We face many choices in life. But the most important is this: you get to choose who you will serve. Will it be idols, or will it be the One True God?
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” [Joshua 24:14-15, ESV]
The ancient Israelites were a people of contradictions. On one hand, they saw the great and awesome signs performed by God Himself. They were delivered from Egypt by His very hand, sustained by Him in the desert, and led by Him in battle.
But on the other hand, the Israelites were disobedient. Time and time again, they turned to false gods and idols. Time and time again, they turned their back on God.
Much of the Old Testament can be summed up as the story of a loving God and His disobedient people. The Israelites strayed. They made mistakes. They walked away from the very Father who provided for them and loved them.
Jesus even lamented,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” [Matthew 23:37-39, ESV]
Think about it: how often had the Israelites seen God’s faithfulness? When they wandered in the wilderness, manna and quail were provided to them every day like clockwork. When they entered the Promised Land, God delivered their enemies into their hands.
God spoke to them and ruled them directly.
But they backslid and turned away constantly. They had idols.
The Israelites, quite simply, are like you and me.
Wandering Hearts
There is something within every man and woman that causes them to wander away from God. This is nothing less than our sin nature.
Our sin nature causes us to seek our own path. It causes us to seek our own desires.
Do you ever have a desire within you that’s contrary to what God wants? Of course you do. We all do. Sin is anything that separates us from God – and sin is disobedience to God.
Every day, we are tempted to disobey God. Whether you’re a new Christian or a seasoned Christian, that doesn’t change. Temptations are always there.
And we will all fail the test sometimes.
Each day, we are presented with a question: who will you serve? We’re presented with this question many times a day.
A lustful thought enters your mind. Who will you serve?
You’re tempted to lie. Who will you serve?
You want to spend your money on something you know you don’t need. Who will you serve?
Just like the ancient Israelites – many of whom fell into the trap of serving other gods – we are tempted to turn our backs on God. We’re tempted to pledge our allegiance to our desires and our wants.
We are tempted to make idols for ourselves, serving these idols rather than our Father in Heaven.
Do You Have an Idol?
What is an idol?
An idol is anything in your life that you consider more important than God.
Sports can be an idol, as can physical fitness. Money can be an idol. Sex can be an idol. Power and achievement can be idols. Even family and friends and children, as precious as these people may be to us, can be idols.
Let me ask you a tough question: do you value your spouse or your kids (or your other family, if you’re single) above God? Odds are, you know the answer to this question. Idolizing your family – those you love most dearly in the world – is perhaps one of the most natural things you can do.
Now, is it wrong to love your family? Absolutely not. You are supposed to love them – it’s even commanded in the Bible. But your first and foremost love is always supposed to be God. Your love for God is the love out of which all your love for others – for friends, for family, for co-workers, for the poor, for the lost – is to be founded upon.
But loving someone (or something) before God is idolatry.
And when you have an idol, you will serve that idol.
If you idolize video games, for example, you’ll spend all your time and much of your money on them. You’ll invest your effort and your energy in them.
If you idolize money, your entire life will be focused on gaining more and more money.
Any idol you have – no matter what it is – will take the place of God in your life. Just like the Israelites, who went after other gods and other idols, you will be turning away from God and serving something else.
Why You Should Serve God
Joshua presented the wayward Israelites with an ultimatum: choose this day whom you will serve.
They had wavered back and forth, vacillating between serving God and serving idols. But their disobedience and indecision could be tolerated no more.
“Choose,” Joshua said.
In our lives, we are being called to choose between serving God and serving our idols. Jesus Himself says, in Matthew 6:24, that you cannot serve two masters.
To choose God is to choose against our idols. To choose our idols is to choose against God.
Here’s why we should choose to serve God.
1: Because He is Worthy.
This is the foremost reason as to why we should choose to serve God.
Our God is a worthy God.
The Bible tells us that God created the world and everything in it, including man (Gen. 1). God is the provider of salvation and the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). He is able to do exceedingly more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).
God was under no obligation to provide us with a way of salvation. He could have left us dead in our sins and stranded in our trespasses. Yet God, rich in mercy and full of love, so loved the world that He gave us His only Son (John 3:16).
Revelation puts it succinctly by saying,
Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. [Rev. 4:11, ESV]
Our God is the creator and sustainer of all things. Everything you see and feel and interact with – the sun and rain, the hills and mountains, the oceans and the air – was created by Him. And that same God wants a personal relationship with you and I.
Just let that sink in!
