In the End... It All Comes Down to a Choice

As Joshua nears the end of his life, he leaves God's people with one final challenge: remain faithful to the Lord who has been faithful to them. In a world full of competing voices and distractions, every believer must choose whether to hold fast to God's Word, cling to His presence, and love Him wholeheartedly. Join us this Sunday as we explore Joshua 23–24 and discover that the greatest decisions in life are not about comfort or success—but about faithfully following God.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, happy birthday, America, amen. Amen. I hope you guys had a great 4th of July celebrating fireworks. How many went to the Pentwater fireworks? Amen. What a show, amen. Oh, what a beautiful night. They did such a great job. Are you guys tired this morning? All the fireworks show celebrating America today. How many of you guys saw the Pentwater parade through town? Yeah, there's a couple of you. All right. That was a good time. How many uh were in the parade? Raise your hand. How many didn't even know there was a parade? Well, it was a lot of fun this weekend celebrating, having a good time. It's my firstborn son's birthday on the 4th of July. He's a little firecracker. And it was fun celebrating him and celebrating our country, and just a great time. We also had a great time as a leadership team. We have deacons, deaconesses, and elders. And we had a great time here at the church. We celebrated some time. We like to play hard and work hard. And we have a little recap video we're going to show you this morning. We had some great time doing some square dancing, or we're baptist for square scooting, if you will. But had a good time and uh and uh yeah, it was just a great time. Can we thank our leaders for all the work they do around here? Amen. Well, today's message is called in the end. And it all comes down to a choice, and we're gonna be wrapping up our moving forward series in the life of Joshua. We're gonna be in Joshua 23 and 24 if you have your Bibles. And it made me think of some famous last words. Famous last words. I had a lot of fun looking up some famous last words, but our last words they matter. And as I was looking into it, it says this for some last words. So these are kind of funny here. If this doesn't work, act like you didn't know me. That was a famous last word, apparently. I've seen professionals do this. That's another one right there. Here's an interesting one. I'm pretty sure that's the off switch. Famous last words right there. What does this red button do? I don't think snakes bite twice. It's probably just a raccoon. I have no idea what happened there, but that was their last words. The sign says, do not enter, but that's probably for other people. Some interesting last words as I've been researching and seeing some of this. Someone once said, your last words reveal what mattered most about you in your life. And some people's words are, hey, I'll watch this and that's it. But others are, what could possibly go wrong? But Joshua is recorded words, aren't funny at all. They're actually full of wisdom and deep love for God's people. And when people know they're nearing the end of life, I've noticed they don't waste their words. They're very intentional with their words. They talk about what matters most. And now we see Joshua is nearing the end. He's nearing the end. For decades, he has led God's people. But now the battles are mostly over, the land has been conquered, it's been distributed, and the people are settled. And Joshua's concern is not the enemies outside of Israel, it's the condition of their hearts. Because Joshua knows something, I think, that we often forget. Victory can be more dangerous than adversity. In our lives, victory can be more dangerous than adversity. People often see God desperately when they're going through hardship, but they drift from him when there is sense to be this, tends to be this prosperity in their life. And Joshua gathers the nation and essentially asks, What are you gonna do with the God who's been so faithful to you? And so we're gonna kind of unpack this. In Joshua 23, he gives basically three insights to the people. And if you're taking notes, this is the first thing. He says, Hold fast to God's word. Hold fast to God's word. We're gonna pick up in Joshua 23 in verse 6. It says, Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it, neither to the right nor to the left. Joshua's around 110 years old when he's writing this. This is his very farewell address to the people. And think about that. Jesus, I mean, Joshua has walked with God for decades. Decades. He crossed the Jordan and saw the Jordan park. He saw the walls of Jericho go tumbling down. He saw the sun stand still in one of the battles. And he saw miracle after miracle after miracle. And after all those experiences, his greatest concern, will God's people remain faithful after I'm gone? Will God's people remain faithful after I'm gone? And that question is echoed all throughout every generation since. Joshua's first concern wasn't a military strength. The strength of a nation is not ultimately found in its military. The strength of God's people is found in their obedience. And so Israel, they had learned this. They had lost to I, not because I had a stronger army, but because Israel had sinned and Jericho fell because of obedience. I defeated them because of disobedience, and victory has always been more spiritual than physical. The greatest enemy wasn't ever outside of Israel. God had a plan with all of that. It was ultimately inside of Israel. Was Israel going to keep on following God and be obedient to him? Or were they going to choose to disobey? It all came back down to their hearts. The same is true today. We spend enormous energy worrying about what's happening outside the church. Oh my goodness, have you seen what's happening in our world? Have you seen what's happening in our country? And they