 Joshua chapter 24 one final reminder that's what we're looking at here in Joshua chapter 4 let's read verse 1 give you an introduction and we'll move through the chapter here chapter 24 the book of Joshua verse 1 then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shake him and called for the elders of Israel for their heads for their judges and for their officers and they presented themselves and I want you to see see this and they presented themselves to God Joshua is preparing to die and because he's preparing himself to die he's called for a final meeting a final meeting with the nation now he's already been ministering to that nation we saw that in chapter 23 it exhorted them to follow the Lord and had exhorted them to follow the Lord completely he reminded them of God's faithfulness to them he had warned them to remain faithful so now he calls them together for the second and the last time I want you to see this because to me this was interesting I actually spent some time looking at this just as I was reading and preparing this study because I find it interesting how we are told that Joshua gathered all the tribes and that's what it says in verse 1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shake him but I want you to see how he concludes that in verse 1 when he says and they presented themselves before God this reveals to us how important this gathering actually is he's having a meeting meetings occur every day we know that meetings occur in various locations and you can have a meeting for a variety of reasons if you're at work the supervisor or a boss might call for a meeting so the employees show up you can have an organizational meeting you can have a meeting of athletic teams where a manager or a coach will speak to the players you can have a meeting with the family you can have a meeting with a city council there are meetings that are held every day for a variety of reasons but not every meeting is really that important so I wanted to look at that for a minute as I lay this down because there are some meetings that are important there are some meetings that are exceptionally important important not all meetings are that important some of you know that there's a meeting in the boss wants to have with you and he begins to share some things with you and you're you're thinking man this is running into my timetable I have things I need to accomplish and he's just running on and on about things that we really don't need to know about you know not to use too much of the paper towels in the bathroom and make sure we're on you know our breaks aren't too long we're already familiar with that make sure we're here on time and and give the product you know our greatest attention etc and you're there listening and you're saying to yourself this meeting isn't that important and some meetings really aren't but there are other meetings that are when we gather when a church gathers for church services it's always important to remember just whom we are meeting with I want you to see that they presented themselves to God and they were not presenting themselves simply to Joshua they were meeting together they were hearing from Joshua but it's important for us to understand that it was to God that they were presenting themselves they assembled that they might hear from the Lord they wanted to hear from the Lord and that to me is a very important thing to say and to look at as we begin chapter 24 his final convocation with the people his final meeting because even in verse 1 it makes it real clear to us that though Joshua is calling them they're there for a greater purpose than to simply hear the leader of a nation they're not just there listening like if we were to call it from American terms and not they're just listening to will say a president give an address they're there to present themselves before God they're intending in other words to hear the word from the Lord and so it's always important for us to understand that some meetings simply are not that important and other meetings are exceptionally important and it it is determined the the importance of that meeting is determined simply by whom we are presenting ourselves to when the church gathers together we're presenting ourselves to the Lord when you look into the New Testament book of Acts in chapter 10 there's a very interesting story there that illustrates presenting yourselves to hear from the Lord when you look in the book of Acts in chapter 10 it speaks concerning a time that the Apostle Peter was staying in a place that is at that time it was called Joppa today it's referred to as Joppa and he was staying there at the home of a man by the name of Simon whose occupation was that he was a Tanner now while he's there at the home of Simon the Tanner God begins to answer a prayer that had been lifted to him by a Gentile by the name of Cornelius who was a Roman soldier he was a Centurion and God was speaking to Cornelius and God said to him I want you to send for the Apostle Peter so that Peter can come and share now Cornelius lived in the city of Caesarea so he sent three men to Joppa with a trip of around 30 miles to the south and as they were making their way to come and speak to Peter to bring him back to Cornelius there in the city of Caesarea Peter had gone to the rooftop and he had begun to pray and while he was there on the rooftop praying the Bible tells us that he went into kind of like a trance and he had a vision and the vision he had was of a great sheet with all manner of animals both clean and unclean and as he sees this vision and it occurs three times as he sees this vision a voice commands him and says to him rise up slay and eat and when that voice speaks to him and says rise up slay and eat the immediate response of the Apostle Peter is no because he says I'm kosher I've never eaten anything unclean and that sheet contained unclean animals so when the command came to him rise up slay and eat he said I can't do that I am I'm a kosher Jew and I can't do that and the voice of the Lord speaks