Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world, so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Open your Bibles to Joshua 24, if you didn't already. With Brother Jacob reading, we're going to pray and we're going to jump into it today, Lord.
We love you. We've have a lot. We've already done today. It's been a good day. Thank you for the music.
Thank you for blessing Josh and Lauren with a precious boy, and thank you for James. And Lord, there's just been so many good things already. Lord, I think of what you've already used our young people to do in just two days, and all the adversity that has come their way.
Now, Lord, we need wisdom, and God, this is the most important part of the day. And that's to hear from you because it's your word, and you are your word. And we want to hear from you. They don't need to hear from me. They need to hear from you.
So, God, I pray that you would bless everything that we want to share in Jesus' name. We pray, Amen. Before we get started in Genesis chapter twenty-four, I just want to give you a quick historical context because I believe it's important. What has gone on to lead up to here for this famous verse that you know? Choose you this day.
Whom you will serve.
Well, historical context leading up to Joshua twenty-four is this: that Israel was in bondage in Egypt, and we know the whole thing about Moses and all the plagues. And then they get out of Egypt, and they end up wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Not because God had them do that, but because of some choices that they made. They ended up in the wilderness for forty years, and then Moses was not allowed to enter into the promised land. We would call it Canaan, although God had already promised it to them.
Faith was small, and Moses had a little bit of an obedience issue because he'd been dealing with Baptists for forty years. You say the Bible doesn't say they were Baptists. No, the way they acted, they were Baptists.
Okay, we're just going to say that. And we Baptists can be very temperamental. Trust me. And so Moses was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land.
So Moses died, and Joshua was commissioned to be the man in charge.
So now we come to Joshua chapter one, and Joshua chapter one, all the way through chapter. Chapter Twelve, it is the story of them taking the promised land, the conquest of Canaan. Joshua supervised the division of the conquered, what we would call land, and and here in chapter thirteen, beginning through twenty-one, now that they've conquered the land, Joshua divides the land into twelve tribes, and he's involved in that. There were special cities that were set aside for refuge and Levitical cities and all that for the priest. But now that they've conquered the Promised Land, now that they're there, now he's dividing the land into these twelve tribes, and then we come to chapter twenty-two.
So one through twelve is them conquering the land, and thirteen through twenty-one is them dividing up the land, and then chapter twenty-two through twenty-three, Joshua gives these people some covenant reminders. God made a covenant with you. Don't forget that. But in God making a covenant with you, you made a covenant with God, and. Joshua gave these final speeches to the leaders, to the people, and most of the subject matter was being faithful to God.
By the way, that's a really good subject matter. I have found the older I get, one of the hardest things to do is just to stay faithful. And can I encourage some of you younger couples in a world where you're trying to fight and claw to get everything you can get? What ought to be your top priority? It's just to remain faithful.
It starts, I believe, with your faithfulness to read and pray, get in God's word, and I believe it starts with next. After that is your faithfulness, obviously, to your mate, to your family. And then I believe you ought to be faithful to God's house. Here is what I have found: when things start slipping at God's house, and you just you can't be faithful to church, then before long you're not faithful to read, and you're not faithful to pray, and that just opens the door to so many things. Just being faithful is a very, very vital thing.
Joshua warned them not to intermarry with pagan nations. That's still a good practice, by the way. He reminded them that God had fought for them and God had given them the land, and so we come to Joshua 24. And imagine this: in Joshua 24, here's the setting. This chapter and this meeting in Joshua 24 takes place at Shechem.
Now you say, "What's so important about Shechem?" Well, it's a very important, significant spiritual location, and I'll tell you why. At Shechem, where they met. This final meeting, the final chapter in the book of Joshua, is the exact place that God first made the covenant to Abraham that I'm going to give you this land. That I'm going to bless you. That I'm going to honor you.
That I'm going to bless the nations through you. All the way back in Shechem is where that covenant was made through Abraham, and then thing after thing after thing after thing, and then Moses and the children of Israel, and then we come all the way up to now, Joshua, and they're finally in Canaan. God had promised this. God had made a promise to them, and they go back to the very place that if they had just listened and had faith, they would have been there a long time ago. But they're right here at Shechem in Joshua 24.
He gathers all the tribes of Israel.
Now he separated them into twelve tribes. They all twelve different tribes have twelve different lands. He brings them all together and he talks about Israel's history from Abraham all the way through the Exodus out of Egypt, the wilderness all the way up till now, the conquest of Canaan. It's a fantastic chapter. It's it all comes to fruition.
