Courage to Leave a Legacy – Joshua 24

Posted on March 15, 2023 by dkoop

I have this verse hanging in my master bedroom.  It’s one of the first things I see each day when I wake up.  This verse is one of the most popular verses in the entire Old Testament.  It’s part of Joshua’s last words to his family and his people.

“As for ME..”   It all starts with me: faith and a decision to follow Christ is a personal decision that I must make for myself.

It’s been said that “God has no grandchildren, only children.” When it comes to the choice to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and then spend your life serving Him as Lord, no one can decide this for you. Your mom can’t decide this for you. Your dad can’t.  Your pastor can’t. It is your decision. You decide.

We need fathers and mothers today who say, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  “Our primary job is not to be our child’s friend but a parent.  We will go to church on Sundays, read the bible and live out its principles.  Others may skip church because of select sports, we will not! Other kids may have no boundaries and call the shots but not our kids!  We will strive to serve the Lord.”

We need single adults who say, “As for me and my body I will serve the Lord!”  “If you choose to sleep around or live together before marriage that is your choice, but as for me, it’s not going to happen! As for my sexuality I will serve the Lord.”

We need business men who say, “As for me and my business we will serve the Lord!”  “Other businesses may choose to defraud, cheat or lie.  We will not!”  We need more businesses like Chick-fil-a, Hobby Lobby and Mardell’s that will hold to biblical and family values.  They close on Sundays to observe a day of rest and spend time with God and their families. Their businesses are booming.

Personal choice and stance are the first part of this verse.  Joshua also reminds us here that Christian parents have another choice to make.

Remember God’s Words in Deuteronomy 6:6-7?

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

In his final words Joshua says, “I have obeyed this instruction from God. I don’t know about you “but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” If we read on we would see that the people replied saying that “Yes, We will serve the Lord!” but Joshua asked them again and again and repeatedly they said yes. Finally, he accepted their answer and put up a stone memorial to remind them of their commitment to teach their children about God. I’m sure there were a lot of amens as he did so. But unfortunately they did not follow through with this commitment. They didn’t teach their children about God’s loving actions.

In the very next book of the Bible, (which we will look at next week!) in Judges chapter 2:1-2 it says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.” So the parents didn’t make this choice. How sad.

The fact is we are only one generation away from a culture that turns it’s back on our faith because all it takes is the failure of one generation of parents to tell their children about God. Moms and Dads, this is our God-given responsibility and don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not saying that children decide to serve God simply by parental decree or that children inherit their faith from their parents like they do their physical characteristics.  But I am saying that if the next generation is to remain faithful to God, parents we must teach them about God.

We must tell them what God has done and what He means to them. The fact is much of the problems in our culture stem from the fact that many parents have not made this choice correctly.

There are many parents these days who say, “My choice is no. I don’t want to influence my child when it comes to religion. When they are old enough they will choose for themselves.” I find it strange though that they don’t follow that philosophy in other important matters. They don’t let their young children decide when to go to bed or what to eat or wear. They don’t let them decide if they want to go to school or not. They don’t say, “Hey play in the street if you want to! That’s your choice.” Why this inconsistency? Why give your child some guidance in life but refuse to give them the most important guidance? Guidance that not only equips them to deal with the heartbreaks that are around every corner in this fallen world of ours, but also prepares them to make their own personal choice when it comes to their allegiance to God.  That choice that will affect where they spend eternity.

The final choice of faith is up to the child but a child needs guidance and encouragement that will help them make the right choice. Think of it this way. If children are allowed to grow up like weeds in a spiritual wilderness, chances are good that they will remain weeds.  We can be sure that our children do not grow up in a spiritual vacuum. If we don’t teach him, someone else will. The only sure hope that a child has when it comes to making the right choice when it comes to faith in God is the home.

Listen to these words,

“The facts show that it is the family which is the main center of maintaining the religious spirit. We cannot and we shall not remain indifferent to the fate of children on whom their parents, fanatical believers, commit an act of spiritual violence. We are not indifferent to the fact that, in the Soviet society, a family is a cell of communist education or a refuge of backward conceptions.”  These words were spoken in 1964 by one of the top officials in communist Russia.  Back then the Russians feared Christianity so much that they forcibly took children from believing parents. Even they were wise enough to know something that many Christian parents apparently ignore. The family is the key to passing on faith in Jesus.

What about you and your house? Like Joshua have you made the commitment to tell your kids all about the Lord you love and serve so that they can make a well-informed decision?