to him says what I have called clean you're not to call unclean now as he began to think on that vision the Bible tells us that the men arrived at the Tanner's house and the spirit of the Lord spoke to the Apostle Peter and he said I want you to go with them and so the next day he made a journey with them he came to Cornelius's house now Cornelius according to Acts 10 verse 24 Cornelius in preparation this is an important little aside here in preparation for the Apostle Peter who was going to come and share with them well what he had done is he had assembled his close friends and his relatives that they might hear what the Apostle Peter had to say now when I was reading that and preparing the study and rereading that I thought to myself how much like the early movement of Calvary Chapel that is when somebody got saved we didn't keep it to ourselves we weren't ashamed of being Christians we weren't embarrassed you know today people say well you know the society has changed it's turned against the idea of Christianity and the belief of Christ it wasn't a lot easier back in when I got saved in 1970 you didn't have a lot of people running around saying oh tell me the gospel oh young hippie I would love to hear of Jesus they didn't do that to us they put us down they said things about as Pastor Chuck was spoken against even from pulpits in churches because there were those pastors who didn't like what God was doing through through Pastor Chuck and and the Jesus movement and believed that we were a bunch of just unwashed masses of individuals who were trying to find an easy way out of life we didn't work and things of that nature and and it wasn't easy it wasn't easy for me as a young believer with the long hair and all of that to go and speak to people sometimes we think oh it was easier during that time you know ancient history back in 1970 no it wasn't easy it wasn't easy but it was the right thing to do is what God had called us to do the most selfish person on earth is the one who goes to heaven alone and we were taught take this good news and share it with people let them know about Jesus Christ do not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ the world is shouting out loud right now is shouting shut up Christians and you know what Christians are doing we are politely shutting up doesn't say that to Islam and doesn't say that to any other message it is saying that to the church we need to wake up again in these last days don't we we need to wake up and say I believe in the Lord and and I want my friends and I want my relatives to know the Lord Jesus Christ Cornelius did he was in anticipation of of the Apostle Peter to come and speak to him the words of the Lord he didn't want to hear them by himself and so once he do he invites his close friends and he invites his relatives now did every close friend of Cornelius show up probably not did all of his relatives come to his house to hear this most likely no but that didn't stop him from inviting them from asking them I can still remember when I first got saved going to Calvary I was 20 years old and I can still remember being seated in that small chapel that was bursting at the seams with young people and the average kids as I could see them and as I remember who were there at that time in 1970 we're probably anywhere from 18 to 22 23 years of age and every once in a while while we were there one of the ministers would say how many of you brought your mom or your dad today to church and I can still remember seeing these hands go up and then the young guys who were leading the service would say mom why don't you stand up and then you'd get this old woman standing up she had to be at least 35 or 40 and she would stand up with a red face she was so embarrassed but we'd welcome her and we'd all cheer and say yeah and people would yell out well you're welcome mom and that's what we would do they would invite their friends and they would invite their relatives why here's the key because they wanted to hear the word of the Lord and they wanted their friends and their relatives to do the same I wonder in this room how many of us have friends and relatives who should hear the word of the Lord and I wonder if it's not time for us to wake up again and say let's invite them again come in here what God has to say come in here what the word of the Lord is all about invite your friends invite your relatives invite your neighbors invite them to hear what God has to say and that's what Cornelius was doing and so he invites his close friends he invites his relatives that they might hear what Peter would say now as they're gathering Cornelius begins to speak and as he's explaining to the apostle Peter the circumstances and all that that led to him sending his men to go and invite the apostle to come and see him it's found in Acts 1033 Cornelius said to him so I sent to you immediately and you have done well to come now therefore we are all present before God we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God we are all presenting ourselves to hear what God has to say that is the proper attitude anytime I go to a Bible study or you go to a Bible study that's a proper attitude we are presenting ourselves not simply to the pastor or the Bible teacher we are presenting ourselves to God to hear all that God has to say to our hearts today through his word that's what we do that's what we gather for you see today people will come to church and they can gather to it in a church service for various reasons and it doesn't necessarily have to be because they've come to hear the things of God there are those who will come to church sometimes with unrealistic expectations and so they come in with an unrealistic expectation and thus they leave disappointed if they sit through the entire study they leave disappointed I expected something else I thought that we'd have maybe some juggling monkeys in some you know I mean they come expecting something different than they get in church for some reason and we need to remember some basic things