We would say, and he challenges the people with a concept. And it's the concept of a choice. And I do want you to know today that we all have the same opportunity in our life. Every one of you are in this building here today for whatever reason. How it's all worked out—your lineage, your history, your past, whatever.
Every one of you that are in this building today, you're in here because somewhere along the way you made a choice.
Now, some of you might have made some wrong ones.
Some of you might have made some right ones. You and I, our lives are a product of our choices, not our circumstances. Look at me, our choices.
So Joshua presents the people with a choice. Oh, God's done all this, and hey, we've been in the wilderness forty years, and we've gone through all this, but now that everything has taken place, you still. Have a choice. If they didn't want to serve God, then they could serve other gods. And Joshua says, "As for me and my family, we're going to serve the Lord." But for them, they would have to choose.
It was a simple matter of a choice. And as a pastor, can I tell you something? Over the years, I've heard all kinds of excuses. I've heard every excuse in the world as to why people choose what they choose. I've heard people blame their family, they blame their background, they blame their circumstances, they blame their finances, they blame their past, they blame society, they blame temptation, they blame Satan, and and it goes on and on and on.
It's never them, it's never their fault, but they made a choice because somebody or something happened. And I've heard all the gamut of what everybody wants to give excuses. And may I say, I've even given those excuses in my life too. But truthfully, none of them are legitimate. It boils down to one thing: a choice.
When you decide to when you decide to serve God, when you choose to serve God and do right, you will. And if you choose not to, you won't. God, listen to me. God will never take away your choice. That's why God's such a wonderful God.
He's not going to inflict something on you. You listen. God will not take away your opportunity to choose. God does not want a bunch of robots running around here serving Him. By the way, God wants you to be you, and God wants you to do it because you love Him and you want to, not because you've been programmed without a choice.
God's going to give you your choice. God wants. Servants that love him, not prisoners that can't escape him. He wants you to serve him because you love him.
So, Joshua gives this choice.
Now, this very interesting. I think Joshua is probably one of the most underrated preachers in the Bible. I really, really do. Joshua. I've tried two different years to do a series in the book of Joshua.
COVID happened the first one that didn't work out.
Some other things happened the second one. Maybe at some point I'll get to do an entire series on the book of Joshua. But I want to talk to you today, just briefly. We're going to be starting a new Sunday morning series here soon. We'll let you know about that and the subject matter.
I think you'll enjoy it. But I want you to look at verse thirteen, and here's why. The first thing when he's talking to them about the concept of a choice, number one, he talks about the goodness of God.
Now, this is the way the Word of God does. Before God ever asks anything of you, God normally always explains and shares with us to remind us what He's done for us. Look at verse thirteen. And I have given you. This is Joshua speaking on behalf of God here to the people, to the leaders, to the tribes.
All these people that God notice what he says. And I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them. Of vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not, do ye eat? Look all the way down to verse seventeen. For the Lord our God, He it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, which did great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed.
Did you just hear that? What it says was, "This is what God's saying: You've been blessed with things that you didn't even work for." You you have the benefit of things that you didn't even build. You have been fed with things that you didn't even plant. God brought you out of bondage. God did great miracles.
God protected you. God provided for you. God allowed you to pass through on dry ground to the other side. And here it is in these verses, we're reminded of the goodness of God. And may I encourage you, Kerwin Baptist Church?
Before you actually make your choice about something, especially any young people that are left here, a lot of ours are out of town right now. But young people, let me tell you something: you are at a you are at a place right now in your life where you're going to make a choice, and you're making a choice based on what you think right now, based on how you have developed your information. And can I tell you something lovingly? You're probably wrong. Because everything I thought I knew from 15 to 21 was was not what I thought.
But you've gathered everything in from your perspective, and you're getting ready to make your choice. Can I challenge you with something before you make your choice? Why don't you just stop and think about how good God's been to you? Oh yeah, preacher. You don't know.
I've come from this. I have a broken home. I have this. You don't know what I've. I have a step.
I have this. Bob. And and kids are mean to me. And I've been bullied. And I've been.
Oh, you can go on and on, and you can be the victim if you want. But can I tell you something? If you're here in this building and you're breathing and you have legs and arms and eyes, you've been blessed. Can I tell you something? Most of us here in this building, most of us have been blessed with things that we never even actually worked for.
You said, "Preacher, I'm a hard working man." Oh yeah, how hard did you work for your health? Oh, how hard did you work for your eyesight? You know, if you want to sit here and say, "Well, I work out every day," good for you.