forget one of the most important things. What's happening in your own heart as you look outside? See, church, how now is how is your heart this morning? How is your heart this morning? Thinking about your heart. Where is your heart right now this morning? Proverbs 4 23 says, keep your heart with all villages, for from it flows the springs of life. Jesus also said in Mark 7 that evil comes from within. The greatest danger isn't simply our ungodly culture around us. The greatest danger is compromised church, but be very strong, he says. That phrase is fascinating to me. The Hebrew word basically means to be firm. To be firm. Joshua heard these same words decades earlier. When he first started the ministry, it was encouragement to him in Joshua 1.7. Only be strong and very courageous. Now Joshua passes the same command to the next generation. I heard this earlier on in my career as a leader, and now I'm passing it on towards the end of my career as a leader. Be very strong. Be very strong and courageous. And then he gets down to keep. Joshua says, keep all that is written. The Hebrew word carries the idea of guarding or watching and preserving something valuable. Think of a soldier guarding a treasure. He isn't casually protected, he remains alert. He's always looking around to see if anything's going to attack. He doesn't just stay there once, he's there all the time. And that's how we are to treat Scripture. When we look at the Word of God, it's not something that we go to occasionally, it's something that we go to often. It's not something that we treat casually either. We guard God's word because the devil attacks it. He's attacking this book all the time. We can see it right from the very beginning in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 3, it said, Now the serpent was craftier than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. And he said to woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And then moving on, he said, Did God actually say? We look at this passage, he goes right back to what God had said. Did God actually say, Eve, that you can't have any of this? The very first temption was attacked on God's word from the very beginning. And I argue this morning, nothing has changed. Satan still questions this book. He's constantly attacking Scripture. He questions God's authority, he questions God's goodness, and he questions God's truth. So Satan can get us to doubt God's word. He can eventually get us to disobey God's word. But Joshua doesn't stop with just knowing God's word. He says, to keep and do. To keep and do. Knowledge without obedience produces pride in our lives. And obedience produces maturity. And Jesus never praised people simply because they knew Scripture. He praised them when they lived it out. They had to live it out. In Matthew 7, verse 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against his house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. So the wise man, he builds his house on the rock. He hears Christ's words, and he actually does them. And there's a difference between information and transformation. We are in a culture just immersed with information. I mean, you think about our phones, right? They have every podcast you can ever imagine. We can listen to any preacher in the world, we can listen to any sermon in the world, and we have the ability to understand things through commentaries and through all of these different Bible apps. I mean, you don't even have to open your Bible at times. You wake up and your phone will just show you the Bible immediately. At times, the Bible will just come. And we have all this stuff right in our fingertips. But information without transformation is meaningless. The question isn't, do we have enough information? The question is, what are we doing with what we already know? What are you doing with it? I remember going to Greece with my wife. We went and we walked through the Apostle Paul, everything that he went. We went to Philippi, to Corinth, to Galatian, and we went all over the place, Galatia, and we're walking through the steps of the Apostle Paul, walking down those Roman roads and different things that this man had traveled. And we got back and started to talk to locals, and they saw, oh, that's interesting. You followed the footsteps of Paul. We don't believe in his writings. I said, Excuse me? Like we don't believe that the Apostle Paul is a part of the canon of Scripture. We follow only Jesus' words. And so I started to look into this more. It's a new fad right now. It's called Jesus. It's a Jesus-only Christianity. They read this book and they say, you know what, I like this in the Bible, but I don't like this. You know, Paul's kind of offensive with how he talks about church leadership and how he talks about our roles with sexuality and how he talks about different things. I don't like that, so I'm just going to reject that, and I'm only going to follow the things I like to see in God's word, Jesus. And Paul repeatedly states his teachings came from Christ. The Apostle Peter even refers back to the Apostle Paul and his writings. And the church for centuries has recognized that the Apostle Paul's writings were a part of the canon of Scripture. And yet we choose, we pick and choose. What are we going to do? Oh, I don't really like that. It's kind of offensive. It's information. I just gonna keep it at that. I'm not gonna let it transform my life. But Joshua doesn't say that. He says, do all. Do all. Notice Joshua doesn't say obey the parts that you like. He says, do it all. And that includes every passage, every difficult passage that you struggle with, the popular passages and the unpopular passages. And I would argue this morning, selective obedience is still disobedience. And the enemy is trying to say you only have to do part of this book. No, we have to follow. This is God's word, the canon of Scripture. And Joshua says, neither to the right or to the left. You have to