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

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The Power of Choice – Joshua 24

Posted on March 14, 2023 by dkoop

Aren’t you grateful for the choices you have?  I am.  I love the choice to work where I work and to live where I live and to eat what I eat and for Niki my wife.  Also for her mutual choice of me!  I love the Aggies, Christian rock music, landscaping and turtles.   God in his infinite grace and love gives us many choices, both good and bad.   Our choices guide us and define us. Some choices are temporal and others are eternal.  Choices are powerful.  We are told in God’s word to choose wisely.

As we look at Joshua’s last words we can see that his message boils down to one main statement. He was telling the Hebrew people, “You have a choice to make. You can continue to serve God after I’m gone or not. It’s up to you. But you have to choose.” As for himself, Joshua had made this choice long ago. He had decided that He would serve the Lord, and had lived his long life according to that decision. But now he was about to leave. He would no longer be the leader of this nation, telling them what to do. From now on they would have to choose for themselves. In my mind, he’s much like a parent to their child before college, military or career saying, “Look, you’re on your own now and you face a choice. Serve God with your life. Live according to His Word or not, but choose.”

In a very real sense Joshua was like a parent to these people. He had been with them all their lives. Decade after decade He’d watched them grow up and then fight to conquer the land God had promised them. So perhaps better than anyone else Joshua knew that as the old hymn puts it, “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, they had already come.” And Joshua had been with them in all that, guiding them every step of the way. All this “parental” experience had led him to know these people, to know them better in fact than they did themselves and so he knew that they were wrestling with this choice. He knew that at this moment in the history of this nation there was in fact a wavering as to their faith in God. They were wondering, if they still needed God now that this long war was over.  With his final words, Joshua confronted them with this choice–to follow God or not.   I think this text gives us a good chance to re-examine the depth of our own commitment to the Lord.

Joshua encourages commitment based on what God has done in the past.

17  It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.  Joshua 24:17

Joshua was using some of his precious final words to remind them that they had a decision to make, but that it was really a no-brainer because it was the only reasonable option to take when they considered all that God had done for them in the past. Joshua was saying that surely anyone who took the time to look back and see all that God had done would choose to serve God!

When it comes to our following God, this principle of choice that Joshua referred to is still applicable in our day and age. If anyone today has even a partial understanding of all the ways God has blessed us, if he or she knew of God’s actions in his or her personal history, and if they had any sense, they would indeed choose to follow God.  Anyone who understood God’s past actions on their behalf would decide to trust God with their future.

It’s been said that deciding to follow God involves a “leap of faith,” but the Bible doesn’t teach this. Don’t get me wrong. God’s Word does tell us that faith is necessary for salvation. But there is not much of a “leap” involved because it is a reasonable faith. In essence the Bible says, “Look at what God has done for you in history. It’s all written down here for you. Read it. See all that God has done. Reason about these things and make your decision.”

The Bible does not abandon evidence. It doesn’t leave us with nothing on which to base our decision as to whether or not to give God our life. No. It builds faith on reason. As Josh McDowell put it years ago, the gospel story contains clear “Evidence that Demands a Verdict.”

Massey H. Shepherd writes,

“The Gospel is not presented to mankind as an argument about religious principles. Nor is it offered as a philosophy of life. Christianity is a witness to certain facts, to events that have happened, to hopes that have been fulfilled, to realities that have been experienced, to a Person Who has lived and died and been raised from the dead to reign forever.”

As you evaluate the level of your commitment to follow God in life, I challenge you to review your own personal history so that you can see all that God has done for you! And if you’re having trouble, I would give you a hint. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father Who does not change.” So, if there is anything good or perfect in your life you would be foolish to take credit for it, because the Bible reminds us that God gave all that to you!

God could say, “I gave you that food you ate for breakfast this morning! I gave you the warm bed you slept in last night! I gave you that home with central air and heat! I gave you that closet full of clothes and that refrigerator full of food! I gave you that job! I gave you those cars you drive! I made it possible for you to fill their tanks with gasoline!   I gave you your mind, body, arms, legs and the air in your lungs!   And do you remember that problem you wrestled with a few months ago-that nightmare-that is now only an unpleasant memory? I resolved that for you! I helped you through that tough time and all the tough times that came before it! I gave you that wife! I gave you that husband! I gave you those precious children! And lest you forget My perfect gift to you, I gave you My only Son. I sent Him to die for Your sins so that I could remove the sin barrier that exists between us and give you eternal life!”

