Los Lunas Cornerstone

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    Today, we’ll close the book of Joshua. The final chapter in Joshua is one of the most important chapters in the entire Old Testament. Before we close the book of Joshua though, we’ve skipped a few chapters and we need to know what’s happened so we get our overview of the book.
    There’s a few events that happen in these chapters that are worth mentioning. There’s the defeat at Ai, just after the victory at Jericho. When the Israelites conquered Jericho, the Lord banned them from taking anything as plunder, except for a few items that were supposed to go into His treasury. But, there were some who did not obey the ban, and they took items plunder from Jericho that they shouldn’t have taken. As a result, when they went to the next city, Ai, the people were not victorious.
    It was only after the guilty parties came forward and confessed their sin, and the people had dealt with those who were guilty, that they were able to have victory and they were able to conquer Ai.
    Then five kings tried to rise up against the Israelites and conquer them, but God gave His people victory over the five kings and they were conquered as well.
    The Israelites continued to sweep through Palestine, and they conquered cities in Southern Palestine, and then throughout Northern Palestine with what seems like very little resistance. All in all, when they were done with the conquest of the cities in land, with God on their side and Joshua as their leader, they conquered 31 kings. It was a very successful campaign, the fulfillment of a centuries’ old promise to Abraham to give him a land that God would take him to.
    Once there, Joshua divided the land up amongst the tribes, and while there was some disagreement about which tribe got which land and how much, eventually each tribe had their own land and they were able to finally settle and build permanent lives for the first time in 45 years. I bet that was a tremendous relief for them.
    Finally, there is this odd story of something that seems like a rebellion at first glance in Joshua 22. It was reported that some of the tribes of Israel had built a large altar. The other tribes heard of this and some went to the where the altar was with the intention of making war with the tribes that had built the altar. They confronted them, and asked them why they had disobeyed the Lord and turned away from following Him.
    After these tribes were confronted they responded back that it had not been their intention to turn away from God, and they did not see what they had done as an act of rebellion or sin. They said they had built the altar as a witness that they had promised to serve the Lord, and the accusing tribes left them in peace.
    That could be a sermon in of itself, about our tendency to jump to conclusions about the spiritual maturity of our brothers and sisters, but I’ll let you study that and work out that lesson with the Lord.
    So, then, we’re finally led up to this last chapter in Joshua, Joshua 24. Some time had passed and Joshua was well in years, he was old and starting to see the end of his life draw near. He drew the people close, much like Moses did, and he gave them a farewell speech, much like Moses did. He restates the history of the Israelite people for them, from Abraham to the conquest of the promised land, and then he gets to these famous two verses that he speaks to the people and he asks them to make a choice.
    I want you to read those verses with me, I want you to see what Joshua said, “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
    These are verses that many Christians are familiar with. We read them and we sing the song we’ve song this morning and we say, “Yes, I have chosen, I will serve the Lord, and I will guide my family to serve the Lord.” And I’m glad we say that, I’m glad that this is our gut instinct to this ancient challenge.
    But what does it mean?
    The people respond to Joshua’s challenge the same way we do, and they said, “Oh yes, we will serve the Lord.”
    But his response to them is, “Are you sure? Are you really sure?” He says in verses 19-20, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”
    He questions their commitment to serve the Lord, and reminds them that if they go back on their commitment, it will not be good for them. But again, they say, “We will serve the Lord.” So Joshua made a covenant with them to remind them of their commitment.
    But, this back and forth dialogue between Joshua and the people makes me wonder, why did Joshua question their commitment to choose the Lord? Why did he question them? Is it perhaps because there was more to his challenge than a simple decision? Maybe he was indicating by saying, “choose who you will serve”, that there was more involved than just lip service, more to the commitment than just saying, “I will serve the Lord.”
    This back and forth dialogue reminds me a little of the conversation between Jesus and Peter after the resurrection when Jesus and Peter were walking and Jesus asked, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter said, “Yes, I love you.” And Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” And then He asks Peter again, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter said, “Yes, I love you.” And Jesus said a second time, “Feed my sheep.” And then a third time He asks Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter gets a little frustrated and said, “Yes, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you.” And Jesus said again, “Feed my sheep.”
    And when we look at that passage in depth, we find out that there’s more going on there than Jesus losing his mind and repeating Himself over and over again. We come to realize that what’s really happening is that Peter doesn’t understand the question, and so he’s giving lip service to Jesus, instead of responding to the real question.
    I see that happening between Joshua and the people, and Joshua’s asking them, will you really serve the Lord? And the people are like, “Yeah! Of course!” And Joshua asked the question again, “Really? Will you really serve the Lord?”
    So, what does it mean to serve the Lord?
    There’s probably a lot of answers we could give, and if you’re a Christian and you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you could probably quote Bible verses that say do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, and you could say that that’s what it means to serve the Lord. Don’t sin. Live for Jesus. We even get really Biblical and we say, “Therefore in view of God’s mercy, offer yourselves as living sacrifices before the Lord, for this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And other such Bible verses that are correct, and we’re not wrong to think that this is what it means to serve the Lord.