about about what it means to gather we need to remember that church services don't always make us feel comfortable that sometimes when you go to church we may even feel divinely uncomfortable that there are times the Holy Spirit may speak to our hearts in such a way that it makes us feel necessarily so a bit uncomfortable because we're hearing what God's word says and we begin to measure ourselves by what it says there are times that we go to church we're disappointed because we don't like what's happening at that church or we might leave a service upset because we can see ourselves in light of God's righteousness and then there are some people who don't want to gather and this is really amazing because they might not even get along with everybody that they meet in church they might have some problems with people and and so they say well I'm going to go some place where I don't have problems with any of the people and then it how long does it take for you to find someone to have a problem with if you're looking for one it really doesn't take much time at all why because we're we're the problems ourselves we bring it to every place that we go and when we go there we bring the problem why because we have unrealistic expectations you see when when the church gathers the church gathering together is intended by God for us to present ourselves to present ourselves to God and when we present ourselves to God that's when we're going to be in the best position to hear from him like when Isaiah said speak your servants listening I want to hear what you have to say now how is it that they're going to be hearing from God when they're presenting themselves well they're going to hear from God because his word his declaration will be delivered to them and as they're there to worship and to hear from God God will manifest himself it's been said it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates his presence to men and so when you come with the right attitude and the right heart and you're worshiping the Lord and you're open to God he's going to manifest himself to you you know when we gather together and and all of you know the basic routine of this fellowship we're going to have a time of singing songs and worship to the Lord the worship to the Lord isn't the throwaway section of the of the church service is it you know worshipping the Lord is setting the table for God to deliver his meal we're opening our hearts to him and we're saying God we worship and we adore you we present ourselves to you and so it's in the process of worshipping God that we open ourselves up to hear God minister to us that's why it's important for us to be on time to be there to hear from God and to worship him and to receive from God that which he has for us you see here in chapter 24 Joshua is closing his service to God and he's going to do so with what we would call today a solemn assembly determines to give a call for a renewal we'll see this a renewal of the covenant that Israel has had with the Lord and he does this by assembling the leaders and these leaders that he's assembling are actually the representatives of the nation and so Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel the shechem the tribes are represented by their leaders and called for the elders of Israel their heads judges officers they presented themselves before God verse 2 and Joshua said to all the people thus says Lord God of Israel your fathers including terror the father of Abraham and the father of Noor dwelt on the other side of the river the river Euphrates in old time and they served other gods then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants gave them Isaac to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau to Esau I gave the mountains of Seir to possess but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt also I sent Moses and Aaron and I plagued Egypt according to what I did among them afterward I brought you out then I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the sea and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea so they cried out to the Lord and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians brought the sea upon them and covered them your eyes saw what I did in Egypt then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time he dwelt there for 40 years and I I brought you into the land of the Amorites who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan they fought with you but I gave them into your hand that you might possess their land and I destroyed them from before you then be like the son is a poor king of Moab arose make war against Israel and sent and called Balaam the son of the art to curse you but I would not listen to Balaam therefore he continued to bless you so I delivered you out of his hand then you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you also the Amorites Parasites the Canaanites the Hittites the Gurgoshites the Hivites the Jebusites but I delivered them into your hand I sent the Hornet before you which dove them out from before you also the two kings of the Amorites but not with your sword or with your boat verse 13 I have given you a land for which you did not labor cities which you did not build you dwell in them you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant now therefore fear the Lord serve him with serve him in sincerity and in truth put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt serve the Lord I want you to see this and I'm just going to touch on this lightly he's actually rehearsing how God has been gracious to them through their history and the way that he is rehearsing this to them is by simple reminder he's saying you know God has cared for you from the time of your father Abraham now by reminding them that God has been faithful and caring for them from the time of Abraham he's simply saying to them with this reminder seeing that God has been faithfully caring for you be faithful to him now as a way and you'll see this as a way of demonstrating your faithfulness to God what does