You would probably go slack-jawed if the president of the United States personally called you tomorrow morning and told you that he wanted to be your best friend. So how much more incredible is it that the almighty God – creator and sustainer of all life and all matter – wants to be your lord, savior, friend, and father?
God is worthy. Just for that reason, we ought to serve Him.
2: Because It’s Best For Us
One of the greatest things about God is that He, being the author and designer of humanity, knows us best.
Think about it: we go to see a doctor if we’re sick. We go to see a counselor if we’re dealing with mental health issues. Why is this?
Because these people have studied physiology and psychology. They know things that we don’t. A doctor is more capable than we are to diagnose a health issue. A therapist is more capable than we are to help us through anxiety or depression.
In a similar vein, listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 9:11: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”
Jesus spoke these words to a group of Pharisees who reviled Him for spending time with sinners and tax collectors. The Pharisees, in all their self righteousness, thought themselves far above associating with such people.
But Jesus’ message was this: I am able to heal. I have come to heal the sick people. I have come to make them well.
God can make you well.
God is the “great physician,” the one who knows us intimately and knows our condition better than we do. He designed humanity, so is it any surprise that He would be the One most qualified to minister to us and help us? God knows us better than we know ourselves.
Don’t you want deep fellowship with this God? Don’t you want to side with the One who knows you, loves you, and can minister to you in ways that nobody else could ever dream of?
Serve God. It’s what is best for you.
3: Because Others Will Benefit
The kindest, strongest, and most influential people in my life have been Christians. These men and women seem to radiate a confidence and an assurance that nobody else can.
These people are like anchors in the waves; they are solid foundations in the midst of trouble. Jeremiah tells us,
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and it is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. [Jeremiah 17:7-8, ESV]
Do you want to be a “tree planted by water?” The Bible tells us that Jesus provides living water, and that those who drink from Him will never again thirst.
If you choose to serve God with all you are and everything you have, you WILL be like a tree planted by the waters. When times of drought come, you’ll remain strong. You will be a place of shelter and safety and love for those around you.
Fathers, do you want to provide for your wife and children? Do you want the best for them?
Mothers, do you want the best for your husband and children? Do you want to be a place of strength and anchored help for them?
If so, I exhort you to serve God! Choose to serve Him, and you will be able to bear burdens and provide for others in ways that you wouldn’t be able to alone.
Closing Thoughts
If you’re a fellow believer, you will face the temptation to turn from God and seek your own way. Many of you may already be walking down that path that leads away from the Father.
But here’s the news I bring to you today: it is never too late to turn back.
That’s what repentance is: a turning away from sin and a turning towards God. Choose this day whom you will serve, and choose to serve the Lord. Choose to turn back to Him. Repent of your sin and idolatry, and turn back to Him.
He may not bless you with easier circumstances, a better job, more wealth, or solid health. He may not bless you with more friends or with that long-desired spouse or child.
But He will bless you… make no mistake!
You will be blessed with a strength and confidence that comes only from Him. You will stand strong in the day of trouble, even when it seems impossible to remain strong. You will bend in the wind of the storm, but you will not break.
When you choose to serve God, you must also choose to do so with all your heart. You must be committed to loving Him more than you love anyone or anything else. You must be committed to giving up all you have in this world to follow Him.
This may seem radical, and it is. This may seem like loss, and it is. Scripture says that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. Once you find it, you sell EVERYTHING you have to buy that field! (Matt. 12:44)
Why sell all you have? Why give up your rights, your freedoms, your self-determination, your idols, your comforts?
Because these were never leading you anywhere good in the first place.
You see, serving other gods – money, fame, power, influence, friendship, relationship, sex, drugs, etc. – feels good in the moment. Your society is constantly bombarding you with messages to just cave in and seek these things. But in the end, the pursuit of these things leads to your ruin. It leads to your demise.
The pursuit of God leads only to life.
Give up what you have for God, and you will receive far, far more than you ever thought possible. Give up your life to Him, and you will find more life than you can possibly imagine.
That is what it means to serve God. It means you give up all you have, no strings attached, and that you come to Him without anything in your hand.
Here I am, Lord. Send me.
It means you sell (metaphorically) everything you have to seek Him. You seek Him and serve Him and love Him with all your heart!
Choosing to serve God is an invitation to choose to give up everything you have ever possessed. But choosing to serve God is also an invitation to inherit more joy, more life, and more love than you could ever possibly imagine.
Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.
God bless you!