Day One or One Day?

Joshua 24:1-15

Joshua has led God’s Chosen People into the Promised Land.  It was victory after victory and God was making it easier than it should have been.  We are told God sent the hornet before them.  I don’t know if these were literally hornets preceding the infantry attack or just an overwhelming spirit of fear, but these were good days to be God’s people.

Some of you know what it’s like when you win a football game and you just own the other team.  Multiply that by a thousand and know what it’s like to overwhelm an enemy and stand victorious.

Joshua felt it important to remind God’s people of their history.  He takes them all the way back to Abraham and his father, Terah, who was an Armenian and worshiped other gods.  But God called them out of that land.

Then we see the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Esau.  Esau’s people lived in the hill country.  Jacob’s line went to Egypt as his son, Joseph, rose to power and saved much of the world from famine.

Then there came a king in Egypt who did not remember Joseph and what he had done for the Egyptian people and God’s Chosen People were turned into slaves for over 400 years.

God heard their cries and sent Moses and Aaron to bring them out of captivity.  It wasn’t an easy job because the Egyptians insisted on doing everything the hard way.  Read Exodus for more on the plagues.  

But they came out with great possessions but hardly ready to receive what God had in store for them so they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.

But then the day came, when they would enter the Promised Land.  Joshua would lead them.  Tribes and nations would fold before them.  The wall of Jericho came tumbling down but the fear of God’s people had already infected anyone who thought they might fight to hold on to this land.

And so we come to this point in the story and Joshua has gathered all of the leaders of the people at Shechem.  He reviewed this history lesson with them.  It is still fresh on the minds of these people everything that God has done for them.  They have seen first hand the land promised to them long ago delivered.  It was theirs.

So Joshua issued a challenge.  He challenges us today as well.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

If you don’t think it should be the one true God, then choose a fake god.  You have seen the power of almighty God, but if that doesn’t suit your fancy, go with one of the fake ones.   It’s sort of like you have seen all of the evidence of what the Lord God Almighty can do but if you want to go make a god out of stone or wood, then nobody can say it better than Forrest Gump—Mamma always said, stupid is as stupid does.

But Joshua unequivocally states, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.  As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Say that a few times.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

That should take care of us all, right?

Here is the deal.  We are creatures of habit.  If we do something 3 or 4 times, we start forming habits.  Do it 25 times and it’s a habit.  Let’s say 100 times, well, that’s a hard habit to break.

Some of you are being brought up with good habits.  The Proverb (22:6) says bring up a child in the way he or she should go and later on they will not depart from it.  It doesn’t mean that there won’t be some struggles sticking with the good habits but eventually, they will return and stay the course.

So, some of you are being brought up in the way you should go and some of you think all of this is a foreign language.  Man, I just don’t get all of this.

God’s Spirit is working on you and you know you need him, but you were not brought up this way.

For others, they have been learning worship and giving and love for each other for years.  Some of it seems new to you.  Much of it is not practiced in your household.

What do you do?

Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we serve the Lord.

Start saying, as for me and my house we serve the Lord.

You might be thinking, I don’ get to decide what the rest of my family does.  How can I say this?

Understand that as for me is a decision for you to live out today.

And my house is a commitment for your future.  One day it will be your responsibility to bring up your children in the way they should go.

Have you seen the little slogan that shows up on a lot of memes?  I love it.  

It says Day One or One Day?

Day one?

One day?

Commitment or procrastination?

I challenge you to make this Day One and commit yourselves to the Lord, but to remember that one day you will know the fullness of this commitment that you have made for yourself today.

Let’s use these words to help.

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

Amen!