    But I want to say this morning, that what I see Joshua hinting at is so much simpler, so much richer, yet so much more challenging than just saying, “Yes, I will serve the Lord.”
    So, what does it mean to serve the Lord?
    Let’s go back to the beginning, to Genesis 2:7, with the creation of man, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Now, look at what Job 27:3 says, “For as long as life is in me, And the breath of God is in my nostrils,”
    When humans were created, we were created to be in this state of being with God. We were meant to walk with Him and talk with Him in the garden, but most importantly, we were meant to live in such closeness with Him that we are constantly breathing in His breath, His Spirit, His presence. In fact, the word for the breath of God here, is rǔaḥ’. It’s the same word that is used to talk about the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of the earth before creation. It’s not just that God gave us the breath of life and then left us, it’s that He gave us the breath that gives us life with the intention that we would walk with such closeness with Him that His breath, His Spirit, His presence, would continue to sustain our life.
    We are meant to walk with such closeness with Him that as He breathes out, we breathe in what He breathes out. This is what we were created for. We were created to be in His presence.
    The problem is…we aren’t.
    I want to tell you my heart. There’s two things that keep me sustained in my call, two things that have encouraged me and kept me working hard in ministry over the last ten years as I’ve ministered in the church in different ways.
    The first is that I just want to do what God wants me to do. I want to go where He tells me to go, and I want to be who He says I am. I just want to do all that He tells me to do, and sometimes I don’t do it well, but that is my heart’s deepest desire. Whatever that looks like, I don’t care, I just want to do what He asks me.
    The second thing that keeps me sustained in my call is that I want to see His people live in such closeness to Him that we are sustained by His presence all the time. I want to see His people, His church, walk in such closeness with Him that we hear from Him all the time; that we feel His presence when we are gathered; that we feel the weight of His glory pressing in upon us; that we live by His Spirit all the time. I want His presence to be in this place every single time that we have gathered so that any person who walks in that door, whether an old saint or someone who has never heard the name of Jesus can’t help but know that God is in this place.
    The problem is…we aren’t.
    And it’s not just us. It’s not just this church. I think that this is an epidemic amongst the churches in North America. Most of our churches have never had a service where God’s presence showed up and did what He’s said He will do. In fact, and I don’t say this to criticize us or condemn us or to make anyone feel bad, but there have only been a handful of times that we have had a Sunday service here where I can say for sure that God’s presence was here. Now, it’s happening more and more, and that’s great! But I want God’s presence to be here, undeniably, without a doubt, every single time we gather.
    I want us to build the throne for Him to be enthroned upon by our praises, and I want us to be desperately crying out for Him so much so that He says, “Ah! My people really want me to be there! They really want to serve Me! They’re not just paying Me lip service, they’re not just singing songs with empty words! They really want me there!”
    And He comes and He does what only He can do! Only God can heal the sick, only God can convict of sins, only God can bring true repentance of the heart, only God bring salvation! We can’t do those things, but if we want those things to happen here, we need Him to show up!
    If we want to be a church where God is changing lives and transforming people, we need Him here every single time we gather! Because if God doesn’t show up, I don’t want to be here.
    Please understand, I don’t mean that in a negative way, I don’t mean that to sound like I don’t want to be here with you because I do, I love you and I care about each and every one of you, but I want God. I want to be in His presence, and I want you to be in His presence. There’s nothing more important about church on Sundays than getting to be in the presence of God, and if He’s not here…
    “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve”.
    I will serve the Lord. I will do what He wants me to do, and what He wants is for me to be in His presence. All the time. Step in step with Him, never taking my eyes off Him for a moment. Breathing in His Spirit, and breathing out His life to others.
    I will serve the Lord. In order to be in His presence all the time, I have to do one simple thing: pray. I cannot be with God if I do not do what is required to spend time with Him. I cannot know God if I do not speak with Him. I cannot hear from God if I am not listening. He has given us one simple thing to do to have our vital connection with Him, and it’s the thing we neglect the most in the church. I believe it is the reason we don’t see God’s presence show up every Sunday. I believe it is the reason that the church in Northern America is void of the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe it is the reason that we don’t see the revivals we want to see. I believe it is the reason that our churches are declining. I believe it is the reason that people aren’t healed and people aren’t saved.
    God’s presence isn’t in the church because we haven’t prayed for Him to be! He doesn’t show up because we don’t cry out to Him in desperation. We don’t pray like our lives and the life of the church depends on our prayers…but it does.
    I hate to use something I found on the internet to make my point, but it’s relevant in our society and culture. I saw something this week that made me chuckle in a sad way. It was supposed to be people in the church saying, “We want a revival!” And on the other side of the picture it said, “But you won’t even show up to pray!”
    “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve”.
    “The claim of the holy God demands more than decision of the lips. There must be decision of the life. More than convenient loyalty is required.”