Every good thing in life is from God — every good gift. And, if that weren’t enough to base your decision on, of course the perfect gift of Jesus is from God as well.

Will you thank God for all he’s done for you and choose to serve him?   I have made that choice and I hope you will too.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

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Sources: Life Application Bible Notes, Bible Exposition Commentary (BE Series) – Old Testament – The Bible Exposition Commentary – History. and Mark Adams.
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Last Words – Joshua 23-24

Posted on March 13, 2023 by dkoop

What would you tell your spouse or children if you knew you only had a short time live? Would you make small talk? Would you discuss the weather? Probably not, but you’d make sure you said what was most important to you. You’d choose your final words very carefully in order to express the depth of your love or give needed guidance.   Our last words have a lasting impact.

As a pastor I’ve done plenty of funerals and have been around many families in their times of loss.  As a loved one is getting close to death, the family and friends of the loved one will gather.  They are hoping for chance to say good bye and more importantly to hear the last words of their loved one.   Sadly I have seen instances where there was not time to gather and there was a lot of guilt and grief because the last words were a quarrel.    I’m thankful that my mom taught me to always make my last words count by saying, “I love you.”  I talked to my dad a few days ago, who will be 80 years old this year, and our last words to each other were, “I love you.”   My son Kaleb is in the Marines has lots of training and will deploy again in July, and whether through text or phone, I always want him to know: “I love you.”

If there was not a chance for formal last words, then family members and friends will try to recall their last verbal exchange, sifting through the memories of their conversations with them like miners panning for gold. And we all do this. When someone dies we cling to his or her final words. Those words are very special, very precious to us.

We cling to last words for two reasons. First, we know that even as Christians it may be a long time before we hear our loved one speak again. But we also cherish those words because an individual’s final words are often filled with a special depth of wisdom, especially if the individual knows that death is near. Most people don’t engage in chit chad when they know they are about to breathe their last.

In our passage today in Joshua 23-24, Joshua gives some powerful last words.  Joshua is 110 years old. And knowing that he will soon to pass from the scene, he gathers the leaders and the people together to give them his final charge.   He’s about to finish a long life of service to God’s people; forty years as Moses’ assistant, 25 years as his successor leading the people to conquer and settle in the promised land. So his final words are precious, indeed, because they come from the perspective of someone who has hung in there for the long haul, someone who has decades of accumulated wisdom gleaned from faithfully, humbly following God.  It’s like Billy Graham gathering everyone to hear one last sermon.

I’m sure everyone came and everyone listened. I would have!  His message is in chapters 23 and 24. We won’t read all of it but let’s look at an excerpt.  Joshua says,

1 After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then old and well advanced in years, 2  summoned all Israel–their elders, leaders, judges and officials–and said to them: “I am old and well advanced in years. 3  You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you. Joshua 23:1-3 (NIV)

It was the Lord who gave them rest, it was the Lord who fought for them.  The Lord has done all these great things,  Now how should we respond?

14  “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  Joshua 24:14 (NIV)

Joshua’s Farewell reminds us that our commitment is God is to be Exclusive.

Faithfulness is a word that is also referenced in marriage.  Would I be faithful to my wife Niki if I was only half faithful?  No, half faithful is not faithful at all.   Joshua uses the term “ALL faithful.”

When Niki and I were engaged she discovered that I had a box of letters from old girl friends. I wanted to hold on to these for some crazy reason!   Luckily common sense prevailed and I threw them out.   Joshua has similar advice for us as followers of God.  Throw away anything that competes with our commitment to God.

He used his precious final words to charge them with the responsibility to move beyond indecision and restlessness to a clear-cut, exclusive commitment to God.

Joshua went so far as to remind them of the four options they had to select from. First, he said they could serve the gods of forefathers.  This is what the phrase “beyond the river” refers to because the river is the Euphrates and the gods served beyond that river were the same gods the Babylonians would worship. A second option would be for them to choose to serve the gods of Egypt…the gods of the Nile, the land, and the sky, like Ra-the sun god for example, gods who seemed attractive in their memories because when they left Egypt, it was at the height of it’s power culturally and militarily. It looked like those were good gods to follow. And then, a third choice would be to serve the local gods, fertility gods who were worshiped by cultic prostitution. The temples in which these gods were worshiped were sensual, emotionally fulfilling, and attractive. In contrast, the worship of Yahweh seemed word-oriented and austere, which leads to their final choice. Joshua said, they could choose to serve the true god, the God Who had made Israel into a people, the God Who had given them His Word, the God Who had brought them out of Egypt and established them in their own land.

