Are We Making The Right Call For Our Lives? Part 1 Joshua 24:14-18

Are We Making The Right Call For Our Lives?

Joshua 24:14-18

Our text for today we find Joshua making sure that the people of Israel are making the right calls for their lives.  But in order for us to really understand why Joshua would feel the need to do this it is going to first be helpful for you and I to be clear of the context surrounding our text.  To be more specific, from a historical perspective, these were exciting times for the people of Israel.  Under the leadership of Joshua, they had claimed the promise land.  It was a time of hope and blessings.  It was also a very dangerous time, simply because the people of Israel became drunk on their success and began to forget where they came from and who had brought them to the Promised Land.  They forget all the Lord had done which led them to make some bad calls and begin to adopt the idolatrous religion of the Canaanites.  Which leads us up to chapter 24, where Joshua very concerned, gathers the people together and reminds them how they got over.  It was not the idol gods of this world; it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.  Thank God for Joshua, he is showing the people of Israel, you and myself the importance of not becoming lazy and make sure we make the right calls for our lives.

We can make the right calls for our life when we do not have split personalities. The text says in verses 14 through the first part of verse 15, “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.  Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.”  Now we really need to pause right here for a few moments and break down what is unfolding in these couple verses.  Evidently the people of Israel assumed that it would be okay to serve God and other gods at the same time, which is exactly what they were doing.  I can imagine it was relatively easy for the Israelites to serve the other gods, they did not demand much.  It was easy to carry around a wooden or stone statue.  It was easy to throw some grain at the feet of an altar.  It was easy to bow to the sun.  But serving the God of creation was much more demanding, God demands all and anything less was not good enough.  This is why Joshua said, “Serve God with all faithfulness.”  He does not leave any room for casual faith, serving God when it is convenient.  He does not leave any room for doing faith on our own terms.  Instead, he calls the people of Israel to make a decision.  Get rid of their split personalities and either chose to serve the gods who can do nothing for you, or choose to serve the one and true God who has brought you from a mighty long way.  And you know what Joshua is onto something very powerful for if you and I are going to make the right calls for our lives then we must get rid of our split personalities.  The only problem if we are honest with ourselves is the fact that you and I have become comfortable embracing and living with split personalities.  One side of us wants to go in one direction while the other half wants to go in the other direction.  We would rather serve God part-time and have all the rest of our time to serve any and everything else this world has to offer.  It’s just like sitting on a fence.  One foot in the church, one foot in the world.  One foot in love, one foot in hatred.  One foot in humility, one foot in power.  One foot in spreading the word of God, one foot in spreading rumors and gossip.  And if we sit on a fence long enough it will become very uncomfortable and we will end up with nothing but a whole lot of pain.  It’s time to choose this day whom we are going to serve.  It’s time to go all in with Christ, put our whole lives in his arms.  When we go all in with Jesus, we can play any had we are dealt.  When we go all in with Jesus we cannot lose.  When we go all in with the Lord all things become possible.  When we go all in with the Lord he will help us make calls that bring victory and not defeat, life and not death.