follow. What a beautiful picture this morning for us. The Christian life isn't constant innovation, it's faithful direction. Stay the road. The Bible often says the road is narrow. Few will find it. The gate is narrow and the way is hard. That leads to life. And the danger usually is not overnight. It's a gradual decision where we start to drit, we start to compromise, and eventually we find we are completely off the path than what we want it to be on. So why does this matter today? Every generation believes it's wiser than the previous one. If you don't believe me this morning, go ask a 12-year-old. They're smarter than you. That's just how it is. I mean, technology changes, education changes, politics changes, culture changes, but there's one thing that's never changed. It's God's word. Isaiah 40 in verse 8 says, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God will stand forever. In our culture, it comes around and says, you know what? Truth is personal. Or God says, I am the truth. Culture says, follow your heart. And the book of Jeremiah says, the heart is deceitful above all things. The culture says, be true to yourself. And Jesus says, deny yourself. The issue has never been relevance. God's word has outlived every single empire that's opposed it. I mean, you think about it. Well, it doesn't fit our culture right now. Okay, well, it didn't fit Egypt, but it's outlast Egypt, it's outlast Babylon, Greece, and Rome, every philosopher, every single dictator, every single skeptic, the word of God is still here. It's still standing to this day. And I have to ask you this question. When was the last time God's word corrected your life? When was the last time God's word corrected your life? You know, there's times where we'll read this, like, oh, that was really interesting, and we just go on and we live the way that we want to live. But when was the last time it corrected you in your life? Not encouraged you, but corrected you. We're probably reading it to confirm ourselves rather than being changed by it at times, right? Oh, I just gotta look at this. I'm gonna kind of twist it a little bit so I can keep on living the way that I want to live. Are you opening God's word every day? Are you letting the word of God shape your opinions with everything around us? What part of Scripture have you been resisting? We said it already, but delayed obedience is still disobedience. And I'd argue this morning, a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. Amen. A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. I mean, you think about this book. He is the inventor, he is the creator of this world. Why would we not listen to him? Why would we listen to the created over the creator? He would know how to have life. And at times we look at us like, oh, this is just a list of rules. No, he says in John that he's come to give us life and life to the full. The enemy has come to only steal, kill, and destroy everything. And he tries to taint everything about this book. But if we want to follow Joshua's words, we have to hold fast to the word of God. We gotta hold fast to the word of God. Number two, he says, clean to God's presence. We gotta clean to God's presence. Joshua 23 in verse 8, but you shall clean to the Lord your God just as if you done to this day. So we look at this word clean. What does this really mean to us? You know, in the Hebrew, it kind of gives the analogy of to stick, to hold fast, to remain joined, to pursue closely, and to be glued together. I think of a really nice, tight, glued situation here. It describes something that cannot be easily separated, it is completely glued together. The same way, the same word is used in Genesis 2 in verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. You think about that in a marriage, a healthy marriage isn't built on seeing another once a week or an occasional conversation. It's intentionality with getting together, it's commitment, it's daily affection. And Joshua is saying our relationship with God should resemble that kind of closeness. Not this occasional uh contact, but constant communion with the Father. Not simply attending a worship service and done, but walking with him every single day, every single hour. Notice Joshua doesn't say visit God, he says cling to him. Cling to him with all you got. It goes against this idea of religion visiting God versus a relationship which remains with God. It goes beyond the idea of religion, visits God, relationship remains with God. God's presence has always Israel's greatest advantage. As you read the book of Joshua, they crossed the Jordan, they defeated Jericho, they survived, they defeated the five kings, the Amorites, the sun stood still. Every victory points to one reality: God was fighting for his people. The greatest miracle is that a holy God chose to dwell among sinful people. And Jesus, he's taught the same truth. This commanded the end of the Old Testament. Jesus said in John 15 and verse 5, he said, I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Notice nothing. Not a little, but nothing. The branch has only one responsibility to stay connected, to clean. Life comes from the vine, and the fruit comes from the vine. Everything. Our responsibility is to remain attached. Now I don't know about you, but I've noticed this year the ticks have been awful. In my entire life living in Michigan, I've never experienced a tick until this year. My son comes to my wife and said, my youngest son, Gibson, he's like, I got a tick. And he had it right behind his ear. And my wife was trying to put salt on it, trying to pull that thing out. She couldn't get it. So she called me and I was thinking, man, if we she can't get it, then I'm trying to think, what could I do? Oh, I got a lighter. I could put a lighter by his ear and we can see if we can get it off that way, you know. And Gibson started crying, like, okay, I probably shouldn't have used a lighter. And so I got a Kleenex and I