These were the choices that faced the Hebrew people in this hour of decision, and Joshua was saying, “It’s time to quit straddling the fence. You have to choose. But remember, this is an exclusive choice. God will tolerate no rivals. Just like your spouse!  A choice to follow Him, to serve Him, is an exclusive choice.”

Let’s ask ourselves, what idols compete with the One True God in your life? As a reminder,  idolatry is moving God out of His rightful place in our day-to-day lives-and replacing Him with something or someone else. These days there are so many ways that we replace God with other things. In the 21st century, we so often sacrifice our best time, energy, and attention not to God, but to the idols of entertainment, wealth, relationships, fashion, sexual indulgence, stock portfolios, cars, and personal power. We especially bow down to our careers or our families, and through His servant Joshua God says we can’t do that and choose to follow God. Our God is a jealous God. He is jealous, or as some have translated the word, God is zealous for our complete devotion.  As Joshua says, when it comes to choosing to serve Him it’s all or nothing! So, let me ask, what about it? Have we given our exclusive allegiance to God?  What do you need to throw away?  Pornography, shopping ads, a hobby, an unhealthy friendship, a boat, car?

Here’s some questions to help us in our answer: What preoccupies or rules your heart? Your thoughts? Your time? What compels you? Controls you? Drives you? Motivates you? To what does your heart cling? What takes first place when it comes to your schedule? Spending? What gives you a sense of worth? What defines your identity? What do family or close friends think may be idols in your life? This last one is a good question to ask because you see the object of your worship shows. People will notice what it is that is first in your life.    Joshua’s last words are powerful words.

I’ve noticed that as people get ready to die, they don’t ask to see their trophies, stock portfolios, or boats, but want to be with their loved ones.  They also reflect on their standing with God.   Why not do that now?

In our next post we will look more of what Joshua says and how our commitment to serve God should also be based on what God has done in our past.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

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Courage to Follow God’s Instructions – Joshua 6 – Part 2

Posted on March 11, 2023 by dkoop

How many marriages do you think ended because a husband or a wife gave up too soon? They obeyed God, but not long enough.

How many Christians have not become all that God wanted them to be simply because they stopped trying? How many of us have failed to defeat our own “Jerichos” because we gave up?

How many lost people have not become Christians because their believer friends stopped praying for them, stopped looking for ways to share the gospel with them, stopped obeying the Great Commission too soon?

In his commentary on Joshua Dr. Alan Redpath suggests that “many people don’t see the answers to their prayers simply because they have stopped one round short in their conquest of their personal Jericho.” We may have been doing the right things but we simply stop doing them.  This leads to our second basic training point for following Christ.

  1. I must be persistent in obedience.

Careful reading of the text seems to indicate that Joshua did not tell the people how many times they were going to have to circle the city or even exactly what was going to happen at the end of their seven days’ marching. No, the people were given their instructions one day at a time. At the end of their assignment for that day, having encircled the walls, they were directed back to their camp, and nothing happened. They had obeyed Joshua, who had been obeying God. They had encircled the walls, but when they returned to camp, the walls were still standing, no one had surrendered, and the Jewish armies seemed to be no closer to the final conquest of Canaan than they had been the day before.

This is how it was at the end of the second day and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. This is what things looked like after the sixth lap on day seven. Absolutely nothing appeared to have changed. Jericho’s walls stood intact and its ramparts were still full of soldiers bristling with weapons.

It was only after the seventh lap on the seventh day and the shout that followed, that Jericho’s walls collapsed. The victory was won only after the people obeyed and continued to obey God.

We need to learn to practice this same strategy in our own struggles because there is no substitute for continued obedience to God. Even when we can’t see success we must obey and obey and obey and obey. Remember, the kind of faith that pleases God is an obedient faith, obedience in spite of the results.

We tried, we made a couple “laps” around its walls, but we weren’t persistent enough in our obedience. That old saying is true, quitters never win. And remember you’re not a failure until you quit so hang in there! To deal with the Jericho’s of life requires consistent and persistent obedience.

How many times do problems look impossible but really aren’t?

