Choose Whom You Will Serve

Deuteronomy 6:13-15; 1 Samuel 7:3; 1 Chronicles 16:25; Psalm 96:4-5; Psalm 145:3; John 4:23

In a recent discipleship study of Joshua 24, Tony Evans comments on the worship of idols and false gods by the children of Israel. Joshua had challenged the Israelites to worship God and God alone. He reminds them of all that God had brought them and their fathers through; how God had delivered them time and time again. Then he warned them that they would not be able to worship Yahweh. He knew of their history of making commitments that they had failed to keep. Of course as Joshua 24:24 points out, they reply “We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.”

Dr. Evans brings up a great point in his commentary that the worship of false gods would be so tempting because these false gods made no demands on or had any expectations of them. It's easy to worship something that requires nothing in return. Joshua affirms in verse 19 that our God is a holy and jealous God. He will not share His glory. As Dr. Evans also points out, God's expectations haven't changed. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever so we know that He is still holy and He is still a jealous God. He will never share His glory; never has and never will.

In Luke 14 we see large crowds following Jesus. He turns and says to them “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?" (verses 27-28). Have you counted the cost of following Christ? Are you willing to take up your cross and follow Him? The cost may be high but the benefit is out of this world!

Joshua 24:15 (NASB)“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Pastor Mike Deese