So do I. Bicep, bicep, bicep, bicep. No, I'm listen. Your hearing, your eyes, whatever the case might be. If you're in your life, can I tell you something?
There's a whole lot of things you get the benefit for that you didn't work for. God's blessed you with a whole lot that you didn't make happen. Most of us enjoy things; we get the benefit of things we've been blessed with. Things we didn't work for, we didn't make it happen, we didn't manipulate it. It's just God's goodness to us.
God's brought you through things. God's blessed you through things. God's protected you through things. God's provided at different times in your life, and yet you want to choose to serve something else. You want to serve something that's never done anything for you, and you want to turn your back on a God that's done everything for you.
What an ignorant choice that would be. But Joshua is dealing with people, so the first thing he says, "You know what." Remember this. I wrote this statement down. We often fail to be faithful because we have forgotten the faithfulness of our Father. You know why we often fail to be faithful because we have forgotten His faithfulness.
I want to remind you today. You've been blessed with things in your life that you didn't make happen. You've been given a lot of things. That's not because of your effort. Or your doing.
Notice number two, he talks first about the goodness of God. Then in verse fourteen, he talks about the components of commitment. All right, you twelve tribes. All right, we've conquered the land. God's done all this for us.
God promised this a long time ago, and we're finally here. We finally made it. And so he wants to challenge him here, and this is what it looks like when you're committed to God. I love this. This is so good.
Like I said, Joshua is a fantastic preacher. Look at verse fourteen. Notice first, he says, "Now therefore," what is that word "therefore"? When you see the word "therefore," stop and see what it is. Therefore.
It's everything that's just been said. I mean, twenty-three chapters of what God's done and the victory God's given. Notice this now. Therefore, because of the goodness of God, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood. That means, remember, before God even brought the flood.
Remember how evil man was back at that time, and in Egypt. This is all the way back.
Now they're in bondage in Egypt. And serve ye the Lord. Notice, first component of commitment is submission. He says, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord." You know that word "fear" isn't just to be scared of; it means to reverence, it means to submit, it means that I put Him above me. Submission.
May I say this: if you are going to serve God today, if you are going to choose that, and that's the choice being made here. It's going to have to start with you submitting. Let me tell you why that's first, because that's the hardest. Because you got pride, it's going to be hard for this to happen. Oh, I'll do things for God, but I am not just going to give God everything.
He says, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord." Submission. Notice, second component is serving. He says, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him." I do want you to know that if you're going to serve God, it's not going to be on a cruise ship. It's going to be in a rowboat. Serving God isn't just lounging through life.
Serving God is hard work. Serving God takes effort, and let me tell you why. It's not just the physical labor. I believe all of us listen. We can hack physical labor.
It's it's the emotional and the spiritual and the mental labor because if you're going to serve God, you're going to have to work with people. People are going to hurt you. People are going to talk about you. People are going to stab you in the back. People are going to make judgments before they've even heard you talk to you.
Let me tell you something. People, it's going to be hard. And some of you, you work in ministries here, and I'm going to tell you some of the hardest parts sometimes is is the way people can be. But I remind you, and I remind myself, I'm people too. And everything that somebody's done to me, I've probably done to someone else at some point.
It's going to be work. Their submission, their serving. Notice third, their sincerity. And serve Him. Notice in sincerity and truth.
Listen, God says, "Listen, don't, don't, don't come and act like you love me if you don't really love me. Don't come and act like I'm the greatest thing if in your heart I'm really not the greatest thing to you. Don't, don't put on a show. Don't, don't show up at church just because it's an obligation. Don't put on this false front because this is what you think you're expected to do, but deep down you're different.
God says, 'No, no, no, no. Listen, I don't want that mess. If you're going to serve me, serve me in sincerity, serve me in truth, be the real deal.'" I gotta be honest with you.
Nowadays in religion, it's hard to it's hard to detect sincerity. I mean, whatever the social side of of religion and TV and all that is, and we're on TV.
So, but can I tell you something?
Sometimes you're like, all right, the guy's saying the right, but is that sincere? And I get so tired of hearing guys, and then I meet them. Oh, what a jerk! You say, "Who you talking about?" I'm not going to tell you. Sincerity.
Listen, this is just you loving God so much that you want to serve Him. You making a choice because you want to, not because you have to. Submission, serving, sincerity. Notice, fourthly, is separation. No, this isn't popular nowadays.