started pulling on that thing, and that thing was barely on his ear, and it was just glued to it. And I just started pulling and pulling and pulling, and I couldn't get it out. Eventually, he came out, everything came unattached. But I started to think about that. Is that our relationship with God? If someone were to come over to you and see how you're doing with God, like, wow, that man is just clean to God. You can't break anything, nothing can get between the two of them. Or maybe that woman, she is just clinging to God. There's nothing that can get between the two of them. And Joshua. Joshua's warning, Joshua immediately gives the opposite picture if they chose not to cling. He says this in Joshua 23 and verse 12 for if you turn back and you cling to the remnant of these nations, remaining among you, and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them, they with you know for certain the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground the Lord your God has given you. Nobody cleans to nothing. He's saying you're going to cling to something, and if you're gonna clean, clean to your heavenly Father. And Joshua says, if they cling to the surrounding nations instead of the Lord, those nations are gonna become a snare, a trap, a whip on their backs. And the Israelites thought they could simply tolerate a little bit of compromise, but Joshua says, compromise never remains little. We've even seen a greater privilege. Joshua told Israel to cling to God's presence. As New Testament believers, God's presence doesn't merely travel with us, the Holy Spirit lives within us. He's within us. Think about it. Joshua had a pillar of a cloud. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for those who receive Christ. Hallelujah. What an incredible privilege. What would we neglect, fellowship with the one who is taking residence within us? Doesn't make any sense. You ask yourself, what do I am I clinging to most tightly right now in your life? It's a hard question. Be honest with yourselves this morning. Ask yourself, what am I clinging to most tightly right now? If someone watched your schedule, would they conclude that Christ is that number one priority, that there's such a tight bond between you and the Lord, nothing can get between you two. Am I spending more time scrolling through my phone than seeking the presence of God? I remember seeing a video on Instagram of a guy walking around just like we do with our phones with the word of God. He's walking around constantly with this instead of his phone. He, you know, I know what happens with these phones. You see them on the sidewalk, they're walking with their phone, you see them walking at the beach, you see people going in the bathroom with their phone. They can't go anywhere without the thing. What if we had the same mindset for this book? Everywhere we went, we went to the bathroom with the book. We went on the sidewalks with the book. We're driving as we're reading the book, you know? I see it on the roads, right? What if we had that same mentality with the word of God? We gotta cling to God's presence. We gotta clean to Him. Number three, and lastly, we gotta love God wholeheartedly. Love God wholeheartedly. Joshua 23, 11 says, be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. Be very careful. This is the heart of everything. Notice Joshua doesn't end with another command about war. He doesn't talk about strategy or politics. He talks about love. The Pharisees obeyed countless rules, but Jesus rebuked them because their hearts were far from him. Notice it goes back to their hearts. Religion can produce this outward conformity. Only love produces the inward transformation. That's not just about information, it's about transformation. God has never been interested in merely changing behavior. He wants to change hearts. It's all about the heart. Notice the words be very careful. The Hebrew literally carries the idea of guarding something precious. Joshua says, guard your love for God. Why? Because we can grow cold. Jesus warned that in the churches in Revelation 2, you've abandoned the love that you had at first. My wife and I also got to go to Turkey and see the seven churches of Revelation. And there were churches that their hearts did grow cold towards God and they abandoned their first love. It's a real thing. Love is not something that we're just always going to have. Oftentimes it can grow cold. And think about that. They still believe the right doctrine and they worked hard, but they lost their first love. And I think it's possible to serve Christ while no longer delighting in Christ. I see this all the time. You know, people just start to burn out. Like, I don't really have that love for God anymore. I'm just doing it out of my routine because my heart has grown cold. And if you're wondering, where is your heart this morning? I can tell you right away. I need just one minute of your time. I can tell exactly where your heart's at because the Bible tells us. Once again, answers in the Word of God. Luke 6, 45. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. You want to know where your heart's at? Just listen to yourself talk. It'll tell you right away where you're at. You can ask your spouse as you talk to him. Where's my heart? Oh, I hear you talk all the time. And I can tell you exactly where your heart's at. And love is the greatest commandment. Joshua's words point us forward to Jesus when Jesus was asked, what's the most important thing? What's the greatest commandment? He says in Matthew 22 and verse 37, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Not merely just obey, but love. And Christianity isn't primarily about a list of rules, it's about relationship. The greatest evidence of spiritual maturity isn't simple Bible knowledge, it's growing affection for Christ. You can know theology and still not love Jesus. And Joshua says, guard your heart. Guard your heart from growing cold. Guard this. Why