he do by application he simply says remaining faithful to God means to avoid idolatry or the pursuit of another God we'll see that as we go through this so I want to begin by saying something quite obvious and then we'll move through this and just touch this lightly but notice how he began again in verse 2 thus says the Lord God notice thus says the Lord God of Israel he's simply beginning by making it very clear that they have a special relationship with God God has a special relationship with the nation of Israel and so did his two establishes it begins with a short reminder of how God had been with them throughout their history in verse 2 he speaks of your father's including terror the father of Abraham the father of no horn so he begins right by reminding them of the fact that they were not seeking God but God had sought them and God had done so throughout their entire history and he's making it very clear that the one who did the work and this is important for you to see and I want to just point this out very briefly but he's saying God has done a work God has done it on your behalf and you can see that if you just read this really slowly and and I read through it but he said this God said I took your father Abraham I gave Jacob and Esau I gave the mountains of seer to possess I sent Moses and Aaron I plagued Egypt I brought you out I brought your father's out of Egypt he or I put darkness your eyes saw what I did I brought you into the land I gave them into your hand I destroyed them I would not listen I delivered you out of his hand I delivered them into your hand I sent the hornet I have given you the land God is making it clear and guys where's the church today need to remember this God is making it clear you have the sword but I gave the victory you had your part but I did it I'm the one who sent that hornet I'm the one who gave you the land I'm the one who did it God is simply reminding them this is so important because they're going to be in a place soon and you'll see this when we conclude this chapter they're going to be in a place where the lands surrounding the people surrounding them are going to be bringing their idols for the children of Israel to yield to and God is simply saying through through Joshua right now you need to understand who did the work you need to understand your history you need to look back all the way to Abram you need to remember that Abram came from a family of idolaters his father Tara and or and all they were from a background of idolatry and God chose by his grace and mercy Abram and took him out of that that evil environment that he was living in the way that God when you look in the New Testament the way that God has taken you and God has taken me out of this world system that is rejecting him and hates him and has and has set up a counterfeit religious systems and and ways that oppose him and then God in his grace and his mercy wherever you were and whatever you were doing at the time God in his grace and mercy reached down into your life when you weren't even aware and God did it through his grace and he did it through a message called the gospel and he did it through people praying for you and loving you and caring for you and telling you the truth and being willing to put up with your anger and being willing to put up with your argumentation and and and your resistance and and your resentment and yet mama kept praying for you dad kept praying for your your brother kept praying for your your wife your sister your your aunt your uncle your grandma whoever your neighbor your co-worker kept praying for you and there we were in the Myrie clay there we were in in the in the sewage of the world and God reached down can you rejoice in that God reached down and he took you out of the Myrie clay and he put your feet on a solid rock that's what God did that's we need to live there we need to stay there and that Joshua is giving him a word he's saying you have to look your history you have to look all the way back to Abram a family of idolaters God with his grace and mercy reached down and dragged him out brought him out through his grace God chose Abraham out of a family with a history of idolatry now idolatry in its basic form is simply the veneration of something other than the true God and when we've been going through Romans we remember in chapter one of Romans verse 25 how that Romans 125 speaks of those who exchange the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen and so God has taken us from this this vain way of life and he has given to us truth through the gospel God took Abram from a family of idolaters and God still calls us out of idolatry and that message as mentioned a moment ago comes through the the gospel and and the result of coming to faith in Christ is that we turn away from the idolatry that has filled our lives and we turn to the true and the living God like it says in 1st Thessalonians 1 9 where Paul says they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God so Abraham's calling is brought to mind because it reveals the tremendous grace of God now he mentions no or that was Abraham's brother and descended from Abraham's brother no or would be Rebecca and her nieces Leah and Rachel so he's speaking concerning their lineage now in verse 3 makes it clear Abraham was childless but in his old age and we know the story he's just reminding them God gave him Isaac through Isaac came Jacob and Esau and Esau ended up occupying the land to the east of the Jordan now in verses 4 through 6 while Esau's descendants began occupying that region over time Israel went to Egypt and they spent centuries there as we know in bondage and so after over four centuries of being in Egypt and the last portion being in bondage he delivered the Jews we know that story in the book of Exodus how he did so through Moses and his brother Aaron and so as he speak in and he's just highlighting this he reminds them of the Red Sea crossing he reminds them of how God overthrew Pharaoh's army and then in verse 8 he says I brought you into