George Danzig was a senior at Stanford University during the Depression. All the seniors that year knew they’d be joining unemployment lines when their class graduated. There was a slim chance that the top person in the class might get a teaching job. George was not at the head of his class, but he hoped that if he were able to achieve a perfect score on the final exam, he might be given a job. He studied so hard for the exam that he arrived late to class. When he got to class, the others were already hard at work. He was embarrassed and just picked up his paper and slunk into his desk. He sat down and worked the eight problems on the test paper; then he started on the two written on the board. Try as he might, he couldn’t solve either of them.

He was devastated. Out of the ten problems, he had missed those two on the board for sure. But just as he was about to hand in the paper, he took a chance and asked the professor if he could have a couple of days to work on the two he had missed. He was surprised when his professor agreed. George rushed home and plunged into those equations with a vengeance. He spent hours and hours, but he could find the solution for only one of them. He never could solve the other. It was impossible. When he turned in his work, he knew he had lost all chance of a job. That was the darkest moment of his life.

The next morning a pounding on the door awakened George. It was his mathematics professor, very excited. “George! George!” he kept shouting, “You’ve made mathematics history!” George didn’t know what his professor was talking about so the professor explained. Before the exam, he had encouraged the class to keep trying in spite of setback and failure. “Don’t be discouraged,” he had counseled. “Remember, there are classic problems that no one can solve. Even Einstein was unable to unlock their secrets.” He then wrote two of those “unsolvable” problems on the blackboard. George had come to class late and missed those opening remarks.

He didn’t know the problems on the board were impossible to solve. He thought they were part of his exam and was determined that he could work them. And he solved one! Thanks to his persistence, he did the impossible. That very morning the professor made George Danzig his assistant. He taught at Stanford until his retirement.

Danzig’s persistence enabled him to get a job, it made it possible for him to win the battle of unemployment, and our dogged determination to obey God and keep on obeying God will help us deal with our own struggles.

Remember, as Eugene Peterson said, “Christian discipleship is a long obedience in the same direction.”   Hear God. Listen to His leading. And then obey Him and keep on doing so.

Here’s another test, can you continue to obey even if people are making fun of you?

I imagine that on the first day the people of Jericho would probably have been quiet watching to see what the huge encircling army would do. And can you picture how bizarre that sight would have been? Think of it: a silent attacking force of millions watched by silent defenders, waiting for something to happen that never did. I bet you could have cut the tension with a knife!

But I’m sure the defenders’ silence would not have lasted beyond the first day. Eventually they would have begun to mock the Jewish soldiers saying things like: “What do you think you’re doing, marching around our walls? What are you looking for, a way in? Do you think we’re so foolish as to have left a door open somewhere? Are you afraid to fight? Why don’t you climb up here? Come on, give it a shot! We’ll show you how a city should be defended. Cowards!”

I bet their taunts increased and became more vulgar as every day passed. Under such circumstances, it would have been difficult for anyone to keep silent! And, then what do you think the Hebrews were thinking about during their silent march as they ignored the jibes of the people of Jericho?  They didn’t have anything else to do but think, so what went through their minds?   Hopefully it was, “You just wait, you will see!”  “This obedience to God will pay off, if not today, someday!”

Can we be that certain? As we obey we know that some will taunt us, but we are on the right path!   This leads us to our final point, when victory comes we will celebrate.

  1. I will Celebrate at God’s Victory

God told Joshua that Jericho was already delivered into his hands—the enemy was already defeated! What confidence Joshua must have had as he went into battle! Christians also fight against a defeated enemy. Our enemy, Satan, has been defeated by Christ

Remember that we fight from victory, not just for victory. 

The follower of Christ stands in a position of guaranteed victory because Jesus Christ has already defeated every spiritual enemy (John 12:31). Jesus defeated Satan not only in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11), but also during His earthly ministry (12:22-29), on the cross (Col. 2:13-15), and in His resurrection and ascension (Eph. 1:19-23). As He intercedes for His people in heaven, He helps us mature and accomplish His will (Heb. 13:20-21); and “if God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31)

This week in my study I learned that back then the Jews used two different kinds of trumpets. Some were made of silver and others were crafted out of Ram’s horns. The silver trumpets were used especially by the priests to signal the camp when something important was happening and the rams’ horns were used primarily for celebrations.

The priests didn’t use the silver trumpets in this event. They used their ram horns because Israel was not declaring war. There was no war. They were celebrating victory, God’s victory. We must remember this as we encounter obstacles in our attempt to live for God. We don’t fight for victory but from it because the battle is the Lord’s and He has already won.

Let’s put it this way. We should live not like victims but as victors because that’s what we are!

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

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