should they love God? Joshua doesn't simply command love, he reminds them why in Joshua 24 is one of the greatest history life lessons in Scripture. God recounts everything he has done. The emphasis is on Israel's faithfulness, it's all on God's faithfulness. Israel failed repeatedly. God remained faithful repeatedly. And the hero of the story is and has always been God. I mean you think about a married couple. I've talked to married couples all the time, and when they say, hey, I've been married for 50 years, my ears perk up. And I'm like, what's your secret? Like, how'd you do it? I've yet to meet a couple that said, Oh, we just got lucky. We didn't really have to put much work in it at all, you know. No, when you hear that, you're like, wow, what is your secret? Because that is endurance. That is hard. Remembering that first date, the first wedding, the sacrifices, remembering God's faithfulness. Love grows when we when memories of grace are continually revisited. We got to remember God's faithfulness. The same is true spiritually. The more we remember the cross, the more we love Christ. The gospel gives us even greater reasons. I mean, you think about this. Joshua pointed back to Israel, to Egypt. We look somewhere even greater. In Romans 5.8, it says this God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You think about that for a second. Not when you're wearing your Sunday best, when we were in the worst of the worst, muddy as all get out and smelly, God showed his love that while we were still in that sin, he looked at us and he died for us. That should bring us back to that first love. Joshua doesn't simply ask, Do you believe in God? He asks, Do you actually love him? Those are not always the same questions. So ask yourself, has my life for Christ grown stronger this year? Has my love for Christ grown stronger this year? Or am I serving God out of obligation and affection? Joshua's final challenge is deeply personal. Before he ever says, choose this day whom you'll serve, he reminds them that true service begins with this wholehearted love. Love God wholeheartedly. And then we see Joshua 24 shifting, and we talked about as fathers. Choose this day whom you'll serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Are you holding fast to God's word? Will you cling to God's presence? Will you love God wholeheartedly? What are areas of God's word? Maybe this morning you've been resisting. Maybe you can uh relate with that person who's like, I only follow part of this book. What areas of God's word are you resisting? Let me remind you, He is the inventor. He knows how to have life to the fullest. Why are we listening then to the created? Am I cleaning to Christ or am I drifting from Him? Is there this tight glue between you and the Lord? Or are you letting bitterness get between you and your Father in heaven? Are you allowing a broken marriage get between you and your father in heaven, or maybe it's a relationship with a colleague or a business partner? Whatever it is, what are you allowing between you and God? Or when they look at you, you're just clean to your father, and there's nothing between you and him. And has your love for God grown cold? I'm not ignorant this morning of the fact that there is a lot of people in this room who've been saved from their sin for a long time. And I think it is so easy for us to take that for granted. Is your day filled with, you know what, Lord, help me not take for granted the salvation you gave me today? I'm gonna live in that grace today. Or just constantly take advantage of the grace that's been so freely given to us. What choice do I need to make today to move forward spiritually? We're all gonna have to make a choice. And what choice will you choose today? Whom will you serve? Because if you're not gonna serve him, you're gonna serve something else. And if you're wondering what you're gonna serve, a lot of times, out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and we can find out right away what you choose. God's faithfulness is not the question. The question is our response to his faithfulness. That is how we move forward. And I love seeing this man Joshua early on in his leadership, taking on all the challenges that they went through, and how this man loved God all the way through it wholeheartedly. He had his struggles, he had his trials, but he was very strong and very courageous to take on all that he had taken on. And that's the encouragement to us this morning. What legacy are we leaving behind? Let's pray, Father. I I come before you this morning and I I lift up my brothers and sisters who have been in a relationship for you for a long time. Father, I pray they would not take for granted the salvation that you've given them so freely. But Father, they would live in this renewed love for you. Father, I pray you would reveal yourself in a new way to them, Father. May their first love for you come back. May they follow you. Father, there's someone in this room today who has never made the decision to follow you. Father, I pray that they would today make the decision to stop listening to the created and start listening to the creator who has come to give us life to the full. Father, I pray they would come to know you as their Lord and Savior. They would not leave this place without talking to someone from the leadership team, Father. We thank you for your son Jesus and what he's done for us, Father, and the freedom we have in this country, and the freedom we have because of what Christ has done for us on the cross, Father, to be able to be with you for all eternity. Help us, Father, in our lives to cling to your word. Not parts of it, but your entire word. Help us to also, Father, cling to you. And Father, help us to not lose sight of our first love for you. We thank you for those reminders and ask, Father, as we go, you to protect everyone here and we'll be able to follow through with that today. And all God's people said. Amen.