the land of the Amorites so that speaks of how they began their initial defeat of certain kings and he makes mention of that now verses 9 and 10 speaks interestingly of Baylech where it says Baylech the son of Zippor king of Moab arose to make war against Israel and sent and called Balaam the son of Baor to curse you but I would not listen to Balaam therefore he continued to bless you I delivered you out of his hand so he's simply reminding them of what had taken place Balaak wanted to bring a curse against the children of Israel he couldn't do it so he hired out an individual that he thought could a man by the name of Balaam and Balaam had spoken to him and you can find that story in the book of numbers Balaam had spoken to him it's recorded in chapters 22 through 24 of numbers and it said I can't speak other than that which I'm told to speak and so Balaak wants him to bring curses against the children of Israel but God says I'm intending to bless them and not curse them and the very end when he once again pronounces a blessing we know the story we know that Balaak got really upset at Balaam and was saying oh I was going to make you a very rich man all you continue to do is bring blessings and so Balaam really wanted that money so he gave to Balaak the plan the plan is very simple he said God is a jealous God God has commanded the children of Israel that they are not to have inner marriages with pagans so if you can woman a plan for the children of Israel to begin to be with the pagans God being a jealous God and one who holds his word God will bring judgment which is exactly what happens as you look at the story of Balaam and what happens as they begin to mix with the pagans around them and God brought judgment so he's speaking concerning that he goes on into verses 11 through 13 went over the Jordan came to Jericho he's now speaking of their recent history he's speaking about the recent conquests and then that's why God says that he sent hornets that's another way of saying God had fought on their behalf and as he's just simply reminded them of that and by the way we could do that ourselves and sometimes we who our parents have done that yeah i've done that kind of thing with my own children in the past your father was a doper your father was an alcoholic your father was anti god and anti faith anti religion my mom one time said to me i'm praying for you and i said to my mom keep your prayers to yourself your faith in God which my mom didn't know Jesus but she had this background of you gotta believe in God and she saw how crazy i was and so my mom says i'm praying to you and i say keep your prayers for yourself because it's basically your crutch and only the weak need crutches i don't need your crutch so just keep your prayers to yourself i don't want you praying for me so i've told my kids your daddy was a monster i was crazy i liked my drugs i liked my alcohol i liked everything that went along with that i rejected faith but God the way that God called Abram from a family of idolatrous but God God reached down through the message of the gospel and God pulled me out and i've said to my children you see the marriage your mom and your daddy have yes dad do you think it just happened no it didn't just happen because one day i was teaching a bible study and i had prayed and i said to God i said lord like you put Adam to sleep to his desires would you put me to sleep to mine and just i just want to serve you and i said lord you know that every woman that walks into my bible study or that i see in church is being claimed for my wife i claim her in the name of Jesus and uh lord i'm tired of it and so i i have a feeling lord that you can select a better woman than i can how many of you believe that i believe that i believe that i believe that i know that to be a fact God you can choose a better mate for me than i can because you know exactly what i need me i'm a man i have good eyes and so what i see i like but you've got to give me something that's deeper than the superficial than than the outside it's got to be deeper than that and i can't see the heart you see god can't i can't i don't know what i need i don't know what i need today i don't know what i'm going to need tomorrow i can project i can think but i don't know god you have plans for me you have plans for me and you know what it's going to require for me to be able to do what you have for me and therefore i don't want to make the wrong selection because you see i've read my bible and the bible says that marriage is for one man one woman one lifetime i'm not going to go and shop around and try and find this one try it out for a while like test driving a car it's going to be what it is so i don't want to make the wrong choices and so god put me to sleep to my desires and i prayed that sincerely and i go to teach a bible study and god brings in this little brunette now my eyes were always on blondes always on blondes says yeah and blue eyes yeah here comes this little brownie bang the right person at the right time and i knew it i was sharing this with someone just the other day i've said this before some of you have heard this others haven't perhaps i said he'd even recently maybe it was to you that i said this forgive me if i repeat myself i'm old yeah i think i might have told you this how my let's say it anyway i like the story uh yeah my cousins remember i mentioned this to you did i sit down on wednesday my two cousins were with me and marie was there she's meeting my family did i share this with you yeah well some said yes how many say no okay i'm going to tell the story again i like the story i might have said it on sunday who knows i talk so much my two cousins and marie's there next to me and my cousin's telling me and i have my i have some family members that are pretty pretty rowdy okay so and it's family right so they love me i love them i'm safe so my cousin's saying my my husband's in jail for murder but he didn't kill him and i'm just this is yeah okay i mean that's family yeah okay when's he getting