But now, notice, he says, "And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood." Oh, those gods really did them a lot of good, didn't they? What did those gods do for them? They they were dead. What did those gods do for them? They're in hell today.
That's what those gods did for them. And notice what he says: "And in Egypt, oh, Egypt had their own gods too." And here is what Joshua is saying: Listen, you don't have to serve God. You can serve the gods that your father served before the flood. You can serve the the gods that your father served in Egypt. You can serve them.
God's not going to make you serve him, but you are going to have to choose. And here's the deal: that if you're going to choose to serve God, you're going to have to separate from some things. You're going to have to put away the gods that they serve. And may I say something? That might not be a little Buddhist sitting in your yard, but there's a whole lot of people in our day and time.
They serve culture, they serve money, they serve fame, they serve all kinds of things, and that's their god in this world. And and they they want materialistic things. They serve that, and a lot of people serve. Entertainment. There's a lot of people aren't here today because they want entertainment.
Let me tell you something. There's a whole lot of people that serve a whole lot of different things. But here's what it said: If you're going to serve God, you're going to have to put away that stuff. If you're going to serve God, He has to be the only one. And notice last, logically here is sacrifice.
What does He say? Not just these gods, but He says put away. Put away. You're gonna have to sacrifice. You're gonna have to put away some things.
You're gonna have to get rid of some things if you're gonna serve God. Boy, this is a really positive thing. Man, they just conquered the land, just divided up into tribes, and now Joshua's bringing them forth. You think we would just have a coffee social here? You know, maybe some Krispy Kreme donuts.
That always helps everything. I have found. But instead, he gathers them all, and he is just laying down the carpet.
Now you've got a choice. God's done what He promised He would do a long time ago, and God's been good. God's given you stuff you didn't even work for. God's blessed you with things that you didn't even earn. But I'm going to tell you something.
So because of what God's done, listen. You fear God. You submit to Him. You serve Him. You be sincere about this thing.
You separate yourself. You sacrifice. And then I want you to notice in verse fifteen, as we close, he says he gives us the call for a choice.
So there's the goodness of God. There's the components of commitment. But notice last the call for a choice. Look at verse fifteen. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve.
What does that mean? He just says if it doesn't sound good to you to serve God, if that if that just doesn't sound like what you want to do. Notice what he says: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell.
Now, just think about that. You can serve the god of the Amorites. What did their gods do? They just conquered the Amorites.
So, if the Amorite gods couldn't help the Amorites, why would you want to serve an Amorite god? But people make dumb decisions every day. Not those that have doctor's degrees, but the average person.
Somehow, I'm going to get it in every service for a couple of months. I'm just, I'm determined. Let's look at this verse. I don't know if you ever noticed this, but I want to give you principles before you go today. You say it's three minutes to eleven.
I'm well aware. Notice, no watch today. I left it at home. It's not my fault. I want you to notice first principle here.
We'll let you go today, and it's this: you are going to serve something or someone.
Now look at verse fifteen. Look at, look at how brilliant Joshua was. This is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But but notice this: and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. He did not say choose you this day if you want to serve.
He said choose whom you're going to serve. What he is saying, this you're going to choose something, you're going to serve somebody. You you can't go through your life and just say I'm not going to serve anybody.
Well, you already are. You're serving you. You're serving your flesh. It amazes me that people that they say that they don't want you know they don't want to fit in with a crowd and yet they get it. They all somebody always gets in with some crowd.
Young people, that so hey, listen. I don't want to identify with that. I don't want to identify with anybody. You already have. Listen to me, Kerwin Baptist Church, and especially young people, young couples.
Let me tell you something. You are going to serve something. It's not.
Well, I'm just not going to serve God. I don't want to be bogged down. I get this all the time. Why don't you get in church? Why don't you jump in in church and get well?
Well, I just don't have time. I don't want to get bogged down. I don't want to have to have that commitment, dear friend. You're going to be bogged down by something. You're going to commit to something.
You're going to serve something or someone. You can't choose not to serve. You just have to choose who you're going to serve. You are going to serve someone or something. Notice, secondly, you are going to have to make your own choice.
Look at verse 15. Joshua says, "But as for me, what's he telling these 12 tribes? Hey, everyone, you're going to have to choose." But I can't choose for you. Hey, we parents, we'd love to make choices. I wish I could.
At times, there's been times raising my boys. I wish I could have just made the choice for them. I tried. Y'all know how that works out with teenagers when you try to tell them the choice to make. That automatically now becomes the one choice they don't want to make because you just told them to make it.
