I don’t know if Joshua was just a realist or a terrible encourager, but his response to the people was like throwing a bucket of cold water on them. He responds to their vocal commitment to God by telling them in v.19 – 20, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” Yeesh.

 

Joshua isn’t making God out to sound very loving here is he? Here’s the reality folks, God loves His people so much that He wants their undivided love in return, He won’t share. Joshua’s response to the people communicates the absolute and awesome nature of God’s holiness and righteous jealousy. There would be dire consequences if they persisted in sin.

Yet the people insist that they will serve the Lord. At their insistence Joshua then tells them that they are witnesses against themselves that they indeed made this choice and will suffer the consequences if they falter. And they agree, they are their own witnesses. They made their choice with eyes wide open.

 

Joshua assumed they would make a choice. His words here emphasize the seriousness of their choice, to purge from them any notion of “cheap grace.” The children of God were not called to some superficial faith. The people of Israel could not possibly hope to serve God by their own power alone, without the help of divine grace, without solid and serious conversion from all idols, and without true repentance and faith.

 

That’s the reality of saving faith. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is not a superficial, surface level faith. There is nothing cheap about God’s grace.

 

We cannot attain salvation under our own power, without the help of divine grace. We cannot truly have a saving faith without forsaking all idols in our lives, and we cannot be saved without true repentance and faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because God alone is worthy of all worship, you must choose to serve Him wholeheartedly and not as an afterthought.

 

Joshua knew that the people could not serve God and serve other gods. They could not divide their love between the one true God and other idols in their lives. So, in v.23, “He said, ‘then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

 

Money, put it aside. Status, put it aside. A fancy house and car, put it aside. Sports, tv, movies, video games, entertainment, put them aside. How many families in today’s culture sacrifice their children’s relationship with God on the altar of youth sports?

 

I was sent a flyer on my phone for rec soccer that’s starting up after rec baseball ends, and the person who sent it made the comment that that now that baseball was winding down signing them up for soccer was to help keep the kids busy. Is busyness really what we’re going for in our children’s lives, in our own lives? Is busyness the worship that God desires from us, expects from us?

 

There’s nothing wrong with being busy, there’s nothing wrong with any of the things I mentioned, money, status, nice houses and cars, entertainment, and youth sports and such. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that until they take the place of God in your life. When they become the foreign gods you serve instead of the one true God, then there’s a problem.

 

And what does it mean to “incline your heart to the Lord”? It means, yield your heart to the Lord. It’s not enough to just put aside the idols in your lives, but you must also yield your heart to God. True service to God, true worship offered up to God must come from your heart, and to do that you have to yield your heart to Him.

 

Understand this, God doesn’t desire forced obedience, the mindless checking of boxes in our daily walk with Him. He doesn’t just want you to go to church on Sunday and then act like He doesn’t exist the rest of the days of the week.

 

No, He wants your heart, and He wants you to yield your heart to Him, to willingly align your heart with His. God created mankind for one purpose; to be His people and He would be their God. He created us to walk with Him. That’s what Adam in the garden before the fall; he walked with God. Sin separated us from Him.

 

That is why God has done all that He has done for the redemption of His greatest creation, you. And all the mighty acts of God recorded in the OT, the battles won, and the people conquered, the manna and quail provided to eat and all sorts of healing and miracles, and the deliverance of God’s chosen nation out of bondage to slavery in Egypt pales in comparison to what He did for you and for me in Jesus Christ.

 

He delivered each one of us from bondage to sin when Jesus bore our sins to His death on the cross, and He raised us all out of the grave when He raised Jesus Christ from the grave. There was nothing superficial and cheap about that.

 

The mightiest work God has done in each of your lives is the most personal one, your salvation. You just had to yield the one part of you where your entire being flows from, your heart. All you had to do was yield your heart to Jesus. (And if you haven’t done that yet, well today is as good a day as any to yield your heart to God and submit your life to Christ.)

 

And if you’ve done that, then like the people of Israel said to Joshua in v.24 you too can say, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” That’s the legacy we are to pass on from generation to generation, to leave our families. Not a legacy of putting other things, worldly things, false idols before the one true God. No, we are to leave a legacy of faith, of walking with God, of yielding our hearts to Him, to serving Him and obeying His Word. That’s the legacy I want to leave.

 

So, this day, whom do you choose to serve?

 

Let’s pray.