out yeah and she's talking and then i turned and i'm i'm i look at marie and i'm kind of like nervous because i'm thinking oh you're seeing the underbelly of my family and i turn in a look at her and she's sitting right next to me and she's crying and she's listening to my cousin give family stories and the spirit of the Lord says that's what you need in your life that's the kind of woman you need someone who weeps for strangers you see see god knows what you need god knows the kind of person you need before you do so a long time ago i made a decision lord your selections are better than mine you know exactly what it is uh see and that's how god works and so i tell my kids that you know the lord pulled me out of the mud you think that that our marriage just happened no it was prayed through we have battled through we have kept the the lord the center of all of these years we have walked together in the things of the lord we've gone through great times we've gone through sad times we've gone through the birth of children and and a miscarriage we've gone through it all and as we've gone through it all we have remained strong and god is the one who has brought us through this place you think our marriage is good because it just happened it's not it's good because of the grace of god and you think the home that you're living in the home that you're living in is just something that happened no it is provided by god he gave us the finances to buy this house the cars that we drive the food that we eat the clothes that we wear even getting our hair cut all of that comes from god and i've tried to teach my children that trust the lord and look at what he's done because i guarantee you if god had not saved me i would be a doper to this day i would be a drunk to this day i'd have been a monster to this day but god is gracious and god is good and he changes lives whole fast to him and that's what joshua is saying that's what joshua is saying he's saying look your history look at what god has done all the way from abraham he gave you the land defeated the kings he sent the hornets and that's why he's saying even the cities that you're living in you didn't build god gave it to you and the food that you eat god provided we need to understand that today we really do that's why he says in verse 14 therefore fear the lord serve him in sincerity and in truth put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in egypt serve the lord the fear of the lord the fear of the lord results in the service to the lord and he says serve him serve him with sincerity that word sincerity is really a word that we could use today for integrity it speaks of that which is complete unimpaired that which is completely whole it speaks of total devotion he's saying serve god completely with an unmixed heart serve him with all that you have within you pursue him and serve him in truth the truth can speak in two various ways one it can speak with just the faithfulness that you have you serving him in a faithful and continual way but it also speaks of making sure that you have true doctrine that you hold fast to what god has actually said so hold fast to him and hold fast to his word like Jeremiah says in chapter 15 verse 16 your words were found and i ate them your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for i am called by your name oh lord god of hosts so fear and sincerity and truth result in the proper service of the lord and he says in verse 15 if it seems evil to you to serve the lord well choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods which are which uh your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods are the amorites whose land you dwell but as for me in my house we will serve the lord if it's displeasing to you to serve god well what are you going to serve basically he's giving them a choice choose whom you will serve what god the amorites god or the god of israel which god has been better to you he's saying i want you to serve god now here's something for you he's not he's not saying i'm giving to you a law that's going to make you serve god i'm going to give to you an ordinance or a statute that will force you to serve god what he's saying is from sincerity of heart and truth love god and from the love that you have for god you will serve him how can you help but serve god how can you help but serve god look how good he has been to you look how good he has been to you how can you help let's serve him sometimes i'll look at marie i'll see this very quickly a little illustration and i asked myself a very simple question who could love me more than this woman does and the answer that i always get is nobody nobody ever did before and nobody ever will after and her love for me which is to me unfathomable that she actually does but her love for me is so pure and so real how can i help but be faithful to her how can i help it it's not that i haven't had a chance to be unfaithful every man does every woman does you we all have chances to be unfaithful they're they're presented to us in one form or another but how can you help but be faithful to a person who has loved you so much laws will say you should not commit adultery that is god's word but you know the love that god places in your heart for that man or that woman while the law is not burdensome it's not grievous it's not difficult it's something you agree 100 percent with i will not commit adultery i will not be unfaithful why because i'm in love and when it comes to serving the lord will you choose this day who you're going to serve as for me in my house we'll serve the lord why because the amorites gods are vicious monsters and the god of israel is gracious and loving look at all that he has done for you in the new testament sense god demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us and so as he's sharing that the people answered verse 16 and said far be it from us that we should forsake the lord to serve other gods for the lord our god is he who brought us and our fathers out of the land of egypt from the