Y'all with me? Yeah, you were all like that too, and so was I. Guess what I have found? If anything's going to stick in your children, they have to choose. And I want you to know something here, young husband, young wife, older husband, older, you have to choose for you.
Here's what's interesting: there is a trend going around that I've seen men want to choose for their family, but they don't want to choose for themselves. They want to have a family that serves God, but they don't want to serve God. They want their kids to have a relationship with God, but they don't. They want their kids to have a good spirit at church, but they don't. Can I tell you something, dads?
It starts with you. Your attitude's wrong. You got into a point, man. You're critical of everything. Don't like nothing.
Guess what's going to filter down? Everybody in the family is going to be that way. You have to choose. But notice. Thirdly, your choice will affect those around you.
What did Joshua say? But as for me and my house, it's going to be real. It's going to be really difficult for the house to go one direction and the husband to go the other. Joshua was saying this. I'm going to make a choice, but I can't expect my home to go one direction and me go another direction.
If you want your home to go a right direction, you have to go a right direction. If you want your home and your household and your kids and your wife and your family to choose something, you're going to have to choose that something. Starts with you. And notice this last: you're going to have to live with the choice you make. Look at verse 16.
And the people answered and said, "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods." Why did they say that? Because they had just seen what their fathers and mothers went through with the choice they made. Forty years in the wilderness, and they weren't even allowed to enter the promised land. Most of them because of their lack of faith.
So here's what they said: We see from what we've seen that when you make a choice, you're going to have to live with it.
So you better make a right one. Let me explain this before I let you go. I um, I know now that they're dead. I talk about them even more, but it's a little different than what you might think. I I think I even recently kind of shared quickly my mom and dad's testimony.
And my dad didn't grow up in a Christian home. My mom didn't grow up in a Christian home. And my dad had a wonderful, high character, high moral family, but they weren't in church and a biblical church and. My dad's dad owned a nightclub and different things, and and and my mom's dad was a drunk in Baltimore, and you know, beat my grandma and beat my mom and beat kids, and that's what my mom grew up in. My dad not only grew up in a bar, helped clean as a kid, worked many nights.
My dad would fall asleep in the hamper with all the bar rags where they would clean the bar.
So my dad was drunk by the time he was five or six. You know what I'm saying? You sleep in that all night.
So, here my dad. You know the accident. He turns over a road grader and has to take two weeks off, and ends up driving a bus for a youth camp. Gets saved the second day of the youth camp. But look, here's here's where I want to share because I was thinking about this.
So, dad would often share. He comes back in town, been saved now. What's his job?
Well, he runs a road grader during the day. But he's does a set, five or six sets as a comedian in the nightclub there on Miami Beach, my grandpa's nightclub.
So now my dad's been saved, and so he gets back in town. And my dad used to often tell the story that he drove there to the nightclub that night and was sitting on the hood of his car smoking cigarettes, and he's trying to get up the nerve to go in there to work. And my dad would say, "I just it's just something like you're not supposed to go in there. You're not supposed to." You're a new creature now, and and and it was all new to him. But he, he said, I just struggle.
And he said, my my uncle, my dad's brother, was the bouncer there at the nightclub. And he said, my uncle came out and said, listen, you you missed your first set. What in the world's going on? My dad said, you know, just don't worry about it. I'll be in there in a minute.
You know, well, this went on a little while, and my dad just said, no, they just couldn't go in. And so my my uncle came out and said, listen, dad said, either get on or you're out. My dad's sitting there in the car. My dad often said, "Now here's your choice.
Well, it's my job.
Well, it's my dad.
Well, it's my family. I just need to go. Here's your choice: get in or get out." My dad took that cigarette, threw it down, and put out that cigarette. He said, "Well, I guess I'm out." And he got in the car and never went into a nightclub again the rest of his life.
Now listen to me. I'm not picking on anybody, but listen to me. It just might have been that if my dad had just went ahead in that night, just went ahead, went back to the norm.
Well, who knows how things would have changed? Who knows how Satan might have choked out? That C that Dad had just gotten. Who knows how? Who knows if he wouldn't have gone back the next night and the next night and the next night?
And can I tell you something? It all came down to a choice. It all came down to a moment. And I don't think it probably gets enough airtime. That probably was a pivotal beyond the fact where my dad finally gave his heart to Jesus Christ was.
Am I going to go? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192, or via the web at KerwinBaptistChurch.com.
Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.