house of bondage who did those great science in our site and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the lord drove out from before us all the people even the amorites who dwelt in the land we also will serve the lord for he is our god we will follow god faithfully and we will resist idolatry even as it says in deuteronomy chapter five verses six and seven where god says i'm the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of bondage you shall have no other gods before me they're saying there will be no other god but one god this command by the way is also a new testament command first john 521 little children keep yourselves from idols so they're saying we will remain faithful well verse 19 notice joshua said to the people you cannot serve the lord for he's a holy god he's a jealous god he will not forgive your transgressions nor 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 you good just saying you're going to serve god doesn't guarantee that you will there are a lot of people i've seen even in this fellowship who've said i'm going to serve the lord just saying you're going to do it doesn't mean you will without a changed heart and without god's power it is impossible for you to actually serve the lord god is holy god demands full worship god is not to be trifled with and he's saying if you're not faithful to him he will judge you even though in the past he has blessed you well they say in verse 21 the people said to joshua no we will serve the lord well joshua said to the people you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the lord for yourselves to serve him they said we are witnesses now therefore he said put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the lord god of israel the people said to joshua the lord our god we will serve and his voice we will obey joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statute and an ordinance in shechem joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of god he took a large stone set it up and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the lord and joshua said to all the people behold this stone shall be a witness to us for it has hurt all the words of the lord which he spoke to us it shall therefore be a witness to you lest you deny your god joshua let the people depart each to his own inheritance so he said your witnesses against yourselves you've made this choice deuteronomy 23 21 says when you make a vow to the lord your god you shall not delay to pay it for the lord your god will surely require it of you it would be sin to you so he's saying your words will be witness against you you've made the vow god will hold you to it all the people said he is our god we will serve him we will obey him in other words we will be faithful to god we will follow him and so he writes these words according to verse 26 through 28 in the book of the law of god and he had a stone of remembrance so he writes out this document he places it in the scrolls of the law and it's a reminder and then he set up a stone of remembrance for a consistent reminder of their promise when you go to israel there are still stones of remembrance and they're not giant monuments or large rocks that you can picture something like this being large but if you go to israel you'll see this if you go into one of the cemeteries which we actually pass by cemeteries and all you'll see it on the on the various grave sites because they bury their people in Jerusalem they bury them above ground and and when you go by there are all kinds of rocks that are placed on top of the the if you will i'll call it a coffin but it's really something different than that it's like a sarcophagus but there are rocks that they come and they place on them they call stones of remembrance and the reason is very simply that if you put a flower there the flower is going to die i mean the fact that you cut the flower in place that they're next to the grave as we americans do we go and we have our vases and we put our flowers in those little vases and all its remembrance go there on father's day or mother's day or their birthday or an anniversary or whatever and you go and you tend to that that area there and then you put the flowers and all of that well we put flowers there because that's what our custom is but but marie and i are different we we will put flowers you know in the sights of our of our parents who have gone to be with the lord but this last time when my mom went home to be with the lord just a couple weeks ago marie and i went and we we put we put the flowers that some people had given some wreaths and all and i placed them there and all but we took some rocks and in the vape there's actually by their uh their stone there uh the headstone um i took some rocks and i dropped them inside the vase and then we put our flowers there why because the rocks will last longer than those flowers and marie and i practice that as a symbol of a stone of remembrance because the rocks do not perish the flowers do and then that's the picture here he's saying you'll have this stone here as a reminder for it's going to take a whole long long time till time in the weather cause this stone if ever to no longer be present as long as it's there that will be a constant reminder to you of your vow to god and then he finally closes and and we'll close with this it came to pass verse 29 after these things that joshua the son of none the servant of the lord died being 110 years old they buried him within the border of his his inheritance at timnath sarah which is in the mountains of efforium on the north side of mount gosh israel served the lord notice verse 31 we'll return and close here in a moment israel served the lord all the days of joshua and all the days of the elders who outlive joshua who had known all the works of the lord which he had done for israel the bones of joseph which the children of israel have brought up out of egypt they buried at shechem in the plot of ground which jacob had bought from the sons of haimeth the father of shechem for 100 pieces of silver and which had become an inheritance of the children of joseph and eliezer the son of erin died the priest and they buried him in a hill that belonged to any of his son which was given to him in the mountains of efforium these righteous men died joshua dies eliezer dies the bones of joseph are mentioned because joseph had gone into egypt god had actually providentially sent him into egypt so that he might preserve the life of his father and brothers that's how they made it into egypt in the first place but he had spoken and said when you leave this place um carry my bones from here which they did they took the bones with him according to exodus 1319 moses took the bones of joseph with him for he had placed the children of israel under solemn oath saying god will surely visit you you shall carry up my bones from here with you and so he makes reference to the fact that the remains of joseph had been transported transported from egypt and were now in a family plot and the righteous generation dies one last thing when i mentioned verse 31 it's to me a sad comment israel served the lord all the days of joshua and all the days of the elders who outlive joshua who had known all the works of the lord which he had done for israel when they died another generation arose who did not know the lord you did not know the lord this worship lasted one generation one last thought guys and we'll close i don't know how to say this i'll say it as quickly as possible been a christian for a while involved in ministry for a while i have a lot of friends who are pastors a lot of friends who are pastors as a matter of fact my closest friends almost almost all of my closest friends not all but almost all of my closest friends are pastors pastors families and we know how difficult it is for one generation who had such incredible encounters with god to pass those things on to the the next generation the jesus movement that exploded i was just talking today sharing how that calvary chapel goes to mesa if you say calvary chapel to this day there's one calvary chapel that's coastal mesa the rest of us associate with calvary chapel so if you ever heard just two words calvary chapel they're not talking about calvary chapel chino valley or diamond bar chino hills up or whatever calvary chapel to me will always be pastor chuck's fellowship calvary chapel in coastal mesa that's how we used to speak because there was only one calvary chapel now there's something like 1500 1500 calvary chapels there used to be one so when we said we're going to go to church and they say where'd you go we say we go to calvary chapel there's only one now you say where you go to church i go to calvary chapel which one because there's so many right well all of my pastor friends and i have had this conversation many times and that is will our children and the generation that we're raising will they honor the god who saved us that is a great challenge because through josh when you have to get this josh this these people that he's speaking about had come with moses into the promised land when moses stayed aside and josh what came across they had been earlier with moses moses died josh brought them in they conquest they had conquest they saw god move they made their promise we will follow you their children did not is it easy to raise a family to worship jesus christ no i have like i said a lot of friends and i only know one out of the hundreds of pastors i know i only know one who may have escaped some problems with his kids every other one it was a war to communicate the gospel to children who just kind of just thought that's just the way it is for you i still remember one of my children saying to me well dad that's your testimony i have to forge my own so i shot her no okay then here's part of it you had a bullet wound why do you want to have your own testimony don't you know that i've been raising you so you wouldn't have one like mine so you wouldn't have one like mine i don't want you to have my testimony i want you to have my god i don't want you to go through the things i went through i want you to be saved from those things it's a difficult thing isn't it to raise those of you or parents to raise children to love jesus because they think well that's you that's just what you think you know you're not in my classroom you're not with my friends you're not in the scenes that i go to you don't have a clue see my kids thought that i was born with a pulpit in a bible and it's not that at all is that i know the difference between gutter water and living water and i wanted to keep my children from the gutter water you can drink both living water is better and i wanted them to have the living water and i've been pouring into them my kids are all adults my kids have their own lives but i still pour into them the things of god why that's my job as for me and my house we shall serve the lord that's what god has called us to do josh was words ring in my heart and i pray that it rings in yours because there's a generation arising who do not know god and the works he did you'd see that in judges chapter two the things that he did because when the generation died a new one rose up who did not follow the lord and that's the reason why you have the book of judges because god has to bring judges into the nation of israel to deal with the sin that becomes rampant amongst the people who have rejected the god of israel let us pray that god will work through us so that our children and our friends and those whom we love and those we influence will have one have god as their savior too they can have a friend like us who loves jesus and three that are if we're parents that our children will have a mom and a dad who are sincere about the things of god that they might be able to take this gospel until jesus comes to another generation that that new generation will love the lord that to me is a great challenge but that's the desire of my heart and i know it's the desire of yours too that god would be exalted may he be exalted through us